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In Today's Issue:
Quote: Rudolf Flesch
News: Super fast encryption
Facts: Entertainment becomes number 1 web category
Tip: Making your Newsletter User-Friendly!
Biz Sites: 1. Accessing your email from anywhere
2. Planning a prosperous future? Business plan resources
Term: Digital watermark
Ripple Rock: SDMI standards for downloadable music
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
*** "Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there’s
no particular virtue in doing things the way they always have been done."
-- Rudolf Flesch
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LATE BREAKING NEWS:
Recently announced by Sandia National Laboratories in the United States, the world’s fastest encryption device should be available soon. This device, which can encrypt more than 6.7 billion bits per second, is significant in that it offers a level of combined security, bandwidth and speed previously impossible. This technology is expected to have far reaching applications for the secure transmission of digitized information particularly in the television and banking industries.
Source: ZDNET
http://www.zdnet.com
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FACTOID OF THE WEEK:
Here’s a trend to watch! According to a Cyber Dialogue study, in 1998 for the first time, Entertainment surpassed Business as the Net’s number 1 content draw category. 70% of all surfers in the U.S. are using the web to access Entertainment related content (sports, movies, T.V., music, gaming).
Just to give you an idea of the breakdown the content categories, here are the 1998 numbers:
Type of Content Retrieved
Entertainment 70%
Business 68%
Local 67%
Product 61%
News 52%
Source: The Industry Standard, July 26, 1999
Cybersisters Suggestion:
If you are giving presentations ie. for sales meetings or other
purposes
you can download a PowerPoint™ version of these stats at:
http://www.thestandard.com/metrics/display/0,1283,946,00.html
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TIP: Making your E-Newsletter User-Friendly!
Here's the second in a series of tips about email newsletters or e-zines. Today we cover one of the most important thing to remember setting up your newsletter - subscribing and unsubscribing must be as convenient and easy as possible!
1. If it isn't easy to subscribe to your e-zine, people won't. If it isn't easy to unsubscribe, people will ask for help and/or complain. You want to minimize the amount of time you need to spend adding and removing people, and create a good first impression.
2. Use a mailing list management program that allows automated subscribing and unsubscribing. Make sure to provide precise instructions according to the software you use. (The CyberSisters use Listbot - another popular web-based mailing management service is One List).
3. If you don't use an automated program, at least give standard instructions for people to use, and set up filters in your email software to allow for semi-automation.
4. Allow people to sign up for you list from your site, from other email publications you send, and from any other aspect of your Internet presence.
5. Don't forget to include the instructions in every message you send out!
6. Also, make sure you include easy-to-understand signup instructions in as many publication, articles, and promotions as you can. It's a great way to keep in touch with your customers.
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BIZ SITES OF THE WEEK:
Accessing Your Email When You are On the Road? Mailstart.com
As long as you have access to a computer with Internet access, whether in a colleague’s office, an Internet Café or one of growing number of publicly available Internet Kiosks, you can pick up your email from anywhere in the world. MailStart.com is a free service that allows you to use a WWW Browser to read your email, reply, forward, delete and send new messages. The great benefit of this service is that you can pick up and respond to your email from any where. The service is free, confidential and easy to use.
Note from the CyberSisters:
MailStart will not work if your email account resides on a mail server
behind a firewall. Also, it will not work with some of the large
proprietary
systems like AOL. However, despite these limitations, this is a great tool
for many business people who want to keep up with their email when they
are away from their own computers.
Planning for a Prosperous Future
Summer is the perfect time to start thinking about creative ideas for building your business. This year, with a new millennium just around the corner, and the business world changing in leaps and bounds, have you rethought your business strategies lately? Here are a couple of terrific web resources to help in developing business plans:
Business Planning for Small Business
http://www.bplans.com/
Writing a Business Plan (from Deloitte & Touche)
http://www.dtonline.com/writing/wrcover.htm
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TERM OF THE DAY:
“Digital Watermark”
In a nutshell, a digital watermark, is a digital fingerprint that allows copyright owners to incorporate a logo or other identifying mark onto a digital file. The unique ‘fingerprint’ can then be tracked by sophisticated tracking services and the file identified as belonging to the copyright owner. In theory, a digital watermark could allow copyright owners to find all illegal copies of their photos, artwork or music on the Internet and then take appropriate legal action.
For an example of a visible digital watermark, take a look at:
http://www.iic.dlr.de/dcc/survey092/digital_watermark.html
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Ripple Effect "Rock"
What's a Ripple Effect Rock? Well, think of a rock thrown in a lake, and how the water ripples outward. This section of the newsletter covers developments and technologies that we think might soon cause a "ripple effect" in business or society.
Ripple Rock for July 29, 1999:
In a controversial and much anticipated move earlier this month, the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), a group made up of leading recording industry and technology companies, announced standards for making commercial recordings instantly available over the Internet. The standards, designed to ensure the profitable distribution of music online, will be implemented in two phases. In phase 1, consumers will be able purchase and download music in a variety of popular Internet music formats including the easily pirated MP3 format. Once this system is in place, best selling singles from your favourite artists could be available to be downloaded from the net for as little as $1/song. By phase 2, probably as early as next year, music companies will begin inserting digital signatures (digital watermarks) into the music files in order to prevent unauthorized copying. This is where the standards become controversial. Electronic and multimedia players that meet phase 2 SDMI standards, will not be able to record music recognized as pirated (ie. still with an embedded digital watermark).
Analysis/Comment from the CyberSisters:
If consumers embrace this new method of purchasing music, and more
importantly if SDMI compliant devices become the standard for the industry
which they are poised to do, this will have significant implications for
the recognition and protection of copyright on the net. It will be worth
watching though. Already this approach has some pretty vocal critics,
including
the well-respected cyber-rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation and
a number independent record labels and artists who see the standard as
potentially detrimental to the interests of consumers and independent
artists.
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That's it for now! Have a great week!
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Telephone: (604)608 1714
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E-Mail: dcurrie@digitalripple.com
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Telephone: (416)430-5726
Facsimile: (416)430-5726
E-Mail: alcurrie@digitalripple.com
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Oshawa, Ontario
Telephone: (905)721 0285
Facsimile: (905)721 1335
E-Mail: alcurrie@digitalripple.com
"Exploring the Ripple Effect of Digital Technology"
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