Edupage Items of Interest

The following items of interest appeared in recent editions of Edupage. Edupage is a summary of news items on information technology provided as a service by Educom (http:// www.educom.edu/).

• Less TV Viewing, More Online Cruising A Yahoo/Jupiter Web User Survey reports that 61% of the respondents said theyre watching less television and spending more time online. Sixty-six percent would not be willing to pay a monthly fee for access to enter Web sites, which makes it more likely that advertising support will play an increasingly crucial role in making online commerce a reality. (Edupage, 12 Nov 95 reporting from Broadcasting & Cable 6 Nov 95 p 113)
• Will Computers Replace TVs? MIT Media Center Director Nicholas Negroponte says hes decided computers are going to replace TVs because for the past five years, people who build personal computers have been putting more and more video into their personal computers. When these two industrial trends converge, there will be no distinction between the two ... In the future, we wont be pushing bits at people like were doing today. It doesnt matter whether you call the receiver a TV or a PC. Whats going to change is how those bits are delivered. (Edupage, 5 Nov 95 reporting from Wired Nov 95 p 146)
• Webmasters in Great Demand A Web Week survey reports that Webmasters at big companies generally enjoy responsibility, authority and respectable remuneration. The typical webmaster is male (87.5%), in his 30s (55%), earns more than $45,000 a year (57.5%), and often more than $65,000 a year (37.5%). Rather than being nerdy troglodytes who emerge from their dens only for another meal of nachos, Cheeze Whiz and Jolt cola, Web Week found that many webmasters play a leading role in developing their companies online strategies. Andy many of them dont like the name webmaster, suggesting instead webmeister, webmasochist, or all- knowing and -seeing ruler of time, dimension and space alternatives. (Edupage, 7 Nov 95 reporting from Tampa Tribune 6 Nov 95 A2)
• PCs By Gender About 50% of all personal computers are purchased by women today (compared to only 30% fifteen years ago), and companies such as Compaq and IBM are planning Major new advertising Campaigns for this strong new market segment. (Edupage, 7 Nov 95 reporting from U.S. News & World Report 6 Nov 95 p. 66)
• Groupware or Webware? Companies are beginning to turn to the World Wide Web for their Intranets smaller private networks that combine text, graphics and video to distribute news, answer employee questions, update personnel records and connect geographically distant workers. Companies note that doing it on the Web, while less secure, is cheaper, easier to install, more flexible and requires much less training than using a groupware package such as Lotus Notes. Sales of Intranet software are on the rise, from $142 million this year to a predicted $1.2 billion in 1997. And while Notes has 3 million users, Intranets link about 15 million workers, according to Zona Research Inc. (Edupage, 7 Nov 95 reporting from Wall Street Journal 7 6 Nov 95 A1)
• Cutthroat Competition Among Web Browsers In less than a year, sales of Web browsers have soared from almost zero to $50 million, according to Forrester Research. By 2000, Forrester estimates annual sales will be around $250 million. But dont buy yet whatever you get will be obsolete in no time: Any Web browser purchased today should be considered to have a half-life of six months at most, says a Gartner Group analyst. Theres a tremendous amount of competition and cutthroat pricing. The browser market is a worst-case business situation. You have to constantly innovate. At the same time, you have to cut prices. (Edupage, 22 Oct 95 reporting from Information Week 23 Oct 95 p 81)
• Venture Capital Targets the Net Anything with the word Internet in it is turning the heads of todays venture capitalists, with analysts predicting that venture-capital investment in Net-related companies will triple this year from last years $42 million. In the first half of 1995 alone, $68 million flowed into Internet upstarts. Programs that search the Internet for specific information are the hot story of the moment, says the president of Jupiter Communications, a Market research firm. (Edupage, 22 Oct 95 reporting from Business Week 23 Oct 95 A7)
• Newspapers Combine Help Wanted Ads Six major newspapers have combined their help wanted listings in a CarrerPath database available on the World Wide Web (http://www.careerpath.com/). (Edupage, 19 Oct 95 reporting from Miami Herald 18 Oct 95 C3)
• Virus-Blocker McAfee Associates has a new product called WebScan that identifies virus-tainted programs before theyre downloaded and warns the user not to continue. Security experts say WebScan is the first product that prevents viruses from infecting a computer to begin with, rather than attacking the problem after its already occurred. (Edupage, 7 Nov 95 reporting from Wall Street Journal 6 Nov 95 p B6)
• AOL Alerts Users to Trojan Horse America Online issued a warning to its users about a destructive file attached to an E-mail message that has been circulating through its service and also over the Internet. The message itself is okay, but trying to run an attached Trojan Horse file called AOLGold or install.exe could crash a hard drive. (Edupage, 16 Nov 95 reporting from Atlanta Journal-Constitution 16 Nov 95 F7)
• The Future of the University Columbia University professor Eli Noam sees a reversal in the historic direction of information flow: In the past, people came to the information, which was stored at the university. In the future, the information will come to the people, wherever they are. What then is the role of the university? Will it be more than a collection of remaining physical functions, such as the science laboratory and football team? Will the impact of electronics on the university be like that of printing on the medieval cathedral, ending its central role in information transfer? Have we reached the end of the line of a model that goes back to Ninevah, more than 2500 years ago? Can we self-reform the university, or must things get much worse first? (Edupage, 22 Oct 95 reporting from Science 13 Oct 95 p 247)

To report any problems or questions about this server please contact us by sending mail to www@unt.edu. Thanks!