Sept 4, 2009 (Framework for Universal Broadband)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for SEPTEMBER 4, 2009
Enjoy Labor Day weekend; Headlines will return Tuesday, Sept 8
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN/THE STIMULUS
House Panel Will Get Broadband Update
A Framework for Universal Broadband
Levin Says FCC's Broadband Plan Is Start of 'Dynamic Process'
A National Broadband Plan: The Social Entrepreneurship Model
FCC should look to thousands of stimulus applications to define broadband
FCC Focuses On Big-Picture Ideas At Broadband Workshop
Will Google or Cisco Determine Our Future Broadband Networks?
The Broadband Apps and Devices Workshop
Broadband Benchmarks
Vermont organizations file for over $130 million of broadband stimulus funds
The smart grid opportunity
Telstra Wants Role in Australia's National Broadband Network
MORE ON BROADBAND
Net Neutrality and the Law
US Broadband Growth Continues to Slow
Study On Flexible Pricing Assumes Broadband's Price Only Going Up
Virginia Sees Savings from Telework Day
WIRELESS
CTIA's Largent Outlines Policy Priorities
FCC Seeks Comment on Recommendations for the 2011 World Radiocommunication Conference
Wireless will be used to make electrical grid smart
TELECOM
FCC's Annual Telecom Industry Report
TELEVISION
The AT&T PEG fiasco
FCC Issues Reminders to TV Stations, Cable Operators
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Obama's health care message hard to control online
Fox unlikely to air president's speech
Bush Records Fully Digitized Later This Month
First responders should use service agreements for telecom equipment
JOURNALISM
Right Ebbs, Left Gains as Media 'Experts'
Kennedy's Death Drives Online Narrative
Memo to ABC: Ditch High-Priced Anchor and Hire Actual Reporters
A radical plan to save old media
DIGITAL CONTENT
Advocates: Google Books can bridge digital divide
FTC: Google Books Raises Privacy Fears
Recent Comments on:
Blair Levin: Spectrum Key to Internet Buildout
MORE ONLINE
Federal Government Needs Massive Hiring Binge
USocial Will Sell You Followers and Friends
Concern grows over emphasis on technology to push transparency
Court Rejects Challenge To Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN/THE STIMULUS
HOUSE PANEL WILL GET BROADBAND UPDATE
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
Officials from the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration and Agriculture Department's Rural Utilities Service are expected to give the House Commerce Committee an update on implementation of the $7.2 billion broadband stimulus program on Thursday September 10.
http://benton.org/node/27637
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A FRAMEWORK FOR UNIVERSAL BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Blair Levin]
Broadband provides lots of benefits to the economy and society, and the more widely available broadband is, the greater the benefits. But there are costs to universal deployment that may not be immediately recouped, such as the expense of laying fiber in rural areas, acquiring rights-of-way, or clearing spectrum for wireless broadband. And once a network is in place, low rates of adoption could delay enjoyment of the economic and societal gains. As government policies inherently affect both the revenues and the costs of broadband, part of the Federal Communications Commission's job, in thinking about a national broadband plan, is to explore whether those policies should be adjusted to increase the revenues and decrease the costs of inputs associated with broadband. Simple, right? Levin has worries, oh, he has worries every day. What if low adoption doesn't provide sufficient incentives to build out and upgrade wireline, cable and wireless networks? With the Universal Service Fund already strained, how do we fund deployment?
http://benton.org/node/27624
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LEVIN SAYS FCC'S BROADBAND PLAN IS START OF 'DYNAMIC PROCESS'
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Andrew Feinberg]
Federal Communications Commission broadband czar Blair Levin dismissed critics of the commission's process in creating a national broadband strategy and promised a steady push forward with clear goals in mind. There is no "secret plan," nor "multiple choice" option that the commission will choose from, Levin cautioned. "It doesn't work like that," he said. Complicating the problem is a lack of good data on broadband availability nationwide. The U.S.'s mapping data "doesn't add up" enough to be useful, he said. The workshops the commission has been conducting are to allow staff to take ownership of parts of the plan and narrow down action items on broader issues, Levin told the group. But the commission will be requesting more information through hearings and "more specific" public notices this fall, he said. The notices will be "very narrow - very focused," he said. "We have a very steep mountain to climb." The overall goal of the broadband plan is the start of a "dynamic process" including Congress and other agencies with the authority to implement the strategy, Levin said. The plan is a "mechanism to drive a dynamic process to improve the broadband ecosystem," he said. He added that the commission's report to Congress will only be the beginning of the process. The plan will not be "self-executing," he cautioned, since the job of the commission is to give options to decision-makers, and not to make any decisions itself.
http://benton.org/node/27639
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A NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN: THE SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP MODEL
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Bradford Bowman]
[Commentary] Using broadband infrastructure to promote jobs creation, workforce development and entrepreneurship education through the building of social entrepreneurship and asset-based community development modalities. By definition, Asset-Based Community Development (A-BCD) is a methodology that seeks to uncover and highlight the strengths within communities as a means for sustainable development. The basic tenet is that a capacities-focused approach is more likely to empower the community and therefore mobilize citizens to create positive and meaningful change from within. Instead of focusing on a community's needs, deficiencies and problems, the A-BCD approach helps them become stronger and more self-reliant by discovering, mapping and mobilizing this model using all their local assets. Few people realize how many assets any community has. Using this definition as the premise and incorporating into this model, the empowerment that our communities unknowingly maintain to create positive and meaningful change from within lies with technology. The layperson or average citizen does not realize that the assets needed to generate revenue that stays within their communities, and would support self-sustainability of these communities where we work and live, are literally right there under our noses.
http://benton.org/node/27623
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FCC SHOULD LOOK TO THOUSANDS OF STIMULUS APPLICATIONS TO DEFINE BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Lynnette Luna]
[Commentary] Out of the 2,200 applications asking for nearly $28 billion in broadband stimulus funds from the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) and Rural Utilities Service (RUS), how many do you expect will propose to offer 768 kbps downstream and 200 kbps upstream broadband? The Federal Communications Commission should root through the thousands of applications to find out exactly what applicants are proposing. They could get a good picture of what speeds are economically viable in some of the most hard-to-reach areas.
http://benton.org/node/27622
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FCC FOCUSES ON BIG-PICTURE IDEAS AT BROADBAND WORKSHOP
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Workshop on "Big Ideas" looked at how outside-the-box developments that could shape the future of broadband. They included the bifurcation of the Internet into a number of virtual private networks and the need for more research and development. David Clark, professor and senior research scientist at MIT's computer lab dominated much of the conversation in the first half of the workshop, which focused on those big ideas. He was even asked to sit in on the following panel -- on Internet TV -- by impressed FCC staffers. In fact, all of the first panels' participants got high marks from staffers. Daniel Weitzner, from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, suggested bolting the panelists to the floor and make them write the broadband plan. Clark argued that wireless would not become a substitute for wired broadband, saying it would wind up being some combination of both. Fluidity was the concept he drove home, about both the state of broadband and how the national plan should be structured. He said the goal was not a one-time objective but a continuing process, which meant sustainability, a concept cable operators have long said was key to any government proposals.
http://benton.org/node/27621
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WILL GOOGLE OR CISCO DETERMINE OUR FUTURE BROADBAND NETWORKS?
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
At a Federal Communications Commission broadband plan panel titled The Future of the Internet, researchers argued for a new Internet architecture built upon infrastructure currently used in large data centers that would be capable of adapting itself to deliver each individual application. Meanwhile, those associated with think tanks and the broadband industry argued that the most significant Internet-related innovation is already behind us and that we need to think about embedding more intelligence into the network we have. David Clark, professor at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and Taieb Znati, division director for the National Science Foundation, talking up the idea of virtualizing communications networks in order to create several networks optimized for delivering different types of applications. By the way, this focus on the ability to deliver a specific application vs. delivering a set speed is a sticky topic when it comes to defining broadband. Going
http://benton.org/node/27638
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THE BROADBAND APPS AND DEVICES WORKSHOP
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Peter Bowen, Shawn Hoy]
On August 27th the FCC helped moderate two workshops on technology, applications and devices, which provoked some fascinating discussions around the current and future state of broadband in America. The first workshop focused on the current state of the network, applications, and devices. The panelists represented a cross-section of network, applications, and devices backgrounds and covered a number of critical points. The first point from the panel was that defining broadband in a way that is sustainable and measurable is a non-trivial task. The second point the panel discussed was that the US is lagging far behind best-in-class countries (South Korea was mentioned most frequently) in terms of performance of and access to the Internet. Finally, the panel also discussed the impact of US policy on innovation. The panelists agreed that policy (ranging from spectrum policy to telco consolidation) has had and will continue to have a significant impact on innovation, both in the telecom and network spaces. The day's second workshop included a group more heavily representing equipment and network providers. The group focused on several topics, including the debate of "What is broadband 'success' for the US?" An interesting segment of this debate centered on the question of what was more important to our 'success' is it more important to increase adoption among those who are served but don't buy broadband, or is it more important to increase the quality of current users' experience. The panel also discussed the importance of basic broadband as a gateway to better broadband for the user the premise is that once a user experiences even a modest broadband connection (and one that doesn't incur per-use charges or tie up the phone line) they will trade up to a higher speed. A final discussion for the second panel was around the short-term and long-term path of innovation and utilization, and implicitly around the "social value" of certain activities.
http://benton.org/node/27620
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BROADBAND BENCHMARKS
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Christopher Naoum]
The September 2nd Federal Communications Commission National Broadband Plan workshop featured a panel of academics, policy directors and telecom executives that came together to discuss the role of metrics and benchmarks for evaluating the various dimensions of broadband across geographic areas and across time. The Benchmarks considered included variables such as broadband deployment and adoption, affordability and prices, quality of broadband services and levels of competition.
http://www.benton.org/node/27600
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VERMONT ORGANIZATIONS FILE FOR OVER $130 MILLION OF BROADBAND STIMULUS FUNDS
[SOURCE: Vermont Economic Development Authority, AUTHOR: ]
Five Vermont organizations have applied for over $130 million of stimulus grants and loans for last mile broadband projects that could, in the aggregate, reduce the number of Vermont households without available high speed Internet to less than 5% of the total. Technologies proposed by the various applicants include fiber to the home, DSL, and wireless. In addition the Vermont Council for Rural Development has requested $2.5 million for a sustainable broadband adoption program to help assure that Vermonters in 24 pilot communities have the equipment, training, and motivation to use broadband. The Vermont Center for Geographic Information has applied for a $1.96 million grant to continue and extend Vermont's broadband mapping effort. The Department of Libraries has applied for 80% stimulus funding of $754,000 for a public computing center project to assure that computers are available in selected libraries for those who do not yet have equipment or broadband connections available at home.
http://benton.org/node/27618
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THE SMART GRID OPPORTUNITY
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Teresa Mastrangelo]
The smart grid may just become the next big opportunity for providers of both telecom services and equipment — the questions are when and how much. According to Cisco Systems, when it announced its plans to offer smart grid solutions, the smart grid communications infrastructure market is expected to generate as much as $20 billion per year by 2013 — a sizeable sum that could benefit many providers of telecom solutions.Why? Because a high-speed, highly-secure, two-way, IP-based, fully integrated communications architecture that addresses the backbone, metro and last mile (also referred to as spur) segments of the network is key to the smart grid. It is this network that enables real-time information and control, to allow every part of the grid to both "talk" and "listen" from the substation to — and into — the customer premises.
http://benton.org/node/27612
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TELSTRA WANTS ROLE IN AUSTRALIA'S NATIONAL BROADBAND NETWORK
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Georgina Prodhan]
David Thodey, CEO of Telstra, Australia's biggest phone company, says the company is having "productive" and "professional" talks with the Australian government on its potential role in the building of a nationwide super-fast broadband network. The company does not yet know what part it would play in the government's planned new $36 billion) network. The project is expected to take several years to complete.
http://benton.org/node/27617
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MORE ON BROADBAND
NET NEUTRALITY AND THE LAW
[SOURCE: Open Video Alliance, AUTHOR: ]
A Q&A with Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott. He defines network neutrality as "something that you take for granted every time you go online. When you're surfing the web and you're moving from website to website, whether it's your Facebook page or cnn.com or Amazon, you're pretty much in control of your Internet experience. You can go wherever you want, you can read anything you want, you can watch anything you want, you can hear anything you want, and everyone who is offering content on the Internet for you to find is treated the same by the network operator. The phone companies and cable companies that give you access to the Internet through their wires have nothing to say about what you do, content-wise, on the Internet. That concept is known as network neutrality, and it was built into the engineering when the Internet was created. That was the whole idea behind the Internet. That's net neutrality."
http://benton.org/node/27635
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US BROADBAND GROWTH CONTINUES TO SLOW
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Om Malik]
[Commentary] The number of new broadband subscribers continues to slow in the US, according to data gathered by UBS Research, driven primarily by market saturation. The Wall Street firm estimates that there are 67 million broadband subscribers in the US, or roughly 60 percent of the nation's households and about 70 percent of those with a PC. The number of net new broadband subscribers during the first half of 2009 was down 27 percent from the first half of 2008, to about 2.1 million. UBS Research expects this downward trajectory to continue. Broadband subscription providers need to counter the slowing growth by offering higher-speed (both up and downstream) subscription packages that command higher monthly fees. Instead, some backward-looking cable operators such as Time Warner Cable are looking to impose bandwidth metering to protect their revenues.
http://benton.org/node/27636
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STUDY ON FLEXIBLE PRICING ASSUMES BROADBAND'S PRICE ONLY GOING UP
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] A recently released study's central thesis is that by spreading the costs of network upgrades equally among all users we risk suppressing broadband adoption by raising prices for everyone, whereas if providers can charge more of those who use more we can keep broadband prices for others lower, which should help to bridge the digital divide since cost is the primary reason those who aren't online today don't subscribe to broadband. But the researchers assumed that flexible broadband pricing would only result in more expensive tiers of service being introduced but not any less expensive tiers. It implies that market dynamics alone aren't sufficient to keep prices down. In a truly competitive market a provider would not necessarily be able to raise their rates as it would have to take into consideration what their competitors are doing. Another dangerous assumption of this report is that all operators are investing heavily in their networks and therefore need to be able to charge their customers more to recoup that money. While some operators are investing heavily, many others are not, either because they can't, aren't willing to, or their investments don't cost all that much to make.
http://benton.org/node/27616
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VIRGINIA SEES SAVINGS FROM TELEWORK DAY
[SOURCE: Commonwealth of Virginia, AUTHOR: Press release]
Governor Timothy Kaine announced that Virginia teleworkers saved approximately $113,000, avoided driving 140,000 miles and removed 75.89 tons of pollutants from the air through participation in Telework Day on August 3, 2009. A report compiled by the public-private partnership Telework Exchange also reveals an increase in productivity by participants and reports satisfaction with their teleworking experience. 2,286 federal and private sector employees as well as 1,765 state employees participated in Telework Day in Virginia, for a total of 4,051 participants statewide. Eighty-one percent of participating state employees said they had teleworked before, compared to 78 percent of respondents nationwide, showing that Virginia's efforts to promote teleworking in state government have been successful. The report illustrates the potential impact of teleworking on employees' budgets and productivity, as well as the environment. If all eligible employees teleworked one day per week for a year, teleworkers in the Commonwealth would collectively avoid driving 602 million miles, remove 360,800 tons of pollutants from the air, and save $807 million in commuting costs. Over the course of a year this would equal a $1,822 annual raise for every teleworker in Virginia, and save 46 hours a year in commuting. A survey of Virginia's teleworkers also showed that 69 percent felt they accomplished more than a typical day at the office and 91 percent said that they would be more likely to telework again as a result of their experience. Seventy-eight percent of respondents reported no difficulties in performing their duties on Telework Day.
http://benton.org/node/27615
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WIRELESS
CTIA'S LARGENT OUTLINES POLICY PRIORITIES
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
CTIA President Steve Largent says the lobbying organization will use the Federal Communications Commission's recently announced notices of inquiry on innovation and competition in the mobile marketplace to share his industry's success story. Congress and smaller telecom firms have asked the FCC to investigate whether firms like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Nextel are unfairly dominating the space. Largent points out that wireless prices continue to fall; 95 percent of U.S. consumers have a choice of three or more carriers; consumer satisfaction is up and complaints are down. CTIA is lobbying hard for regulators to make available more spectrum.
http://benton.org/node/27614
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FCC SEEKS COMMENT ON RECOMMENDATIONS FOR WRC 2011
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
On September 1, 2009, the World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee (WRC-11 Advisory Committee) approved and provided for Federal Communications Commission consideration its recommendations on a number of issues that will be considered by the 2011 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-11). The FCC's International Bureau has tentatively concluded the FCC can support the recommendations and is now seeking comment on the recommendations. The comments provided by interested parties will assist the FCC in its upcoming consultations with the U.S. Department of State and National Telecommunications and Information Administration in the development of U.S. positions for WRC-11. The deadline for comments on the proposed preliminary views is September 25, 2009.
http://benton.org/node/27610
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WIRELESS WILL BE USED TO MAKE ELECTRICAL GRID SMART
[SOURCE: RCR Wireless News, AUTHOR: Tracy Ford]
Wireless technology will be used to help utility grids become smarter as the technology can help better manage in the delivery of electricity in real time in a more efficient manner. But how great a role wireless plays in the evolving smart grid has yet to be determined. The smart grid system is something that will take decades to achieve, but real progress is under way. In order for this vision to develop, billing systems and other items that touch the grid will need to be implemented.
http://benton.org/node/27605
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TELECOM
FCC'S ANNUAL TELECOM INDUSTRY REPORT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The Federal Communications Commission released its annual report providing a general overview of revenues in the US telecommunications industry. According to the report, the industry in 2007 reported $299 billion in revenues - a small increase from 2006's $297 billion. The report also shows dramatic shifts in the way universal service support is funded, reflecting the changing level of revenues reported by various sectors of the industry over the past decade. Other findings include: Wireless industry revenues grew 5% during 2007, from $115 billion to $121 billion. Total toll service revenues increased during 2007 - from $64 billion to $65 billion. Telecommunications revenues for incumbent local exchange carriers decreased to $94 billion in 2007, down from $100 billion in 2006. Incumbent local exchange carriers reported that $90 billion of the $94 billion total was for providing fixed local exchange services. Non-incumbent local exchange carriers reported $23 billion of fixed local exchange service revenue for 2007. This represented a 5% growth from the 2006 total.
http://benton.org/node/27611
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TELEVISION
THE AT&T PEG FIASCO
[SOURCE: CEDMagazine.com, AUTHOR: Jeffrey Krauss]
[Commentary] Stupid design blunders have resulted in tremendous user dissatisfaction in the way U-verse digital public, education and government (PEG) services are being delivered. These blunders, coupled with another controversy involving digital PEG channels, could seriously impact the cable industry. The problems led to two FCC complaints from the city of Lansing (MI) and from an alliance of community programming groups. But the FCC, rather than dealing separately with the limitations of AT&T U-verse technology, combined them into the same docket as another dispute, a lawsuit to stop a cable operator (Comcast, in this case) from digitally encoding PEG channels to free up 6 MHz analog channel spectrum. This is a very important issue for the cable industry. It's too bad the FCC combined the relatively straightforward Comcast controversy with the complete mess created by AT&T and Microsoft. But perhaps it is understandable, because both controversies deal with the scope of Section 623(b)(7) of the Communications Act, which says that PEG channels must be carried on the basic tier. That federal law only applies to cable operators if they are rate-regulated and not yet subject to effective competition. But the complainants want that limitation to be swept away. They want an FCC rule saying how cable systems must carry PEG channels, even when subject to effective competition. And they want broad new non-discrimination rules, requiring analog delivery of PEG channels so long as any analog channels are carried, in spite of the efficiencies of digital technology. In summary, the goal of the complainants in both of these cases is to get the FCC to enact broad new federal requirements for PEG channels affecting all cable operators. That won't happen, but AT&T and Microsoft deserve at least a spanking and an admonition to get their house in order. Meanwhile, cable industry lawyers have to deal with more than 6,000 comments in the docket, most of them identical form letters, saying "AT&T and Comcast have been illegally discriminating against PEG channels." The community programming advocates sure know how to crank up a letter-writing campaign, but suing the cable company to stop the conversion of PEG channels to digital is as ridiculous as suing a dry cleaner for $50 million for losing a pair of pants.
http://benton.org/node/27606
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FCC ISSUES REMINDERS TO TV STATIONS, CABLE OPERATORS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission issued two public reminders Thursday to TV stations and cable operators, one of an upcoming deadline and the other of an ongoing obligation. The FCC reminded them in one public notice that all nonexempt Spanish-language video has to be closed captioned as of Jan. 1, 2010. In another, it cited the Southern California fires and the current hurricane season as reason to remind program distributors, again including cable and broadcast, of their obligation to make emergency information accessible to the vision- and hearing-impaired.
http://benton.org/node/27628
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE MESSAGE HARD TO CONTROL ONLINE
[SOURCE: CNN, AUTHOR: John Sutter]
As the country's messy debate about health care reform continues, some online observers are starting to wonder if President Barack Obama has lost his grip on Internet discourse. They're also wondering if it's possible for any one person -- no matter how powerful -- to control public dialogue on a medium like the Internet, where conversations are driven by millions of users instead of TV pundits and heads of state.
http://benton.org/node/27603
See Also: Healthcare debate gives Internet advertising a huge shot in the arm
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FOX UNLIKELY TO AIR PRESIDENT'S SPEECH
[SOURCE: Hollywood Reporter, AUTHOR: Nellie Andreeva]
None of the Big Four broadcast networks have indicated that they will air President Barack Obama's address to Congress on health care. Among other things, the nets have been waiting to hear when the address will start, with sources indicating Thursday night that the White House was leaning toward 8 p.m. After a brief honeymoon after Obama's January inauguration, the broadcast networks have become increasingly frustrated by the frequency of his requests for primetime coverage. The pre-emptions wreak havoc on the networks' schedules and cost millions of dollars in lost ad revenue. Regardless of the White House's final start-time decision, Fox is expected to sit out the Obama speech again, referring its viewers to sister cable channel Fox News.
http://benton.org/node/27631
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BUSH RECORDS FULLY DIGITIZED LATER THIS MONTH
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
The National Archives is well on its way to loading the electronic records of President George W. Bush into its digitized collection. To date, more than 85 percent of the total volume has been ingested. The incorporation of Bush administration records is the second stage of five increments planned for the electronic records archives. The Presidential Records Act gives the Archives legal custody of the records and the task of responding to special access requirements at the end of an administration. The project should be complete by late September. Presidential records become subject to Freedom of Information Act requests five years after the end of an administration.
http://benton.org/node/27613
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FIRST RESPONDERS SHOULD USE SERVICE AGREEMENTS FOR TELECOM EQUIPMENT
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Jill Aitoro]
First response and law enforcement organizations should consider establishing service agreements with telecommunications providers that would allow them to quickly upgrade the handheld radios they use during emergencies, said former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff during a panel discussion on Thursday. Typically, law enforcement agents and first responders, including firefighters and emergency medical technicians, buy new radios when existing equipment becomes obsolete, according to the former secretary in the Bush administration. The practice leads to officials who respond to emergencies using outdated equipment that cannot communicate with other emergency response systems.
http://benton.org/node/27607
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JOURNALISM
RIGHT EBBS, LEFT GAINS AS MEDIA 'EXPERTS'
[SOURCE: Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, AUTHOR: Michael Dolny]
Progressive think tanks gained in media prominence over 2008, despite overall think tank citations declining for the fourth year in a row. The 25 most-cited think tanks in major U.S. media received 13,149 citations in 2008, a 6 percent decline from 2007 levels. The decline primarily hit conservative or right-leaning think tanks, whose share of citations in corporate media fell from 36 percent to 31 percent in 2008 , while progressive or left-leaning think tanks--the only group to actually see an increase in their total citations--went from 17 percent to 21 percent. Centrist think tanks saw little change, still beating both ends of the spectrum with 48 percent of total citations, versus 47 percent in 2007. The overall decline in think tank citations, now in its fourth year, is quite likely simply a reflection of the changing media landscape. As noted last year, the decrease in citations primarily comes from newspapers, not television; as newspapers fold and those that survive shrink their newshole, the overall news output by the outlets surveyed is decreasing. National and international news--the areas national think tanks would most likely be quoted on--are shrinking the fastest of all.
http://benton.org/node/27604
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KENNEDY'S DEATH DRIVES ONLINE NARRATIVE
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
The blogosphere last week was even more devoted to the death of Senator Ted Kennedy than the mainstream press. And in a sign that social media is not all twenty-somethings whose political memory dates back only to the mid-90s, the posts were filled with personal tributes and remembrances-from both sides of the ideological spectrum. The death of the long-time senator received 38.7% of the links in blogs, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. This outpaced the 27% of the mainstream media newshole devoted to Kennedy, according to PEJ'S News Coverage Index, and made it the biggest weekly story in blogs since the Iranian elections the week of June 15th-19th.
http://benton.org/node/27608
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MEMO TO ABC: DITCH HIGH-PRICED ANCHOR AND HIRE ACTUAL REPORTERS
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Jack Shafer]
[Commentary] The nightly news broadcasts produced by CBS, NBC, and ABC may have become irrelevant to smart news consumers, yet the nation's dailies continue to pretend it matters who anchors the broadcasts. As the network news audience has dwindled over the past three decades, broadcasters have reconfigured the shows as "infotainment" to boost ratings, aping the dreadful local news that they once disdained, says George Washington University media professor Mark Feldstein. "The journalistic value of these programs is marginal at this point," says Feldstein, and the appointment viewing of tuning in to the nightly news at 6:30 or 7 p.m. is a "relic of the past." If the nightly programs add so little to our news diet and attract so few viewers, then why do they still air? Because they are very profitable. According to a 2007 Philadelphia Inquirer piece by Gail Shister, ABC News was paying Charlie Gibson an estimated $8 million to anchor World News. Whatever they're paying Sawyer to replace him, it's too much. My advice to Sawyer is this: If you really want to improve World News, if you really want to make an indelible mark on journalism, turn down the job and persuade ABC News to divert the millions it ordinarily pays its anchor and spend it on 50 or 80 additional reporters to break stories.
http://benton.org/node/27630
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A RADICAL PLAN TO SAVE OLD MEDIA
[SOURCE: Newsweek, AUTHOR: Daniel Lyons]
[Commentary] Since the dawn of the Internet, news organizations have accepted the notion that the only way to survive the onslaught of the Web is to publish everything online, at no cost to readers, and let anyone in the world synopsize it, refer to it, and copy and link to it. You can't charge for your work—that's rule No. 1 on the Internet. And you can't block others from copying or linking to it—that's rule No. 2. But those rules are starting to look stupid. All the media companies that follow them are going broke, so now they're casting about for a new business model. Some are talking about making readers pay subscription fees. But the most radical idea, and the one I find most intriguing, is being advanced by Mark Cuban, a billionaire Internet entrepreneur. Cuban's advice: declare war on the "aggregator" Web sites that get a free ride on content. These aggregators—sites like Drudge Report, Newser, and countless others—don't create much original material. They mostly just synopsize stuff from mainstream newspapers and magazines, and provide a link to the original.
http://benton.org/node/27629
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DIGITAL CONTENT
ADVOCATES: GOOGLE BOOKS CAN BRIDGE DIGITAL DIVIDE
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Tom Krazit]
A coalition of civil-rights and disability groups in favor of Google's book-scanning project held a press conference Thursday to marshal support for improving access to knowledge, the key benefit of Google's deal with authors and publishers to create a new kind of digital library. They fear that a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain digital access to knowledge previously stored in libraries at expensive universities or rich communities could be hampered by the opposition to the settlement from some authors and privacy advocates. Blind people, for example, have access to a special library run by the Library of Congress that converts print books into formats readable by the visually impaired, but that library--in existence since 1931--only has 70,000 texts, said Chris Danielsen, director of public relations for the National Federation of the Blind. If the settlement is approved in October, it will give "print-disabled" people "access to more books than we have ever had in human history," he said. Providing digital access to literature and textbooks would allow libraries at all schools to simply maintain PCs, rather than having to devote resources toward acquiring and maintaining books, several supporters argued. Many communities in poorer parts of the country don't have the resources to maintain libraries competitive with those in richer communities, and lack of access to knowledge makes it harder for students in those communities to learn, according to Wade Henderson of the Leadership Council on Civil Rights.
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FTC: GOOGLE BOOKS RAISES PRIVACY FEARS
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz on Thursday expressed concern about Google's plan to digitize mass quantities of books, saying it "raises serious privacy challenges because of the vast amount of user information that could be collected." He said he was pleased that Google is taking steps to protect the privacy of Google Books users and noted that the Commission will have an ongoing dialogue with Google and others to ensure consumer privacy is protected when new technologies emerge. "As Google Books evolves we'll work to ensure that the privacy of online readers is fact, not fiction," he said.
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