January 2010

Debate confronts Idaho Public Television's value

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter's proposed cuts to Idaho Public Television are just the latest in a long and sometimes stormy relationship between the Statehouse and state-owned public TV. His hope to wean IPTV from state general tax dollars over four years is challenging lawmakers to tackle questions that have simmered for years. How valuable to Idahoans is a service like IPTV's "Idaho Legislature Live" - the only way people around the state can see complete coverage of the Legislature? How important are locally generated shows, like "Outdoor Idaho," "Dialogue," and the popular kids science show "D4K"? And at the core of it all: Should the state even be in the business of owning and funding a public television station? For some Idahoans, like Weiser resident Taro Stahl, the issue comes down to money - and the state no longer has enough.

Is Hillary Clinton launching a cyber Cold War?

[Commentary] Some reflections on Secretary of State Clinton's Internet Freedom address:

1) She managed to work in a lot of Cold war rhetoric.

2) There was very little about the evolving nature of Internet control (e.g. that controlling the Internet now includes many other activities -- propaganda, DDoS attacks, physical intimidation of selected critics/activists).

3) Sec Clinton was too soft on Chinese leaders, essentially granting them the right to censor whatever they'd like simply because they have "different views."

4) The U.S. government really needs to develop and then adopt a more coherent view on the ethics of cyberwarfare; otherwise, the U.S. State Dept will be accused of duplicity. We can't be tolerating cyberattacks in one context and criticizing them in another context.

5) Kudos for pointing out that authoritarian states are also avid consumers of new technologies, which they use to repress and identity dissent -- but she could have developed this idea much further, pointing out numerous fallacies in how we think about the liberating potential of information.

6) The speech made it obvious that State Department officials do not have a coherent view on online anonymity.

7) Sec Clinton also didn't mention the most obvious reform the State Department can push forward: making it easier for American tech companies to operate in authoritarian countries that currently have U.S. trade sanctions imposed on them.

8) The speech lacked any coherent intellectual vision underpinning the State Department's digital strategy.

China steps up defense of Internet controls

China widened its attack against U.S. criticisms of Internet censorship on Monday, raising the stakes in a dispute that has put Google in the middle of a political quarrel between the two global powers.

China has defended its curbs on the Internet nearly two weeks after the world's biggest search engine provider, Google Inc., threatened to shut down its Chinese Google.cn site after a severe hacking attack from within China. The dispute could narrow room for Beijing and Washington to back down quietly and focus on other disputes such as trade, currency, human rights and U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan. "The more this case takes on high-level political import for the Chinese government, the more likely it is to stick to its guns," said David Wolf, president of Wolf Group Asia, an advisory firm covering Chinese media and telecommunications. "The Chinese government can't be seen as backing down on such a fundamental issue," said Wolf.

Separately, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on Monday said the Internet needs to thrive in China as an engine of free speech and described official online censorship by Beijing as "very limited."

Justice Approves Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger with Conditions

The Department of Justice announced that it will require Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. to license its ticketing software, divest ticketing assets and subject itself to anti-retaliation provisions in order to proceed with its proposed merger with Live Nation Inc.

The department said that the proposed settlement will protect competition for primary ticketing, which will in turn maintain incentives for innovation and discounting. The department said that the merger, as originally proposed, would have substantially lessened competition for primary ticketing in the United States, resulting in higher prices and less innovation for consumers.

The Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, along with 17 state attorneys general, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to block the proposed transaction. At the same time, the department and the states' Attorneys General filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive concerns in the lawsuit. The state attorneys general offices are: Arizona; Arkansas; California; Florida; Illinois; Iowa; Louisiana; Massachusetts; Nebraska; Nevada; Ohio; Oregon; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; Tennessee; Texas; and Wisconsin. Under the proposed settlement, Ticketmaster must license ticket software and divest ticketing assets to two different companies--Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and either Comcast-Spectacor or another buyer suitable to the department, respectively--allowing both companies to compete head-to-head with Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster will also subject itself to court-ordered restrictions on its behavior.

As part of the proposed settlement, Ticketmaster must license a copy of its primary ticketing software to AEG, the nation's second-largest concert promoter and operator of some of the most important concert venues in the country. With a copy of the Ticketmaster software, AEG will be able to market a ticketing system that is an attractive choice to venues. AEG will have incentives similar to Live Nation to provide better services at lower prices. Within five years, AEG can purchase the Ticketmaster ticketing software, decide to create its own software, or partner with a ticketing company other than Ticketmaster. The department said that this remedy enhances short and long term competition in the primary ticketing market.
Ticketmaster must divest Paciolan Inc., a ticketing company that it currently owns, within 60 days to either Comcast-Spectacor, which has already signed a letter of intent to purchase the assets, or some other buyer suitable to the department. Comcast-Spectacor is a sports and entertainment company with management relationships with a number of concert venues and ticketing experience with its New Era Tickets company. Paciolan is used by hundreds of venues to sell tickets including major concert venues around the country. Venues that contract with Paciolan have greater flexibility to lower the ticket service fees that are charged to consumers who buy tickets. The department said that divesting Paciolan to Comcast-Spectacor, or another suitable buyer, in conjunction with the AEG license, will replace the competitive pressure on Ticketmaster lost as a result of the merger.

Under the settlement, the merged firm will be forbidden from retaliating against any venue owner that chooses to use another company's ticketing services or another company's promotional services, including restrictions on anticompetitive bundling. The merged firm must also allow any client that leaves and chooses to use another primary ticketing service to take a copy of the ticketing data related to that client's sales. The settlement also sets up firewalls that protect confidential and valuable competitor data by preventing the merged firm from using information gleaned from its ticketing business in its day-to-day operations of its promotions or artist management business. Additionally, the merged firm must provide notice of any other acquisitions of a ticketing company so that the department may investigate the competitive effect of such an acquisition.

FCC Commissioner Clyburn at OPASTCO

Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn is in San Diego and, speaking before the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunication Companies, addressed rural telecommunications policy on Monday.

Commissioner Clyburn has been appointed to chair the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service. She said her "passion" is to ensure that broadband is truly accessible -- and far more than simply "available" -- to all US consumers.

She said she believes the Universal Service Fund must be recalibrated to support both voice and broadband services at comparable rates to urban and suburban areas. She offered some steps to achieving this:

1) the FCC establishes a Broadband Fund to support the availability and affordability of high-speed Internet;

2) companies currently receiving support from the legacy high-cost programs in the Universal Service Fund should be encouraged to transition to the Broadband Fund;

3) low-income consumers should be allowed to connect to broadband through the Lifeline program;

4) the intercarrier compensation system must also be reformed, harmonizing interstate and intrastate interconnection rates, and those rates should be just and reasonable and reflect the actual costs to use the networks; and

5) there must also be a focus on broadband adoption, convincing consumers that it is important for them to be connected to broadband.

Covering Haiti, At a Cost

Days after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the meter is still running for news organizations that have flooded the region with personnel.

The bill for Haiti is expected to come to approximately $1.5 million for each broadcast network, say current and former television news executives. "It's an enormous investment," says one network news executive who didn't want to divulge costs on the record. Most of that will have been spent on charter flights and satellite costs. And while the tragedy has consumed headlines and galvanized charitable giving, it also comes amidst across-the-board belt-tightening for a media industry grappling with realities of a continuing recession. "I'm certainly cognizant of the world we live in these days," says Kate O'Brian, senior VP of news at ABC News. "This story has not had any more or less attention in terms of finances than any other. It has come into play on every single story I have covered. At some point, someone wants to know how much it's going to cost." The bulk of the costs are spent on getting crews in and out of Port-au-Prince, which still has no commercial air traffic. On the first day alone, NBC chartered five aircraft—four planes and one helicopter. A round-trip charter flight between New York and Port-au-Prince can easily climb to more than $50,000.

GSA official: Government transparency still faces hurdles

Government transparency is a work in progress for federal agencies, a top official told a group of public and private sector executives in Washington last week.

"This is about a series of steps we have to go through in order to do it well," said David McClure, associate administrator of the Office of Citizen Services and Communications at the General Services Administration, outlining challenges to open government during an Association for Federal Information Resources Management event in Washington last Thursday, a day before the Obama administration's first deadline requiring agencies to post government data online. "It's going to be an evolutionary process." In December 2009, the Office of Management and Budget directed agencies to publish by Jan. 22 at least three new downloadable sets of statistics that hold the government accountable, illuminate its work, share financial opportunities with the public or meet some other need citizens convey. McClure, who has worked at the Government Accountability Office and Gartner, an IT research and advisory firm, elicited a few chuckles when he said, "I believe panic has set in, in how deadlines are announced." In the months ahead, agencies must find ways to improve the quality of federal data and present it clearly and concisely to the public. The government also must work to foster a "two-way dialogue" with the public, McClure said.

A call for critical thinking about securing our electric grid

The electric power grid has emerged as one of the most critical elements of our nation's critical infrastructure, and efforts to create an interoperable Smart Grid with two-way communications and power flow are highlighting the need for security.

However, there also is a need for more critical thinking about the grid's vulnerability, according to at least one expert. It might not be as fragile as it appears. Terry Michalske, director of energy and security systems at Sandia National Laboratories, expressed the conventional wisdom at a recent conference on cybersecurity policy hosted in Washington by the Stevens Institute of Technology. "There is probably no better way to cut the legs out from under a modern society than by interrupting the power grid," Michalske said. As an example, he noted that Hurricane Rita, in 2005, shut down 20 percent of the nation's oil refining capability -- not by damaging the refineries, but by causing widespread power outages. Martin Libicki of the Rand Corp. agreed on the grid's significance. "It's fairly clear that the electric power sector would be a most critical target for attackers," he said. But Libicki, the author of "Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar," added that "the power sector may be a tough nut to crack," for four reasons.

Data-driven health care: Will doctors buy in?

Despite $17 billion in incentives for adopting electronic health records, many physicians remain unconvinced that better care will be the payoff. Although technology and innovation have transformed medicine and pharmacology in the past 20 years, doctors remain late adopters of tools such as e-mail and digital records. Many are not convinced that data collection always leads to better care or that the federal government can help them do their jobs better by requiring collection and analysis of their patient data.

Health IT Work Groups Prepare To Fine-Tune 'Meaningful Use' Rules

Federal health IT committees are scheduling a slew of work group meetings to hammer out final regulations on the "meaningful use" of electronic health records. Federal officials recently published two proposed rules describing how health care providers can demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHRs to qualify for incentive payments under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package.

Benton

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