Television
NYT: New Network For Children On Cable TV
WSJ: NetChannel Inc. Is Likely to Shut Down Internet-via-TV
Service This Weekend
Education
WP: Gore Backs Guaranteed Web Access
NYT: A Mandate to Force Computer Expertise
InfoTech
NYT: Federal Reserve Official Warns of year 2000 Bug
WP: A $50 Billion "Bug"
Arts
WP: NEA Announced $60 Million in Grants
Corporate/International
WSJ: Bell Canada International Is Expanding With Wireless
Plans in Korea and Italy
WP: EU Panel to Review WorldCom-MCIDeal
** Television **
Title: New Network For Children On Cable TV
Source: New York Times (D1)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/childrens-tv.html
Author: Lawrie Mifflin
Issue: Children's Television
Description: Nickelodeon, the nation's most profitable cable network, and
Children's Television Workshop, the most acclaimed producer of educational
programming, announced yesterday that they would team up to start the first
all-educational cable channel for children. The network, called Noggin, will
be commercial-free and is scheduled to begin broadcasting January 1999. The
two groups are hoping that cable companies will find room for Noggin in
their already crowded systems by influence of the current climate of dismay
and concern over the poor quality of children's television. Herb Sacnnell,
president of Nickelodeon, said he was confident that cable operators would
eventually make room for Noggin. "We're offering them something that's at
the top of the American agenda now," he said. "Education is very important
to American's today. And we're bringing out something very dynamic and
positive, as opposed to the broadcast industry, which is kind of in a
resistance mode right now."
Title: NetChannel Inc. Is Likely to Shut Down Internet-via-TV Service This
Weekend
Source: Wall Street Journal (B5)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Jared Sandberg
Issue: WebTV
Description: NetChannel Inc., the competitor of Microsoft Corp.s WebTV unit,
is expected to shut down its Internet-via-TV service this weekend as it
continues talks regarding an acquisition by America Online Inc. NetChannel
is expected to inform its 10,000 subscribers within days of its plans to
shut down its service after less than a year in operation. James Harper, a
spokesman for Thomson Multimedia, a company that sells a special RCA-branded
set-top box that allows NetChannel users to browse the Web using a
conventional TV set, confirmed that the NetChannel service would be halted
but that "we will continue to explore future products that enable consumers
to access the Internet via television."
** Education **
Title: Gore Backs Guaranteed Web Access
Source: Washington Post (AP-online)
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19980428/V000258-042898-idx...
Author: Sandra Sobieraj (Associated Press Writer)
Issue: Education
Description: Vice President Al Gore continues to move forward in the
administration's effort to guarantee Internet access in America's schools.
At a high-tech ceremony yesterday, the White House announced its new
Internet initiatives which include: Donation of 2,000 surplus computers to
schools in poor communities by the Education Dept.; Special "education rate"
discounts of 20 percent to 90 percent off Internet access that will allow
every school in the 50 largest urban school districts to connect to the
Internet by April 1999; The Bureau of Indian Affairs will get special help
wiring its 185 schools -- and 53,000 young students -- by next spring; The
National Science Foundation and Education Dept. have developed online
tutoring and mentoring services for students; The Commerce Dept. will
conduct a three-month analysis of trends in Internet usage to determine
whether there is a racial divide between information haves and have-nots.
"We can let technology be a negative force that furthers divisions or we can
use it to connect all Americans together and give them the same shot at
success," Gore said.
Title: A Mandate to Force Computer Expertise
Source: New York Times (A24)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/042998laptop-educ.html
Author: Pamela Mercer
Issue: Education
Description: While most schools around the U.S. are making computers
available to students, a few schools, like North Broward Preperatory in
Coconut Creek, FL, are trying to make them a major tool for learning --
"with laptop as exercise book and Internet as research source." "The concept
of forcing change in education through technology has not worked, so the way
we approach it, it's an assistance in the classroom," said Dennis Brown, the
principal of the school. "How a teacher uses it is his or her prerogative,
but s/he must use it for assignments so students develop knowledge of
technology," said Brown. Edutech experts say the success of such programs
largely depends on how the instructors use the technology. "In theory, the
design sounds good," said Andrew Trotter, a technology writer for Education
Week magazine. "The question is: Is that a format that makes kids think
about the material or are they just cutting and pasting?" Trotter points out
that research on the effectiveness of taking lessons with computers is still
scant.
** InfoTech **
Title: Federal Reserve Official Warns of year 2000 Bug
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/cyber/articles/29millennium.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Computers/Year 2000 Bug
Description: Edward W. Kelley Jr, a member of the Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System, told the Senate Commerce Committee yesterday that
the difficult and expensive task of converting the world's computers to
handle the Year 2000 Bug (Y2K) will slow the nation's fast-moving economy
and could ultimately send it into recession. Only a day after the Federal
Reserve Board announce that it was poised to raise interest rates to slow an
"overheating" economy, Kelley told the committee that efforts to address the
Y2K computer glitch "could shave a tenth-of a percentage point annually off
the gross domestic product for the next two years." "That's the preparatory
stage," Kelley said. "That's a very broad estimate. It's very hard to get a
handle on. But I think it's a reasonable estimate." When asked to estimate
the long-term effects of the Y2K problem, Kelley said, "I have no idea the
extent of the problems we may run into."
Title: A $50 Billion "Bug"
Source: Washington Post (A1,A18)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-04/29/099l-042998-idx.html
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Computers/Year 2000 Bug
Description: A Federal Reserve official, yesterday providing the federal
government's first official estimate of the costs of fixing the Year2000
Bug, said that U.S. businesses are likely to spend at least $50 billion
fixing the Y2K computer glitches. He added that the massive effort to fix
the problem could "trim U.S. economy growth by a tenth of a percentage point
in each of the next two years." The problem is "real and serious," Edward W.
Kelley Jr. told a Senate committee, saying that the total projected costs
for solving the problem worldwide could top $300 billion. "Kelley's
projections bolster earlier forecasts by corporate analysts."
** Arts **
Title: NEA Announced $60 Million in Grants
Source: Washington Post (D2)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-04/29/130l-042998-idx.html
Author: Jacqueline Trescott
Issue: Arts
Description: The National Endowment for the Arts yesterday announced $60
million in grants, "largely intended to stabilize arts groups and encourage
collaboration and outreach projects." The grants will not only provide an
"infusion of cash" for management necessities, such as trained
administrators, but they will also help "temper" critics of the agency who
have expressed concern that too much of the federal dollar is spent in the
large art centers. NEA officials say that they want the agency's shrunken
1997-98 budget of $98 million "to help art groups improve their own
operations and reach out to more people."
** Corporate/International **
Title: Bell Canada International Is Expanding With Wireless Plans in Korea
and Italy
Source: Wall Street Journal (B7C)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Ben Dummett
Issue: International
Description: Bell Canada International Inc., a publicly traded subsidiary of
Montreal-based telecommunication conglomerate BCE Inc., announced this month
plans "to take a minority equity stake in Hansol PCS Co., a digital wireless
phone operator in South Korea, and to bid for a national wireless-phone
license in Italy." Analysts see Bell Canada International's planned bid to
operate a cellular telephone network in Italy as a "noticeable" shift in
strategy, because in the past the company has focused primarily on setting
up joint ventures in Latin America and Asia.
Title: EU Panel to Review WorldCom-MCIDeal
Source: Washington Post (C15)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-04/29/070l-042998-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: International
Description: The European Commission signaled "tentative objections" to
WorldCom Incs. proposed $37 billion acquisition of MCI Communications Corp.
on Tuesday. The Commission sent the companies "formal notification of the
issues it wants to examine." Although the contents of the EC's statement
were not made public, an MCI official said the objections included whether
the newly formed company would have control too much over the Internet's
"backbone" or data trunk lines. A spokesman for MCI pointed out that the
"statement of objections" that the EC sent is "a pretty standard part of the
EC's review process."
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