Message-Id: <55206A473154D011924D0020AFF7ACB56A656E@mail1.oulan.ou.edu>
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 11:33:07 -0600
From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu>
Subject: Edupage, 29 March 1998
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Edupage, 29 March 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
Distance Learning By Nearby Students
I Want My Minitel!
Internet Gaming Runs For Cover
Copyright Situation In China
ALSO
Culture, Not Currency, Makes A Have-Not Country
"Spamford" Wallace Agrees To Stop Sending Junk E-Mail
The Patience Of Jobs
DISTANCE LEARNING BY NEARBY STUDENTS
College and university administrators are finding that their distance
learning programs are immensely popular with on-campus students, who see
them as a convenient way to earn credits. In the State University of
New York's online program, 80% of the participants are full- or
part-time students living on a SUNY campus, and at Arizona State
University, only 3% of the distance education students live in another
state. The trend presents problems for administrators, who face
decisions about how to pay for both online and on-campus education at
the same time, and how to balance teaching loads for professors who
teach both. "What happens to traditional teaching? As universities put
so many resources into online education, are we going to take away from
our efforts in the traditional classroom? That's troubling," says one
administrator. (Chronicle of Higher Education 27 Mar 98)
I WANT MY MINITEL!
Almost 20 years ago, France became the first networked nation with the
deployment of the Minitel, a low-tech terminal that citizens could use
to do everything from check the weather to order a pizza. Now, the
country's 35 million subscribers are loathe to give up their beloved
Minitel and go online with the Internet: "The Minitel... could end up
hindering the development of new and promising applications of
information technology," warned Prime Minister Jospin last summer,
adding that France's technology gap "could soon have dire repercussions
on competitiveness and employment." To bring the populace up to speed,
Minitel owner France Telecom is planning to deploy next-generation
terminals that will access both Minitel and the Internet, but French
Internet-industry executives say such hybrid solutions merely encourage
users to keep thinking "Minitel," rather than "Internet." "While we sit
and worry about the Minitel and ways to get around it, we could be
throwing our whole future away," says one. (Wall Street Journal 26 Mar
98)
INTERNET GAMING RUNS FOR COVER
The International Internet Gaming Association, which represents the
owners of Web sites that sponsor online gambling, says it has
established working groups to develop recommendations for ways to work
with various countries' regulations to stay in business. Earlier this
month, U.S. federal prosecutors charged several online sports bookmaking
operations with conspiracy to transmit bets via the Internet and
telephone. Some companies say that if the IIGA can work out deals with
other countries to accommodate their operations, the lion's share of the
income will go to those countries rather than the U.S. Internet gaming
brought in an estimated $500 million last year, and is expected to
produce more this year. (Broadcasting & Cable 16 Mar 98)
COPYRIGHT SITUATION IN CHINA
Pirated videodisks of the movie "Titanic" were available throughout
China last November, a month before its release in U.S. theaters, and
about half a million pirated disks are smuggled into China every day
from Macao. Chinese officials say there is little they can do about
this blatant violation of the intellectual property rights agreement
that China reached with the United States in 1995. One official
explains: "The profits are so great, they will take any risk. They're
like drug dealers. It is very difficult to arrange a crackdown. You
have to coordinate all these different departments, the copyright
publication department, the police, the Industrial and Commercial
Administration. We take copyright violations very seriously. But when
it comes to copying a disk, most Chinese people don't see what's wrong."
And one merchant who sells pirated material insists: "There's nothing
wrong with selling pirated VCDs. My son loves watching them." (New
York Times 28 Mar 98)
============================================
CULTURE, NOT CURRENCY, MAKES A HAVE-NOT COUNTRY
Digital guru Don Tapscott says whether a nation remains a technology
"have-not" depends on its mindset, not its bank balance: "It's not the
poor countries that are blocking progress. It's countries that have a
culture that impedes innovation, that cannot find the national will to
go forward with technology. What is it about a national culture that
enhances curiosity? You need countries to have an environment where
companies have the potential to create wealth." (Upside Apr 98)
"SPAMFORD" WALLACE AGREES TO STOP SENDING JUNK E-MAIL
Sanford Wallace (dubbed "Spamford" for his aggressiveness in "spamming"
the Internet with unsolicited commercial messages) to pay $2 million to
settle the last of several lawsuits brought by Internet providers
against him and his company, Cyber Promotion Inc. Wallace indicated
that legal battles have "put Cyber out of the spamming business." (New
York Times 29 Mar 98)
THE PATIENCE OF JOBS
He's thinking about it. It takes time, and you have to have a lot of
patience when you're making major career decisions. Apple understands
that. One director of the company says that interim CEO Steve Jobs "is
the CEO. Whether we call him interim or not is a nonissue with us. We
hope he will stay a long time." Apple's board is convinced that the
effectiveness of the new management team has allowed Jobs to maintain a
better balance between his various responsibilities to Apple, Pixar (the
other company he runs), and his family. So call him interim. Or don't
call him interim. It's a nonissue. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 28 Mar
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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Today's Honorary Subscriber is is Thomas J. Watson Sr. (1874-1956), the
legendary businessman who, with his son Tom Watson Jr., built IBM into
one of the greatest organizations of this century. One of his
innovations was the "IBM School House." In "Father Son & Son"
(coauthored with Fortune executive editor Peter Petre), Tom Watson Jr.
wrote:
"The school's aim was to produce future officers of the company,
and Dad always talked to us trainees as if we were colleagues."
Everything about the school was meant to inspire loyalty, enthusiasm,
and high ideals, which IBM held out as the way to achieve success. The
front door had the motto 'THINK' written over it in two-foot-high brass
letters. Just inside was a granite staircase that was supposed to put
students in an aspiring frame of mind as they stepped up to the 's
classes. Engraved on the risers were the words:
THINK
OBSERVE
DISCUSS
LISTEN
READ
"In class the first thing we did each morning was to stand up and
sing IBM songs. We actually had a songbook, "Songs of the I.B.M.' It
opened with 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' and on the facing page was IBM's
own anthem, 'Ever Onward.' There were dozens of songs in praise of Dad
or other executives, set to tunes everybody knew. One of my favorites
was to Fred Nichol... Making rousing speeches in praise of my father was
one of Nichol's specialties, and his success showed how far loyalty
could carry a man at IBM. The song was sung to the tune of 'Tramp,
Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are Marching':
V.P. Nichol is a leader,
Working for the I.B.M.
Years ago he started low
Up the ladder he did go
What an inspiration he is to our men!
"A lot of outsiders thought our singing custom was odd, but the man
in charge of our class didn't make a big deal out of it. He said, 'We
have these company songs. We think they build morale. Here is the way
they go. Mr. Flaherty here at the piano will sing it through for you
first and then you'll all sing it.'
"The teachers were veteran company men, all dressed, as we were, in
regulation IBM clothes -- dark business suits and white shirts with
stiff collars. Dad believed that if you wanted to sell to a
businessman, you had to look like one. There was a big picture of Dad
looking watchful on the wall behind the lectern. The rest of the
classroom was decorated with his slogans, and, as in every office of
IBM, there was a 'THINK' sign prominently displayed. Magazine
cartoonists used to make fun of these signs, and IBM's critics thought
they were ridiculous: how could anybody really *think* in a company that
was such a one-man show? But to everybody inside, the message was
crystal clear: you would sell more machines, and advance faster, if you
used your head.
"I used to marvel at how willingly new employees embraced the
company spirit. As far as I could tell, nobody made fun of the slogans
and songs. Times were different then, and I suppose being earnest didn't
seem as corny in 1937 as it does today. And, of course, jobs were
awfully hard to come by in the 1930s, so people would put up with a lot.
As for me, I was pretty used to the IBM culture because I'd grown up at
the source. It only bothered me when Dad let things get out of hand --
as in 1936, when he commissioned an IBM *symphony*."
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Educom -- Transforming Education Through Information Technology
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