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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 2005 Report Urges Degree Programs for Online Education AT&T to Disappear SBC Acquisition Congress Considers Extending Tax to All Web Connections Writer of Blaster Variant Gets 18 Months REPORT URGES DEGREE PROGRAMS FOR ONLINE EDUCATION A new report from the Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness identifies degree programs as the single largest factor that determines whether a distance education program is successful. In preparing the report, "Achieving Success in Internet-Supported Learning in Higher Education," the group conducted a survey of 21 distance education programs it deemed successful. Among those schools, 89 percent offered online degrees rather than just online courses. "It's easier to measure the progress at a programmatic level," according to the report's author, Rob Abel, president of the alliance. "The programmatic approach also gets institutions thinking about student-support services," Abel continued. Among the institutions profiled in the study is the University of Florida, which currently has more than 6,000 students enrolled in distance education programs. According to William H. Riffee, associate provost for distance, continuing, and executive education at the university, the program was a response to growing numbers of students who wanted degrees from the university, which could not handle them all. Riffee attributes his school's success to its having scaled the program effectively. The report also identified the for-profit institution Westwood College as successful. Shaun McAlmont, president of Westwood College Online, credits some of the success to the agility of the for-profit educational industry, compared to traditional higher education, which he said is slow to change. Chronicle of Higher Education, 4 February 2005 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v51/i22/22a03101.htm AT&T TO DISAPPEAR SBC ACQUISITION In a deal valued at $16 billion, SBC Communications is set to acquire AT&T, bringing an end to the former telephone monopoly that has its roots in the 19th century and at one point had more than one million employees. SBC, formerly Southwestern Bell, is one of the Baby Bells spun off from AT&T in 1984 when the company was ordered to split up. Since then, AT&T has been unable to adjust to changes in the marketplace and has steadily lost ground to competitors including the Baby Bells and cable companies, which have made inroads into markets for phone and data service. Despite its former status as the government-sanctioned monopoly for phone service, serving 85 percent of the long-distance market in 1984, AT&T only has 23 percent of that market today. With the acquisition, SBC will be able to expand its reach beyond the Southwest to national and international markets. SBC will become the largest provider of long-distance service and of corporate phone and data services. New York Times, 31 January 2005 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/31/business/31phone.html CONGRESS CONSIDERS EXTENDING TAX TO ALL WEB CONNECTIONS A report prepared by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation proposes extending a 100-year-old tax on phone service to some or all data connections. The tax originated in 1898 to pay for the Spanish American War. After being repealed, it was reinstituted to pay for World War I and was eventually set at 3 percent. With the decline of traditional phone service, the committee is investigating ways of adding to federal tax revenues. The report outlines several approaches to an extension of the tax, including one that would levy the 3 percent rate on all data communications. The report says, "Extending the tax to all communications requires taxing Internet access, bandwidth capacity, and the transmission of cable and satellite television." James Maule, professor of tax law at Villanova University, is skeptical that Congress would push for such an extreme measure. He suggested that the committee's goal of including that as one option is to make the others "look a bit more palatable." CNET, 28 January 2005 http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5555385.html WRITER OF BLASTER VARIANT GETS 18 MONTHS A federal judge in Seattle has sentenced 19-year-old Jeffrey Lee Parson to 18 months in prison for writing a variant of the Blaster worm two years ago. Parson will also perform community service and pay restitution for the damage the worm caused; he will also be under surveillance for three years after his prison term ends. Parson admitted to writing a variant of the Blaster worm in 2003 and using it to attack 48,000 computers. Microsoft, which suffered most of the damage from Parson's worm, said the damages might amount to more than $1 million. A hearing will be held in February to determine the amount that Parson will be required to pay. Of the verdict, Jeff Sullivan, chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's office in Seattle, said, "If you use the Internet to harm people, it will be investigated and you will be punished." In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman said her decision to sentence Parson to less than the maximum 37 months in prison was based on her assessment that his actions were in part a result of neglectful upbringing and supervision. Reuters, 28 January 2005 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=7471540 ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 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] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. 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