From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Edupage, 11 October 1999
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 11:25:12 -0500
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Edupage is a service of EDUCAUSE, an international nonprofit association
dedicated to transforming education through information technologies.
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TOP STORIES for October 11, 1999
AFL-CIO to Offer Access To Internet for Members
AskJeeves Will Help Answer Questions from Users of Microsoft Windows 98
Y2K Fears to Surface as Deadline Approaches
IBM to Take Part in Alliance With Other Computer Giants to Better
E-Commerce Security
ALSO
Unsung Success in Revamping Software Holds a Clue to the Turnaround at
Apple
Microsoft Unveils E-Wallet Service
Intelligent Devices Meet the Internet
Spread of Electronic Records Raises Issues of Privacy and Access
AFL-CIO TO OFFER ACCESS TO INTERNET FOR MEMBERS
The AFL-CIO, in an effort to increase its lobbying power and aid in the
effort to organize workers in high-technology companies, yesterday announced
that it plans to offer low-cost Internet access to current and retired union
members. Union officials site a new Commerce Department study that finds
households with incomes of $75,000 or more are 20 times more likely to have
Internet access than those households at the lowest income levels. The
Internet service, Workingfamilies.com, is scheduled to start in December and
will cost no more than $14.95 a month and include discounts on computers.
Even with the purchase of a computer, union officials want to keep the
monthly cost within $30 a month. Communications Workers of America President
Morton Bahr says the union wishes to close the "digital divide" between both
the low- and upper-income homes and the one between the union and workers in
the high-tech fields. (Washington Post 10/11/99)
ASKJEEVES WILL HELP ANSWER QUESTIONS FROM USERS OF MICROSOFT WINDOWS 98
Microsoft today is expected to announce that it will be partnering with
AskJeeves to add their natural-language searching software to Microsoft's
online technical support system. Microsoft's tech-support site, which serves
some 280,000 people a day, will utilize the AskJeeves software for answering
questions regarding only Windows 98 for now. Microsoft's Denise Rundle says
the AskJeeves software is very good at narrowing consumer questions and
providing succinct responses to them. Microsoft has developed its own
natural-language software for limited use on its Web site, but the company
is impressed with the AskJeeves capability of cataloging problems and
potential solutions which Microsoft can then use to better serve consumers.
The deal, said to be worth "more than seven figures" to AskJeeves by CEO Rob
Wrubel, is eventually expected to extend beyond Windows 98 to cover other
Microsoft products. (Wall Street Journal 10/11/99)
Y2K FEARS TO SURFACE AS DEADLINE APPROACHES
U.S. businesses are now expressing several Y2K-related concerns, despite
having issued mainly optimistic reports about the glitch for the past two
years, according to quarterly Y2K status reports filed with the SEC.
Companies seem to agree that no one can predict all the potential risks
involved with Y2K, both to computer systems and to businesses. The largest
Y2K fear is that a domino effect will occur in which a small failure will
diffuse into other, larger systems, causing them to fail as well. Another
concern is that embedded chips, which are contained in possibly billions of
products, will either cease to function or will generate faulty results. In
addition, Y2K problems at smaller companies might result in supply-chain
collapses that will damage larger, better-prepared firms. Finally, the
replacement of old systems poses a threat, because companies might not
complete implementations in time for the date change. About 25 percent of
companies are installing new systems instead of upgrading old systems. (USA
Today 10/11/99)
IBM TO TAKE PART IN ALLIANCE WITH OTHER COMPUTER GIANTS TO BETTER E-COMMERCE
SECURITY
A group of global computer concerns, including Compaq Computer, Intel,
Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM has formed the Trusted Computing
Platform Alliance to improve security for e-commerce applications. The
alliance will attempt to co-develop universal standards for e-commerce
technology to improve the security of personal computers.
Business-to-business e-commerce transactions are expected to generate $1.3
trillion dollars by 2003, and the alliance expects that improving security
for the average PC user will bring even more business to the Internet.
Compaq's Alan Hodel says, "We see e-business expanding, and PCs are a
critical piece of that expansion. As PCs evolve, the standards for security
need to evolve with them." (New York Times 10/11/99)
=======================================
UNSUNG SUCCESS IN REVAMPING SOFTWARE HOLDS A CLUE TO THE TURNAROUND AT APPLE
Apple's recent turnaround owes much to large improvements in software,
although the media has focused primarily on the company's revamped
industrial design, marketing efforts, and new products. Although Apple's
acting CEO Steve Jobs has received most of the publicity surrounding the
turnaround, software designer Avidis Tevanian Jr. has greatly contributed to
the company's success through his work on the Mac OS. Tevanian came to
Apple in 1997 when the company acquired Jobs' Next Computer, where Tevanian
had been chief software designer. Since Tevanian joined Apple, the company
has released five upgrades to its Mac OS software, marking a new level of
efficiency both for the company and for the industry as a whole. On Oct.
23, Apple will release Mac OS 9, which will offer several new features that
will appeal to existing and new customers. New features include an update
to the Sherlock search tool, seamless Internet file sharing, and a password
"keyring" that stores all of a user's security data in one location. (New
York Times 10/11/99)
MICROSOFT UNVEILS E-WALLET SERVICE
Microsoft has announced an e-wallet service to accompany the MSN Passport
universal log-in technology it unveiled in July. MSN Passport allows users
to gain access to all sites that use the service while only signing in one
time. Web shoppers often have to repeatedly type in their names, addresses,
and credit card numbers when buying items from different sites; e-wallets
simplify this process. Several major retailers, including Barnes & Noble,
Costco, and Buy.com are expected to implement Microsoft's e-wallet.
Retailers are now preparing for the holiday shopping season, with online
holiday sales estimated to hit up to $6 billion this year. Already, AOL and
Yahoo! have e-wallets that are compatible with their services, and AOL might
try to recruit more retailers for its AOL Quick Checkout wallet. In the
future, e-wallets could be as widely used as credit cards, experts say.
(C|Net 10/11/99)
INTELLIGENT DEVICES MEET THE INTERNET
AT&T Network Services is spearheading an effort to provide managed network
services for intelligent devices that would allow remote monitoring and
troubleshooting of any piece of equipment that can be linked to a network.
AT&T is now testing the service, which it expects to release in early 2000.
Managed network services have the potential to significantly alter business
operations. For example, companies that send support staff into the field
to repair a customer's device would be able to monitor the device's
performance remotely and replace parts proactively before a failure
occurred. Furthermore, managed network services would allow manufacturers
to build only one variation of a product, allowing customers to obtain
additional features by downloading firmware onto a chip embedded in the
device. Current demands for customization require manufacturers to build
many variations of each device. Intelligent device-management software is
already available from RapidLogic, which offers RapidControl software to
consolidate the different ways of accessing, managing, and controlling
intelligent devices. (InfoWorld Electric 10/08/99)
SPREAD OF ELECTRONIC RECORDS RAISES ISSUES OF PRIVACY AND ACCESS
Digital information storage poses a real challenge for archivists in the
academic world--a world increasingly involved in electronically published
research papers, online courses and catalogs, plus various
student-information services. Colleges and universities are finding the
chief challenge to be developing data-storage system sophisticated enough to
keep track of both old and new data. Academic system designers must find a
way to catalog information in such a way as to be easily retrieved by others
in the future. The ever-growing volume of electronic data being produced,
coupled with mountains of historical records, makes the problem an
intimidating one for archivists, records managers, and technology experts.
(Chronicle of Higher Education Online 10/08/99)
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UPCOMING EDUCAUSE CONFERENCES AND MEETINGS:
EDUCAUSE '99
"Celebrating New Beginnings"
EDUCAUSE Annual Conference
October 26-29, 1999, Long Beach, California
http://www.educause.edu/conference/e99/
The EDUCAUSE '99 information technology conference promises to be one of
higher education's preeminent educational events. The conference will shape
and define the agenda for the transformation of education through
information technologies for the 21st century.
For more information on EDUCAUSE '99, please visit the conference
Web site at http://www.educause.edu/conference/e99/,
or contact us at conf@educause.edu or 303-449-4430.
THE LEARNING MARKETPLACE: NEW RESOURCES FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
Presented by the Leadership Forum of the Center for Academic
Transformation (An EDUCAUSE Affiliate)
November 11, 1999, Atlanta, Georgia
http://www.center.rpi.edu/LForum/LMWkshp.html
SC99: High Performance Networking and Computing Conference
November 13-19, 1999, Portland, Oregon http://www.sc99.org/
For additional information on all EDUCAUSE conferences see
http://www.educause.edu/conference/conf.html
For information on other technology-related educational conferences see
http://www.educause.edu/ir/events.html
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OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS
EDUCOM REVIEW is a bimonthly print magazine on information technology and
education. U.S. subscriptions are $18 a year.
CAUSE/EFFECT is a quarterly practitioner's journal about managing and using
information resources on college and university campuses. U.S. subscriptions
are $52 a year.
For additional information on these and other EDUCAUSE publications see:
http://www.educause.edu/pub/pubs.html
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News abstracts Copyright 1999, Information Inc., Bethesda, MD
Edupage Copyright 1999, EDUCAUSE
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EDUCAUSE, an international nonprofit association dedicated to transforming
education through information technologies