INTERNET
Field Trip Into the Deep Blue Sea
Riding the Internet's Fast Lane
Meet Mr. Anti-Google
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Open-Source Government: New IT Solution
INTERNET
FIELD TRIP INTO THE DEEP BLUE SEA
The University of Washington is hoping to secure the $250 million required
to install a new underwater networking project. The NEPTUNE Project, which
stands for North East Pacific Time-series Undersea Network Experiments, will
use 3,000 kilometers of fiber-optic cable to connect underwater cameras and
recording equipment to the Internet. The images and sounds will be streamed
to universities, laboratories, aquariums, museums and schools. One of the
project's goals is to use the marine data to develop curricula and
activities for schoolchildren. Neptune's cable will be placed along the Juan
de Fuca tectonic plate and will stretch from British Columbia to California.
[SOURCE: Wired News, AUTHOR: Robin Clewley]
(http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,54723,00.html)
RIDING THE INTERNET'S FAST LANE
[Commentary] Technology consultant Bill Thompson discusses how widespread
access to broadband services could change they way the Internet is used. The
key advantage of broadband is that the connection is always active, thus
making any Web activity faster and easier for the user. Web surfers can
check their email, the weather forecast, stay in touch with friends or watch
an event via a Webcam without having to dialup and wait for a connection.
Thompson criticizes the government's historical stance that broadband
development be left up to free market forces. He praises recent actions from
the Office of Government Computing focused on persuading telecommunications
companies to make broadband more widely available.
[SOURCE: BBC News, AUTHOR: Bill Thompson]
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2225546.stm)
MEET MR. ANTI-GOOGLE
Webmaster Daniel Brandt has created a Web site, www.google-watch.org, to
share his accusations that Google's search engine algorithm is "uniquely
tyrannical." His home page greets new visitors with the phrase, "A look at
how Google's monopoly, algorithms, and privacy policies are undermining the
Web." Brandt previously spent thousands of hours creating another Web site,
Namebase.org, that continues to receive a lower page ranking on Google than
he believes he is entitled. While one could discount Brandt's situation as
personal, his complaints call attention to the larger issue of Google's
authority as a search engine. Brandt claims that the Google algorithm
discriminates against new Web sites and favors established sites. "You could
almost argue that without good search engines the value of the Internet
would be extremely diminished," he said. "They are to the Internet as the
power company is to your daily life."
[SOURCE: Salon, AUTHOR: Farhad Manjoo]
(http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/29/google_watch/index.html?x)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
OPEN-SOURCE GOVERNMENT: NEW IT SOLUTION
In California, a fight is brewing over open source software. There's no
question that over the years a lot of money has been spent on software
licenses and expensive software upgrades for proprietary software. Backers
of legislation known as the Digital Software Security Act advocate the
exclusive use of open source software to save tax dollars. They claim it
would also yield more secure and reliable software, as there are many more
open-source programmers than any proprietary vendor has. On the other side
of the debate, a group called the Initiative for Software Choice says that
any restrictions on government software purchases based on source code
amounts to discrimination, and also prevents government from using the most
popular commercial programs. Open source expert Bruce Perens has struck a
middle ground between the two sides. Perens suggests delineating the exact
parts of the state's IT infrastructure that must remain open. Beyond that,
he argues, agencies would be free to purchase whatever they needed, so long
as the software maintained interoperability with open source parts of the
infrastructure.
[SOURCE: San Fransisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Hal Plotkin]
(http://www.sfgate.com/technology/beat/)
----------------------------------------------------------------------