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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2006 MIT iLabs Expand Access to African Universities Georgia Researchers Develop Hybrid Network Survey Suggests Widespread Privacy Violations Russian Bill Upsets Antipiracy Groups Encyclopedia Britannica Criticizes Nature Study MIT ILABS EXPAND ACCESS TO AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES A program at MIT that offers remote access to instrumentation in its labs has grown to include universities in Africa. The iLab initiative began in 1998 when Jesus del Alamo, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, started developing tools that allow users to prepare experiments separate from lab equipment and then submit their tests to the equipment. In this way, experiments that take 20 minutes to set up but only 10 seconds to run, for example, only occupy the lab equipment for 10 seconds. As a result of del Alamo's work, MIT's lab resources became available to students working from dorms and to users in other countries. A grant from the Carnegie Corporation has led to the expansion of the program to several universities in Africa, which suffer from very high costs for Internet access. The iLabs model requires researchers to be connected to--and paying for--the Internet only while data is being transferred, not during the set up of their tests. Organizers of the project hope that it can serve as a model for other institutions. Steven Lerman, director of MITÂ’s Center for Educational Computing Initiatives, described a scenario in which institutions would purchase unique laboratory equipment, rather than buying what another school already has, and share access to the various unique resources. Inside Higher Ed, 24 March 2006 http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/03/24/ilab GEORGIA RESEARCHERS DEVELOP HYBRID NETWORK Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are developing a network technology that promises increased access to high-speed Internet service. The technology would carry both wired and wireless signals on the same fiber-optic cable, allowing both kinds of service in facilities such as conference centers and offices with just one set of wiring. The signal would be split to accommodate connections through wall outlets as well as through wireless access points. Users could connect through either channel and achieve access speeds of up to 2.5 Gbps. The network would also allow so-called wave division multiplexing, which would divide the connection into as many as 32 channels, each capable of the same 2.5 Gbps speed. TechWorld, 24 March 2006 http://www.techworld.com/mobility/news/index.cfm?NewsID=5640 SURVEY SUGGESTS WIDESPREAD PRIVACY VIOLATIONS A study conducted by Bentley College and software company Watchfire indicates that nearly three-quarters of colleges and universities in California fail to comply with a state law concerning the collection and use of personal information. The California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003 requires organizations that collect such information online to clearly post privacy policies on their home pages and on every page from which personal information is collected. According to the study, which examined the Web sites of 236 institutions, only 28 percent had privacy policies linked from their home pages. Moreover, every one of the 236 institutional Web sites had at least one page that collects personal data without encrypting it. Mary Culnan, management professor at Bentley and author of the report, said she hopes these results serve "as a wake-up call to students, alumni, and prospective students." Chronicle of Higher Education, 23 March 2006 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/03/2006032301t.htm RUSSIAN BILL UPSETS ANTIPIRACY GROUPS A bill being considered by Russian lawmakers has antipiracy groups up in arms, saying it would worsen the country's already terrible record of enforcing intellectual property rights. Russia's current laws include protections for rights holders, but enforcement of those laws is poor. Antipiracy groups say music and software piracy in Russia costs U.S. businesses $1.8 billion annually. The new bill would replace all existing statutes covering intellectual property. Olga Barannikova of the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights said the bill is rife with problems and will lead to even more piracy rather than aid the country's antipiracy enforcement. "They may seem like small changes," she said, "but they will cause chaos." Barannikova faulted lawmakers for drafting the bill without consulting businesses or groups representing intellectual property rights. San Jose Mercury News, 24 March 2006 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/14178447.htm ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA CRITICIZES NATURE STUDY Encyclopedia Britannica issued a harsh critique of a report released in December by the journal Nature about the reliability of information on Wikipedia. In its report, Nature concluded that the incidence of errors was about the same in Wikipedia as in Encyclopedia Britannica. The report compared articles on 50 topics and uncovered four serious errors each in Wikipedia and in the Encyclopedia Britannica, though Wikipedia contained more factual errors (162 versus 123). A response from the encyclopedia challenges Nature's results, citing what it called "a pattern of sloppiness, indifference to basic scholarly standards, and flagrant errors so numerous they completely invalidated the results." The encyclopedia takes issue with more than 50 specifics of the Nature report and asks that the journal retract the report. Editors at Nature defended the report, saying, "We reject those accusations and are confident our comparisons are fair." BBC, 24 March 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4840340.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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