DIGITAL DIVIDE
In U.S., Digital Haves Outnumber Have-Nots (WP)
Agencies Act to Ease Use of Internet by Disabled (WP)
Giving The Disabled Increased E-Access(WP)
Gateway Aims To Be Computer Trainer (NYT)
TELEVISION
Don't People Want to Control Their TV's? (NYT)
PRIVACY/SECURITY
White House Won't Block N.T.T.-Verio Deal (NYT)
Global Phone Deals Face Scrutiny From a New Source: The FBI (WSJ)
Colleges Compete To Test Carnivore (WP)
INTERNET
Time to Face the (Digital) Music (WP)
AOL Unmoved in Software Dispute (WP)
JOBS
Strike Ends as Verizon Reaches Agreement With Union Holdout (WSJ)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
IN U.S., DIGITAL HAVES OUTNUMBER HAVE-NOTS
Issue: Digital Divide
More than half of the U.S. population can now access the World Wide Web from
home. According to new data from Nielson Net Ratings, as of July, 52 percent
of the population has home Internet access. This data reflects a 35 percent
increase during the past year, bringing the total number to 106.3 million
people that now have home Internet access. Sean Kaldor, NetRating Inc's
vice president of e-commerce, cited falling computer prices and competitive
rates for Internet access as the forces behind the increase. The data also
show that Americans are spending more time online and looking at fewer Web
sites than they did a year ago. The average user spent 9 hours and 41
minutes online in July 2000 -- a 26 percent increase --and the number of
sites visited declined to 10 from 12 in the same period.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E-8), AUTHOR: Terence Chea]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14525-2000Aug23.html)
AGENCIES ACT TO EASE USE OF INTERNET BY DISABLED
Issue: Digital Divide/Accessibility
In the next few months, the federal government is expected to make the Web
less cumbersome for those with disabilities. New accessibility standards for
federal Web sites, software and technology products will go into effect by
May of next year. All new Web sites and any software requiring a change or
update must be accessible to those with sight, hearing or mobility
impairments. "Most IT managers know they've go to do this and they're trying
to," said Diana Hynek, who coordinates the effort at the Commerce
Department. Hynek said Commerce will focus on its Web site first because it
is the "public face" of the department. The standards are expected to have a
ripple effect through private businesses (see summary below) as the
government is the largest purchaser of information technology in the
country. To meet the new standards, government Web sites must soon offer
alternatives for people who cannot see multi-tiered charts and provide text
transcripts for audio or video streams. Cost estimates for the changes range
from $85 to $691 million.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A23), AUTHOR: Carrie Johnson]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6542-2000Aug22.html)
See Also:
GIVING THE DISABLED INCREASED E-ACCESS
Issue: Digital Divide/Accessibility
Companies are stepping up to the plate to meet the demand for what they see
as a new Internet market. Motivated by the federal process of building
accessible Web sites and software, a number of companies are ready for the
consulting and design demands that are sure to stem from the government's
new rules. The potential return for early movers in accessibility design are
enormous. Optavia Corp., a Madison, Wis., company that provides advice on
how to make Web sites more accessible to general audiences expects
accessibility design to go from 0% of their business to 25% this year. Shawn
Lawton Henry, director of research and development for Optavia, attributes
the uptake to increased awareness of the new federal requirements and the
recent 10th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).
"People are beginning to realize that this is going to be a competitive
advantage," Henry said. "We've talked with people who have already lost
contracts because their technology wasn't accessible." Crafting a
disabled-friendly Web site doesn't take much additional time or expense,
said Denise Koschmann, a usability specialist at QRC in Bethesda. Mostly,
she said, it just means remembering that not everyone can see the computer
screen, hear the voices coming from the speakers or reach the keyboard with
their fingers. The government has not ordered companies to make their
technology accessible to the disabled, but the Justice Department, in a 1996
opinion, said the ADA applied to the Internet.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E2), AUTHOR: Carrie Johnson]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13415-2000Aug23.html)
GATEWAY AIMS TO BE COMPUTER TRAINER
Issue: Digital Divide
Admitting publicly that using a computer can be pretty darned complicated,
Gateway Inc. is launching an advertising campaign to drive home that point,
and has begun offering free clinics for PC users. Starting this month,
Gateway's own stores and its kiosks in OfficeMax stores began providing free
"clinics" on PC and Internet basics as well as more advanced topics such as
digital photography and music. The company also has 5,000 classroom seats in
its stores for more thorough classes on those subjects, as well as software
applications like Microsoft Office. The classes cost between $49 and $175.
But critics say Gateway's initiative, though a "very attractive proposition
for newbies," doesn't solve the underlying problems of the information
revolution. "The better way would be to make PCs easier to use," says PC
industry analyst Tim Bajarin.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Associated Press
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/08/biztech/articles/24gateway.html)
(Requires Registration)
TELEVISION
DON'T PEOPLE WANT TO CONTROL THEIR TV'S?
Issue: Television
Digital Video Recorders (DVR)- available from two competing services, TiVo
and ReplayTV - allow TV viewers to search for programs, automatically record
them on a hard drive, and put live programs on "pause" and skip commercials
at the press of a button. While some analysts have suggested that DVRs could
revolutionalize commercial television by allowing people to create
personalized networks, to watch whenever they want and to avoid commercials,
most consumers are not racing to get their hands on the devises. Price is
likely an important factor: the units cost from $99, with a minimum monthly
fee of $9.95. An even larger barrier may be the lack of consumer
understanding of the new gadgets. "Until people get their hands on it,"
said Rebecca Baer, a spokeswoman for TiVo, "they don't understand why they
need this."
[SOURCE: New York Times (E1), AUTHOR: Roy Furchgott]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/08/circuits/articles/24tivo.html)
(requires registration)
PRIVACY/SECURITY
WHITE HOUSE WON'T BLOCK N.T.T.-VERIO DEAL
Issue: Security
When a major Japanese corporation, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, decided
to purchase an American Internet service provider, Verio Inc., it raised
national security concerns at the FBI. In telecommunications deals, the
F.B.I. has asked for assurances that only United States facilities be used
to handle domestic traffic and that companies employ United States citizens
to handle wiretapping activities. President Clinton, however, has decided
against blocking the pending acquisition. "As a result of the investigation
and negotiations with N.T.T. Communications and Verio, any national
security issues that may have been presented by this transaction have been
resolved," the White House said in a statement.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: The Associated Press]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/08/biztech/articles/24verio-ntt.html
)
(requires registration)
See Also
CLINTON LETS JAPAN FIRM BUY VERIO
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E3), AUTHOR: Bloomberg News]
(Not online as far as I can tell)
GLOBAL PHONE DEALS FACE SCRUTINY FROM A NEW SOURCE: THE FBI
Issue: Security
While foreign telecommunications companies doing deals in the U.S. may
expect inquiry from federal antitrust enforcers and telecom regulators, they
might be surprised by the scrutiny they've been getting from the FBI. When
TMI Communications of Canada wanted to sell satellite-phone service to U.S.
subscribers, it sought permission from the Federal Communications
Commission. The FBI voiced objections, fearing it would have no legal or
practical way to wiretap a phone service operated entirely outside the U.S,
and delayed the approval of the deal by a year. Since a 1996 law deregulated
the U.S. telecom business, Special Agent Alan McDonald and the FBI have
elbowed their way into nearly every big deal involving foreign and U.S.
telecom companies. Their mission: preserve the FBI's decades-old snooping
capacity and safeguard the country from foreign spies. After months of
negotiations, TMI agreed last fall to install a call-switching station in
New England through which it would route all its U.S. traffic. The whole
process was "like pulling hen's teeth," and cost nearly $3 million, says Mr.
Boisvert, TMI's chief executive officer.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A1), AUTHOR: Neil King Jr. And David S. Cloud]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB967070342424493183.htm)
(Requires Subscription)
COLLEGES COMPETE TO TEST CARNIVORE
Issue: Privacy
Attorney General Janet Reno has extended the deadline to September 15th, for
selecting a university to analyze the FBI's Carnivore e-mail surveillance
system to give the schools that have volunteered an equal chance. At her
weekly news conference Reno said that at 5p.m. today, the department would
post on its Website "a statement of work and specific expectations for the
review." She launched the review after members of Congress and civil
liberties groups objected to the computerized system. Carnivore's software
scans and captures "packets," the pieces of data that make up Internet
traffic, as they travel through an Internet service provider's network. The
FBI installs a Carnivore unit in a service provider's system and configures
it to capture only e-mail to or from the person under investigation. FBI
officials say court orders limit which e-mail they can see. Privacy
advocates say only the FBI knows what Carnivore can do, and Internet
providers are not allowed access to the system. Civil liberties groups
argued that Reno should just make Carnivore's computer source code public
for the widest possible analysis of its capabilities. Justice officials said
many schools expressed interest in analyzing the system, and some offered to
do it for free. Reno said she would pick a school by Sept. 15. "We are
committed to having an independent technical review complete by Dec. 1," she
said.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E7), AUTHOR: Carrie Johnson]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14489-2000Aug23.html)
INTERNET
AOL UNMOVED IN SOFTWARE DISPUTE
Issue: Internet
Instant-messaging, sending text messages in real-time over the Internet, has
become a key source of friction in AOL's attempt to win regulatory approval
for its proposed takeover of Time Warner. AOL rivals and more than a dozen
legislators have framed the company as a "bully" and "monopolist" for its
refusal to open its instant-messaging network of 84 million users. To date,
AOL has prevented rival instant-messaging systems from having access to the
network of users of its own AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) product. Now federal
regulators reviewing the $183 billion merger have come to share the same
worries. However, the regulators have decided that the matter is beyond
their powers to remedy through the conditions of the merger. Instead they
are likely to rely on informal pressure. At the heart of the matter is the
potential explosion of commercial uses of instant-messaging - and who will
benefit from the money to be made through ads and e-commerce applications.
Forrester Research, a market research firm, estimates that roughly half of
the Fortune 1000 companies will use instant messaging by the end of 2001.
Time Warner's Gerald Levin, asked at a Wall Street conference to name the
most valuable asset to the combined company, answered: "Instant messaging."
Critics of AOL have compared the company's position to that of Sprint
customers not being able to talk to AT&T customers. Analysts see this
instant-messaging battle as a litmus test. Bill Whyman, president of the
research firm Precursor Group, said, "It hits at the heart of what the
Internet is - nondiscriminatory interconnection - and is an important signal
about how open or closed the government will let AOL Time Warner be in the
future."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A1), AUTHOR: Ariana Eunjung Cha]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12754-2000Aug23.html)
TIME TO FACE THE (DIGITAL) MUSIC
Issue: Internet
[OP-ED] According to Rob Glaser, chairman and CEO of RealNetworks, "The
future of electronic music distribution will ultimately depend less on what
the courts decide than on what media companies, music fans, artists and
technology leaders can collectively agree to support." Citing the growth of
Napstar from zero to 20 million in a single year, Glaser argues that the
demand for user-friendly access to digital music has created new media
distribution models. And this sort of development is long overdue,
especially since the majority of record companies haven't changed their
fundamental business models for nearly 100 years. However, the message
Napster sent to the market wasn't that entirely new. Because over the past
five years, hundreds of millions of people have downloaded software by
RealNetworks and others to enjoy audio and video over the Web. Glaser
contends that "The primary difference between our approach and Napster's is
that we built a market on the principle that artists, producers,
broadcasters and consumers all have rights, and that a legitimate
marketplace must respect and support those rights in a straightforward way.
That approach has to be at the heart of any workable Napster resolution."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A25), AUTHOR: Rob Glaser]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14501-2000Aug23.html)
JOBS
STRIKE ENDS AS VERIZON REACHES AGREEMENT WITH UNION HOLDOUT
Issue: Jobs
Verizon and its 35,000 telephone workers in the Mid-Atlantic region reached
an agreement, ending an 18-day strike that had inconvenienced millions of
customers. Negotiators put the finishing touches on a three-year deal
providing a 12 percent increase in wages and 14 percent increase in pension
benefits over the life of the contract, as well as a one-time grant of 100
stock options to each union employee by the end of 2000. Verizon also had
reached a tentative agreement with 15,000 strikers from the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers on Sunday and 37,000 Communications
Workers of America (CWA) members from the Northeast, leaving just CWA-South,
as the lone holdout unit. The agreement also resolves an awkward situation
for the union, which arose between the workers that had returned to work and
those that remained on strike.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A3), AUTHOR: Yochi J. Dreazen]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB967066663484352728.htm)
(Requires Subscription)
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