Edupage
August 25, 1998
Edupage, a summary of news
about information technology, is provided three
times a week as a service of EDUCAUSE, a
consortium of leading colleges
and universities seeking to transform
education through the use of information
technologies. The organization has offices
in Boulder, Colorado and Washington, D.C.
PANEL RECOMMENDS
INCREASED SPENDING ON HIGH-TECH R&D
The President's Information Technology Advisory
Committee, a 26-member panel
of prominent computer scientists and industry executives,
has recommended
that the U.S. government boost spending on information
technology research
by $1 billion over five years, for a total of $2.5
billion. The committee
also suggested reviving the large, long-term projects
that proved so
productive in the 1970s and '80s. "The future great
ideas that are not
going to pan out for 15 years aren't getting enough
support now," says the
panel's co-chair. In its report, the panel warned against
the tendency
among federal agencies to focus on small, short-term
projects to the
detriment of larger, more basic science studies. In
particular, the panel
recommended additional funding for research into robust
software, faster
supercomputers and "scaleable" communications
networks capable of handling a
billion users -- the number of estimated Internet users
in 2005. The next
step for the panel is to conduct a series of meetings
with community and
federal leaders to develop specific funding proposals
with a goal of being
included in the FY 2000 budget. (Science 21 Aug 98)
IBM TIGHTENS COMPUTER SECURITY
Working with colleagues at a Swiss university,
IBM researchers have
developed a new security scheme that effectively closes
off back-door
attempts to overwhelm computer security systems using
so-called "active"
attacks. Such attacks, which analyze the electronic
responses to messages
from Web sites to derive information that can then be
used to decode an
intercepted session, are considered to be the most
dangerous hacking
attempts that most encryption systems face. The
Cramer-Shoup method, named
for researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology and IBM
Research respectively, thwarts active attacks by
preventing such
eavesdropping. "The game is over as far as
cryptography systems being
subject to these nasty kinds of attacks," says IBM's
manager of network
security and cryptography, who notes IBM plans to
disseminate its findings
to other researchers. "This is not the sort of stuff
you hold tight and
patent. This is the sort of stuff you publish and hope
everyone adopts it
quickly." (Reuters 24 Aug 98)
P&G SEEKS TO SET STANDARDS FOR WEB
ADVERTISING
Procter & Gamble held a summit last week,
inviting rival firms such as
Unilever, Chlorox, and Nestle to join P&G in a
unified effort to draft
standards for measuring online audiences and establish a
set of ad types
that Web sites will accept. The company has set November
as the deadline
for accomplishing these tasks, and by April hopes to
develop a way to
reconcile contradictory data supplied by various online
services. "Let's
face it," says the P&G VP in charge of worldwide
advertising. "There's a
massive revolution in consumer habits. No one
organization, or even a
handful of organizations, can be the driver. No one is in
control, and
that's really disrupting the marketing landscape -- in a
really positive
way." The company says that in five years as much as
80% of its $3-billion
advertising budget could be spent on "interactive
digital media," including
the Internet, cable, interactive television and
high-definition TV. (Wall
Street Journal 24 Aug 98)
ONLINE BANKING GROWTH IS SLOWER THAN EXPECTED
Although the number of financial institutions
offering online banking has
grown rapidly (54% in 1998 compared to 38% in 1997),
consumers are taking
their time changing their habits, and only about 6% of
customers nationwide
use electronic banking. Use of the World Wide Web is what
may make the
difference, because it offers a universal interface to
almost any computer
system. An executive of Integrion, a consortium of 17
banks, IBM, and Visa
USA, says: "In the last six months, the Web has
become more important, and
banks that might not have focused on a transactional Web
site are now doing
that." (New York Times 24 Aug 98)
STAMPMASTER GRANTED PERMISSION TO BEGIN TESTING
StampMaster Inc., says it has received
permission from the U.S. Postal
Service to begin testing its PC postage-metering
technology, using a base of
21 individuals and small businesses in the Washington,
D.C. area. Last
March, E-Stamp was granted similar approval, becoming the
first company to
receive such approval since postage meters were first
introduced in 1920.
Unlike E-Stamp, which requires users to purchase a small
hardware device
that attaches to their PC printer port, StampMaster
requires no additional
hardware. Users set up accounts with the company and then
download postage
from the StampMaster Web site. Software on users' PCs
then prints out the
stamps as each transaction is verified. Both StampMaster
and E-Stamp are
talking to Pitney Bowes, which claims it holds the
patents on PC
postage-metering, but neither company thinks its
technology infringes on the
Pitney Bowes patents. (Wall Street Journal 25 Aug 98)
DEVELOPERS FLOCKING TO MACINTOSH FOLD
Software developers are turning their eyes back
to the Apple Macintosh
platform, and liking what they see. Apple has committed
$100 million to
marketing its new iMac machine, and the company is
providing more free
developer tools and working with key partners to bring
more titles to
market. Apple's strategy to stabilize its operating
system has also
contributed to the renewed confidence that many software
developers have in
the platform. "We're definitely seeing more Mac
titles," says one computer
store manager. Sales of Mac-only titles rose 12% to $21.4
million in the
first half of this year, according to PC Data. (Computer
Retail Week 22 Aug 98)
CYBERGOLD CLAIMS PATENT ON "ATTENTION
BROKERAGE"
CyberGold says it now holds a patent that covers
"attention brokerage," the
business of buying and selling the attention of Internet
users. "We tried
to make the patent application as broad as we possibly
can," says
CyberGold's CEO. "This new way of brokering the
attention of people --
offering their attention to other people who want their
attention -- is
pretty much covered." The company says it will
license its method to rivals
in the online incentives market, possibly for a
per-transaction fee. (Wall
Street Journal 25 Aug 98)
STOLL PREPARES NEW CRITIQUE OF COMPUTERS IN
SCHOOLS
Iconoclastic computer security expert,
astronomer, and fierce Internet
critic Clifford Stoll, who authored the best-selling book
"Silicon Snake
Oil," is working on a new book critical of the use
of computers in primary
and secondary education. Stoll told the Dallas Morning
News: "I became a
computer expert in my freshman year in high school,
writing Fortran,
Assembler, machine language and developing programs.
Along the way, I've
discovered that using computers . . . was a great way to
make it look like I
was doing wonderful academics when, in fact, I'm just
screwing around. And
for all the many, many hours that I've spent online and
on computers, seems
to me that most of the important work that I've done has
happened
independent of the hours that I've spent online. When I
think of the skills
that I need as an astronomer, they're skills like knowing
mathematics,
understanding physics, being able to manipulate a
telescope, being able to
write a paper, being able to read analytically and
understand what someone
else has written. Being able to poke holes in arguments.
To be able to
stand up in front of a meeting and present my ideas.
These days, the
computers are loaded with programs to guide the kids
through things. Do they
spend more time playing and learning . . . rather than
just doing the rote
work as you were doing? The main thing the computer is
teaching . . . is
that if you want to learn, you sit behind a screen for
hours on end, that
you'll accept what a machine says without arguing, that
relationships that
develop over e-mail, Web pages and chat rooms are
transitory and shallow.
That if you're ever frustrated, all you have to do is
pull the plug and
reboot the machine." (Dallas Morning News 24 Aug 98)
Edupage is written by
John Gehl (gehl@educause.edu) and Suzanne Douglas
(douglas@educause.edu). Telephone: 770-590-1017
Visit Edupage at the
Educause web site at: http://www.educause.edu
Technical support for distributing Edupage is provided by
Information
Technology Services at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill.
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