January 2010

What the iPad Tells Us About Mobile Broadband Pricing

No matter what you think of the newly launched Apple iPad, it confirms a shift in the way mobile broadband services are priced, albeit a subtle one.

AT&T thinks the iPad data pricing continues a pattern of pricing mobile broadband based on the device. Much like prices are different for data via a data card or dongle based on the expected usage pattern, the data plan on the iPad is less because AT&T hopes a "substantial" amount of the web surfing will occur over the Wi-Fi network. If it turns out that isn't the case, then AT&T will re-evaluate the pricing plans. AT&T does expect the iPad data consumption to fall somewhere between that of an iPhone and a laptop. Plus the fact that AT&T isn't subsidizing the iPad — and doesn't have subscriber billing and other costs associated with it — means the carrier isn't terribly concerned about the iPad's effect on its margins.

Can You Crowdsource Journalism? Seed Is Trying

In what he hopes will be the first big demonstration of the "crowdsourcing" potential of AOL's new Seed.com service, former New York Times writer Saul Hansell says he is looking for writers who will write up interviews with all of 2,000 or so bands and artists at the SXSW music festival in Austin.

The assignment will involve "real reporting," Hansell said in an interview, in which writers will have to pick up the phone and call the band or artist and write up a 1,000-word interview in question-and-answer format, as well as a 300- to 500-word biography. The price for this assignment? The princely sum of $50.

Both Seed and similar web-based contract-writing services from Demand Media and Associated Content have come under fire from a number of critics who say they are primarily designed to generate low-quality, cheap content that contains just enough keywords to attract search engine traffic, and therefore advertising.

Hansell, however, who joined AOL in December as head of programming at Seed, says that what he is trying to do is to figure out how to "deploy human intelligence at scale," and that it is much more than just an effort to generate "the lowest-common denominator of SEO-friendly pages."

How the iPad Helps Mobile Ad Firms -- and Hurts Traditional Online Advertisers

Mobile marketers are wasting no time trying to cash in on the iPad hype. The early moves indicate that the iPad will be a battleground between the pure-play mobile advertisers and traditional Internet ad firms. And the lack of Flash support on the iPad tilts the field heavily in favor of the mobile guys.

It's an easy move for mobile advertising firms to embrace the iPad. The tablet runs the familiar Safari browser and will support all those iPhone apps that have fueled recent growth in the mobile ad space, and which — if recent online trends are any indication — is poised for huge growth. And wireless ad firms are salivating over the iPad's knockout 9.7-inch touchscreen, which will help marketers make their pitches in more effective ways without crowding out the content that users are looking for in the first place — a feature that mobile phones can't hope to achieve. So the mobile guys can easily take advantage of the iPad, but what about the traditional online advertising firms that already have relationships with the big media companies that want to be on the iPad? After all, the device looks to be a great platform for accessing news and other online content from traditional media outlets, which depend largely on Internet advertising dollars.

The traditional online ad players aren't going to want to give that up. But most of the online ads supporting the likes of the New York Times or Conde Naste magazines — or most other ad-supported sites, for that matter — are rendered in Flash. So advertisers that want to sell next to Thomas Friedman or in The New Yorker have a few choices: they can invest heavily to rebuild those ads to strip out Flash and make them iPad-friendly, they can lean on the ad-serving platform Apple acquired when it picked up Quattro Wireless, or they can do business with one of the countless smaller players in mobile advertising that deliver ads to the iPhone and other handsets.

NIST project to evaluate health IT ease-of-use

The Commerce Department's National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) said it wants to develop standards to help evaluate the ease-of-use of health IT systems.

In a notice on a federal contracting web site, NIST announced it was looking for companies that could create a "usability framework" for health IT systems. The job would require , "development, refinement and harmonization of HIT usability standards and certification processes." Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, NIST was given a role to help the Office of the National Coordinator build a testing infrastructure for EHR systems to ensure interoperability and security. The institute might also be given a role in the certification of such systems. Among the services sought in the contract, NIST wants a firm that can delve into "human factors analysis" and "cognitive task analysis," ways of analyzing how people react to software instructions.

Nearly 1/2 Of Smartphone Users Never Buy An App

Consumers may have downloaded upwards of three billion Apps for their smartphones, but there is a limit to what they will pay.

According to a survey of 400 smartphone users conducted by Asknet, nearly half of the respondents (45%) said they had never bought an application or software for their smartphones (34% said they hadn't done so because it "wasn't worth the time or the effort"). Of those who did purchase apps, 87% of them said they spent less than $50 in a year on them, while only 4% said they spent more than $100. Of those who bought apps for their phones, 61% bought music, while 41% bought games, 35% bought ringtones, 33% bought news, 29% bought GPS/location-based software and 27% bought business applications within the past year. However, when asked what they would like to buy more of, 63% said music, while 51% said business applications, 48% said GPS/location services and 37% said games. Meanwhile, more than a third of the survey respondents (38%) said they were frustrated with the cost of certain applications. At the same time, 29% said they were uncomfortable entering their credit card details to purchase them.

Flash Of Criticism At FTC Privacy Roundtable

Behavioral targeting companies had better call their lawyers. Federal Trade Commission consumer protection head David Vladeck warned on Thursday (Jan 28) that the FTC is getting ready to go after online ad companies that try to get around consumers' decisions to avoid online ad targeting.

"We are currently examining practices that undermine the tools that consumers can use to opt out of behavioral advertising," Vladeck said at the FTC's roundtable on privacy. "We hope to announce law enforcement actions later this year," he added. Vladeck didn't elaborate, so it's not yet clear which companies are in the FTC's crosshairs. But one possibility is that he was referring to companies that use Flash cookies to circumvent users' wishes -- something that Vladeck and Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour have previously criticized. In fact, Flash was a big focus at the first FTC panel discussion this morning. Berkeley Law's Chris Hoofnagle mentioned that some companies had boasted that Flash cookies can be used for behavioral targeting because most consumers don't know enough to delete such cookies -- stored in a different place than traditional HTTP cookies.

Facebook, Google, LinkedIn want FTC privacy safeguards

Facebook, Google and LinkedIn say they want the Federal Trade Commission to take a more active role in policing companies and advertisers that abuse consumers' personal information.

But they are concerned that heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all legislation of the online advertising industry could cut off business opportunities and limit consumer interaction on the Internet. The three firms spoke at privacy workshop held by the FTC in Berkeley today, the second such workshop the agency has held on the topic. It comes as Internet firms are becoming increasingly worried about legislation being drafted by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) and Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL).

Customers Sue ISP For Installing NebuAd 'Spyware,' Offering Defective Opt-Outs

Two Embarq customers have filed a new privacy lawsuit against the Internet service provider for allegedly funneling information about their Web activity to defunct behavioral targeting company NebuAd.

The new lawsuit, by Kathleen Kirch and Terry Kirch, alleges that Embarq installed "spyware" devices from NebuAd without providing adequate notice. "Offering its users little warning and no choice, defendants merely amended their online privacy policy with misleading information," they allege in a complaint filed by the law firm KamberLaw. The Kirches are seeking class-action status. Embarq was one of six ISPs that allowed NebuAd to use deep packet inspection technology in 2007 and 2008 to monitor subscribers' Web activity and serve targeted ads based on the data collected. The subscribers allege that Embarq's arrangement with NebuAd violated their privacy because it marked an "intrusion upon the solitude and seclusion of users' private affairs that would be highly offensive and objectionable to a reasonable person." The lawsuit also alleges that Embarq violated a federal wiretap law and an anti-hacking law.

Twitter and YouTube Continue to Focus on Haiti while Blogs Move On

After playing a large role in promoting activism and fundraising in the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, various components of the social media community moved in different directions last week.

For Twitter and YouTube, Haiti continued to be the dominant subject, though the focus of their attention shifted from encouraging activity to disseminating information. On blogs, Haiti still attracted attention, although several other stories received more notice. For the week of January 18-22, fully 58% of the news links on Twitter were about the tragedy in Haiti according to the New Media Index produced by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. That was almost twice as many as the number of links relating to the next four largest Twitter subjects combined.

Well-crafted FCC minority initiatives could survive courts

A panel comprised of academics testifying at an FCC investigation of ownership diversity believe that there are ways the Commission can craft rules to increase minority and female ownership that would stand up to court scrutiny.

It involves carefully defined objectives tied to a solid factual basis. It boils down to carefully identifying and defining a specific compelling governmental interest in diversity of ownership, narrowly crafting policy to address that interest and providing a thorough factual underpinning. Part of the reason that witnesses felt some justification for optimism is that fact that current legal precedent is very limited and leaves plenty of room for maneuvering. In their call for data, the professors came up with a number of policy recommendations that may well be music to the ears of Commissioner Michael Copps but will likely leave broadcasters cold, including spelled out public interest requirements, along with record keeping to demonstrate that they are being met; a return to three-year license renewals; it was even suggested that radio station formats be taken into account during renewal hearings. The academics said that there were plenty of studies out there indicating the importance of station ownership diversity when it comes to serving a diverse population. One noted that ownership for most business types does break down into percentages more in line with actual population makeup, with broadcasting being a notable exception to the rule.

Benton

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