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Edupage, 21 April 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
Brian Hawkins Picked For CEO Of EDUCAUSE
U S West To Offer TV, Internet Access Over Phone Lines
Oops -- GTE Prints 50,000 Unlisted Phone Numbers
Reuters, Fantastic Team Up On Multimedia News
ALSO
A Small Concession From Microsoft
Court Says Net Name-Poaching Is Illegal
International Chip-Making Group Broadens Membership
The Borking Of Microsoft
BRIAN HAWKINS PICKED FOR CEO OF EDUCAUSE
Brian L. Hawkins, currently Senior Vice President of Brown University, has
been selected as the first president and chief executive officer of
EDUCAUSE, the new higher education information technology association formed
by the consolidation of Educom and CAUSE. Hawkins says, "This new
organization is borne of a rich heritage of two extraordinary organizations,
and our challenge is now to capture the synergy of their consolidation."
EDUCAUSE presents a single representative voice for information technology
in higher education, in and among the institutions it serves, and a strong,
single, and more easily recognized voice in government. (http://www.cause.org/)
U S WEST TO OFFER TV, INTERNET ACCESS OVER PHONE LINES
For a cost "comparable" to the monthly fees charged by Cox Communications
(the primary cable company in Phoenix), U S West plans to offer its Phoenix
customers a video and data services package via "variable digital subscriber
lines," or VDSL. U S West says its service will include some 120 TV
channels and Internet access. In the past year, cable companies have begun
to offer Internet access as part of their monthly service, and an analyst
with International Data says, "If you're a phone company, you're going to
want to roll out a package of services that will blunt the attack from the
cable companies, which are trying to take away phone customers." (Wall
Street Journal 20 Apr 98)
OOPS -- GTE PRINTS 50,000 UNLISTED PHONE NUMBERS
GTE says a computer glitch is responsible for printing the numbers of some
50,000 customers who'd paid to have their information withheld from a street
directory leased to telemarketers. The directories contain the names,
demographics, addresses, and business and residential phone numbers of
customers in Southern California. The company faces fines of up to $30,000
per customer, but says that it doesn't think the California Public Utilities
Commission will take that action. The phone company has replaced almost all
of the 9,000 directories and has contacted all the affected customers. It's
offering those customers a new phone number, free unlisted status for one
year, and a small refund. (Total Telecom 20 Apr 98)
REUTERS, FANTASTIC TEAM UP ON MULTIMEDIA NEWS
Reuters is working with The Fantastic Corp. to develop a multimedia news
service scheduled for launch later this year. The Web-based service will
use Xing streaming technology to add MPEG-1 video to Reuters news content.
The initiative marks Reuters' first attempt to stream news content live
online. (Broadcasting & Cable 13 Apr 98)
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A SMALL CONCESSION FROM MICROSOFT
Microsoft has decided to allow PC manufacturers the option of not displaying
Microsoft's "channel bar" on the first screen users see when turning on the
Windows 98 operating system, which will be introduced this June. The
channel bar offers access to sites with which Microsoft has made commercial
agreements, such as Walt Disney and Time Warner. Microsoft critic Ken
Wasch, president of the Software Publishers Association, says: "The real
issue is whether Microsoft will allow the PC makers to populate the channel
bar with their own selections." (New York Times 21 Apr 98)
COURT SAYS NET NAME-POACHING IS ILLEGAL
A federal appeals court in San Francisco has ruled that is illegal to
register an Internet address that appropriates a name that has been
previously trademarked by another company, and then to try to sell the
address to the owner of that trademark. The appellant had argued,
unsuccessfully, that trademark law did not apply to Internet addresses.
(San Jose Mercury News 18 Apr 98)
INTERNATIONAL CHIP-MAKING GROUP BROADENS MEMBERSHIP
The World Semiconductor Council is broadening its international
participation by allowing foreign companies to join in its technology
forecasting activities, thereby providing a more global perspective. The
group also endorsed the IMF bailout of Asian countries, provided the money's
not used to subsidize a particular industry, such as semiconductor
manufacture. Finally, the Council made plans to study the problem of chip
dumping (selling chips below cost). (Wall Street Journal 20 April 98)
THE BORKING OF MICROSOFT
Controversial former federal appellate judge Robert Bork has been retained
by ProComp (the Project to Promote Competition in the Digital Age), an
organization formed by Netscape and other companies to help the U.S. Justice
Dept.'s antitrust suit against Microsoft. Former Republican presidential
candidate Robert J. Dole has been associated with the group for several
months. Bork says that Microsoft includes programming code in Windows "that
makes it difficult to use competitors' browsers, specifically Netscape's ...
Microsoft has an overwhelming market share, and it imposes conditions to
exclude rivals." A Microsoft executive has dismissed the group's formation
as "no big surprise" and said: "These companies and trade associations have
been waging an all-out PR and lobbying campaign against Microsoft for
months. This is like Dennis Rodman saying he's going to get a tattoo."
(Washington Post 21 Apr 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 Alabama-born Helen Keller (1880-1968), who
overcame severe childhood disabilities to become a world-famous author and
champion of the blind. An illness at the age of 19 months left her blind,
deaf, and without the ability to speak, but a teacher named Annie Sullivan,
who became her life-long companion, helped her learn the name of objects and
eventually taught her to speak. She developed a charismatic personality,
and became friends with such luminaries as Mark Twain and Alexander Graham
Bell. The compelling story of the Sullivan's heroic efforts to help Keller
learn were dramatized in the play and movie, "The Miracle Worker," which
starred Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan and Patty Duke as the young Helen
Keller. Sullivan, who had a genius for teaching, had her work cut out for
her, because the young girl she was teaching was wild with frustration, and
went into frequent tantrums. But her teacher refused to be intimidated or
discouraged, and finally figured out how to get through to her difficult
pupil: she held the girl's hand under a stream of water and spelled out the
word 'water' in sign language on her palm. When the girl made the
connection between the word and the experience it signified, she was
thrilled, and was soon learning a wide vocabulary and using it to form whole
sentences. Her excitement led her to a life of learning; she learned
Braille, graduated with honors from Radcliffe College, and became a noted
teacher, lecturer, and author.
This is her description of a nighttime canoe ride:
"I suppose you will smile when I say I especially like it on moonlight
nights. It is true that I cannot see the moon climb up in the sky behind
the pines and move softly across the heavens, making a shining path for us
to follow. But I know the moon is there, and as I lie back among the
pillows and put my hand in the water, I can imagine the beauty of the
scene... Frequently, we come out of a narrow, sheltered place in the water
into a broad, open place, I can feel the difference in the air about me."
Among the books written by Helen Keller is her autobiography, "The
Story Of My Life."
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Educom -- Transforming Education Through Information Technology
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