August 2009

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY AUGUST 17, 2009

Today: Of the Press: Models for Preserving American Journalism (see http://www.benton.org/node/27116)

BROADBAND/INTERNET
   So How's The ARRA Doing At 6 Months?
   5 Signs Our Broadband Plan May Already Be In Trouble
   Broadband Stimulus and the Underserved
   National Broadband Strategy: Funding is the elephant in the room
   Hey FCC: Stop Ignoring Municipal Broadband!
   More FCC National Broadband Plan Staff
   BTOP/BIP Applicants: Here's Your Monday Morning To-do List
   The broadband stimulus needs to put public safety first
   Bay Area's broadband blues

JOURNALISM
   The Press Loves a Hero, but . . .
   Newsrooms struggle to look more like the audience
   The Wrong Stuff
   The Paper That Doesn't Want to Be Free

HEALTH & MEDIA
   Health Care Ad Boost for Cable and Stations
   Constituent e-mails to House clog system
   New Worries About Children With Cellphones

OWNERSHIP
   Google Searches for Property Rights
   Intel's Human Rights

MORE ONLINE...
   Momentum building on STEM education
   Online, your private life is searchable
   Teach Naked: Dean Urges Tech-Free Classes

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BROADBAND/INTERNET

SO HOW'S THE ARRA DOING AT 6 MONTHS?
[SOURCE: PublicKnowledge, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] As we approach the 6-month mark on the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), it seems like a good time to check in on the National Broadband Plan, the National Broadband Map, and Broadband stimulus package. While 6 months may seem an impossibly long time for folks who don't see how much work it takes to make this stuff happen, we are still fairly early in the game and the folks at NTIA and FCC are still trying to invent a process to create a National Broadband Plan, a Broadband Map, and a process for handing out a lot of money to projects trying to achieve multiple objectives. That makes the willingness to stay engaged with people, take the criticism as constructive, and actually try to learn from it, extremely important and encouraging qualities. As in all policy, every party with an interest will present its views — and the FCC and NTIA will struggle to sort them out. Hopefully, as they work the bugs out of the system, it will continue to improve, even if we do lose on some issues we care deeply about.
http://benton.org/node/27161
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5 SIGNS OUR BROADBAND PLAN MAY ALREADY BE IN TROUBLE
[SOURCE: DSLReports, AUTHOR: Karl Bode]
Efforts to write a National Broadband Plan include some telltale signs that corporate lobbyists are still running the show, transparency isn't quite the priority the government claims, and consumers are little more than an afterthought. 1) Uncle Sam Is Already Wimping Out On Data Collection. 2) Connected Nation Has Cornered The Market On Broadband Mapping. 3) Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski Talks a Lot, But Says Nothing. 4) NTIA Judges For Grant Approval Are Anonymous. 5) Only Five of 51 panelists at FCC National Broadband Plan workshops were people not directly associated with a company: Dave Burstein, Craig Moffett, George Ford, Victor Frost and Henning Schulzrinne. Moffett is a stock jock whose positions (such as upgrades are unnecessary and consumers should be paying more money) are clearly not going to serve anyone but investors. Ford works at the Phoenix Center, an AT&T-funded "think tank," whose job is to parrot AT&T policy positions. Of the remaining three, only Burstein, a long-time telecom beat reporter, will likely ask any hard questions -- and then again his job is to get scoops, not to represent the public interest.
http://benton.org/node/27160
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BROADBAND STIMULUS AND THE UNDERSERVED
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Arik Hesseldahl]
Christopher Vein, chief information officer of the city of San Francisco, has some inventive ways to bring high-speed Internet access to areas of the city barely reached by broadband. He's marshaled donated PCs and equipment and tapped excess capacity on the city's fiber-optic network to give inner-city residents a fast connection to the Web and bring state-of-the-art health care to a clinic in one of San Francisco's least privileged neighborhoods. In many ways, Vein is just getting warmed up; he has even bigger plans. But as outsize as his ambitions may be, Vein won't be in line for one of the government's grandest plans for bringing broadband into underserved parts of the country. At least for now, San Francisco is holding off on applying for a grant under the federal government's $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, designed to encourage broadband development around the country. It's not that Vein doesn't want the money, or couldn't put it to good use. But as written, the rules governing the grants are stacked against cities like San Francisco, even though urban areas are among the places least reached by broadband and most in need of efforts like the one under way. Broadband advocates and city governments have started to lobby the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for a change in the rules.
http://benton.org/node/27169
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NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN: FUNDING IS THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
[SOURCE: ZDNet, AUTHOR: Larry Dignan]
[Commentary] Apparently the goal of the national broadband plan is to wire everything in a high-speed access utopia. Radio waves, fixed wire and wireless technologies will all mesh into one big uber pipe for a bevy of innovative services. But who will pay for it? Frankly there's not a lot of economic incentive for private companies to take on the mission. Carriers need triple play revenue to justify building those networks and that model only goes so far. So will it be left to the government?
http://benton.org/node/27159
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HEY FCC: STOP IGNORING MUNICIPAL BROADBAND!
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
The Federal Communications Commission's workshop on broadband deployment featured speakers from across the spectrum of broadband providers, except for one notable omission: they didn't have a single representative from a municipal broadband deployer. To give them some credit they did include a couple of non-traditional providers who started as public non-profits and eventually evolved into private for-profit operations
But in terms of having representation from a city that built it's own broadband network, they had nothing. To leave them out of the deployment discussion entirely seems irresponsible.
http://benton.org/node/27158
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MORE FCC NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN STAFF
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
Dr. Carlos Kirjner has been named Senior Advisor to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on Broadband. The FCC also named a team of senior technologists who will help lead the effort by the Federal Communications Commission to develop a National Broadband Plan. 1) Stagg Newman, Chief Technologist. 2) Byron J. Neal, Chief Engineer. 3) Julius Knapp, Chief, Office of Engineering and Technology, FCC. 4) Rashmi Doshi, Chief, Laboratory Division, Office of Engineering and Technology, FCC. 5) Jeff Goldthorp, Chief, Communications Systems Analysis Division, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, FCC. 6) Walter Johnston, Chief, Electromagnetic Compatibility Division, Office of Engineering and Technology, FCC. 7) Ronald T. Repasi, Deputy Chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, FCC.
http://benton.org/node/27157
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MONDAY MORNING TO-DO LIST
[SOURCE: Fighting the Next Good Fight, AUTHOR: Craig Settles]
[Commentary] You've been working for months (and non-stop over the past two weekends) to perfect your application for broadband stimulus funds. But you're not done yet. Here's your to-do list for this week including: gathering data on who is unserved by broadband in your application area, preparing to fight a challenge from incumbent Internet service providers, and start thinking how the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Rural Utilities Service can improve their rules for the next funding rounds.
http://benton.org/node/27156
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THE BROADBAND STIMULUS NEEDS TO PUT PUBLIC SAFETY FIRST
[SOURCE: MuniWireless, AUTHOR: Larry Karisny]
[Commentary] Wireless mobile mesh designs offer three critical requirements needed in successfully designing network topologies supporting wireless communications in emergencies: 1) Survivable: The proven surviving winner in past catastrophic events was IP-based low-powered wireless networks. 2) Interoperable: 802.11 has probably been the most successful wireless engineering standard to come out of the IEEE. 3) Primary Access: We have learned from past emergencies how commercial networks can crash and how spectrum bleed over can cripple access to public safety networks capacity. Pre-assigned rules and procedures can guarantee network access in emergencies. Organizations such as the National Public Safety Communication Council (NPSTC, "nip stick") have readily available network technologies including the needed rules and procedures required in emergency communication networks. [more at the URL below]
http://benton.org/node/27155
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BAY AREA'S BROADBAND BLUES
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Troy Wolverton]
[Commentary] DSL is quickly becoming yesterday's technology. As broadband speeds of 20-, 50- and even 100-megabits per second become available — allowing superfast downloading of movies, music and other data off the Internet — 2-megahit, or even 8-megahit, DSL just doesn't cut it any more. The problem is that if you want ultrafast Internet access in the San Francisco Bay Area, you typically have only one choice: Comcast. And because of this lack of competition, you can expect to pay through the nose for the privilege. You can thank government regulators for our lack of choice. A decade ago, when dial-up Internet access was the norm, you could choose from dozens of providers. With so many rivals, you could find Internet access at a reasonable price all by itself, without having to buy a bundle of other services with it. There was competition because regulators forced the local phone giants to allow such services on their networks. But regulators backed away from open-access rules as the broadband era got under way. While local phone and cable companies could permit other companies to use their networks to offer competing services, regulators didn't require them to do so and cable providers typically didn't. Former Federal Communications Commission Chairmen Michael Powell and Kevin Martin promised you'd get better competition by encouraging companies to build their own networks rather than by competing over networks already in place. That's turned out to be a pipe dream.
http://benton.org/node/27168
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JOURNALISM

THE PRESS LOVES A HERO, BUT ...
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
[Commentary] Dan Rather is wrong. Barack Obama should stay out of it. We don't need no stinkin' presidential commission. Rescuing the news business is beyond President Obama's power. Actually, by giving interviews to Katie, Brian, Charlie, Meredith and Robin -- not to mention "60 Minutes," "Nightline," the Sunday shows, Jay Leno, ESPN, major newspapers, columnists and bloggers -- President Obama has helped prop up the news business and demonstrated that it matters. But the challenge here is not as easy as dropping by Five Guys and boosting its burger business. The journalism racket needs more than some spicy mustard to lure customers. Journalists got themselves into this mess by clinging to the past as technology threatened to pass them by. They'll have to get themselves out of it without any assistance from the Oval Office.
http://benton.org/node/27167
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NEWSROOMS STRUGGLE TO LOOK MORE LIKE THE AUDIENCE
[SOURCE: Boston Globe, AUTHOR: Jazmine Ulloa]
While hundreds of minority journalists are in Boston for a conference this week, industry leaders are trying to tackle a growing concern: how to preserve diversity in the nation's newsrooms. As part of the annual Asian American Journalists Association convention, which is expected to draw more than 650 journalists, labor organizers, media corporations, and representatives from US minority journalism groups plans to discuss how to maintain diversity among the press. The meeting comes at a time when the industry is struggling with revenue losses and massive job cuts because of the recession and readers' and advertisers' migration to the Web. The industry has grappled with how to make newsrooms more diverse in order to more accurately reflect the changing demographics in the United States at least since the 1940s, but industry leaders say having multicultural perspectives is even more necessary now. Minorities make up about a third of the US population and are expected to represent half by 2042, with rates for Asian and Hispanic Americans growing the fastest, according to the Census Bureau.
http://benton.org/node/27154
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THE WRONG STUFF
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Greg Marx]
Pushing back against political misinformation has lately become a growth industry. The Obama administration is trying to counter false claims that proposed health care reforms will lead to government-sponsored euthanasia, both via appeals from the president and on a new Web site. Meanwhile, the British government, a sort of innocent bystander to the debate, is quietly setting the record straight about its own form of universal health care. And, as Michael Calderone reported in Politico, MSNBC recently devoted a lot of time to the unhinged "birther" theories about the president's provenance, in order to mock or debunk them. So will any of these efforts be successful? Not likely. Once factually inaccurate ideas take hold in people's minds, there are no reliable strategies to dislodge them -- especially from the minds of those for whom the misinformation is most ideologically convenient.
http://benton.org/node/27153
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THE PAPER THAT DOESN'T WANT TO BE FREE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Pfanner]
The Financial Times is adding to its paid-content strategy with a plan to accept micropayments for individual articles, as an alternative to a subscription. And one by one, other publishers are starting to see wisdom in the paper's ways. FT.com has not attracted a huge paying audience, with about 117,000 worldwide, up from 101,000 in 2007. That is far short of the one million paying customers of The Journal's Web site. Yet FT.com is lucrative because it charges a premium for its content. A premium subscription to the Web site, with access to all content, costs $300 a year in the United States. Adding the print version costs $100 more. For other online publishers seeking to charge readers, the big question is whether consumers would be willing to pay for general news, as opposed to specialized financial news. Some analysts doubt it.
http://benton.org/node/27166
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HEALTH & MEDIA

HEALTH CARE AD BOOST FOR CABLE AND STATIONS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Claire Atkinson]
The health-care reform debate is giving national cable news networks an ad boost this month. And as influential politicians head home for August recess, local markets should see a bump, too. A new coalition backing the Obama administration's health reform plan launched a $12 million campaign this week with more to come. Americans for Stable Quality Care, the group fielding the campaign, is largely backed by the pharmaceutical trade association PhRMA, which has said it will spend $150 million on ads. "The reason to be optimistic if you're a local broadcaster is the fact that town halls have shown this is moving out into the mass market phase," said Evan Tracey, president of TNS Campaign Media Analysis Group. "It's more about public opinion now, which would lead me to believe this advertising has the potential to be sustained as long as the healthcare fight goes on in Washington." Tracey doubted the windfall would be enough to replace lost auto advertising, but he speculated that the healthcare debate could end up drawing dollars from health insurance companies, which have yet to enter the fray in any major way. "Congress could reach a compromise in September or it may drag on through the year. That scenario is good for broadcasters."
http://benton.org/node/27152
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CONSTITUENT E-MAILS TO HOUSE CLOG SYSTEM
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jordy Yager]
Overwhelming interest in the debate over healthcare legislation has clogged the House system that allows constituents to send e-mails to their members directly through the House website and lawmaker Web pages. And it's not only individuals filling out the "write-your-representative" form that are slowing the system. It's advocacy groups as well. House e-mail services and other Web services are unaffected by the problems.
http://benton.org/node/27151
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NEW WORRIES ABOUT CHILDREN WITH CELLPHONES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Alina Tugeno]
About half of American children 12 years and older have cellphones, according to Christopher Collins, a senior analyst for consumer research at the Yankee Group, a research firm. And that has spawned all sorts of problems, like questions about etiquette and costly scams. Many parents keep a (somewhat) careful eye on television, computer and video game use. But they do not really take into account cellphones, since at least until recently, phones were intended, well, pretty much for calling people. But now owning a good cellphone — and many children have more sophisticated phones than their parents — is like having a computer, said Dr. Regina Milteer, a pediatrician, and member of the Academy of American Pediatrics council on communication and media. The big question she hears from parents of her patients, she said, is how to control cellphone use. Besides the old-fashioned way ("if we catch you using your cellphone in bed one more time, you'll lose it!") most cellphone companies now offer some sort of parental control for about $5 a month.
http://benton.org/node/27150
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OWNERSHIP

GOOGLE SEARCHES FOR PROPERTY RIGHTS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L. Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] The biggest book deal ever is about to come under attack. Google reached a $125 million legal settlement last year with book publishers and authors so that it could digitize some 18 million books. A federal judge will soon review its terms, with the Justice Department likely urging adjustments to avoid antitrust issues. Authors are complaining about their paltry share from the settlement. Librarians warn about the implications of one company having the only clear rights to old, out-of-print books. Still, people will cheer Google for its audacious goal: to restore access to the 60% of books -- some 10 million -- that are under copyright but out of print and unavailable in any medium. It's hard to imagine two cultures more different than the what-technology-makes-possible culture of Google versus the this-is-what-the-law-says culture of Washington. Still, there is a clear common interest in restoring effective property rights to benefit authors, publishers and readers.
http://benton.org/node/27165
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INTEL'S HUMAN RIGHTS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Intel has decided to appeal the $1.45 billion fine leveled against it by the European Union for engaging in anticompetitive behavior, and it is claiming that the proceedings have violated its human right to due process. Several European companies are also testing the tactic to fend off Europe's aggressive antitrust regulator. Intel was found guilty of: giving hidden rebates to computer makers that bought all or virtually all of their chips from Intel, and even paying some to delay or hinder the introduction of products that had microprocessors from its rival, Advanced Micro Devices. American regulators have been far less vigilant than Europe's. So far they have treated Intel with kid gloves. Intel argue that the company is entitled to the due process rights that European human rights law grants in criminal cases to ensure that the accused — usually powerless individuals — are not steamrollered by the overwhelming power of the state. We suspect that at least part of the motivation for Intel's human rights bid is to raise sympathy among American antitrust regulators for a poor, abused American near-monopoly — and thereby blunt any impulse to follow. The Federal Trade Commission should know better.
http://benton.org/node/27164
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