Germany clears way for powerline Net distribution
April 1, 2001
By JIM BROOKS
Germany's upper house of parliament cleared the way recently for a
new technology that may revolutionize the way homes and businesses
are connected to the Internet.
A company called Powerline can now implement high-speed Internet
access through the electric utility power lines.
Germany is the test market for Powerline's technology, and if
successful, could lead to another method of Internet access here in
the U.S.
Tests for the power line distribution system in Europe has been
successful. Differences in the power distributions systems between
Europe and the U.S. may make the technology more difficult to deploy here.
The technology is seen as one way to bring some competition for
Internet access into Germany, which depends mainly on telephone lines
for its Internet access.
The Powerline technology will first be deployed in Mannheim, Germany
in May. Three thousand customers will take part in the first tests.
Powerline will be supplying its technology to five other electric utilities.
RWE, the leading German utility, said its goal is to sign up 20,000
customers by the end of the year. Charges for Internet access will be
set up by the amount of data customers receive.
INTERNET@SCHOOL. A study by a nonprofit group that supports
the use of technology in schools shows that while most schools have
Internet access, most teachers don't spend much time online.
You may recall the group that conducted the survey -- NetDay -- from
their debut five years ago. The California-based group held its first
NetDay Wiring Event on March 31, 1996, to help get California schools
connected to the Internet.
With President Bill Clinton's help, 50,000 volunteers helped get
one-quarter of California's 13,000 schools online in a single day.
Since its beginnings, NetDay has continued to promote Internet use in
schools, and its recent survey is a barometer of how the Internet has
evolved into a must-have school resource.
NetDay found that 97 percent of the 600 teachers surveyed said their
schools had Internet access -- but only six percent said they spend
an hour or more online at school each day.
Sixty percent of the teachers surveyed said they spend half an hour
or less online.
But don't think teachers are avoiding using the Internet. Teachers
who were surveyed are Internet savvy -- nearly 90 percent said they
were comfortable using the Internet.
NetDay's conclusion is that teachers see the Internet as a research
source for students, rather than a teaching tool. Only one-third of
the teachers in the survey used the Internet in their classroom teaching.
The answer why is simple. Teachers participating in the survey said
they don't have enough time to go online to use the Internet for
lesson planning or instruction.
Even if they don't have time to use the Internet as much as they may
like, nearly a third said the Internet has changed the way they teach.
Looking at the changes in classrooms since my own days in school, I
would have to add that the Internet has changed the way our kids
learn as well.
For more information, visit NetDay's Web site at www.NetDay.org.
FILE-SWAPPING UPDATE. As Napster and the music industry
continue to argue about the file-sharing company's ability to control
the sharing of copyrighted music files, there appears to be a move to
bypass Napster all together.
Three major record companies are following the lead of the National
Basketball Association and Major League Baseball, and have begun
negotiations to license their music for broadcast via RealNetwork's
MusicNet.com Web site.
Warner Music Group, BMG Entertainment and EMI are all reportedly
working to license their tunes for streaming broadcast via
RealNetwork's technology.
RealNetworks makes the popular RealAudio and RealVideo media players.
It's efforts to create subscriptions for its services have been
helped by the NBA and professional baseball deals, which are
exclusive rights to the broadcasts over the Internet.
Napster, which is trying to comply with a court order to block
copyright-protected songs from being traded or swapped on its
service, is still taking criticism from the music industry for
failing to meet the court's ruling.
Another Napster-like service, Gnutella, apparently doesn't warrant
the efforts the recording industry is putting into its battle with Napster.
A story on the CNet.com Web site recently reported that the Recording
Industry Association of American was watching but taking no action
against Gnutella, mainly because it didn't consider the file network
a threat.
Unlike Napster or its many clones, Gnutella has not central computer
server that links people together and indexes their files they have
to share.
Gnutella operates more like a huge daisy chain, passing file requests
down the chain.
For more information on Gnutella, visit http://gnutella.wego.com/
DOT-COM EVICTIONS? With new domains on the way this year to
join the existing .com, .org, and .net names, some businesses, groups
and individuals may find themselves needing a new Web address.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is
currently examining how it manages domain names. One of its proposals
could restrict the .org domain to only nonprofit organizations -- and
possibly force existing .org domain holders to give up their domains
if they didn't qualify as a nonprofit group.
At one time, domain names were free, but were closely administered by
the National Science Foundation. In 1993, the NSF transferred
registration services to Network Solutions Inc.
The early rules for domain names indeed stated that the .org domain
should be for nonprofit groups and organizations. Those rules haven't
been enforced for a number of years -- anyone with the registration
fee could apply for and receive any domain name except those ending
in .gov or .edu, which are reserved for government and education Web
sites, respectively.
The .org domain level was designed for Web sites that didn't meet the
criteria for .com or .net. Commercial sites were supposed to use
.com, and only Internet provider-related Web sites were supposed to
use .net.
The threat of possible eviction has prompted the creation of sites to
lobby against such action, including www.HandsOffMy.org.
VeriSign Inc. is the company that manages the master list of .com,
.net and .org domain names through its contract with ICANN.
The company is proposing to drop management of the .org and .net
domains in exchange for longer rights to manage the larger .com
domains list.
ICANN's own description of the proposal said it would return the .org
domain to its "originally intended function."
That could prove difficult to do, considering the number of
"inappropriate" .org Web sites that have been operating for
a number of years, including sites for the Associated Press
(www.ap.org), and news site Slashdot.org.
Setting rules is easy, but putting the toothpaste back in the tube
won't be an easy process for ICANN.
ICANN's proposals have generated plenty of controversy in the past.
This one should be no different. |