September 2009

Recession or no, when it comes to running a tech company the US is still the best place to do business, according to a new study released on Sept. 17 by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Commissioned by the Business Software Alliance, a trade organization that represents the software industry, the study analyzes data on 66 countries around the world to determine which have the most competitive information technology sectors. Now in its third year, it examines such variables as a country's overall business climate; the pervasiveness of its tech infrastructure; the strength and transparency of its legal system; and the availability of a workforce that is both well-educated and technologically literate. Home to some of the world's most recognizable tech companies, such as IBM, Oracle, Intel, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Google, the US has topped the survey every year, but the country's predominance is vulnerable in key ways. For instance, in the all-important research and development category, which accounts for 25% of a nation's score, the U.S. ranks fifth, well behind Canada, which led that category, as well as Singapore and Israel.

Microsoft's Bing had a really strong August as the company takes another step in its effort to boost its place in the search engine business. The new search engine, which was first brought out in May to do battle with rival Google, saw its share of the search market grow by 22.1 percent from 9 percent in July to 10.7 percent in August. The results made Bing the fastest growing search engine in the top 10 list, according to the Nielsen. Despite the strong growth, Bing still lags far behind Google, long the dominant search engine. In a report released this week, Nielsen said that Google holds 64.6 percent of the search market this month, up 2.6 percent from July. Yahoo Search came in a distant second with 16 percent of the market in August, 4.2 percent less than it had in July.

In an effort to solicit input from the public in the development of a National Broadband Plan, the FCC announced today the dates and sites for initial field hearings. The Commission will host field hearings on September 21, 2009, in Austin, Texas; October 1, 2009, in the Washington, D.C. area; and October 6, 2009 in Charleston, South Carolina. Details on the latter two field hearings, as well as dates and locations for additional field hearings, will be announced later. FCC Commissioner Meredith Atwell Baker will represent the Commission at the initial field hearing in Austin, Texas next Monday from 9am to 12 noon. Two panels will explore the challenges of broadband deployment in Texas, including spectrum access, infrastructure, and rural issues. FCC Commissioner Meredith Atwell Baker will attend the event at the Texas University Club, 2108 Robert Dedman Drive.

President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals: Margo Lion, Co-Chairman, President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities; George Stevens, Jr., Co-Chairman, President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities; Mary Schmidt Campbell, Vice Chairman, President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

Margo Lion, Co-Chairman, President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities
Margo Lion's career has spanned theatre, politics, and education. Starting out as an intern on Capitol Hill for Senator Daniel B. Brewster (D-Maryland) and then as a special cultural projects coordinator in Senator Robert F. Kennedy's New York office, Lion shifted her career to teaching elementary school in the years following Senator Kennedy's death. In 1977, Lion began producing theater for the not-for-profit company, Music-Theater Group/Lenox Arts Center, and in 1982 began her work as a commercial theatre producer. Lion has worked with the pre-eminent theater writers of our time including: Tony Kushner, David Mamet, Arthur Miller, August Wilson and George C. Wolfe. Her shows on Broadway include: HAIRSPRAY; CAROLINE, OR CHANGE; and ANGELS IN AMERICA. Lion's productions have garnered 20 Tony Awards, 4 Olivier Awards and 1 Pulitzer Prize. Lion is an adjunct professor and a member of the Dean's Council at the NYU-Tisch School of the Arts. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the LAByrinth Theatre and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids, and on the advisory boards of the Baltimore Young Women's Leadership School, the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts and PUBLICOLOR.

George Stevens, Jr., Co-Chairman, President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities
In a career spanning fifty years George Stevens, Jr. has created a legacy of distinguished work as a writer, director, producer of motion pictures and television. In 1962 he became the head of the Motion Picture Service of the U.S. Information Agency under Edward R. Murrow, and in 1967 founded the American Film Institute. He continues to serve on the AFI Board. As a writer and producer Stevens has earned 11 Emmys, two George Foster Peabody Awards for Meritorious Service to Broadcasting and nine awards from the Writers Guild of America. Among his honored productions are The Kennedy Center Honors which he launched in 1978; the mini-series Separate But Equal and The Murder of Mary Phagan; George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey; We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration from the Lincoln Memorial; and the feature film The Thin Red Line which was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture. In 2008 he made his debut as a playwright on Broadway with Thurgood which earned a Tony nomination for its star Laurence Fishburne. He is also a successful author. Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age was published in 2005. Currently, Stevens is producing the thirty-second annual Kennedy Center Honors, a feature length documentary on the famed political cartoonist Herb Block, and writing a new book on film for Knopf.

Mary Schmidt Campbell, Vice Chairman, President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities
Mary Schmidt Campbell has been dean of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts since 1991. Dean Campbell began her career in New York as the executive director of the Studio Museum in Harlem. Under her leadership, the Studio Museum in Harlem emerged as a major national and international cultural institution and a lynchpin of the economic revival of Harlem. In 1987, Mayor Edward I. Koch invited Dr. Campbell to serve as Commissioner of Cultural Affairs of the City of New York. Dean Campbell holds a B.A. degree in English literature from Swarthmore College, an M.A. in art history from Syracuse University, and a Ph.D. in humanities, also from Syracuse. She is co-author of Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987) and Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden, 1940-1987 (New York: Oxford University Press & The Studio Museum in Harlem, 1991). She is the co-editor of Artistic Citizenship: A Public Voice for the Arts (New York: Routledge, 2006.) She is currently working on a book on Romare Bearden for Oxford University Press, (2011 expected publication date). She sits on the board of The American Academy in Rome and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In the fall of 2001 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She served in the voluntary position of Chair of the New York State Council on the Arts from 2007-2009. She also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Tisch Asia, the Tisch School of the Arts Singapore campus.