========
Subject: [gmonthly] Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter
From: Michael Hart <hart@beryl.ils.unc.edu>
To: "Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter" <gmonthly@listserv.unc.edu>
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 17:47:21 -0500 (EST)
PROJECT GUTENBERG WEEKLY NEWSLETTER FOR WEDNESDAY, BDECEMBER 19, 2001
LOTS of new information. . .so this is ALSO going to the monthly list.
Because EIGHT more eBooks came in while I was preparing to send this,
AND because large amounts of additional donation possibilities came in,
I am a little late in sending this out, and my calculations might be a
bit shaky, as I had to change the totals and other items over and over
during the process.
***4,227 Tree-Friendly Titles Online******28 New Listings This Week***
In this issue of the Project Gutenberg Weekly newsletter:
- From Michael Hart, Director of Project Gutenberg
- The need for donations LOTS OF NEW INFORMATION...PAYPAL!!! etc.
- Copyright research contact info
- Online proofreading team
- Making Donations, States list
- Access to the collection
- Non-English Texts, Updated Listing
- Information about Mirrors
- "Life + 50" Copyright Countries Listing
- Weekly etext update:
- 4 new etexts at Project Gutenberg of Australia
- 2 updated, corrected or re-indexed etexts
- 20 new U.S. etexts
- Statistics
- Newsscan news
- Information about mailing lists
- Tagline
***
FROM MICHAEL HART, DIRECTOR OF PROJECT GUTENBERG:
I have been encouraged by some of our volunteers to say a
few words in each Newsletter, but I have previously been
trying to keep my own personal views out of any Project
Gutenberg materials.
In a small effort to give something to both sides:
Here is a short file from when Project Gutenberg had only
a small handful of titles, this one was never numbered or
listed in our index. . .perhaps if we collected up more.
THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
(A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS)
by Clement Clarke Moore
THE MILLENNIUM FULCRUM EDITION, 1988
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that ST. NICHOLAS soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
"Now, DASHER! now, DANCER! now, PRANCER and VIXEN!
On, COMET! on CUPID! on, DONDER and BLITZEN!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT."
JEST 'FORE CHRISTMAS
by Eugene Field
THE MILLENNIUM FULCRUM EDITION, 1988
Father calls me William, sister calls me Will,
Mother calls me Willie, but the fellers call me Bill!
Mighty glad I ain't a girl -- ruther be a boy,
Without them sashes, curls, an' things that's worn by Fauntleroy!
Love to chawnk green apples an' go swimmin' in the lake --
Hate to take the castor-ile they give for belly-ache!
'Most all the time the whole year round, there ain't no flies on me,
But jest 'fore Christmas, I'm as good as I kin be!
Got yeller dog named Sport, sick him on the cat;
First thing she knows she doesn't know where she is at!
Got a clipper sled, an' when us kids goes out to slide,
'Long comes the grocery cart, an' we all hook a ride!
But sometimes when the grocery man is worrited an' cross,
He reaches at us with his whip, an' larrups up his hoss,
An' then I laff an' holler, "Oh, ye never teched ME!"
But jest 'fore Christmas, I'm as good as I kin be!
Gran'ma says she hopes that when I git to be a man,
I'll be a missionarer like her oldest brother, Dan,
As was et up by the cannibuls that lives in Ceylon's Isle,
Where every prospeck pleases, an' only man is vile!
But gran'ma she has never been to see a Wild West show,
Nor read the Life of Daniel Boone, or else I guess she'd know
That Buff'lo Bill and cowboys is good enough for me!
EXCEP' jest 'fore Christmas, when I'm as good as I kin be!
And then old Sport he hangs around, so solemn-like an' still,
His eyes they keep a-sayin': "What;s the matter, little Bill?"
The old cat sneaks down off her perch an' wonders what's become
Of them two enemies of hern that used to make things hum!
But I am perlite an' 'tend so earnestly to biz,
That mother says to father: "How improved our Willie is!"
But father, havin' been a boy hisself, suspicions me
When, jest 'fore Christmas, I'm as good as I kin be!
For Christmas, with its lots an' lots of candies, cakes, an' toys,
Was made, they say, for proper kids an' not for naughty boys;
So wash yer face an' brush yer hair, an' mind yer p's an' q's,
An' don't bust out yer pantaloons, an' don't wear out yer shoes;
Say :Yessum" to the ladies, an' "Yessur" to the men,
An' when they's company, don't pass yer plate for pie again;
But, thinkin' of the things yer'd like to see upon that tree,
Jest 'fore Christmas be as good as yer kin be!
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For more information, visit http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/okbooks.html
***
And now the weekly Etext update:
Total PG ebooks available online **AS OF 12/19/01**: 4,224
(This number includes the 34 etexts posted at the PG Australia web site.)
Thru 12/19/01: 50 Weeks & 2 Days (352 days)
1,175 total new etexts, yr-to-date.
Weekly avg.: 23.44
Daily avg: 3.32
The above translates to the following;
Our Total For The Year Is About 1,172 For 352 days,
this is 3.33 per day or 99.89 Per 30 day month. . . .
This Would Yield About 1,215 For The Year. . . .
We are about 50 weeks through the year. . . .
counting each Wednesday as ending one week.
The 26th would be our last Newsletter, so I
am wondering if we missed counting a week.
52 x 7 = 364. . .so should always be 52 Wednesdays.
Five years ago, in Dec 1996, we announced etext #768; this
represented the output for the first 25 years of Project
Gutenberg. Five years later there are more than 4,200 etexts
on line.
***
--=={ PROJECT GUTENBERG OF AUSTRALIA: NEW POSTS }==--
Four new etexts this week:
Dec 2001 The Rainbow, by D H Lawrence [DL#02][010034xx.xxx]0034A
Dec 2001 St. Thomas Aquinas, by G K Chesterton [GC#03][010033xx.xxx]0033A
Dec 2001 Tales of the Long Bow, by G K Chesterton [GC#02][010032xx.xxx]0032A
Dec 2001 The Everlasting Man, by G K Chesterton [GC#01][010031xx.xxx]0031A
Be sure to read the "Life +50" info above.
***
--=={ REVISIONS, CORRECTIONS AND NEW FORMATS }==--
The following file has been re-indexed to include the HTML version:
Jul 2003 The South Pole, Vols 1 and 2, Roald Amundsen [#3][7tsp12xx.xxx]4229
Jul 2003 The South Pole, Vols 1 and 2, Roald Amundsen [#3][8tsp12xx.xxx]4229
[Note: The HTML version is named tspv1210h.htm and tspv1210h.zip]
Correction:
Jul 2003 Shearing in the Riverina, by Rolf Boldrewood [shrrvxxx.xxx]4221
^ was listed as "Rold"
An improved 11th edition is available for:
Jun 1998 Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen [Austen #8][pandpxxx.xxx]1342
Thanks to Andrew Sly, etext98/pandp11.txt and .zip
--=={ 28 NEW U.S. POSTS }==--
Jul 2003 A Yorkshire Tragedy, Shakespeare Apocrypha [ws#52][1ws52xxx.xxx]4255
Jul 2003 Miscellanies upon Various Subjects, J. Aubrey [#1][amiscxxx.xxx]4254
[Author's full name: John Aubrey][Michael Coker is already working on #2]
Jul 2003 Dramatic Romances by Robert Browning [Browning #3][dramrxxx.xxx]4253
Jul 2003 Theodore Roosevelt, by Edmund Lester Pearson [roosexxx.xxx]4252
Jul 2003 The Life Everlasting, Marie Corelli [Corelli #3][everlxxx.xxx]4251
[Subtitle: A Reality of Romance]
Jul 2003 Imperial Purple, by Edgar Saltus [purplxxx.xxx]4250
Jul 2003 In the Sweet Dry and Dry, by Morley and Haley [sweetxxx.xxx]4249
[Author's full names: Christopher Morley and Bart Haley]
Jul 2003 The Problem of Ohio Mounds, by Cyrus Thomas [omondxxx.xxx]4248
Jul 2003 New Found Land Of Virginia, by Thomas Hariot [7nflvxxx.xxx]4247
Jul 2003 New Found Land Of Virginia, by Thomas Hariot [8nflvxxx.xxx]4247
[Full title: A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land Of Virginia]
Jul 2003 Beulah, by Augusta J. Evans [bulahxxx.xxx]4246
Jul 2003 History of James the Second, by Charles James Fox [hsjmsxxx.xxx]4245
Jul 2003 Among the Tibetans, by Isabella L. Bird [Bird #4][amgtbxxx.xxx]4244
[Author's Full Name: Isabella L. Bird (Mrs. Bishop)]
Jul 2003 Colloquies on Society, by Robert Southey[Southey2][cllscxxx.xxx]4243
Jul 2003 Beautiful Europe - Belgium, by Joseph E. Morris [bpblgxxx.xxx]4242
Jul 2003 Se-quo-yah, from Harper's New Monthly, V.41 [sqoyhxxx.xxx]4241
Jul 2003 Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence [Lawrence#2][wmnlvxxx.xxx]4240
Jul 2003 Essay on the Principle of Population, by Malthus [prpplxxx.xxx]4239
[Full title: An Essay on the Principle of Population, by Thomas Malthus]
Jul 2003 Economy of Machinery, by Charles Babbage [CB#2][cnmmmxxx.xxx]4238
[Full title: On the Economy Of Machinery And Manufactures]
Jul 2003 Australian Search Party, by Charles Henry Eden [strspxxx.xxx]4237
Jul 2003 Dynevor Terrace(Vol. II),by Charlotte M Yonge[#16][dnvr2xxx.xxx]4236
Jul 2003 Dynevor Terrace (Vol. I),by Charlotte M Yonge[#15][dnvr1xxx.xxx]4235
Jul 2003 Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 2 [#2][cwlv2xxx.xxx]4234
[Francis Hueffer (translator)]
Jul 2003 Jeanne Of The Marshes, E. Phillips Oppenheim [#11][jnmshxxx.xxx]4233
The following completes the previously reserved section of 4101-4200:
Jun 2003 Diary of Samuel Pepys, Diary Entire [SP#85][sp85gxxx.xxx]4200
Jun 2003 Diary of Samuel Pepys, 1669 N.S. Complete [SP#84][sp84gxxx.xxx]4199
Jun 2003 Diary of Samuel Pepys, Apr/May 1668 [SP#83][sp83gxxx.xxx]4198
Jun 2003 Diary of Samuel Pepys, Feb/Mar 1668/69 [SP#82][sp82gxxx.xxx]4197
Jun 2003 Diary of Samuel Pepys, January 1668/69 [SP#81][sp81gxxx.xxx]4196
--=={ ETEXT "COST" $$$: }==--
With 4,227 eTexts online as of December 19, it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $2.37 from each book,
for Project Gutenberg to have already given away $1,000,000,000,000
[One Trillion Dollars] in books.
*100,000,000 readers is one to two percent of the world's population!*
This "cost" is down from $2.40 when we had 4161 Etexts on Dec 5
This "cost" is down from $2.46 when we had 4059 Etexts on Nov 1
This "cost" is down from $2.53 when we had 3951 Etexts on Oct 3
This "cost" is down from $2.61 when we had 3828 Etexts on Sep 5
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This "cost" is down from $2.90 when we had 3444 Etexts on May 2
This "cost" is down from $2.97 when we had 3367 Etexts on Apr 4
[This was the month we released two full Newsletters at one time]
This "cost" is down from $3.00 when we had 3333 Etexts on Apr 4
This "cost" is down from $3.10 when we had 3225 Etexts on Mar 7
This "cost" is down from $3.17 when we had 3150 Etexts on Feb 6
This "cost" is down from $3.23 when we had 3100 Etexts on Jan 3, 2001
This "cost" is down from $3.33 when we had 3000 Etexts on Dec 6, 2000
Month ### Yearly Total
12/19/01 27 1175
12/12/01 39 1148
12/05/01 19 1109
Dec subTotal 85
Nov Total 82 1090 11 Month Average 99.09
Oct Total 107 1008 10 Month Average 100.80
Sep Total 119 901 9 Month Average 100.11
Aug Total 123 782 8 Month Average 97.75
Jul Total 93 659 7 Month Average 94.14
Jun Total 107 566 6 Month Average 94.33
May Total 70 459 5 Month Average 91.80
Apr Total 82 389 4 97.25
Mar Total 132 307 3 102.33
Feb Total 75 175 2 87.50
Jan Total 100 100 1 100.00
1st Qtr ending 04/04/01 (13 weeks):
307 total for an avg. of 23.62/wk
2nd Qtr ending 07/04/01 (13 weeks):
259 total for an avg. of 19.952/wk
3rd Qtr ending 10/03/01 (13 weeks):
335 total for an avg. of 25.77/wk
***
[Are Copyright Royalties Only Paid By The "Have-Nots???]
GROUPS REACH TENTATIVE DEAL ON WEBCAST ROYALTIES
Attorneys representing radio broadcasters, record labels and music artists
have signed a tentative settlement in an ongoing dispute over whether radio
broadcasters owe additional royalty payments when they put their stations'
programming online. If the deal is finalized, it could be an important step
toward resolving the tangle of legal issues surrounding online music. Radio
companies currently do not pay recording firms royalties on songs they
broadcast over the airwaves and have argued that the exemption should apply
to online "Webcasts" as well. That issue is now on appeal. The current
agreement depends on the U.S. Copyright Office to support arbitration to
resolve the question of a royalty rate to be paid by Internet-only
Webcasters who offer music online but don't own any radio stations.
(Wall Street Journal 17 Dec 2001)
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB1008547645508673600.htm
[Is This Fighting The New Bigshots Being Able To Buy In Cheap???]
HEWLETT URGES HP AND COMPAQ TO CALL OFF MERGER
Walter Hewlett, son of Hewlett-Packard co-founder William Hewlett, has sent
a letter to the boards of both HP and Compaq, urging them to call off their
$22.8-billion merger. "There is enormous unhappiness out there about this
transaction. This unhappiness goes far beyond those shareholders and
analysts that have spoken out publicly," said Hewlett in his letter. He
warned that by pushing ahead, HP and Compaq both would suffer "serious and
increasing adverse consequences^E Value is being lost here by both companies
with each day that passes. The market clearly agrees." Compaq's board on
Thursday said it strongly disagrees with Hewlett's conclusions and believes
that the merger would create long-term shareholder value. Meanwhile, HP
officials have suggested that Hewlett's opposition to the deal places him
in a conflict-of-interest position, and that he should consider resigning
from the HP board. (Financial Times 13 Dec 2001)
http://news.ft.com/news/industries/infotechnology
CONGRESS HAS LOW INTEREST IN CONSTITUENT (E-)MAIL
A test by a New York Times reporter found that e-mail sent to Congressional
offices is unlikely to be read. After sending messages to 65 Senate offices
identifying herself as a reporter for the Times doing a story on e-mail
message-handling by members of Congress, she received only 27 automated
response and 7 other responses within two weeks. One of seven full
responses was from Larry Neal, the deputy chief of staff for Senator Phil
Gramm of Texas, who explained: "The communication that Sen. Gramm values
most certainly does not arrive by wire. It is the one where someone sat
down at a kitchen table, got a sheet of lined paper and a No. 2 pencil, and
poured their heart into a letter." (New York Times 13 Dec 2001)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/technology/circuits/13CONG.html
RELEASE OF RUSSIAN PROGRAMMER
Dmitry Sklyarov, the 27-year-old Russian programmer arrested in the U.S.
for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by writing and
promoting code that could be used to evade the copy-protection features of
the Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader, is being released, but the U.S. government
will continue its prosecution of his employer, ElcomSoft of Moscow.
Skylarov's cause was embraced by a worldwide collection of programmers,
scientists, free-speech advocates and civil libertarians who organized
"Free Dmitry" rallies. (San Jose Mercury News 14 Dec 2001)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/hacker121401.htm
LINGUIST SAYS: RELAX ABOUT NETSPEAK
In his new book "Language and the Internet," Welsh linguist David Crystal
welcomes the way the Internet "shows language expanding richly in all sorts
of directions," including instant-message-abbreviations ("RUOK" for "Are
you okay?") and iconic abbreviations such as :) and its frowning, winking,
and various other cousins. "A whole new medium of communication does not
arrive very often in the history of the race. The Internet is a genuine
third medium of communication," which will in the future "probably be the
main way we humans communicate." He urges the language purists to relax,
let language develop naturally, and avoid being "depressingly
prescriptive." "If I leave out the punctuation in an e-mail, you don't say,
'Crystal doesn't know his grammar.' You say, 'Crystal's in a hurry.'" He
predicts that the conventions of Internet use will emerge on their own:
"We'll learn gradually what works and what doesn't, just as we've already
learned that if we type out a whole sentence in capital letters, it upsets
people." (New York Times 13 Dec 2001)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/technology/circuits/13NEXT.html
FBI CONFIRMS DEVELOPMENT OF KEYSTROKE-CAPTURING EAVESDROP TECHNOLOGY
The FBI has confirmed that it has under development a technology that could
use the Internet to plant Trojan Horse software in a criminal or terrorist
suspect's PC that would capture passwords to access the suspect's e-mail
and other documents. An FBI official said, "Like all technology projects or
tools deployed by the FBI it would be used pursuant to the appropriate
legal process." (Reuters/Yahoo 12 Dec 2001)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20011212/tc/tech_magiclantern_dc_1.html
MICROSOFT FIXING SECURITY FLAW IN INTERNET EXPLORER
Finnish security researcher Jouko Pynnonen of Oy Online Solutions says that
Microsoft is working on a software patch to fix a security vulnerability in
Internet Explorer versions 5, 5.5, and 6, which would make it possible for
a malicious intruder to exploit ordinary Web page code to bypass the
browse's system for securely handling downloaded files. A Microsoft
spokesperson declined to discuss the status of the browser patch at this
time. (Newsbytes 11 Dec 2001) http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172878.html
DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING FINDS LARGEST PRIME
A 20-year-old Canadian man has identified the world's largest prime number
using a desktop computer linked to a 210,000-machine quasi-supercomputer
distributed around the globe. Michael Cameron, a participant in the Great
Internet Mersenne Prime Search that uses the PrimeNet network system to
perform calculations, announced his discovery that "2 to the 13,466,917th
power minus 1" is the largest prime number. (Mersenne primes are named
after Marin Mersenne, a French monk born in 1588 who investigated a
particular type of prime number: 2 to the power of "p" minus one, in which
"p" is an ordinary prime number.) The concept of distributed computing is
not limited to the academic world. Companies such as Intel and Sun
Microsystems use it for designing microprocessors, and the idea is closely
linked to "grid" computing, which unites computers and storage systems into
a single pool of resources. (CNet News.com 13 Dec 2001)
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-8159590.html?tag=tp_pr
[Remember What I've Been Saying About Pay-Per-View???]
CABLE LOOKS TO VOD FOR NEW REVENUE
Cable TV systems are set to turn up the volume on video-on-demand in 2002,
as they seek to boost profits while taking advantage of their
multi-billion-dollar investment in digital TV upgrades. "How many people
are interested in the couple of hundred extra channels (available on
digital cable)? They need something to drive digital, and that's going to
be VOD," says an analyst at CIBC Markets. Charter Communications is
currently the leader in rolling out VOD, offering the service in 12 markets
to approximately one-third of its 6.9 million customers. Charter's early
marketing studies show that, in addition to boosting demand for digital
services, VOD reduces churn -- the number of subscribers who drop the
service. "It's a real differentiator for us," says Charter VP Jim
Henderson. "It's not something that satellite (TV) can easily offer."
Analysts say cable's efforts to lure VOD subscribers could be a
double-edged sword. Cable firms have enough bandwidth and servers to
accommodate 10% of their subscribers ordering VOD at the same time, and a
surge in VOD demand would overwhelm cable network capacity. Cable's real
problem, however, remains access to content -- Hollywood studios are
demanding 60% of VOD revenue, as opposed to the traditional 50-50 split for
pay-per-view movies. So far, cable firms have struck deals with only Sony's
Columbia TriStar and Vivendi's Universal Pictures, although No. 2 cable
operator AOL Time Warner can count on its own stable of HBO programming and
other content for its planned subscription VOD service.
(Investor's Business Daily 12 Dec 2001)
http://www.investors.com/editorial/tech.asp?v=12/12
FREE CELL PHONE MINUTES DWINDLING
Free minutes -- one of the perks that's successfully enticed many people to
sign up for cell phone service -- are slowly being phased out, as carriers
look for ways to ease network congestion and introduce consistency to their
nationwide calling plans. Sprint PCS recently became the latest carrier to
shift the start time for its night calling period to 9 p.m. from 8 p.m.,
following similar moves in many markets by Cingular Wireless and Verizon
Wireless. The number of U.S. cell phone subscribers is nearly 130 million,
almost double the level three years ago, and companies say their success in
attracting users is also overloading their network capacity, causing more
dropped calls and busy signals. By moving the start of off-peak calling
back an hour, they're better able to keep residential and business traffic
from overlapping. (USA Today 11 Dec 2001)
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/wireless/2001/12/11/free-cell-minutes-dry
-up.htm
You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan Daily
Underwritten by Arthur Andersen & IEEE Computer Society
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CONGRESS FACES DEFINING ISSUE OVER COPYRIGHT LAW
Interactive Web radio stations may be granted the same licenses
other radio stations have if proposed changes to the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act are accepted by Congress. A House
Judiciary Committee will review the proposal, which the
Recording Industry Association of America opposes. Current law
limits the type of radio broadcasts that recording studios must
offer licenses to, and the Web broadcasters in the Digital Media
Association want to broaden that definition. Metrics firm
MeasureCast said the number of people listening to Internet
radio in October tripled since January, and Jupiter Media Metrix
has said 30 million consumers will have bought music online this year.
(InternetNews.com, 13 December 2001)
A WIN-WIN SITUATION DOWN AT THE LAB
Media Lab Europe (MLE), the counterpart of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology's Media Lab, has set up its own
venture capital arm to help distribute the benefits of
research evenly between inventors and corporate sponsors.
Companies provide the cash for the new Media Lab Ventures
group and share in the rewards. But, by providing open access
to funds, researchers have more freedom in their projects and
do not feel they must shield research that could potentially
be the base of their own startup company. As a result, MLE
chief executive Rudolf Burger expects more licenses to come
from the laboratory and fewer spinoffs that drain talent. MLE
was launched in 2000 by Nicholas Negroponte, who also set up
the U.S. Media Lab. He set up shop in Dublin, in return for
a $32 million grant from the Irish government, which is eager
to bolster foreign investment. (Financial Times, 17 December 2001)
[Meanwhile, Edupage Seems To Have Remained Less Partisan]
E-TEXT FINDS ITS WAY ON CAMPUS
The University of Phoenix will stop using textbooks in favor
of online reading materials. The phase-out will be conducted
over a year, affecting 95,000 students nationwide. Students
will be required to pay $70 per course to access an online
reference library that provides reading materials, work books,
and syllabi. A pilot program was launched across its U.S.
campuses last month. "We were looking to create one-stop
shopping for our students, a way to pick up everything you
need with just a click of the mouse," said VP of U-P metro
Detroit Ted Blashak. Officials at Michigan's Oakland and Wayne
State universities are also debating the use of e-texts but
are waiting until publishers create delivery standards for
electronic learning materials.
(Detroit Free Press Online, 5 December 2001)
GOVERNMENT E-CHIEFS WELCOME ONLINE CURRICULUM
The United Kingdom announced a new 50-million-pound national
e-learning project named Curriculum On-line. The government,
software firms, and public/private broadcasters will be involved
in the initiative. Curriculum On-line aims to provide online
teaching resources on all educational subjects. In addition, the
project would help boost U.K. broadband services, said E-Commerce
Minister Douglas Alexander. Teachers would be able to offer
customized education programs for each student, he said. A
five-point plan created for the undertaking includes a library
of e-learning materials, access to commercial products, funds
for purchasing digital resources, and a content advisory board.
(netimperative.com, 11 December 2001)
CHINESE TO BECOME MOST-USED LANGUAGE ON WEB
By 2007, Chinese will surpass English as the most-used language
on the Internet, reports a United Nations World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) conference in Geneva focusing on
multilingual domain names. Currently, English speakers compose
a slight majority of the world's 460 million Web users, but by
2002, non-English speakers will hold the majority. While domain You have been reading excerpts from Edupage:
names have been issued mostly in English and in Latin-based If you have questions or comments about Edupage,
characters around the world, domain names are now available in send e-mail to: edupage@educause.edu
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