The Webby Awards, once hailed as the Oscars of the Internet, are being scaled down. This year's bash will be held online.
Nominees apparently expressed concerns about traveling for the planned June ceremony. Global nominees are forcing new considerations, said the executive director of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which organizes the awards.
The Webby Awards honor the best of the Internet, and during dot-com boom years the ceremonies' glitzy, celebrity-studded pomp testified to the irreverence and creativity of the online community. Since Webbys were first handed out in 1996, however, hundreds of websites have shut down, including many past winners.
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Immigration applications online: The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services will start accepting immigration applications filed through the Internet on May 29, the Homeland Security Department said Friday.
Department officials expect more than 30,000 immigrants to renew or replace green cards or apply for work permits electronically. Those two types of applications account for 30 percent of about 7 million applications each year for various immigration benefits.
This is the first step in a bigger plan to automate a lot of the applications, said a spokesman for the bureau. Previously, applications were available online, but they had to be mailed in.
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Wi-Fi phones at work: Cisco Systems is launching a mobile phone that uses popular Wi-Fi wireless technology. The phone is intended for those who move around in the workplace, like nurses and warehouse workers, a company spokesperson said.
It is not the first phone to use Wi-Fi, but the announcement from networking giant Cisco (CSCO) bolsters the already considerable momentum behind the wireless technology, which allows computers to connect to the Internet within 100 yards of base stations.
The phone can use such base stations to connect to phone networks that use the local wired data network instead of regular phone lines. Such Internet protocol phone networks have been gaining in popularity among corporations.
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Networked weapons in war: No one wins wars without skilled soldiers and firepower. But networked information was perhaps the Pentagon's most striking asset in Iraq, where variations of signature Internet tools and tactics donned military fatigues.
As Internet innovation sprouted in the 1990s, gear-head planners quietly worked to adapt Silicon Valley's best ideas for the world's dominant fighting force. Just as in Afghanistan a year ago, swiftly distributed digital data gave the networked Americans and their British allies the edge.
Their three-week victory in Iraq was spurred by internetworked tanks on the ground, satellite-linked robot eyes in the sky and personal intercoms that converted urban fighters into nodes on a foot-soldier network.
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E-mail for the trees: In a move criticized by both environmentalists and business groups, the USDA Forest Service is rejecting public comments on proposed rule changes when they come from certain e-mail servers or on pre-printed post cards.
A spokesman said the agency is only barring e-mail that goes through an outside server such as a business or environmental website. The agency also is barring other "duplicative materials" such as form letters, printed post cards and lists that include spaces for respondents to check off statements with which they agree.
Environmental groups and businesses increasingly encourage people who agree with their positions to contact the government through their websites, pre-printed letters and cards so members of the public can easily express their opinions to government officials. Civil liberties groups and activists on both sides of forest debates complain that the Forest Service is thwarting public access to decision makers and reducing the role of average citizens in shaping forest policy.
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TI launches new chip: Semiconductor-maker Texas Instruments introduced a new product Monday offering manufacturers of super-high bandwidth modems improved capabilities to better deliver broadband services over digital subscriber lines.
A modem built with the new router-on-a-chip would have more than 50 percent more processing power and would require roughly half as many total components within the modem, Texas Instruments (TXN) said.
By using fewer components, manufacturers would be able to bring modem products to market faster to tap growing demand for digital subscriber line-based services, according to the chipmaker.
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Compiled by Kari L. Dean. Reuters and AP contributed to this report.
