MEDIA OWNERSHIP
Fighting Media Monopoly: April 26 San Francisco Forum on Media
Ownership
Free Press, Consumers Union Urge Citizens to Take Action on Media
Ownership
21ST CENTURY SKILLS
Will Code for Food
South African College Established to Train IT Journalists
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Experts Chart Future of Indian Fonts
EDTECH
Virus Pushes Schools to Go Virtual
Schools Look to Wireless to Boost Learning
PRIVACY
Amazon.com Accused of Privacy Violations
MEDIA OWNERSHIP
FIGHTING MEDIA MONOPOLY: APRIL 26 SAN FRANCISCO FORUM ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP
[Commentary] After prodding by the Center for Digital Democracy and Media
Alliance, the FCC will take part in a San Francisco public hearing over the
proposed deregulation of US media ownership rules. The San Francisco Bay
Guardian implores local residents to take part in it: "This liberal city,
with its historic traditions of freewheeling publications and open debate,
is now under the thumb of a handful of out-of-town media corporations that
don't come close to reflecting the political, cultural and artistic
diversity of the community," they write. The Guardian lays out the "local"
statistics: 10 San Francisco radio stations are owned by Texas-based Clear
Channel; NY-based Hearst owns the one major newspaper; the local cable
franchise, Comcast, has no local roots; and none of the major broadcast TV
stations have local owners. "And if Powell gets his way, the situation will
just get worse," they add. The event will begin at 10am on Saturday, April
26 in the main rotunda at San Francisco City Hall, and is open to the
public.
[SOURCE: San Francisco Bay Guardian]
http://www.sfbayguardian.com/37/30/news_ed_fcc.html
FREE PRESS, CONSUMERS UNION URGE CITIZENS TO TAKE ACTION ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP
Public-interest organizations Free Press and Consumers Union are encouraging
their website visitors to tell members of Congress what they think about
proposed media ownership deregulation. "The range of news analysis and
debate is shrinking along with the diversity of media ownership, placing an
extraordinary degree of economic and social power in a very few hands,"
writes Free Press on their MediaReform.net website. The Consumers Union
website, meanwhile, allows users to submit their zip code and send a letter
directly to their particular representatives in the House and Senate.
[SOURCES: Free Press, Consumers Union]
http:/www.mediareform.net/
http://capwiz.com/consumersunion/issues/alert/?alertid=1656736&type=CO
21ST CENTURY SKILLS
WILL CODE FOR FOOD
At the height of the dot-com bubble three years ago, job seekers attending
the BrassRing employment conference were bombarded by offers from 500
employers-in-waiting, each boasting a smorgasbord of perks in the hope of
attracting desperately-needed IT workers. Today, of course, the bubble has
burst and the brass ring of opportunity is tarnished: thousands of
highly-skilled, unemployed workers now find themselves standing in line at
the conference trying to attract the attention of the 30 employers in
attendance. "This is the worst I've seen," said David Levy, 51, an
unemployed systems integration analyst who's worked in IT for nearly 30
years. "I'm running into people who have been out of work a year or a year
and a half. It's definitely an employer's market out there." Levy is part of
a growing trend: along with the many young dot-commers at the conference are
middle-aged technologists, some boasting PhDs from Stanford and MIT. "There
are a lot of gifted people out of work," said Matt Blunt, a recruiter at
defense industry consulting company. "It's really quite sad."
[SOURCE: CNET News.com; AUTHOR: Lisa Bowman]
http://news.com.com/2100-1022-997499.html?tag=fd_lede2_hed
SOUTH AFRICAN COLLEGE ESTABLISHED TO TRAIN I.T. JOURNALISTS
The Acacia Institute has established a training college in Johannesburg,
South Africa for aspiring information technology journalists. The college
will focus on training young journalists from disadvantaged backgrounds, in
the hope of having them play a leading role disseminating IT knowledge
across Africa. Acacia, funded by the Canadian government, has spent the last
half decade studying the role of the Internet in low-income African
communities. "What we try to do in this program is to fast track young
journalists to understand science and technology... to popularize it," says
professor Graeme Addison, "and we hope if we do this... those journalists
will go into the media and be able to educate their colleagues."
[SOURCE: SABCnews.com]
http://www.sabcnews.com/sci_tech/internet/0,1009,57419,00.html
DIGITAL DIVIDE
EXPERTS CHART FUTURE OF INDIAN FONTS
This past week in Bangalore, India, more than three dozen of India's leading
experts in the development of computer fonts gathered to discuss the need
for open standards. While various Indian companies have been developing
Indian language fonts for some time, the fact that many of their fonts have
been based on incompatible technologies has made it impossible for any of
them to be adopted ubiquitously. The experts discussed proposals to create
open source Indian fonts and operating systems that would help avoid
situations where companies like Microsoft would own the rights (and thus
control the use) of a font, potentially slowing down adoption by Indians.
"India has 18 officially recognized languages, and more than 1,000
languages," explained Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya from Ekgaon Technologies.
"Every year a language in the world dies. The onslaught of sweeping computer
technology could further accelerate the demise of Indian languages. We are
harnessing the same technologies to safeguard and revitalize Indian
languages through regional workshops held across India."
[SOURCE: Mahiti.org; AUTHOR: Niyam Bhushan, Hindustan Times]
http://www.mahiti.org/news/News_Item.2003-04-16.1646go
EDTECH
VIRUS PUSHES SCHOOLS TO GO VIRTUAL
SARS may have forced schools in Hong Kong to close last month, but the virus
has not claimed learning as a victim. Thanks to the efforts of Macromedia
and First Virtual Communications, a pair of west coast tech companies,
teachers and students in China are interacting via the Web. From their
homes, students can watch their teachers live via a webcam and use instant
messaging technology to make comments or ask questions. While distance
learning has become a rather popular tool in the US, this marks the first
instance in which an emergency or social breakdown has forced its use.
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle; AUTHOR: Benny Evangelista]
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/0...
/BU190788.DTL
SCHOOLS LOOK TO BOOST WIRELESS LEARNING
Around the US, schools and universities are investing in wireless networks,
changing the way in which children learn. The shift is particularly
noticeable at the pre-college level, where the wireless Web allows for
individualized student experiences based on ability and a "flexible
reconfiguration of classrooms" as students can take laptops outside the
traditional classroom. The trend toward adoption of wireless requires a
"tremendous cultural shift," say experts, especially since teachers must
adapt to the amount of control each student is given and the diminishing
lack of attention the teacher may receive.
[SOURCE: Yahoo! News; AUTHOR: Reuters]
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20030422/tc_nm/techno...
_schools_dc
PRIVACY
AMAZON.COM ACCUSED OF PRIVACY VIOLATIONS
Privacy and consumer advocacy groups have asked the Federal Trade Commission
to investigate Amazon.com's privacy practices with respect to children.
According to a complaint filed by a group of organizations led by the
Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Media Access Project, Amazon
allows minors to post product reviews to the its website while collecting
personally identifiable information such as name and email address in the
process. Such practice, the groups claim, violates the Children's Online
Privacy Protection Act of 1998. Lawyers for Amazon argue that the law only
applies to sites that market directly to children, which Amazon does not.
Critics disagree, however. If the FTC hits Amazon with a fine, the action is
likely to stir up a flurry of self-examination among e-commerce sites.
[SOURCE: The Washington Post; AUTHOR: David McGuire]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13246-2003Apr22.html
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