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Speaking of Internet statistics, I want to notify online-news subscribers 
to a variety of critical stories soon to be published in print and 
online about Time Magazine's 'Exclusive' cover story last week about 
'Cyberporn'.

Time's story claimed to be based on an authoritative Carnegie-Mellon 
University statistical study of the Internet that found 87% of the imagery on 
the 'Net was pornographic; that this imagery was becoming increasingly 
perverse; and that pornographers were fine-tuning their output according to 
such detectable trends. The full study is to published soon by the Georgetown 
(Univ.) Law Review.

What the Time story apparently didn't state was that this study was not 
actually issued by CMU, but was an undergraduate thesis written by an 
electrical engineering student who programmed a computer to scan and count 
the number of files in the alt.sex usenet hierarchy plus non-Internet files 
on adult BBS systems (akin to postulating from the titles in a Times Square 
adult bookstore what the titles carried by the national Waldenbooks chain 
will be).

This 'authoritative' study was never peer-reviewed nor given by Time to 
experts for comment prior to publication in that magazine (the Georgetown Law 
Journal -- an odd venue for a statistical sociological thesis by a CMU EE 
undergraduate -- does not require peer review). Nor was the undergraduate's 
Artificial Intelligence computer program peer or expert reviewed. The study 
itself, according to those who have since seen it, offers no elaboration of 
its methodology. The undergraduate reportedly refused to give any expert or 
any other publication a copy of the study until after Time had published its 
cover story. 

Professors Donna Hoffman and Tom Novak of the Owen Graduate School 
of Management at Vanderbilt Univ., acknowledged experts on the Internet and 
statistical methodology, have labeled the study 'an outright fraud' and 
Time's handling of it 'irresponsible' and 'reckless.' Mike Gowin of the 
Electronic Frontier Forum has published online some earthier words for both 
the study and the magazine. The Washington Post's Elizabeth Corcoran last 
week published the first story critical of the Study. Brock Meeks of 
Interactive Age says that Peter Lewis of the NY Times is about to publish a 
story about the controversy, apparently on Monday. Wired Managing Editor Chip 
Bayer says Hotwired late Monday will open a special website (outside 
Hotwired's password authentication area) devoted to the criticism of the 
story at http://www.hotwired.com/special/pornscare. Vanderbilt Univ. has 
opened its own critical site at http://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.com.

Why do I elaborate about this on online-news? Three reasons: U.S. Senator 
Exon has already waved this Time cover story across the Capitol floor as 
'proof' that the Federal Govt. must intervene online, a prospect about which 
some of you in publishing might not be too happy. For those among you who are 
creating websites you want to public--including families--to visit, you need 
to combat sensationalistic fears deterrent to this medium. And good 
journalists need to correct incorrect journalism. I'm sorry to have taken up 
your time about this issue.

(Sources: Postings by Time "Cyberporn" cover story author Philip 
Elmer-Dewitt, Profs. Hoffman and Novak, Godwin, Meeks, Bayer, et. al. in The 
WELL's Media Conference Topic #1029 ("the Newsweeklies - Time, Newsweek, 
USN&WR"), which has seen over 600 postings in the week since the 'Cyberporn' 
cover story was published.) 

--------------------------------------------------------
Vin Crosbie                          voice: 212-207-9290
FreeMark Communications, Inc.          fax: 212-207-9295
One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza     work: vin@productview.com
New York, NY 10017 USA           http://www.freemark.com
                        personal email: crosbie@well.com
--------------------------------------------------------



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