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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2006 Higher Education and IBM Announce Joint Initiative Group Wants to Offer Online Courses in Spanish Princeton Arranges Free Online Music China Enters Copyright Agreement Boeing Loses Another Laptop HIGHER EDUCATION AND IBM ANNOUNCE JOINT INITIATIVE IBM and seven universities will collaborate on research projects under the auspices of the Open Collaborative Research program, an effort launched last year by several universities and HP, Intel, Cisco, and IBM. Some academics and corporate officials believe that the current climate of innovation has become too restrictive due to growing concerns over intellectual property and commercialization of new technologies. The new initiative is intended to foster a renewed sense of cooperation between industry and academia in the areas of research and development. Elisa Bertino, computer scientist at Purdue University, said, "Universities in the United States want to protect their intellectual property but more and more see the importance of collaboration." In addition to Purdue, other partners in the program are Carnegie Mellon; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Davis; Columbia University; the Georgia Institute of Technology; and Rutgers University. New York Times, 14 December 2006 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/technology/14blue.html GROUP WANTS TO OFFER ONLINE COURSES IN SPANISH The Fundación Universitaria Iberoamericana (FUNIBER), an international educational organization, hopes to establish partnerships with U.S. colleges and universities through which it can offer online courses in Spanish. The group already offers online courses taught in Spanish and Portuguese to students in Europe and Latin America. Officials from FUNIBER said they want to extend their offerings to the 42 million Spanish speakers in the United States. Sergio Abramovich, head of the new U.S. office for FUNIBER, said that many working professionals in this country are fluent in English and Spanish but "prefer to study for that master's degree or that PhD in Spanish." He added that students are more comfortable taking an online course from a local, known institution, which is why FUNIBER is working to offer its courses through U.S. institutions. FUNIBER joins several other organizations offering online courses in the United States taught in Spanish, including the University of Phoenix. Chronicle of Higher Education, 15 December 2006 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/12/2006121501t.htm PRINCETON ARRANGES FREE ONLINE MUSIC Princeton University announced a deal with Ruckus under which students at the institution will have free access to the 1.5 million tracks in the online music service's library. The cost of the service will be covered by advertisements, but students will have to pay about $20 per semester if they want to transfer songs to portable music players. Another potential snag in the program is that songs from Ruckus are not compatible with iPods, still the most popular portable music players, particularly among college students. Byron Austin, a senior at Princeton, pointed to the incompatibility with iPods as a real problem, saying that although "the service is progress...it still has a long way to go." Silicon Valley, 14 December 2006 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/16239474.htm CHINA ENTERS COPYRIGHT AGREEMENT Chinese authorities this week announced an agreement with four trade associations about the ongoing problem of copyright infringement, which is reportedly rampant in China. The Business Software Alliance and the Publishers Association (both in the United Kingdom), the Association of American Publishers, and the Motion Picture Association of America (in the United States) signed the memorandum of understanding, under which the organizations will provide the Chinese government with lists of products that should be protected by copyright law. The four groups will also keep Chinese authorities informed about legal actions against suspected copyright infringers. The National Copyright Association of China will oversee the information from the four groups and will work to improve the country's efforts at enforcing copyrights. CNET, 15 December 2006 http://news.com.com/2100-1014_3-6144063.html BOEING LOSES ANOTHER LAPTOP For the third time in just over a year, a Boeing laptop containing personal information has been stolen. In November 2005, a laptop with data on 160,000 current and former employees was swiped, and another laptop was taken in April, that time with 3,600 records. In the latest incident, an employee left a laptop unattended, and it was stolen. This one included names and Social Security numbers of 382,000 employees and retirees, who have not yet been notified of the theft of their personal information, which included addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and, for some, salary information. Tim Neale, a spokesperson for the aircraft maker, said, "It's very disturbing to us when things like this happen." He said that Boeing understands that it must do more to prevent such incidents from recurring. Wall Street Journal, 13 December 2006 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116601888820848867.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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