Message-Id: <55206A473154D011924D0020AFF7ACB55E69E6@mail1.oulan.ou.edu>
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 15:20:14 -0600
From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@ou.edu'" <it-fyi@ou.edu>
Subject: Edupage, 1 February 1998
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Edupage, 1 February 1998. 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.
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TOP STORIES
Green Paper Outlines Net Registration Plan
Suing For Rights To The Cookie Jar
Export Controls On Computers
Reuters Suspected Of Electronic Espionage Against Bloomberg
ALSO
AOL May Lay Off 300 CompuServe Workers
California Virtual U. Offers Sample Courses
Postponement Of Online Elections In Costa Rica
It's An Ill Wind That Blows No Good ... For The Net
GREEN PAPER OUTLINES NET REGISTRATION PLAN
The Clinton Administration has produced a green paper on its plan to
privatize the Internet, calling for a private, nonprofit corporation to
be established to administer the Internet domain name system. The new
corporation could appoint up to five new independent organizations to
assist it in administering the domain registries. It would also be
responsible for the registration of Internet number blocks and an
"authoritative root system," and control the inclusion of new top-level
domain names in the root system, as well as "other technical
parameters." The new corporation is expected to be operational by
September 30, and the U.S. government will exercise "policy oversight to
assure stability until the new corporation is established and stable."
(TechWeb 30 Jan 98)
SUING FOR RIGHTS TO THE COOKIE JAR
The publisher of The Putnam Pit, a Tennessee newspaper, is suing the
town of Cookeville, claiming that his federal civil rights were violated
when the town refused to share its "cookies" -- electronic markers that
a Web site leaves on a PC when it visits. The publisher has been
feuding with the city for some time and wants access to the cookies to
determine whether city officials are wasting company time cruising the
Internet. Cookeville maintains that the cookies are privileged, but a
spokesman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation says that argument may
not stand up in court, pointing out that in the past, courts have ruled
that government-created paper documents are in the public domain.
(Business Week 26 Jan 98)
EXPORT CONTROLS ON COMPUTERS
The Commerce Department has developed new rules requiring computer
manufacturers to notify the government about any planned sales to
customers in countries that might develop nuclear weapons, including
China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and Israel. Following such sales,
Commerce Department representatives will visit every installation and
verify that the systems are being used for peaceful purposes. Computer
industry officials are unhappy with the new requirement, and a Sun
executive says: "It would introduce an added level of complexity, which
would be a competitive disadvantage and add to our operating costs."
(Washington Post 31 Jan 98)
REUTERS SUSPECTED OF ELECTRONIC ESPIONAGE AGAINST BLOOMBERG
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Reuters Analytics, a
subsidiary of new and financial giant Reuters Holdings PLC, is
responsible for industrial espionage activities involving break-ins to
the computers of Reuters competitor Bloomberg LP. The inquiry has been
underway for about a year. Bloomberg entered the business about 15
years ago, and homed in on the business of providing historical data
packaged with analytical software -- making its services essential for
bankers, traders and others who need sophisticated analysis of market
trends. In response, Reuters developed its own data and analytical
service, called Reuters Decision 2000, but nicknamed in the industry as
the "Bloomberg killer." The company subsequently developed a new system
called Reuters 3000, which federal investigators are now examining to
determine whether lines of code from the Bloomberg system were used in
its development. (New York Times 30 Jan 98)
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AOL MAY LAY OFF 300 COMPUSERVE WORKERS
America Online is considering laying off 300 CompuServe customer-support
personnel -- more than 20% of the CompuServe workforce -- as part of its
strategy to reduce overlap between the two companies once operations are
combined. (Wall Street Journal 30 Jan 98)
CALIFORNIA VIRTUAL U. OFFERS SAMPLE COURSES
The California Virtual University is making sample courses available
over its Web site, http://www.california.edu/tour.html . Prospective
students can check out an online introductory computer class offered by
Cerro Coso Community College or take a guided tour of online offerings
by Santa Rosa Junior College. (Chronicle of Higher Education 30 Jan 98)
POSTPONEMENT OF ONLINE ELECTIONS IN COSTA RICA
Plans to test the Internet as a way of holding national elections in
Costa Rica (reported in Edupage 23 Oct 97) have been postponed by the
Costa Rican government, for reasons the project director says are
"unclear," but which apparently include fears that the losing party
might use the test as a reason to contest the election. (New York Times
30 Jan 98)
IT'S AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NO GOOD ... FOR THE NET
The news frenzy over the alleged Monica Lewinsky-President Clinton
affair has brought a huge increase in activity for Web news sites, such
MSNBC, which had 830,000 unique daily visitors last Monday, compared to
a number that is usually around 300,000. Scott Charron of Forrester
Research says that this event "is changing the news business. This will
open the eyes of news executives and convert them if there are any
doubters about the Web." (ZDNN 30 Jan 98)
Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educom.edu) and 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.
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(1860-1961), the "primitive" painter who began her great career as an
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sew. (She later defined a primitive artist as "an amateur whose work
sells.") Having lived all her life on farms in upstate New York, she
specialized in painting country scenes from her childhood. She said:
"A strange thing is memory, and hope; one looks backward, the other
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recorded in our brain, memory is a painter, it paints pictures of the
past and of the day." Her thoughts on her life? "I have written my life
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on my life as a good day's work; it was done and I feel satisfied with
it. I made the best out of what life offered."
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Educom -- Transforming Education Through Information Technology
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