June 2010

POSTPONED:

An updated date and time will be announced as soon as the hearing is rescheduled.

Protecting Youths in an Online World

Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance
Senate Commerce Committee
July 01 2010
10:00 AM

Read more about Postponed: Protecting Youths in an Online World

Maine PUC approves FairPoint plan for Chapter 11

On a 2-1 vote, Maine's Public Utilities Commission approved FairPoint's petition seeking approval of its bankruptcy plan and changes to the commission's 2008 order approving FairPoint's $2.3 billion purchase of Verizon properties in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Among other things, FairPoint was seeking a six-month delay for completion of the first phase of its broadband expansion plans, a reduction in the number of broadband lines that must be in service upon completion of its five-year expansion plan, and the ability to offer different pricing plans in different areas of the state. North Carolina-based FairPoint is seeking similar approvals in New Hampshire and Vermont, but regulators in those states have yet to make decisions.

Clyburn Endorses Unified Community Anchor Network to Speed Broadband Deployment

Speaking to the American Library Association, Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn focused her remarks on National Broadband Plan recommendations directly support libraries' efforts to promote deployment and adoption of broadband.

The most significant recommendation, she pointed out, is proposal to overhaul the Universal Service Fund. Internet2, National Lambda Rail, ALA, and others have called upon the federal government to create the Unified Community Anchor Network (UCAN) support and assist anchor institutions in obtaining and utilizing broadband connectivity. The National Broadband Plan endorses this recommendation. The Plan also discusses a number of useful roles that the UCAN could play in helping community institutions enhance their use of broadband. First, the UCAN could help establish federal and state coordinators and consortia of anchor institutions. These coordinators would help secure broadband connections and would also provide hands-on experience and capacity in the building and running of networks. Second, the UCAN could have a national procurement role in negotiating bulk equipment and broadband service agreements. It could then distribute this equipment and services to community institutions. Third, the UCAN could provide a platform for interconnected networks to share resources and applications and provide training opportunities.

How to Get the Social-Media Generation Behind Your Cause

Once social activism meant protest marches, civil obedience and sit-ins. But for today's 20-somethings -- sometimes called "slactivists" -- supporting or denouncing a cause is as simple as hitting the "like" button on Facebook or posting a hashtag to Twitter. And that's often where it ends. But that can also be where it begins, if marketers use social-media tools widely to get young adults more heavily involved in their cause-marketing efforts. For this demographic, sharing information about causes and social issues they feel passionate about is the first step to getting involved in a more concrete way, such as donating money or time, according to a study by ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day.

Study reveals factors in ed-tech success

Schools with one-to-one computing programs have fewer discipline problems, lower dropout rates, and higher rates of college attendance than schools with a higher ratio of students to computers, according to the results of a major new study.

But for one-to-one programs to boost student achievement as well, they must be properly implemented, the study found. Sixty-nine percent of the schools in the study reported that their students' achievement scores on high-stakes tests were on the rise. Among schools with 1-to-1 computing programs, that figure was 70 percent. But it was 85 percent for schools with 1-to-1 computing programs that employed certain strategies for success, including electronic formative assessments on a regular basis and frequent collaboration of teachers in professional learning communities. The findings come from Project RED (Revolutionizing Education), a national initiative that aims to prove that when properly implemented, investing in technology can boost student achievement and will result in monetary savings for schools and local governments.

Web Caught Up In World Cup Mania

What was the largest audience ever for a sports event online? ESPN claims it was the US vs Algeria World Cup game. But CBS counters it was the BYU-Florida NCAA basketball tournament game.

In any case, ESPN said the World Cup game audience of 6.6 million was the most for a non-holiday morning telecast ever for ESPN, and ESPN.com set a record with 1.7 million concurrent users logging in to check score updates or other news on June 23, beating the previous high by 42%. ESPN Mobile also had its highest-traffic day ever, with 650,000 watching the U.S.-Algeria game on handheld devices. Audience data coming in from ESPN -- which has U.S. broadcast rights to the World Cup in South Africa -- and other sources suggest that the 2010 tournament is generating an unprecedented level of interest among Americans.

Cutting Waste by Reforming IT (updated w/links to OMB memos)

One source of ineffective and inefficient government is the technology gap between the public and private sectors. While a productivity boom has transformed private sector performance over the past two decades, the federal government has almost entirely missed this transformation and now lags far behind on efficiency and service quality.

We are wasting billions of dollars a year, and more importantly are missing out on the huge productively improvements other sectors have benefited from. Quite simply, we can't significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the federal government without fixing IT.

That's why today, in our ongoing effort to make sure that taxpayers' dollars are spent on projects that work, the White House Office of Management and Budget is taking three specific actions to advance IT reform.

1) All executive departments and agencies are to stop issuing new task orders or procurements for all financial system modernization projects - an area of persistent problems - pending review and approval by OMB of new, more streamlined project plans.

2) The Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra will undertake detailed reviews of the highest risk IT projects across the federal government.

3) OMB's Deputy Director for Management Jeff Zients will develop recommendations, within 120 days, for improving the federal government's overall IT procurement and management practices.

Information Technology Investment Baseline Management Policy (OMB M-10-27))
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/asset.aspx?AssetID=2786

Immediate Review of Financial Systems IT Projects (OMB M-10-26)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/asset.aspx?AssetID=2783

Reforming the Federal Government's Efforts to Manage Information Technology Projects (OMB M-10-25)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/asset.aspx?AssetID=2782

Performance Improvement Guidance: Management Responsibilities and Government Performance and Results Act Documents (OMB M-10-24)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/asset.aspx?AssetID=2778

Apple IPhone 4 Parts Cost About $188

Apple's iPhone 4 wireless handset includes components that cost as little as $187.51, according to market research firm iSuppli.

Materials and parts for Apple's iPhone include a 3.5-inch LCD screen that Apple calls a "retina display." As the smartphone's most expensive component, it costs $28.50 and may have been made by LG Display, iSuppli says. The iPhone 4 sells for $199 and $299. The estimate doesn't include costs for items such as labor, shipping, advertising, software development, or patent licensing. ISuppli analyzed a 16-gigabyte version of the iPhone 4. As with the iPad, Apple used an internally designed A4 processor that was made by Samsung Electronics and costs an estimated $10.75 A component new to the iPhone is a gyroscope chip designed to detect how the phone moves in three dimensions and to make playing games seem more realistic. ISuppli said Geneva-based STMicroelectronics supplied the gyroscope chip at an estimated cost of $2.60, as well as an accelerometer chip used in previous iPhone versions, which has an estimated cost of 65¢.

Clash of Titans: Apple vs. Google

No question, placing ads or branded apps on mobile phones promises to be the Next Big Thing. The problem? People have been saying that for the last three years. Or, has it been five. For mobile marketers, the hurdles are still everywhere. First, there's market penetration. Even though it might look like everybody and his uncle has a smartphone, the truth is that less than a third of Americans (30.6 percent) are mobile Web users, according to eMarketer. So while brands like the idea of wireless marketing -- nearly 65 percent said they plan to invest in mobile apps this year, also per eMarketer -- they have reasons to be wary, too.

Forget Urban-Rural Broadband Digital Divide, What About the Rural-Rural Broadband Divide?

There's been much talk about the digital divide between rural and urban America -- a divide that many argue will be exacerbated by the National Broadband Plan which sets broadband speed targets of 4 Mb/s for services supported by the new Connect America Fund (CAF), and targets of 100 Mb/s for urban areas.

But as Windstream CEO Jeff Gardner points out, a rural-rural broadband digital divide already exists, where vast differences in broadband availability exist in rural territories. "We have heard about the fear that reform might create a rural urban divide, but the National Broadband Plan has recognized that the current rules have already created a rural-rural divide," said Gardner. He is correct. Within the context of broadband, there are two rural Americas. Generally speaking, rural Americans served by small rural local telephone companies and/or co-ops tend to have very good access to broadband services (whether they actually subscribe to it is a different story). Rural Americans served by large tier one and tier two carriers like Qwest and Verizon may not be so lucky. As Gardner points out, "About two thirds of all housing units without broadband are located in the service territory of larger [companies like] Windstream, Frontier, CenturyLink, Qwest, and AT&T." It's an important distinction because our current telecom policy has basically created a broadband digital divide in rural America, never mind the urban-rural divide. As policy makers craft the next generation of broadband policy they should keep this in mind. Does the National Broadband Plan and the CAF address this issue, or exacerbate it?

Benton

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