TELEVISION
Networks Cede Political Coverage to Cable (NYT)
With Eyes On Cable Networks Permit Racier Plots, Unprintable
Dialogue (WSJ)
Access to Local Broadcast Television Signals in Rural and
Small Markets (NTIA)
Pearson Confirms Deal With CLT-UFA; Merger Will Meld Content
and Stations (WSJ)
EDTECH
School Plan Would Trade Ad Space for Computers (NYT)
Logging On to College (WP)
JOBS
Firms Vow Millions For Tech Diversity (SJM)
ECOMMERCE
Legality of 'Deep Linking' Remains Deeply Complicated (CyberTimes)
Report of the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce (House)
SPECTRUM
Spectrum Usage for the Fixed Services (NTIA)
Wireless Telecommunications Sourcing and Privacy Act (House)
INFO TECH
Undoing a Traffic Jam at the Light (WP)
TELEVISION
NETWORKS CEDE POLITICAL COVERAGE TO CABLE
Issue: Journalism/Television
"We will be on the air with more coverage from the conventions than the
hours the conventions are in session," said Rick Kaplan, the president of
CNN. The cable network will ask for four skybooths within the convention
hall. Over at ABC, however, executives are wondering how to do their
coverage on the cheap. "We're not going to cover this convention the way we
have in the past," said Marc Burstein, executive producer of special events
for ABC News. "You have to be living on Mars to not know we're living in a
new era of fiscal reality." Marks writes, "...the approach to the
proceedings is merely one more example of the radical shift in election
coverage on television. CNN and its cable competitors -- C-Span, MSNBC and
Fox News Channel -- have usurped the role of the old broadcast networks as
the dominant source for the nation's political news. Said CBS New anchor Dan
Rather, "We have a public responsibility beyond delivering stockholder
value. In some ways, we have abrogated that civic trust." "Cable is the
political conduit of the air," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew
Research Center for the People and the Press. "If you don't have that cable
coming into your house, you're getting a whole heck of a lot less
information about politics."
[SOURCE: New York Times (A16), AUTHOR: Peter Marks]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/040700wh-media.html)
WITH EYES ON CABLE, NETWORK PERMIT RACIER PLOTS, UNPRINTABLE DIALOGUE
Issue: Television
Network content is taking a racier turn inspired partly by the runaway
successes and of HBO's series "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City." The
premiere of ABC's "Wonderland" depicted a pregnant woman stabbed in the
stomach, "Falcone" depicted a knifing after a sex scene and UPN, etc. The
broadcast networks are loosening guidelines on language and violence for
more "realism." "Absolutely," says CBS TV's president and chief executive,
Leslie Moonves, when asked if HBO is influencing the broadcast networks.
Televised events ranging from the Senate's hearings on the confirmation of
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to the Clinton-Lewinsky has exposed
network audiences to decidedly graphic descriptions of sexual acts. Despite
the relaxing rules, some boundaries are still too sensitive to cross. Peter
Berg, the creator of ABC's "Wonderland", says the networks are still fairly
conservative on depicting sex. Orgasmic sounds and "moving hips" are bad, he
says.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: Joe Flint]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB955056883972597028.htm)
ACCESS TO LOCAL BROADCAST TELEVISION SIGNALS IN RURAL AND SMALL MARKETS
Issue: Television
A summary of the discussion at the 3-02-00 Roundtable on Access to Local
Broadcast Television Signals in Rural and Small Markets is now available.
[SOURCE: NTIA]
(http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/ruraltvroundtable/rtvfinalsummary.htm)
PEARSON CONFIRMS DEAL WITH CLT-UFA; MERGER WILL MELD CONTENT AND STATIONS
Issue: Television/International
The television unit of media group Pearson PLC confirmed that it has agreed
to merge with Europe's biggest commercial broadcaster, CLT-UFA. Pearson
owns and produces such content as "Baywatch" and "The Price is Right" in
more than 30 countries. Pearson also has stakes in newspaper and Internet
publishing. The terms of the deal do not cover these interests.
Luxembourg-based CLT-UFA is owned by Bertelsmann AG. The company has holdings
in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Combined, the two companies
had 1999 sales worth nearly 3.85 billion dollars U.S. (4 billion Euro) The
merger would create a company in Europe that has both broadcasting and
content production ability. The merger announcement was not entirely a
surprise, the two companies have had collaborations in the past.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A15), AUTHOR: Charles Goldsmith]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB95505571614165551.htm)
EDTECH
SCHOOL PLAN WOULD TRADE AD SPACE FOR COMPUTERS
Issue: Ed Tech
Two months after the New York School Board approved a proposal to allow
corporate donors to have their names attached to school classrooms,
libraries and athletic field in recognition of donations, some school
officials and computer executives are circulating to distribute laptops to
city schoolchildren and set up school Web sites which would include company
advertising. The plan would help pay for programs that can not be paid for
with taxes. Irving S. Hamer, a board member who oversees the task force that
has explored the Web site idea for nine months, said he thought the laptop
distribution and Internet proposal would be approved by the full board.
"This is a major shift in the ways we think about teaching and learning and
how we fund these activities," he said. "We have a great deal of concern
about the negative potential of using children to promote commercial
concerns and using class time for things that could be considered as
advertisements," said Vicki Rafel, the vice president for legislation at the
National PTA.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A22), AUTHOR: Edward Wyatt]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/biztech/articles/07portal.html)
LOGGING ON TO COLLEGE
Issue:
With more than a third of U.S. colleges offering degrees online, distance
learning via the Internet is fast becoming part of the mainstream. At the
University of Maryland University College, more than half of all students
take at least one course online, and one third take all their classes from a
distance. While few believe that a virtual university could replace a
traditional one since students are eager to leave home for the first
time, there is a place for online education. Older students who have
families and full-time jobs are attracted to the freedom virtual education
offers. In this way, online education attracts many students who would
otherwise not pursue a degree at all. The possibilities of the new medium
have led to the creation of many joint ventures between universities and
private companies. Web sites such as HungryMinds.com and CollegeLearning.com
act as middlemen between schools and potential students, while other
start-ups work with colleges to market their Web ventures. Some of the
endeavors are attracting controversy, such as UNext.com, a virtual business
university backed by former financier Michael Milken that has schools like
Columbia, Stanford and the London School of Economics developing courses for
it.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (B1), AUTHOR: Dan Eggen]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28125-2000Apr6.html)
JOBS
FIRMS VOW MILLIONS FOR TECH DIVERSITY
Issue: Workforce Training
President Clinton announced Thursday that Silicon Valley-based Adobe, Intel,
and Sun Microsystems and 22 other companies nationwide have agreed to spend
a total of $250 million over the next 10 years as part of Clinton's "One
America" initiative. The comprehensive initiative is designed to increase
the number of minorities, women and disabled workers in technology-related
jobs through scholarships, internships and job training. The initiative is
designed to have the companies set aside pledged sums of money and use
them for their own company programs.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: JIM PUZZANGHERA]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/top/docs/divers040700.htm)
ECOMMERCE
LEGALITY OF 'DEEP LINKING' REMAINS DEEPLY COMPLICATED
Issue: Legal Issues/Ecommerce
"Deep linking" is the practice of linking to a page deep inside another Web
site. A March 27 ruling by Judge Harry Hupp of Federal District Court in Los
Angeles was thought to make the practice unambiguously legal, but some
believe there is still a great deal of confusion. Judge Hupp wrote,
"hyperlinking does not itself involve a violation of the Copyright Act
(whatever it might do for other claims) since no copying is involved." And
in another part of his opinion, Judge Hupp concluded that "deep linking by
itself (i.e., without confusion of source) does not necessarily involve
unfair competition." But the judge allowed some of the deep linking items in
the case he is overseeing to proceed. "I certainly don't think that this is
a conclusive decision that says 'linking is O.K.,' which a number of people
have characterized it as," said Jessica R. Friedman, a lawyer with Reboul,
MacMurray, Hewitt, Maynard & Kristol in New York who specializes in
intellectual property and the Internet. "The way I read this is, that when
you run through all the claims, and after you consider what the judge left
in, deep linking under this ruling may constitute passing off, reverse
passing off, tortious interference and even breach of contract," she said,
adding that she believes it may be difficult for Ticketmaster to actually
win on its linking claims.
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Carl Kaplan (kaplanc( at )nytimes.com)]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/cyber/cyberlaw/07law.html)
REPORT OF THE ADVISORY COMMISSION ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Issue: E-Commerce
Link to prepared testimony for the House Telecom Subcommittee hearing.
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://com-notes.house.gov/cchear/hearings106.nsf/12b6a0781fa86e88852567e50
07558f4/090e61ffe054bd8d852568b800692cce?OpenDocument)
SPECTRUM
SPECTRUM USAGE FOR THE FIXED SERVICES
Issue: Spectrum
Need something to read this weekend? NTIA's Institute for Telecommunication
Sciences (ITS) has released a report, Spectrum Usage for the Fixed Services
(NTIA Report 00-378) (report is in .pdf format). This study is an update to
a 1993 ITS staff study, entitled "A Preliminary Look at Spectrum
Requirements for the Fixed Services." That study included a description of
the services provided in 30 of the Government and non-Government frequency
bands between 406 MHz and 30 GHz, known as point-to-point terrestrial
microwave bands. Sure, not much of an ending, but...
[SOURCE: NTIA]
(http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/pub/ntia-rpt/00-378/)
WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOURCING AND PRIVACY ACT
Issue: Wireless/Privacy
Link to prepared testimony for the House Telecom Subcommittee hearing.
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://com-notes.house.gov/cchear/hearings106.nsf/12b6a0781fa86e88852567e50
07558f4/a3fa790f7b097bb5852568b800697a17?OpenDocument)
INFO TECH
UNDOING A TRAFFIC JAM AT THE LIGHT
Issue: Info Tech
Researchers have developed a new gadget that could increase the speed of
fiber-optic networks up to ten times their current levels. The gizmo, a type
of "electro-optic modulator, " works to overcome one of the worst
bottlenecks on any fiber-optic network -- the point at which electrical signals
that travel over wire are converted to optical signals for travel over
fiber-optic cable. The development is actually a new material that is
capable of changing its level of transparency as electrical current passes
through it. Although the use of materials with similar properties is already
widespread in fiber-optics, the new substance is able to be switched at a
much greater rate, using far less power than current technology allows. One
of the material's inventors, Larry R. Dalton, a professor at both the
University of Washington and the University of Southern California, said
that with the new device at work on fiber-optic networks, "instead of
waiting nine minutes for a big file to download, you're going to get it in
seconds."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A3), AUTHOR: Curt Suplee]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28631-2000Apr6.html)
--------------------------------------------------------------
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