From: IN%"educom@elanor.oit.unc.edu" 26-MAR-1996 19:24:26.78 To: IN%"edupage@elanor.oit.unc.edu" "EDUCOM Edupage Mailing List" CC: Subj: Edupage, 24 March 1996 ***************************************************************** Edupage, 24 March 1996. Edupage, a summary of news items on information technology, is provided three times each week as a service by Educom, a Washington, D.C.-based consortium of leading colleges and universities seeking to transform education through the use of information technology. *****************************************************************
ONLINE TRADING Lombard International Brokerage in San Francisco and Pawws Financial Network in New Jersey are two brokerage houses that have opened Internet trading services, allowing customers to monitor their portfolios and retrieve corporate and financial information from brokerage databases or through links to other Web sites. "You're seeing the culmination of the information brokerage -- with customer service, advanced analytical tools, and news available at one place and one time on the most incredibly productive medium that ever existed, the Internet," says Lombard's CEO. By incorporating a Java applet into their Web design, Lombard's Web site refreshes its information every 30 seconds so that intra-day trading charts are automatically updated. The Pawws trading system, a tailored version of the Security APL cash-management system, is used by several other investment houses to display their wares. "Why should we spend time and money to tell people how to get a modem to work? We provide brokerage -- not technical -- services," says one user. (Information Week 11 Mar 96 p64) And discount broker Charles Schwab & Co. will begin this May to allow its customers to trade listed and over-the-counter stocks, get real-time quotes, and access account information using the Schwab site on the World Wide Web. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 22 Mar 96 F3)
They're using _Java_ to do this?
PORN IS A GOLD MINE FOR IDT Tiny IDT Corp. has found a way to differentiate itself from the run-of-the-mill Internet access provider. It pitches its service to porn aficionados, with ads like: "With IDT, I access *all* Internet services. I said *all* Internet services -- get that smirk off your face." In fact, its service and pricing are similar to everyone else's, but its subscriber base has grown six-fold to 65,000 in the past six months using this approach. "IDT is looking for a marketing niche, and given how we think the primary Internet audience is -- lonely 20-something and 30-something males -- why not aim that niche at them?" says Gary Arlen, an Internet consultant. (Wall Street Journal 22 Mar 96 B4)
An interesting way to differentiate oneself. I would suggest that anonymnity (i.e., C2) would be a logical add-on.
NETSCAPE TO GET IN ON THE PHONE-BY-INTERNET ACTION Netscape co-founder Mark Andreessen says that within six months the company will build into its Navigator program voice software (which it calls Insoft) for making low-cost long distance calls via the Internet into its Navigator program and that long-distance phone companies increasingly won't be able to justify their rates for telephone service. (Sydney Morning Herald 13 Mar 96 via Individual Inc.)
Any possibility that Netscape might build in some form of cryptography? I realize ITAR rules would make this problematic, but perhaps some sort of out-of-country deal for putting in the hooks for PGPhone could be done. -Allen
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