Infosys v3n012 (April 24, 1996) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/infosys/infs-v3n012 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * INFOSYS: The Electronic Newsletter for Information Systems * * Volume 3, Number 12 ISSN: 1173-3764 April 24, 1996 * * * * Editor: Dennis W. Viehland, Massey University, New Zealand * * Listowners: Greg Welsh, American University, Washington DC * * Peter M. Weiss, Penn State * * Sponsor: boyd & fraser publishing, Danvers, Massachusetts * * * * Current Subscribers = 4,983 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TABLE OF CONTENTS * * * * * * * * * * * * * NEWS - From Edupage * * ANNOUNCEMENT - IS Abstract Server (Web site) * * CONFERENCE - Society and the Future of Computing '96 * * CALL FOR PAPERS - Internet Forum Europe 96 * * CALL FOR PAPERS - Computer Security Applications Conference * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * NEWS - From Edupage * * Dennis Viehland, Massey University * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * COMPUTING COMES TO THE BIG SCREEN: Gateway 2000 has unveiled a PC that looks like a TV -- complete with 31-inch screen, and remote keyboard and mouse that can be operated from about 15 feet away. The system can be used for business use in making presentations, or at home for playing interactive games, cruising the Net or just plain old watching TV. Prices are expected to range from $3,499 to $4,699. (Investor's Business Daily 22 Mar 96 A19) NETSCAPE TO GET IN ON THE PHONE-BY-INTERNET ACTION: Netscape co-founder Mark Andreessen says that within six months the company will build into its Navigator program voice software (which it calls Insoft) for making low-cost long distance calls via the Internet into its Navigator program and that long-distance phone companies increasingly won't be able to justify their rates for telephone service. (Sydney Morning Herald 13 Mar 96 via Individual Inc.) U.S. CONSIDERING SUPERCOMPUTERS FROM JAPAN: Until now, no federal agency using supercomputers has ever considered acquiring anything but one made in the U.S.A., but Japanese companies Fujitsu and NEC are both giving U.S.-based Cray Research serious competition in the current supercomputer procurement being conducted by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado. All the companies in the competition, both U.S. and Japanese, say that political issues have so far played no role in NCAR's decision- making process. (New York Times 25 Mar 96 C1) NET EFFECT: A study by the Cambridge (U.K.)-based consulting group Analysis says that the Net is a disruptive technology that will force the convergence of telecommunications, information technology, publishing and broadcasting, and that it has "usurped elegantly engineered plans for expensive networks put forward by the telecoms operators to become the focus of development and innovation for advanced services." The study characterizes the Net as a miniature model of the communications industry in the next century. (Financial Times 25 Mar 96 p11) DIGITAL GETS INTO E-COMMERCE: Digital Equipment Corp. has signed licensing agreement s with Netscape Communications and CyberCash Inc. to incorporate their electronic commerce software into Digital's high-speed Alpha servers. (Wall Street Journal 25 Mar 96 B3) SOFTWARE SALES LAG, TOO: In the wake of slowing growth in computer sales, PC software sales rose just 12% last year, according to the Software Publishers Association, driven in large part by sales of Windows-compatible programs. The fastest growing segments, in terms of revenue, were entertainment, up 42%, utilities, up 39%, personal information managers, up 42%, and languages and tools, up 41%. (Investor's Business Daily 27 Mar 96 A6) MICROSOFT EXCHANGE CHALLENGES LOTUS NOTES: Microsoft rolled out its Exchange Server software in a challenge to Lotus Notes' dominant position in the corporate groupware market. Exchange allows users to set up internal BBSs, set up meetings with a group-scheduling feature and send e-mail with links to the Web. Notes' advantages include a feature that automatically synchronizes all changes made to a document in a collaborative editing session. Notes runs on a variety of servers and operating systems while Exchange runs only on Windows NT. "I'm tired of shadowboxing," says Lotus's executive VP. "We are going to have a slugfest, and they are going to get their nose bloodied." (Wall Street Journal 1 Apr 96 B5) MICROSOFT WANTS TO START YOU UP: Microsoft also says it will use the OnNow standard to allow PCs to turn on instantly and be immediately (like toasters and other consumer appliances); Microsoft executive Jim Allchin says: "Users are demanding that PCs become more convenient to access and use. They want their PC to be instantly available to answer the phone, display new e-mail, browse the Internet or run an application." (Financial Times 2 Apr 96 p19) E-MAIL FROM OUTER SPACE: Sky Station International has filed an application with the FCC to build a global wireless communications system using 250 geostationary stratospheric platforms to beam signals to and from personal communicator units, providing 64 kbps access to the Internet. Each Sky Station would be capable of handling 600,000 data transmissions simultaneously, at an estimated cost of about 10 cents a minute. "`Star Wars' was interesting," says an SSI principal. "We're doing the same thing, only for universal broadband." (Broadcasting & Cable 1 Apr 96 p54) BUSINESSES TO SPEND MORE ON TECHNOLOGY: Businesses will spend 5.4% more on technology this year than they did in 1995, according to a poll of 346 executives conducted by Computer Sciences Corp. "We're spending more on software than on hardware," says an insurance company CIO. "Our story is very common, considering the costs of software updates." In addition to software upgrades, training and support for networks are claiming a large share of technology dollars, says a Forrester Research analyst. And putting the hardware in the hands of employees has actually created a "hidden IT cost," says the chairman of the International Center for Information Technologies. Every time a highly compensated worker stops what they're doing to fix a printer jam, they become an extremely costly computer technician. "While decentralized client- server computing was supposed to lower IT costs, the opposite has happened. Equipment costs are one-fifth of total costs... Firms are now spending on education and support." (Investor's Business Daily 9 Apr 96 A8) GOVERNMENT MAY SUFFER MOST FROM YEAR 2000 PROBLEMS: The Gartner Group says too many corporations still have their heads in the sand over the problems that will arise when the date changes to 2000 and older computer software hasn't been modified to accommodate the new millennium. "People are becoming aware of the problem, and the degree of urgency we're seeing is escalating, but not fast enough to get us out of the woods," says Gartner's research director. "Fixing this is a lot of work. It's expensive, roll-up-your-sleeves work. ome systems won't be ready." He predicts government will have the biggest headaches: "The degree of denial we're seeing in government, plus budget constraints and the relative age of the systems and applications many governments use, add up to big, big trouble." (St. Petersburg Times 8 Apr 96 A1) KID-PROOF KEYBOARD: A husband-and-wife team has come up with a child-proof keyboard that's resistant to spilled juice, hard knocks and inadvertent wipeouts. It has 55 keys, color-coded for letters, numbers and other functions, and the letters are alphabetically arranged for easier hunting and pecking. Control, alt and delete keys are not included, preserving the CPU's integrity from accidental data losses or crashes. In addition, the keyboard can't be activated until the computer has finished booting up. "That way, even if they're banging on it, it's not going to hurt the files," says the designer. My First Keyboard is made by Kidtech and costs $49. (St. Petersburg Times 8 Apr 96 p13) LAPTOPS REPLACING DESKTOP MACHINES: The Giga Information Group in Cambridge, Mass. predicts that the number of workers using portable computers will expand from about one in five today to about one in three by 2000, and that 80% of portable users will use their portables as their primary machines, up from the current 30%. (Computerworld 8 Apr 96 p1) IT TRAINING MARKET TO DOUBLE BY 2000: The global market for information technology training and education is rising by 13% a year, and will reach $27 billion by the end of the decade, according to International Data Corp. Spending totaled $14.4 billion last year. Leading the trend is corporate America's need to provide continuous training, professional development and employee skill certification. Top training organizations last year were IBM Education & Training, Oracle Education, Knowledge Pool (a joint venture of ICL PLC, Amdahl Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd.), SAP Customer Education, and Global Knowledge Network (formerly Digital Learning Services). (Investor's Business Daily 11 Apr 95 A8) WEB-SURFING WORKER WORRIES: A Find/SVP survey reveals that workers who use the Internet from work tend to make a habit of it -- spending an average of 7.7 hours a week -- almost a full workday -- online. The average time online for all users is about 6.6 hours a week. The tendency to spend lots of time online while "taking care of business" has executives concerned over lost productivity and potential legal troubles. "We are still trying to figure out to what extent we are getting the benefit, as opposed to the downside of the Internet," says a national sales manager for 3Com, which has put all 800 of its salespeople on the Net. To alleviate bosses' worries, Sequel will introduce a Net Access Manager product that allows companies to control worker access to online services, and Optimal Networks' Optimal Internet Monitor will have a similar features. Both products will be available in the next couple of months. (Investor's Business Daily 15 Apr 96 A8) PENTIUM POWER GOOD FOR ANOTHER YEAR: The Pentium microprocessor accounts for 91% of processor shipments this year, and will continue as Intel's cash cow for at least another year, says MicroDesign Resources Inc., a Calif.-based research firm. MicroDesign predicts a major migration from the Pentium to the P6 chips in the first quarter of 1998. (Investor's Business Daily 15 Apr 96 A8) DEMISE OF THE WEB PREDICTED: Mark Stahlman, president of New Media Associates, predicts the death of the Web this year: "Advertisers will dump the Web, and businesses that depend on ad support will become uneconomic. But the cause won't be the poor performance caused by 'clogged pipes';... it's more fundamental. The Web is a terrible place to manipulate people's unconscious fears, which is the aim of consumer advertising... Advertising on the Web has to be information, not manipulation. This is because the medium doesn't permit the psychological games that 'impact' a modern audience.... unless the Web becomes television, as @Home and others hope. If the Web could readily deliver video-server-based moving images, then the manipulative techniques of TV ads could also be Web-delivered. But the bandwidth just isn't available, and probably won't be for as long as 10 years... But there's still a chance something quite new could happen. The Web is a medium for information and education -- not unconscious mental manipulation. What if the Web's real capability is taken seriously and it becomes the world's largest adult education system?" (Information Week 8 Apr 96 p100) DATA WAREHOUSING EARNS BIG PAYBACK: International Data Corp. reports that companies that have invested in data warehousing, which pulls data from various large databases into smaller ones to analyze trends and possible business opportunities have realized a 400% return on their investments over three-years. The study was based on 62 organizations that spent an average of $2.2 million each on their data warehouse operations. (Investor's Business Daily 18 Apr 96 A8) TRUE PLUG AND PLAY IS ON THE WAY: The Universal Serial Bus, which is being promoted by a group of companies led by Intel, theoretically will allow simple connections to as many as 127 computer peripheral devices using a single type of connector. Beginning later this year, Intel will incorporate USB connectors into many of its motherboards, providing a de facto standard for about half of all PCs sold. The new format will enable much faster performance and will allow add-ons to hook into each other, eliminating the snarl of cables and wires that lurks behind most PCs today. Of course the computer industry never agrees unanimously on anything, so a competing standard, called IEEE 1394, is being developed to perform similar functions, and is likely to be available in PCs sometime next year. Hewlett-Packard and Compaq have demonstrated "sealed-box" prototypes that sport both types of connections. (Business Week 22 Apr 96 p22) 100,000,000 MICE SERVED: The mouse has made its mark -- since its invention in 1963 by Douglas Engelbart, the computer mouse has transformed the way that most people interact with their machines. Logitech, which claims 40% of the worldwide mouse market, has just rolled the 100-millionth mouse off its SuzHou, China production line. Engelbart, who also pioneered the ideas of windows and hypertext, says, "For one company to reach such a milestone means that users have understood the benefits of interacting with their computers using a tool that matches the way their sensory and motion machinery work." (Information Week 15 Apr 96 p12) Editor's Note: Edupage, a summary of news items on information technology, is a service of Educom. This is an abbreviated list of news items of interest to the IS community from the March 24, 26, 218, April 2, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 18, and 21, 1996 issues. \EOA * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ANNOUNCEMENT - IS Abstract Server (Web site) * * Steve Elliot, Univ of New South Wales * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * At the 1995 Australian Conference on Information Systems in Perth, the IS Abstract Server was introduced. The major objectives of this service are: --To improve communications within the Australasian IS research community. --To facilitate IS research by providing a simple means of access to researchers and their work at any stage. This work may be working papers, conference papers, journal papers, book chapters etc. --Provide a means for technology transfer from researchers to organisations seeking assistance with their applications of IS. It is intended that the service be used by researchers seeking details of activities in related fields (eg for collaborative research or to ensure they are not re-inventing wheels); by research students and prospective research students seeking to identify areas of activity in a particular topic; and by industry seeking to make contact with someone working locally in an area of their interest. Please access the IS Abstract Server and enter your most important abstracts / or details of your IS research interests. Abstracts are listed in the order in which they are entered - so first in, first displayed. Abstracts are entered into a form (you can cut and paste from a word processing document to the form). Abstracts are catalogued by MISQ's ISRL codes. The IS Abstract server is an approved mirror site for MISQ's ISRL codes and the full codes are available for on-line selection. The Abstract Server address is http://www.fce.unsw.edu.au/ITRC The Abstract service is also available from the ISWorld Net Australasia page: http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/ISWCountry/ANZ The Abstract Service is provided by the IT Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. \EOA * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CONFERENCE - Society and the Future of Computing '96 * * Steve Sawyer, Syracuse University * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Society and the Future of Computing '96 June 16-20, 1996 Snowbird, Utah This conference provides a multidisciplinary forum to articulate novel research directions that advance computer science in ways that are truly beneficial to society. Participants will share, explore, and demonstrate the responsible use of advanced scientific computing and National Information Infrastructure (NII) Program technologies for the benefit of diverse communities. The conference structure includes keynote speakers, panels of invited speakers in which attendees and the panelists engage each other in open discussions of the issues, interactive poster presentations, debates, and workshops. The intent is to share ideas in a multidisciplinary environment for mutual enrichment and learning, ultimately to affect the directions of computer science research and applications for the benefit of all. The conference Web site (http://www.lanl.gov/SFC) includes the preliminary conference agenda, an electronic registration form and opportunities for participation including workshops, Net-connected interactive poster presentations, sponsorship opportunities, and more. The Web site will continue to provide the latest information as the conference design unfolds. If you have no access to the Web, please send an e-mail message containing your U.S. Postal address to sfc96@lanl.gov and we'll send you an information flier and registration form. \EOA * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CALL FOR PAPERS - Internet Forum Europe 96 * * Roberto Zicari * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Internet Forum Europe'96 (IFE'96) October 9-11, 1996 Frankfurt/Main, Germany Internet Forum Europe (IFE) is an international trade show focused exclusively on the business aspects of the Internet/ Intranet. The show is composed of a conference and an exhibition. For 1996, the show is a collocated event with Object World Frankfurt'96. The Internet Forum Europe'96 conference program will examine the following topics: --Infrastructure: How to get started using the Internet (providers, products/services to enable access to the Internet) --Services: Which services are available via Internet (e-mail, World Wide Web, telnet, ftp, News), how to use them, how to select and compare them --Electronic Commerce: electronic payment, online retail --Electronic content management: multimedia asset management, rights and royalties --Training: basic and advanced classes on using the Internet (e-mail, WWW, ftp) --Business: What are the business opportunities using the Internet? --Regulations: What are the legal, social implications of the Internet? --World Wide Web: addressing all aspects of using the WWW, writing your own Web pages, building a WWW site --Software Development: How to write software for the Internet (security, marketing, browsers, search engines, etc.) --Java: focus on Java related development aspects. As the Program Chair of IFE I am currently looking for qualified speakers who want to present at the IFE conference. Please send your proposals to E-mail: roberto_zicari@omg.org Fax: +49-6173- 94 04 20 Please include --a title of a presentation --name of speaker --short bio --target audience The submission due date is May 30,1996. If your company is interested in exhibiting at IFE or wish to have more information on the IFE exhibition please contact: Gudrun Schmidt and Christiane Sattler LogOn Technology Transfer GmbH Voice: +49-6173-28 52 Fax: +49-6173-94 04 20 E-mail: 100425.764@compuserve.com (Christiane Sattler) On-line info: http://www.omg.org/ow/owgerm.htm \EOA * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CALL FOR PAPERS - Computer Security Applications Conference * * Vince Reed, The MITRE Corporation * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Headlines such as "Renown Hacker Breaks Into Security Expert's Computer" are all too familiar. Our dependence on computers for everything from shopping on the web to military command and control has left us extremely vulnerable to fraud, crime, espionage. The U.S. economic base and its military effectiveness are more dependent on automated information systems than any other country in the world. However, the very technology that created this dependence is its greatest weakness: the infrastructure is fundamentally insecure to attacks from individuals, groups or nation-states that can easily deny service or compromise the integrity of information. If we are to deal effectively with these problems we must address such issues as: --Fragmentation of Responsibility: Who is in charge of protecting the global information infrastructure? --Technology: We need a fundamentally new paradigm for providing security. We must recognize that our technology will operate in a hostile environment. Each hardware and software product, perhaps even individual units of information, must be able to provide its own security wrapper. --Network Control: We must find a way to understand and monitor the state of our networks, to be able to distinguish benign from hostile events, and to restore the systems that have been attacked. --Threat and Risk: We need new strategies for dealing with threat and risk. The threat longer depends on the wealth of nation states. --Security in a Global Infrastructure: We must be able to deal with the problems on a global, economic basis. If you are developing solutions to problems relating to protecting your country's information infrastructure or a commercial enterprise, consider submitting a paper to the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference. This internationally recognized conference provides a forum for the world's experts in information system security to exchange ideas about solving critical problems relating to confidentiality and privacy, availability, and integrity. We are looking for papers, panels and tutorials that address: --Emerging security standards for electronic commerce --New directions in cryptography and key management --Network management and smart card applications --New technologies for protecting electronic cache --Audit and audit reduction --New paradigms for protecting electronic intellectual capital --Software safety and program correctness --Security in health care and law enforcement The conference solicits papers, student papers, panels, vendor presentations, and tutorials that address practical approaches to solving these problems in federal, state and local governments, departments of defense, and commercial environments. Instructions for submissions are available from: http://www.isse.gmu.edu/~csis/acsac/acsac96-cfp.html All papers, panel/forum proposals, and vendor and tutorial proposals are due by May 24, 1996. Authors will be notified of acceptance by August 9, 1996. Camera-ready copies are due not later than September 30, 1996. \EOA * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ABOUT INFOSYS * * INFOSYS is an electronic newsletter for faculty, students, and * * practitioners in the field of Information Systems. INFOSYS * * publishes news items, requests for assistance, calls for papers * * announcements of professional meetings and conferences, position * * announcements, journal table of contents, and other items of * * interest to the Information Systems community. * * * * INFOSYS is published biweekly, more frequently if volume requires * * it. INFOSYS operates as an electronic mailing list on listserv * * software at American University in Washington, DC. The editor is * * Dennis W. Viehland . * * * * INFOSYS is sponsored by boyd & fraser, publishers of educational * * materials for computer and information education. Contact Bill * * Lisowski or visit * * http://www.thomson.com/bf.html for more information about boyd * * & fraser. * * * * To subscribe to INFOSYS send the following one-line e-mail * * message to listserv@american.edu: subscribe infosys yourfirstname * * yourlastname (e.g., subscribe infosys John Smith). You will * * receive a welcome letter that will tell you more about INFOSYS * * and listserv. To cancel your subscription send the following * * message to listserv@american.edu: unsubscribe infosys * * * * Guidelines for submitting articles to INFOSYS are published in * * the Welcome message each new subscriber receives (or e-mail "get * * infosys welcome" to listserv@american.edu). Send articles to * * infosys@american.edu or d.viehland@massey.ac.nz. * * * * The INFOSYS Calendar of Upcoming Events is updated fortnightly * * and can be obtained in the following ways: * * --E-mail: send the following one-line message to * * listserv@american.edu: get infosys calendar * * --FTP: anonymous FTP to ftp.american.edu; file is pub/infosys/ * * infosys.calendar * * --Gopher: gopher to listserv.american.edu; choose INFOSYS * * --WWW: forthcoming * * * * INFOSYS Back Issues are archived by Robert McArthur at: * * AUSTRALIA: http://www.fit.qut.edu.au/~mcarthur/infosys/ * * by Eric Morgan (N Carolina State Univ) at: * * USA: ftp://ftp.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/infosys/ * * USA: wais://wais.lib.ncsu.edu/infosys * * USA: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/infosys-index.html * * by Brian Fitzgerald (University College Cork) at: * * EUROPE: http://www.ucc.ie/htbin/infosys * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *