Article Abstract:
Young people of all kinds, not just computer nerds, are increasingly hooking up to the Internet and such commercial computer networks as America Online and the Imagination Network to socialize with each other and communicate with the world at large. Computers are very familiar to this generation of youngsters, since microcomputers have always been around for those under 18 years of age. While the scions of rich families may enjoy the advantage of an Apple Macintosh Quadra in the den, even inner-city kids can gain access to networks through such programs as Phoenix College's summer computer camp and such educational centers as Computers and You, located in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, CA. Virtual neighborhoods, a new kind of public space called the virtual neighborhood where even children from crime-ridden areas can chat and play games with other children and adults in safety, is coming into existence for these youngsters thanks to the magic of computer communications.
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Article Abstract:
Large publishing and communications companies are beginning to act on their dawning awareness that the Internet world-wide computer network has become a huge and largely untapped market for electronic versions of their products and services. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, for example, has just acquired the Delphi Internet Services online information service and Internet gateway, enabling it to offer electronic versions of the many newspapers and magazines it controls over the Internet in the future. Many of the over 15 million Internet users regard these looming commercial intrusions into their anarchic cyberspace realm with horror, however, according to Internet Society Pres Vinton Cerf. Large mass media companies are equally fearful of getting into the Internet market too late. Numerous small publishing and software ventures already sell their wares over the Internet, and may provide stiff competition, better attuned to the desires of Internet denizens, for the media giants.
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Article Abstract:
Pres Bush reverses a Reagan Administration effort to control access to computerized information. The Reagan Administration had established a central office within the National Security Agency (NSA) - the National Computer Security Center - to set standards for the security of both Federal and private computers. Access to databases, collections of commercial satellite photographs and information compiled by university researchers would be restricted. The purpose was to prevent foreign countries from piecing together sensitive information. Civil libertarians worried, fearing limits on the free flow of information, and some lawmakers and computer industry officials were concerned about possible abuses of power by the NSA. Congress passed legislation in 1987 opposing the administration's policy, and now, Pres Bush has signed a memorandum revising the Reagan Administration's orders and disbanding the NSA's security center.
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