INTERNET
I'll see your domain name in (US) Court!
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Give and Take: High-Tech Cuts Planned Under Bush Plan
South Africa's Mbeki to Host Meeting on ICT Development
EDTECH
Filters, Schools Like Oil, Water
Aloha, You've Got Hawaiian 101
INTERNET
I'LL SEE YOUR DOMAIN NAME IN (US) COURT!
(Commentary) Andrew Lothian, CEO of the Internet brand consultancy Demys,
discusses two August rulings of the US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that
have potential ramifications on dot-com address owners around the world.
According to the rulings, the court determined that dot-com domain names are
pieces of property residing in the US commonwealth of Virginia -- Virginia
in particular because that is where the Internet's dot-com registry is
located. In many countries, domain names are regarded as the Internet
equivalent as signs or billboards representing a particular interest; for
example, "registering coke.com in conflict with the Coca-Cola Company's
rights is much the same as nailing up a large board over your business with
the word 'Coke' painted on it in the familiar style of that company's brand
without the right to do so," says Lothian. But the US appeals court rulings
take a different view, labeling domain names as pieces of property in a
particular geographic jurisdiction that can actually be sued in their own
right. "If you thought you were registering your domain name with your
registration service provider in your own particular country," he continues,
"think again."
[SOURCE: The Register (UK), AUTHOR: Andrew Lothian]
(http://theregister.co.uk/content/6/26957.html)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
GIVE AND TAKE: HIGH-TECH CUTS PLANNED UNDER BUSH PLAN
Students at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, California, many of whom
worked in restaurants, are preparing to become system administrators through
an eight-week technical boot camp funded by proceeds from the federal H-IB
visa program. The program allowed foreign high-tech workers to come to the
US to work for American companies; each company would pay the government an
application fee, generating funds for US IT training programs. However, the
Bush administration now plans to cancel the program, having labeled it
"ineffective." Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) complains that the program was cut
by administration bureaucrats without consulting the US Department of Labor,
which had considered the program a success. "So when the president said to
[his budget staff], 'find me a place to cut,' they picked that one and they
forgot to ask the Department of Labor," she said.
[SOURCE: ABCNews.com, AUTHORS: Claire Shipman and Kendra Gahagan]
(http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/tech_training020904.html)
SOUTH AFRICA'S MBEKI TO HOST MEETING ON ICT DEVELOPMENT
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa will host the second meeting of the
Presidential International Advisory Council on Information Society and
Development this weekend. The meeting will explore the development of an
information and communications technology (ICT) institute, the
implementation of e-government programs, and research and development
regarding economic growth and competitiveness. The council hopes the meeting
will guide South Africa in its attempts to bridge the digital divide, build
a sustainable human resource base and attract local and foreign investment.
[SOURCE: AllArfrica.com, AUTHOR: Veronica Mohapeloa]
(http://allafrica.com/stories/200209050687.html)
EDTECH
FILTERS, SCHOOLS LIKE OIL, WATER
Last autumn, students in John Elfrank-Dana's class in Lower Manhattan's
Murry Bergtraum High School attempted to use the Internet to write research
papers on terrorism. Having fled the school on September 11 -- Murry
Bergtraum is a quarter mile from Ground Zero -- Dana and his students were
eager to cover the subject, but quickly discovered that they couldn't. The
school's filters blocked Web sites with references to terrorism, and it
would take days for Dana to go through school bureaucracy to unblock the
sites, so students were eventually forced to conduct their research from
home. Dana's experience has become commonplace among teachers across the
country, as the majority of US schools now use filtering software. Congress
mandated filtering for all schools receiving federal E-Rate funding, which
has frustrated many educators.
Bob Moore, director of information technology for the Blue Valley School
District in Kansas, notes that prior to using filters, his schools relied on
teaching students to be responsible Internet users. "Information skills and
safety skills are first and foremost," says Moore. "Schools are using
technology quick-fixes as surrogates for the more important educational
responsibilities of education and supervision to truly prepare kids to make
safe and responsible choices," adds Nancy Willard, who runs the Responsible
Netizen Institute. Willard also criticizes filtering companies for not being
publicly accountable, as they do not acknowledge to educators which sites
they block, nor do they utilize educators or librarians to make those
decisions. David Burt, head of public relations for filtering company N2H2,
disagrees. "We're very accountable," he says. "If (people) feel an URL has
been incorrectly categorized, they can request that it be changed."
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Katie Dean]
(http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,54632,00.html)
ALOHA, YOU'VE GOT HAWAIIAN 101
Since 1994, Keola Donaghy has worked to find a way for computers to speak
Hawaiian. Thanks to his persistence and the work of fellow Hawaiian
enthusiasts, the University of Hawaii at Hilo has launched a virtual
Hawaiian 101 class -- believed by university officials to be the first
indigenous language to be taught solely on the Net. Reproducing Hawaiian on
the Net had been a challenge due to the way the language is expressed when
written. Because Hawaiian has more words with multiple means than possibly
any other language, it relies on the use of rhythm and context for speakers
to understand the meaning of a particular word. In written form, this
requires the use of diacritical marks -- for example, ko'u ("my") becomes
kou ("yours") and k