What's Private, and What's Not? Ask IBM
In theory, privacy is a simple enough concept. But in practice, it can be terrifyingly complex. The U.S., for example, has no uniform policy to protect digital information, while Europe does.
As is often the case, angst equals consulting opportunity. On July 16, IBM (IBM) launched one of the first high-tech consulting practices specializing in privacy. More than 1,400 consultants will help businesses struggling to understand and address the issue of collecting personal data electronically. It's a hot topic. As more corporations conduct their business electronically, they're worrying that any missteps with sensitive information could hurt consumer confidence. ''Our customers say that a major privacy disaster would mean they'd have to close shop and reopen under another name,'' says Rebecca Whitener, an IBM consultant.
What will the consultants do? For starters, they'll run workshops laying out the issues. Then they'll do a complete privacy overhaul, identifying legal issues, assessing what data should be protected, how to set up and enforce policies--and, of course, they'll implement it all. The price tag: From $15,000 for a basic workshop up to $250,000 for the works.
By Ira Sager
Cyberspace Turns to Outer Space
On the net, there are hobbyists of every stripe. But who would have guessed there are enough space buffs in cyberspace to fill, well, an astro-portal? None other than Lou Dobbs, the former anchor of CNN's Moneyline show, that's who.
Set to blast off on July 20--the 30th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon--space.com will offer astrobuffs everything from news on space exploration to live chats with astronauts. ''It'll be the ultimate destination for space content,'' gushes CEO Dobbs, a space fanatic since childhood.
Dobbs thinks scads of folk will flock to space.com. He says 22,000 have preregistered for the ad-supported site. In the fall, space.com will sell space-related merchandise, say a model rocket or a moon map.
Analysts worry that space.com could be a black hole. ''It'll be an uphill battle,'' says Chris Charron of Forrester Research Inc. But many agree that niche marketing is the cyberwave of the future. And when it comes to the future, Dobbs hopes nothing can beat the final frontier.
By Andy Reinhardt
A New Tool in the Doctor's Bag: The Web
Your doctor still can't treat most illnesses over the internet, but Web users think health-care information online is getting more useful and easier to access, according to a new study by the Health on the Net Foundation.
Doctors' resistance to technology is breaking down--especially in Europe, says the Geneva-based foundation, whose code of conduct for medical sites is a widely used baseline for information quality and objectivity. The survey of almost 4,400 users of medical sites (most participants were medical professionals) reports that more than half of European caregivers among the sample group now use the Web to search for research information and new treatments, along with 43% of their American counterparts. But they are not welcoming America's proliferation of commercial health sites with open arms; instead, 67% prefer not-for-profit sites.
Celia Boyer, head of Web services for the foundation, says confidence is higher because more experienced surfers have the skills to avoid low-quality sites. ''The longer you're on the Web, the more you know about what reliable information is,'' she says. But Web health information is still far from perfect--69% of respondents say quality needs to improve.
TABLE: Net Health
It's easier to find useful information online
RESPONSE* SPRING, 1999 WINTER, 1997
STRONGLY AGREE 35.2% 22.4%
AGREE 47.3 37.9
DISAGREE 6.2 17.8
STRONGLY DISAGREE 0.8 2.6
NEITHER AGREE NOR 10.2 19.0
DISAGREE
*Survey of 4,400 medical-site users, with a margin of error
of +1% or -1%.
Keep Your Black Book Up to Date
Talk about a product born of frustration. Corex Technologies Corp. of Cambridge, Mass., is launching Area Code Fix, a software package to deal with pesky area code changes that plague Americans as new phone companies and new gadgets gobble up available numbers. Over 50 million U.S. phone numbers have changed in the past two years.
The program will go into your address book or contact database and ferret out area codes that have changed over the years, replacing outdated ones with new numbers. The company says Area Code Fix was the brainchild of Corex executives tired of getting out-of-service messages when dialing people they hadn't called lately. Corex already sells a solution that scans business-card information into PCs.
The $50 package is being tested by selected Corex customers and will be released on Aug. 15. It comes with a one-year subscription to monthly updates to catch new splits. It works with Microsoft Outlook, ACT!, Lotus Organizer , Palm Desktop, and CardScan databases and will be downloadable from www.areacodefix.com.
By David Rocks
Bits & Bytes Contacts
WHAT'S PRIVATE, AND WHAT'S NOT? ASK IBM
www.ibm.com
KEEP YOUR BLACK BOOK UP TO DATE
Julie Nelson Jones, VP sales and marketing
Corex Technologies Corp.
617-588-7111
CYBERSPACE TURNS TO OUTERSPACE
www.space.com
Contact: info@space.com
A NEW TOOL IN THE DOCTOR'S BAG: THE WEB
Contact Celia Boyer at www.webmaster@hon.ch
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STORIES:
What's Private, and What's Not? Ask IBM
Cyberspace Turns to Outer Space
A New Tool in the Doctor's Bag: The Web
TABLE: Net Health
Keep Your Black Book Up to Date
Bits & Bytes Contacts
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