Collection of Education/collectionofeducationcarat1997.iso/COMPUSCI/EDU0196.ZIP/EDU01186.DOC

Text File | 1996-05-01 | 13KB | 223 lines

Subject: Edupage, 18 January 1996

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Edupage, 18 January 1996.  Edupage, a summary of news items on information
technology, is provided three times each 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
        Supreme Court Deadlocks 4-4 On Copyright Issue
        Brokers Say Net Threatens Telecoms
        Exodus From Commercial Services?
        One Is Enough
        Apple To Eliminate 1,300 Jobs

ALSO
        IBM To Provide Government With Encryption Keys For Notes
        The Power Of Small Teams
        Teacherless Classrooms Considered
        Wang's Imaging Software For Win 95
        Spider Eases Life On The Web
        Eastman Kodak Supports Digital Library Program
        Cross-Border Culture War Looms
        Internet Domain Policy

SUPREME COURT DEADLOCKS 4-4 ON COPYRIGHT ISSUE
A U.S. Supreme Court  4-4 tied vote on a Lotus/Borland copyright dispute
leaves in place an appellate court ruling which said Lotus Development
Corporation was not entitled to copyright protection for a system of
commands and menus which it had developed for the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet
program and which were copied by Borland for that company's Quattro Pro
program.  The appellate court ruling said that a command structure was not a
"form of expression" (i.e., something that is copyrightable), but rather a
"method of operation" (i.e., something outside the scope of copyright law).
(New York Times 17 Jan 96 C2)

BROKERS SAY NET THREATENS TELECOMS
The London stock brokerage firm Durlacher says in a report that telecom
companies underestimate the threat posed to their business by the Internet:
"Their greatest difficulty is that telecom operators run business based on
charging for the cost per unit of time used.  The long-term marginal costs
associated with a local call are now, however, heading toward zero.  In the
future, charges will be made for content that is accessed rather than the
cost of moving the material from the host machine to the users."  The report
warns that technical developments could leave telecom operators "with an
obsolete system, of no obvious value, other than the recycle value of the
copper in the cables."  (Financial Times 15 Jan 96 p6)

EXODUS FROM COMMERCIAL SERVICES?
Commercial online services are having a difficult time keeping customers and
differentiating themselves, as more savvy computer users switch over to
small Internet access providers.  "Most everything I find on the online
services, I can find using an Internet service provider," says one customer
who's made the switch.  "For me, the need for an online service is
diminishing."  "AOL is like the Internet on training wheels," says another,
who feels he's "graduated."  In tandem with subscriber defection is the
problem of content providers who increasingly are setting up their own shops
on the Web, bypassing the commercial services altogether.  The popularity of
the Web "turns the model of the online services industry upside down," says
Scott Kurnit, the former No. 2 executive at Prodigy, who's now running an
Internet service for MCI and News Corp.  While the number of commercial
service subscribers has grown to about 12.5 million over the past decade
(doubling in the past year), the number of World Wide Web users increased
eight-fold, to eight-million, in just the past year, according to
International Data Corp.  (Wall Street Journal 18 Jan 96 A6)

ONE IS ENOUGH
The number of people subscribing to more than one online service has dropped
significantly since 1991 when almost a third of online users carried
multiple subscriptions.  Now, 97% report they can do everything they need to
using a single service.  (Business Week 22 Jan 96 p8)

APPLE TO ELIMINATE 1,300 JOBS
Apple Computer says it will be forced to lay off 1,300 employees, or 8% of
its staff, as a first step in restructuring its business.  The company plans
to simplify its product line, focusing on high-end machines, while allowing
Mac clones to dominate the low-end market.  In addition, CEO Michael
Spindler says Apple will fundamentally change its business model,
concentrating on its key products in education, business and home markets,
while pursuing expanded business alliances.  (Investor's Business Daily 18
Jan 96 A9)

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IBM TO PROVIDE GOVERNMENT WITH ENCRYPTION KEY FOR NOTES
IBM has agreed to provide the U.S. government with a special key that would
enable government agents to more easily decode electronic messages, in
exchange for permission to export a version of Lotus Notes that includes
64-bit security.  The arrangement provides government officials with a key
to the first 24 bits of security code, meaning that they only have to crack
the remaining 40 bits to decrypt a message.  U.S. Notes customers already
use a 64-bit system.  "We were desperate enough to try to negotiate a
short-term, pragmatic solution," says Notes developer Ray Ozzie.  "But we do
not believe this is the right long-term solution...  Our customers have been
telling us that, unless we did something about the security, we could no
longer call it a secure system."  (Wall Street Journal 18 Jan 96 B7)

THE POWER OF SMALL TEAMS
Sun Microsystems chief technology officer Eric Schmidt favors small teams
and a focused approach to technical problems:  "The proper arrangement at a
company is a very large number of very small businesses.  The best things
were done by very small engineering teams, because a small engineering team
is forced to make tradeoffs to do only one thing.  They are very
committed...  But small teams go against human nature.  Human nature is to
build bigger and bigger enterprises."  He cites examples to bolster his
argument:  "Unix was developed by two people.  Java was done by a team of
less than five, Mosaic was done by two to four people and the Mac system was
done by about 12 people.  Even DOS was actually developed by only two
people."  (Investor's Business Daily 17 Jan 96 A1)

TEACHERLESS CLASSROOMS CONSIDERED
Ontario's Community colleges, hunting for $120-million in savings for the
next academic year, are deemphasizing the role of the teacher in the
learning process.  A study prepared for the Colleges' Council of Presidents
titled "Learning Centred Education" says educational institutions can cut
teaching costs by using CD-ROM courses and computer tutorials to deliver
education using support staff rather than teachers to monitor students'
progress. (Ottawa Citizen 17 Jan 96 A4)

WANG'S IMAGING SOFTWARE FOR WIN 95
Wang Laboratories has developed software that allows PCs to file, forward or
annotate faxed and scanned images in a standardized way.  The product
development stems from a patent lawsuit settlement reached last spring with
Microsoft, under which Microsoft acquired a 10% stake in Wang.  The
image-handling capability will be incorporated into future versions of
Windows 95.  (Wall Street Journal 17 Jan 96 B5)

SPIDER EASES LIFE ON THE WEB
Toronto-based software developer Incontext says it "Spider" software allows
Net newbies to create Web pages without mastering HTML.  The package, which
retails for $129, includes a browser, spell checker and several Web page
templates to make it easier for beginners.  (Ottawa Citizen 18 Jan 96 D2)

EASTMAN KODAK SUPPORTS DIGITAL LIBRARY PROGRAM
Eastman Kodak Co. has committed to spending $1 million on the Library of
Congress's National Digital Library Program.  The program hopes to receive
$45 million in private donations by the year 2000, and has requested an
extra $15 million in government funding to reach its overall goal of $60
million.  (Information Today Jan 96 p14)

CROSS-BORDER CULTURE WAR LOOMS
Canada's federal regulator is in Washington trying to persuade a skeptical
U.S. government that Canadian efforts to b