From: technews <technews@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Edupage, 20 October 1999
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 15:36:05 -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 20, 1999
Microsoft Joins Telmex To Build Internet Portal for Hispanics
Heavy Traffic Crashes Britannica's Web Site
Business-to-Business Sales Set to Soar
Net Restrictions: Bring 'Em On!
ALSO
Internet Strategy Becomes a Must at the Top
IBM, Sun Ease Deployment of Java Apps on Open Platform
Pooling of Data Is Urged to Beat Computer Vandals
An Expanding Education "Portal" Site Cuts a Deal with Yahoo!
MICROSOFT JOINS TELMEX TO BUILD INTERNET PORTAL FOR HISPANICS
Microsoft and Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) yesterday announced a joint
venture to build the hemisphere's largest Spanish-speaking Internet portal.
Carlos Slim, Telmex's largest shareholder, also holds stakes in computer
retailer CompUSA, online music retailer CDNow, and the majority share of
Prodigy Communications. The venture, which will begin Dec. 1, will team
Telmex's Internet access expertise with Microsoft's portal technology to
compete with a fast-growing number of Internet providers for a share of the
forecasted 10 million Net users in Central and South America. Microsoft and
Telmex are also targeting the 8 million to 10 million Spanish-speakers in
the U.S. and Canada. "Telmex will try to expand its access business in
Latin America, which we estimate will be an additional 30 million Internet
users in the next three to four years," says Microsoft's Mauricio Santillan.
(Wall Street Journal 10/19/99)
HEAVY TRAFFIC CRASHES BRITANNICA'S WEB SITE
Encyclopedia Britannica's Web site crashed Tuesday when more than 10 times
the expected number of people tried to visit the site after the company
announced that it was providing a free online version of its encyclopedia.
The site, http://www.britannica.com, features the company's entire 32-volume
encyclopedia set as well as articles from 75 magazines. It was developed as
an attempt to regain prominence in the encyclopedia business after IT
companies such as Microsoft, which offers digital encyclopedias, caused
sales to erode from Britannica's high of $650 million in 1989. Many analysts
insist Britannica was too slow to adapt to the online world and say that the
company may have lost its opportunity to compete. Britannica provides the
site to the public free of charge and aims to earn money by selling ads on
the site's many pages. (Los Angeles Times 10/20/99)
BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS SALES SET TO SOAR
Business-to-business e-commerce will grow tremendously in the next several
years, bringing significant change to most industries, experts say. By
2000, business-to-business e-commerce in the U.S. will reach $251 billion,
jumping to $1.4 trillion by 2003, compared with $19 billion in 1997,
according to Forrester Research. Consumer e-commerce, by contrast, will
reach only $41 billion by 2002, Jupiter Communications says. The main
factor driving e-commerce among businesses is the emergence of more advanced
software that has encouraged more companies to move online. Increasing
competition and globalization are also fueling e-commerce growth. Financial
opportunities have led many businesses online, as e-business facilitates
procurement, auctioning, advertising, and e-commerce. The computing and
electronics industries are likely to change the most as a result of
e-commerce by 2003, according to Merrill Lynch. Other industries that will
be significantly affected by e-commerce include utilities, shipping and
warehousing, petrochemicals, and motor vehicles. (Financial
Times--Electronic Business 10/20/99)
NET RESTRICTIONS: BRING 'EM ON!
The Freedom Forum's second State of the First Amendment report asked 57
questions of 1,001 adults, finding that a good number favor government
regulation of the Internet and other forms of media. The report shows that
about 75 percent of those surveyed are opposed to giving people the freedom
to place "sexually explicit" content on the Internet, while just 10 percent
of those surveyed adamantly believe that people should have the right to do
so. The government should come up with a scheme for rating online content,
and public libraries should not allow access to offensive Web sites, say 58
percent of those surveyed. The report also shows that 30 percent of those
polled are opposed to permitting news organizations reporting or publishing
"what they think is appropriate." The report's findings indicate that free
speech is under attack, says Paul McMasters, First Amendment ombudsman at
the Freedom Forum, who calls the report "very depressing." (Wired News
10/19/99)
=======================================
INTERNET STRATEGY BECOMES A MUST AT THE TOP
Executives looking to become CEO of their respective companies need to be
proficient in the Internet, much like current CEOs were expected to be
knowledgeable of PCs and mainframes when they took office. General Electric
is an example of this scenario: company chairman and CEO John F. Welch was
appointed head of GE in 1981, long before the existence of the World Wide
Web. When Welch retires at the end of next year, his replacement will be
expected to know the Internet, especially since the company has made
e-commerce a company-wide goal. American Standard, a manufacturer of
bathroom fixtures and air conditioning equipment, recently began selling its
products to distributors via the Internet and revealed that Allied Signal
President Frederic Poses will replace Emmanuel A. Kampouris, CEO of American
Standard, when he retires next year. Before American Standard decided to
select Poses for the position of CEO, it told all the contenders that
investment in the Internet was essential, even if it reduced quarterly
earnings. Allied Signal's involvement in the Internet was one of the
reasons Poses was selected from the group of candidates. (New York Times
10/20/99)
IBM, SUN EASE DEPLOYMENT OF JAVA APPS ON OPEN PLATFORM
IBM this week will announce the release of its Java virtual machine (JVM)
for the Linux OS. The Linux-based JVM is compliant with version 1.18 of the
Java Software Developer's Kit (JDK) and will be made available for free from
IBM's DeveloperWorks Web site. The release of IBM's JDK 1.18 Linux JVM,
coupled with the availability of other tools and a forthcoming Linux JVM
from Sun will allow developers to create more Linux tools. Aberdeen Group
analyst Sandra Potter says the release of these tools "will push the
acceptance for both Linux and Java." Developers welcome the JVMs as a way
to reduce the time they spend on Windows NT. Java programmer Mark Watson
says, "With the JDKs and ... tools on Linux, I will have to boot up Windows
very infrequently." (InfoWorld Electric 10/18/99)
POOLING OF DATA IS URGED TO BEAT COMPUTER VANDALS
Companies and governments trying to protect computer systems from malicious
attacks should follow the lead of hackers and share information about
security threats, according to experts who gathered at the National
Information Systems Security Conference on Monday. System defenders have
nothing to gain from hiding information from other potential targets, but
can benefit from pooling what they know about various modes of attack,
experts said. While crackers and hackers frequently share information and
resources over the Internet, many companies believe pooling data with others
threatens competitive advantage. However, obtaining information about
possible computer attacks is expensive and difficult, and defenders need to
improve methods of keeping up with current security issues. Therefore,
defenders should cooperate to build public databases, conference speakers
said. However, the conference speakers conceded that a publicly accessible
database poses the risk of allowing outsiders to easily obtain information
from one location. (San Jose Mercury News Online 10/18/99)
AN EXPANDING EDUCATION "PORTAL" SITE CUTS A DEAL WITH YAHOO!
Hungary Minds, an Internet portal site, last month inked deals with the
University of Maryland, UCLA Extension, Monster.com, and iVillage, and has
now arranged to have an exclusive button on Yahoo!'s education site.
Hungary Minds is designed to be an education site where one evening a person
can research for a Ph.D. and the next night learn how to fly fish, says CEO
Stuart Skorman. He says, "Any individual person can make a course and offer
it through our site." Hungary Minds reserves the right to reject courses it
deems unsuitable such as courses on how to construct a nuclear weapon or
those with high sexual content. Robert E. Myers, the senior vice-president
for policy planning and administration at the University of Maryland, says
the school and Hungary Minds have entered into a "reciprocal revenue"
agreement whereby Hungary Minds will pay the university whenever a visitor
is sent to the Hungary Minds site from the University of Maryland site and
visa versa. (Chronicle of Higher Education Online 10/19/99)
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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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COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
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