Barry Willis

Who'd've thunk it? The movie-going public can't get enough of James Cameron's <I>Titanic</I>, the three-hour disaster flick starring the mismatched Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as a pair of doomed lovers.

Media giant <A HREF="http://www.fox.com">20th Century Fox Home Entertainment</A> has joined DreamWorks SKG, <A HREF="http://www.paramount.com">Paramount Home Video</A>, <A HREF="http://www.disney.com">Disney</A>, and <A HREF="http://www.mca.com">Universal</A> in their support for Divx. The announcement was made jointly last Thursday, Feb. 19, by 20th Century Fox representatives in Beverly Hills and by <A HREF="http://www.divx.com">Digital Video Express</A> executives at corporate headquarters in Herndon, Virginia.

Microsoft Corporation and Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) have agreed to jointly participate in an educational-enhancement data-distribution system that takes advantage of unused bandwidth in broadcast television's vertical blanking interval, or VBI, according to a <A HREF="http://www.microsoft.com">Microsoft</A> press release dated Feb. 17.

Los Angeles---Visionaries and vultures, pundits and panderers, gurus and geeks. They were all here at the Beverly Hilton for the first Networked Entertainment World Conference, a meeting of computer and software representatives, cable and online service providers, and film and television executives. Co-sponsored by Softbank Forums and the American Film Institute and attended by aspiring Web producers, game designers, and screenwriters (in addition to established industry types), the N:E:W conference was the first of what could prove to be an important annual event.