- According to Stanford technology law professor Lawrence Lessig, American copyright
laws no longer serve artists, but rather serve the copyright holders. This, he says, stifles
innovation and diminishes culture and intellectual history. This direction shifts the power of
culture to the property owners. What is ironic is that technologies have the potential to
open up and diversify culture, providing artists with greater control. But, corporate
copyright "hoarders" are fighting breakthroughs such as peer-to-peer communications
programs that bypass copyright controls and the younger generation is handicapping
change to the system by their trend toward political noninvolvement. (Wired News, 27
Nov 01)

- The Linux-based DataGRID will provide computing resources to many European
research initiatives. CERN, Switzerland's particle physics lab, is the primary driver behind
DataGRID. It will soon start producing petabytes of data on an annual basis, generated by
its hadron collider. The 10 million euro DataGRID is expected to be running by the time
the collider is completed in 2006. CERN said that the network is just as large and important
as grid networks in the United States, and that it will become an equal partner with them.
(Wired News, 20 Nov 01)

- Many colleges and universities worldwide are considering deploying handheld devices
throughout the student population. Dartmouth College has implemented a Handspring
Visor program into its department of psychology and brain sciences; iPaq handhelds are
required for the University of Duluth's engineering freshmen in computer science and IT
and the University of South Dakota has mandated the class of 2005 and to carry Palms.
USD faculty are optimistic that the devices will be used for a wide variety of academic
applications. (M-Business, Nov 01)

- MIT's WWW Consortium predicts that the Internet of the future will be much more
interactive than it is now. To enable this, a framework of computers will actually
understand the data they display, as well as the information their human users are looking
for. This framework will use virtual agents that will scour and interpret the Web. This will
be done by tagging data to make it intelligible by computers. Tagging involves inference
rules and common definitions. (NewsFactor Network, 13 Nov 01)

- According to a New York Times report, French intelligence experts have discovered that
members of an Al Qaeda Terrorist cell used special software called steganography to hide
messages in digital photographs posted to websites like E-Bay. Steganography experts at
SUNY-Binghamton and the U of Michigan are now working to develop a detection
program that will intercept these types of messages. To read more about this and the issues
it raises go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/30/science/physical/30STEG.html

- Corynne McSherry, Stanford law student and author, argues that professors who oppose
university administrators by seeking ownership of their work endanger the system because
it involves intellectual property laws where they had not been involved before. She suggests
examining the structure of universities and also having better hiring agreements for
professors as a possible solution. (Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 6 Nov 01)
For the Chronicle Web site go to: http://www.chronicle.com/

- Blackboard plans to unify its three electronic education platforms with a new packaging
concept. Three packages will be offered, Blackboard: 1) 5 Learning System, 2) 5
Community Portal System and 3) Transaction System. The company sees higher
education following the administrative systems market by providing this suite approach.
For more information go to: http://www.blackboard.com

- The .edu domain has been turned over to the non-profit group EDUCAUSE, by the US
government. The five-year contract will allow the .edu domain to operate outside of the
government where the community will have a stronger voice. EDUCAUSE Vice President,
Mark Luker, announced last spring that one of the group's first mandates would be to set
up an open decision-making process for policy changes. Community colleges can begin
submitting applications for .edu addresses on November 12, 2001. (Newsbytes, 29
Oct 01)