Communications-related Headlines for 2/26/98

Arts
WP: NEA Grant Proposal Looks Like a Bomb(er)

Universal Service
TelecomAM: Commerce Secretary Urges Business Involvement
in Wiring Nation
NTIA: Connecting All Americans for the 21st Century

EdTech
NYT: ...With Liberty and Laptops For All?

Television/V-Chip
WP: Viewers' Mute Response

Internet
WP: White House Resists Taxes On Internet
NYT: Clinton: Don't Tax Internet Commerce
WSJ: Web Magazines' New Battle Cry: Charge!
NYT: Bloomberg to Supply AOL With On-Line Business Data
NYT: Bertelsmann Plans Website For Book Sales Via Internet
NYT: Amplifying Voices For Human Rights
NYT: Web TV Offers Cheap Web Access, But Consumers Are Wary

Jobs
NYT: High-Tech Executives Ask for Leeway on Foreign Workers

Newspapers
NYT: Circuits

Radio
WSJ: Korean War: Radio Is the Battleground of L.A. Broadcasters

** Arts **

Title: NEA Grant Proposal Looks Like a Bomb(er)
Source: Washington Post (A13)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/26/117l-022698-idx.html
Author: Rick Weiss
Issue: Arts
Description: The embattled National Endowment for the Arts has received a
unique proposal: the NEA Army has applied for a grant of $98 million -- the
agency's entire annual budget -- to model a section of the $2 billion B-2
Stealth bomber and carry the work around the country with a sign that simply
read "PRIORITIES." See The NEA Army: Practitioners of Stealth Art home page
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~hodin/NEAArmy/index.html]

** Universal Service **

Title: Commerce Secretary Urges Business Involvement in Wiring Nation
Source: Telecom AM -- 2/26/98
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: In remarks at a conference sponsored by the NTIA and PULP
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/connecting/index.html, Commerce Secretary William
Daley said that companies that help provide Internet access to poor and
rural areas will be "paid back through better workers and better customers."
FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani told participants that the Commission will
soon begin a rulemaking to determine how to increase the availability of
advanced telecommunications capabilities.

Title: Connecting All Americans for the 21st Century
Source: NTIA
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/new.html
Issue: Universal Service
Description: "Connecting All Americans for the 21st Century:
Telecommunications Links in Low Income and Rural Communities. This summit,
sponsored by the Clinton Administration and PULP will address the immediate
opportunities to take full advantage of Telephone Lifeline, improve access
to new telecommunications technology for low income and rural communities,
and develop strategies to connect and network those communities." [Hear it
at http://www.ntia.doc.gov/connecting/index.html]

** EdTech **

Title: ...With Liberty and Laptops For All?
Source: New York Times (E14)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/circuits/articles/26laptop.html
Author: Mike Romano
Issue: Education
Description: This March, New York City Community School District Six will
distribute 1,000 laptops to students in 26 middle schools, expanding the
pilot program, Learning With Laptops, that was started by the Microsoft
Corporation and Toshiba USA three years ago. The venture which arranges
services and lease agreements for schools now includes AT&T, Acer and
Compaq. The majority of schools that participate in the Learning With
Laptops program lease the basic laptop package to parents for three years at
about $58 a month. District Six will split this cost evenly with the
student's families, who get to keep the computers. At a recent Microsoft
promotional meeting in Seattle, teachers participating in the program
reported improved writing and time-management skills and better attendance
among students with laptops.

** Television/V-Chip **

Title: Viewers' Mute Response
Source: Washington Post (D1,D3-2/25/98)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Paul Farhi
Issue: V-Chip
Description: Almost nothing has happened in the almost five months since the
television industry started offering on screen labels to warn viewers about
explicit program material. Given the public's underwhelming response, it is
difficult to say whether they are pleased with the new labels or mystified
by them. Bob Wright, chairman of NBC, said, "We get letters and calls about
everything that's on the air, but this has not been one of them." Jack
Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and who
oversaw the development of the movie and TV ratings said, "This has been a
non-event in TV homes. We were prepared for complaints but so far we haven't
received any." The MPAA has received about 800 letters, emails or phone
calls so far, but almost all of them are requesting a brochure on the new
system.

** Internet **

Title: White House Resists Taxes On Internet
Source: Washington Post (E1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/26/161l-022698-idx.html
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: On Tuesday, the National Governors' Association passed a
resolution urging Congress to allow states to require Internet and
mail-order merchants to collect sales taxes for purchases that are made in
states where the merchants do not have a physical presence. But President
Clinton is backing legislation that would place a moratorium on new Internet
taxes. In an announcement expected today, the President will call for a
commission to develop a uniform approach to taxing Internet purchases.

Title: Clinton: Don't Tax Internet Commerce
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/022698clinton-internet.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: Internet Commerce
Description: When President Clinton addresses a technology investor's
conference in
San Francisco today, he will speak against taxing Internet commerce, said an
administration official on Wednesday. The Administration's position, which
would bar state and local governments from enacting taxes on the Internet
until 2004, is in direct opposition to state governors. The Clinton
Administration believes that the Internet is "spurring the growth of new
industries" and that new taxes imposed by local jurisdictions would
undermine that economic impact.

Title: Web Magazines' New Battle Cry: Charge!
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B1)
Author: Jared Sandberg
Issue: Internet Content
Description: Many online magazines are moving to charge subscribers for
their content. "Everybody wanted to get some market share by giving it away
for free," said the business development manager at the Economist. "But
that's not a model that can last forever. Their business models will evolve
into being paid." If this transition works, it could mark the opening of the
floodgates to pay-per services throughout the Internet and end the flow of
red ink that has sunk many websites. [So, how much are your Headlines worth?]

Title: Bloomberg to Supply AOL With On-Line Business Data
Source: New York Times (D2)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/biztech/articles/26bloomberg.html
Author: Lisa Napoli
Issue: Online Services
Description: Bloomberg L.P. plans to announce today that it will work with
America Online as their feature provider of business information. AOL hopes
that the addition of Bloomberg will further increase confidence in the
online consumer markets that have yet to show a profit.

Title: Bertelsmann Plans Website For Book Sales Via Internet
Source: New York Times (D4)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/biztech/articles/26book.html
Author: Doreen Carvajal
Issue: Internet Commerce/International
Description: Bertelsmann A.G., the German media conglomerate, announced
yesterday plans for a world-wide electronic bookstore. With Bertelsmann's
vast resources, publishing experience and international distribution
network, the bookstore has the potential to become the world's largest
online merchant of books.

Title: Amplifying Voices For Human Rights
Source: New York Times (E14)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/circuits/articles/26justice.html
Author: Michel Marriott
Issue: Internet Content
Description: In an effort to turn the world's attention to the gross amounts
of human suffering that continue to take place around the planet, some human
rights groups are taking their information online. Focus on Justice, an
online human rights group, brings actual accounts of current situations to
people by using video-cassette recorders, television monitors and powerful
computers, much of it donated. "What this technology allows us to do is to
have an impact that no other human rights activists have ever had before,"
said Andrew Greenblatt, co-director of Focus on Justice, which was founded
last fall. Neil V. Getnick, a senior partner in the New York law firm of
Getnick & Getnick and a major supporter of Focus on Justice, said that the
Internet's power to aid human rights is its interactivity: "You can go to a
Web site, learn something about an issue, and then, if you are motivated
about it, immediately have an opportunity to send email to the right people."

Title: Web TV Offers Cheap Web Access, But Consumers Are Wary
Source: New York Times (E6)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/circuits/articles/26webtv.html
Author: Michel Marriott
Issue: Web TV
Description: With almost every U.S. household having a television set,
unlike the only 4 out of 10 American households that have computers,
Microsoft, owner of WebTV Networks, thought that pumped-up TV sets would
quickly replace the home computer. A complete WEBTV system can be purchased
for less than $200 -- one-fifth the cost of a bargain PC. "But sales of
WebTV, the most established player in the Internet-television industry, have
proved modest." Retailers say sales are particularly disappointing when you
consider how quickly video-cassette recorders were adopted by the public.
Yet some people believe that the public will want access to the Internet via
their TV set as soon as they get use to the idea. Matthew York, who began
Smart TV, a magazine published six-times a year that focuses on the
dissolving edges that have separated computers and TV's for decades, said,
"I think the days of TV as we know them are numbered. A major paradigm
shift is taking place." Ahran Achachter, vice-president and general manager
of Datavision, a Fifth Avenue electronics superstore said, "This is not
something that can be thrown into the superstore to be bought like bread or
milk. That can be done when everyone understands what it does."

** Jobs **

Title: High-Tech Executives Ask for Leeway on Foreign Workers
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/cyber/articles/26workers.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Jobs
Description: On Tuesday, high-tech executives came to Capitol Hill to plead
for the ability to bring more foreign workers into the United States in an
effort to fill the deficit of skilled workers available in this country. The
Clinton Administration indicated that it was willing to discuss increasing
the current cap, which now gives visas to up to 65,000 skilled foreign
workers a year. Several technology representatives said that they feared
some of the conditions that were proposed along with an increase would make
an already complex process only more burdensome.

** Newspapers **

Title: Circuits
Source: New York Times (Section E)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/circuits/index.html
Issue: Technology
Description: The New York Times introduces a new section on Technology today
called "Circuits." The new section will come out every Thursday and focus on
the "personal side of digital technology in everyday life."

** Radio **

Title: Korean War: Radio Is the Battleground of L.A. Broadcasters
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (A1)
Author: John Emshwiller
Issue: Radio
Description: Los Angeles two Korean-language radio stations are fierce
rivals. Jea Min Chang runs FM Seoul and Janghee "Jay" Lee runs Radio Korea.
The two trade barbs that would make Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch blush. But
their latest fight has started an international incident. While reporting
from Korea, Radio Korea's news director reported "word on the street" that
Mr. Chang's family-owned media empire was in dire financial straits and
would not be able to print its newspapers the next day. Mr. Chang complained
to Korean authorities and the news director was arrested and charged with
slander.
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Has anyone seen my missing spell checker?