Educom Review table of contents
March/April 1999
This article was published in Educom Review, Volume 34 Number 2 1999. The copyright is copyright is by EDUCAUSE. See http://www.educause.edu/copyright.html for additional copyright information.
An EDUCAUSE publication

Departments


  TechWatch

Technology in the News: An Edupage Sampler

A sampler of items from Edupage, Educom's
three-times-a-week electronic digest of
information technology news.


COMPUTING TO GET A BOOST IN 2000 BUDGET
The federal budget for fiscal year 2000 will include a 6% raise for the National Science Foundation -- the largest percentage increase of any basic research agency. The $200 million increase will go a long way toward funding the administration's as-yet-unnamed computing initiative, which initially will involve NSF, NASA, the Department of Energy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The initiative was first conceived in response to an August '98 report issued by a White House task force that recommended an additional $1 billion over five years be spent on information technology research. Computer scientist Ken Kennedy of Rice University calls the new budget proposal "a very positive start" in fulfilling the recommendations of the task force. (Science 15 Jan 99)

ENRON TEAMS UP WITH REALNETWORKS ON VIDEO
Energy giant Enron Corp. has been laying fiber-optic lines throughout the country over the last two years and plans to use RealNetworks' streaming technology to offer high-quality video to Internet service providers over its fiber optic network. The product, called "Enron Intelligent Network," will debut in late March or early April. Using Enron's broadband network will enhance the quality of RealNetwork's video considerably, says the company's senior VP for media, delivering up to about 30 frames per second -- a dramatic increase over what's possible using a standard telephone line. (Wall Street Journal 21 Jan 99)

SUN, SONY AND PHILIPS JOIN TO DEVELOP A POST-PC ERA
Sun Microsystems is forming an alliance with consumer electronics giants Sony Corporation and Royal Philips Electronics NV to integrate Sun's Jini (pronounced gee-nee) programming environment with the HAVI (Home Audio Visual Interoperability) architecture developed by Sony, Philips and others; the result of this integration will be the creation of a new generation of networked entertainment devices and appliances (TVs, stereos, VCRs, thermostats, etc.) that can communicate with humans and each other over the Internet. New York Times information technology analyst John Markoff says: "Both the Sun Jini and the new Microsoft Universal Plug and Play alliance appear to be attempts to do roughly similar tasks," but the two technologies "represent deep philosophical differences. Microsoft and the personal computer makers are developing standards for a PC-centric vision of the home of the future, in which a personal computer controls everything from energy efficiency to telephone messaging and video delivery. In contrast, the Jini-HAVI alliance is a radical decentralized approach to computing in which control is spread throughout a network with no central point. In the Jini-HAVI vision of the world, the consumer could control all the appliances in a networked home from a personal computer but could also use a television or even some all-in-one infrared remote control device." (New York Times 19 Jan 99)

SURVEY TALLIES IT COSTS
A survey of information technology expenditures at 102 colleges and universities shows that outsourcing can have a dramatic effect on reducing costs -- for instance, by hiring outside companies to handle some computer repairs, schools can save up to 40% on per-computer support costs. In addition, the survey documents what most schools already know -- the larger the institution, the lower per-computer and per-user support costs. "It is what you'd expect -- bigger institutions can handle more computers for less money," says Karen Leach, CIO for Colgate University who co-authored the survey with David Smallen, director of information technology services at Hamilton College. Summaries of the results can be found at http://www.its.colgate.edu/kleach/costs/costs.htm. (Chronicle of Higher Education 22 Jan 99)

E-MAIL RESPONSES AT A SNAIL'S PACE
A recent survey of Fortune 100 companies by e-mail software firm Brightware shows that many respondents allow e-mail to languish for days before responding to it. Four companies took a full week to respond to the question, "What is your corporate headquarters address?" (In one case, Hewlett-Packard took 23 days.) Rapid responders included Texaco, which responded within four minutes, and Albertson's and Costco, both of which responded within five minutes. Overall, fewer than 15% responded within three hours, and 26% either did not accept e-mail or made it so difficult to find e-mail information on their Web sites that a typical user probably would give up looking. (Los Angeles Times 18 Jan 99)

RUSSIA'S Y2K FIX
The Russian government plans to spend about $500 million to prepare its aging computers for the year 2000 date conversion, $12 million of which will be contributed by the U.S. through the World Bank. Complicating Russia's problems are the fact that it has relied much more heavily on PCs and midrange computers rather than larger mainframes. Also, many of its PC-based applications are written in nontraditional programming languages. To solve this last problem, a group of computer scientists at the University of St. Petersburg has been working for seven years to develop the technology to convert Russian systems into more universally used computer languages such as C++ and Java, assisted by North Carolina-based Relativity Technologies. (TechWeb 15 Jan 99)

CHINA'S Y2K FIX
China has given its airline CEOs an ultimatum for fixing the Y2K problem: "All the heads of the airlines have got to be in the air on Jan. 1, 2000," says Zhao Bo, who's in charge of dealing with Y2K issues at the Chinese Ministry of Information Industries. "We have to make sure there are no problems in aviation." Zhao's ministry has a particularly vexing dilemma: because 90% of the software used in China is pirated, technicians cannot consult the manufacturers on how to fix the bug. Accordingly, the Ministry of Information Industries has trained more than 5,000 freelance fixers who will fan out across the country to work on computer systems, and the government has published a list of emergency procedures for computer users. (St. Petersburg Times 15 Jan 99)

U.S.'s Y2K FIX
U.S. state governments are working overtime to indemnify themselves against lawsuits arising from computer system failures engendered by the Y2K problem. Nevada, Florida, Georgia and Virginia already have enacted legislation barring Y2K lawsuits against state governments, and similar legislation is under consideration in New York, California, Illinois and a handful of other states. Supporters of such bills say they're needed to protect taxpayers from potentially huge judgments. "We wanted to make sure that if the state did all it could to prevent a problem that the people of Georgia wouldn't suffer," says Georgia state Senator Sonny Perdue. Meanwhile, state chambers of commerce say it's not fair to immunize state governments while leaving businesses still liable. And the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has proposed that Congress create a new federal court modeled after bankruptcy court to handle what's expected to be a flood of Y2K lawsuits. (Wall Street Journal 15 Jan 99)

U.S. ONLINE AUDIENCE STARTING TO LOOK MORE LIKE AMERICA
A study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press indicates that the online audience is rapidly changing from an elite computer-savvy group comprised of young, well-educated and affluent males to a more mainstream American group, with middle-aged and middle-income people of both sexes coming to the Internet in increased numbers, as are people with less formal education. Although the 74 million Internet users in the U.S. are still younger, better-educated and more affluent than the population at large, 40% of Internet newcomers never attended college and 23% have household incomes below $30,000 a year. (AP 14 Jan 99)

COMPUTER ALGORITHMS CAN BE PATENTED
The U.S. Supreme Court has let stand a lower court ruling that mathematical algorithms used in a computer program may be given intellectual property protection as long as they produce "a useful, concrete and tangible result." The case in question concerned a program that allowed financial managers to pool and calculate mutual fund investments in a way that let them avoid certain kinds of regulatory review. (New York Times 12 Jan 99)

BIG INCREASE IN STORE FOR INTERNET ADVERTISING
Forrester Research is predicting that online advertising revenues will roughly double this year and next, while Jupiter Communications is taking a slightly more conservative position, estimating that revenues will jump from $1.9 billion in 1998 to $2.9 billion in '99. "Internet advertising is going to continue to grow," says Bill Bass, a senior analyst for Forrester. "Advertisers want to be as close to the point-of-sale as possible. As transactions shift online, that dramatically increases the value of online advertising." However, the heyday of banner ads is probably coming to a close: "Nobody remembers banner ads. They remember TV commercials," says Bass. Coming next will be "pop-up" ads embedded in commercially oriented sites, and more advertisers buying into sponsorships of specific content areas. (Broadcasting & Cable 4 Jan 99)

MEDICAL SMART CARDS GET CHECK UP AT WASHINGTON U.
Researchers at Washington University are testing a "smart card" capable of accessing a patient's complete medical record stored on a secure Web site. Each card requires a confidential password to gain access to the cardholder's record. Alternatively, a physician would use a card that supplies access to the records of all of his or her patients. A test of the system is planned, involving 250 pregnant women at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. Half will use the electronic record system, and half will use paper records. If successful, the electronic record system, which relies on an Internet connection and a $75 card reader, could be implemented in other medical settings. (Chronicle of Higher Education 29 Jan 99)

FREE AGENT MADNESS HITS HIGH-TECH HIRING
Hiring high-tech workers with the right skills is starting to resemble the mad scramble for sports stars, with the largest companies offering big salaries, bonuses and other incentives that leave smaller firms struggling to compete. "A candidate becomes what drives salary as opposed to there being a particular salary range for a particular skill set," says one professional recruiter. "You can see someone right out of school with a technology that's hot earning more than someone with experience but a technology that's less hot. That's not normal, but it's been the norm for the past two years." (EE Times 29 Jan 99)

CONVERGING CONSENSUS
Convergence -- merging voice, video and data traffic onto one network -- is finally coming of age, with a recent survey reporting that 23% of respondents were planning to use a single carrier service within the next 12 months (added to the 12% that are already doing so). An additional 43% say they're making network convergence a top telecommunications priority in 1999. Driving the trend is the promise of better technology and lower costs: "Ultimately, there will be benefits -- ease of use and reduced costs," says an Internet specialist with Marriott. "If we can get voice and data from one vendor for $1,000 cheaper a month, that would be the biggest benefit." (Information Week 1 Feb 99)


Edupage is free, and is distributed 3 times a week by electronic mail. To subscribe, send a message to: [email protected] with the text "subscribe edupage"


Educom Review Table of Contents