__ __ __ __ __ __ web's eye view (March 10, 1999) | | /| / /| | /| / /| | /| / / alan levine | |/ |/ / | |/ |/ / | |/ |/ / Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction |__/ |__/ |__/|__/ |__/|__/ http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/ ============================================================================== We know Spring Break is coming soon, and we would not want you to leave town without a fresh bag of URLs, ready for pickup at: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/bag/curr.html If you have free time, how about finding some URLs to fill up the next bag? Just send them to: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/bag/drop.html Three Scoops from EDUPAGE ========================= Edupage, 2 March 1999. Edupage, a summary of news about information technology, is provided three times a week as a service of EDUCAUSE, an international nonprofit association dedicated to transforming higher education through information technologies. ************************************************************ OPEN UNIVERSITY OFFERS FIRST ONLINE COURSE Britain's Open University, one of the oldest distance education institutions in existence, this week launched its first online course -- "You, Your Computer and the Net." The course, which is designed for students with little or no technical knowledge, has attracted 2,000 students, with one senior O.U. lecturer calling the response "overwhelming." Participants will use a dedicated Web site and will have e-mail access to individual tutors. The O.U. says the new course is aimed at those "who feel apprehensive about the apparently inexorable march of the new communications technologies." (Financial Times 1 Mar 99) PREPARE FOR Y2K THE WAY YOU'D PREPARE FOR A THREE-DAY BLOW Senator Chris Dodd's advice for getting ready for Y2K is: "What you ought to do is prepare for a good storm, a hurricane, a storm where you'd like two or three days of water and canned goods and the like," but you shouldn't withdraw your money from banks. A study conducted by Dodd and Senator Robert Bennett has concluded that there will be no major problems with regard to the airways, nuclear weapons, or the nation's power grids. (AP 1 Mar 99) HALF OF U.S. CLASSROOMS ARE NOW WIRED The Department of Education says that, largely thanks to government subsidies, 51% of classrooms, school computer and science labs, and school libraries had Internet connections in the Fall of 1998 (compared to 27% in 1997 and only 3% in 1994). Smaller and poorer schools are now just as likely to have Internet connections as larger and wealthier schools. (Reuters/San Jose Mercury News 1 Mar 99) Life and Drama on a Listserv ============================ A colleague shared this article from Salon: http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/feature/1999/03/03feature.html which may interest those that marvel at what happens when people on an e-mail listserv take it too far... | It starts, as usual, with an argument about tone -- in this case, | vibrato. Back in December 1994, Katherine Nagel watched the | Early-Music mailing list erupt for the umpteenth time into "The | Wobble War," over the use (and abuse) of vibrato in medieval | music. "Mild-mannered effete snobs" turned into "raving | lunatics," she says. It was "truly vicious." | | Fed up with the race-to-the-bottom routine, she posted a curt, | sociological summary called "The Natural Life Cyles of Mailing | Lists." According to her theory, all lists went through initial | stages of "enthusiasm" and "evangelism" that rapidly spiraled | down into "discomfort with diversity," and then to "stagnation," | "smug complacency" or (if you're lucky) "maturity." | | She missed one critical step between "discomfort" and "maturity" | -- spontaneous combustion. Facts from the Internet Index ============================= The Internet Index Number 23 Inspired by "Harper's Index"* Compiled by Win Treese (treese@openmarket.com) Co-author of "Designing Systems for Internet Commerce" 28 February 1999 Estimated number of Internet users in China: 1,750,000 Estimated number of users who downloaded the Starr Report from CNN Interactive in the first two days it was available: 1,700,000 Fee to be charged by Delta Airlines for tickets not purchased on the Internet, in dollars: 2 Percentage of Delta Airlines tickets sold via the Internet in 1998: less than 3 Estimated US consumer spending on online retail purchases during 1998 holiday season, in billions of dollars: 8.2 Volume of Internet initial public offerings underwritten by Goldman Sachs in 1998, in millions of dollars: 435.6 Number of members of the U.S. National Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce: 19 Number of Internet companies based in New York City that have gone public since 1990: 16 Number of Internet companies based in San Jose, California, that have gone public since 1990: 6 Estimated percentage of retail stock trades now taking place on the Internet: 25 Number of e-mail messages received by the U.S. SEC about potential Internet-related stock fraud, as of August, 1998: 120 Prize awarded by Cad.Lab for a new company name (Think3) through an Internet contest, in dollars: 50,000 Percentage of print journalists connected to the Internet: 87 Number of outlet stores being closed by Lands' End, partly because of using the Internet: 3 Bank's cost to process an in-person transaction, in dollars: 1.07 Bank's cost to process an Internet transaction, in dollars: 0.01 Number of E-Zines (online magazines) listed in John Labovitz's e-zine list, as of January, 1999: 3022 Estimated percentage of organizations with specific plans to test and deploy IPv6 in 1999: 24 See http://www.treese.org/Commerce for more information on "Designing Systems for Internet Commerce" Copyright 1999 by Win Treese. Send updates or interesting statistics to treese@openmarket.com. "Harper's Index" is a registered trademark of Harper's Magazine Foundation. Past issues and citations to sources can be found at http://www.openmarket.com/intindex/. To subscribe to future issues of the Internet Index, send a message saying "subscribe" in the body to internet-index-request@openmarket.com.