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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 2003 Security Group Lobbies for Quick Legislation WSIS Delegates Fail to Agree on Support for Open Source W3C Establishes Web Services Working Group AND Many Supposedly Clean Hard Drives Still Contain Data Wi-Fi Alliance Certifies 802.11a Products J2EE 1.4 Integrates Web Services Support Oracle to Offer New Features in 9i Portal Server SECURITY GROUP LOBBIES FOR QUICK LEGISLATION A recently formed group called the Homeland Security Industries Association (HSIA) met this week with members of Congress to push for quicker government spending to strengthen homeland security. The HSIA currently has about 100 members and considers itself a broad, umbrella group for any company with a stake in U.S. homeland security. Bruce Aitken, president of the HSIA, said the $2.9 billion reportedly spent by the U.S. government in 2002 for IT projects related to security was "diminutive compared to what it can be and what it should be." Celia Wexler of watchdog group Common Cause said the HSIA is one of several new lobbying organizations intent on getting "a piece of the multibillion dollar homeland security pie." Wexler said that although some groups like the HSIA do have positive impacts on certain issues, voters and lawmakers should be cautious about the efforts of such groups, some of which are simply "diving in for big bucks." IDG, 16 January 2003 http://www.idg.net/ic_1020867_9677_1-5046.html WSIS DELEGATES FAIL TO AGREE ON SUPPORT FOR OPEN SOURCE Delegates from Asian governments, companies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) met for three days in Tokyo in preparation for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a high-level U.N. summit to be held in Geneva in December. Delegates eventually approved the so-called Tokyo Declaration after agreeing to change language regarding open-source software from its being "supported" to "encouraged." Delegates from the United States had objected to the word "support" in what many saw as a nod to U.S. corporate software interests, specifically Microsoft. The meeting also focused on increasing information security in the Asia-Pacific region, balancing intellectual property rights with users� needs, and pledging to bridge the growing digital divide. NGOs were pleased with the inclusion of references to human rights but had hoped for more commitment to social justice. They also protested the exclusion of Taiwanese NGOs in response to objections from Chinese government delegates. ITWorld, 15 January 2003 http://www.idg.net/ic_1020582_9677_1-5043.html W3C ESTABLISHES WEB SERVICES WORKING GROUP The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has established a new working group to develop standards for the "choreography" of Web services. Such standards would specify how to construct separate Web services so they will interact, forming a complete application. Without standards for choreography, Web services risks balkanization, according to the W3C. Observers said the new Web Services Choreography Working Group may have difficulty reaching consensus among some W3C members on how to handle possible payments for Web services. Microsoft supports a royalty system for the use of intellectual property, but the W3C is arguing for a less restrictive approach to royalties and patents. The working group faces a host of other issues to resolve, including a myriad of Web services languages and various other standards that have been created in the past year. CNET, 17 January 2003 http://news.com.com/2100-1001-981059.html AND ***************************************************** MANY SUPPOSEDLY CLEAN HARD DRIVES STILL CONTAIN DATA A new report written by two graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology highlights the risks and prevalence of failing to erase information on unwanted hard drives. Simson Garfinkel and Abhi Shelat bought 158 used hard drives, many from eBay but some from businesses and used-computer stores. Garfinkel and Shelat were able to recover data from 49 of the 129 drives that functioned. Among the information the two found were corporate personnel memos, pornography, credit-card numbers, and, from a hard drive that may have come from an automated teller machine, account numbers, transaction dates, and balances. Tools exist that will genuinely erase information from hard drives, but most people don't use them or understand why they need to, said Mr. Garfinkel. When a hard drive is reformatted, he said, a warning usually indicates that all data will be lost, but in truth more than 99 percent of the data remains on the drive and is often recoverable. Chronicle of Higher Education, 17 January 2003 http://chronicle.com/free/2003/01/2003011701t.htm WI-FI ALLIANCE CERTIFIES 802.11A PRODUCTS The Wi-Fi Alliance has given its approval for a list of products that use the 802.11a standard. About 600 products had already been tested and approved by the Wi-Fi Alliance for the 802.11b standard, but the newer, 802.11a standard works in a different frequency band (5 GHz rather than 2.4 GHz) and at much higher speeds (maximum of 54 Mbps compared to 11 Mbps). Seven products--from Atheros Communications, Cisco Systems, Intel, Intermec Technologies, Intersil, and Proxim--were certified for the 802.11a standard, and one, from Atheros, was approved as a dual-band product, which works with either 802.11a or 802.11b. Testing for the 802.11g standard will begin later this year, and the Wi-Fi Alliance said it expects to begin certifying products for that standard by June or August. IDG, 16 January 2003 http://www.idg.net/ic_1020880_9677_1-5045.html J2EE 1.4 INTEGRATES WEB SERVICES SUPPORT Sun Microsystems this week announced that the upcoming release of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4 will include a number of upgrades, including integrated support for Web services. Simple object access protocol (SOAP) and Web services description language (WSDL) functionality, which some developers have already added to Java, will be included in J2EE 1.4. Mark Hapner of Sun said that although SOAP and WSDL were technically developed outside of the Java community, "the people who picked up on that at the earliest stage [were part of] the Java community." Although Sun continues to support several open-source communities, the company at this point has no plans to offer an open-source version of Java. InfoWorld, 15 January 2003 http://www.idg.net/ic_1020706_9677_1-5043.html ORACLE TO OFFER NEW FEATURES IN 9I PORTAL SERVER Oracle is expected next week to announce new portal features for its Oracle 9i Application Server. The new features will allow non-technical users to develop portlets, which are individual pieces of programming that feed into a larger enterprise portal. Oracle said the new features will fundamentally change the way portlets are built, shifting the focus away from programmers and onto business users, who can create portlets that access various sources of data, including Web services, databases, and spreadsheets. Other portal vendors, including IBM, BEA, and Sybase, are also working on ways to simplify the creation of portlets. Some experts question the strategy of moving such development to business staff. Nate Root of Forrester Research said, "IT does not want typical business users making their own portlets, even if it is through the simplest wizard in the world." InfoWorld, 17 January 2003 http://www.idg.net/ic_1020974_9677_1-5047.html ***************************************************** 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 "EQ" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. 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