Education
Report Examines How Technology May Change Higher Education (CyberTimes)
Regulation
ICC Newcomer Takes Over as Its Chairman (ChiTrib)
Television
Commercials Are Gobbling Up More and More TV Time (ChiTrib)
The New Network: No Sex, No Violence (WP)
Jobs
Triumph and Trials In Welfare to Work (WP)
Merger
Regulators May Push WorldCom, MCI (WSJ)
Internet
www.ooops: Companies Capitalize on Typos (WP)
** Education **
Title: Report Examines How Technology May Change Higher Education
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/05/cyber/education/27education.html
Author: Pamela Mendels
Issue: Education
Description: According to a report prepared by Coopers & Lybrand, the
accounting and consulting firm that has a large practice advising college
and university administrators, college and university officials should begin
preparing for corporations to move into their academic territory. It seems
that more and more businesses are eyeing a potential market in learning,
partially spurred by the availability of new online teaching techniques.
Critics say this largely "corporate sponsored hype" could encourage the
acceptance of what they consider to be "a misguided notion: that virtual
classes are just as good as the real thing." The report titled, "The
Transformation of Higher Education in the Digital Age," is a white paper
based on a two-day discussion that took place last summer among about 35
people assembled by Coopers & Lybrand. All the participants had in common
was their concern for the following three trends: 1) A predicted boom in the
number of students seeking higher education, 2) The rise of for-profit
educational institutions, and 3) The development of technology which could
make it possible for educational institutions to distribute courses widely.
** Regulation **
Title: ICC Newcomer Takes Over as Its Chairman
Source: Chicago Tribune (Sec2,p7)
http://chicago.tribune.com/news/metro/chicago/article/0,1051,SAV-9805270227
,00.html
Author: Cornelia Grumman
Issue: Regulation
Description: Illinois Governor Jim Edgar has appointed Richard Mathias, a
retired Winnetka (IL) attorney, as chairman of the Illinois Commerce
Commission (ICC). The ICC regulates utilities in Illinois and will rule
shortly on power industry regulation. Mr. Mathias is an expert in insurance,
tax and steel production issues. He replaces outgoing Chairman Dan Miller.
** Television **
Title: Commercials Are Gobbling Up More and More TV Time
Source: Chicago Tribune (Sec5,p4)
http://chicago.tribune.com
Author: Tim Goodman
Issue: Television Economics
Description: A new study by advertising trade groups shows that commercial
time is on the rise. In 1991, the average primetime hour of TV had 9 minutes
and 38 seconds of commercials. According to the survey, the Big Four
networks now devote 11 minutes and 12 seconds to commercials -- add
promotions and public service announcements in and the total reaches just
over 15 minutes per hour.
Title: The New Network: No Sex, No Violence
Source: Washington Post (D1,D8)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-05/27/057l-052798-idx.html
Author: Sharon Waxman
Issue: Television
Description: The seventh network to join the television market is Pax NET,
created by born-again Christian and Florida multimillionaire Lowell "Bud"
Paxson. Pax Net promises a wholesome TV viewing philosophy. "It's
programming that any member of the family can watch without being offended,"
says Paxson, who is appalled by the "dearth of such shows" on network
television. "Our promise is no gratuitous sex, no violence, no obscene
language." Some television analysts think that Paxson is taking the right
approach. "It's a niche strategy, and niche strategies are smart strategies
in a fragmented media marketplace," says Bishop Cheen, a media analyst at
First Union Capitol Markets. "It is clear in the '90s that you cannot be
profitable and be all things to all people. Paxson has what I believe is a
targeted tonnage approach to broadcasting. But it's a different concept.
Both Madison Avenue and Wall Street are going to have to move up the
learning curve about it."
** Jobs **
Title: Triumph and Trials In Welfare to Work
Source: Washington Post (A1,A10)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-05/27/092l-052798-idx.html
Author: Judith Havemann & Barbara Vobejda
Issue: Jobs
Description: President Clinton's Welfare to Work Partnership program is
undergoing a significant test in Kansas City where the Sprint Corp. "pitted
the performance" of newly hired inner-city welfare recipients against that
of new suburban workers. Sprint hired the two groups of employees on the
same day for the same job -- working as a telephone operator. Six months
later, Sprint reports that 85 percent of the welfare employees have remained
on the job in comparison to only 33 percent of the suburban workers. Sprint
did not enter into this test to measure the tenacity of welfare workers, but
it found that welfare recipients, desperate for work, are much more likely
to hang on to their jobs than other new recruits.
** Merger **
Title: Regulators May Push WorldCom, MCI
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3)
http://wsj.com/
Author: John R. Wilke
Issue: Merger
Description: As a condition of approving the WorldCom Inc. and MCI
Communications Corp. $37 billion merger, U.S. and European antitrust
regulators will most likely demand one of the two companies to sell a
substantial portion of its Internet capacity. European antitrust officials
found that the combined companies would control more than half the traffic
of the Internet's "backbone" transmission network.
** Internet **
Title: www.ooops: Companies Capitalize on Typos
Source: Washington Post (A1,A12)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-05/27/087l-052798-idx.html
Author: Linton Weeks
Issue: Internet
Description: Nobody's perfect, especially when it comes to typing in those
pesky Internet addresses. Now several companies are working to cash in on
some of our human errors. For example, you are looking for Amazon.com but
you incorrectly type in Amazom.com (with an m on the end). While you will
find yourself whisked away to a bookstore's Web site and you will be able to
conduct a book search, instead of perusing through Amazon.com's site, you
will be on a Cleveland rival outfit's site called Books.com. "How insidious!
How insincere! How ingenious!" we find ourselves saying. But there are now
companies, like Typo.Net based in Mountain View, Calif., that are making an
opportunity out of our inability to always type straight. Where we used to
find the "404 Object Not Found" page when we keyed in a mistake, TypoNet and
others will now transfer us first to some ads and then to the correct,
incorrect page in a wink. Too bad "spell check" won't help us here...
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