1. Monthly archive
  2. May 2009

May 2009

Democratizing Data

The Federal CIO Council has launched Data.gov. Created as part of the President's commitment to open government and democratizing information, Data.gov will open up the workings of government by making economic, healthcare, environmental, and other government information available on a single website, allowing the public to access raw data and transform it in innovative ways. Such data are currently fragmented across multiple sites and formats—making them hard to use and even harder to access in the first place. Data.gov will change this, by creating a one-stop shop for free access to data generated across all federal agencies. The Data.gov catalog will allow the American people to find, use, and repackage data held and generated by the government, which we hope will result in citizen feedback and new ideas. Data.gov will also help government agencies—so that taxpayer dollars get spent more wisely and efficiently. Through live data feeds, agencies will have the ability to easily access data both internally and externally from other agencies, which will allow them to maintain higher levels of performance. In the months and years ahead, our goal is to continuously improve and update Data.gov with a wide variety of available datasets and easy-to-use tools based on public feedback and as we modernize legacy systems over time. Democratizing government data will help change how government operates—and give citizens the ability to participate in making government services more effective, accessible, and transparent.

Once Again, Interrogation and Torture Drive the Online Debate

The polarizing issue of what defines torture dominated social media last week, marking the third time since the beginning of April that the subject has been among the top-two weekly stories in the blogosphere. From May 11-15, almost a quarter of the links (23%) on blogs and social media sites related to the debate over harsh interrogation techniques, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

California considers open digital textbooks

In what could be a first-of-its-kind statewide initiative, California education leaders are working together to compile a list of free, open digital textbooks that meet state-approved standards and will be available to high school math and science classes this fall. At the request of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Secretary of Education Glen Thomas will work with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and State Board of Education President Ted Mitchell to develop the list of standards-aligned, open educational resources. The advisory report is scheduled to be released by Aug. 10.

Sprint resolves VoIP dispute

Sprint sued Paetec in January 2008 over its use of technology for voice over packet, the process by which voice files are organized into discrete chunks for transmission and switching through a data network. Apparently, now the companies have settled the dispute which Paetec says will not have a material effect on its financial statements. In 2007, Vonage Holdings, an Internet telephone company, agreed to pay Sprint about $80 million to settle a similar patent dispute.

Court Rejects Arizona AG Suit to Keep 'Tucson Citizen' Alive

US District Court Judge Raner Collins has ruled that the Tucson Citizen can remain dead as a print newspaper, saying the Arizona attorney general's office had not shown folding the Gannett Co. daily was a violation of antitrust law. Judge Collins says there is no evidence at the moment that there is a "ready and willing buyer to pay the fair and reasonable liquidation value of the Tucson Citizen assets." On Saturday, the Citizen published its last print edition, and Gannett announced it had terminated its joint operating agreement (JOA) with Lee Enterprises Inc.'s Arizona Daily Star, but that the two would remain partners, sharing profits and expenses in Tucson. Arizona's attorney general argued the move violated terms of the Newspaper Preservation Act and antitrust law generally, and that there was an eligible buyer in Stephen Hadland, a newspaper publisher in Culver City (CA). Hadland offered $400,000 for the assets of the Citizen, which did not include a stake in the JOA, while Gannett initially asked for $1 million, then lowered its price to $800,000. In court, a Gannett lawyer argued the offer was too low, and that it could not be compelled to sell at just any price.

More Americans with Digital TVs

As of February 2009, slightly more than one-third of American TV homes had at least one HDTV, up from 29.2 percent in November 2008, and 19.3 percent in February 2008. This switch to HDTV doesn't necessarily mean that households are ditching their old standard sets; they are simply re-locating them to other rooms such as bedrooms and the basement, and may use them for a dedicated purpose, such as video gaming. Overall, the average U.S. household now has 2.6 TV sets.

Can News Media Survive the Internet Age?
Competition, Consumer Protection, and First Amendment Perspectives

Federal Trade Commission
December 1 and 2, 2009

Dec 1 webcast

Consumers are increasingly turning to the Internet for news and information. Advertisers are moving ads to online sites and scaling back on ad buys as a result of the recession, and news organizations are struggling with large debts that were acquired during better times. As a result, some are questioning how journalism will evolve in the future.

The workshop will consider a wide range of issues, including: the economics of journalism in print and online; the wide variety of new business and non-profit models for journalism online; factors relevant to the new economic realities for news organizations, such as behavioral and other targeted online advertising, online news aggregators, and bloggers; and the ways in which the costs of journalism could be reduced without reducing quality.

The diverse group of participants who will discuss these issues at the workshop include Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corp., Arianna Huffington, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post, and Aneesh Chopra, Assistant to the President, Associate Director and Chief Technology Officer for the Office of Science and Technology of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Other panelists include representatives from E.W. Scripps Co., The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Yahoo!, Google, the National Newspaper Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, Hearst Television, National Public Radio, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Associated Press, ThomsonReuters, Propublica, Blogher.com, NorthwestCitizen.com, the Knight Foundation, the University of Chicago, the Association of National Advertisers, the Center for Digital Democracy, and the Media Access Project.

Day 1 - Tuesday, December 1, 2009

8:00 am Doors Open and Security Check-in*

9:00 am Welcome Jon Leibowitz
Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission

9:15 am Remarks Paul Steiger
Editor-in-Chief, President and CEO, ProPublica
Former Managing Editor, The Wall Street Journal

9:30 am Remarks Rick Edmonds
Media Business Analyst, The Poynter Institute
Co-author, The State of the News Media 2009

9:45 am Remarks Rupert Murdoch
Chairman and CEO, News Corp.

10:05 am The State of Journalism Today and Tomorrow
Panelists:

Mark Contreras
Chairman of the Executive Committee,
The Newspaper Association of America;
Senior Vice President/Newspapers, E.W. Scripps Co.

Martin Kaiser
President, American Society of News Editors
Editor and Senior Vice President Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jonathan Knee
Director, Media Program, Columbia Business School;
Senior Managing Director, Evercore Partners

Nina Link
President and CEO
Magazine Publishers of America

Bryan Monroe
Visiting Professor, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University;
Former Vice President and Editorial Director,
Ebony and Jet

Hamrin Professor of Media Economics and Director of the Media Management and Transformation Centre, Jonkoping University, Sweden

Tonda Rush
Of Counsel, King & Ballow
On Behalf of National Newspaper Association

David Westphal
Executive in Residence, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism,
University of Southern California;
Former Washington Editor, McClatchy Newspapers

Fred Young
Retired Senior Vice President of News
Hearst Television Inc.

11:35 am Remarks
Arianna Huffington
Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Huffington Post

12:00 pm - 1:30pm Lunch Break

1:30 pm Presentation
Leonard Downie
Vice President at Large and Former Executive Editor
The Washington Post

1:45 pm Presentation
Lem Lloyd
Vice President, Channel Sales Yahoo!

2:00 pm Presentation
Josh Cohen
Senior Business Product Manager
Google

2:15 pm Emerging Business Models for Journalism
Panelists:

Chris Ahearn
President, Reuters Media
Thomson Reuters

Mark Bide
Rightscom Limited
Project Director, Automated Content Access Protocol

Steven Brill
Co-Founder
Journalism Online, LLC

Lauren Rich Fine
Research Director
ContentNext Media

Jeff Jarvis
Associate Professor, Director of the Interactive Program
City University of New York, Graduate School of Journalism

Srinandan Kasi
Vice President and General Counsel
Associated Press

Danny Sullivan
Editor-in-Chief
Search Engine Land

Robert Thomson
Managing Editor
The Wall Street Journal

3:45 pm Presentation
Mike Bloxham
Director of Insight and Research
Center for Media Design
Ball State University

4:00 pm Presentation
Susan Athey
Professor of Economics
Harvard University

4:15 pm Presentation
David Evans
Visiting Professor, Faculty of Laws
University College London;
Vice Chairman of LECG Europe

4:30pm Online Advertising and Consumer Demand Trends
Panelists:

Barbara Bacci Mirque
Executive Vice President, Communications and Best Practices
Association of National Advertisers

Mike Bloxham
Director of Insight and Research
Center for Media Design
Ball State University

Jeff Chester
Executive Director
Center for Digital Democracy

Pam Horan
President
Online Publishers Association

Joe Laszlo
Director of Research
Interactive Advertising Bureau

John Meyer
Director of Digital Media
WTOP and Federal News Radio

5:30pm Conclusion

Day 2 - Wednesday, December 2, 2009

8:00 am Doors Open and Security Check-in*

9:00 am Welcome Jon Leibowitz
Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission

9:15 am Presentation
James Hamilton
Charles S. Sydnor Professor of Public Policy Professor of Political Science and Economics Director, DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy, Sanford School of Public Policy
Duke University

9:30 am Presentation
Matthew Gentzkow
Professor of Economics
Neubauer Family Faculty Fellow
Booth School of Business
University of Chicago

9:45 am Presentation Karen Dunlap
President and CEO
The Poynter Institute

10:00 am Public- and Foundation-Funded Journalism
Panelists:
Joaquin Alvarado
Senior Vice President for Diversity and Innovation
Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Tom Leonard
University Librarian and Professor in the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley

Charles Lewis
Executive Editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop
American University School of Communication

Mark MacCarthy
Adjunct Professor
Communication, Culture and Technology Program
Georgetown University

Jon McTaggart
Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
American Public Media

Eric Newton
Vice President, Journalism Program
Knight Foundation

Vivian Schiller
President and CEO
National Public Radio

Josh Silver
Executive Director
Free Press

11:45 am - 1:00pm Lunch Break

1:00 pm Reducing the Costs of Journalism
Panelists:

Bill Adair
Editor, PolitiFact
Washington Bureau Chief, St. Petersburg Times

Bill Allison
Editorial Director, Sunlight Foundation

Bill Buzenberg
Executive Director
The Center for Public Integrity

Aneesh Chopra
Assistant to the President, Chief Technology Officer and Associate Director for the Office of Science & Technology of the Executive Office of the President

James Hamilton
Charles S. Sydnor Professor of Public Policy;
Professor of Political Science and Economics Director
DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy
Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University

President and Chief Executive Officer
Public Radio International

Aron Pilhofer
Editor, Interactive News Technologies
The New York Times
Co-Founder, DocumentCloud

Eric Umansky
Senior Editor, ProPublica
Co-Founder, DocumentCloud

2:30 pm Presentation from the Knight Foundation Commission on
The Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy

Reed Hundt
Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Company
Former Chairman,
Federal Communications Commission

2:45 pm Engaging and Informing Consumers in the Internet Age
Panelists:

Sandra Ball-Rokeach
Professor and Director of the Communication Technology and Community Program, Annenberg School of Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California

James Gaines
Editor-in-Chief,
FLYP Media
Former Editor, Time

Jon Miller
Chief Digital Officer
News Corp.

Debra Osofsky
National Director, News and Broadcast
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists

Tom Rosenstiel
Director, Project for Excellence in Journalism
Pew Research Center

Jason Seiken Senior Vice President
PBS Interactive

Linda Solomon
Photojournalist
Committee Member, Citizens to Save the Eccentric

Kathy Times
President
National Association of Black Journalists

4:00 pm Presentation
Lisa George
Assistant Professor of Economics
Hunter College

4:15 pm The New News

Panelists:

Jim Brady
Allbritton Communications

Christopher Callahan
Dean, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Arizona State University
Elisa Camahort Page
Co-Founder and COO, BlogHer

Bill Densmore
Vice President, Director, and Co-Founder
CircLabs Inc.

Andrew Jay Schwartzman
President and Chief Executive Officer
Media Access Project

John Servais
Founder
NorthwestCitizen

5:30 pm Concluding Remarks

The Federal Trade Commission announced December 1 and 2, 2009, as the dates on which it will begin a series of workshops titled "" The workshops previously were scheduled to begin on September 15, 2009.

The workshops will bring competition, consumer protection, and First Amendment perspectives to bear on the financial, technological, and other challenges facing the news industry as consumers increasingly turn to the Internet for free news and information, advertisers increasingly move their ads onto online sites and reduce advertising buys as a result of the recession, and news organizations struggle with large debt that was taken on when times were better.

Several large daily newspapers across the country have declared bankruptcy in the past year, and others have imposed significant cuts in staff and other expenditures to lower their costs dramatically, although some smaller community newspapers may continue to have local monopolies. News magazines also have seen significant drop-offs in advertising revenues, despite relatively stable circulation numbers. Broadcast television news and radio news broadcasts have lost audience shares over the past decade, while cable and Internet audiences have grown. The news media and the practice of journalism are in transition, as evidenced by multiple innovative models for journalism that have emerged in the past few years.

The workshops will consider a wide range of issues, including: the economics of journalism and how those economics are playing out on the Internet and in print; the wide variety of new business and non-profit models for journalism online; factors relevant to the new economic realities for news organizations, such as behavioral and other targeted online advertising, online news aggregators, and bloggers; and the variety of governmental policies - including antitrust, copyright, and tax policy - that have been raised as possible means of finding new ways for journalism to thrive. Witnesses will include journalists and other representatives of news organizations, privacy experts, direct marketers, online advertisers, academics, new media representatives (such as bloggers and local news Web sites), and consumer advocates. An agenda for the December 1 and 2, 2009, workshops will be circulated at a later time.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2180

STAFF CONTACT:
Susan DeSanti
Director, Office of Policy Planning
202-326-2210


Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street SW
Washington, DC 20554
June 4, 2009

The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that the first meeting of its newly formed Online Safety and Technology Working Group will be held on June 4, 2009, in Washington, D.C. The meeting was originally scheduled for May 22, 2009. The Working Group was created to advise the federal government on industry efforts to keep children safe on the Internet.

NTIA also announced that Hedda Litwin, Cyberspace Law Counsel of the National Association of Attorneys General, will join the more than two dozen private sector and child and family advocacy leaders on the Working Group.

"The Obama Administration recognizes the importance of involving the states in protecting the safety and privacy of our children as they use the Internet," Acting NTIA Administrator Anna Gomez said. "I'm pleased that Ms. Litwin has agreed to join this effort to help foster a safe online environment for children. I look forward to working with such talented and experienced people as they prepare their report to Congress and NTIA."

The Working Group was established by the "Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act." Members will work with federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, and Department of Education, to evaluate industry efforts and to make recommendations to promote online safety for children through education, labeling, and parental control technology. The Working Group will also evaluate and make recommendations on industry efforts to prevent and respond to criminal activity involving children and the Internet. Within a year of convening its first meeting, the group will submit a report to Congress and the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information of its findings and make recommendations on how to increase online safety measures.

The Group's first meeting will be held on June 4, 2009, at the Federal Communications Commission, 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20554. Further details of the meeting will be posted prior to the meeting date at www.ntia.doc.gov.

The NTIA is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the executive branch agency principally responsible for advising the President on communications and information policies. For more information about the NTIA, visit www.ntia.doc.gov.


:
Examining the Latest Developments in Intellectual Property Law

Tuesday, June 2, 2009
8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
WilmerHale Conference Center
60 State Street, 26th Floor
Boston, MA

The 2009 conference will feature our annual panel discussion on the Federal Circuit cases making headlines. We will also focus on litigation and licensing in the wake of Quanta and present three breakout sessions to discuss reexams as a strategy with and without related litigation, injunctions and compulsory licenses, and how far US patents and trademarks go and where you should consider filing.


The Westin Grand Hotel
2350 M St, NW
Washington, DC
July 20-21, 2009
mmtconline.org


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