__     __ __     __ __     __   web's eye view (July 8, 1999)
| | /| / /| | /| / /| | /| / /   alan levine                        
| |/ |/ / | |/ |/ / | |/ |/ /    Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction
|__/ |__/ |__/|__/  |__/|__/     http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/
============================================================================

The freshest bag of URLs, in a stunning shade of red, white and blue, is ready for pickup at

   http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/bag/curr.html


Where the Techie Jobs Area
==========================
from Civic.com

| **************************************************************
| Commerce Dept. Report Names States with Most IT Jobs
| **************************************************************
| The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that between 1996 and
| 2006, the United States will require more than 1.3 million highly
| skilled IT workers in core occupations such as computer science,
| engineering, programming and systems analysis.
| http://www.civic.com/news/1999/june/civ-jobs-7-2-99.html


Art Degrees online
==================

| The Art Institutes to Offer New Degrees Online 
| This fall, The Art Institutes' family of schools will offer
| three degrees in careers involving the Internet and
| encompassing marketing and design. A bachelor's degree
| program in Online Media & Marketing will be introduced at
| The Colorado Institute of Art and will also be available at
| seven other bachelor-degree granting Art Institutes
| nationwide. A bachelor's degree in Game Art & Design will
| begin at The Art Institute of Phoenix. An associate degree
| program in Multimedia & Web Design will initially be
| introduced at 11 of The Art Institutes (including locations
| in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Fort Lauderdale, Los
| Angeles, Minnesota, Phoenix, Schaumburg, IL and Seattle),
| ultimately being offered at all Art Institute locations
| nationwide. The Online Media & Marketing degree curriculum
| will focus on the business and strategic elements of online
| advertising and marketing, while the Multimedia & Web Design
| major will train students in the design aspect of online
| marketing. said David J. Pauldine, executive vice president
| and head of the new product team at Education Management
| Corporation (EDMC), parent company of The Art Institutes,
| "We have built a curriculum that will allow students to
| master the industry's most sought after skills and put them
| in a position to contribute immediately to the companies
| that hire them." Headquartered in Pittsburgh, EDMC employs
| 2,800 staff and faculty and had a Fall 1998 enrollment of
| more than 20,000 students. EDMC schools have more than
| 100,000 alumni worldwide. For more information, visit
| http://www.aii.edu.


Speaking of Spam
================

We are not talking about the potted meat fod product in the
blue can, but unwanted junk email.

If you are bothered by spam e-mail, there are no magical
solutions, but lately I have had fair success using the
services from SpamCop:

  http://spamcop.net/

Your first step is to create an email account for yourself
that is not one tied to you in any clear way and that you
would not use for any other purpose-- this is a great
reason for using a web-based service such as Hotmail, Excite,
Yahoo mail, etc.

When you get a piece of spam, you copy the entire message,
go to your SpamCop bookmarked page, paste it in and
submit to the "cop". The site analyzes the information stored
in the "header" of your email and is able to often identify the
true source of it. The spamcop then generates an automated
notice to the administrators of the offending site.


News from EduPage
=================
You can get your weekly doses of educational technology
news by signing up at:

  http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html

| MICROSOFT EXPLORER IS NEW BROWSER LEADER A new study to be
| released Monday by Ziff-Davis research group InfoBeads will
| report that Microsoft's Internet Explorer is used by half of
| the combined household and corporate browser market,
| surpassing Netscape's Navigator.  The study found that IE
| was installed on 33.8 million PCs by January 1999 -- almost
| double the amount from the previous year -- while Navigator
| is in use on just 32 million computers, or 47 percent of the
| market.  However, nearly 60 percent of users with five or
| more years of Web experience use Navigator, but only 42
| percent of users with one year of experience use Netscape's
| browser. (Los Angeles Times 06/07/99)
 
| FEELING SPAMMED? INTERNET USERS DELUGED BY JUNK E-MAIL A
| Gartner Group survey of 13,000 e-mail users shows that more
| than 90 percent receive junk e-mail at least once a week, a
| probability that increases to 96 percent for those Internet
| users who have had an e-mail address for at least four
| years.  The survey shows that one of every three Internet
| users receives six to 20 spam e-mail messages per week. 
| Money making schemes, adult ads, and software offers were
| the most frequently received bulk e-mail. Survey respondents
| said they are loath to deal with spam because it wastes
| time, violates privacy, and is often offensive.  The survey
| shows that ISPs lose 7.2 percent of their new customers
| every year due to spam.  Forty percent of those surveyed
| would like to see a ban on spam, 25 percent say it should be
| regulated, and 25 percent say that deleting spam is the only
| way it can be controlled.  Not everyone detests spam -- 1
| percent enjoy receiving it and 2 percent enjoy it somewhat. 
| (USA Today 06/14/99)
 
| PASSING WITHOUT DISTINCTION Since its launch last fall,
| distance learning pioneer Western Governors University (WGU)
| has so far failed to live up to its promise.  The school,
| which brokers virtual classes offered by colleges and
| companies, expected to have enrollments of 3,000 by the end
| of its first school year, but so far has only about 100
| students.  Proponents of distance learning say the concept
| will catch on eventually, and International Data says it
| expects overall enrollments in college-level distance
| learning courses to increase threefold, to 2.2 million, by
| 2002.  Meanwhile, WGU has gotten new leadership in the form
| of CEO Robert W. Mendenhall, more funding from chief backer
| AT&T, a new partnership with the UK's Open University, and
| the attention of Vice President Al Gore, who placed WGU in
| his Access America for Students program to offer
| college-related government services such as student loan
| applications online. (CIO Web Business 06/01/99)
 
| ON THE WEB, AS ELSEWHERE, POPULARITY IS SELF-REINFORCING A
| study conducted by researchers from Xerox found that 5
| percent of all Web sites received 74.81 percent of all Web
| traffic.  This finding seems to refute the claims of some
| Web developers and entrepreneurs that argue that the Web is
| a great equalizing business opportunity.  The study also
| found that the most popular sites are those that were
| created first and have had the most time to gain
| word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and
| acquaintances.  The Xerox findings echo those of IBM
| researchers. IBM researchers, which graphed Web site
| hyperlinks in an effort to improve Web search technologies,
| found that large numbers of hyperlinks to a particular Web
| site can be a good measure of the site's popularity.  (New
| York Times 06/21/99)

 
| TEXTBOOK PUBLISHER LAYS PLANS FOR AN INTERNET UNIVERSITY
| Academic publishing house Harcourt General is joining the
| growing business of distance education.  It plans to expand
| its online offerings with three ventures:  Harcourt
| University; an Internet high school for students planning to
| take high-school equivalency exams; and an e-commerce site
| called Harcourt.com.  Through its university, Harcourt may
| become the first major publishing house to offer accredited
| college degrees, pending approval from the New England
| Association of Schools and Colleges.  Yet Harcourt faces
| much opposition, particularly from college professors
| concerned that Internet-based education denies students the
| personal interaction central to a traditional learning
| experience.  University bookstores and other traditional
| distributors may also oppose the venture because it competes
| with their sales.  Last, Harcourt will face strong
| competition from the companies and universities already
| providing online courses. Harcourt maintains that its
| educational offerings will be unique. Its university, which
| may begin to offer courses by September 2000, will teach a
| range of subjects in arts and sciences. (Wall Street Journal
| 07/02/99)