Communications-related Headlines for 8/21/01

DIGITAL DIVIDE
A More Accessible Web (WP)
Houston Tackles 'Digital Divide' With Free E-mail (USA)

BROADBAND
At Home Could Fail, Firm Says in Filing (WP)

PRIVACY
Tech Elite Divided on Web Privacy Laws (Wired)

EDTECH
Poll: USA Split on Use of Net in Schools (USA)

DIGITAL DIVIDE

A MORE ACCESSIBLE WEB
Issue: Digital Divide
Effective June 25, federal officials have begun revamping keyboards,
photocopiers, teletype devices and other office machines for agency
employees with special needs. The new federal requirement that government
agencies make their Web sites accessible to the disabled is helping
companies such as Arlington-based Crunchy Technologies to find a new role in
the economic slowdown. Crunchy has transformed itself from a service company
to a product company. At least 25 companies have moved in to sell software,
training and other services to federal contractors and government agencies,
according to an analysis by research firm Giga Information Group Inc.
Clients include the Transportation Department, the Federal Communications
Commission and the U.S. Navy. The nation's biggest technology firms,
including Microsoft, HP and EDS also are responding to the federal directive
by updating their product lines. "Section 508 has done a wonderful job of
crystallizing industry awareness about disability," said Denice Gant,
director of the Accessibility Solutions program at Hewlett-Packard.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E01), AUTHOR: Carrie Johnson]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37741-2001Aug20.html)

HOUSTON TACKLES 'DIGITAL DIVIDE' WITH FREE E-MAIL
Issue: Digital Divide
On Monday, the city of Houston launched a program to offer free e-mail and
use of personal computer software to its 3 million area residents. People
who verify their residence in the city will get an account number to access
a software package developed by Houston-based Internet Access Technologies
(IAT), including word processing and e-mail. Residents also have free use of
about 1,000 PCs already in libraries and fire and police stations. Houston
residents who own PCs also can access the software if they have an Internet
service provider. The program is intended to encourage Internet use among
minorities, the poor and people in rural areas.
[SOURCE: USAToday (8/20), AUTHOR: Jon Swartz]
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-08-20-free-e-mail.htm)

BROADBAND

AT HOME COULD FAIL, FIRM SAYS IN FILING
Issue: Broadband
In documents filed with the SEC yesterday, At Home Corp., the cable
industry's leading provider of high-speed Internet access, revealed it is
running out of money and could go out of business by the end of the year.
The company's service, "Excite At Home", is crucial to the cable industry's
foothold on residential high-speed cable Internet subscribers. The company
connects 3.4 million customers to the Internet. The company's financial
difficulties reflect the changing business environment brought about by the
Federal Trade Commission when it required that Time Warner Cable open its
high-speed network to competing Internet service providers as a condition of
Time Warner Inc.'s merger with America Online Inc. AT&T owns 23 percent of
Excite At Home shares and controls 74 percent of its voting stock.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E01), AUTHOR: Christopher Stern]
(http://www.washtech.com/news/telecom/11977-1.html)

EDTECH

POLL: USA SPLIT ON USE OF NET IN SCHOOLS
Issue: EdTech
While half of American adults believe that Internet skills are very
important for students, the other half think they are only somewhat
important or not important at all, according to a recent Associated Press
poll. Some adults expressed concern that students were becoming too reliant
on the Internet. Residents of metropolitan areas were far more likely than
those in rural areas to say Internet skills were very important for children
in school. Teens themselves had fewer reservations about the use of
information technology in education. More than two-thirds of teens said they
use the Internet as their major resource when doing a big project for
school, said Lee Gainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life
Project.
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-08-20-internet-schools-poll.ht
m)

PRIVACY

TECH ELITE DIVIDED ON WEB PRIVACY LAWS
ISSUE: Privacy
Carly Fiorina, the head of printer and computer giant Hewlett-Packard, said
her industry had not lived up to its leadership responsibilities in setting
privacy standards. "I think we in the technology industry have fallen in
love with technology. And in the end it is not about the technology," she
said. "Privacy and security, or trust, are vital to consumers, and that is
what we should focus on. There is a role for legislation," Fiorina told a
conference organized by the Progress & Freedom Foundation think tank late on
Sunday in this Colorado mountain resort. HP's manager for technology policy,
Scott Cooper, said the government should pass a law to require Web sites to
clearly and conspicuously post what information they collect and how they
use it.
FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle said the FTC was unlikely to propose such
laws under its new chairman, Timothy Muris.
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Peter Henderson, Reuters]
(http://www.wired.com/news/reuters/story?story_id=20010820RTTECH-TECH-PRIVAC
Y-DC.htmlt)

--------------------------------------------------------------