POLITICAL DISCOURSE
Bush Advisers and Networks Gather to Discuss Debates (NYT)
MERGERS
Clear Channel Completes Deal (NYT)
BellSouth, SBC Clear Justice Hurdle On Wireless Joint Venture (USA)
Time Warner, AOL Are Criticized By European Antitrust Enforcers (WSJ)
EDTECH
Laptops Are No Longer A Luxury For Students (USA)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
MP3.com Argument Rejected in Music Trial (NYT)
Taking Sides in the Napster War (NYT)
MEDIA & SOCIETY
Advertising: Teaching Kids About Marketing Techniques (NYT)
Long-Distance Romance, Web-Enabled (NYT)
ECOMMERCE
PCs Will Maintain Central Role In E-Commerce, Report Says (WSJ)
Japan's Goal of Being Tops on Web Harks Back to
Industrial-Policy Days (WSJ)
Many Big Newspapers Say Ap's Moves Boost Web Rivals (WSJ)
Privacy Group Issues a Warning About Potential Harm of Web Bugs (WSJ)
TELEPHONY
Orwellian Ring: Your Phone Serves as a Tracking Device (WSJ)
Requiem for Ma Bell? (WP)
INFOTECH
Surfing Off the Page (WP)
BACK ON THE HILL
Upcoming Congressional Hearings (House)
POLITICAL DISCOURSE
BUSH ADVISORS AND NETWORKS GATHER TO DISCUSS DEBATES
Issue: Political Discourse
Senior advisors to Gov George Bush met with representatives from CNN, ABC
and CBS to discuss debates that the individual networks have proposed.
Although Gov Bush has no agreed to debate in prime time, he may try to
accept an invitation from a single network for a debate that is unlikely to
be aired by the other networks -- therefore limiting audience. He has still
not agreed to the three debates proposed by the Commission on Presidential
Debates. Vice President Gore has agreed to those three debates and 42 other
invitations to debate his rival.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A17), AUTHOR: Frank Bruni]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/083100wh-debate.html)
(requires registration)
MERGERS
CLEAR CHANNEL COMPLETES DEAL
Issue: Mergers
Clear Channel will complete its $23.8 billion purchase of AMFM today and
will become the US's biggest broadcaster with more than 900 radio stations
and 19 TV stations. AMFM's 29% stake in Lamar Advertising will be sold,
resolving concerns of higher prices and lower quality service to radio and
billboard advertisers. Clear Channel owns a direct competitor of Lama, the
Eller Media Company.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C5), AUTHOR: AP]
(http://www.nytimes.com/)
(requires registration)
BELLSOUTH, SBC CLEAR JUSTICE HURDLE ON WIRELESS JOINT VENTURE
Issue: Merger
BellSouth and SBC Communications have won conditional approval from the
Justice Department to create the nation's second-largest wireless carrier by
joining their wireless operations. The Justice Department's approval is
contingent on the companies selling overlapping wireless businesses in 16
markets. The deal still needs approval from the Federal Communications
Commission. The joint venture will eventually serve 18 million customers,
compared with 25 million for Verizon wireless, the nation's No. 1 carrier.
[SOURCE: USAToday (3B), AUTHOR: Shawn Young]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000831/2600583s.htm)
See Also:
JUSTICE DEPT. CLEARS SBC AND BELLSOUTH VENTURE
Issue: Mergers
[SOURCE: New York Times (C2), AUTHOR: Bloomberg News]
(http://www.nytimes.com/)
(requires registration)
BELLSOUTH, SBC MUST DIVEST WIRELESS ASSETS IN 16 MARKETS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B9), AUTHOR: Mark Wigfield]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB967653487668612714.htm)
(Requires subscription)
TIME WARNER, AOL ARE CRITICIZED BY EUROPEAN ANTITRUST ENFORCERS
Issue: Merger
European antitrust enforcers are taking a hard line on AOL's pending
acquisition of Time Warner, concerned that AOL's online service could become
a "walled garden" dominating Internet access in Europe. The regulators are
sharply critical of the transaction, and have warned in a recent
confidential statement that the combined companies could dominate digital
delivery of music and the emerging markets for online delivery of film,
sports and entertainment programming. The commission's concerns go beyond
music to the vertical integration of the combined companies, in which AOL
and Time Warner" content" such as news and entertainment are wedded to AOL's
digital distribution network. The antitrust issues in Europe are less
complex than in the U.S, in some ways, where the AOL-Time Warner transaction
is being reviewed separately by the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal
Communications Commission. While neither is expected to block the deal, they
could seek conditions meant to protect competition or access for rival
programming.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A3), AUTHOR: John R. Wilke]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB967687873210096017.htm)
(Requires subscription)
EDTECH
LAPTOPS ARE NO LONGER A LUXURY FOR STUDENTS
Issue: EdTech
As many private schools around the country make laptop ownership a
requirement, some public schools are also grappling with the potential role
laptops can play in classroom instruction. The number of high schools where
laptops have replaced the computer lab has risen to more than 500
nationwide, says Albert Throckmorton, director of technology curriculum at
Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., which will be a laptop-only
institution beginning this fall. By far the biggest obstacle is the enormous
cost of shifting the expense of the traditional computer lab to a
parent-student responsibility. At Episcopal, students can buy or rent
laptops or apply for "scholarship computers." Other schools are
experimenting with plans that allow students to lease laptops that they can
purchase or trade up in their senior year. Villa Park High School, a public
school in Orange, Calif., has offered eHistory and eEnglish electives for
those students who supply their own laptops. But a similar proposal at
another Orange County school met with disapproval from parents who felt the
program
would exclude poorer students.
[SOURCE: USAToday (8D), AUTHOR: Karen Thomas]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000831/2600541s.htm)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
MP3.COM ARGUMENT REJECTED IN MUSIC TRIAL
Issue: Intellectual Property
Lawyers for MP3.com called Seagram's Edgar Bronfman to the stand yesterday
as a hostile witness. The music start-up contends that Seagram's Universal
has pursued a copyright infringement case instead of settling with company
-- as other music industry players have -- because of Universal's own online
strategy. But Judge Jed S. Rakoff of Federal District Court in Manhattan,
ruled the contention irrelevant.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C20), AUTHOR: Amy Harmon]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/08/biztech/articles/31music.html)
(requires registration)
TAKING SIDES IN THE NAPSTER WAR
Issue: Intellectual Property
Passions run high on the Napster issue: Napster can be viewed as sharing or
stealing, as an innocent means of file sharing or an insidious way to
infringe on copyright. Some, sympathetic to artists, are trying to foil
Napster users by offering what they call cuckoo's eggs -- bad song files. "I
was all thrilled by [Napster]," said one egger, "and then all of a sudden
repulsed by it.... We wish there was a fair system for artists to share
their work online. It's not so much about compensation for us, but it is
about permission. It should be up to the artist."
[SOURCE: New York Times (D1), AUTHOR: Catherine Greman]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/circuits/articles/31naps.html)
(requires registration)
MEDIA & SOCIETY
ADVERTISING: TEACHING KIDS ABOUT MARKETING TECHNIQUES
Issue: Advertising/Media & Society
Noting a lack of media literacy courses in school curriculums, Media
Knowledge, a nonprofit organization, developed Camp Media, a two-week summer
camp for 10-12 year-olds. The camp is intended to teach children how to be
more aware of the persuasion techniques used in marketing. "We want them to
be aware and empowered -- to be able to think about the media messages and
have a conscious relationship with all media, not just a passive
relationship," said Diane Samples, a director at Club Media, who worked in
marketing and corporate communications for about nine years. "I think it's a
critical issue for kids of all ages," she added, "because they are exposed
to media all the time, from the very youngest of ages, even before school."
Camp mornings are spent on topics ranging from tricky wording in cereal ads
(cereal is part of a balanced breakfast, not a balanced breakfast on its
own) to digital manipulation and distortion of body images. The afternoons
were designated for group commercial production: some children brainstormed
the theme for an ad agency pitch, while others acted in and filmed TV spots.
The goal, Samples said, was to encourage children to ask themselves
important questions about media: Who created a message and why? What
information has been left out that might be important to know? Can you
believe what you see?
[SOURCE: New York Times (C5), AUTHOR: Allison Fass]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/columns/083100mediacamp-adcol.html)
(requires registration)
LONG-DISTANCE ROMANCE, WEB-ENABLED
Issue: Lifestyles!
Tools like instant messages, videoconferencing software, Web phones and
wireless communications are making it easier to keep love alive in
long-distance relationships. Sure, there can be problems, though: technology
glitches and distractions... and arguments in cyberspace never feel resolved
[as we all know from flame wars]. And even though the Internet can connect
people, they can feel even more lonely as soon as they turn away from the
computer. Read more -- and find out why breaking up is hard to do (online),
Neil, at the URL below.
[SOURCE: New York Times (D1), AUTHOR: Sally McGrane]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/circuits/articles/31rela.html)
(requires registration)
ECOMMERCE
PCs WILL MAINTAIN CENTRAL ROLE IN E-COMMERCE, REPORT SAYS
Issue: Ecommerce
A report to be released by Forrester Research today predicts that online
purchases through PCs will continue to exceed purchases through mobile
handsets. While Internet-ready mobile handsets (phones and PDAs) are
expected to outnumber PCs over the next few years, and wireless Internet
services are receiving great investment from telecommunications companies,
Forrester maintains that the wireless Web's contribution to overall revenue
generated from the Internet will be slim. Carsten Schmidt, a Forrester
analyst and author of the report, says that this isn't the demise of the
wireless Web, however. Carsten believes that while handsets should outnumber
PCs by 2004, the difficulty of accessing and viewing pages from them will be
the deterrent to the growth of commerce transactions. "Overall transactions
[from handsets] won't be that large, but there may be a lot of transactions
on small-ticket items," says Mr. Schmidt. He feels that tickets to
performances and other small purchases -- a bouquet of flowers, for example
-- are more likely to be purchased from a handset.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Interactive), AUTHOR: Edward Harris]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB96767813762441553.htm)
JAPAN'S GOAL OF BEING TOPS ON WEB HARKS BACK TO INDUSTRIAL-POLICY DAYS
Issue: International/Internet
Wednesday a panel assembled by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori
recommended that its government should establish the regulatory, investment
and educational foundation for overtaking the U.S. in high-speed Web service
in five years. The goal reflects a consensus among Japanese technology
executives that Japan can take the lead in the "next phase" of the Internet
-- mobile telephone and broadband services. The panel's 20 members represent
private sector leaders such as Sony Corp. Chairman Nobuyuki Idei, Masayoshi
Son, chairman of Internet holding company Softbank Corp., as well as top
officials from NEC Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and the Japan unit of
International Business Machines Inc. The group's recommendations are
reminiscent of Japan's old industrial policy days, when the government tried
to boost national competitiveness by choosing, then funding, select
technology areas. The committee's plan lays out four areas for government
help: investing in broadband networks; revising laws that hinder e-commerce;
delivering government services via electronic networks; and investing in
information-technology training. The advisory group specified 124 laws that
it said need to be revised to clear the way for electronic commerce in
Japan. The proposals come as Prime Minister Mori's government is expected to
submit a bill next month to Japan's Diet that will outline a broader
government policy on information technology.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Interactive), AUTHOR: Robert A. Guth]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB967656749684635263.htm)
(requires subscription)
MANY BIG NEWSPAPERS SAY AP'S MOVES BOOST WEB RIVALS
Issue: Journalism
By selling its news to Web sites, the Associated Press has opened a bitter
rift between it and many of the 1,550 daily newspapers that jointly own and
fund it, and is being accused of aiding and abetting their online rivals,
which aim to take away readers and advertisers. AP is defending its moves by
arguing that it has to find new customers even if they include Web sites, to
maintain and improve the quality of its coverage. In fact, online revenue
has helped the AP expand, including the addition of about 50 editorial
positions in the U.S. over the past few years. Most of the nation's
newspapers depend, in one way or another, on the AP's reports. Larger
newspapers like the Washington Post and the New York Times are particularly
unhappy about the way the news service makes AP stories available for member
papers to use on their own Web sites, which uses links that in effect take
readers off the newspaper's site and onto the AP's. But smaller papers
aren't complaining. Because they may lack the resources to keep their own
Web sites current, they have tended to be grateful for whatever online
assistance they can get.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: Matthew Rose]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB967676645435192343.htm)
PRIVACY GROUP ISSUES A WARNING ABOUT POTENTIAL HARM OF WEB BUGS
Issue: Privacy
The Privacy Foundation (www.privacyfoundation.org) has identified yet
another software-based cause for concern. The Colorado-based group that
investigates electronic-privacy issues says "Web bugs" -- tiny packages of
computer code -- can be embedded in Microsoft Word documents to let the
author track the document's distribution from one e-mail address to another.
Every time the document is passed from one person to another, the bug can
use the Internet to notify the author. The group says there is no evidence
that anyone actually has used the bugs in such a manner. However, the group
does see potential harm if a corporation would use them to track
confidential information or copyrighted material. Microsoft acknowledges
that the bugs can burrow into Word, Powerpoint and Excel files, but says the
same is true for any application designed to work with the Internet. The
company plans no action as the bugs can be disabled when a Web user disables
cookies on her PC. The Privacy Foundation suggested users get a
"techno-exterminator" such as Zone-Alarm - a program that warns users before
they open their e-mail.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Interactive), AUTHOR: Staff Reporter
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB967684724296070367.htm)
TELEPHONY
ORWELLIAN RING: YOUR PHONE SERVES AS A TRACKING DEVICE
Issue: Privacy
It's the next wireless thing: mobile positioning. Soon, your mobile phone
will serve as a location device as long as it is switched on. The function
is due to new wireless technologies and old-fashioned math. Basically,
operators can calculate where mobile phone users are based on their relative
position to so-called base stations, which transmit mobile-phone signals.
Police have used similar methods to find out if suspects were near a crime
location, simply by checking whether phone calls where made near certain
base stations. Using similar techniques, emergency services have been able
to locate fires and accidents, even if phone calls from people in need of
help had been cut off. A number of new services developed by MobilePosition
AB, a Swedish high-tech start-up, are scheduled to be rolled out next week
in Scandinavia. They are called YachtPosition, BikePosition and
FriendFinder. Each of the services will be available through operators first
in Scandinavia this fall and, later this year, in the rest of Europe.
Comparable services, some developed by companies such as CellPoint AB, will
also soon be available via traditional Internet-service providers such as
Yahoo!. All three MobilePosition services work on the same principle: The
operator automatically positions the user of the service. The location is
then used to guide the user to whatever he wants to find, if the information
is available. The first such services are bound to be vertical, which means
they are geared to a special user segment, such as sailors for YachtPosition
and bike riders for BikePosition. But eventually, positioning technology
will enable many different applications, handy both in private life and at
work. The services are precise up to about 500 meters.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B8), AUTHOR: Almar Latour]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB967659421249441303.htm)
(requires subscription)
REQUIEM FOR MA BELL?
Issue: Telephony
Three years after Michael Armstrong assumed the helm of America's largest
telecommunications company, AT&T's stock value is lower than it was on the
day he arrived. Concern about the business's dwindling value has driven
Armstrong to consider the unthinkable: selling off AT&T's residential
long-distance business. While two-thirds of AT&T's revenue still comes from
long-distance service, the current market is obsessed with companies that
can show explosive growth. Armstrong had been focused on a strategy of
turning AT&T into the nation's largest cable-television company, through the
purchase of Tele-Communications Inc and MediaOne, and upgrading those cable
networks into conduits for telephone and high-speed Internet connections.
But Wall Street has grown impatient with the pace and costs of the
transformation. "AT&T has to start showing very promising results in the
next six months to a year," said Elliot E. Hamilton, an analyst with
Strategis Group. "The premise of the cable strategy is still valid, but the
fruits are taking so long to be seen."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A1), AUTHOR: Peter S. Goodman]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51349-2000Aug30.html)
INFOTECH
SURFING OFF THE PAGE
Issue: Magazines/Internet
Last week, Forbes magazine shipped its 810,000 subscribers a new computer
gadget that will take readers from pages to the Internet. The device, known
as the "CueCat," is a small handheld scanner that readers can use to swipe
across computerized bar codes printed throughout the business magazine's
September issue to transport users electronically to related Web sites.
Michael N. Garin, president and chief operating officer of Digital
Convergence, the company that designed the scanner, said the technology will
become a significant connection point between old and new media--finding a
way into textbooks, owner's manuals and other publications. He said that
newspapers, which have been suffering from generally declining subscription
rates as the World Wide Web has grown in popularity, could run a bar code
next to a classified ad that will connect readers to more information on the
newspaper's Web site. Dan O'Brien, an analyst for market research firm
Forrester Research Inc., said he's skeptical about whether users would find
the technology useful at first. "Are people really reading business
magazines in front of their PCs?" he asked. "That doesn't seem like a likely
scenario to me."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E1), AUTHOR: Mike Musgrove ]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51440-2000Aug30.html)
BACK ON THE HILL
UPCOMING CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS
Issue: Health/Ownership
After a long break, Congress returns to work next week. Two House Commerce
hearings are planned and listed below. Although the Senate Commerce
Committee wanted to publish a schedule of telecom-related hearings some time
ago, the recent illness of Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) appears to have
delayed the planning process.
Thursday, September 7, 2000 10:00 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn House Office Building
The Subcommittee on Health and Environment has scheduled a hearing entitled:
"Telehealth: A Cutting Edge Medical Tool for the 21st Century." Witnesses
will be by invitation only.
Thursday, September 7, 2000 11:00 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building
The Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection has
scheduled a hearing entitled: "Foreign Government Ownership of American
Telecommunications Companies." Witnesses will be by invitation only.
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://com-notes.house.gov/schedule.htm)
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