Remember the big controversy a few years ago about high schools and school districts signing revenue deals with Coke, Pepsi and other soft drink companies? The current wave of tech sponsorship may be the natural extension of that trend.

"It’s no secret that college campuses are hotbeds of technology innovation, so it shouldn’t be surprising that universities are among the first to try out new gadgets and applications. Many of these have direct educational benefits–for example, high-speed wireless video offers students the chance to watch a lecture that they couldn’t attend in person.

"But campuses are also beginning to resemble consumer technology marketing labs, with school-backed programs pushing gadgets and services that may have only a tenuous connection to the classroom."

Marguerite Reardon. Big Tech on Campus. News.com. Sept. 6, 2004.

See also:
CNet. Tech Specs of the Top 50 Universities.

"Netflix and TiVo are about to join forces making it possible for customers to download movies over the Net to their television. Later this month the companies plan to unveil a simple but significant partnership that could shake up the media world. Subscribers who belong to both services will be able to download their Netflix DVDs over the Internet directly into the TiVo boxes in their homes, instead of receiving them in the mail.

"Hollywood will be watching closely to make sure copyright protections aren’t hacked, which could lead to its biggest nightmare: high-quality versions of its movies released freely onto the Internet.

"Cable customers could prefer the larger Netflix selection and download movies to their TiVo boxes using cable’s own pipes. Unlike the phone companies, which are regulated as ‘common carriers’ and forbidden from discriminating against customers or content, cable firms don’t have to accommodate their rivals’ traffic on their networks. But if cable closes the door to the Netflix downloads, customers could migrate to the phone industry’s broadband offering, DSL."

Brad Stone. I Want a Movie! Now!. Newsweek. Sept. 13, 2004.

"The National Institutes of Health has proposed a major policy change that would require all scientists who receive funding from the agency to make the results of their research available to the public for free.

"The proposal  would mark a significant departure from current practice, in which the scientific journals that publish those results retain control over that information.

"Pressure to make publicly financed research results more available to the public has been building for years but gained new momentum this summer with report language by the House Appropriations Committee.

"’The committee is very concerned that there is insufficient public access to reports and data resulting from NIH-funded research,’ it read. ‘This situation . . . is contrary to the best interests of the U.S. taxpayers who paid for this research.’"

Rick Weiss. NIH Proposes Free Access For Public to Research Data. WashingtonPost.com. Sept. 6, 2004.

See also:
Peter Suber. NIH Open-Access Plan Frequently Asked Questions. Sept. 6, 2004.

Susan Morrissey. NIH Weighs Open Access. Chemical & Engineering News. Sept. 6, 2004.

(Editor�s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archives.)

"The BBC may consider offering paid access to its website for overseas users, according to Ashley Highfield, the BBC’s director of new media and technology.

"Speaking to media and technology magazine Digital Lifestyles, Mr Highfield said pay-per-view or pay-per-play options might be possible off the back of the BBC’s Creative Archive project.

"The archive will be an extensive library of BBC radio and TV programmes, available free of charge in the UK for non-commercial use. The first stage of the archive goes live this autumn and will include natural history footage."

Jemima Kiss. Global BBC site Could be Pay Per Play. dotJournalism. Sept. 2, 2004.