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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 2004 Media Lab Launches New Initiative GAO Finds Federal Employees with Fake Degrees Professor, Student Granted Patent for Anti-File-Sharing Tool Canada Urges International Cooperation to Fight Spam Report Calls on U.S. Government to Reopen Sites MEDIA LAB LAUNCHES NEW INITIATIVE Nicholas Negroponte, director of MIT's Media Lab, this week announced a new initiative focused on consumer electronics and the technologies that drive them. The CELab will not have distinct facilities but will include research projects at both the Media Lab in Massachusetts and Media Lab Europe, based in Ireland. Because the new lab will not require separate physical space, it has the possibility to generate significant income for Media Lab with very low overhead costs. Negroponte said people will soon be "eating, wearing, and breathing computers" and that the CELab will be instrumental in developing the technologies that will enable this breed of consumer electronics. Negroponte made the announcement to a group of executives from consumer electronics companies he hopes will join CELab as members. Companies that become members, for as much as $200,000 per year, will be able to license intellectual property developed by the lab and to join the lab's steering committee. Wired News, 11 May 2004 http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,63412,00.html GAO FINDS FEDERAL EMPLOYEES WITH FAKE DEGREES The General Accounting Office (GAO) this week released findings from an investigation into diploma mills. According to the report, hundreds of federal employees list degrees from diploma mills on their resumes, and some employees used federal tuition funds to pay for those degrees. The GAO found 28 high-level officials who have degrees from diploma mills and 463 employees who list degrees from unaccredited institutions in their qualifications. Data obtained from two unaccredited institutions shows $170,000 in federal tuition funds used at those schools. The investigation was ordered by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the committee, started looking into diploma mills two years ago. According to Collins, there is "clear evidence that tax dollars are being wasted on bogus degrees from unaccredited institutions that the federal government does not even recognize." Federal Computer Week, 11 May 2004 http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0510/web-diploma-05-11-04.asp PROFESSOR, STUDENT GRANTED PATENT FOR ANTI-FILE-SHARING TOOL A professor and a Ph.D. student at the University of Tulsa have been granted a patent for technology that is designed to defeat P2P networks by flooding them with bogus files. The application generates many thousands of files that masquerade as music or movie files but are nothing more than white noise or ads to buy a legitimate copy of the file. According to John Hale, the professor involved in the project, the effect of the technology is that file traders spend enormous amounts of time searching for actual versions of the files they seek amid all the spoofs, "like looking for a needle in a haystack." Companies including Overpeer and MediaDefender already offer tools that work in a similar fashion, though Hale said it isn't clear how their tools differ from his because the companies are secretive about their products. Hale and the graduate student, Gavin Manes, filed their patent in 2000, and the two are working with the university to market their technology to record, movie, and software companies. Wired News, 8 May 2004 http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,63384,00.html CANADA URGES INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION TO FIGHT SPAM Canadian officials this week suggested that international efforts, possibly including a treaty, are necessary to fight the growing problem of spam. Lucienne Robillard, Canada's Industry Minister, said, "Alone, country by country, we cannot solve this problem," noting that 95 percent of spam received by Canadians originates in other countries. According to Robillard, an international treaty on spam could include extradition of those accused of sending spam. Richard Simpson, director general of e-commerce for Industry Canada, compared a potential international agreement on spam to existing tax treaties, which countries use in collecting taxes and "countering other forms of activities like money laundering." A spam treaty is also being discussed at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, according to Canadian officials. CNET, 11 May 2004 http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5210534.html REPORT CALLS ON U.S. GOVERNMENT TO REOPEN SITES A government-funded report by the Rand Corporation calls on the Bush administration to allow Web sites and databases that were shut down in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks to be allowed back online. Thirty-six Web sites were taken offline, as were more than 600 databases, based on concern that they made available information that could be used by terrorists in future attacks. According to the Rand Corporation's assessment, however, none of the sites included information that isn't available elsewhere, such as in textbooks, in trade journals, or on maps. Of the 629 databases taken down, only 4 were found to contain information that the researchers saw as warranting restricted access. The report was welcomed by critics of the administration's handling of the situation following the terrorist attacks. Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' project on government secrecy, said he hopes the report "brings some rationality back to this policy." BBC, 11 May 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3703559.stm ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/ 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/ ***************************************************** 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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