Wednesday, February 3, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 7
Finishing touches planned for Digital Jayhawk Web site
Project's goal to consolidate news sources
By Ezra Sykes Kansan staff writer
The University of Kansas School of Journalism soon will unveil a project aimed at helping students work in a world of media convergence.
By early March, the Digital Jayhawk should be set to soar, said Gary Hawke, general manager of KJHK and KUJH. Hawke has been working on the project for the past four years.
The Digital Jayhawk will be a complete database of news in different media, said Chris Ryan, the project's leader and professional resident at the University.
Users will be able to open the site to a personalized page that will reveal a smorgasbord of multimedia options.
They will be able to access The University Daily Kansan articles, KUJI audio/video archives and eventually will be able to see the title of the song that is playing on KJHK.
The Digital Jayhawk also will use a product called VISION that chops news broadcasts into sections so that users can search for keywords in a speech or news story and then watch clips relating to it.
Features such as online greeting cards also will be included.
Ryan said the challenge was to organize the news in a format that was easy to use and that could be distributed in many contexts.
In the past, barriers have existed in the journalism world between print, television and radio.
With the explosion of the Internet, a publishing resource has appeared that has given the profession a new realm in which the separate news entities can cooperate.
Susie Gura, Clarendon Hills, Ill.,
senior, hopes to became a newspaper
writer after graduation and
thinks media convergence is both inevitable and good.
"It will bring more to what you can do in journalism," said Gura, who was required to do a news story for television in an advanced reporting class. "Your
Gentry: Has high hopes for the Digital Jayhawk.
story won't just be for the paper.
You can extend it beyond that."
James Gentry, dean of the School of Journalism, said it was now common for radio stations, television stations and newspapers to collaborate on news stories.
Gentry thought the Digital Jayhawk would be ideal for such interaction for the campus media sources.
"Other media are narrowly focused." he said. "The Digital Jayhawk it can. It can be broadly
"The Web is producing thousands of jobs every day," Gentry said. "The Digital Jayhawk will provide an opportunity for an enormous amount of students to be involved."
applied. Every sequence is involved.
Hawke also has high expectations for the project.
"If we can be a player in the arena and offer something to our students that is more advanced than professional operations, they can get comfortable with the media and gain national exposure." Hawke said.
The start of the Digital Jayhawk doesn't mean the demise of any other campus media, including the Kansan's online branch, the UDKI, Ryan said.
"We don't intend to take anything away from the UDK1," he said. "This is an expansion of it. This should not be viewed as a threat of taking anything away from the existing online staff."
Aaron Knopf, online editor of the UDK1, he did not view the creation of the Digital Jayhawk as a threat but rather as a way for independent media outlets to help each other operate.
Knopf also said that from the beginning, Ryan had assured him the Digital Jayhawk would not replace the UKDI.
"Maybe at some point it will be adversarial, but I don't see that foundation being built," Knopf said.
Hawke also explained the potential relationship between the campus media.
"The Web is producing thousands of jobs every day. The Digital Jayhawk will provide an opportunity for an enormous amount of students to be involved."
Jimmy Gentry
Dean of the school of journalism
"We expect them to be partners with us," he said. "We are not competing with them. We are coordinating output for this lab."
The start-up costs for the program will be about $44,000, most of which will come from the University.
Gentry said the venture was relatively inexpensive to start.
The basic services of the Digital Jayhawk will be free for all of those with internet access, but premium services will be available for a price. Organizers still are deciding which services will be considered premium and what the cost of those services will be.
These services, along with banner subscriptions and links to such online businesses as www.CDNow.com and www.Amazon.com, will help support the project, Ryan said.
Hawke is anxious to see the Digital. Javahawk fully materialize.
"I’m tired of getting nice stories about the thing," Hawke said. "I want to actually produce something."
Judge blocks enforcement of Internet-content law
Act seeks to impose age-verification rules on particular pages
By Jennifer Roush
Kansan staff writer
On Monday in Philadelphia, U.S.
Judge Lowell Reed granted a preliminary injunction against the Child Online Protection Act.
A federal judge blocked enforcement of an Internet-content law that, if enforced, could have implications for University of Kansas students.
"Iindeed, perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if the First Amendment protections, which they with age will inherit, are chipped away in their protection." Reed wrote in the opinion of the court.
The law was an attempt to address the constitutional errors in the Communications Decency Act of 1996. The CDA was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 1997.
The current law, known as CDA II, would have required commercial online providers that publish material considered harmful to minors to verify the ages of people accessing their sites. The law defines minors as people under the age of 17.
Age verification usually is done with a credit-card number or a personal identification number available for a fee from businesses that specialize in age verification.
If enforced, it would carry civil and criminal fines of up to $150,000 a day and up to six months in prison for those convicted under its terms.
Ted Frederickson, professor of journalism at the University, said he was dubious about the law's ability to define what is harmful to minors.
"In my mind, there's nothing more harmful than depriving people of information that they need," Frederickson said.
He also said that the law would have implications for KU students and faculty if it were allowed to stand.
"I think it has implications for everybody because it requires people to identify themselves in order to get access to information." Frederickson said.
The American Civil Liberties Union argued successfully on behalf of 17 plaintiffs, including online bookstores, news organizations and an online community for gays and lesbians, that the law would unconstitutionally restrict freedom of access to information for adults.
"No one should have to know who you are before you read information on the Internet," Frederickson said.
Members of the KU ACLU applauded the judge's ruling.
Lloyd, Tulsa junior, said although the law looked good at first glance, further examination showed that it would restrict access to sites whose primary purpose was not pornography.
"This law would have a total chilling effect on the Internet," said Buddy Lloyd, KU ACLU president.
He said high school and college students doing any sort of research on health issues, biology or even political science could find themselves locked out of relevant sites.
He also said that it would restrict access for students who didn't have credit cards or couldn't afford to pay for an age verification PIN.
"The Starr Report could end up being classified under this act," Lloyd said.
"This law is not only a pain, it's a violation of our privacy," he said. "It's a violation of our First Amendment rights."
Frederickson agreed with Llovd's assessment of the law.
Commentary
Unique album perfects back-country rhythms
Big Smith rolls out new songs mixing several music styles
By Matt Cox
Kansan music critic
Big Smith's self-titled album is so well produced that if you closed your eyes, you would think you were lying down on the porch of a beat-up bait store in the back woods, catching a summer breeze.
The band combines a little bluegrass, a bit of blues, hints of early country and talented musicianship. Even if you aren't a fan of the aforementioned styles, give this entertaining piece of work a chance.
Authentic and original are words that come to mind when listening to classical guitars and mandolins run away with rapid flamenco riffs to an old country beat. "Go Away Maggie" sets up strong harmonies to help communicate pointed lyrics about a drunken and unaffectional mother coming in from a wild night. Jody Bilyean sings, "Go sleep where you been sleepin' and tomorrow we'll be gone."
BIG SMITH Rating: A
The lighter-hearted "Trash" expresses Big Smith members' ways of celebrating their lifestyle. You can't help but laugh when you hear Jody's brother, Mark, sing, "Don't call me trash 'til you've slept in my trailer." The mesmerizing beat leaves even non-country fans singing along.
No flaw can be found on the album. Every song has its own lyrical and musical intentions to leave unique impressions on the listener.
Other instruments such as an accordion, mouthbown, spoons
and an auto harp create an atmosphere on every track that only a talented band of Big Smith's caliber could produce.
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