Computer age gains respect of economists
Article Abstract:
A number of respected economists are beginning to believe that advances in information technology are largely responsible for the increased rate of industrial productivity over the last few years. Since 1996, the rate of productivity growth has averaged about two percent, almost twice the average from 1973 to 1995. This new trend has caught the attention of economists because generally this type of increase is seen early in an economic recovery, which is currently not the case. This new shift in attitudes could have significant policy implications, since it could mean that monetary policy and interest rates are not the most important factors in regulating the U.S. economy and controlling inflation. Also, some economists believe the government needs to adopt new methods for measuring economic growth because these methods have become somewhat outdated for today's economy. The service sector is where many experts believe that the effects of these advances have not yet been seen, but some also feel that like most technological advances, the effects will not be seen for a while to come.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1999
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A parent's view of the World Wide Web as it reaches adolescence
Article Abstract:
While working at CERN, Tim Berners-Lee developed the document transfer protocols that evolved into the Web. He now works at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Laboratory for Computer Science at the World Wide Web Consortium. Rather than take a lucrative position with a company, he has chosen rather to advocate maintaining the Web's open standard. Presently, he is working on standards for XML, the successor to HTML. XML allows the assignment of data tags to text, so documents can be searched across the Web by data fields, like "Price." He is concerned that companies will develop their own internal standards for naming these fields, thus making the Web less universally seachable. Mr. Berners-Lee's latest book is "Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor."
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1999
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
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