DIGITAL DIVIDE
Verizon Foundation Offers $500K in Grants to New York Nonprofits
Compulsory Broadband Access Proposed for New UK Homes=20
Provincial German Town Drops Microsoft for Linux
INTERNET/JOURNALISM
Al Jazeera Website Knocked Offline
PRIVACY
Justice Dept. Lifts FBI Database Limits
REGULATION
Supreme Court Turns Away Appeal Over Phone Competition
DIGITAL DIVIDE
VERIZON FOUNDATION OFFERS $500K IN GRANTS TO NEW YORK NONPROFITS=20
(Press Release) Nonprofit organizations and educational institutions in =
New
York state are invited to compete for $500,000 in grants offered by =
Verizon
Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications. Verizon is
soliciting workforce development proposals that help address basic =
computer
literacy skills, support job retention and aid vocational and =
disability
programs in the communities the company serves. The grants, ranging =
from
$25,000 to $100,000, will be announced July 1. Proposals must be =
submitted
through the Verizon Foundation Web site, listed below.
[SOURCE: PressI.com, AUTHOR: Verizon Foundation]
(http://www.pressi.com/int/release/62995.html)
(http://www.verizon.com/foundation)
COMPULSORY BROADBAND ACCESS PROPOSED FOR NEW UK HOMES=20
A new British government proposal would mandate that all new homes
constructed in the UK would be wired for broadband Internet access. The
proposal, which would cost the housing industry an estimated =A370 =
million
(USD $110 million) a year, would help the government meet its goal of =
all
British households having the choice of being online by 2005. =
Currently,
only 1.1 million of Britain's 26 million households have broadband =
Internet
access. The proposal estimates that the mandate would increase the cost =
of
building a new home by =A3460 (USD $725).=20
[SOURCE: Guardian Unlimited, AUTHOR: Matt Weaver]
(http://politics.guardian.co.uk/egovernment/story/0,12767,921049,00.html=
)
PROVINCIAL GERMAN TOWN DROPS MICROSOFT FOR LINUX
The "decidedly un-trendy" city of Schwaebisch Hall, Germany is =
certainly on
the front end of one tech trend -- becoming the first city in the world =
(it
claims) to dump Microsoft Windows and software in favor of open-source
technology based on the Linux operating system. Several companies and
government entities have switched part or all of their operations to
open-source software, but Schwaebisch Hall's wholesale adoption =
represents a
breakthrough, according to the SuSE, the city's Linux distributor. The =
city
expects to save a six-figure sum on the initial upgrade, though =
Microsoft
reps contend that long-run training and administrative costs exceed the
one-time savings.=20
[SOURCE: USA Today, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-03-24-linuxburg_x.htm)
INTERNET/JOURNALISM
=09
AL JAZEERA WEBSITE KNOCKED OFFLINE
The website of Al Jazeera, the Arabic-language news channel, found =
itself
knocked offline by hackers Monday, the day after it aired video footage =
of
US prisoners of war in Iraq. "We have a problem," said a network =
spokeswoman
yesterday. "I believe there are some hackers, some attack, but I don't =
know
exactly." Web security experts now believe the site experienced a
denial-of-service attack, in which hackers flooded the website with =
page
requests until its server was overwhelmed. Al Jazeera is one of many
websites that have found themselves attacked by hackers, who often =
scrawl
pro- or anti-war messages on their homepages. "At the moment we are =
tracking
over a thousand such defacements, most with anti-war messages," says =
Jason
Holloway of Finnish security company F-Secure. "I have never seen that =
level
of political 'hactivism' before, nor so many defacements in such a =
short
time."
[SOURCE: New Scientist, AUTHOR: Will Knight]
(http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=3Dns99993537)
See also: "Al Jazeera Launches English Language Website"
(http://www.msnbc.com/news/890311.asp?0dm=3DT13HT)
PRIVACY
JUSTICE DEPT. LIFTS FBI DATABASE LIMITS
The US Department of Justice yesterday lifted requirements that the =
FBI's
National Crime Information Center database be kept up-to-date. The =
database
contains information on criminals, terrorists, missing persons, stolen =
goods
and the like. Such records are queried frequently by law enforcement
officials to determine whether an individual should be monitored, =
detained
or arrested. The ruling has enraged representatives of civil liberties
organizations, who argue that untimely or incorrect data could have =
harmful
effects on citizens seeking employment or credit. The DOJ claims that =
the
old requirement is "administratively impossible" to enforce, but former
Senate Judiciary Committee counsel Beryl Howell notes that making best
efforts to keep the database up to date is "a goal we shouldn't just =
throw
out."
[SOURCE: The Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ted Bridis]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22955-2003Mar25.html)
REGULATION
SUPREME COURT TURNS AWAY APPEAL OVER PHONE COMPETITION
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from long distance =
companies
of a ruling that forced federal regulators to reconsider how phone =
companies
would compete against one another. AT&T, WorldCom and others filed the
appeal, with which the Bush administration agreed while noting to the =
Court
that the issue was now moot - the FCC recently ruled that such =
rulemaking
should be left to the states. That ruling, marked by what has been =
described
as a major political coup by Commissioner Kevin Martin, is likely to =
result
in future litigation that may reach the high court, according to =
observers.
[SOURCE: The Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ann Gearan]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18952-2003Mar24.html)
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