From: technews <technews@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Edupage, 17 December 1999
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 10:11:22 -0600
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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 December 17, 1999
Academia and Industry Move to Bolster E-Commerce
White House Orders E-Vote Study
Privacy Concerns May Ground Pentium III in Europe
Y2K and Viruses Could Be an Explosive Mix
ALSO
Behind the Wedding of Bricks and Clicks: Need to Woo More Customers
Q&A: Steve Ballmer Discusses Microsoft's New Mission Statement
Internet Privacy Eroding, Study Says
The Web: New Ticket to a Pink Slip
ACADEMIA AND INDUSTRY MOVE TO BOLSTER E-COMMERCE
Stanford University and Andersen Consulting this week both announced major
initiatives aimed at supporting e-commerce. The moves verify the
confidence of academia and industry alike in the promising future of
Internet commerce. Stanford announced a think tank called the Center for
Electronic Business and Commerce, which aims to study and promote
e-commerce. The center, which will be part of the university's graduate
business program, will eventually offer a complete e-commerce curriculum.
Meanwhile, Andersen Consulting announced a $1 billion pledge to support
e-commerce startups. Andersen plans to invest in new firms that are able to
use technology to enable new business models and change the industry.
Andersen's pledge is one of the largest commitments ever made to online
startups. (E-Commerce Times 12/15/99)
WHITE HOUSE ORDERS E-VOTE STUDY
Vice President Gore today will announce that the Clinton administration has
tapped the National Science Foundation to open a year-long study of online
voting. Legal scholars, technical specialists, and other experts will
participate in the study, which will attempt to determine the feasibility of
allowing voters to cast their ballots over the Internet. The study will
examine how privacy and fraud might be affected by such an undertaking. In
addition, Gore will release the details of two new executive memorandums
signed by President Clinton. The first calls for the creation of an
Internet portal that allows visitors to access any government Web site. The
second calls for cabinet secretaries and agency heads to collaborate with
private industry to forge the makings of an "e-society." The latter
initiative includes the establishment of "telemedicine" networks for doctors
and patients and greater online access to "national treasures," including
those displayed at the Smithsonian. (USA Today 12/17/99)
PRIVACY CONCERNS MAY GROUND PENTIUM III IN EUROPE
Intel's Pentium III chip could be banned in Europe due to privacy concerns
over its personal serial number (PSN) technology, say legal specialists at
the Nabarro Nathanson law firm. The PSN technology, which allows users'
movements across the Internet to be tracked, may violate the European
Union's Privacy Directive, according to Nabarro Nathanson. The Science and
Technology Options Assessment Panel has advised the European Parliament to
initiate an independent review of the chip and consider legislation to
prevent such chips from being placed in European computers, says Nabarro
Nathanson's Dai Davis. The Pentium's tracking capability leaves open the
possibility of data abuse by U.S. law enforcement agencies or the chip's
manufacturer, Davis adds. After U.S. privacy advocates criticized the
Pentium III's PSN technology earlier in the year, Intel decided to release a
software patch allowing the serial number technology to be shut off.
(Newsbytes 12/15/99)
Y2K AND VIRUSES COULD BE AN EXPLOSIVE MIX
More than two dozen viruses have already been discovered that are designed
to take effect as 1999 gives way to 2000, and more, possibly many more, are
expected. The Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (Avert), part of Network
Associates, and others are preparing for this viral onslaught in an effort
to track and fix problems as quickly as possible. Experts say viruses could
be disguised as Y2K fixes or even as manifestations of the Y2K problem
itself, or they could be designed to attack systems that are not Y2K
compliant. E-mail is the main avenue for a virus to spread and many large
companies are planning to shut down their e-mail systems during the date
changeover. Avert director Vincent Gulloto says, "A lot of companies I've
spoken to are going into lockdown." The major virus fighting companies,
including Network Associates, Symantec, and Trend Micro, are planning to be
fully staffed during the date changeover to handle the expected large volume
of calls and to deal with any emergencies. (Wall Street Journal 12/16/99)
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BEHIND THE WEDDING OF BRICKS AND CLICKS: NEED TO WOO MORE CUSTOMERS
Major Internet companies have recently formed deals with large
brick-and-mortar retailers in an effort to gain more customers. As Internet
use moves into the mainstream, Internet companies need to form a retail
strategy to attract more users and display their brands and services.
Retailers benefit from the partnerships by improving their own Web efforts.
AOL and Wal-Mart yesterday announced a partnership through which AOL's
CompuServe will offer an inexpensive Internet access service with Wal-Mart's
brand, and Wal-Mart in return will promote the service and AOL. Also this
week, Yahoo! and Kmart announced an alliance in which users of Kmart's
e-commerce site will get a free Web access service that uses Yahoo! as a
default page and features links to Yahoo!. Yesterday, Microsoft announced
plans to invest $200 million in Best Buy as part of a partnership in which
Best Buy will promote Microsoft's MSN Internet service. Some experts have
forecast that the growth of U.S. Internet users will slow, and the market
valuations of companies like Yahoo! and AOL depend on rapid growth. (Wall
Street Journal 12/17/99)
Q&A: STEVE BALLMER DISCUSSES MICROSOFT'S NEW MISSION STATEMENT
Microsoft President Steve Ballmer recently spoke with the San Jose Mercury
News on a range of topics, including Microsoft's plans for the future,
Windows 2000, and the antitrust trial. Asked where Microsoft is headed in
the future, Ballmer points to the next-generation Web platform, which he
calls "i-Windows," consisting of a client, server, and set of services that
exist online. Addressing Windows 2000, Ballmer says users will not have a
problem with the complexity of the new operating system, although he
believes Microsoft will have to improve usability in some ways for systems
administrators. He says software makers cannot take away existing
functionality, and therefore software should get bigger every year. In
terms of Microsoft's competition, Ballmer cites Linux, Windows middleware,
thin clients, and Java as threats. Addressing the antitrust trial, Ballmer
says the company acted lawfully and in the best interest of consumers.
Although Microsoft would prefer to settle the suit rather than to resolve
the case in court, Ballmer says the company will not compromise on its
freedom to add capabilities to its products that consumers want. (San Jose
Mercury News 12/16/99)
INTERNET PRIVACY ERODING, STUDY SAYS
Each and every one of the top 100 e-commerce sites on the Web fails to live
up to all of the "fair information practices" of privacy protection,
according to a new study from the Electronic Privacy Information Center
(EPIC). The study, known as Surfer Beware III: Privacy Policies Without
Privacy Protection, shows that online privacy risks to consumers are greater
today than they were in 1997, says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of
EPIC. Rotenberg is calling upon lawmakers to produce legislation to enforce
the practices. Although the FTC has established guidelines to protect the
online privacy of children, no such rules exist for adults. The study finds
that only 18 of the top 100 sites failed to display a privacy policy,
although the policies were often confusing, incomplete, and inconsistent.
The sites also failed in other respects. Thirty-five percent of the sites
make use of online profiles in their advertisements and 87 percent use
information-collecting cookies, according to the study. The FTC's associate
director for financial practices, David Medine, says that the FTC plans a
major privacy study in the spring. (Washington Post 12/17/99)
THE WEB: NEW TICKET TO A PINK SLIP
Employees caught surfing forbidden Web sites are increasingly being fired.
At Xerox, for example, 40 employees were fired after software recorded them
visiting Web sites pertaining to shopping or pornography and spending
inordinate amounts of their work day online. Overall, the company monitors
the online activities of all of its 92,000 employees worldwide. In 1999, 45
percent of employers admitted they monitor employees' phone calls, computer
files, or e-mail messages. The issue of privacy is therefore arising, but
employers claim monitoring is needed to see if workers are sending hate
e-mail or wasting too much time online. Employers can record and view
everything done on a computer, which makes privacy obsolete in the
workplace. The consequences for misusing the Internet are great, and
employees may not find any help in a court of law, since the judges usually
handling the cases do not often rule in favor of employees. Lawyers argue
that employers should warn that they may read workers' e-mail and review
their Web use. (New York Times 12/16/99)
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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