The past several years have not been good to America Online. First, the disastrous merger with TimeWarner, and most recently, the acquisition of social-networking site Bebo for $850 million in cash which will conclude with Bebo being shuttered or sold next month. But that Aol still exists, despite being founded on a business model that's been dead for a good seven years, is nothing short of miraculous.
The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that it plans to create guidelines on Internet privacy, amid a growing cry by privacy advocates and lawmakers to protect consumers from abuse of their personal data by social networks, search engines and location tracking on cellphones.
The comments came after four senators called for greater enforcement and rules at the FTC on Tuesday, with troubling business features on social networking site Facebook that they said exposed users' information to the public and to third-party advertisers trying to create profiles on those users. "We agree that social networks provide a valuable consumer service, but that they also raise privacy concerns," said Cecelia Prewett, a spokeswoman for the FTC, who declined to comment specifically on the senators' complaints about Facebook. "The FTC is examining how social networks collect and share data as part of a project to develop a comprehensive framework governing privacy going forward. Our plan is to develop a framework that social networks and others will use to guide their data collection, use and sharing practices."
The House could soon relax rules that prohibit lawmakers from using Skype and other video conferencing tools to communicate with their constituents. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has asked the chamber's Chief Administrative Officer and the House Committee on Administration to "further explore whether Skype can be utilized in a manner that will not compromise House information security infrastructure and policies that were implemented in 2006," according to Kyle Anderson, a spokesman for committee Chairman Robert Brady (D-PA).
Companies that rely on fair use generate $4.7 trillion in revenue, according to a study released by the Computer & Communications Industry Association. That's about a quarter of the U.S. economic growth. The report concludes that fair use -- an exception to the copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted materials -- is crucial to new innovation. CCIA came out with the study a day after Intellectual Property Day, during which content companies, including Hollywood and music studios, said more protections against piracy are needed.
"Silicon Valley companies are starting to wake up," said Rep Zoe Loffgren (D-CA). "That is based on the free flow of information, not on locking it down," she said in reference to the fair use doctrine, which allows some copyrighted content to be used without permission. Fair use, she said, is necessary for software companies, web firms and manufacturers. Content owners, however, say high piracy rates is holding them back from economic growth and that stricter copyright enforcement is needed. "The content industry has had a very successful track record in international trade, and that's great for our country," she said. "The content owners -- Hollywood, especially -- certainly deserve recognition, but they should not be able to ... lock down the content."
The Federal Communications Commission may demand concessions that help Web startups in order for Comcast to win approval for its purchase of NBC. The FCC may bar Comcast, the largest US cable service, from interfering with Web video startups such as Roku and Boxee or from denying them NBC shows or films. "Internet programming is just taking hold as this merger comes before the government," said Paul Gallant, a former FCC aide who is an analyst for Concept Capital's Washington Research Group. The agency "may consider declaring that Internet TV companies have program access rights" like satellite services.
Yesterday was World Intellectual Property Day. Though not usually thought of as a gift-giving holiday, the US did take the opportunity to give something to IP rightsholders: 35 new federal officials focused on domestic and international IP crimes.
The Department of Justice has created 15 new Assistant US Attorney positions, all part of the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) program. The new attorneys will be scattered across the country. The FBI also gets 20 new Special Agents that will focus on "four geographic areas with intellectual property squads, and increase investigative capacity in other locations around the country where IP crimes are of particular concern." The four locations are LA, San Francisco, New York, and Washington, DC. Given that the FBI only has 31 existing special agents focused on IP crimes, this is a major increase in Bureau manpower.
Ahead of schedule, the White House has posted assessments of agencies' plans for incorporating Obama's principles of open government into their missions. Each agency was required on April 7 to submit a roadmap for increasing civic participation, private sector collaboration and transparency in government. White House officials that day said, by May 1, the administration would hold agencies accountable by evaluating the plans based on criteria outlined in a December directive. Instead, the administration chose to have each agency evaluate its own plan against the directive's requirements and post those self-evaluations on Tuesday.
"The assessments show that we are off to a good start -- but have much more work to do as we transition our overall efforts towards effective agency implementation," wrote federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra on a White House blog. The self-reviews were based on a checklist of 30 criteria, such as the inclusion of a key, flagship activity. Detailed evaluations are located on each agency's open government homepage and a summary assessment is posted on the open government dashboard. Agencies that met a criterion got a green flag, while those that have more work to do got a yellow flag. Many of the flags are colored yellow.
Some physicians may be tempted to put off the inevitable, trying to postpone the disruption and expense of moving to electronic health records. Why not wait five or six years? Maybe it will get easier? Less expensive? For several reasons.
First, the sooner physicians start using an EHR, the sooner they and their patients will realize its benefits - the ability to share patient data with colleagues and patients, the ability to retrieve old data effortlessly, the ability to access patient records remotely, so they answer patient questions intelligently from home, or even from a medical meeting. Second, right now, the federal government is making a once in a lifetime, never to be repeated, offer: it will help physicians pay for the transition with up to $44,000 in extra fees from Medicare, or $63,750 from Medicaid. Physicians can take the leap now with financial and technical help from the government. Or they can do it on their own (or facing a financial penalty) in five years. Third, anyone who is building a practice, and wanting to recruit young, talented physicians needs to confront the reality that the next generation will expect and demand that their own medical home have a modern information system. I know this from personal experience. With two children in medical school, and a daughter in law who is an intern, I know young physicians will never settle for paper records. Wait, and the cream of the recruiting crop will pass you by.
To me the choice is clear. Physicians' professional, clinical and financial interests all point in the same direction. Become part of the future. Become a meaningful user of an electronic health record.
While healthcare reform legislation may be just a month old, attendees of the American Hospital Association's annual membership meeting in Washington, DC, on Monday were told that hospitals are facing major challenges that need to be addressed right now to ensure quality care delivery will continue.
In earlier times, the mantra of healthcare leaders was "do more with less," said AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock. But now there's a new twist: "That's changing to 'do better with less.'" This means that hospitals need to move to the forefront now to improve patient care quality, safety and reliability; construct new integrative models of care; and stop medical mistakes. "We have to seize this opportunity and ensure hospitals are natural leaders at this time of great challenge and transformation," Umbdenstock said. But to get there, hospitals will require help at the federal level. And, according to two House members, Congress is listening and ready to assist. One of the major areas of concern has been how hospitals can become "meaningful users" of electronic health records and adopters of health information technology under current federal proposals.
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