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Hello folks -

Here's this week's instalment of international media coverage of the 
Internet, which will also be posted at the Mecklermedia Web site 
(http://www.mecklerweb.com). Do let me know if there are articles in 
publications in your country which I might also want to include. 
(Translations may be necessary in some cases, of course.) 
It was nice to see at least some of you at the San Jose bash. Comments, 
feedback, etc. most welcome.
						- madan
______________________________________________________________________
Madanmohan Rao                             Phone: (212) 963-1175
Communications Director                    Fax:   (212) 754-2791
Inter Press                                E-mail: rao@igc.org
United Nations                                     ipsny@undp.org
New York, NY 10017
______________________________________________________________________


Japanese Ministry Goes Online On The Internet
---------------------------------------------
     Japan's Ministry for International Trade and Industry (MITI)
has launched a Web site (http://www.miti.go.jp) to promote
information about the ministry, including its publications,
reports, and eventually statistics. Information will be available
in Japanese and English.
(Kyodo News Service, Japan; April 13, 1995)

U.S. City Uses Internet To Promote Economic Development
-------------------------------------------------------
     PittsburghNet, the online service of the city of Pittsburgh,
has logged 180,000 calls in its first two months. 80,000 of these
were from abroad, from countries like Hong Kong and Australia.
Providing business-related information about Pittsburgh on the
Internet - such as photographs of development sites, video clips,
information about the labour force, infrastructure and tax
incentives - is expected to promote interest in economic
development.
(Philadelphia Inquirer; April 13, 1995)

Automated Environmental Credit Exchange Available on Internet
-------------------------------------------------------------
     The California Institute of Technology has brought "market-
based" approaches to environmental regulation onto the Internet
by automating environmental credit exchange. For instance,
companies can trade "smog credits" on the Internet. Questions
remain as to how useful this can be.
(New York Times; April 13, 1995)

U.S. Talk Shows Make Appearance On The Internet
-----------------------------------------------
     As testament to the growing power of the Internet as an
independent medium, several celebrities and talk shows are making
online appearances on the Internet. But they may also be driven
by "the blind faith that cyberspace is the wave of the future."
(New York Times; April 12, 1995)

Internet Security System Launched at MecklerMedia Conference
------------------------------------------------------------
     The "big news of the day" at MecklerMedia's Internet World
conference in San Jose, California - with 20,000 registered
participants and 200 exhibitors - was an agreement on an
"industry standard" for conducting tamper-proof commercial
transactions on the Internet. The information security framework
unifies two standards, secure HTTP and SSL.
(New York Times; April 11, 1995)

Silicon Valley Offers Glimpses of 21st Century Economy
------------------------------------------------------
     California's Silicon Valley may be offering glimpses of what
America's 21st century economy may be like - an increase in
volume of sales, but no increase in number of workers added.
Although the world has "gobbled up" Silicon Valley technology in
areas such as internetworking, total employment in Santa Clara
county has been flat since 1988. 1994 was one of the best years
for Silicon Valley, but such economic expansion has not
necessarily led to new employment opportunities.
(San Jose Mercury News; April 10, 1995)

Internet Books are the Fastest Growing in the Publishing Industry
-----------------------------------------------------------------
     Books about the Internet are one of the fastest growing
areas in publishing, accounting for $40 million in sales last
year. The biggest publisher of computer books, Macmillan Computer
Publishing (http://www.mcp.com), has now launched a special
imprint (Sams.net) solely dedicated to Internet titles. Some
books also have a CD-ROM companion - others are also available
online in their entirety.
(New York Times; April 10, 1995)

New Technology Allows Audio Playback Directly On Internet
---------------------------------------------------------
     Seattle-based Progressive Networks has launched a product
(also at MecklerMedia's Internet World conference) called Real
Audio Player, which uses a sound card, data compression
technology, and special software to enable browsers to listen to
audio programs directly from Web pages. The Progressive Networks'
Web site has sample audio clips of ABC and NPR programs.
(New York Times, Los Angeles Times; April 10, 1995)

YAHOO - One of the "Most Important Organising Forces"
-----------------------------------------------------
     The YAHOO site (http://akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo/) - which
lists, classifies, and tags over 36,000 Web sites - is visited by
about 200,000 Internet surfers each day, making it "one of the
most important organising forces in all of cyberspace." However,
this has also led to a classic case of "grad school
procrastination" - YAHOO's creators, David Filo and Jerry Yang,
have taken a leave of absence from Stanford University's doctoral
program.
(Los Angeles Times; April 10, 1995)

Negroponte's "Being Digital" Released In Europe
-----------------------------------------------
     Nicholas Negroponte's book, "Being Digital," was released in
Europe this month. The director of MIT's Media Lab paints a
"boundlessly optimistic" picture of the digital future, in which
the Internet plays a catalytic role. However, according to this
review of the book, "it is implausible that the Internet will
succeed in uniting the world's youth in digital freedom." Though
costs of PCs are falling, it does not follow that the poor "are
about to join the information society."
(Financial Times, England; April 10, 1995)

Thailand Plans to Overhaul Telecommunications Market
----------------------------------------------------
     The cabinet of Thailand plans to privatise its two telcos -
Telephone Organisation of Thailand and Communication Authority of
Thailand - by 1997, and also allow two private companies to
install 1.9 million phone lines. The goal is to install 6 million
lines in two years, to take the average telephone density up to 1
line per 10 citizens.
(Asian Wall Street Journal; April 3-10, 1995)

Doing Business on the Internet can be Exhausting
------------------------------------------------
     Analyst Brandon Musler of U.S.-based Illuminata Corporation
laments some of the problems the Internet poses for doing
business. There is no guarantee of message delivery or quality of
message transmission, and no direct customer support. "It is as
exhausting as taking responsibility for the weather." Security,
privacy, and payment mechanisms may be "right around the corner,"
but that is not very encouraging to some businesses. Besides, the
delays in the system will get worse as millions of new
subscribers come onto the Internet.
(Wall Street Journal; April 10, 1995)


Pathfinder: One of the "Most Successful" Web Sites
--------------------------------------------------
     Time Warner's Pathfinder may be one of the "most successful"
Web sites - thanks in part to the swimsuit edition of Sports
Illustrated, and the O.J. Simpson trial. Time Warner is now
selling advertisement space on this Web site, for which companies
like AT&T and General Motors will pay $30,000 per quarter.
(Wall Street Journal; April 10, 1995)

Should Governments Control Cyberspace?
--------------------------------------
     Thanks in part to the explosion of online technologies, the
information industry will be the largest in the U.S. by the end
of the decade. But it should be the marketplace, and not the
government, which should control or shape cyberspace and the
information world. That would be like "medieval guilds trying to
control the Industrial Revolution," or stifle the printing press
without which the Rennaissance could never have taken place.
Technology is changing "too quickly for the best of
bureaucracies."
(U.S. News and World Report; April 10, 1995)

News, Business Information About India Available On The Internet
----------------------------------------------------------------
     India's first electronic news and business information
service has been launched on the World Wide Web by Ravi Database
Consultants (RDC). The Web "will change the way we do business,"
says Rajesh Jain, head of RDC. Indian news, business and
entertainment information, and even cartoons by India's famous
cartoonist R.K. Laxman can be found at http://www.indiaworld.com.
The Web server is based in the U.S., since India "still needs a
clear policy" on commercial usage of the Internet.
(Times of India; April 9, 1995) 

Legal System Confronts Internet Anarchy in U.S., Britain
--------------------------------------------------------
     The "once-unfettered freedom" of the Internet is now about
to face lawyers, businesses and legislators who are resorting to
courts to resolve legal disputes about the Internet. For
instance, laws about pornography are being introduced in the U.S.
and Britain to clean up "offensive" and "unseemly" material on
the Internet. Charges of libel in some Internet newsgroups are
surfacing. Internet service providers in Britain are "getting
worried," according to Neil Ellul, editor of "Internet" magazine.
But several obstacles to such legislation arise, due to the
global reach of the Internet. For instance, standards of decency
and propriety of material differ from country to country.
(The Observer, England; April 9, 1995)

International Travel Agencies, Hotel Companies Turn To Internet
-------------------------------------------------------------
     As Japan's All Nippon Airways and Japan Air Lines link their
reservations systems to national computer networks, other
airlines and travel agents are turning to the Internet to provide
easy browsing facilities for customers. Networks and travel
information "fit together like a glove," according to Kerry
Costello of Manchester-based Internet Travel Services. Hotel
companies are not far behind, especially since Internet
publishing costs are negligible as compared to advertising in the
national media.
(The Observer, England; April 9, 1995)

Internet Consultancy is a Good Business
---------------------------------------
     As businesses ponder how Web pages can fit into their
business plans, new opportunities arise for Internet-based
marketing consultants. Internet-based transactions may still be
at least 18 months away, though. But till then, new products and
services for the electronic medium can be designed.
(The Times, England; April 7, 1995)

Internet May Lead To "Environmental Damage"
-------------------------------------------
     The information superhighway may become an environmental
menace if too many telecommuters move to rural areas, says
NorthWestern University professor James Snider. The ground has
already been set by U.S. Vice President Albert Gore's "Global
Marshall Plan" where he advocated telecommuting to save the
environment. This may actually cause an "environmental disaster
of the first magnitude," since the information superhighway may
"spread people out" more than trains, cars and physical highways.
For instance, in the U.S., 90% of the jobs in 1800 were
agricultural; today only 2% are agricultural, and most of the
rest are in urban areas. But telecommuting may reverse this
trend.
(The Futurist; March-April 1995)

1994 Good Year For Chip Equipment; China Seen As Major Market
-------------------------------------------------------------
     Thanks to rising computer sales worldwide and the increasing
electronic content of other products (such as cars, toys, credit
cards), worldwide sales of semiconductor production equipment
soared 40% in 1994, to $14.5 billion. Government funding will
still be needed to sustain research in some chip manufacturing
technologies. It is estimated that in 7 to 10 years, China will
be a major market for the chip equipment industry.
(Investor's Business Daily; April 7, 1995)

International Auto Dealers Drive Into Cyberspace
------------------------------------------------
     The auto industry has begun to launch some of its most
recent promotional campaigns in cyberspace. For instance, on the
World Wide Web, Dealer Net has sold "more than 400 vehicles
through 500 dealers and the 46 major car brands" since its
inception less than two years ago." General Motors and even Rolls
Royce will be picking up speed on the information superhighway.
(Wall Street Journal; April 7, 1995)

Regional Bells To Sell Joint Research Facility
----------------------------------------------
     As a sign of just how divergent their interests have become,
the 7 Baby Bells voted to sell their joint research facility,
Bell Communications Research company (Bellcore). Bellcore employs
6,400 people and has a budget of about $1.02 billion. It holds
520 U.S. patents and 150 international ones, and has played a key
role in developing technologies like SONET, ATM, and ISDN.
Selling Bellcore will enable each of the Baby Bells to conduct
research more specific to its individual needs.
(Investor's Business Daily; April 7, 1995)

European Soccer Clubs Line Up In The Web
----------------------------------------
     Almost every soccer club in Europe - "from premier leagues
to local teams" - has a Web page or at least a Gopher site these
days. Schedules, analysis, results, and gossip can be found on
the Net even before they make it into the mainstream media. For
instance, European Cup competition data can be found at
http://www.sotka.cs.tut.fi/riku.html.
(The European; April 7-13, 1995)

Higher Education Can Benefit From Telecommunications Deregulation
-----------------------------------------------------------------
     Telecommunications deregulation - both among telephone
companies as well as between cable television and telephone
companies - can lead to increased competition and thus lower
telecommunications costs. This could be good for the higher
education establishment.
(Chronicle of Higher Education; April 7, 1995)

"SATAN" Program: The Day of Reckoning is at Hand
------------------------------------------------
     Will the computer program Satan (Security Administrator Tool
for Analysing Networks) increase network system security or help
hackers break into networks? Widespread problems could then
hamper the development of commerce on the Internet. Satan marks
a "turning point" in the evolution of the Internet, which now
stands "on the threshold" of electronic commerce. Data and
transaction security are key concerns for such commercial
operations. The Satan program is expected to ensure that the
Internet is trustworthy by "holding the feet of computer system
managers to the fire."
(Financial Times, England; April 6, 1995)


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