No. 31

March 26, 2001

 

Technology:

ZoneAlarm

If you're connecting to the Internet via a cable modem or a DSL, and stay connected for several hours at a time, you may want to consider installing a firewall on your machine. The firewall technology has certainly matured, become much easier to use, and come down in price considerably. In fact, one of the best consumer products in this category, ZoneAlarm, is both childishly easy to use and... free! Individual users and nonprofits can download this excellent software at no cost. (However, educational institutions and government agencies are still expected to pay the $19.95 registration fee for the standard version, or $39.95 for the pro version.). The next best, McAffee Personal Firewall costs $19.95 per year and is a bit less user friendly.

After you install ZoneAlarm and launch it, it will ask you to choose a security level, separately for your LAN and Internet connections. The levels are explained in plain English, clearly understandable to users for whom the term "protocol" evokes diplomacy, "packets" - postal service, and "ports" - cruise lines. The software then runs in the background, asking you politely each time you launch a program that needs to send or receive data, whether this program should be allowed to do so. You may tell ZoneAlarm to remember  your answer, or use the control panel to fine-tune the settings for each application. For example, you may allow certain programs to act as servers, or let them exchange data with your LAN but not the Internet.

The MailSafe feature of Zone Alarm recognizes and quarantines suspicious file attachments. There is also a potentially very useful "Lock" feature, which, if activated, will  start blocking all Internet traffic after a certain period of inactivity or when the screen saver kicks in. (Individual programs can be allowed to override the lock and keep communicating.). Finally, a "panic button" will shut down Internet access with a single click. (Can be invaluable when you type one of those URLs and all off a sudden ads and browser windows start popping up like fireworks on the 4th of July: you close one, 3 more appear in its place...)

Since nothing is perfect in this imperfect world, ZoneAlarm has its flaws, too, I'm sure. So far I've found one: it runs on all "flavors" of Windows (95, 98, NT, 2000, ME), but nothing else. That's unfortunate, given how good and useful this small but mighty utility is.

ZoneAlarm (click on thumbnail):
Control panel 

For more information please visit ZoneLabs' site or search the ACT database.

Online reading:

"Team-Teaching and Team-Learning on a Global Scale:
Insiders' Account of a Successful Experiment" by Debasish Dutta and Vlad Wielbut. (Accepted for presentation at the ED-MEDIA 2001 world conference in Tampere, Finland.)

This paper describes an innovative course in engineering, entitled "Global Product Realization". This course was offered for the first time in Fall 2000 simultaneously to students at 3 universities: in the US, in the Netherlands, and in South Korea. It was delivered via a blend of videoconferencing and Web-based tools. Both the students and the organizers considered this course a success (it will be offered again next Fall), and all learned a great deal. The paper elaborates on the lessons  learned from preparing and running this course, including:
1. Our choices of technology - what worked well and what didn't
2. High costs and how to lower them
3. Differences between the "virtual" and "physical" classroom and how to make them work to our advantage
4. Problems we encountered and how to avoid them in the future
5. Student perceptions of this environment
This paper may be very useful to people contemplating launching distance education courses, especially involving videoconferencing. However, it is also general enough to be highly relevant to people interested in broader issues, such as: how new technology is impacting teaching and learning. (In HTML format.)

Conference:

3rd Annual Silicon Valley Conference on Nonprofits and Technology
  • "Succeeding as a Dot Org"
  • Held May 8-9, 2001 in San Jose, CA
  • Presented by the NetPoint Center for Nonprofits and Technology, in partnership with CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, HandsNet, Wired for Good and CompuMentor, this year's conference features two full days of information, training and community networking designed to help nonprofits succeed with technology.
  • From the announcement: "Discover and debate current nonprofit issues in technology with the field's top experts and your nonprofit colleagues, during two full days of programming! On Day One, take advantage of thought-provoking discussion with leaders in the field of nonprofits and technology, key information on nonprofit-related technology issues, a wide range of training, and plenty of opportunities for community connections. Dig into Day Two and get more of the in-depth training you want on the issues you care about ---expert-led seminars will help you master the skills you need to succeed as a Dot Org."

She said, he said:

"Building something once is relatively easy. What's hard is building something that is easy to use and will stand the test of time when millions of people use it every day." -- Michael Vizard


© 2001 Vlad Wielbut and the Alliance for Community Technology