March 2008

Chinese Internet censorship code of conduct in the works

CHINESE INTERNET CENSORSHIP CODE OF CONDUCT IN THE WORKS
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Martyn Williams]
A code of conduct addressing how major Internet service providers and portal operators should deal with Internet censorship in China is in the final stages of preparation by Human Rights Watch and the providers, the head of the human rights pressure organization said Tuesday. The code is due in the next couple of months and comes in the run up to the Beijing Olympic Games that begin in August.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/18/Chinese-Internet-censorship-co...

Web gets a workout as bloggers and others follow story

WEB GETS A WORKOUT AS BLOGGERS AND OTHERS FOLLOW STORY
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Martha T. Moore]
Sen. Barack Obama's speech Tuesday on race and his former pastor's controversial remarks lit up the Internet on a day when the story competed with a surging stock market and a political sex scandal in New York. According to Technorati, a website that tracks blog postings, there were about 1,300 posts if "Obama race" was placed in the search engine. Still, Obama's race speech was not among the most popular Web posts about the Illinois senator. For example, there were about 10,000 posts about Obama on Feb. 25, Technorati research shows. That was the day a photograph of the Democratic presidential candidate in traditional Somali dress was posted on the Drudge Report. The Drudge Report, a popular site for political news, featured the text of Obama's speech as its lead item all day. On the liberal Huffington Post, the text of Obama's speech got more than 160,000 page views. By late Tuesday, stories about Obama's speech were the most-viewed items on news sites run by The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. By late Tuesday, Obama's speech was the most-viewed video on MSNBC.com, the second-most-viewed story on websites for ABC, CBS and CNN.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080319/1a_web19_dom.art.htm

Internet Congregation Responds in Many Voices

INTERNET CONGREGATION RESPONDS IN MANY VOICES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jose Antonio Vargas]
In the church of the Internet, call him the preacher heard all around our YouTubing world, where believers not only watch the videos of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's controversial and racially charged sermons but also edit them, comment on them, pass them around. And make them their own. Wright's homilies -- including the one where he says "God damn America" -- have taken on a new life, opening up a conversation so kaleidoscopic only the vastness of the Internet has room for it. It's about race, Sen. Barack Obama, the presidential campaign, us. One of Wright's sermons was the most viewed video online in recent days, according to Viral Video Chart, a daily catalogue of popular videos on Google Video, MySpace and YouTube. On Sunday, days after Wright's remarks had been replayed on cable shows and dissected in print and online, type "Wright" and "Obama" on YouTube and some 300 videos popped up. Another 500 videos were uploaded the next day. By early Tuesday, hours before Obama delivered his much-anticipated speech in Philadelphia on race, the tally had risen above 900.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/18/AR200803...
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Inclusion or Illusion? An Analysis of the FCC's Public Hearings on Media Ownership

INCLUSION OR ILLUSION? AN ANALYSIS OF THE FCC'S PUBLIC HEARINGS ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP 2006-07
[SOURCE: Penn State University, AUTHOR: Jonathan Obar and Amit Schejter]
In 2006-2007 the Federal Communications Commission held six public hearings across the country in an attempt to fully involve the public in a re-evaluation of the rules governing media ownership in the United States. The hearings took place in: Los Angeles/El Segundo, CA; Nashville, TN; Harrisburg, PA; Tampa, FL; Chicago, IL; and Seattle, WA. This study addresses whether the FCC did indeed fully involve the public in their deliberations, what the public said at the hearings, and whether the public's input contributed to the design of the policy. All 44 plus hours of the hearings were assessed, all 732 public comments were content analyzed and the FCC's Report and Order was reviewed. The results reveal that the FCC consistently hindered public participation; hearing notice was often provided last-minute, the hearings were held at inconvenient times for working people to attend and the structure of the hearings subordinated public comment by providing preferential treatment to experts, stakeholders and dignitaries. Two hearings actually devoted more time to non-public comment than to public testimony. In addition, a quarter of the members of the public registered to speak left before testifying likely due to the structure and length of the hearings. Of the 732 that did speak, 52.6 percent were against media consolidation and/or deregulation, while only 1.4 percent were in support. The final Report & Order reflects the same subordination as hardly any reference is made to public comment from the hearings, even though the hearings themselves are highlighted in the report as a groundbreaking element in the rulemaking process.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1102764

FCC spectrum auction is completed with $19.6 bln in bids

FCC SPECTRUM AUCTION IS COMPLETED WITH $19.6 BLN IN BIDS
[SOURCE: MarketWatch, AUTHOR: Corey Boles]
A sale of communications airwaves by the federal government to the commercial wireless industry closed Tuesday, after 261 rounds of bidding and $19.6 billion in bids.
The end of the auction means that, within a short period of time, the Federal Communications Commission will reveal who the winners of the valuable radio spectrum licenses are, and where in the country they acquired airwaves. The final price tag of $19.6 billion was considerably more than the estimated $10 billion to $13 billion the auction had been expected to generate. That amount will be reduced somewhat once the FCC applies bidding credits to smaller companies that may have participated and after it removes the sole national license, which didn't attract sufficient interest to meet the minimum threshold applied by the commission. Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn called for an investigation of the auction: "The Federal Communications Commission’s spectrum auction produced some good results for consumers. While the open access provisions weren't all that we would have liked, consumers will have the benefit of some device and applications flexibility that they wouldn't have had otherwise. However, the lack of activity in the ‘D’ block that would have supported public safety activity raises some cause for concern. Following reports that Frontline dropped out of the auction as a result of alleged conditions put on the block by the public safety community, we urge the Commission to look into the auction results."
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/fcc-spectrum-auction-completed-196...

* Public Knowledge Asks FCC Investigation of Spectrum Auction
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/1462

* FCC Chairman Martin statement:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-280887A1.doc
* Comparison of Auction Revenues
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-280887A2.pdf

* FCC Auction Over: $19.5 Billion In Bids
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6542332.html?nid=4262
* FCC's wireless airwaves sales raises $19.6 billion
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9897297-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2...
* Wireless Spectrum Auction Raises $19 Billion
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/technology/19fcc.html?ref=todayspaper
* FCC Airwaves Auction Sets Record
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120587719371146457.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
* FCC Raises Record $19.6 Billion In Auction of Wireless Airwaves
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/18/AR200803...
* Big wireless auction ends, winners still secret
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1823350720080319

Assessing success in the FCC's 700MHz auction

ASSESSING SUCCESS IN THE FCC'S 700MHZ AUCTION
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon & Anne Broache]
The Federal Communications Commission generated $19.6 billion in the 700MHz spectrum that ended Tuesday, but the true success of the auction will take months or even years to assess. There's no question that the auction, which began on January 24, was a monetary success for the government--it raised a record $19.6 billion in 261 rounds of bidding. During a conference call with reporters Tuesday after the bidding closed, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said the 700MHz auction was the most successful auction the agency has ever conducted, raising more money than all previous auctions put together, excluding the Advanced Wireless Services, or AWS, auction in 2006. Despite the obvious financial success of the auction, it will be a long time before it's clear whether the FCC was successful in achieving some of its broader policy goals, such as creating a more open wireless marketplace and a nationwide interoperable public safety wireless network. The 700MHz spectrum has long been considered the last bit of beachfront wireless real estate left in the air. The spectrum, which is being vacated by the switch to digital TV in 2009, is considered valuable because of inherent properties that allow it to propagate over long distances and penetrate walls. Some experts believe the spectrum is ideal for offering robust, affordable wireless broadband services.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9897722-7.html?tag=nefd.lede

See also --
* Public Knowledge Asks FCC Investigation of Spectrum Auction
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/1462

Is the U.S. really so terribly behind in broadband?

IS THE US REALLY SO TERRIBLY BEHIND IN BROADBAND
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache]
On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission will consider, and likely adopt, changes to the way it measures "reasonable and timely deployment of advanced services to all Americans," as required by federal law. At the moment, Internet service providers are required to fill out forms about their service offerings and submit them to the FCC semiannually. From those forms, the FCC produces reports that attempt to reflect on the state of Internet access availability, and in recent years, they have claimed to document "significant and steady progress" in broadband availability nationwide. But critics charge that the information the FCC collects is not granular enough to be useful. Judging from their statements in recent months, there's consensus among the five commission members, too, that some refinements are necessary. Free Press, Consumers Union, and the Consumer Federation of America argue that the FCC should survey Americans about how much they're paying for Internet service -- to compare price and service menus across different locales.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9897103-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2...

Despite Economy, Web Will Grow in '08

DESPITE ECONOMY, WEB WILL GROW IN '08
[SOURCE: MediaWeek, AUTHOR: Mike Shields]
Despite headlines screaming mortgage crisis, inflation and possible recession, things are still looking up for online advertising, says a new report coming later this month from eMarketer. The Web researcher is confident that U.S. online spending will surge by a healthy 23 percent in 2008 to $25.9 billion, despite fears of overall economic fallout. That’s slower growth than in recent years, says the firm, but still indicative of an ongoing shift of media dollars to the Internet. eMarketer predicts that overall media spending will climb by just 3.3 percent in 2008.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=10037...

* Web ad spending forecast revised with economic woes
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN1822642220080318

Credible Web? It's where we click most

CREDIBLE WEB? IT'S WHERE WE CLICK MOST
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Tom Regan]
[Commentary] Newsweek recently published a story called "Revenge of the Expert." It argued that expertise would be the main component of "Web 3.0." "The wisdom of the crowds has peaked," says Jason Calacanis, founder of the Maholo "people-powered search engine" and a former AOL executive. "Web 3.0 is taking what we've built in Web 2.0 the wisdom of the crowds and putting an editorial layer on it of truly talented, compensated people to make the product more trusted and refined." Well, yes and no. Sure, it is important for people to trust the information they find online. And as the Newsweek article argues, the need for people to find trusted information online is increasing, thus the need for more expertise. But the article fails to mention the most important feature of the world of digital information. It's not expertise it's choice. In many cases the sites that people come to trust are built on nontraditional models of expertise. Look at sites like Digg.com, Reddit.com, or Slashdot.com. There, users provide the expertise on which others depend. When many users select a particular story, that story accumulates votes of confidence ("diggs" in the case of digg.com), which often lead other users to choose that story. The choices of the accumulated community are seen as more trustworthy than the "gatekeeper" model of traditional news and information. Sometimes such sites highlight great reporting from traditional media. But often they bring forward bits of important information that are ignored (or missed) by "experts." It's sort of the "open source" idea of information a million eyes looking on the Web for information is better than a few.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0319/p17s01-stct.html

How local TV embraced fake news

HOW LOCAL TV EMBRACED FAKE NEWS
[SOURCE: Salon, AUTHOR: Farhad Manjoo]
A look at the pervasiveness of video news releases (VNRs), short clips of marketing propaganda produced in the language and style of real news and aired as part of local broadcast TV newscasts. P.R. firms send news stations thousands of such videos every year, the most sophisticated of which are virtually indistinguishable from honest news, featuring interviews with (paid) experts and voice-overs by (fake) reporters who subtly pitch products during their narratives. Surprisingly often, news channels broadcast these videos as real news; many times, the Center for Media and Democracy has found, the only edits that a station will make to a paid clip is to cut off the disclosure noting that the video was sponsored by a corporation. Late last year, the FCC began cracking down on the practice, levying fines against Comcast, which owns CN8, a Philadelphia station that has aired VNRs. But CMD, which continues to monitor stations, found that the practice continues.
http://machinist.salon.com/feature/2008/03/19/true_enough_excerpt_3/inde...

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