CourseCast of the Week

Episode 121, 10/03/2009

Title/Description: Distracted Driving, Dealing with Cyberhate, and other News Headlines

Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 121, recorded October 3rd, 2009. This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information. This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.cengage.com/coursetechnology for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.

Visit the CourseCasts Website at CourseCasts.course.com where you will find links to the full stories covered in this CourseCast, related discussion questions for use in your technology courses, and the CourseCast Archives.

and now the news.

Story 1: Distracted Driving

Statistics released last week at the "distracted driving summit" revealed that the use of cell phones while driving resulted in 5,800 deaths and 515,000 injuries in the US last year. States and the Fed are considering laws to address the growing problem of distracted driving.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have passed laws against texting while driving, some banning the use of cell phones while driving altogether. This week President Obama banned texting while driving for all federal employees including military personnel and postal workers.

One group lobbying to be exempted from distracted driving laws is American truckers. Truckers rely on computers in their cabs for mapping and GPS applications, scheduling and shipping information, and for communicating with dispatchers. Distractive driving laws would require truckers to pull over to the side of the road to carry out these activities, deeply cutting into tight shipping schedules, adding to fuel costs, and creating a different kind of risk on the highway. Other industries might also be considered for exemption such as taxi drivers and law enforcement. However, it's difficult to justify exemptions for some drivers and not others, just as it is difficult to define which activities are distracting and which are not.

• Distracted driving blamed for 5800 U.S. deaths [Reuters]
• Truckers Insist on Keeping Computers in the Cab [New York Times]
• Distracted Driving a 'Menace to Society [NewsFactor]
• Distracted Driving Summit: What to do about texting-while-driving? [Computerworld]
• Obama bans "texting while driving" for 4.5M govt workers [Ars Technica]

Story 2: Dealing with Cyberhate

The Web is an expression of the human condition that includes voices from seemingly every perspective. The rise of social networking has made it easier than ever for people to express their views online. Freedom of speech is valued in democratic society, but often questioned in situations where speech is hateful and dangerous. On the Web, it's left to service providers to determine where to draw the line when it comes to free speech. Often times the social networks are too large to easily police, so they depend on users to point out offending content.

On Facebook complaints about nudity, pornography and harassing personal messages are addressed within 24 hours. YouTube has created an online safety center that allows users to flag offending videos. Most online services yank any content designed to attack or demean an individual or group based on race, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation.

Consider a poll on Facebook that popped up this week, that asked users "Should Obama be Killed?" - Yes, No, Maybe, or Yes if he cuts health care. The poll lasted two days before it was yanked by Facebook. The U.S. Secret Service has launched an investigation into the case to find the person who posted the survey.

"Cyberhate is one of the biggest challenges we face," says a representative from the Anti-Defamation League. Complaints about online hate speech are up this year by more than 200 percent.

Online bullying is yet another form of online hate. A bill making its way through the House would make Internet bullying a crime. Internet bullying is defined in the bill as repeated, hostile and severe communications made with the intent to harm.

• Online Hate Speech: It's Difficult To Police [NewsFactor]
• U.S. House Members Trying To Stop Internet Bullying [NewsFactor]

News Briefs

• A survey from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley found that roughly two-thirds of Americans object to having their online activities tracked by advertisers.
  Two-Thirds of Americans Object to Online Tracking [NY Times]
• Tops schools in the US are utilizing student blogs for new student recruitment. A visit to MIT's admissions homepage illustrates the trend with student blogs featured prominently, along with hundreds of unfiltered responses from prospective students. Recruiters believe that high school students are more interested in reading what college students have to say about their school than in reading official messages and statistics from college administrators and marketers.
  M.I.T. Taking Student Blogs to Nth Degree [NY Times]
• Now that wireless Internet is being provided by U.S. airlines, some difficult policies are being considered. Recently the airline industry made the decision NOT to allow in-flight cell phone service due to concerns over loud intrusive conversations. Now, savvy travelers are using Internet-based phone services to make phone calls using their computers and Wi-Fi connected phones. Then there's the issue of computer users viewing adult content that might offend others on the flight. Flight attendants may soon have to act as Internet police, or airlines may utilize filtering software that block certain Web content and services.
  Airlines Have a Tough Call To Make [NewsFactor]
• The case is closed for three former Florida A&M University students who hacked into the school's database. The students managed to changed 114 Fs to As, and to alter the residency status of some out-of-state students to make them in-state. Two of the hackers were sentenced to 22 months in prison, while the third gets seven years.
  FAMU Hacker Gets Seven Years in Prison [TheLedger]
• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had a data breach that compromised the social security numbers and other personal information of 163,000 patients from the University's School of Medicine.
  UNC data breach exposes 163,000 SSNs [Computerworld]
• There's a new ultra slim notebook in town. Dell's Latitude Z is a top of the line business notebook with a unique twist. It's the first notebook that utilizes wireless charging. Like the Palm Pre smart phone, the Latitude Z utilizes a wireless inductive charging platform to charge the notebook without having to plug it in. Just set the laptop on its stand and it charges through an electromagnetic field in about the same amount of time as wired charging. Some in the industry believe that wireless charging will become the hot technology of 2010.
  Wireless charging to go mainstream in 2010, says maker [Computerworld]
• Facebook is warning its users to beware of a new type of scam. Facebook accounts are being hacked and used to ask friends for money. In one scenario a Facebook user claims to be stranded in a foreign country and asks friends to wire money using Western Union.
  Facebook warns members about rise in '419' scams [Computerworld]
• Google has released its Wave application to about 100,000 beta testers. Wave combines social networking services with document collaboration and project management tools for a new type of productive online interaction. There are numerous reviews of Google Wave available, most very favorable. Beta testers are allowed to invite five guests into the fold. If any happen to be listening, my email address is kbaldauf@gmail.com.
  Google Wave could threaten Facebook, Twitter [Computerworld]
  Google invites users to join Wave (Video) [BBC]
  Turning the tide: a hands-on look at Google's Wave [Ars Technica]
• A bill working its way through the House would make P2P file sharing safer. The bill would force P2P software vendors to make it clear to consumers exactly which of their files they may be making available to others to download. It would also require them to inform users about files that are being made available to download.
  Bill to make P2P file sharing safer passes House Committee [Computerworld]

That's it for this week's CourseCasts. This week's shout out goes to Brenda Miller and her hard-working students at John Tyler Community College in Midlothian, VA. Thanks for listening! Email me with your comments and suggestions for the show at CourseCasts@gmail.com. Let me know how you use CourseCasts in your classes and I'll give you and your school a shout out on my next CourseCast. Until next time have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!