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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2005 Open Source License Up for Revision The Rising Tide of Online College Applications New Orleans Announces Wi-Fi Network International Group Sues over .com Management OPEN SOURCE LICENSE UP FOR REVISION The Free Software Foundation has announced plans to revise the General Public License (GPL), which covers many open source applications including the Linux operating system. The license has not been revised since 1991, long before Linux and other open source applications had been implemented widely. Now, according to Eben Moglen, the foundation's general counsel, "The big boys, corporations and governments, have far more reason to be interested and concerned." The GPL and the Free Software Foundation are the creations of Richard Stallman, an unwavering critic of proprietary software and the author of much of the source code that led to the Linux operating system. Stallman has used the license and the foundation to foster what he says are the four principles of software: the ability to use, study, copy, and modify it. Stallman acknowledged that with the success of open source applications in recent years, the task of revising the GPL is complicated by patent issues, which must allow open source and proprietary software to run on the same systems. A first draft of the new GPL will be presented at MIT in mid-January. The revision process is expected to be completed by the end of 2006, with the Free Software Foundation making final decisions about changes. New York Times, 30 November 2005 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/30/technology/30license.html THE RISING TIDE OF ONLINE COLLEGE APPLICATIONS Motivated by a number of factors, growing numbers of college hopefuls are turning to the Web to submit applications, though concerns about the medium persist. For colleges and universities, online applications generally mean easier processing with fewer mistakes. Many institutions waive application fees--which can run as high as $75--for students who apply online. As a result, most institutions are seeing higher percentages of applications filed online, and many students are applying at more institutions. According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, 57 percent of students applied to college online in 2004, compared to 35 percent one year earlier. The Higher Education Research Institute reported that in 2004, more than 16 percent of students applied to seven or more schools, up from less than 10 percent in 1994. Some schools do not waive fees for online applications, however, among them Yale University and Harvard University. And despite growing confidence in the Internet, some students remain skeptical that their materials have been received. William Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions at Harvard, said, "Students will send it electronically, then they will fax it to you, and then they will send it snail mail." Wall Street Journal, 30 November 2005 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113331711186209812.html NEW ORLEANS ANNOUNCES WI-FI NETWORK City officials from New Orleans have announced plans to deploy a wireless network covering the entire city by the end of 2006. The network will provide improved communication for city services, including fire and police departments, and--the city hopes--will draw residents and businesses back to the city following this year's disastrous hurricane season. When complete, the network will provide free Internet access to anyone in the city. Unlike several other municipal networks under development, the New Orleans network will be installed and operated by the city itself. Still, city officials must grapple with a state law that restricts Internet access speeds on municipal networks. Unless the city is able to change the law or win an exemption, it will only be allowed to offer transfer speeds of 144 Kbps. Representatives of cable and phone companies that offer Internet access have argued that cities should not be allowed to offer services that compete with services from private companies. City officials reject that notion, arguing that commercial Internet access is too expensive and inconvenient for many potential users. Silicon.com, 30 November 2005 http://networks.silicon.com/broadband/0,39024661,39154681,00.htm INTERNATIONAL GROUP SUES OVER .COM MANAGEMENT The World Association of Domain Name Developers has filed a lawsuit in a California court against the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and VeriSign over a deal recently reached between the two organizations. After resolving a dispute over VeriSign's Site Finder service, which directed users who mistyped URLs to VeriSign's Web site, ICANN agreed to an extension of the contract that allows VeriSign to manage the .com and .net domains. Although the extension runs from 2007 to 2012, the lawsuit filed by the developers association contends that the contract "provides for the automatic renewal of the agreement and thereby precludes competitors from ever entering the .com and .net domain name registration market," thereby establishing a monopoly for the domains. The only means for another company to bid on the work, according to the suit, is if VeriSign goes out of business or fails to meet the terms of the contract. A statement from ICANN said the lawsuit is intended to divert attention away from an ICANN meeting currently being held in Vancouver. BBC, 29 November 2005 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4482292.stm ***************************************************** 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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