August 2010

Verizon and Google are "talking about keeping net neutrality but not on wireless, and, ultimately, we're going to be all wireless anyway."
-- Sen Al Franken (D-MN) http://bit.ly/cETaN7

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2010

Future of the Internet Public Hearing in Minneapolis this evening http://bit.ly/c3GR4m

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   $1.8 Billion in Broadband Stimulus Awards Announced
   RUS Doubles Down On DSL Among Other Mistakes
   What if ISPs had to advertise minimum speeds? In Hungary, they do
   The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet

NETWORK NEUTRALITY
   Network neutrality talks resume without FCC
   Minneapolis Hearing on Internet's Future
   Don't erect tollbooths on information superhighway
   'Network neutrality' regulations are unnecessary and burdensome
   Sen Franken on Wireless Network Neutrality, Comcast-NBC [Video]

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
   Nominations Sought for Emergency Response Interoperability Center Public Safety Advisory Committee
   Get, get, get down: 911 revenue's no joke in your town

BROADCASTING
   NPR Listening By The Numbers -- And The Platform [w/slideshow!]
   'Nightly Business Report' Sold by PBS Station

OWNERSHIP
   Tribune Gets More Time for Bankruptcy Plan

HEALTH
   Healing Rural Patients With A Dose Of Broadband
   California launches nation's largest telehealth network
   Health IT: Big Costs, Big Savings
   CMS sets funding rules for Medicaid Health IT projects
   ONC finds many states use similar program data

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Aneesh Chopra On A Mission To Woo Silicon Valley
   Cloud Computing Requires National Policy Leadership

PRIVACY
   New Facebook Location Feature Sparks Privacy Concerns
   Despite Changes, Buzz Still Violates Privacy Say Gmail Users Suing Google

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   If German Homes Can Now Opt Out Of Google, Then How About People?
   Multitask Britons text, view and chat

MORE ONLINE
   Cuomo says 6 settle on hidden online shopping fees
   No Newspaper Growth Expected Before 2013

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

BTOP, BIP AWARDS
[SOURCE: The White House]
Vice President Biden today announced 94 Recovery Act investments in broadband projects that will create jobs and expand economic opportunities within 37 states. These investments in high-speed Internet infrastructure will help bridge the technological divide in communities that are being left in the 20th century economy and support improvements in education, healthcare, and public safety. Today's announcement, an investment totaling $1.8 billion, is part of a nearly $7 billion Recovery Act initiative. The announcement includes 66 grants awarded by the Commerce Department for projects to deploy broadband infrastructure and connect community anchor institutions to broadband, create and upgrade public computer centers, and encourage the sustainable adoption of broadband service. It also includes 28 awards from USDA for broadband infrastructure and satellite projects that will provide rural residents in 16 states and Native American tribal areas access to improved service.
Government investment is needed to pick up the slack in rural areas where Internet service providers fail to adequately build out their networks. "We're seeing that without this -- high-speed Internet investments by the federal government -- so many of the for-profit Internet service providers don't" see it as economical to build out in such areas, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said. "So this is really very much about job creation and helping businesses across America become stronger and be more competitive."
Noteworthy among the funded projects are five new networks for public safety services, such as a $38.7 million project in Albuquerque and Santa Fe (NM) that will enable streaming of patient data from paramedics to hospitals and other types of data transmission. Satellite services are also being funded for the first time in four projects, including a $7.5 million award to Spacenet, Inc., to provide broadband service to rural customers in Alaska and Hawaii.
benton.org/node/40980 | White House, The | The Hill | techdailydose.nationaljournal.com
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DSL BIP AWARDS
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
A few weeks ago Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) released the first batch of winners for the second round of the broadband stimulus program. While critical of how they handled the selection process and of how they chose primarily private closed networks in the first round, I had to give RUS credit for focusing most of its support on networks that will put rural Americans on a level playing field with the rest of the world. Yet their focus on full fiber networks was met by a bit of an outcry from many in the broadband industry, decrying RUS's investment in technology they claim is too expensive and not needed. Unfortunately, it appears as though those misguided, self-interested criticisms have gotten through to RUS, as evidenced by the fact that they decided to focus much more heavily on subsidizing "cheaper" and less capable networks, in particular DSL, in the second round. In total, RUS decided to fund about 50 projects in this first batch of second round winners that will use these federal dollars to buildout DSL networks. The problem with this is that DSL is an outdated technology, and I'm not alone in saying that. If you look at market trends, cable networks are eating DSL's lunch in basically every competitive broadband market. If you look at the world's broadband leaders, most have moved past DSL entirely to focus solely on fiber and wireless buildout.
benton.org/node/40983 | App-Rising.com
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ADVERTISING MINIMUM SPEEDS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
The Federal Communications Commission reported this week that broadband users see about half the advertised "up to" speeds promised by Internet providers, and similar findings were made earlier this year in the UK. (Keep in mind that some speed problems are outside the control of the ISP, including poor indoor wiring, bad WiFi setups, outdated computer hardware, and Internet congestion.) Given the massive disconnect between the actual and advertised speeds, how is a broadband buyer to know in advance how well the connection will function? Hungary faced the same issue and has tried to address it with a novel solution: ISPs must offer guaranteed minimum speeds. Hungarian journalist Balázs Tóth writes in to say that Hungarian regulators required the guaranteed minimums back in 2008; the results are now easily visible at any ISP website.
benton.org/node/40974 | Ars Technica
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THE WEB IS DEAD
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Chris Anderson, Michael Wolff]
Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services — think apps — are less about the searching and more about the getting. Chris Anderson explains how this new paradigm reflects the inevitable course of capitalism. And Michael Wolff explains why the new breed of media titan is forsaking the Web for more promising (and profitable) pastures.
benton.org/node/40964 | Wired
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY

NETWORK NEUTRALITY TALKS RESUME
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Apparently, network neutrality discussions between industry stakeholders resumed August 18 in Washington (DC). The Federal Communications Commission is not involved in the talks. "While we're not involved in these new discussions, we're glad that there is ongoing dialogue," said FCC spokeswoman Jen Howard. The lobbyist-led talks at the Information Technology Industry Council offices include NCTA, Verizon, AT&T and Skype. Microsoft and Cisco have joined as well. The Open Internet Coalition (OIC), which took part in the previous discussions, did not attend.
benton.org/node/40984 | Hill, The
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MINNEAPOLIS HEARING
[SOURCE: MinnPost.com, AUTHOR: Amalia Deloney, Joshua Breitbart]
[Commentary] On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission will be in Minneapolis for a public hearing on the future of the Internet. The big question now looming over this hearing is whether the fate of the Internet has already been decided behind closed doors before the FCC has heard what the public has to say. This hearing should be an opportunity for the FCC commissioners to learn from those outside of Washington (DC) as they deliberate over whether the Internet will be an open platform for public discussion and innovation or a private pathway for delivering commercial content. The two commissioners who have agreed to attend, Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn, have been stalwart defenders of the public Interest. The Minneapolis hearing is our opportunity to insist that the public will not be ignored. Commissioners Clyburn and Copps will be there, along with Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. If you use the Internet or would like to, you should be there, too.
[Amalia Deloney is the policy director for the Center for Media Justice and a Knight Media Policy Fellow with New America Foundation. Joshua Breitbart is the senior field analyst for New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative.]
benton.org/node/40976 | MinnPost.com
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INTERNET TOLLBOOTHS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Last week, when Google and Verizon proposed a so-called network neutrality plan for the Internet, their idea was about as popular as a service outage. Consumer groups blasted it as an effort by powerful companies to become the Internet's gatekeepers, to the detriment of everyone but themselves. The lone member of the Federal Communications Commission to comment panned it as well. The Internet has been one of the biggest growth engines in modern history, allowing companies such as Google and Facebook to become multibillion dollar concerns virtually overnight. This plan could put an end to that kind of explosive innovation, at least in wireless, where much of the Internet's growth is expected to come from in the next few years. Anyone with a great idea for a new Web application might have to develop it under the wings of one of the incumbent powers molding and controlling the wireless Internet. Although the Verizon-Google proposal looks all but dead for now, it's the latest example of how the Internet is under assault by those who would erect tollbooths on what is now a freeway. It is also clear evidence of how the FCC needs to set up clear rules to prevent Internet service providers and device makers from controlling what content people can access. If those controls were to happen, the Internet wouldn't really be the Internet anymore. And that would be a loss for everyone.
benton.org/node/40979 | USAToday
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NET NEUTRALITY IS BURDENSOME
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Steve Largent]
[Commentary] US wireless consumers and service providers stand together in wanting to preserve the open Internet; the question is whether invasive government regulation should be imposed on competitive mobile Internet services. These regulations are unnecessary and would be affirmatively harmful. Simply put, wireless service is different. At any given time on a wireless network, some users are making voice calls or sending e-mails, some are surfing the Internet or perhaps streaming video and others are making lifesaving 911 calls. And they're doing all of that on the move with finite spectrum — not a network made up of fiber with almost unlimited capacity. Network management tools make the mobile Internet a better experience, ensuring that 911 calls get through, voice calls are clear, streaming video plays smoothly and Web pages load quickly. Net neutrality sounds innocent enough, but it's actually a serious threat to this innovative and increasingly indispensable mode of communication. It ignores the qualities that make wireless Internet service different and the tools used every day to bring Americans the mobile Internet. Right now, the U.S. market is driving worldwide wireless innovation, but that can change in a heartbeat. Let's not derail this engine of economic growth, innovation and U.S. leadership. [Largent president and CEO of CTIA, the trade association of the wireless communications industry]
benton.org/node/40978 | USAToday
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FRANKEN INTERVIEW
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Sen Al Franken (D-MN) suggested that a wireless exemption to network neutrality rules could leave a significant portion of Internet traffic unregulated. "[Ultimately," he said, " we're going to be all wireless anyway." On the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC: "My fear is if Comcast, which is the largest cable provider and the third largest Internet service provider and the largest landline service provider [merged], why aren't Verizon and AT&T going to say, 'Ya know what? We've got to buy ABC, we've got to buy NBC.'" "[Y]ou'd have a few companies, four companies, controlling almost all the information that everyone gets. ... If that were allowed to happen, 'Katy bar the door.'"
benton.org/node/40977 | Hill, The
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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

NOMINATIONS SOUGHT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission is seeking nominations and expressions of interest for membership on the Emergency Response Interoperability Center Public Safety Advisory Committee. The purpose of this Committee is to make recommendations that will assist the Commission's Emergency Response Interoperability Center (ERIC), an entity established within the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, in the development of a technical framework and requirements for interoperability in order to ensure that the public safety wireless broadband network is interoperable on a nationwide basis. In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Commission published on July 23, 2010, a notice of its intent to establish the Committee. The charter was then filed on August 6, 2010. The charter terminates on August 6, 2012, although it may be renewed. Under the terms of its charter, the Committee will be responsible for assisting ERIC as it implements the following policy objectives: (1) the adoption of technical and operational requirements and procedures to ensure a nationwide level of interoperability; (2) the adoption and implementation of requirements and procedures to address operability, roaming, priority access, gateway functions and interfaces, the interconnectivity of public safety broadband networks, and other matters related to the functioning of the nationwide public safety broadband network; (3) the adoption of authentication and encryption requirements for common public safety broadband applications and network use; (4) the coordination of ERIC's policies with other entities, including other federal agencies; and (5) such other policies for which ERIC may have responsibilities from time to time. Nominations should be received by the Commission as soon as possible, but no later than September 17, 2010.
benton.org/node/40975 | Federal Communications Commission
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FCC'S 911 REPORT
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
If you take a close look at your mobile or landline phone monthly bill, you'll note a list of "Government Fees and Taxes" somewhere on the statement. This should include a tithe typically labeled "9-1-1 emergency services," which presumably subsidizes just that -- the agencies that answer the phone and connect to first responders when you call 911 for help. But does the money really go there? A new survey by the Federal Communications Commission indicates that in 2009 over a dozen states did not or may not have spent these funds on 911 or "E911" services, which zone in on caller locations. The good news is that most states spend their 911 fees on what they're supposed to -- dispatchers and networking equipment. And although California and Virginia transferred some of this money to areas that technically weren't part of their 911 systems, they basically went to emergency services.
benton.org/node/40982 | Ars Technica | FCC
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BROADCASTING

NPR LISTENING STATS
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Staci Kramer]
Some intriguing details from National Public Radio about when listeners tune in for its programming -- and what platforms they use. For instance, the iPhone app is by far the most used mobile option, peaking during morning drive/commute time while the iPad app and the mobile site spike in the late evening. NPR.org's primetime is mid-afternoon on weekdays, averaging more than 70,000 uniques around 2 p.m. when radio listening is at its workday lowest.
benton.org/node/40985 | paidContent.org | NPR
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NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT SOLD
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Jensen]
"Nightly Business Report" on PBS, by some measures the nation's most-watched business newscast, has been acquired from its owner, the public station WPBT-TV in Miami, by a private company headed by Mykalai Kontilai, a former manager of mixed martial artists and distributor of instructional television programs. The move is the second major change in the last year for the half-hour program. In December, Paul Kangas, an anchor who had been with the program since its founding 31 years ago, retired, and the program was redesigned, with Tom Hudson in Miami and Susie Gharib at the New York Stock Exchange as anchors. About 500,000 viewers tune in nightly. Like many public television programs, "Nightly Business Report" has struggled recently to find enough corporate underwriting sponsors.
benton.org/node/40991 | New York Times
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OWNERSHIP

TRIBUNE EXTENSION
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Erik Sass]
The judge presiding over Tribune Company's bankruptcy case has extended the deadline for the company to put its bankruptcy reorganization plan up for a vote by creditors and shareholders. That gives the company more time to negotiate with aggrieved bondholders, who recently got more ammunition in the form of critical findings from an independent examiner appointed by the court. The judge granted the open-ended extension (canceling the vote scheduled for this Friday, without setting a new date) in response to a request from Tribune, which hopes to eventually obtain the support of the dissenting bondholders for its reorganization plan. A new date for the vote may be set at a follow-up hearing on Friday, according to Tribune's attorneys.
benton.org/node/40987 | MediaPost
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HEALTH

HEALING RURAL PATIENTS
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Laura Sydell]
Millions of Americans who live in rural areas travel long distances to get health care. Or they may go without it. But high-speed Internet connections now make it possible to bring a doctor's expertise to patients in far-off places, if those places are connected. As part of its National Broadband Plan, the Federal Communications Commission has pledged $400 million a year to connect nearly 12,000 rural health care providers. The program is aimed at improving equipment, bandwidth and training in remote locations.
benton.org/node/40966 | National Public Radio
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CALIFORNIA TELEHEALTH NETWORK
[SOURCE: HealthcareITNews, AUTHOR: Molly Merrill]
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra joined a diverse group of statewide healthcare and technology agencies August 17 at the UC Davis Cancer Center in Sacramento to launch the California Telehealth Network (CTN), which is set to be the largest in the nation. "Our passion for broadband and healthcare is tangible and real and will have a big impact here in California," said Chopra during the announcement. The CTN network will provide both the traditional and advanced IT infrastructure that telemedicine needs for growth, he said. The network is the result of a $30 million joint funding effort between the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF), the California HealthCare Foundation, UnitedHealthcare, the National Coalition for Healthcare Integration, the University of California and other private and public entities.
"Here, we're talking about the digital highway, broadband, that is also part of the infrastructure," Gov Schwarzenegger said. "A lot of people are not aware of that, but there are a thousand people a year dying in California of just someone misreading a prescription or not having the total medical records and so on, so this is inexcusable." With the launch of the California Telehealth Network, he said, "We are changing that, and reducing errors, and saving money at the same time."
"I think telemedicine is going to be the future of medicine," Gov Schwarzenegger said, adding that telehealth is a facet of healthcare reform in that it helps provide good-quality, affordable care for everyone.
benton.org/node/40965 | HealthcareITNews | ModernHealthcare.com
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HEALTH IT SAVINGS
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: John Pulley]
Consulting firm McKinsey has identified three characteristics of successful health information technology rollouts that will allow capable users of electronic health records to capture $40 billion in annual savings. To realize the greatest return on investment, hospitals must rethink approaches to governance and change management; radically simplify IT architecture; and take a methodical approach to the planning and execution of large-scale IT rollouts. The cost to implement new health IT at U.S. hospitals will average $80,000 to $100,000 per bed or $120 billion nationwide, estimates McKinsey. Federal incentives will offset 15 to 20 percent of those costs, making the timely recovery of IT investments imperative. When implementation is done well, the productivity and resource savings often pay back the initial IT investment within two to four years while also producing better health outcomes for patients.
benton.org/node/40970 | nextgov | McKinsey Quarterly
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CMS HEALTH IT FUNDING RULES
[SOURCE: GovernemntHealthIT, AUTHOR: Brian Robinson]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has published its final guidance to state Medicaid directors on what they can expect from the federal government in terms of funding support for their health IT activities, clearing the way for them to start-up programs for the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records. In a letter published Aug. 17, CMS laid out three minimum requirements that states have to meet in order to qualify for a 90 percent federal financial participation (FFP) match for any state administrative expenses tied to EHR activities. States are already guaranteed a 100 percent FFP for incentive payments to eligible Medicaid providers to adopt and meaningfully use EHRs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
benton.org/node/40972 | GovernemntHealthIT
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STATES USING SIMILAR PROGRAM DATA
[SOURCE: GovernemntHealthIT, AUTHOR: Mary Mosquera]
A number of states use health and social program eligibility and enrollment data that are similar enough that they could be a foundation for sharing information by electronic health insurance exchanges, according to an analysis by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). Certain pieces of information that states collect, such as name, address and gender, are close enough in definition and format that they could be easily unified as common data elements, said Dr. Doug Fridsma, acting director of ONC's office of standards and interoperability. Common data elements and technical standards are needed to share information across health and human service programs to support the development of state insurance exchanges in 2014, a requirement of this year's health reform legislation. Under the law, the exchanges must electronically direct individuals to Medicaid services, high risk pools and other public and private health plans as millions more Americans become eligible for health insurance. But the task will require a significant amount of back-end engineering by states to link the relevant databases. The federal government is trying to assist them by leading a push for common eligibility and enrollment data standards.
benton.org/node/40971 | GovernemntHealthIT
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

CHOPRA IN THE VALLEY
[SOURCE: Forbes, AUTHOR: Oliver Chiang]
On August 17, US Chief Technology Officer Commonwealth Club, the country's oldest and largest public affairs forum, to deliver a talk at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The talk, called "Building a Future for Technological Innovation," covered the recent highlights and future goals of a range of areas the Obama administration is concerned with, like healthcare IT, improving STEM education and research, and cybersecurity. In other words, Chopra didn't cover any new ground. But that's not why he was there. The agenda for the night, and for at least a good deal of his latest trip to California, was to court Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, movers and shakers. Chopra mentioned he had also visited Facebook and Twitter earlier for meetings. The CTO said he understood that there was reluctance among Silicon Valley to get involved in the politics of Washington too "wired for insiders." But he ended the lecture portion of his talk with a call to arms. "My job when I heard that feedback was to fundamentally reduce the friction associated with participation in Washington," Chopra said. "We are tapping into the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people."
benton.org/node/40968 | Forbes
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PRIVACY

NEW FACEBOOK PRIVACY CONCERNS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jenna Wortham]
Moments after Facebook introduced a new feature called Facebook Places on August 18 that allows its users to share their location and find their friends, advocates raised flags over online privacy. The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California cited concerns over the new product, saying Facebook neglected to include several crucial privacy features. The organization highlighted the element of the new service that allows users to "tag" an accompanying friend and post his or her location to Facebook - even if the friend does not have an iPhone, which is currently the only platform on which the application is available. "Places allows your friends to tag you when they check in somewhere, and Facebook makes it very easy to say 'yes' to allowing your friends to check in for you," read the statement, released late Wednesday night. "But when it comes to opting out of that feature, you are only given a 'not now' option. 'No' isn't one of the easy options." The ACLU also expressed concern over the integration of Facebook's Places feature with third-party Web sites and applications.
benton.org/node/40990 | New York Times | Inside Facebook
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GOOGLE BUZZ PRIVACY
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
Web users suing Google about its new Buzz platform argue in new court papers that the program continues to infringe on their privacy notwithstanding recent tweaks. "Despite making several rounds of modifications in the week after introducing Buzz, Google has not sufficiently altered the Buzz program to remedy the ongoing privacy violations," Gmail users allege in an amended complaint filed recently in U.S. District Court in San Jose. The new complaint consolidates seven individual lawsuits filed against Google between February and June. The consumers allege that Google violated federal wiretap laws with Buzz, which created social networks out of people's Gmail contacts. At its launch, in February, the feature revealed information about the names of users' email contacts, if users activated Buzz without changing the defaults. Since then, Google has significantly revised the service; now, it merely suggests followers, rather than automatically creating them. "When we realized we'd unintentionally made some users unhappy, we moved quickly and make significant product improvements to address their concerns," a Google spokesman said. "We're continuing to make more improvements based on feedback from users."
benton.org/node/40988 | MediaPost
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

STREET VIEW IN GERMANY
[SOURCE: TechCrunch, AUTHOR: Alexia Tsotsis]
Google made their "opt out of street view" service live in Germany August 17, giving select Germans until September 15 to exclude their properties from being mapped when the Street View service launches. The function will be available for a limited time in the 20 cities that are mentioned which includes Berlin, Dresden and Hamburg and then extend to all cities covered as Google Maps Germany rolls out. Allowing private citizens to mass opt out of certain Google search functions is unprecedented until now. Why not give people the option to opt out of search entirely? After all, a hypothetical "Opt out" or rather "Do not index these pages I swear are about me and harmful" is considerably less far-fetched a privacy solution than Erick Schmidt's suggestion that people change their names. Bear in mind that there is no specific German law forcing Google to do this, and buildings, experts have assessed, do not count as person-related data in Germany. The general privacy greyzones of the strict German Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (Federal Data Protection Act) and the fact that German citizens and the newspaper BILD are up in arms over the risk that their data will be used maliciously pressured the search giant into providing this special service.
benton.org/node/40969 | TechCrunch
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A NATION OF MULTITASKERS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Tim Bradshaw]
Social networks and increasingly sophisticated mobile phones have made the UK a nation of media multitaskers, new research shows. A fifth of all media is consumed at the same time as another form of communication, according to research compiled by Ofcom, the media regulator, with people spending almost half of their waking hours glued to a screen, on the phone to friends or listening to the radio. Although television is as popular as ever, almost one-fifth of the time spent watching TV is now accompanied by laptop or mobile activity. Younger people are leading the multitasking trend, Ofcom says. Those aged 15 to 24 squeeze nearly five hours' worth of media consumption into two hours of real time - mostly via a combination of mobiles, instant messaging and Facebook, the social networking site.
benton.org/node/40989 | Financial Times
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