September 2009

Harvard, Heal Thyself (Why Journalism Matters)

We all know that democracy relies on reporters to act as watchdogs on government. Most understand that business requires a close eye as well. Bloggers, foundations and displaced reporters are eager to do what they can to fill those respective voids. But what of a wholly private, ostensibly beneficent organization like Harvard Medical School? Though it receives massive government grants, it is not covered by the Freedom of Information Act. Its administration reveals information only as it sees fit. Do you think it will cooperate with some blogger? And consider the expense of a decently paid professional reporter spending more than a month on a single story unlikely to sell a single paper. Who is going to pay for that? Under such circumstances, who is going to think it worth investigating in the first place?

Afghanistan Hot Topic Online

For the first time since PEJ launched the New Media Index in January, the conflict in Afghanistan was a major topic in the blogosphere, dominating the conversation last week. For the week of August 31-September 4, the Afghanistan situation generated 26.3% of the links in blogs, and that discussion was almost entirely focused on an article by conservative columnist George Will advocating a U.S. pullout in Afghanistan. The bloggers seized on different elements of Will's column in their responses, but the prevailing reaction was critical. Last week's spike in online interest in the eight-year-old war corresponds with a recent uptick in coverage in the mainstream press. For the week of August 31-September 6, Afghanistan was among the top stories in the News Coverage Index, accounting for 9% of the newshole. Apart from that topic, the online and mainstream news agendas differed dramatically last week. The second-largest story in the blogs, at 16.9% of links, was about Disney buying Marvel Comics for $4 billion.

Don't Neglect the Network

It's a less glamorous topic than the flashy unveiling of Motorola's first Android phone, the Cliq, but the reality behind what makes devices like the Cliq possible is the high-speed network that connects it. Rick Keith, senior director of Strategy for Broadband Access Solutions at Motorola, who sat on a panel discussing high-speed networks at our Mobilize conference following the Cliq unveiling, went as far as to call his panel "like following up Madonna." However, he pointed out, the network is doing the heavy lifting and will be a chief driver of innovation and new services.

Orange and T-Mobile may be forced to give up spectrum

Orange and T-Mobile could be forced to give up rights to the radio waves that carry mobile phone calls and Internet traffic if their merger to create the UK's biggest mobile phone operator goes ahead. Analysts have warned that the combined group could be stripped of some of its valuable radio spectrum because the merged business would have twice as much as other operators.

How emerging wireless techs are transforming healthcare

When carriers announce plans to build out faster 4G wireless networks or to ramp up the speeds of their current 3G network, talk typically turns to how it will benefit consumer applications such as mobile gaming or high-definition video streaming. But perhaps an even more important aspect of increased mobile data speeds will be their impact on the mobile "telehealth" devices that doctors are increasingly using to keep track of their patients' conditions. A study released this summer by ABI Research projects that there will be approximately 15 million wireless telehealth sensors and devices in use by 2012, or more than double the number of wireless telehealth systems in use today. ABI says that these systems will be used primarily to "monitor and track the status of patient with chronic conditions" so that their providers can detect early warning signs before they become dangerous.

Geospatial tools offer killer app for Gov 2.0

If the idea of government 2.0 revolves around using government information as a platform for enabling public discourse, then geospatial technologies are one of the killer apps, Jack Dangermond , president of ESRI, said today at the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington. Maps and geospatial information systems are becoming richer, smarter, and more pervasive, Dangermond said, but government agencies still need to do more to convert data into services that can populate mapping applications. There is still a barrier between FTP data sets and government sites that make data available as a service, he said. "What's behind maps are geographic data sets that can be 'server-ized,' or turned into services," Dangermond said. "That could introduce a whole new wave of applications; where tabular data will be geo-coded, and where the map interface will become what might be the killer app of Gov 2.0."

Government works toward a more proactive cybersecurity approach

Initiatives to detect and respond to cyberattacks are a preliminary step in protecting federal computer networks against hackers and will be followed by efforts to preempt attacks, the Homeland Security Department's cybersecurity chief said on Thursday. The remarks by Gregory Schaffer, appointed assistant secretary of DHS' Office of Cybersecurity and Communications in June, came in response to criticisms that intrusion detection systems such as Einstein 2, deployed early this year, are too reactive. "Einstein 2 really serves to alert the federal government to risks impacting our networks," said Schaffer, during the Homeland Security Symposium and Exposition, hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association. "I'd much prefer we know what's happening in one network within the federal government, secure that and then leverage [the solution] across agencies to prevent it from spreading. And I'd much rather know what was happening in real time, rather than learning at some later point after operations are impacted. Is that as far as we need to go? Absolutely not -- but we need this in incremental steps." Schaffer noted that Einstein 3, which Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team is developing and testing, will "give prevention capabilities that block [attacks] in their tracks before they penetrate the network." The department in July released a classified request for information to identify technologies that can identify possible threats, he said.

Kundra: Transparency Will Take Time

Speaking at a Washington conference on government technology, the Gov 2.0 Summit, federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra acknowledged that to achieve the transparency the Obama administration has promised there would need to be upgrades to many agencies' antiquated IT infrastructures. Delivering those upgrades on the other hand, may be a task that outlasts both Kundra and the administration. During his conversation with Sunlight Foundation Executive Director Ellen Miller, Kundra touted the administration's efforts to post government data online via sites like Data.gov and the IT Dashboard on USASpending.gov. However, when Miller pointed out that USASpending is often slow to deliver data, Kundra responded that agencies have been held back by their aging IT infrastructures. He argued that systems based on decades-old technology would be unable to handle the increased demand that would result from posting data online. Of course USASpending's troubles started well before Kundra began his job. The site still does not comply with the 2006 Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, which mandated its creation. Bush administration officials told Nextgov last year that the main barrier to posting contract data online was the uneven quality of data submitted by agencies and cultural resistance within agencies to openness.

Chopra: secretary of collaboration

Soon after Annesh Chopra became the nation's chief technology officer he promised to use his high-profile perch to advocate for health IT. Since then he has missed few opportunities to press his government and private sector audiences to seek out innovative ways to collaborate on new health services and applications. President Obama charged Chopra to concentrate on three priorities, and health IT fits in each: to help deliver on healthcare reform through game-changing innovation; collaborate with the private sector to build a reliable digital infrastructure; and push federal agencies to practice openness and innovation in their operations. To hit these marks, Chopra says he wants to tap the traditional levers of government -- what he calls the "gray areas" of research and development, procurement and grants -- as springboards for developing innovative healthcare technologies and applications.

The Ingenuity of the American People

On May 21, 2009 the Administration launched data.gov to drive transparency and innovation by making federal data easily accessible. This was immediately followed by the Apps for America contest, challenging the American people to develop innovative solutions using data.gov. The contest was run by the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan organization focused on "using the revolutionary power of the Internet to make information about Congress and the federal government more meaningfully accessible to citizens." Now Datamaster.org has won the Apps for America contest. Datamaster provides the public with a simple interface to mash up government datasets to analyze and visualize the data in innovative ways.Datamasher allows you to take two different public data sources and mash them up with an operator (+ - * /). Then you can share them with your friends and comment on the mashups of others. Some of the interesting mashups currently posted on the site: Political party contribution ratio, Most reproductive states, Federal spending by population, and People per US Representative.

Benton

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