Large numbers of Baltimore households lack two essential tools for getting online: wireline broadband service at home and access to a computer. According to the 2018 American Community Survey, 96,000 households in Baltimore (40.7%) did not have wireline internet service, such as cable, fiber, or digital subscriber line service. And some 75,000…

Social web services catalog users' activities across the Internet, aggregating, analyzing, and selling a vast array of user data to be used largely for consumer profiling and target marketing. This article interrogates the tacit agreements and terms-of-use policies that govern who owns user data, how it circulates, and how it can be used. Relying…

A university's objective is to educate its students using information and communication technologies (ICTs) and teaching techniques that would enable its graduates become flexible and life-long learners that can easily adapt to the changes eminent in the information society. Achieving this aim requires among other factors, the adoption of…

The change brought about in the networked information environment is deep and structural, in a way that has the potential to empower cultures left out of the Industrial Revolution. Thus, the author stresses that it is fundamental for individuals to understand, from a developing nation's perspective, how the Internet changes the capacity of…

Much recent discussion has focused on the pros and cons of cloud computing. Some institutions are attracted to cloud computing benefits such as rapid deployment, flexible scalability, and low initial start-up cost, while others are concerned about cloud computing risks such as those related to data location, level of service, and security…

It has been assumed that, due to limited Internet access, electronic media is an ineffective means for information dissemination to Native Americans with disabilities. In this investigation, we surveyed a sample of 467 households of Native Americans with disabilities living on Great Plains reservations regarding access to electronic resources. Of…

The University of Washington (UW) adopted a dual-provider cloud-computing strategy, focusing initially on software as a service. The original project--to replace an obsolete alumni e-mail system--resulted in a cloud solution that soon grew to encompass the entire campus community. The policies and contract terms UW developed, focusing on…

This paper discusses copyright issues, focusing on changes due to digital technology. Highlights include: problems for copyright posed by digital technologies, i.e., the identification of copyright works and owners, and the enforcement of copyright rights; electronic monitoring of copyright uses to provide rights owners with data on usage; the…

Examines the interconnected issues surrounding domain naming. Discusses "dot" ownership, top-level domain expansion, control of second-level domain names, and trademarks and copyright protections. Outlines the history extending from the development of the pre-Internet ARPANET to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers…

In this article, the authors argue for a leap from a "weak" digital literacy (skills of interpretation and strategies of reception) to strong digital literacy (authorship and autonomous skills and capacities). Strong digital literacy implies politico-structural analysis of the information societies to come. Given the current forms of economic…

For the thirty-seventh year, the Research and Theory Division and the Division of Instructional Design of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) sponsored the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. This year's Proceedings…

Highlights key aspects of and issues related to the "Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998," a bill passed by the U.S. Senate on May 14, 1998. Discussion includes banning of black boxes (i.e., technological-protection measures such as tv signal scramblers), fair-use protection, identification of copyrighted works, protection for…

Findings of this report indicate that, since an earlier 1994 study, the number of Americans that own computers has increased by over 50% and the number of households using e-mail has quadrupled. Nevertheless, access to the Information Superhighway is still beyond the grasp of many Americans. While the nation-wide telephone penetration rate remains…

Discusses Fair Use and the public perception; models for funding information services; publishers illusion that information is/should be free; Internet's role in making information freely available; scholarly communication systems: Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) and BioOne (an electronic aggregation of bioscience…

The electronic environment is currently forcing educators at all levels to revisit issues concerning intellectual property. Quick availability of information and data through the Internet has changed the way the general public views information since it seems to be in endless supply from any computer on any individual desktop. This paper presents…