TELEVISION
Watch the Tube or Watch the Computer? (WP)
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Digital Commerce (NYT)
Making Money by Paying Computer Users to Read
Internet Ads (NYT)
Trying to Get in Tune With the Digital Age (NYT)
Tech Titans Speak at World Forum (WP)
PRIVACY
The Privacy Group That Took On Intel (NYT)
ARTS
Art Museum Attendance Keeps Rising in the U.S (NYT)
SATELLITE
Satellite Home Viewer Act (NTIA)
NEWSPAPERS
A Newspaper Publisher Circles the Competition (NYT)
FOUNDATIONS
Panetta Rumored as Next Packard Foundation Director (SJM)
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TELEVISION
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WATCH THE TUBE OR WATCH THE COMPUTER?
Issue: Television
Any day now people will use their computers to watch television, buy
merchandize from their favorite shows and even send feedback to producers or
advertisers. That's the opinion offered to a ballroom full of television
executives by Mark Cuban, the co-founder and president of Broadcast.com Inc.
At the NATPE meeting in New Orleans, Internet entrepreneurs were clamoring to
be heard by this group OF 17,000 -- primarily non-network TV producers and
syndicators. Speaking about the Internet, Nick Trigony, NATPE's chairman
and the president of Cox Broadcasting, said, "It's still a big unknown, the
question of how do we make money with it." Cuban points out that corporate
offices have computers but often do not have television sets or radios; he
sees that as an untapped market to be exploited by television and radio
stations and by corporations wishing to stream speeches, seminars or
announcements.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C8), AUTHOR: Lawrie Mifflin]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/02/biztech/articles/01tube.html
See also this story about a new magazine called TV Online:
MAGAZINE ON A NEW FRONTIER
[SOURCE: Washington Post (F10), AUTHOR: Sandra Evans ]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/feb99/010299interact...
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ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
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DIGITAL COMMERCE
Issue: E-Commerce
It is patent absurdity. An increasing number of individuals or companies
are perverting the original intent to stimulate innovation through
increasingly specious claims to ownership, as well as by stockpiling patents
into competitive arsenals. "Soft patents" that do not actually cover a
physical invention are relatively new. These "method of doing business"
patents are frowned on by many people involved with intellectual property.
The winner of the "Worst Method of Doing Business Patent in 1998" award was
for the idea of using an illustrated book to teach janitors how to clean a
building. Yes, it received a patent. Presenting a different problem, Ron
Wilson, executive editor of Electronic Engineering Times, says the patent
process "has turned into a bludgeon to crush competition." Various large
technology companies use their vast holdings of patents as competitive
weaponry in seeking to disable each other with infringement charges.
Heavyweights have a decided advantage over new companies.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C4), AUTHOR: Denise Caruso]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/02/biztech/articles/02digi.html
MAKING MONEY BY PAYING COMPUTER USERS TO READ
INTERNET ADS
Issue: Advertising
Cybergold www.cybergold.com will pay you to look at advertising. The
company finds firms willing to pay people for signing up at the website and
then compensates users after they demonstrate that they have looked at an
ad. Compensation varies -- from $0.50 for downloading AOL software to $100
for helping someone else subscribe to At Home Internet service. The company
also holds a patent for other approached to advertising: one is a way for
consumers to store personal data on their computers so they can be
compensated when that info is shared with advertisers; the second is a new
approach to online publishing: writers are not paid a set fee, but rather
get a small commission for every new reader who is paid to read an
accompanying ad. Jamie Love, director of the Consumer Project of Technology
plans to press Congress to hold hearings on Cybergold's patents: he claims
he wrote about a similar concept in the '80's and he did not feel it was an
original idea then. "This is typical of the poor quality of review they give
at the Patent and Trademark Office for this sort of thing," said Mr. Love.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C2), AUTHOR: Teresa Riordan]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/02/biztech/articles/01patents.html
TRYING TO GET IN TUNE WITH THE DIGITAL AGE
Issue: Computer Technology
The record industry is worried: It's too easy to give music away on the
Internet. In fact, thousands of songs now circulate freely in a technical
format known as MP3, an easy way to swap recordings, authorized and
unauthorized, as computer files online. The question now facing the music
business is how to sell recordings as profitable pieces of data. This month
a task force of recording companies, software programmers and consumer
electronics makers intends to begin work on a uniform, industry-wide standard
for digital distribution of music. European and Asian recording-industry
trade groups support the initiative. To avoid antitrust problems, any
standards adopted by the Secure Digital Music Initiative would be voluntary.
Faster modems or other high-speed Internet connections make downloads faster
and will speed interest in music via computer. Despite the urgency, some
participants predict the standard-making process could drag on past next
Christmas.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Jon Pareles]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/02/biztech/articles/01tune.html
TECH TITANS SPEAK AT WORLD FORUM
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Dell Computers chief executive Michael
Dell told the World Economic Forum that distributors and dealers face a
stiff challenge from trade over the Internet but that traditional business
shouldn't feel too threatened. Scott McNealy, chief executive of Sun
Microsystems, said companies should focus on their products rather than
Internet-based business itself. Bob Martin, international president of
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said that Internet business is "at the threshold" of
takeoff, but that traditional business should not be threatened.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (Online), AUTHOR: Geir Moulson (Associated Press)]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990201/V000323-020199-idx.html
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PRIVACY
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THE PRIVACY GROUP THAT TOOK ON INTEL
Issue: Privacy
The Intel Corporation is facing a major boycott in opposition to the
identification feature in its new computer chip. Who is leading the charge
against the world largest computer chip maker? The Electronic Privacy
Information Center (EPIC)http://www.epic.org/, a tiny privacy advocacy
organization with only three full time staff members, has organized an
aggressive campaign against the identifying signature feature in the
soon-to-be-released Pentium III chip. Intel argues that signature is
designed to protect the security of electronic commerce and prevent software
piracy, but privacy advocates say the chip would give marketers and governments
the ability to track people online. For now, Intel has decided to review it's
plans for the new Pentium and EPIC will to fight for a cyberspace that is free
from prying eye of governments and corporations.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C4), AUTHOR: Jeri Clausing]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/02/biztech/articles/01priv.html
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ARTS
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ART MUSEUM ATTENDANCE KEEPS RISING IN THE U.S.
Issue: Arts
"The museum plays an incredible role in American cities: it's a focal point,
a place for entertainment, for shopping," explained the editor of The Arts
Newspaper, an international monthly. "I don't think any European museum has
that same presence." Paul DiMaggio, chairman of the sociology department at
Princeton University and an expert on public participation in the arts,
agreed. "Art museums in the United States have really made it in the last 15
to 20 years," he said. "It is the only art form that has dramatically
increased attendance of people of every kind, not just the intellectual
elite. It is the great arts institution success story of the last 20 years."
There were 25 US museums with exhibits that drew 200,000 or more visitors in
1998 -- up from 14 in 1996 and 18 in 1997. And general attendance is up as
well. Why? Marketing: . "American museums are better at getting their
message out," said Malcolm Rogers, a Briton who became director of the
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston four years ago. Anna Somer Cocks, of The Art
Newspaper, agreed. "It's the marketing that can bring another 100,000 people
to a show," she said. Some of the most popular exhibits in '98 were: Monet
in the 20th Century at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, Van Gogh's van Goghs at
the National Gallery, and the Art of the Motorcycle at the Guggenheim.
[SOURCE: New York Times (B1), AUTHOR: Judith Dobrzynski]
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/arts/art-museum-crowds.html
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SATELLITE
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SATELLITE HOME VIEWER ACT
Issue: Satellite
NTIA filed an Ex Parte Letter in CS Docket No. 98-201, RM No. 9335, RM No.
9345, regarding the definition of "over-the-air signal of grade B intensity"
for purposes of the Satellite Home Viewer Act: The Institute for
Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) of the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration has provided sample data on the number of
households that could be affected by the various prediction methods under
consideration by the Commission. ITS took a sample of one network affiliate
station from 16 Neilsen Media Research Designated Market Areas (DMAs) ranked
by number of households. This sample reflects significant geographic
diversity, communities of various sizes, UHF and VHF stations with varying
channel numbers, and equal numbers of affiliates of each of the four
networks. ITS maps plotting the results of this sample graphically reveal
the variations in the number of affected households of selection by using
the prediction methods: FCC F (50,50) Field Strength Charts (47 C.F.R.