April 2010

Biz Groups Oppose Expanding FTC Power

A coalition of about 50 business groups, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is fighting the inclusion of language in financial regulatory overhaul legislation that would give the Federal Trade Commission greater rulemaking authority.

Language expanding the FTC's rulemaking authority was included in the House-passed financial regulatory bill, giving the commission power similar to other agencies' "notice and comment" rulemaking authority under the Administrative Procedure Act. Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller (D-WV) has been working with Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) on possibly including such a provision in Dodd's legislation, which is expected to hit the floor next week. A coalition of consumer groups sent a letter to senators Thursday urging them to include the House language in the Senate financial regulatory bill. "Currently, the FTC is hindered in its ability to carry out its duties and protect consumers. It is essential for the Senate to modernize the FTC's legal and regulatory framework," said the letter, which was signed by the Center for Digital Democracy, Consumers Union, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, and others.

Arbitron, PPM Coalition Make Peace

The long-running dispute between Arbitron and the minority broadcasters represented by the PPM Coalition has finally be settled after several years of acrimonious dispute. This clears away potential obstacles to further expansion of electronic radio audience measurement by Arbitron's Portable People Meter, a passive electronic measurement device. According to Arbitron, the radio ratings firm has formulated initiatives in cooperation with the PPM Coalition and the Media Rating Council that are designed to address some of the shortcomings of PPM ratings -- namely, the under-representation of minority audiences in Arbitron's audience samples. The measures include address-based sampling and targeted in-person recruiting. Both measures are designed with the goal of increasing panelist participation in minority audience samples: in-person recruiting will allow the company to reach young minority adults that might not have land lines at home, while address-based sampling will help make recruiting of land-line households more accurate.

Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn said, "While I do have some general structural concerns about the voluntary nature of the MRC's process, I am nonetheless heartened that the parties have negotiated a solution without formal governmental action. I will continue to stay engaged with the parties as they implement their agreement to ensure that all radio stations and listeners receive the promised benefits of the PPM system."

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps added, "This would appear to be a major step forward. How successful it will be will depend, of course, on implementation of the terms of agreement. It was obvious that the Arbitron PPM was not fully representing minority audience count, to the commercial disadvantage of minority radio broadcasters."

Obama Taps Minow for National Museum Library Services Board

President Barack Obama will nominate Mary Minow to serve on the National Museum Library Services Board.

The advisory body includes the director and deputy directors of IMLS and twenty presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed members of the general public who have demonstrated expertise in, or commitment to, library or museum services. Informed by its collectively vast experience and knowledge, the NMLSB advises the IMLS director on general policy and practices, and on selections for the National Medals for Museum and Library Service.

Minow is an attorney, consultant, and a former librarian and library trustee. She has made presentations and consulted for libraries and library associations in over 25 states on free speech, privacy, and copyright issues. She manages the Stanford Copyright and Fair Use website, and founded the LibraryLaw blog. Minow teaches digital copyright as an adjunct at the San Jose State School of Library Science and at the Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She serves on the board of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and she chairs the Intellectual Freedom Committee of the California Library Association. She is past chair of the Cupertino Library Commission and past president of the California Association of Library Trustees and Commissioners. She is coauthor with Tomas Lipinski of The Library's Legal Answer Book. Minow earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University, her master of library science degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her law degree from Stanford University.

Chairman Gordon Introduces COMPETES

House Committee on Science and Technology Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) has introduced the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (HR 5116).

The bill builds upon many of the initiatives from the 2007 America COMPETES Act while also maintaining and strengthening provisions where necessary. In addition to the legislative language that passed the three Subcommittees of jurisdiction, the bill includes innovative technology federal loan guarantees for small- and medium-sized manufacturers.

The bill will also establish the creation of regional innovation clusters, which are regional collections of businesses and organization in the same, similar or complementary fields with open channels of communication between them. In addition to grants to support the creation of clusters, the bill directs the Department of Commerce to conduct research on best practices and to create metrics and measurements that will help determine if the programs are having the intended result.

The bill addresses interagency coordination programs through the Office of Science and Technology Policy, including the National Nanotechnology Initiative(NNI) and the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) language passed the House.

The bill expands support of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, including language coordinating STEM education activities that take place across the federal government, which passed the House as H.R. 1709, and ensuring a vision and strategy for a STEM education program at DOE.

Laying the Foundation for a High-tech, Pro-Growth Economy

[Commentary] Against the backdrop of stagnant unemployment and a market still struggling to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, it's hard to credit any one industry with delivering the momentum necessary to bring about sustained growth. However, as evidenced by recent earnings reports out of AMD, Apple, eBay, Google, IBM, and Intel -- and the ripple effect each has had across markets in the U.S., Europe and Asia -- it goes without saying that the high-tech sector is playing a lead role in laying the foundation for a new pro-growth economy. Stated simply, if ICT solutions and services make enterprises more efficient, those enterprises become more successful. As those enterprises grow, they employ more people and engage in more transactions with customers, suppliers and vendors, who in turn continue the ripple effect seeded by the technologies that help run them.

The National Broadband Plan: Competitive Availability of Navigation Devices

House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
Thursday, April 29, 2010
10 am

Witnesses:

Harold Feld, Legal Director, Public Knowledge
Kyle McSlarrow, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Cable and Telecommunications Association
Eric Shanks, Executive Vice President, Entertainment, DirecTV
Michael T. Williams, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Sony Electronics Inc.
David E. Young, Vice President, Federal Regulatory Affairs, Verizon
Matthew Zinn, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer, TiVo

The hearing will be webcast at www.energycommerce.house.gov

Read more about The National Broadband Plan: Competitive Availability of Navigation Devices

Top Ten Meaningful Use Challenges

Meaningful Use for Eligible Professionals: The Top Ten Challenges names the top ten challenges that eligible professional practices must address to meet Stage 1 meaningful use criteria. The authors say there are two major impacts meaningful use is having and will continue to have on eligible professionals. The first being the incentives, which they believe will finally spur widespread adoption of electronic health records in the US and the second being the ongoing commitment required from practices over the next five years to continue to meet all stages.

The top ten are: 1) Capturing data, 2) Establishing effective workflows, 3) Driving provider involvement, 4) Computer-based provider order entry, 5) e-Prescribing, 6) Managing clinical decision support, 7) Implementing patient health information exchange workflows, 8) Formulating a HIE exchange strategy, 9) Privacy and security and 10) Performance measurement support.

Federal panel focuses on patient privacy and safety

While the Healthcare IT Policy Committee, a federal advisory panel, is working on projects that will outline patient protections, patient privacy activists warn that allowing patients to opt out of participation in electronic health information exchanges will be critical to building public trust.

At an April 21 meeting of the HIT Policy Committee, workgroup leaders proposed ways to build a foundation of trust. Deven McGraw, chair of the Privacy and Security Policy Workgroup and director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said, "privacy is critical to building trust." McGraw presented a draft on electronic health record protections her workgroup is developing using principles from existing laws. "We're not working from scratch here. We have laws in place," she said, citing HIPAA and state patient privacy laws. The workgroup is also drawing from the December 2008 Nationwide Privacy and Security Framework developed by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), McGraw said.

FCC's 'AllVid' Gateway Would Require Six IP Video Streams

The Federal Communications Commission is looking for feedback on its proposal to require US cable, satellite and telco TV operators to supply all their customers an "AllVid" device or gateway -- capable of delivering as many as six different IP video streams to TVs, DVRs or other equipment in the home -- beginning no later than the end of 2012.

For now, the FCC is seeking comment on the AllVid concept and does not intend to impose rules immediately. However, the agency has suggested it would require all MVPDs to supply all subscribers with the AllVid solution no later than Dec. 31, 2012, and mandate the use of the interface with their operator-leased set-tops and DVRs as well. The cable industry supports the "all-MVPD" solution, in large part because it would put satellite and telco competitors in the same regulatory boat. In its notice of inquiry, the commission suggested two possible AllVid equipment configurations: a small "set-back" device, capable of communicating with one navigation device or TV set and providing at least two simultaneous video streams, to allow for picture-in-picture and to let subscribers watch one program while recording a program on another channel; and a whole-home gateway, capable of providing at least six simultaneous video streams within the home.

The FCC further suggested IP and 100-Mbps Ethernet as the communications protocol and physical-layer interface, respectively, for AllVid. However, the commission also seeks comment "on any other physical connectors (for example, Multimedia over Coaxial Cable ('MoCA')" that could serve as the link between AllVid adapters and retail navigation devices or whether the FCC would need to mandate a physical layer technology at all.

Blogs Focus on Volcano, Polish Plane crash, and Obama v. Press

Bloggers' attention was evenly divided among three different subjects last week -- something that doesn't often happen in social media where attention has a way of amassing around one or two stories.

From April 12-16, the Icelandic volcano, the crash that killed the Polish President and Barack Obama's handling of the media at the nuclear summit each received 13% of the week's links, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. This marks the first time in nearly half a year-since last November-without a single subject accounting for more than 13% of the blogosphere links in a given week. One of last week's top subjects was the volcanic eruption in Iceland that delayed thousands of flights throughout Europe. Most bloggers linked to a single BBC story about travel consequences; some even shared how the disruptions impacted them personally. The eruption also generated significant mainstream media coverage last week, finishing as the No. 2 story in the News Coverage Index. Another lead story in the blogosphere was the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and many other senior Polish officials in an April 10 plane crash in Russia. For the most part, bloggers shared their sympathy and thoughts on the tragedy. A few, however, focused on theories sprinkled throughout the Web suggesting that the crash was not an accident and that somehow Russia was involved.

Benton

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