From: technews <technews@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Edupage, 18 October 1999
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 09:35:51 -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 18, 1999
SBC Communications to Offer High-Speed Internet Connections
D.C. Region Leads Nation in Net Access
California's Governor Signs Software Order
Supporters of Linux Worry That Commercialization Could Bring Chaos
ALSO
Enter the Electronic Employee
Increasingly Slow Internet Will Hurt E-Commerce
Bad News for Santa on PC Prices
SBC COMMUNICATIONS TO OFFER HIGH-SPEED INTERNET CONNECTIONS
SBC Communications today plans to announce that it will invest $6 billion
over the next three years to roll out high-speed Internet service, according
to people familiar with the company. SBC plans to offer DSL service to 80
percent of its subscribers in three years. SBC is currently the top local
phone company in the United States, having completed its purchase of
Ameritech. Local telcos are now trying to catch up to cable-TV operators,
which already provide high-speed Internet access to over one million U.S.
residences. Although local phone companies provide DSL service to less than
100,000 residences, Bell Atlantic has started offering the service in New
York City and SBC plans to double its number of DSL subscribers. (New York
Times 10/18/99)
D.C. REGION LEADS NATION IN NET ACCESS
Residents of the District of Columbia and its suburbs have achieved the
highest rate of Internet connectivity in the nation, according to a recent
poll by Scarborough Research. Nearly 60 percent of residents of the
District of Columbia region, including the surrounding areas of Virginia,
Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, are wired to the Internet. In
the Washington, D.C., area, 36 percent of users 25 or older are college
educated, working in a white-collar position, and earning an after-tax
household income of $56,672. However, widespread Net use does not spread to
the actual District, where poverty results in one of the nation's largest
digital divides. San Francisco, which includes Silicon Valley, ranks second
to D.C. in the survey with 56.1 percent of residents online, followed by
Austin (55.5 percent), Seattle (53.3 percent), and Salt Lake City (50
percent). (Washington Post 10/17/99)
CALIFORNIA'S GOVERNOR SIGNS SOFTWARE ORDER
In a symbolic move aimed at stopping software piracy, California Gov. Gray
Davis signed an executive order on Friday requiring state agencies to
enforce copyright laws internally. Software piracy has become so rampant
that many agencies responsible for protecting copyrights have been
unknowingly using illegal products themselves, Davis says. Although
anti-piracy laws are already in place, Davis says "a whole range of laws
have not been enforced as well as they should have been." Meanwhile,
Microsoft charged four California businesses with software piracy on Friday,
saying in its lawsuit that pirated software accounts for 30 percent of
California's software sales. Pirated software results in lost sales taxes
and wages that cost $11 billion each year globally and $2.8 billion in the
United States. The Internet facilitates copying and distributing software,
and therefore has made anti-piracy laws more difficult to enforce. (Houston
Chronicle 10/16/99)
SUPPORTERS OF LINUX WORRY THAT COMMERCIALIZATION COULD BRING CHAOS
Although supporters have touted Linux as a standard for the open-source
movement, concern is now rising that various commercial versions of the
software that are now emerging will lead to fragmentation, as occurred in
the past with Unix. GNU/Linux software is now available from over 22
companies, including Red Hat, Turbo Linux, Caldera Systems, and many others.
Silicon Graphics, VA Linux Systems, and O'Reilly & Company last week
announced plans to commercialize a version of Linux called Debian.
Different Linux vendors all package Linux with distinct features, such as
software for troubleshooting or maintaining networks. As Linux vendors work
to distinguish themselves from one another, experts say fragmentation will
occur. However, Linux backers refute this belief. Currently, Linux
distributors disagree over which public domain tools should be included in
Linux packages. In order to resolve these differences, most Linux vendors
have joined the Linux Standard Base project, which aims to encourage
compatibility and to ensure that software works on all compliant Linux
systems. (New York Times 10/18/99)
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ENTER THE ELECTRONIC EMPLOYEE
Although e-business is often more efficient than conducting manual
processes, companies must be careful to consider costs related to technology
maintenance and labor. Online technology cut $15.2 billion from corporate
cost structures in the U.S. in 1998, while annual savings will reach $600
billion in 2002, according to Giga Information Group. Yet the cost of
maintaining and supporting an extensive e-business site could top several
million dollars annually, eating for the first year or two into the savings
companies otherwise enjoy, says IBM's John Swainson. A smooth transition to
new technology and a comprehensive strategy for unionized workers are
necessary to gain from cost savings. A switch to automated processes can
often result in a labor reduction, which can be costly for companies with
unionized workers. While a variety of methods can be used to reduce the
impact of labor reduction, a common option is to retrain existing employees
to perform jobs in different areas. (CFO 10/99)
INCREASINGLY SLOW INTERNET WILL HURT E-COMMERCE
E-commerce will be hampered by the slowness of the Internet, which will most
likely keep getting slower in coming years, according to a recent study by
Northeast Consulting Resources. Another report by Zona Research shows
evidence that long Web page download times are costing companies billions of
dollars. After waiting eight seconds for downloading a Web page, Zona found
that over 33 percent of Internet consumers stop trying the download and give
up. Consulting firm Keynote measured the performance of 40 top e-commerce
Web sites, starting in 1996. The results showed that faster Web sites use
content distribution services, which increase the speed of downloading Web
pages. These services deliver Web pages from the nearest server to a
consumer's location, bypassing router hops. (E-Commerce Times 10/14/99)
BAD NEWS FOR SANTA ON PC PRICES
Computer manufacturers are likely to raise PC prices significantly this
holiday season due to component shortages, experts say. The recent
earthquake in Taiwan, which produces 12 percent to 15 percent of the global
supply of memory chips, will contribute to a possible 20 percent jump in PC
prices. Although memory chips now account for only 5 percent to 7 percent
of the total price of a PC, the chips may contribute 10 percent to a PC's
cost this fall. Meanwhile, computer manufacturers have run out of ways to
reduce PC expenses and will have no choice but to charge consumers more for
the systems, analysts say. Further complicating the situation, a shortfall
of liquid crystal displays, which is expected to last through next year,
could affect the pricing of notebooks. Already, Dell has cut back on laptop
shipments to some customers. Compaq also has announced delays in shipping
some of its products both this month and next month. (Los Angeles Times
10/18/99)
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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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Edupage Copyright 1999, EDUCAUSE
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EDUCAUSE, an international nonprofit association dedicated to transforming
education through information technologies