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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2005 Yahoo and UC Berkeley Announce Joint Lab IBM Looks to Strengthen Ties with Academia U.S. Losing Ground in Science and Engineering Australian Man and ISP Found Guilty of Linking to Pirated Music YAHOO AND UC BERKELEY ANNOUNCE JOINT LAB Yahoo and the University of California at Berkeley have announced a joint research lab focused on research into search technology and social and mobile media. The Yahoo Research Labs-Berkeley is expected to open in August and will be led by Marc Davis, UC Berkeley professor of information management and systems. Yahoo is hoping the new lab will aid its efforts to use emerging search technologies to allow users to access and share information from any location that has an Internet connection. CNET, 15 July 2005 http://news.com.com/2110-1032_3-5790013.html IBM LOOKS TO STRENGTHEN TIES WITH ACADEMIA IBM is expanding a college and university outreach effort by including academics in a program that gives access to software-development technologies. Previously, the IBM Academic Initiative offered software and discounts on hardware from the company. With the expansion of the program, academics will be able to download technologies from the company's alphaWorks Web site and use them in their classes. The alphaWorks site, which formerly was geared toward corporate users, includes several dozen tools developed by IBM's research and development labs. According to Gina Poole, vice president of developer relations at IBM, the company's goal in courting academics is to increase the skills of college graduates in standards-based development and in working with open source products. Similarly, Microsoft supports a number of educational efforts by allowing colleges and universities to use some of its technologies in teaching students. Haym Hirsh, the chair of the computer science department at Rutgers University, noted that many universities do not have the resources to offer classes in both Microsoft and open source technologies and must choose one or the other. The first two institutions expected to sign up for IBM's new program are MIT and Harvard University. ZDNet, 13 July 2005 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5787128.html U.S. LOSING GROUND IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING Confirming the suspicions of many, a new report from the National Bureau of Economic Research indicates that the United States is steadily losing ground to a number of other countries, particularly China, in the number of PhDs it awards in science and engineering fields. In 1970, nearly one-third of the world's college students attended a college or university in the United States, and more than half of the science and engineering PhDs were awarded by U.S. schools. A number of global factors contributed to those numbers, making them artificially high. Since that time, however, higher education around the world, and especially programs in science and engineering, has greatly expanded, leaving the United States with just 14 percent of the world's college students by 2001. According to the report, China could surpass the United States as early as 2010 in the number of science and engineering PhDs it awards. Inside Higher Ed, 15 July 2005 http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/07/15/science AUSTRALIAN MAN AND ISP FOUND GUILTY OF LINKING TO PIRATED MUSIC A court in Australia has found Stephen Cooper guilty of copyright infringement, as well as his Internet service provider (ISP) and several of its employees. Although Cooper did not provide copyrighted music files for download, he did create a Web site that directed users to sites that offered pirated music. Record companies had alleged that Cooper conspired with individuals at Comcen, the ISP named in the suit, to use the site to drive traffic to the ISP, thereby increasing opportunities for advertising revenue. The court agreed, marking the first time in Australia that someone has been convicted for the act of linking to pirated material online. The judge in the case has not yet determined damages. After the verdict, Michael Kerin, general manager of Music Industry Piracy Investigations, hailed the ruling as an important victory in the fight against piracy. "The verdict showed that employees of ISPs who engage in piracy can be seen in the eyes of the court as guilty," he said. CNET, 14 July 2005 http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-5788344.html ***************************************************** 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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