June 2010

The House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet held a hearing on the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 (H.R. 3101) on Thursday, June 10, 2010.

The legislation would update the communications laws to help ensure that individuals with vision, hearing, and other disabilities are able to utilize fully broadband services and equipment and better access video programming devices.

Republicans accused Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) of rigging the discussion to favor people with disabilities. Rep Cliff Stearns (R-FL), the ranking member of subcommittee, honed in on a witness lineup that featured Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro and Jesse Acosta, a retired army sergeant major who lost his vision serving in war. "The gentleman from Massachusetts is setting up a war hero against a person who is the CEO of an association," said Rep Stearns. Pressing further on the issue, Rep Stearns said, "You've got to be very careful not to move on an emotional basis. Creating an emotional setup between a CEO and a war hero isn't the way to do it." Echoing the complaint, Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) accused Rep Markey of "intimidation" after he invited Acosta to directly address Shapiro.

Markey's bill updates technology requirements so that consumer electronics are accessible for people with disabilities. For instance, the legislation would ensure the availability of closed captioning on the latest devices and bring captions to online video. Industry heads and advocates for the blind and deaf split over whether the legislation is ready to move ahead, with CTIA executive vice president Bob Franklin and U.S. Telecom President Walt McCormick pushing for changes to it.

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Federal Financial Management Subcommittee Chairman Tom Carper (D-De), introduced comprehensive legislation to modernize, strengthen, and coordinate the security of federal civilian and select private sector critical infrastructure cyber networks.

The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 would create an Office of Cyber Policy in the White House with a director accountable to the public who would lead all federal cyberspace efforts and devise national cyberspace strategy. A National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications within the Department of Homeland Security, also led by a director accountable to the public, would enforce cybersecurity policies throughout the government and the private sector. The bill would also establish a public/private partnership to set national cyber security priorities and improve national cyber security defenses. The Committee will hold a hearing on the legislation June 15, 2010.

Key elements of the legislation include:

1. Creation of an Office of Cyberspace Policy in the Executive Office of the President run by a Senate-confirmed Director, who will advise the President on all cybersecurity matters. The Director will lead and harmonize federal efforts to secure cyberspace and will develop a national strategy that incorporates all elements of cyberspace policy, including military, law enforcement, intelligence, and diplomatic. The Director will oversee all related federal cyberspace activities to ensure efficiency and coordination.

2. Creation of a National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to elevate and strengthen the Department's cyber security capabilities and authorities. The Director will regularly advise the President on efforts to secure federal networks. The NCCC will be led by a Senate-confirmed Director, who will report to the Secretary. The NCCC will include the United States Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT), and will lead federal efforts to protect public and private sector cyber and communications networks.

3. Updates the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) to modernize federal agencies practices of protecting their internal networks and systems. With strong leadership from DHS, these reforms will allow agencies to move away from the system of after-the-fact paperwork compliance to real-time monitoring to secure critical systems.

4. Requiring the NCCC to work with the private sector to establish risk-based security requirements that strengthen cyber security for the nation's most critical infrastructure that, if disrupted, would result in a national or regional catastrophe.

5. Requiring covered critical infrastructure to report significant breaches to the NCCC to ensure the federal government has a complete picture of the security of these sensitive networks. The NCCC must share information, including threat analysis, with owners and operators regarding risks to their networks. The Act will provide specified liability protections to owners/operators that comply with the new risk-based security requirements.Creation of a responsible framework, developed in coordination with the private sector, for the President to authorize emergency measures to protect the nation's most critical infrastructure if a cyber vulnerability is being exploited or is about to be exploited. The President must notify Congress in advance before exercising these emergency powers. Any emergency measures imposed must be the least disruptive necessary to respond to the threat and will expire after 30 days unless the President extends them. The bill authorizes no new surveillance authorities and does not authorize the government to "take over" private networks.

6. Development of a comprehensive supply chain risk management strategy to address risks and threats to the information technology products and services the federal government relies upon. This strategy will allow agencies to make informed decisions when purchasing IT products and services.

7. Requiring the Office of Personnel Management to reform the way cyber security personnel are recruited, hired, and trained to ensure that the federal government has the talent necessary to lead the national cyber security effort and protect its own networks.

A new study from Ipsos OTX MediaCT says humans are getting wired a lot earlier. The study says kids are pretty much digital sophisticates by age 12.

Sociological implications aside, marketers ought to pay attention to how the Internet is changing how kids use media and how media affect the ways kids and parents interact. The annual report, called the LMX (Longitudinal Media Experience) Family study, follows some 2,000 kids between the ages of 6 and 12 as well as a parent. It comprises a diary component, wherein kids log past day activities; and a separate component for kids and parents for recording device ownership, usage, and co-entertainment activities. Forty percent of moms in the study say, for instance, that it was their idea to get their child a mobile phone. Donna Sabino, SVP of kids and family insights at Ipsos OTX MediaCT, points out that kids have only known a digital world where content never stops flowing and isn't dependent on platform. "One of the biggest findings is how quickly families are adopting new technology and new ways they are using technology and media," she tells Marketing Daily. "For kids, it's all content; to them, content is king." She says they take accessibility for granted. "Between 8 and 9, something magical happens, an age of enlightenment between fourth and fifth grade when their moms give them a cell phone, and then iPods, mobile phones, and hand-held games. It opens new markets to them." She says that kids, even at that age, are making purchase decisions via digital channels. "You do have a lot of kids making decisions. The apps are so tempting and songs are so numerous."

Speaking at the 35th Annual Community Radio Conference, Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn talked about community radio as an essential piece of the American experience.

She noted, "In an age where the Internet has done an incredible job of bringing the world to our doorsteps, it has not yet done the same - nor are there indications of if and when it will - for local news and information. Most of us know where to find national or international news on the Web... But if you really want to know what is going on in your local community, where do you turn? For most of us, it certainly is not the Internet. Sure, there are so-called "hyper-local" Web sites here and there that provide important neighborhood information. But this is the exception, and not the rule. And while someday, the Internet may be able to reliably link us all to our local communities, today is not that day."