October 2010

State of the Internet: Mobile Web's Explosive Growth

In 1999, it was the rapid growth of wired web services that was the top story. Fast-forward to today, and it's the massive and seemingly unstoppable growth of the mobile Internet that's all the rage.

The demand for mobile Internet (and its subset, mobile web) is upending all expectations and predictions. Between Apple and Google, about 500,000 new portable Internet devices are getting connected to the Internet. In its State of the Internet Report for the second quarter of 2010, content distribution network Akamai notes there are 19 mobile carriers around the world offering connections with average real world speeds of over 6.1 Mbps, while 29 carriers have an average speed of 1 Mbps.

On the wired Internet side, the continuous deployment of fiber-based broadband networks and new DOCSIS 3.0-based cable broadband networks is causing a sharp increase in broadband speeds in some parts of the world. According to Akamai data, the average connection speed on a global basis was around 1.8 Mbps; up 6.1 percent from the second quarter of 2009, and up 3.8 percent from the second quarter of 2010.

California Releases Public Safety Communications Strategic Plan

California's public safety agencies maintain 14 separate systems, in varying conditions, to deliver on their missions throughout the state. Several agencies experience coverage gaps and use old equipment that's difficult to maintain, while others are looking toward 2013 narrowbanding requirements and adding data capabilities to their working voice networks for interoperability, according to an assessment of agency systems included in a statewide plan.

The California Public Safety Radio Communications Strategic Plan seeks to provide goals and objectives to ensure that the state has up-to-date communications technologies in place to aid departments' daily work as well during an emergency.

Beacons test community health care strategies

Federally funded "beacon" communities are tackling the problem of hospital readmissions and other tough health care challenges by testing the effectiveness of multiple treatment strategies simultaneously instead of taking the traditional approach of testing one treatment at a time, according to the program's director.

The model communities, which have already embraced electronic health records and information exchange, are working to determine which specific treatments best improve patient outcomes for their region's healthcare goals. They would then share for those results that they can share with other communities. "No one specific intervention in each community is designed to be the thing that will lead to improved health goals," said Aaron McKethan, director of ONC's Beacon program in the Office of the National Coordinator. "There are a lot of things happening in service to a specific aim in each of these communities," he said.

Americans give low marks to Obama transparency effort at agencies

The public isn't convinced that the Obama administration is being fully open with Americans, more than a year and a half after the president launched a governmentwide transparency effort, according to a new survey. But compared to regulated industries in the United States, the White House is doing a lot better.

The White House earned a score of 46 out of a possible 100 on its attempts to be transparent about what the West Wing is doing; federal agencies came in with an aggregate score of 40; Congress rated 37; and the banking and health care sectors both were at 32. At the bottom of the list: the energy industry, with a 30 rating. To measure perceptions of transparency, ForeSee Results, a market research firm, conducted an online survey asking participants to evaluate the thoroughness of the information various federal organizations and industries disclosed; the speed with which that information was released; and the ease of accessing it.

Election will remake House Telecommunications Panel

The House Communications Subcommittee could look far different in 2011 than it does today -- even if Democrats ultimately retain control of the chamber. An election night that leaves House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's majority intact -- if only barely -- could still change the ratio of Democrats to Republicans on the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, guaranteeing Chairman Rick Boucher (D-Va.) -- currently in the GOP's cross hairs -- fewer votes to tackle the tough disputes that rest in the hands of his panel.

Conversely, a landslide loss for the party in November would bring the subcommittee its first new leader since Democrats took the reins in 2006. And given the jockeying among hopeful Republicans for plum committee assignments, the subcommittee could wind up with a chairman who isn't even sitting on the panel today, Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR.).

The Fox News Factor

At a strategy meeting earlier this month, Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell reportedly told party insiders skeptical about her campaign that she had Fox News' "Sean Hannity in my back pocket, and I can go on his show and raise money by attacking you guys." The fact that Fox News and its right-wing news personalities favor conservative candidates is not a secret to many people with a cable box, but amidst the current discussion over how big money is influencing this election cycle, Rupert Murdoch's highly rated "news" channel is rarely placed in the discussion.

It should be: Fox News, part of the multi-billion dollar News Corporation, uses its $1.21 billion budget to provide a 24-hour propaganda and fundraising outlet for conservative candidates, many of whom confess the channel is their preferred method of "getting their voice out."

The channel hosts or straight-out employs more conservative politicians than any other outlet, and provides a constant stream for their misinformation, which is often abetted by Fox News personalities, many of whom campaign for or advise GOP candidates off the air. The right-wing billionaires who are the financial backbone of the Tea Party movement have a partner in Fox News, which has been instrumental in propagating its message, even hosting live Tea Party rallies from outdoor Fox News studios. And in recent months, News Corp. has simply handed over millions of dollars to conservative campaign outfits like the Republican Governors Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

4G public safety network to undergo first tests

Partners from the telecom industry are being signed up to participate in a demonstration network being established by the Commerce Department to test next-generation communications technology for a nationwide public safety network.

The first vendor, Alcatel-Lucent, signed on in September to provide Long Term Evolution equipment for wireless testing in a controlled environment under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. Other companies are in talks with the Public Safety Communications Research program, said Dereck Orr, PSCR program manager for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. "We want to have multiple manufacturers because the nationwide network is likely to include equipment from multiple vendors," Orr said. The demo network will fill a need for facilities to test and demonstrate behaviors of emerging LTE technologies on the yet-to-be-deployed 700 MHz network. LTE has been identified as the technology that will be used on the proposed network and the lab will provide a neutral site for vendors to work out interoperability issues in a multiple-vendor environment and a learning environment for public safety officials who will be using the equipment.

Google is latest weapon against Republicans

How many clicks does it take to soil a candidate's online reputation? A prominent liberal activist would like to find out.

Chris Bowers, campaign director for the Daily Kos, is launching a behind-the-scenes campaign against 98 House Republican candidates that attempts to capitalize on voters' Google search habits in the hopes of influencing midterm races. Bowers wants the Daily Kos' thousands of participants to dig up little-noted or controversial news stories about the candidates that could hurt their chances with undecided voters. Users would click on the links and blog about the stories with the goal of boosting their rankings on search engines, so that undecided voters will discover them more easily. He sees the campaign as a 21st century version of pamphleteering: Daily Kos readers are simply providing informational materials that are already out there in the same way that volunteers would hand out information to voters on the street. The use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is standard practice for companies and campaigns managing their reputations online or news organizations attempting to drive Internet traffic but Bowers' focus on promoting strategically damaging stories is unique.

Starbucks Digital Network Brews Up Curated Web Content

Starbucks -- the company that has long curated our tastes in music, books, and DVDs -- is taking a shot at curating our online lives as well. Starbucks figures the network will give you one more reason to choose them over a competing coffee shop.

The Starbucks Digital Network, which launches Wednesday, is a content site accessible only via the Wi-Fi network, now free, in all Starbucks stores. Produced by the coffee shop in partnership with Yahoo, the network serves up a slew of content--some of it available elsewhere, some of it exclusive to the network--which customers can peruse while in the company's coffee shops. Among the offerings: free access to the New York Times Reader 2.0, WSJ.com, and the USA Today eEdition; a clip from the new documentary Waiting for Superman by An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim; an excerpt from the upcoming novel Rescue by bestselling author Anita Shreeve; free access to Nick Jr. Boost's educational content for kids; and exclusive video of job-seeking tips from LinkedIn's Lindsey Pollak. The network also includes content from Patch, Zagat, the Weather Channel, and classroom-project fundraising site DonorsChoose.org, localized based on which store you're in.

US working with China on intellectual property rights

Attorney General Eric Holder is visiting Beijing this week to discuss how China -- a hotbed for counterfeit goods and piracy -- can better coordinate its efforts with the U.S. to stop intellectual property rights violations.

On Oct 20, AG Holder held talks on the issue with senior Chinese officials in the country's capital, according to China's state-controlled media. Earlier in the week, the Attorney General spoke in Hong Kong, stressing the need for countries to prevent violations of intellectual property rights. Such abuses have caused businesses to lose billions at the expense of piracy, while consumers have been put at risk by unknowingly using shoddy counterfeit goods, AG Holder said. "For too long, these illegal activities have been perceived as 'business as usual.' But not any more," AG Holder said. Tech product manufacturers are a major victim of these intellectual property rights offenses. Piracy of music, movies and software is rampant in China, where bootleg copies can be easily found and sold on street corners.

Coinciding with Holder's visit, China announced it will launch a new national campaign to crack down on intellectual property rights violations. The campaign will take aim at the production and distribution of pirated goods such as DVDs and software products. Violations relating to registered trademarks and patents will also be targeted. The campaign will last for half a year.

Benton

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