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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, MAY 13, 2002 OMB to Launch Portal for Comments on Regulations Supreme Court Partially Upholds COPA Yahoo Privacy Policy Upsets Fewer than It Seemed AND Academic Libraries Get New Portal Anti-Plagiarism Tool May Infringe on Copyright OASIS Creates Standards Committee for Web Services OMB TO LAUNCH PORTAL FOR COMMENTS ON REGULATIONS According to a statement from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the agency will spend an estimated $70 million over the next 18 months to develop a portal to centralize all information on federal regulations. Currently, many different federal agencies operate individual Web sites where the public can learn about proposed regulatory changes. The new system would collect all of these disparate sites into a single portal where the public can access federal regulations and make comments on proposed changes. Mark Forman of the OMB said the new site would keep the public from having "to navigate through a sea of agency Web sites to comment on regulations that impact their lives." ComputerWorld, 10 May 2002 http://www.computerworld.com/ SUPREME COURT PARTIALLY UPHOLDS COPA The Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was intended to shield children from pornographic or otherwise adult material on the Web. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups opposed the law, however, saying that it violated constitutional rights of adults to access that material. In the latest, but not the last, round of legal wrangling over the law, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of "community standards" in determining harmfulness to children is not unconstitutional. Because of other problems with the law, though, the court sent the legislation back to a lower court for further review, meaning that the law is still not in effect. COPA was enacted to replace the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which was found to be unconstitutional by a unanimous vote of the Supreme Court in 1997. Wired News, 13 May 2002 http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,52478,00.html YAHOO PRIVACY POLICY UPSETS FEWER THAN IT SEEMED In March, Internet portal Yahoo set off a wave of criticism and anger from its users with a new privacy policy that allows the company to use users' names for advertising purposes unless the users specifically opt out of those communications. After the policy was announced, privacy advocates and many users of Yahoo were very vocal in their opposition to the change, criticizing the portal for being too liberal with its users' personal information. However, according to comScore, fewer people visited Yahoo's cancellation Web page the month after the change was announced than had visited it during the previous month. Yahoo confirms that some users cancelled subscriptions but said it was a very small number. Privacy attorney Christopher M. Kelly said the number of users who left Yahoo is not indicative of the damage to its reputation. New York Times, 13 May 2002 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/13/technology/ebusiness/13YAHO.html AND ***************************************************** ACADEMIC LIBRARIES GET NEW PORTAL The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has begun a new portal initiative, working with seven of its major member libraries on the initial release. The goal of the effort, called the Scholars Portal Project, is to develop and distribute software that allows users to leverage electronic library services through portal software. Initially the tools are expected to serve primarily as a library channel for existing university-wide portals. The ARL tool allows users to search across digital resources from multiple institutions and receive aggregated results, much like Google. Developers plan to add features including 24 x 7 online access to reference librarians and integration with e-learning and course environments. Information Today, 13 May 2002 http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb020513-2.htm ANTI-PLAGIARISM TOOL MAY INFRINGE ON COPYRIGHT One of the most popular anti-plagiarism Web sites, Turnitin.com, has come under scrutiny because of its practice of adding students' works to its database, sometimes without the students' knowledge. Unlike other plagiarism-detection Web sites that compare submitted works only to material on the Internet or to other papers in the class, Turnitin also adds submitted papers to its database, thereby expanding the reach of its detection program. However, many students are not told that their papers will be submitted and added to the database at Turnitin. This has some worried that students' copyright is being violated and has led the University of California at Berkeley to decide not to use Turnitin. Others have opted to use Turnitin but only after informing students, giving them the option not to have their work sent to Turnitin. Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 May 2002 http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i36/36a03701.htm OASIS CREATES STANDARDS COMMITTEE FOR WEB SERVICES The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) is expected to announce Tuesday the creation of the Security Standards Joint Committee (SSJC), which will be tasked with creating security standards for Web services. Members of other OASIS security committees will form the SSJC, which will be chaired by David Rolls, director of technology at Waveset Technologies. According to Rolls, success of the emerging Web services industry depends on potential users' clear understanding of industry standards, demonstrating reliable and predictable functioning of products from different vendors. Rolls pointed to Apache Web server and Sendmail e-mail server as examples of open-source programs that have succeeded in part because of the establishment of standards for the applications. InfoWorld, 13 May 2002 http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/05/13/020513hnoasis.xml ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For past issues of Edupage or information about translations of Edupage into other languages, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS EDUCAUSE publishes periodicals, including "EDUCAUSE Quarterly" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. 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