February 2010

China to Google: "That's not a knife"

[Commentary] A public accusation of the Chinese government is a big deal. Disregarding China's censorship policies is a big deal. Pulling out of China is a big deal. We can be reasonably confident that these were not Google's first response to this situation, but rather an attempt to up the ante. So what, exactly, was Google's first response? Unfortunately, we're unlikely to find out. The Chinese government's official response to Google's ultimatum can best be described as, "Be my guest." In other words, play by our rules or take a hike. Their position is reasonably unsurprising. So we're left with Google pulling out. Duncan Clark, the Beijing-based Chairman of BDA China, said, "Google.cn is toast. Just keep pressing refresh on your browser and see what happens."

Reforming Federal and State Tax Policies Will Increase Investment in Broadband and Consumer Adoption

In a filing at the Federal Communications Commission, Verizon submitted a paper which says Federal and state tax policies are crucial to promoting increased broadband deployment and consumer use of broadband.

Tax laws should incent providers to invest in their networks and encourage consumers to incorporate broadband into their daily lives through participation in online activities and transactions. Unfortunately, however, some tax laws discourage increased network investment as well as consumer adoption of broadband. These laws should be revised to drive more capital investment in broadband infrastructure and spur consumer use of broadband.

Senate strips out EHR incentive added to jobs bill

The Senate stripped out provisions in a pending jobs bill that would have put hospital-based physicians who treated outpatients in line to receive health IT incentives under the HITECH Act.

Those provisions may now be part of future legislation. The initial version of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act contained a provision that would have allowed physicians who practice in outpatient or walk-in clinics associated with a hospital to qualify for the Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments if they become "meaningful users" of health IT. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Thursday unveiled a pared down version of the bill without the health IT provisions that focused on business tax credits, highway infrastructure on other job stimulus measures. He said this legislation was "a simplified, focused bill."

What Aardvark Can Do for Google

The timing of Google's purchase of Aardvark and release of Google buzz can't be coincidental. But what can Aardvark do for Google? An awful lot, as it turns out.

Aardvark is a question-and-answer service more than a search engine. You ask a question via email or instant message, and it looks through your list of friends as well as your friends' friends before sending your question to those who would be able to answer it best. So if you ask "What's the best coffeeshop in San Francisco's Mission District?" it'll only send the question to those who live or have lived in San Francisco. Your answers won't be a list of external links, like a typical search engine, but a genuine human reply, just like in those horrible, horrible days before the Internet when people had to (shudder) relate to one another. And if you're doubting the chance of actually receiving a response, you'll be surprised: It's remarkably efficient, returning an answer 90% of the time, and 60% of the time within 10 minutes. Even better, users rank about 70% of answers as "good," and only 15% as "bad." So why does Google want Aardvark? Could be the valuable search data Aardvark's collected--who's searching for what, what kind of answers are most satisfying for the user, that kind of thing--as well as the personnel involved in its creation. Also, remember, Google owned Foursquare's predecessor, Dodgeball, but allowed it to go fallow, only to have Foursquare explode in popularity a few years later. Google can't let that happen again with a similar service, especially now, with the launch of Buzz.

Congress urged to move one cybersecurity bill

So many pieces of cybersecurity legislation are moving through Congress that House and Senate leaders should consolidate them to ensure meaningful action can be taken soon, President Obama's former cybersecurity adviser said this week.

Melissa Hathaway, who led the administration's review of cybersecurity last year, said she is tracking at least 35 bills dealing with the security of government and private computer networks, which is "too many pieces of legislation." "The House and Senate leadership need to get to agreement on what it is -- I think in working with the administration -- that we really need to drive forward and get it consolidated," Hathaway said during an event hosted by the Internet Security Alliance.

Would You Watch Ads in Exchange for Free Wi-Fi?

As more and more devices -- phones, netbooks and tablets -- come to the market, the demand for Wi-Fi-based connectivity is only going to rise. The question is, how much are you willing to pay for it?

For despite its ubiquity, Wi-Fi is still an expensive proposition — especially while on the go. The other option, of course, is to get ad-supported free Wi-Fi access. According to San Bruno, Calif.-based startup Devicescape, nearly 68 percent of 3,000 people surveyed said they'd watch ads in exchange for free Wi-Fi. About 16 percent, however, want nothing to do with ads and are happy to pay for their access. Nearly 25 percent said that they are willing to pay up to $3 an hour for Wi-Fi.

Wireless Industry Competition Update

CTIA - The Wireless Association has filed a paper highlighting, it says, numerous changes and upgrades to networks, handsets, applications, and even service offerings that benefit consumers. As detailed in our filings, the "virtuous cycle" of the wireless ecosystem is based on the evolution of each of these areas. Developments over the last six months demonstrate that the virtuous cycle is alive and healthy, driven by the intense competition of the industry.

Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier

Frontline has created a fascinating website to accompany its television broadcast of the documentary Digital Nation. The website was launched ten months prior to the broadcast, and includes a producer's blog, as well as a feature called "Your Stories", that allowed users of the site to participate in the process of making the documentary. Interestingly, visitors can "Watch Online", the 90-minute video, and then read a roundtable discussion by some of the participants in the film. To the right of the comments by the participants is the "Your Thoughts" area, which contains posts by visitors to the site. The tabs near the top left of the homepage contain short videos which expound on the 90-minute video. The topics of the tabs include "Living Faster", "Waging War", and "Virtual Worlds". Within each tab are several subsections, and each subsection contains about half a dozen videos. In the "Living Faster" tab, under the subsection "Where Are We Headed", there is a brief video called "Your Brain on Google", which compares a brain scan of a person when reading a book to when they are using Google. The results are surprising.

A new phone for every month

[Commentary] We are about to enter an age of seriously conspicuous consumption. Conspicuous, that is, for its wastefulness. One assumes that middle-class technology consumers' buying behavior will eventually catch up with the idiosyncrasies of the rich, the era of two-year contracts tied to a specific phone may be nearing an end. The same thing, incidentally, is happening to the personal computing market, with consumers increasingly turning to low-price Netbooks, increasingly powered by lower-cost Linux, to make computer purchases less painful...and less permanent. Is this a good or bad trend? It's obviously bad from the standpoint of the environment. The mobility of these devices may make them easy to trash, but that trash has to go somewhere.

Lobbyists Embrace Social Media

Twitter, Facebook and other types of social media are increasingly becoming important tools for Washington's lobbying community. In a discussion on National Journal's lobbying blog, several lobbyists this week discussed how they have come to rely on these tools to advance causes for their clients.

Benton

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