Last updated: 1/20/2000
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Computers, the Internet, and Society
Agenda for Class 2
1/20/2000

1. Announcements
   1. Do online sign-in.
   2. Phillip Bagley and Warren Mauer have two computer conferencing accounts, please choose one. I can remind you of User Names and Passwords.
   3. Class pictures from last week are on the course web site. Retakes?
   4. Computer homework in MO5 has been added to Assignment Schedule - replacement page
   5. I have added Macomb University Center telephone numbers to the top of every web page. This is where I will hold my office hours from 4 to 6 PM every Thursday (no office hours on March 9). I also have office hours every Wednesday from 4 to 6 PM on campus.
   6. I have reordered the home page by moving items to better sections
   7. It is part of the class to turn the computers off at the end of the class.
      1. Close all open applications
      2. Click on Start button / Shut Down... then make sure that "Shut down the computer?" is selected and then click Yes.
      3. Wait for the computer to turn itself off, or to tell you that it is OK for you to turn it off, and then turn off the power on both the main desktop unit and the monitor.
   8. Handouts to bring every week
      1. Windows Common Elements
      2. Internet
      3. Word Processing
      4. Forms of Computer Information
      5. Computers and Society (issues for Essay 1)
   9. Not here last week? Let me know!
   10. Review of assignments
       1. Floppy diskette
2. Internet New Stories
   1. From New York Times, January 17, 2000, Pg C4
      The World Wrestling Federation, WWF, operates its web site under the URL www.wwf.com. Recently, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, Icann, authorized URLs up to 63 characters long, a substantial increase over the previous limit of 22 characters. (Icann, chaired by Esther Dyson, was chosen by the Clinton administration as a representative body to oversee the assignment of Internet addresses, and to open up to commercial competition the monopoly currently enjoyed by Network Solutions.) Michael Bosman, a California stockbroker, saw an opportunity and registered www.worldwrestlingfederation.com. The registration fee charged by Network Solutions is $60 for two years. Initially, Bosman says, he intended to run a web site for wrestling fans, but he realized this was more than he would be able to handle, technically or financially, so he offered to sell the URL to the WWF for $100,000. The WWF threatened a lawsuit and at the same time took the new route developed by Icann and brought the dispute to a branch of the UN, the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO. On Friday, January 14, WIPO handed down its decision that Bosman had registered the site for the sole purpose of reselling it, and therefore did not have a legitimate claim, so that WWF had the right to the URL. Even Bosman said that he thought that the new process worked well, because otherwise he would have had to defend the lawsuit at a high cost. Six other cases have been filed with the WIPO. Network Solutions has frozen the use of over 1,000 URLs because of similar disputes, and some of these could also end up before WIPO.
   2. From New York Times, January 18, 2000, Pg A27
      Thomas Friedman, author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree, is also a columnist for the New York Times. On January 18, his column, Foreign Affairs, dealt with electronic markets for industrial commodities such as metals, energy and chemicals. In the US, much of the business-to-business trading is already taking place over the web, and Europeans are already irritated that the US is dominating this type of sales. There is another layer being added. The markets themselves -- the way that buyers and sellers find each other, exchange information, and put together a deal -- are increasingly web-based. Examples are metalsite.com, e-steel.com, e-chemicals.com, chemdex.com, and others being started up rapidly. Buyers and sellers both come to these sites to find the other half of their deal, compare prices, delivery dates and other product attributes, and even to discuss problems and future needs. Generally, the site gets a small fee for sales in which they are involved. However, the marketplace is so much larger, faster and more convenient that the fees are willingly paid. (Before these markets, suppliers distributed catalogs to potential customers they were aware of, and used telephone communications to negotiate bids and deals.) Estimates are that big exchange web sites like these will be involved in 30% to 40% of industrial sales by 2004. Friedman projects that the Europeans will eventually be even more irritated by the complete US domination in forming these electronic marketplaces.
   3. From National Public Radio (WDET in Detroit area, WSU radio station at 101.9 FM) 1/19/2000 and The Internet in the News
      There is generally no sales tax over the Internet, unless the store has an outlet in the customer's state, in which case that state's sales tax applies. Michigan has a use tax for goods bought without a sales tax; the amount of the use tax is the same as the sales tax. Citizens are generally not aware of this, and it is usually not paid. Indian reservations are treated as sovereign foreign states, and often say that they do not recognize the States of the US and therefore do not have to collect sales taxes. Indian smoke shops sell tax-free cigarettes.
      
      Sales taxes are major parts of the funding for state, county and city governments. A Congressional panel is considering how to balance the competing demands of eCommerce to remain untaxed and these levels of government, which claim that they will be bankrupted as eCommerce sales continue their high levels of growth. Also, brick-and-mortar retailers claim that they are subsidizing their eCommerce competition. Republicans on the panel are reluctant to be seen as imposing any new taxes, even though the exemption from sales taxes was granted on a interim basis. One argument against taxing sales over the Internet is that it will stifle the growth of the Internet. My reaction to this argument is: (a) All other companies are expected to be able to pay taxes, and (b) if Internet sales will be stifled by increasing costs by 6%, how healthy can they be?
   4. From New York Times, 1/20/2000, Pg D1
      Many enhanced wrist-watches will be announced in the next few months, with extra features being "cell phones, pagers, email readers, computers, digital cameras, MP3 music players, television receivers, voice recorders, automobile security keys, television and VCR remote controls, health monitors, weather stations, compasses, Global Positioning System monitors, altimeters, games and simple amusements." Many of these will connect to desktops and other devices using wireless infrared and cellular communications.
3. Computer conferencing has been set up. How it works.
   1. Logging in
      1. Correct login: you will see your name and the opening screen showing how many unread messages you have.
      2. If you mistype your login information, you will see
         
         If you choose Yes, you will set up a new account for yourself. Since it is the account that is connected to your conferences, all of your conferences will disappear! You will blame the conferencing system, but you did it. This is the major source of user frustration with this system. If your conferences disappear, call me.
   2. List of new messages, reading new messages
   3. Post, Reply, Reply/Quote - title of message
   4. Retreiving older messages
   5. Online guide to computer conferencing
4. Windows common elements - handout
5. Word Processing - handout
6. Internet - handout
7. Computers and Society (issues for essays)