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Civil Liberties
Democratic Senators Want Agency Data-Mining Reports
by Winter Casey
The government's mining of information from public- and private-sector databases for clues to terrorism and crime is widespread and federal agencies should regularly report to Congress on such activities, lawmakers said Wednesday.
"The overwhelming majority of these data-mining programs use, collect, and analyze personal information about ordinary American citizens," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said during a hearing on balancing privacy and security. "We need look no further than the government's own terrorist watch list, which now contains the names of more than 300,000 individuals -- including infants, nuns and even members of Congress-- to understand the inefficiencies that can result from data mining and government dragnets."
Leahy said that "at least 52 different federal agencies are currently using data-mining technology," adding that there are "at least 199 different government data-mining programs operating or planned throughout the federal government." Despite its widespread use, Leahy said questions remain about how effective data mining is in preventing terrorism.
Leahy and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., touted a planned bill that would require agency reports to Congress on their data-mining activities. Feingold said he hopes the hearing will be the first step in "perhaps regulating this type of technology."
Former Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia said there never has been a comprehensive examination of who owns the data. Barr, who now heads a civil liberties coalition called Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances, said in a written statement that the Bush administration's data mining programs violate the Constitution and federal laws in several ways.
Barr recently switched his affiliation from Republican to the Libertarian Party in part because of his concerns over the GOP's actions on civil liberties and privacy issues.
"Predictive data mining is appropriate for seeking credit card fraud" and sending cops to a certain part of town, Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, said in testimony. However, "because of the near statistical impossibility of catching terrorists through data mining, and because of its high costs in investigator time, taxpayer dollars, lost privacy and threatened liberty, I conclude that data mining does not work in the area of terrorism."
Harper called for greater transparency of the practice.
Leslie Harris, executive director for the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in testimony that "technology has far outstripped existing privacy protections at the very time that legal standards for government access to data have been lowered."
Meanwhile, James Carafano, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, argued that traditional law enforcement models need to be modified. He said the threat of terrorism requires law enforcement to be preventive rather than reactive.
Carafano proposed rules to guide U.S. implementation of basic principles for fighting a long-term war in the electronic world. He said the development of technology should not justify authorizing new government powers.
He also said citizen representatives should authorize new, tamper-proof systems.
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States
Schwarzenegger Talks Education, 'Green' Technologies
by Michael Martinez
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday boasted that the Golden State has the "ideas of Athens and the power of Sparta," but said it won't stay that way if lawmakers fail to invest in the state's education system.
In the first State of the State address of his first full term, Schwarzenegger urged the California legislature to continue to invest aggressively in schools. Lawmakers last year approved an education bond to fund the construction of 10,000 classrooms and renovate 38,000 more, but that bond expires in two months. He said he would like to see the legislature fund the construction or renovation of 55,000 more classrooms in 2007.
"The number of high-technology companies we have in California is related to the number of brilliant scientists we have in our universities ... which in turn relates to how many smart undergraduates we have ... which is related to the number of high-school students who graduate, and it goes down through the grades," he said.
The state also needs to improve transparency by making more information about schools available online, he said, touting a plan to create an integrated, online school accountability report card. His administration is pursuing a public-private partnership to build the site.
"The small child with the stick hands starting the first day of kindergarten is the foundation of California's economic power and leadership," he said.
Schwarzenegger also played up his commitment to environmentally friendly "green" technologies. Last year, he signed legislation requiring the broadest restrictions on greenhouse gases in the country.
"Clean-tech investments" in California increased by 50 percent in the first nine months of 2006, he said. He also said he would push for legislation to develop low-carbon fuel standards.
"Our innovation, our science, our knowledge, our creativity is unequaled on the face of the earth," he said.
But Schwarzenegger didn't end his address on the rosiest note. He concluded by calling on lawmakers to reform the political system, arguing that too many legislative seats are entrenched.
A lack of competitive races has allowed many lawmakers to operate without fear of accountability, he said, noting that only four of the state's 459 legislative seats switched parties in the past three election cycles. He asked the legislature to help in establishing an independent commission to fix the system, which he said has become "petrified by self-interest."
"There was more turnover in the Hapsburg monarchy than in the California legislature," he said.
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Telecom
Martin Discusses FCC Agenda At Stop In Las Vegas
by Andrew Noyes
LAS VEGAS -- FCC Chairman Kevin Martin made a pit-stop on his way to the Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday, telling a Citigroup conference that the agency's focus will be to continue pursuing a communications environment that lets companies deliver new services to more customers at fair prices.
Continued convergence and competition in the industries regulated by the FCC is guiding Martin's mission as he discussed his agency's priorities at Citigroup's annual entertainment, media and telecommunications conference here.
On the network neutrality debate, which likely will consume many lobbyists and lawmakers in the 110th Congress, Martin said the buzzword "means different things to different people."
Martin said he believes consumers should be able to tap free Internet content without being blocked, and the commission has taken the steps necessary to enforce that principle. At the same time, network operators who have invested in high-speed infrastructure understandably want to offer tiers of service, he said.
The trouble lies in differing interpretations of "nondiscrimination" and whether the government should require equal treatment of broadband content, Martin said. The FCC traditionally has defined nondiscrimination more conservatively than the Internet firms and consumer groups that want a federal net neutrality mandate.
Those entities' "much more aggressive and radical view" argues that network operators cannot offer private deals to content providers, he said. Martin is concerned that such a stance could devalue and discourage investment in some broadband offerings.
On the dispute over "a la carte" cable programming, which would require operators to sell channels individually, Martin said he was unsure "whether there will be any kind of mandate from the government." An a la carte amendment to last year's failed telecommunications reform package did not get broad support, he said, but several members indicated they "would not vote 'no' on a la carte again."
Martin urged his audience to "put the a la carte debate in broader context." The 1996 telecom law created a more competitive environment across sectors that led to lower prices for consumers in the areas of wireless, international and domestic telephone calls, and high-speed Internet service.
The one area where prices have not decreased is cable service, he said. Those prices have almost doubled in the last decade. A per-channel pricing model could dramatically lower cable bills, supporters say, but the proposal has been staunchly opposed by cable companies.
The problem is similar to what occurred in the recording industry, a sector built on compact disc sales that struggled to accept the digital downloading world, Martin said. The Internet brought about an a la carte model for music sales that industry has now embraced.
"Technology is going to allow the same thing on the video side," he said.
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Telecom
Industry Experts Split Over Outlook For Telecom Bill
by Andrew Noyes
LAS VEGAS -- Policy watchers representing industries that are feuding over the need for network neutrality legislation clashed Tuesday over whether a telecommunications package would have much success in the new Congress.
Verizon's top lobbyist, Thomas Tauke, said during a panel discussion at the Consumer Electronics Show here, that a broad reform measure is unlikely. "I don't see the dynamics," he said. "There's no compelling issue where consumers are experiencing a problem."
Lawmakers' priorities are elsewhere, Tauke argued. "Iraq is taking a lot of air out of the room," as are energy issues in the committees with jurisdiction over the communications industry. "You've got to go down 10 or 12 slots before you even hit telecommunications" on committee to-do lists.
Plus Tauke said aspects of telecommunications reform that would generate the most interest due to their controversial nature -- like video franchise reform -- largely have been resolved.
The switch to Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill also works against passage of a reform bill because "the things that some leaders would do would garner a presidential veto," he said.
But Paul Misener, Amazon.com's vice president for global public policy, said "there will be a telecom act." Many of the same issues that arose last Congress, including video franchise reform, "will be the topic du jour" this session, he predicted. "And I anticipate passage," he added.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., told reporters in Washington Wednesday that there will be major telecom legislation in 2007. (See related brief below.)
Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, got the ball rolling Tuesday by reintroducing a bill designed to ensure that the Internet remains open and accessible to all consumers and competitors. The net neutrality bill is expected to trigger a new cycle of lobbying over Internet regulation.
When asked whether consumers care about a law that would mandate net neutrality, or the equal treatment of broadband content from different sources, Misener said the overwhelming support from consumer groups and the millions of petitions signed by citizens shows they do. "It is a clear and present danger, but it hasn't become a serious problem yet," he said.
Tauke reasoned that the broadband marketplace is still emerging and the big challenge is getting the infrastructure in place to provide high-speed Internet access to as many consumers as possible. "You don't want to put rules in place that will freeze an existing business model" or deter investments in technology deployment, he warned.
The Verizon executive also noted that the net neutrality conditions that AT&T agreed to as part of its merger deal with BellSouth could be harmful in the long run. "What they agreed to relating to the merger does not reflect what that company believes is the right public policy," Tauke said. "We don't think it should impact us."
FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras, who also was on the panel, said her agency is investigating the net neutrality issue to determine whether any government enforcement is necessary. "From a competition standpoint, we need to know more," she said.
The FTC has met with more than two dozen organizations, companies and individuals with stakes in the debate. A Feb. 13-14 workshop on broadband connectivity competition policy will help the agency decide if or how to act, she noted.
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Business
U.S., World Leaders Emphasize Innovation, Note Progress
by Andrew Noyes
LAS VEGAS -- Innovation will shape the economic future of the United States and the world, as well as how citizens communicate in it, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said here Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Some statistics prove his point. One billion people worldwide have Internet access, and the population of Internet-based telephone users rose 83 percent in 2005 to reach 19 million. The international telecommunications equipment market has reached $1.8 trillion, Gutierrez added.
Government and private-sector stakeholders must "create an environment where innovation can flourish," Gutierrez said. Technologies that already exist can be used as the foundation for economic growth, he added.
In order to maintain growth and competition, the Web must be kept tax-free, Gutierrez noted. The Internet tax moratorium enacted in 1998 expires in November, but last week legislation was introduced to make the ban permanent, he said.
On another topic, David Gross, the State Department's coordinator for international communications and information policy, said the Bush administration is working hard to meet its goal for nationwide, affordable high-speed Internet access by the end of this year.
Other world leaders at CES had equally powerful messages about high-tech development. Brazilian Communications Minister Helio Costa said 5 million of his country's 188 million citizens are online and the nation is making "tremendous progress" in that realm.
By the end of 2007, Brazil expects to have broadband deployed in each of its 5,468 cities, Costa said. Currently, 648 cities have high-speed access.
Japanese policymakers see broadband as a way to build infrastructure in medicine, government, education and other fields, said Norihisa Tamura, the senior vice minister for internal affairs and communications. Ubiquitous high-speed access "will resolve many social issues," he said.
Analog television transmissions in the United States are scheduled to cease by February 2009, and Brazil and Japan are not far behind, officials said. Both countries are aiming for 2011 to transition to digital television.
Brazil's path toward digital broadcasting combined elements of the Japanese and U.S. models, as well as from the European changeover, Costa said. The progress is the result of collaborations among 1,200 engineers, scientists and communications specialists, he said.
Digital broadcasting is "an incredible, powerful tool for education, culture and social services," Costa said. In his country, the platform "has to be free; you cannot charge for digital TV," he said.
Meanwhile, Japan has "made great strides" in digital TV and about 20 million households were connected as of December 2006, Norihisa said. Mobile devices are part of the process. A service launched last April allows subscribers to watch digital video on their cellular telephones, he said.
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Environment
What To Do With All Those Gadgets From CES Past?
by Heather Greenfield
As thousands get a peek at the latest technology gadgets at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, government policy executives at high-tech manufacturing companies are puzzling over who should pay to recycle all the old equipment.
No one knows exactly how many old televisions, cellular telephones, computers and MP3 players will need to be recycled soon. But Rick Goss, vice president of environmental policy for the Electronic Industries Alliance, said nearly all of the 120 million U.S. households have at least one TV set, 70 percent have computers, and most have cell phones, stereos and a digital videodisc player or videocassette recorder.
The cost of collecting, transporting and recycling those devices is a matter of growing debate in the electronics industry, as various state and local governments weigh laws on who to bill.
So far California, Maine, Maryland and Washington have enacted e-recycling laws.
Washington's has not taken effect yet, but manufacturers will be largely responsible for recycling costs. The California law involves a future disposal fee of $6 to $8 within the cost of new devices.
In Maine, manufacturers pay according to product weight as taken at a recycling center. And Maryland charges computer manufacturers doing business in the state a $5,000 annual fee to sell products. The money then goes into an e-recycling fund.
Goss said EIA members are split on how to solve the problem, with some manufacturers preferring the California law and others favoring Maine's as a national standard. But he said they agree "on the need to recycle and the need for manufacturers to be involved," and they agree that following 50 different state regulations would be a bureaucratic nightmare.
Lowell Sachs, the senior manager of federal government affairs for Sun Microsystems, predicted that if states start getting more active in e-recycling, companies would request federal legislation to "have some sort of harmony."
Sachs said Sun has its own policies to ensure that less than 5 percent of its products "end up in the landfill." "It's good for our business, our customers and our economy," he said.
Jim Hock, a spokesman for TechNet, said many of its member companies -- including Apple, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard and Sun -- "are aggressively tackling the challenge of recycling IT equipment." He noted that Apple and HP have great programs to recycle all brands of computers, not just their own.
Goss said that over the coming weeks, EIA plans a series of meetings with member companies in hopes of crafting an overall national policy recommendation for the Congressional E-Waste Working Group led by Reps. Mary Bono, R-Calif., Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.
"With Democrats in control, there are a lot more leaders in Congress that have already legislated on this or are from states that are looking to legislate on this," Goss said.
TechNet plans to release its "green" tech policy agenda in March.
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Intellectual Property
Coalition To Offer Authentication To Combat Piracy
by Michael Martinez
A trans-Atlantic coalition of companies from various sectors on Wednesday announced the launch of an organization to combat the global threat of counterfeiting and privacy.
The International Authentication Association will consist of 18 firms, including DuPont, Honeywell, Johnson & Johnson and 3M. The coalition's primary goal will be to promote the use of authentication technologies that can serve as a "first line of defense" against piracy.
At an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Ed Dietrich, director for the Americas at Reconnaissance International, said it is imperative that the providers of authentication technologies get better connected with the companies that can benefit from their services. His company is serving as the acting secretariat for the IAA.
"We need to bring together the providers and the users," Dietrich said.
Citing a recent estimate by the Progressive Policy Institute that the worldwide market for counterfeited goods grew to $650 billion by 2006, Dietrich said piracy has become an increasingly complex issue. He said many industries are only beginning to realize the urgency of the problem.
Ian Lancaster, director of Reconnaissance International's foreign operations, said the IAA will serve a vital mission by bringing together players from all over the world in the fight against piracy. The IAA currently only consists of members from North America and Europe, where there is a shared political will to address counterfeiting, according to Lancaster.
He said the next step would be to reach out to potential members from Asian countries.
Dietrich said IAA will actively engage with U.S. and foreign policymakers when appropriate. The group also will produce research on global piracy and authentication technologies, and participate in conferences on the subject, he said.
A recent survey of about 40 companies by the Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy, an initiative created by the chamber and the National Association of Manufacturers, found that roughly half of the firms spend at least $1 million each year on authentication. About 15 percent also said they plan to use radio-frequency identification technologies for authentication purposes.
In addition to helping companies protect themselves from piracy, authentication helps firms establish trust with consumers by offering a commitment to the value of the products they buy, Lancaster said. But he said it is imperative that authentication technologies are used as part of effective overall strategies to protect intellectual property.
"Authentication has to be used as part of a cycle of tools," he said.
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Television
FCC's Copps Warns Broadcasters About Violence
by David Hatch
Democratic FCC regulator Michael Copps warned Wednesday that a government crackdown on excessively violent broadcast programming could occur if the entertainment industry doesn't regulate itself.
"If broadcasters do not step up to the plate and self-police, I don't think anybody should be surprised if Congress steps in," he said during a press conference sponsored by the Parents Television Council. The group was touting a new report documenting increased levels of brutality on over-the-air television.
He said the FCC's authority to regulate in the area may be limited. But the threat from Copps may not be an empty one.
Last year, pressure from the PTC and other faith-based groups prompted Congress to dramatically raise the agency's fines for overstepping the FCC's broadcast "indecency" guidelines from $32,500 per incident to $325,000 per violation.
The FCC is completing a report requested by Congress on TV violence, said Copps, who recommended that the heads of the broadcast and cable associations conduct a summit exploring ways to tackle the problem.
National Association of Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton countered that broadcast content is "far less violent" than cable and that parents already can use the v-chip technology to block unwanted shows. He noted that the industry is running a $300 million public-service campaign promoting use of the v-chip.
In the past, lawmakers generally have shied away from regulating graphic images on over-the-air TV because it raises thorny constitutional questions. But Copps insisted that it is possible to curb the most extreme images without engaging in censorship and without restricting access to violent but educational fare, such as the highly acclaimed World War II film "Saving Private Ryan."
The report, titled "Dying to Entertain," was issued as lawmakers settle on their priorities for the first year of the 110th Congress. It mostly contrasts the 2005-2006 TV season with the 1998 season, concluding that the former was among the most graphic in recent history.
The 2005-2006 season averaged 4.41 sequences of graphic action per hour, or once every 13.5 minutes, during the heavily viewed prime-time period from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. That level represents a 75 percent increase over 1998, the report says.
PTC President Tim Winter said there are many steps Hollywood can voluntarily take to curb gratuitous violence. But his group's goals are certain to meet resistance from the creative community and broadcast stations still reeling from the FCC's upping of the indecency penalties.
Sen. John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., a senior member of the Commerce Committee, included FCC regulation of violent fare in a list of his 2007 legislative priorities, which he issued Wednesday. The list also proposes extending the FCC's indecency rules to cable and satellite TV, which raises constitutional questions because those services do not rely on the public airwaves.
The study is the group's second examination of television violence on six major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and the WB. Since the report's release, UPN and the WB have combined into the CW network.
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Science
Space Agency Selects Finalists For Mars Mission
by Aliya Sternstein
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has selected proposals for experiments to conduct on Mars in 2011 and also announced that a U.S. researcher will be working with the European Space Agency on a 2013 mission to hunt for former signs of life on the Red Planet.
All three missions will piggyback data-rich images off of the Martian surface using satellite telecommunications. Satellites orbiting Mars will relay the data back to Earth. The communications rate would be too slow without the satellites.
The two NASA mission finalists are now testing the feasibility of their projects, a process that will take nine months. The group that makes the best case will have the chance to deploy its project on NASA's 2011 Mars Scout mission, the agency said Monday.
Bruce Jakosky, who is associate director of the Atmospheric and Space Physics Laboratory at the University of Colorado, is one of the contenders. He declined to provide details of his project because the competition is ongoing, but he did say his team would be taking some first-ever measurements of the planet's upper atmosphere to understand Martian global climate change.
Scientists have taken such measurements of Earth's atmosphere, but no one has analyzed the same dimensions of Mars' atmosphere.
"Our goal is to learn about how the atmosphere changes with time," Jakosky said. "Specifically, we want to understand the history of water and climate, and how these affect the habitability of Mars by micro-organisms."
Another team, led by planetary scientist Alan Stern, also would try to answer the question of why the Martian atmosphere disappeared.
Stern is executive director of the Southwest Research Institute's space science and engineering division and heads NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto, which is preparing a flyby of Jupiter this month.
"Mars is often considered a sister planet to Earth, and thought to have an ancient thick atmosphere, similar in many ways to Earth's atmosphere," said the study's deputy principal investigator, Donald Hassler, a senior research scientist at the institute. "What happened to this atmosphere? Where did it go? What are the processes which may have led to its disappearance?"
In addition, NASA has chosen Alian Wang, a senior research scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, to participate in Europe's ExoMars mission. Wang, a veteran Martian detective, has been working on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover project since 1997.
A major scientific goal of ExoMars will be to search for traces of past and present life on and underneath the Martian surface. Wang said the mission will fly a new planetary exploration tool, a Raman spectrometer, to Mars. The instrument can identify minerals that hold clues to understanding past environments that might have supported life on Mars.
She said she and her colleagues "have devoted our more than 10 years' efforts to develop this great technology and its applications in planetary sciences. I am so glad that it will finally fly to Mars. Origin of life has always been the most intriguing questions for all mankind on Earth."
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Corrections
-- In Tuesday's PM Edition, Technology Daily incorrectly stated that the MedImmune v. Genentech patent case involved the concept of "obviousness." That is the subject of a patent case involving KSR that was heard in November.
-- A story in Monday's "Issue Of The Week" incorrectly stated that the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is defunct. The board has been meeting since last March and will hold two more meetings this month. Members of the board have also been briefed by the Bush administration on intelligence and counter-terrorism programs.
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Today's Feature:
International Roundup
As European governments work toward legislation to implement a directive on data retention by a September 2007 deadline, service providers and industry organizations need to work with regulatory agencies and governments to favorably influence the end result, according to analysts.
Every Wednesday, read the International Roundup by Winter Casey.
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E-briefs
Telecom: House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., told reporters Wednesday that passing network neutrality legislation designed to preserve the Internet's openness would be a "high priority" this year. He also indicated that there would be major telecom legislation in 2007, despite some industry predictions to the contrary. Dingell suggested that Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the new chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, would play an "activist" role on telecom matters. While an FCC oversight hearing has not been scheduled by the subcommittee, Dingell said he expects that one will be held. The Senate Commerce Committee already has announced a Feb. 1 hearing featuring testimony from FCC regulators that will examine the state of the telecom marketplace.
Health: A bipartisan group of lawmakers has reintroduced legislation that would let pharmacies, wholesalers and individuals import approved prescription drugs from foreign countries, including over the Internet. The bill -- announced Wednesday by Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, along with Reps. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois -- is intended to reduce the cost of medicine for Americans. Companies reportedly have raised prices on many blockbuster drugs by 6 percent or more since last year. Under the bill, individuals could directly order medications from Canada if using a Canadian pharmacy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. U.S. pharmacists and wholesalers could import FDA-approved medications from a number of major industrialized nations, enabling them to pass along savings to customers.
E-Government: A government mandate that establishes federal policy for determining the most economical method of procuring information technology services "could be one of the first casualties of the new Congress," Virginia Rep. Tom Davis told a Consumer Electronics Show session on Wednesday. The White House Office of Management and Budget circular, known as A-76, determines whether agency activities should be outsourced or accomplished in-house. Davis, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee who spoke via webcam from Washington, said "you'd think this would be a reasonable program ... but it's turned into a very partisan issue." Reauthorization language has gotten "bogged down with crippling amendments," and that is "likely to get worse" in the Democratic-led 110th Congress. "You have unions and other federal employee organizations that don't like this program at all." Outsourcing work to other countries also may come under fire, Davis said.
Business: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation President Rob Atkinson says the United States weathered past innovation challenges like the Soviet's launch of Sputnik in 1957 because it responded quickly and effectively. But he added that he is not sure that is happening now. Writing in the current issue of the National Academy of Sciences' Issues in Science and Technology, Atkinson said even if Congress approves U.S. competitiveness initiatives, they are not sufficient to meet the challenges of a rapidly evolving global economy and the aggressive policies of other nations -- like greater tax incentives for research and development. He made a number of specific policy proposals in four areas including creating a global trade policy based on markets, not mercantilism; overhauling the corporate tax code; developing new research partnerships; and bringing the economy into the digital age over the next 10 years. Atkinson said all the buzz about competitiveness should be the beginning of real and immediate action.
Education: George Washington University has installed audio equipment into its classrooms that makes audio downloads of lectures immediately available on Apple Computer's iTunes software for higher education, iTunes U. The manufacturer of the podcasting equipment, Anystream, announced Wednesday that GW outfitted six classrooms with technology that instantly converts lectures into podcasts playable on iPods and from within iTunes U. GW developed an automated upload mechanism that works with Anystream's product to simultaneously publish the lecture podcasts on the university's iTunes U site for immediate access.
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