Message-Id: <55206A473154D011924D0020AFF7ACB53FAAD6@mail1.oulan.ou.edu>
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 13:15:33 -0600
From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@ou.edu'" <it-fyi@ou.edu>
Subject: Edupage, 2 December 1997
> ************************************************************
> Edupage, 2 December 1997. Edupage, a summary of news about
> information technology, is provided three times a week as a service by
> Educom, a Washington, D.C.-based consortium of leading colleges and
> universities seeking to transform education through the use of
> information technology.
> ************************************************************
>
> TOP STORIES
> The Cyberporn Wars
> Consolidation In Computer Security Industry
> Librarians Establish Electronic Journal Licensing Principles
> Micron Opposes S. Korea Bailout Plan
>
> ALSO
> Motorola's Two-Way Pager
> Clik Drive From Iomega
> Mail From Microsoft Network Rejected By America Online
> Rising Tech Salaries Cause Resentment Among Non-Tech Workers
> MSN To Drop European Internet Access
>
> THE CYBERPORN WARS
> A group of technology and media companies, including AOL and Disney,
> have decided to lead a public education campaign and to offer new
> filtering software, in new efforts aimed at preventing children from
> accessing "adult" materials on the World Wide Web. America Online
> Chief Executive Steve Case says: "Regulation is not necessary. We
> want to show that the interactive world is being proactive in building
> a medium we can all be proud of," and former Federal Trade Commission
> member Christine Varney, who is leading a Washington meeting of 400
> business and government officials concerned about the issue of
> pornography in cyberspace, says: "There's consensus that there should
> be zero tolerance for child pornography. There's a large variety of
> filtering tools out there. We want parents to know about them and to
> use them if they're concerned." However, strategies relying on
> filtering software are opposed both by conservative groups (who
> believe that pornography should be stopped at the source by new laws
> criminalizing the transmission of adult material to minors), as well
> as by free speech advocates (who, like the Washington-based Electronic
> Privacy Information Center, say that filtering mechanisms "prevent
> children from obtaining a great deal of useful and appropriate
> information that is currently available on the Internet").
> (Washington Post 1 Dec 97)
>
> CONSOLIDATION IN COMPUTER SECURITY INDUSTRY
> In California, three computer security companies have merged: McAfee
> Associates, a leading maker of anti-virus software, completed its
> purchase of Network General and then proceeded to purchase Pretty Good
> Privacy, which sells encryption software. On the east coast, Axent
> Technologies in Maryland is buying Massachusetts-based Raptor Systems,
> combining two companies that market software for controlling access to
> files and data. Industry analysts think the consolidations are being
> made in anticipation of moves by giant companies such as Microsoft and
> Cisco to absorb most security technology. (Los Angeles Times 2 Dec
> 97)
>
> LIBRARIANS ESTABLISH ELECTRONIC JOURNAL LICENSING PRINCIPLES
> A coalition of 15 Dutch scientific research libraries, concerned over
> the anticompetitive implications of the proposed merger of two major
> scientific journal publishers, Reed Elsevier and Wolters Kluwer, has
> adopted a set of principles aimed at bolstering their position in
> negotiations with publishers over electronic journals. The principles
> stipulate that libraries that subscribe to a print version of a
> journal should not have to pay more than an additional 7.5% for
> electronic access to that same journal, and that libraries should not
> pay more than 80% of the print rate to subscribe exclusively to the
> electronic version. A group of German librarians who helped draw up
> the principles are expected to sign on as part of the coalition, and
> it's hoped that many European libraries will follow suit. "We've been
> talking about a 'journal crisis' for years," says one of the Dutch
> librarians. "It looks like it's finally arrived. We're fed up."
> (Science 28 Nov 97)
>
> MICRON OPPOSES S. KOREA BAILOUT PLAN
> Micron Technology, one of the last U.S. manufacturers of memory chips,
> says the International Monetary Fund's plan to bail out the South
> Korean economy could have a negative effect on U.S. chipmakers by
> rewarding South Korean chipmakers for what Micron has termed "unfair
> competition." Micron's CEO argues that sending U.S. money to South
> Korea as part of the international effort is wrong: "The thought that
> our tax dollars will go to subsidize competitors and take away our
> jobs is troublesome. This keeps me up at night. We are asking to
> have responsible thought go into where this money goes." Prices on
> DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips have slumped in the past
> couple of years, in part as a result of overproduction by South Korean
> companies. (Wall Street Journal 2 Dec 97)
>
> ============================================
>
> MOTOROLA'S TWO-WAY PAGER
> Motorola has begun retail sales of a pager that looks like a tiny,
> three-and-a-half-inch-wide laptop and operates on Skytel's two-way
> paging system to send as well as receive e-mail or acknowledge receipt
> of a page for guaranteed messaging. The pager costs $330-360 and
> Skywriter services cost $24.95 a month for 6,000 characters and $48 a
> month for 20,000 characters. (New York Times Cybertimes 2 Dec 97)
>
> CLIK DRIVE FROM IOMEGA
> Iomega, maker of the popular removable storage Zip drive, has unveiled
> a petite portable disk drive called Clik that's small enough to fit in
> a shirt pocket. Its diskette -- about half the size of a credit card
> -- stores 40 megabytes of data. The device is designed to work with a
> variety of hand-held gadgets, from palm-top computers to digital
> cameras. (Investor's Business Daily 2 Dec 97)
>
> MAIL FROM MICROSOFT NETWORK REJECTED BY AMERICA ONLINE
> Mail sent to AOL users by MSN members using the latest version of the
> service (version 2.5) is being rejected by AOL for undetermined
> technical reasons. Each company is convinced that the problem is at
> the other end, and both claim to be anxious to resolve the problem.
> (1 Dec 97 News.Com)
>
> RISING TECH SALARIES CAUSE RESENTMENT AMONG NON-TECH WORKERS
> One side effect of the increasing shortage of qualified high-tech
> workers is a sharp rise in salaries for technical jobs, which is
> causing morale problems among non-technical staffers working
> side-by-side who are beginning to see the pay scales diverge.
> "Salaries are escalating really quickly," says one technical director.
> "Sometimes, it's difficult for human-resources people to comprehend
> how fast that is happening." The increase in salaries is also making
> it harder to pitch technology projects to top management, says another
> information technology director: "Management always reads about
> technology costs going down. But now costs are going up, and it's
> hard for them to digest this." (Wall Street Journal 1 Dec 97)
>
> MSN TO DROP EUROPEAN INTERNET ACCESS
> Microsoft Network plans to stop offering Internet access in Europe
> next year, devoting its resources to developing more content instead.
> The company currently offers branded Internet access services in
> France, Germany and the U.K. via lines leased from local telecom
> carriers. MSN customers in those countries will be turned over
> directly to the telecommunications firms, which will provide continued
> Internet access with a link to MSN services. "All we care about is
> that if someone clicks on the MSN icon on their desktop, they'll get a
> seamless connection to our site," says MSN's general manager. There
> are no plans to change MSN functions in the U.S., he adds. (InfoWorld
> Electric 26 Nov 97)
>
> Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educom.edu) & Suzanne Douglas
> (douglas@educom.edu). Telephone: 770-590-1017.
>
> Technical support for distributing Edupage is provided by Information
> Technology Services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
> Hill.
>
> ************************************************************
> Edupage ... is what you've just finished reading. To subscribe to
> Edupage: send mail to: listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message:
> subscribe edupage Thomas Wolfe (if your name is Thomas Wolfe;
> otherwise, substitute your own name). To unsubscribe send a message
> to: listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message: unsubscribe edupage.
> (If you have subscription problems, send mail to
> manager@educom.unc.edu.)
>
> Educom Review ... is our bimonthly print magazine on information
> technology and education ... Subscriptions are $18 a year in the
> U.S.; send mail to offer@educom.edu. When you do, we'll ring a
> little bell, because we'll be so happy! Choice of bell is yours: a
> small dome with a button, like the one on the counter at the dry
> cleaners with the sign "Ring bell for service"; or a small hand bell;
> or a cathedral bell; or a door bell; or a chime; or a glockenspiel.
> Your choice. But ring it!
>
> Educom Update ... is our twice-a-month electronic summary of
> organizational news and events. To subscribe, send mail to:
> listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message: subscribe update Tom Wolfe
> (if your name is Tom Wolfe; otherwise, substitute your own name).
>
> Translations & Archives... Edupage is translated into Estonian,
> French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Hungarian, Korean, Lithuanian,
> Portuguese, Slovak and Spanish.
>
> Today's Honorary Subscribers are two brilliant American writers with
> the same last name: Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938), the North Carolinian
> who wrote the long autobiographic novels "Look Homeward, Angel," "Of
> Time And The River," "The Web And The Rock," and "You Can't Go Home
> Again"; and Tom Wolfe (1931--), famous as the "New Journalist" author
> of pop-style essays such as "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake
> Streamline Baby," as well as a book about the U.S. space program ("The
> Right Stuff") and the 1988 satirical novel "The Bonfire Of The
> Vanities."
>
> ************************************************************
> Educom -- Transforming Education Through Information Technology
> ************************************************************
>
>