June 2009

HP, Apple, Google in censorship crossfire

[Commentary] It's not just about supposedly anti-pornographic software anymore. A bigger storm pitting free expression against autocratic government control is brewing, and San Francisco Bay Area companies are right in the middle of it. Ed Black, CEO of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, says Western governments, including the United States, have not been paying sufficient attention to the dots. "There's a technological arms race between those forces seeking openness and mass communication, and those wanting control," he said. So far, he says, Western governments have been at best complacent.

Ideas Online, Yes, but Some Not So Presidential

On Jan. 21, his first full day in office, President Obama promised to open up the government, ordering officials to use modern technologies like Internet message boards and blogs to give all Americans a bigger voice in public policy. Well, the people have spoken. But many of them are not sticking to the topics at hand. The White House made its first major entree into government by the people last month when it set up an online forum to ask ordinary people for their ideas on how to carry out the president's open-government pledge. It got an earful — on legalizing marijuana, revealing U.F.O. secrets and verifying President Obama's birth certificate to prove he was really born in the United States and thus eligible to be president. While it was not exactly what administration officials had in mind, they noted that democracy can be a bit messy.

Emanuel's Mastery Of Reading Reporters

Perhaps no White House chief of staff in modern history has worked the media as aggressively and relentlessly as Rahm Emanuel. Drawing on his long-standing relationships with journalists, Emanuel serves up on-the-record quotes, background spin and the sort of capital gossip that lubricates relationships. The former Chicago congressman also seeks their take on events and floats possible administration tactics. And Emanuel is brusquely efficient. "It's a no-nonsense relationship," NBC's Chuck Todd says. "He's always trying to extract as much information as he's trying to give." "He thinks like a journalist," says Obama senior adviser David Axelrod, who marvels at his colleague making multiple calls and wolfing down lunch at the same time.

A Weak Spot in Our Defenses

[Commentary] Attacks on computer systems will be an integral element of future conflict, and the United States is more dependent on computer networks than any other nation. Both policymakers and the military are in the early stages of coming to grips with this threat. We need to take some important first steps to strengthen our national capability to defend ourselves in cyberspace. First, we must abandon the notion that static defenses will help us against sophisticated threats. Second, our intelligence on other countries' cyber-capabilities must be strengthened. Third, while there are national security systems we certainly need to protect, our greatest vulnerability as a nation is outside the government. Our banking system, our telephone communications and our electricity grid are all owned and run by private companies and are interconnected to the global computer network. Cyberwarfare is a realm where technology is fast outpacing policy, doctrine and law. We must start closing the gap.

[Wilson was a representative from New Mexico in the U.S. House from 1998 to 2009 and served on the House intelligence committee for six years.]

Home Broadband Adoption 2009

An April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project shows 63% of adult Americans now have broadband Internet connections at home, a 15% increases from a year earlier. April's level of high-speed adoption represents a significant jump from figures gathered by the Project since the end of 2007 (54%). The growth in home broadband adoption occurred even though survey respondents reported paying more for broadband compared to May 2008. Last year, the average monthly bill for broadband Internet service at home was $34.50, a figure that stands at $39.00 in April 2009. Broadband users were also asked, for the first time in a Pew survey, how they view the importance of broadband to civic and community life. Some 55% of home broadband users said broadband was very important to at least one dimension of their lives and community, such as communicating with health care providers, government officials, sharing information about the community, or contributing to economic growth. "For many Americans, a home broadband connection is a conduit for connecting to community and economic opportunity," said John B. Horrigan, Associate Director of the Pew Internet Project and principal author of the report. "That puts broadband in the 'must keep' category for most users, even when economic times are tough."

US 20th in broadband penetration

A new broadband survey out from Strategy Analytics shows the US in 20th position when it comes to household broadband use, well behind countries like South Korea, Singapore, and the Netherlands. The report focuses on broadband penetration by household rather than by person. Using this metric, South Korea tops the list; 95 percent of South Korean households have a broadband connection. No one else comes close to that figure, either. The number two spot on the list is held by Singapore, which has 88 percent household broadband penetration. The US, with a mere 60 percent household broadband penetration, is in 20th position on the list. Strategy Analytics estimates that the US will fall to 23rd place by the end of the year.

Broadband Is Key to Economic Development

Geographic location and natural resources were once the key determiners of a community's economic potential. In one person's lifetime, they changed seldomly if at all. But in the broadband economy, it's increasingly the skills of the labor force and the ability of business and government to adapt and innovate, that power job creation. And these are assets that must be continually replenished. Why has this change occurred? As economic centers are connected, it becomes possible to manage distant facilities as though they were across the street. That means, in the broadband economy, every worker is exposed to wage and skill competition from every other worker in similar industries around the world. This has shifted demand for low-skilled labor - the kind used in extracting resources from the Earth and basic manufacturing - to low-cost countries in the developing world. When you visit those booming countries, however, the business press is full of worry about lack of skills and innovation. Even countries in the early stages of industrial growth are feeling the same competitive pressures that have become acute in industrialized nations.

The Future Is Fiber

[Commentary] The core of a national broadband strategy is fiber-optic cable -- fiber running to almost every home and business in the United States. Such a network would significantly change America's economy -- it would affect our way of working and playing as profoundly as did the telegraph, telephone, railroad and original Internet. A fiber network is an investment that would last 50 years or more. The network would carry two-way high-definition video streams and convert every high-definition TV set into a video conferencing station. This addresses a fundamental human need -- to actually see our co-workers and friends. For the first time, working at home -- true telework -- would be possible because workers would connect with and see each other in real time. Whole technology businesses would collaborate on developing 21st-century products. Students would be able to attend classes and interact with their classmates from home. Quality of life would improve as families scattered across a region would talk together, while seeing one another. This fiber network would also support high-speed wireless, because wireless access points can be added at any place the fiber terminates -- at every home and business.

[Bill Schrier is chief technology officer of Seattle.]

Execs, Experts Say Broadband Policies Must Balance Competition, Access

Broadband policies must adapt to ensure both competition and quality service for all consumers, a group of industry executives and policy experts said Thursday during at the Pike and Fischer Broadband Policy Summit. Lack of universal access and market competition are two reasons the U.S. lags in broadband, whether one believes "the glass is half full or half empty," said Google Media and Telecommunications Counsel Richard Whitt. Consumers are increasingly viewing broadband as a component of infrastructure and a utility, or not just a commercial service, said Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott. The $7.25 billion appropriated for broadband in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act was a charge from Congress to develop programs based on a "robust broadband infrastructure." Scott noted prices for broadband service in some areas are 10 percent higher than others because of lack of competition. Solving this problem will require new telecommunications policies for a networked world based on "very different approach, a different set of expectations, and a different focus," he said.

Boucher on Stimulus and FCC

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) has no plans to influence the Federal Communications Commission's development of a national broadband plan. But speaking Thursday morning at the Pike and Fischer Broadband Policy Summit, he made clear his experience representing a rural district informs his ideas on how the FCC should assist the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and Rural Utilities Service in defining unserved and underserved markets. Chairman Boucher reiterated his belief in broadband as the "new essential American infrastructure," which he said is of equal importance to this century as rural electrification and universal telephone service was to the last. In the new economy, the "corridors of commercial opportunity" will be defined more and more by broadband, he said.

Benton

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