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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, MAY 06, 2005 EDUCAUSE Publishes Results of Current Issues Survey Higher Education IT Surveys to Merge Committee Supports Funding for Minority-Serving Institutions Appeals Court Rejects Broadcast Flag Drink-or-Die Conspirators Headed to Prison EDUCAUSE PUBLISHES RESULTS OF CURRENT ISSUES SURVEY EDUCAUSE has published the results of the 2005 Current Issues Survey, which seeks to identify the IT issues that have the most significance in higher education based on several criteria. Funding continues to head the list of issues critical for institutions� strategic success, for the third year running. Security and identity management continued to rise to the top of IT leaders� lists of important issues, ranked second to funding for strategic success and first on the list of items expected to become more significant in the coming year. This year�s report also includes an analysis of data spanning the six years of annual survey results. Among the findings across the life of the study, issues of funding and of administrative/ERP/information systems remain firmly near the top, while the significance of issues including desktop computing and distance education has steadily fallen. This year�s survey includes responses from 603 EDUCAUSE member institutions, representing the range of U.S. higher education. EDUCAUSE Quarterly, 5 May 2005 http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm05/eqm0521.asp HIGHER EDUCATION IT SURVEYS TO MERGE Two prominent measures of the state of IT in higher education will merge later this year when the Cost of Supporting Technology Services (COSTS) Project is integrated into EDUCAUSE's Core Data Service (CDS). David Smallen, who with Karen Leach founded the COSTS Project in 1997 to survey the financial costs of IT on campus, said that while the COSTS Project has "established the importance of IT benchmarks" and "opened a dialogue between IT leaders and institutional leaders," now is the time to move the project "to the next level." EDUCAUSE, he said, is the right organization to make that happen. CDS was started in 2002 to survey institutions of all sizes and types on the current state of IT on their campuses. CDS comprises an annual summary report that is publicly available and an interactive database for those institutions that complete the survey. The database allows generation of custom reports of individual participating campuses or of cohorts of institutions. EDUCAUSE, 2 May 2005 http://www.educause.edu/PressReleases/1175&ID=1190 COMMITTEE SUPPORTS FUNDING FOR MINORITY-SERVING INSTITUTIONS The Science Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that would create a $250 million grant program in the Department of Commerce to support technology programs at minority-serving institutions. Budgets at many historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and tribal colleges cannot support up-to-date technologies. Supporters argue that the bill would provide much-needed funding to institutions that train growing numbers of high-tech workers, specifically from underrepresented groups. Similar bills have been passed in previous sessions of Congress, but none has made its way to the president's desk for signing. Even if the current bill, which has not been introduced in the Senate, is approved by both houses and signed by the president, it remains unclear whether the federal government would allocate funds for the program, given the current budget deficit. Chronicle of Higher Education, 5 May 2005 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/05/2005050501t.htm APPEALS COURT REJECTS BROADCAST FLAG A federal appeals court has struck down regulations passed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to control unauthorized dissemination of digital broadcasting signals. At issue was a "broadcast flag," a technology that would be added to digital signals that would prevent them from being distributed over the Internet. The FCC's regulation would also have required makers of video-recording equipment to modify their products to support the broadcast-flag technology. The American Library Association filed a case arguing that the regulation would impose undue restrictions on libraries, preventing them from distributing digital content to online classrooms. Consumer groups had also opposed the regulation, arguing it would drive up costs of electronic products and would keep consumers from making legitimate copies of digital works. In its ruling, the court said flatly that the FCC had overstepped its authority in issuing the regulation. Wall Street Journal, 6 May 2005 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111539047987326903,00.html DRINK-OR-DIE CONSPIRATORS HEADED TO PRISON A British court has sentenced three men to prison for their involvement in the so-called Drink-or-Die group, which cracked the copy protections on software and then distributed it over the Internet. The three men received sentences ranging from 18 to 30 months, while a fourth man received a suspended sentence; all were charged with conspiracy to defraud. Prosecutors alleged that the piracy ring cost software companies millions of dollars in lost sales, and the verdicts were seen by some as a strong, clear message to software pirates. Others were critical of the government's case, however, saying that the men should have been charged with copyright violations rather than conspiracy. Security expert Peter Sommer, who served as a witness for the defense, said the government has no way of proving how much the ring cost software makers. He said the conspiracy case cost the government significantly more money and took much longer to try than a copyright case. A spokesperson from the British Crown Prosecution Service said the charges were appropriate, commenting that the authorities do "not determine cases on the basis of how much they will cost to prosecute." ZDNet, 6 May 2005 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,39020381,39197662,00.htm ***************************************************** 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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