February 2010

FCC Wants Info To Help Curb Cyber Attacks

Collecting more data from broadband service providers could help the Federal Communications Commission play a strong role in protecting the nation from attacks waged online, James Barnett, the FCC's bureau chief for public safety and homeland security, said Tuesday.

During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on cybersecurity, Barnett said the FCC believes that it should "secure additional data ... concerning network and service disruptions" from the nation's phone and cable companies. This information would provide "early warnings" of serious cybersecurity threats. "Companies are not going to be willing to share that information with each other," so government involvement might be critical to harnessing the data, Barnett said. "We are currently examining the best path forward to obtain this information." The prospect of a heightened FCC role in cybersecurity raised questions about effective coordination between government agencies. Sen Mark Begich (D-Alaska) asked which government entity "has the full authority ... who pulls the trigger?"

Barnett responded that the FCC is only a regulatory agency and has no trigger, adding that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is "making sure we have good communications with our federal partners," including the Justice Department. He said more detailed cybersecurity recommendations will be unveiled in the agency's national broadband plan next month.

Will US TeleMedicine Be DOA?

Intel, GE and the Mayo Clinic said they would conduct a year-long study to find out if remotely monitoring patients via gear made by the two companies and hooked up to a home broadband connection can keep them out of emergency rooms. The move ties in nicely with a chat I had yesterday with Dr. Mohit Kaushal, director of health care for the FCC's Broadband Strategy Initiative, about encouraging broadband use in medical care. In many ways, the U.S. is still behind the curve when it comes to using technology in medical care, not because the technology industry isn't interested in providing software and hardware, but because of a failure on the part of doctors to use the technology and on the part of Medicare and other government-sponsored health programs to pay for health outcomes rather than procedures, said Dr. Kaushal. Plus, in many areas, especially rural ones where physicians are scarce, the broadband network just isn't up to speed.

Boycotting Beck on Fox "News" -- an issue of credibility

[Commentary] Advertisers are dropping Glenn Beck like flies. His show in the UK does not have even one advertiser. Still, thanks to the power of News Corporation, the show goes on.

Beck's cable TV ratings, in the US at least, continue to be healthy. His FOX News viewership of 617,000 (as of Friday Feb 12, according to mediabistro.com,) is second on cable only to Bill O'Reilly's 713,000. While StopBeck and Color of Change tout victories over Beck in TV land, Beck's radio show continues to thrive. Angelo Carusone is trying to boycott companies that advertise on Beck's radio program, which garners 9 million listeners, nearly 15 times his TV audience, but is finding the terrain more difficult. Whereas companies like Best Western and Kraft are sensitive to their logo being visibly associated with Beck on FOX News, "radio sponsors have a right wing agenda going in and don't really care" about a negative association, says Carusone. Color of Change campaign manager Dani McClain says that targeting the show on Fox News is important, precisely because it is Fox "News." "Fox News says they are a news organization. When people tune in, they should have the expectation of getting real news, not misinformation, distortion of truth and race baiting." Executive Director James Rucker adds that this is an issue of credibility. "When you have so many mainstream companies, from AT&T to Walmart, who don't want to be affiliated with Beck, it strips Beck's ability to position himself as mainstream. Could all these companies possibly be in the pocket of the left?"

Office Of Technology Assessment Reboot

Engineers, scientists and at least one lawmaker are pushing like never before to resuscitate a legislative agency that once provided Congress with technological expertise.

In an era of supposed government transparency, with allegations that even scientists are attempting to cover up research on global warming, an objective, authoritative Office of Technology Assessment is of utmost importance, advocates say. Several lawmakers, particularly House member and physicist Rush Holt (D-Delaware) have repeatedly rallied for appropriations to revive the office that Congress dismantled to save money in 1995. The counterargument against funding has always been that other agencies, such as the Government Accountability Office or Congressional Research Services, could provide the same services. Now that belief may be changing, says Francesca Grifo, scientific integrity program director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who will testify on Wednesday before the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee. Rep Holt also will testify in support of restored funding.

Panel: Obama's open government directive faces hurdles

The Obama administration's open government directive is a step toward enhancing transparency and democracy, but it still has a ways to go, technology observers said. Panelists at a State of the Union for Technology event hosted by The Atlantic magazine in Washington, said that while the mandate could have meaningful results, the challenge is translating innovative ideas into actual government policy. The administration has to find inexpensive ways to innovate, federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra said in his opening remarks. The open government directive gives agencies a free online platform to gather feedback, and since agencies launched their individual pages earlier in February, the administration has received 7,500 comments and ideas from the public.

White House, NIST launch online forum to collect public input on smart grid

The White House launched on Tuesday an online forum to collect feedback from the public on deploying a consumer interface for the smart power grid as part of the Obama administration's open government initiative.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology created the Web site to encourage the public to discuss and submit ideas for the smart grid, a modernized distribution system that monitors home energy use as a way to save energy. The discussion, which follows a blog format, seeks comments on three issues: the architecture of the system, who has access to and ownership of energy consumption data, and standards for consumer appliances and other devices that will transmit energy data over the smart grid.

Between Feb. 23 and March 12 users can register to provide feedback on the Smart Grid Forum or they can e-mail responses to smartgrid@ostp.gov, and the comments will be posted online.

Snowe: Cybersecurity coordinator lacks accountability

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) criticized the Obama administration Tuesday for appointing a cybersecurity coordinator who cannot testify before Congress. Sen Snowe noted that absent from the hearing was Howard Schmidt, who President Obama appointed in December as the nation's first cybersecurity coordinator. "In his position, he's a member of the National Security Council and cannot testify," Sen Snowe said in an interview after the hearing. "Given the significance of this issue ... it really needs to rise to a different level."

The committee heard from former federal cybersecurity officials and other experts who sounded alarm bells that the nation is failing to mount an effective defense against attacks on critical infrastructure networks, such as those in the nation's financial industry, telecommunications system and electrical grid. "If the nation went to war today in a cyber war, we would lose," said retired Adm. Michael McConnell, who served as director of national intelligence in the Bush administration. "We're the most vulnerable. We're the most connected. We have the most to lose."

Many Authorized STEM Projects Fail to Get Funding

With considerable fanfare and bipartisan support, Congress in 2007 approved a bill to strengthen the nation's economic competitiveness that features a strong emphasis on bolstering education in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. And yet, many of the new education-related programs spelled out under the federal law, called the America COMPETES Act, have so far amounted to unfulfilled promises.

A program to improve math instruction in the elementary and middle grades, for instance, hasn't received a penny, nor has an initiative that would send out bonus grants to high-poverty schools that show the strongest gains in math and science. "It was a very ambitious effort," said Jodi Peterson, the National Science Teachers Association's legislative director. "The programs are on the books, ... but for the most part, [they're] not funded." Even among those programs that are receiving federal aid, the amounts are generally well below what was authorized, analysts say.

Deterring Fake Public Participation

Fake public participation is widespread in United States government and in governments all over the world.

Since fake public participation undermines true public participation, good government advocates should work to deter it. Fake public participation is a subset of fake democracy and occurs for the same reason: we live in an era when democracy is the only legitimate form of government, so the incentive to fake participation is great. To deter fake public participation, the nature of the problem should be recognized followed by the development of a detailed set of public policy recommendations to address it. Proposals to improve public participation, like the Obama administration's Open Government Directive, should be carefully scrutinized for loopholes allowing fake participation.

The Unused Cellphone App: 'Calling'

Harvard University senior Drew Robb and four classmates have been developing an iPhone application called Rover, named because cellphones rove. The friends hardly call each other. "People resist protocols that call for verbal communication," Robb says. Translation: People don't like using their phones to make calls or listen to voice mails. Phone calls are usually reserved for friends and family who don't live in the Boston area.

Benton

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