Edupage, 18 June 1999
Edie Clark
Edupage is a service of EDUCAUSE, an international nonprofit
association dedicated to transforming education through
information technologies.
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TOP STORIES for June 18, 1999
State Universities Focus I.T. Spending on Computers
Study: Internet Users Climb to 92M
Firm Pushes Microsoft to Fix Program Security Flaw
Panel Votes to Restrict Scrambling Technologies
ALSO
House Likely to Mandate Net Filtering
Software Execs Outline Policy Agenda at BSA Summit
Group Seeks Legal Shelter in Battle over Web Address
Real-World Science from Internet Labs
STATE UNIVERSITIES FOCUS I.T. SPENDING ON COMPUTERS FOR STUDENTS
AND FACULTY, REPORT SAYS
Computer upgrades for students and faculty are the top IT
spending priority for state universities, reports the National
Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.
Forty-eight percent of the association's 203 member schools
participated in the survey to determine uses and sources of IT
funding. The report also notes recent acquisitions of high-speed
data and video networks for teaching, research, and public
service. Other funds are allocated to distance education
programs. Most schools surveyed allocate an average of 5
percent of their total annual budget to IT, a figure that is
expected to grow in the future. Although IT spending is on the
upswing, many universities report difficulties in drawing
together resources. Seventy-one percent of the schools use
student fees or tuition add-ons to contribute to IT spending,
while 66 percent use state funds specifically intended for IT
ventures. Lesser sources of funding include federal money for
IT projects, private donations,and corporate partnerships.
(Chronicle of Higher Education Online 06/16/99)
STUDY: INTERNET USERS CLIMB TO 92M
A new study from Nielsen Media Research and CommerceNet says that
the number of American and Canadian Internet users aged 16 and
older has increased to 92 million, up from 79 million in last
year's study. "Nearly half of North America uses the Internet,"
says CommerceNet's Mark Resch. "We use it to communicate, to
learn, to shop, and to buy. It is as integral a part of our
lives as the telephone." The study also found that the number of
women buying goods online jumped 80 percent over last year.
Books, CDs, and videos were the most popular items among female
online buyers, but the number of women buying PCs online jumped
160 percent to 1.3 million. Still, men account for 62 percent of
online sales, and make up 54 percent of people online, the study
says. (Associated Press 06/18/99)
FIRM PUSHES MICROSOFT TO FIX PROGRAM SECURITY FLAW
Microsoft has offered a temporary patch for a security hole found
in its Internet software, but not until after security firm
ECompany.com published news of a the security flaw, leading the
small firm to claim that Microsoft does not take its security
problems seriously. Microsoft's Internet Information Server 4.0
is vulnerable to a "buffer overflow," allowing users to take
control of a machine by transmitting a string of several thousand
characters to the program, which overwrites part of the
computer's memory. If the computer is not isolated from the rest
of the network, a user can gain access to passwords on any
connected computer. The flaw potentially enables anyone with a
browser to copy, delete, or download any files from the server.
Carnegie-Mellon security organization the CERT Coordination
Center rated the flaw a 95, indicating that it is more serious
than 95 percent of all detected security problems.
(Los Angeles Times 06/17/99)
PANEL VOTES TO RESTRICT SCRAMBLING TECHNOLOGIES
The House Commerce telecommunications subcommittee has approved a
measure to prohibit the export of encryption technologies that
would be used to aid drug trafficking, sexual exploitation, and
organized crime. The provisions were added to an existing House
bill that would allow the export of encryption products that are
already on the market in foreign countries. The existing bill
already restricted exports of products that would be used to aid
terrorism or unauthorized military use, but the amendments added
new categories to the list that critics say are much too broad.
"The Mafia uses automobiles to make their getaways," says Rep.
Edward Markey (D-Mass.). "We don't want to ban automobiles."
(Baltimore Sun 06/17/99)
=======================================
HOUSE LIKELY TO MANDATE NET FILTERING
The House yesterday passed an amendment to the Juvenile Justice
Bill that will require that e-rate funded schools and libraries
deploy filtering technology to keep children from viewing harmful
material, such as child pornography and obscene content. The
bill will likely be voted upon by the House this week; the
Senate's version of the bill does not include the filtering
amendment. Computers used by both adults and children are
covered by the terms of the filtering amendment. The amendment,
sponsored by Reps. Bob Franks (R-N.J.) and Chip Pickering
(R-Miss.), leaves it up to communities and school officials to
further define what harmful Web material should be filtered.
Alan Davidson of the Center for Democracy and Technology said the
amendment would likely be found unconstitutional. Two other
Internet-related amendments were stripped from the bill.
(C|Net 06/17/99)
SOFTWARE EXECS OUTLINE POLICY AGENDA AT BSA SUMMIT
Executives of leading Business Software Alliance (BSA) member
companies June 16 announced at a press conference that the U.S.
software market is expected to become the strongest economic
contributor in 2000, exceeding even the automotive industry. The
industry officials reported the results of a study showing that
the U.S. software industry grew 18 percent in 1998 and employed
806,900 workers, who earned an average of $68,900 annually.
After establishing the significance of software to the economy,
the executives discussed risks to the software industry, which
include export limitations on encryption software, software
piracy, and unnecessary Y2K-related lawsuits.
(InfoWorld Electric 06/16/99)
GROUP SEEKS LEGAL SHELTER IN BATTLE OVER WEB ADDRESS
A legal case may determine whether a Web address is protected
under the right to free speech. Animal-rights group Last Chance
for Animals filed suit against nonprofit research center Coulston
Foundation for forcing a Web hosting service to close down Last
Chance's Web site, www.coulstonkillschimps.com. The group's
Internet site posts animal-welfare violations charged by USDA
inspectors. Last Chance for Animals claims that Coulston used the
threat of litigation against the Web services that provide
Internet space for the inflammatory Web site, causing one service
to render the site inaccessible to the public. Similarly, the
group accuses Coulston of pressuring a billboard rental company
to cover a reference to the Web site on a billboard outside
Coulston's facility. Last Chance for Animals contends that its
Web address is a form of expression and therefore should be
protected under the First Amendment. (Los Angeles Times 06/17/99)
REAL-WORLD SCIENCE FROM INTERNET LABS
Many programs are lending Internet-based access to advanced
technology to elementary-school and high-school students. These
programs offer such educational tools as the opportunity to
remotely operate a 24-inch optical telescope, a radio telescope,
a magnetic resonance imager, and NASA-designed robotic devices.
Using these programs, students have completed such feats as
providing hours of testing for the Mars rover and obtaining real
data about stars and Jupiter's atmosphere, all without ever
leaving the classroom. Bugscope allows students to examine
insects online through a $600,000 environmental scanning electron
microscope at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois
in Urbana-Champaign. Meanwhile, Red Rover will select 40
students from its 400 participating classrooms to control the
Mars rover in 2002. Although Red Rover requires a subscription
fee of $700, most programs are free or at a low cost, due to
grants from NASA, additional government sources, and private
businesses. Yet the programs do have costs, particularly to
train teachers and provide adequate computer technology.
(New York Times 06/17/99)
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Edie Clark, Editor
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UPCOMING EDUCAUSE CONFERENCES AND MEETINGS:
Seminars on Academic Computing (SAC)
Strategy, Technology, Organization, Relationships, and Mission (STORM!)
August 6-11, 1999, Snowmass Village, Colorado
http://www.educause.edu/sac/sac99/sac99.html
CAUDIT-EDUCAUSE Institute
August 8-12, 1999, Port Stephens, NSW, Australia
http://www.caudit.edu.au/caudit/institute/index.html
EDUCAUSE '99
"Celebrating New Beginnings"
EDUCAUSE Annual Conference
October 26-29, 1999, Long Beach, California
http://www.educause.edu/conference/e99/
For additional information on these 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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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