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 03-16-2001Sales Tax, Spam and Mickey MouseJonathan Nee NetCompass News Editor The Corporate Content PoliceBig Brother is everywhere. Just ask the twenty-three employees fired from the New York Times for circulating internal email back in November. And it's not only management monitoring employees - the reverse scenario has played out a number of times since corporate monitoring of web usage came into fashion. One such high-profile case at Chevron Corporation involved a $2.2 million lawsuit filed by employees who were offended by an e-mail joke titled "25 Reasons Why Beer is Better Than Women." One estimate has companies losing $5.3 billion in 1999 due to recreational web surfing. That's a lot of time sending baby pictures to friends and family. It is no wonder then, that two-thirds of major American firms have implemented some type of observational tool. Clearly some companies have more at stake in this arena and those that do employ monitoring software programs created to stop confidential corporate information from passing via the internet. Recently, companies have added a written internet use policy to complement, or take the place of, software surveillance programs. The level of surveillance in American firms today runs the gamut, although most are looking for employees viewing objectionable material on the web or sending company secrets over email. Surveys report that government agencies and financial institutions have the strictest policies while, not surprisingly, small internet companies have the most liberal. Ultimately, corporate culture and management dictate internet use policy or the lack thereof. Smaller firms tend to rely on sound hiring practices and their employees' attitudes rather than external surveillance systems. In fact, some corporate managers view personal web use as necessary for a healthy balance of work and play - the average workday continues to grow while the line between work and home continues to shrink. For companies whose vulnerability to confidentiality or liability issues is a serious threat, some mix of surveillance and trust in employees' work ethics has proved successful. "The Anti-Spamming Act"Perhaps if I were actually looking to own a home, the email I receive every other Tuesday spewing nonsense about incredible mortgage rates might prove to be more helpful. In the meantime, however, that email and the multitude of other useless pieces of electronic communication I receive are nothing more than spam. Like most people who use the internet regularly, my inbox is inundated with advertisements on a daily basis and like most people, I welcome legislation to curb unwanted email. Rep. Robert Goodlatte, R-Virginia, introduced a bill that would impose criminal penalties on spammers, or those who send unsolicited commercial email. Spam has the potential to be more than just an email nuisance, it can slow down networks significantly and prove lethal to small internet service providers in competition with industry giants. Under Goodlatte's bill, any person who "spoofs" their email, or changes the appearance of the email's origin, could face $15,000 or $10 per email violation, whichever is greater. Total Site's web traffic analyses indicate that many first-time visitors to recently launched sites are unidentified spiders capturing published emails for marketing purposes. ...And Then There's ChinaOfficials in China put a computer engineer on trial last month for publishing political materials on the web. Huang Qi's trial began February thirteenth and was closed to the public. His site features articles commemorating Tiananmen Square and the student-led protests of 1989. It also acknowledges the democracy movement, Falun Gong and independence movements like those in Tibet and the Muslim region of Xinjiang. In light of this and other high-profile prosecutions, the Chinese government is going to great lengths to crackdown on "unhealthy" information being passed to end users in China. The Ministry of Public Security (a dubious label if ever there was one) announced on Tuesday the release of software to prevent "cults, sex and violence" from arriving into China over the web. The software comes in several versions, including one for households and one for schools. In October, the government passed regulations to block web sites from the West, Tibetan exiles and any other source of "subversive" information. Needless to say, these regulations leave China's officials broad powers to police the internet. Mickey's Staying in the Internet Search BusinessShut down on January 29th, Disney's Go.com web portal has returned in a surprise partnership with former industry rival, GoTo.com. GoTo.com, which received $21.5 million from Disney in a trademark infringement lawsuit last May, will now power Go.com's search engine tool. A Go.com spokesperson claimed that the site's monthly traffic was in the millions and that the real obstacle to the site's success was exploiting the number of visitors while trimming down the number of employees. Since the mouse is both cartoon character and ruthless businessman, he laid off 400 employees and now delivers fresh content to Go.com from affiliate sites like ESPN.com, Disney.com and ABCNews.com. Content – The Web Site KillerExtreme? Perhaps, but spend a day in your average content manager's shoes and you will see why this B-movie title is a reality. You can take your pick of hurdles that regularly trip up the web development process and leave it dead in its tracks. But of this host of problems, none appears so frequently as content management. Without substantial content, a web site simply will not assemble. Clients are often eager to begin the web production process, but find themselves with few written or graphic materials to provide and with even fewer means of creating them. The creation and delivery of content presents the first of many challenges in web site development. The second half of the content management problem is visualization and interactivity. The web is not print. I'll repeat that. The web is not print. This applies to copy, photos, graphics – anything you are trying to translate to the web. Attention spans are drastically reduced on the internet, so you have to tell your story, tell it well and tell it in 20 seconds or less. Once materials are web ready and uploaded to a site, many clients realize that a particular picture is not to their liking or there is too much copy on a specific page, resulting in gratuitous scrolling. Total Site tries to address these issues from the outset of the development process. When content deficiencies become apparent, we create materials in-house or recommend one of our trusted partners. We have also incorporated a "wireframe" step in our iterative design process. The "wireframe" web site displays all written content delivered up to that point and demonstrates the functional elements of each page with live links. It is not meant to convey specific or final graphics, but only how the site will function. This step gives both client and developer the opportunity to make modifications before we have devoted resources to a final design concept. With these stages implemented and clear and regular communication, content chaos can be successfully negotiated. Total Site NewsSilverback Technologies of Billerica, Massachussets, has retained Total Site to fulfill and track their most recent marketing campaign. Total Site NewsThe fabric textiles division of Tomen, Incorporated, and Wise-McIntire Realtors have retained Total Site's web services. The Corporate Content PoliceBig Brother is everywhere. Just ask the twenty-three employees fired from the New York Times for circulating internal email back in November. And it's not only management monitoring employees - the reverse scenario has played out a number of times since corporate monitoring of web usage came into fashion. One such high-profile case at Chevron Corporation involved a $2.2 million lawsuit filed by employees who were offended by an e-mail joke titled "25 Reasons Why Beer is Better Than Women." One estimate has companies losing $5.3 billion in 1999 due to recreational web surfing. That's a lot of time sending baby pictures to friends and family. It is no wonder then, that two-thirds of major American firms have implemented some type of observational tool. Clearly some companies have more at stake in this arena and those that do employ monitoring software programs created to stop confidential corporate information from passing via the internet. Recently, companies have added a written internet use policy to complement, or take the place of, software surveillance programs. The level of surveillance in American firms today runs the gamut, although most are looking for employees viewing objectionable material on the web or sending company secrets over email. Surveys report that government agencies and financial institutions have the strictest policies while, not surprisingly, small internet companies have the most liberal. Ultimately, corporate culture and management dictate internet use policy or the lack thereof. Smaller firms tend to rely on sound hiring practices and their employees' attitudes rather than external surveillance systems. In fact, some corporate managers view personal web use as necessary for a healthy balance of work and play - the average workday continues to grow while the line between work and home continues to shrink. For companies whose vulnerability to confidentiality or liability issues is a serious threat, some mix of surveillance and trust in employees' work ethics has proved successful. \ "The Anti-Spamming Act"Perhaps if I were actually looking to own a home, the email I receive every other Tuesday spewing nonsense about incredible mortgage rates might prove to be more helpful. In the meantime, however, that email and the multitude of other useless pieces of electronic communication I receive are nothing more than spam. Like most people who use the internet regularly, my inbox is inundated with advertisements on a daily basis and like most people, I welcome legislation to curb unwanted email. Rep. Robert Goodlatte, R-Virginia, introduced a bill that would impose criminal penalties on spammers, or those who send unsolicited commercial email. Spam has the potential to be more than just an email nuisance, it can slow down networks significantly and prove lethal to small internet service providers in competition with industry giants. Under Goodlatte's bill, any person who "spoofs" their email, or changes the appearance of the email's origin, could face $15,000 or $10 per email violation, whichever is greater. Total Site's web traffic analyses indicate that many first-time visitors to recently launched sites are unidentified spiders capturing published emails for marketing purposes. \ ...And Then There's ChinaOfficials in China put a computer engineer on trial last month for publishing political materials on the web. Huang Qi's trial began February thirteenth and was closed to the public. His site features articles commemorating Tiananmen Square and the student-led protests of 1989. It also acknowledges the democracy movement, Falun Gong and independence movements like those in Tibet and the Muslim region of Xinjiang. In light of this and other high-profile prosecutions, the Chinese government is going to great lengths to crackdown on "unhealthy" information being passed to end users in China. The Ministry of Public Security (a dubious label if ever there was one) announced on Tuesday the release of software to prevent "cults, sex and violence" from arriving into China over the web. The software comes in several versions, including one for households and one for schools. In October, the government passed regulations to block web sites from the West, Tibetan exiles and any other source of "subversive" information. Needless to say, these regulations leave China's officials broad powers to police the internet. \ Mickey's Staying in the Internet Search BusinessShut down on January 29th, Disney's Go.com web portal has returned in a surprise partnership with former industry rival, GoTo.com. GoTo.com, which received $21.5 million from Disney in a trademark infringement lawsuit last May, will now power Go.com's search engine tool. A Go.com spokesperson claimed that the site's monthly traffic was in the millions and that the real obstacle to the site's success was exploiting the number of visitors while trimming down the number of employees. Since the mouse is both cartoon character and ruthless businessman, he laid off 400 employees and now delivers fresh content to Go.com from affiliate sites like ESPN.com, Disney.com and ABCNews.com. \ McCain Not Just A Thorn in Bush's SideWhile most law-makers in Washington are focused on tax cuts, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and his Senate Commerce Committee are entertaining arguments for and against the taxation of internet transactions. The Internet Tax Freedom Act - the piece of legislation holding a moratorium on internet sales taxes - will expire in October and state and local governments are making a push to block its reauthorization. Millions in state revenues could be at stake and this forms the crux of the tax proponents' argument. States, such as Wyoming and Texas, and localities that depend on sales tax as a primary source of income predict disastrous effects from new consumer dynamics. As more and more shoppers look to ecommerce as a haven from sales tax, local businesses suffer. Often, shoppers browse at a small business and make their purchases later at home on their computer. While small businesses claim they may be forced to close their doors, state and local governments that refrain from collecting income tax and are, thus, sales tax dependent, caution opponents that vital social services, like healthcare and education, could be affected. McCain is proceeding with caution, recognizing the potentially detrimental consequences for both state revenues and the internet industry. Opponents fear that a sales tax will hinder growth in an industry that can scarcely afford it, given the current economic climate. If a sales tax solution is to be implemented, McCain warns that local governments are going to have to accept tax simplifications before Congress will consider subjecting remote sellers to the reach of more than 7,000 taxing jurisdictions in the United States. Various bills have been introduced, including Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-Oregon) that would extend the moratorium while encouraging states to simplify their tax structures. Sen. Byron Dorgan's (D-North Dakota) bill would also extend the moratorium, but would demand uniform taxation on transactions conducted over internet, telephone or mail. \ Content – The Web Site KillerExtreme? Perhaps, but spend a day in your average content manager's shoes and you will see why this B-movie title is a reality. You can take your pick of hurdles that regularly trip up the web development process and leave it dead in its tracks. But of this host of problems, none appears so frequently as content management. Without substantial content, a web site simply will not assemble. Clients are often eager to begin the web production process, but find themselves with few written or graphic materials to provide and with even fewer means of creating them. The creation and delivery of content presents the first of many challenges in web site development. The second half of the content management problem is visualization and interactivity. The web is not print. I'll repeat that. The web is not print. This applies to copy, photos, graphics – anything you are trying to translate to the web. Attention spans are drastically reduced on the internet, so you have to tell your story, tell it well and tell it in 20 seconds or less. Once materials are web ready and uploaded to a site, many clients realize that a particular picture is not to their liking or there is too much copy on a specific page, resulting in gratuitous scrolling. Total Site tries to address these issues from the outset of the development process. When content deficiencies become apparent, we create materials in-house or recommend one of our trusted partners. We have also incorporated a "wireframe" step in our iterative design process. The "wireframe" web site displays all written content delivered up to that point and demonstrates the functional elements of each page with live links. It is not meant to convey specific or final graphics, but only how the site will function. This step gives both client and developer the opportunity to make modifications before we have devoted resources to a final design concept. With these stages implemented and clear and regular communication, content chaos can be successfully negotiated. Total Site NewsSilverback Technologies of Billerica, Massachussets, has retained Total Site to fulfill and track their most recent marketing campaign. Total Site NewsThe fabric textiles division of Tomen, Incorporated, and Wise-McIntire Realtors have retained Total Site's web services. \ McCain Not Just A Thorn in Bush's SideWhile most law-makers in Washington are focused on tax cuts, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and his Senate Commerce Committee are entertaining arguments for and against the taxation of internet transactions. The Internet Tax Freedom Act - the piece of legislation holding a moratorium on internet sales taxes - will expire in October and state and local governments are making a push to block its reauthorization. Millions in state revenues could be at stake and this forms the crux of the tax proponents' argument. States, such as Wyoming and Texas, and localities that depend on sales tax as a primary source of income predict disastrous effects from new consumer dynamics. As more and more shoppers look to ecommerce as a haven from sales tax, local businesses suffer. Often, shoppers browse at a small business and make their purchases later at home on their computer. While small businesses claim they may be forced to close their doors, state and local governments that refrain from collecting income tax and are, thus, sales tax dependent, caution opponents that vital social services, like healthcare and education, could be affected. McCain is proceeding with caution, recognizing the potentially detrimental consequences for both state revenues and the internet industry. Opponents fear that a sales tax will hinder growth in an industry that can scarcely afford it, given the current economic climate. If a sales tax solution is to be implemented, McCain warns that local governments are going to have to accept tax simplifications before Congress will consider subjecting remote sellers to the reach of more than 7,000 taxing jurisdictions in the United States. Various bills have been introduced, including Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-Oregon) that would extend the moratorium while encouraging states to simplify their tax structures. Sen. Byron Dorgan's (D-North Dakota) bill would also extend the moratorium, but would demand uniform taxation on transactions conducted over internet, telephone or mail. |
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