DIGITAL DIVIDE
Study Finds Gaps in Internet Content (NYT)
Detroit Elementary First to Receive Free Cable Modem Service (DN)
Two Brothers Bet Everything On Free-Broadband Start-Up (WSJ)
INTERNET
The Web Remains Free (WSJ)
Online Patents: Leave Them Pending (WSJ)
Community 'Newspapers' In Real Time (USA)
Safe & Smart: A Discussion of Children's Internet Use (NSBF)
Palestinians Given Own Internet Domain (CyberTimes)
MERGERS
Disney Frets Over AOL Merger Plan (WSJ)
Microsoft-Liberty Media Plan to Control Telewest Draws Antitrust
Concern of EU (WSJ)
Merger Will Link Gay Print and Internet Outlets (NYT)
TELEPHONY
Consumer Friendly Billing Workshop (FCC)
INFOTECH
A Better, Cheaper Way To Bring Your TV Set Into
the Digital Age (WSJ)
FREE SPEECH
Taxation Isn't Censorship (WSJ)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
STUDY FINDS GAPS IN INTERNET CONTENT
Issue: Digital Divide
Two recent reports make valuable contributions to the canon of studies that
try to describe, explain and propose fixes for the digital divide. The
first, released last week by the Children's Partnership found "severe gaps"
in Internet content meeting the needs of low-income and immigrant groups,
despite their increasing use of the Internet. Wendy Lazarus, co-founder and
co-director of the Children's Partnership, said the study found that
"low-income folks see the Web as a way for self-improvement and for job
opportunities, which makes the practical content all the more important."
The second report, released in January by the Conference Board, calls on the
private sector, specifically the computer industry, to make the investments
necessary to close the gap. That report states that even as the percentage
of home computer purchases rises, an increasing proportion of the machines
bought are bought either as replacements or additions to existing to home
computers. 40 percent of sales, according to the report, are being made to
households purchasing a computer for the first time.
[SOURCE: New York Times (E5), AUTHOR: Katie Hafner]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/circuits/articles/23divi.html
DETROIT ELEMENTARY FIRST TO RECEIVE FREE CABLE MODEM SERVICE
Issue: Universal Service
This month, Coleman A. Young Elementary School became the first
Detroit public school to be wired to the Internet via cable modem
technology. The Comcast Corporation supplied Young Elementary with
Comcast( at )Home cable modems that connect the school's media center at speeds
100 times faster than its previous online service. Over the coming months,
each classroom within the elementary school will also receive a cable modem.
The program is the first step in Comcast's goal of deploying free cable
modem service to all Detroit schools and libraries by the end of the year.
The deployment is expected to cost the company $25 million.
[Source: The Detroit News, Author: Anne Fracassa]
TWO BROTHERS BET EVERYTHING ON FREE-BROADBAND START-UP
Issue: Broadband
Chad and Ryan Steelberg want to give away free broadband Internet access.
What's more, they are convinced that they are going to make money doing it.
Their company Broadband Digital Group launched in January already
has 700,000 subscribers signed up for free digital subscriber line (DSL)
service that will come out next month. The company faces Herculean obstacles
in its quest to speed up download times. For one thing, Broadband Digital
doesn't own the phone lines that DSL technology uses. They will have to make
deals with the phone companies that do own them. The Steelbergs plan on
giving away a relatively slow type of DSL, with speeds of only 144Kps.
Higher speed access will be available, but for a price. Additionally,
Broadband Digital will require users to have a permanent bar on their
screens which will feature (what else?) advertising.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B8), AUTHOR: Andrea Petersen]
(http://wsj.com/)
TAX CREDIT FOR RURAL BROADBAND PROPOSED
Issue: Broadband
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) are
introducing a bill this week that proposes a 10 percent tax credit for
companies investing in providing broadband services to rural America. Rural
America as defined by the bill as locations at least 15 miles from towns
with a minimum population of 25,000. The bill is seen as an effort to
narrow the growing bandwidth divide between urban and rural America.
According to Senator Rockefeller, "The result of the broadband disparity
could be disastrous for rural Americans: job loss, tax revenue loss, brain
drain and business failure concentrated in rural areas."
[SOURCE:CNET News.com AUTHOR: John Borland]
(http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/cn/20000322/tc/20000322007.html)
INTERNET
THE WEB REMAINS FREE
Issue: E-Commerce
[Editorial] The Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce, which was
organized to advise Congress on Internet tax policy, failed to reach a
two-thirds majority on its formal recommendations. Despite the repeated
abstention of the Clinton-Gore appointees from voting on every significant
sales-tax issue repeatedly abstained, Commission Chairman James Gilmore
managed to gather approval from 11 of the 19 commissioners for a proposal
that would eliminate the 3% federal excise tax on communication services.
"One of the big frustrations throughout this commission is that the federal
representatives are refusing to vote," said Commissioner Dean Andal, a
California tax official. "It's the administration that's holding us in
gridlock. They don't want to take a vote one way or the other that might
negatively reflect on either the President or the Vice-President on such a
controversial issue in an election year." States say they will simplify
their tax regimes if Congress increases their authority to tax. But
Commissioner Andal, who supports the Gilmore proposal, says it should be the
other way around. The authors believe that a good recommendation is to
extend the current moratorium on new Internet taxes to 2006. "It would give
e-commerce time to grow and governments time to join the 21st century.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A22), AUTHOR: Wall Street Journal Editorial
Staff]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB953772186953425098.htm)
ONLINE PATENTS: LEAVE THEM PENDING
Issue: Ecommerce
[Op-Ed] Were you thinking that the Internet was still a regulation free
zone? Guess again. Patents are rapidly filling cyberspace. This form of
regulation empowers the government to say who may use what ideas and for how
long. There are some 40,000 software patents floating in the ether, Lessig
writes, and in 1998 the U.S. Court of Appeals ratified the "business method
patent," which gives patent holders control over ways of doing business in
cyberspace. Priceline has a patent on the reverse auction and Amazon holds
patents for the "one-click" technology and its associates program. Patents
create incentives, but they also impose costs, Lessig cautions. He argues
that Congress should declare a moratorium on software and business model
patents and begin studying the effects of government-granted monopolies on
innovation.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A22), AUTHOR: Lawrence Lessig, Harvard School
of Law]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB953775997191851021.htm)
COMMUNITY 'NEWSPAPERS' IN REAL TIME
Issue: Publishing
An Internet company called Streetmail is trying to bring back the
old-fashioned community newspaper -- minus the paper. Streetmail is setting
up a nationwide network of what will soon be hundreds of local e-mail
newsletters written community correspondents who are "a cross between a
local reporter and a talk-show host," says founder Bo Peabody. The
newsletters now go to more than 660,000 subscribers a week in 55
communities. Besides hot topics, the newsletters contain frequent polls and
quizzes, event calendars, local people's accomplishments and classified ads.
"We don't think it's going to replace the local newspaper. We're focusing on
the interactivity of it," Peabody says. "It's like if the paper had a
letters-to-the-editor section that was in real time and allowed you to
converse with the media product."
[SOURCE: USAToday (3D), AUTHOR: Leslie Miller]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000323/2062099s.htm)
SAFE & SMART: A DISCUSSION OF CHILDREN'S INTERNET USE
Issue: Media & Society
Next Tuesday, the National School Boards Foundation and Grunwald Associates,
a leading market research firm specializing in technology, will release an
unprecedented national survey on the role the Internet plays in children's
lives. With generous support from the Children's Television Workshop and
Microsoft Corporation, the survey is the result of telephone interviews
conducted with over 1700 parents of children aged two to 17.
In addition to releasing the report, which is entitled Safe & Smart:
Research and Guidelines for Children's Use of the Internet, the School
Boards will be hosting an online forum. For one week, April 3-7, you are
invited to contribute to a discussion of the findings of the report and the
children's online safety issues that are at its core. Among the topics that
we will be tackling are:
* The role of parents as guides to good content on the Web;
* The educational value of linking young people to electronic resources;
* Bridging the digital divide;
* How girls and boys' use of the Internet is similar and different;
* Privacy and collection of children's personal information;
* E-commerce directed at kids; and
* Connectivity vs. isolation.
To participate in the discussion, highlight work that your organization or
company is doing to serve children in the online environment or share links
to online safety Web sites and other valuable resources, visit the
Community Center section of EDvancenet at www.edvancenet.org
For questions, please contact Shelley Pasnik, the host of the forum, at
shelley( at )pasnik.com or 212.807.4255.
[SOURCE: National School Boards Foundation]
PALESTINIANS GIVEN OWN INTERNET DOMAIN
Issue: Internet
The Palestinian Authority was granted official status on the Internet with
the designation of its own two-letter addressing suffix, or top-level
domain, Wednesday. Adding the .ps domain marked the first time that the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has granted a
new domain since it took over the administration of the Internet in 1998.
ICANN stressed that the new Palestinian domain should in no way be taken to
signal any new political standing for the Palestinian Authority. What it
does mean is that Palestine has met the necessary criteria for obtaining a
domain. For instance, it has been added to the United Nation's list of
country and territory codes, ISO 3166, which was used by the late John
Postel as a guide for granting Internet country domains. The domain will be
administered by Ghassan Z. Qadah, the supervisor-general of the Government
Computer Center in Palestine and the senior adviser for technology to the
Palestine Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation. Qadah will
work with another computer scientist, Yaser Dolah. Doleh, who lives in New
York, said Wednesday that "Now companies will be able to register under .ps
if they exist in that part of the world, and people will know it is in that
part of the world."
[SOURCE: Cyber Times, AUTHOR: Jeri Clausing]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/cyber/articles/23palestinian.html
)
MERGERS
DISNEY FRETS OVER AOL MERGER PLAN
Issue: Mergers
Fearing that its programming won't get fair access to America Online Inc.'s
Web sites, Walt Disney Co. is quietly lobbying Congress to warn against the
online company's planned merger with Time Warner Inc. Disney's campaign
comes amid negotiations to keep ABC stations owned by Disney on Time Warner
Cable systems in several markets. While few other content
providers have publicly voiced concerns about the merger, they have been
expressed privately. Seagram, which owns Universal Music Group and Universal
Studios, fears that consumers signing on to AOL could be directed to Warner
Music artists, for instance, and may have to scour the Internet to find
musicians from rival labels. "The companies privately say, 'We're worried,
but there's not a lot we could do. We're not going to get in some conflict
position with companies we have to do business with,'" said Mike McCurry,
former Clinton White House Spokesman. McCurry is co-chairman of iAdvance, a
lobbying coalition that is pushing for cable companies to provide open
access to their networks.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A24), AUTHOR: Kathy Chen]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB953777457960509295.htm)
MICROSOFT-LIBERTY MEDIA PLAN TO CONTROL TELEWEST DRAWS ANTITRUST CONCERN OF EU
Issue: International/Ownership
European Union antitrust regulators have raised "serious doubts" about
Microsoft's plans to take joint control with Liberty Media of UK cable
operator Telewest. European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti has
requested another four months to review the deal. Regulators are concerned
that other competitors could be excluded from the market. Microsoft is
attempting to by MediaOne's stake in Telewest from AT&T which is buying
MediaOne and already has a stake in Telewest thru Liberty Media. [Yeah, my
head is spinning, too.]
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B8), AUTHOR: Brandon Mitchner]
(http://wsj.com/)
MERGER WILL LINK GAY PRINT AND INTERNET OUTLETS
Issue: Mergers
In a deal that would create a multiplatform media company aimed at the gay
and lesbian market, Internet company Planet Out, and Liberation
Publications, the publisher of The Advocate and Out, two of the most
recognized gay and lesbian magazines in the United States, announced plans
to merge. It is the latest example of a new-media company buying or joining
forces with an old-media company. Megan Smith, the chief executive of Planet
Out, said that the Internet was popular with gay and lesbian readers because
of what she termed "the closet factor." "Some people are just not going to
buy magazines like these publicly, off the newsstand," she said. Bill Dobbs,
a lawyer and an advocate of gay rights in New York, said that the merger was
not good for the gay community. "This media concentration is not good," he
said. "A minority community by its very nature does not have a lot of access
to media, and if all the ownership and interests lie with one group, it
limits voices."
[SOURCE: New York Times (C11), AUTHOR: Alex Kuczynski]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/biztech/articles/23planetout-acqu
ire.html)
TELEPHONY
CONSUMER FRIENDLY BILLING WORKSHOP
Issue: Telephone Regulation
The Federal Communications Commission's Consumer Information Bureau (CIB)
and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners' (NARUC)
Committee on Consumer Affairs are pleased to announce that they will jointly
host a workshop to promote consumer friendly billing practices on Wednesday,
March 29, 2000, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The workshop will take place in
the Commission Meeting Room, TW-C305, at 445 12th Street, SW, Washington, DC.
The workshop will provide a forum for industry members, state regulatory
agencies and consumer groups to share information and discuss ways to
develop bills that are easy to understand in response to the well-documented
need on the part of consumers. In prior orders, the FCC encouraged NARUC's
member commissions to develop model state truth-in-billing rules. NARUC's
Committee on Consumer Affairs has set up a working group to develop model
state rules for discussion at NARUC's July 2000 summer meetings in Los
Angeles. NARUC believes this workshop will provide useful background
information that will help facilitate that project.
Anyone wishing to attend this workshop should contact Roger Goldblatt,
Director, Consumer Education Office (202) 418-1035, rgoldbla( at )fcc.gov. For
additional information or to request reasonable accommodations, please
contact Nancy Plon (202) 418-2899; nplon( at )fcc.gov.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Consumer_Information/Public_Notices/2000/da00055
8.html)
INFOTECH
A BETTER, CHEAPER WAY TO BRING YOUR TV SET INTO THE DIGITAL AGE
Issue: Digital Television
Ok, here goes. We've seen the potential for digital television service
expressed in three ways: satellite TV that is comparable or better than
cable; Internet services delivered to your TV, often marketed as a personal
computer alternative; and the new personal TV services that would make your
television operate like a VCR -- without the VCR. While these are all very
exciting, they can also require installation, hook-up costs, and expensive
hardware purchases. A new technology may be a better, cheaper way to get all
of the digital TV enhancements in one package: the DishPlayer 500. The
DishPlayer 500, a joint product of EchoStar and WebTV, combines a satellite
receiver with a harddisk, modem and Internet capacities. Glitches with the
hard drive and viewing TV programs and their Web links simultaneously still
need to be worked out. The service pricing varies by options.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: Walter S. Mossberg]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB953766914306110447.htm)
See Also:
A RETRO CONCEPT THAT WORKS: MOVING POWER OFF THE DESKTOP
Issue: Network Computing
The market was not ready for the return of the "dumb terminal" when Oracle
introduced the Network Computer a few years ago. But the rise in popularity
of the Internet has breathed new life into the concept. Story discusses
Compaq's Ipaq.
[SOURCE: Washington Post- Hands On (E11) Author: Michael Cheek]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-03/23/257l-032300-idx.html)
FREE SPEECH
TAXATION ISN'T CENSORSHIP
Issue: Free Speech
[Op-Ed] Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling in Board of Regents v. Southworth
upheld the ability of universities to charge students for activity fees that
ultimately fund speech that the students may not agree with. [OK, Rachel
insists that the school in question is the University of Wisconsin] Volokh
writes: The Constitution stops the government from outlawing or punishing
speech because of its viewpoint. It also, as the court reiterated Wednesday,
bars the government from excluding a few disfavored viewpoints from a public
forum that's supposed to further the speech of a wide range of groups. This
viewpoint-neutrality requirement in public forums must apply regardless of
where the money comes from, be it taxes, tuition, or fees, for it focuses on
the rights of speakers, not the rights of taxpayers. But when the question
is only whether we may be exempted from a fee because we don't like the
ideological purpose for which it's used, the free-speech clause shouldn't be
in the picture. Taxes can be foolish or oppressive -- but they aren't
abridgements of free speech.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A22), AUTHOR: Eugene Volokh, UCLA]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB953779463262398431.htm)
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