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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 March 3, 2000
Web Firm Halts Profiling Plan
Maine's King Seeks to Give All 7th-Graders Computers
Offspring Outweighs Parent as Offering Hits the Market
S.E.C. Reaches Settlement in Web-Based 'Pump and Dump' Case
ALSO
Net Becomes Everyday Tool
Bookbag of the Future
Utah Eyes Net Filters for Libraries
Universities Turn to Linux for an Inexpensive Operating System
WEB FIRM HALTS PROFILING PLAN
Bowing to pressure from consumers, privacy advocates, and federal
and state authorities, DoubleClick has announced that it will
forego plans to create in-depth personal profiles of Internet
users. The move means that DoubleClick will not tie the personal
data in its own databases with that found in the databases of its
Abacus Direct unit--at least for the time being. DoubleClick CEO
Kevin O'Connor admitted the idea was a mistake, promising that
the company would not merge the databases "until there is
agreement between government and industry on privacy standards."
Two of DoubleClick's greatest concerns are keeping the Internet
free and protecting consumer privacy, O'Connor said.
DoubleClick's stock has dropped from $130 a share in January to a
little more than $83 yesterday due to the company's privacy woes.
(Washington Post, 3 March 2000)
MAINE'S KING SEEKS TO GIVE ALL 7TH-GRADERS COMPUTERS
All seventh graders in Maine could receive laptop computers in
the fall of next year if a proposal from Governor Angus King
succeeds. Under the initiative, the first such plan in the
United States, every student in seventh grade and up would have
a laptop within six years. Maine's classrooms lag in technology,
and the proposal aims to give the state a high-tech edge and
close the digital divide. The plan also would fund half the cost
of computers for seventh-grade teachers and above, while
individual districts would pay the other half. Furthermore, King
proposes spending $1 million on training to show teachers how to
use technology in the classroom. The proposal would make
technology a more integral part of learning, enabling teachers to
post assignments on the Web and include online research as part
of classroom projects, King's aides say. The proposal calls for
every student to have access to e-mail, word processing, and
spreadsheets. (Boston Globe Online, 2 March 2000)
OFFSPRING OUTWEIGHS PARENT AS OFFERING HITS THE MARKET
Prices for shares of Palm soared during Thursday's IPO to close
at slightly more than $95 each, placing the market value for Palm
at $53.3 billion, nearly twice the $28 billion value of parent
company 3Com. Palm's market value is also higher than that of
other much larger companies, including General Motors, Chevron,
and McDonald's. Analysts and 3Com executives attribute the
enormous success of the Palm offering to the small number of Palm
shares available for trading, the modern obsession with the
Internet and wireless communications, the popularity of the
handheld Palm Pilot, and the encouraging projections for 3Com's
future. 3Com owns 94 percent of Palm but has said it plans to
distribute these shares among 3Com shareholders, pending a ruling
regarding taxation of the activity.
(New York Times, 3 March 2000)
S.E.C. REACHES SETTLEMENT IN WEB-BASED 'PUMP AND DUMP' CASE
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on
Thursday its settlement of a case in which a group of five people
violated securities laws by organizing a market manipulation
scheme known as a pump and dump. Douglas Colt, a law student at
Georgetown University, his mother Joanne Colt, and three other
Georgetown students made nearly $350,000 by creating a Web site
called fast-trades.com that offered free stock tips. Colt would
purchase the "hot" stocks himself, post the tips on his Web site,
sell them after investors bid up the price, and pocket the
profits. Buyers would then suffer serious losses as the stocks
purchased from Fast-trades immediately declined in value. The
SEC settlement merely requires the five participants to pledge
not to violate securities laws again. None of them have to pay a
fine, since the SEC determined following a review of the
individuals' finances that none could afford to. Georgetown
University does not intend to impose its own disciplinary
sanctions against the students, believing the humiliation and
future scrutiny the students face is punishment enough.
(New York Times, 3 March 2000)
=======================================
NET BECOMES EVERYDAY TOOL
Internet users are beginning to handle everyday tasks online as
usage grows and people become more comfortable with the
technology, according to a Zona Research poll. The poll shows
that people are participating more in online activities that
require "user involvement." The most popular of these activities
is sending and receiving e-mail, followed by finding information
about a hobby, reading general news, and checking the weather.
"The percentage increase in obtaining general news indicates to
us that users are growing more comfortable with using the
Internet for everyday tasks," Zona analysts say. "That
suggestion is supported by healthy increases in obtaining online
information for travel, business, and school, as well as
conducting banking transactions and monitoring investments via
the Internet." Placing or receiving an Internet call was the
least popular activity, with only 13 percent of respondents
having tried Internet telephony, indicating that the technology
is not yet ready for the mainstream, Zona analysts say.
(PC World Online, 2 March 2000)
BOOKBAG OF THE FUTURE
Seven U.S. dental schools plan to replace traditional textbooks
this fall with a single DVD that contains the curriculum for all
four years of school. Students will purchase the DVD when they
enter dental school, exchanging the old version for an updated
DVD each semester. The DVD initiative is the first time digital
materials have totally supplanted traditional texts for all of a
school's students, experts say. Observers are eager to see how
students respond to the DVDs, and whether the technology improves
learning. Some experiments have shown that students prefer to
read printed text rather than digital text, and the DVDs will be
expensive since the disc includes material for all four years.
However, project coordinators say the DVDs will cost about the
same as all the textbooks students would otherwise be required to
buy. In addition to NYU's dental school, other participants
include the dental schools at the University of Texas, the
University of Buffalo, Boston University, the University of
Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, the University of Florida
at Gainesville, and the United States Navy Postgraduate Dental
School. (New York Times, 2 March 2000)
UTAH EYES NET FILTERS FOR LIBRARIES
The Utah Senate voted 28-0 to approve a bill that would require
libraries to use filtering software on their computers in order
to receive state funding. The bill, designed to shield children
from pornography on the Internet, will be passed along to Gov.
Mike Leavitt, who has not said where he stands on the
legislation. (USA Today Online, 29 Feb 2000)
UNIVERSITIES TURN TO LINUX FOR AN INEXPENSIVE OPERATING SYSTEM
Universities are increasingly looking to Linux as an inexpensive
and reliable operating system to run on the many computers
connected to campus networks. Although researchers have been
using Linux on campuses for some time, most campuswide systems
use Unix, Windows NT, or the Macintosh OS. When North Carolina
State University textile engineering professor Warren Jasper
needed new computer systems for his research, he created a new
version of Linux that is compatible with the school's Unix-based
system. Jasper's version of Linux, called Eos Linux, can run on
low-cost PCs while providing the same functionality as the costly
systems the school uses to run Unix. With a donation from the
engineering school, Jasper placed Eos Linux on CD-ROMs and made
instruction manuals to distribute the OS to other users in the
school. In a few months, Eos Linux became the second most used
OS at the university, with only Windows being more popular. The
school had tried to modify Windows NT to run with its Unix
system, but found that the Microsoft software would have cost
several hundred dollars per system, compared with a cost of less
than $6 for each Eos Linux CD. The University of Michigan also
created its own version of Linux, modifying the OS to support
more users, increase security, and work with the school's other
software. (Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 2 March 2000)
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UPCOMING EDUCAUSE CONFERENCES AND MEETINGS:
The New England Regional Computing Program (NERCOMP)
March 19-21, 2000, Sturbridge, Massachusetts
http://www.educause.edu/nercomp/
Networking 2000: Policy Issues for the New Millennium
March 30-31, 2000, Washington, D.C.
http://www.educause.edu/netatedu/contents/events/mar2000/
A Gathering of State Networks: Strategies for the Next Decade
April 16-18, 2000 St. Louis, Missouri
http://www.educause.edu/netatedu/events/apr2000/
CUMREC 2000
May 14-17, 2000, Arlington, Virginia
http://www.cumrec.org/cumrec2000/
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
EDUCAUSE REVIEW is a bimonthly print magazine on information
technology and education. U.S. subscriptions are $24 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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