November 2010

House sends telework bill to President Obama

The House sent President Barack Obama a bill to boost telework at federal agencies, over objections by Republicans who said the measure would grant civil servants another costly fringe benefit and add layers of bureaucracy at a time when Americans want a smaller government. Members voted 254-152 to pass the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act (H.R. 1722), which requires agencies to determine which employees are eligible to work outside the office, to establish policies allowing them to do so and to inform them of the option. The measure also requires agencies to designate an official to oversee their telework program and to incorporate the alternative work arrangement in continuity of operations planning for natural disasters and other emergencies.

Global Warming Hot Topic Online

A very familiar topic generated significant attention in the blogosphere last week. But this time, the conversation largely emanated from a different side of the political and policy spectrum.

For the week of November 8-12, 17% of the news links on blogs were about global warming, making it the No. 2 subject, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. This marks the 10th week since the NMI began in January 2009 that the subject has ranked among the top five stories on blogs. In the past, climate change skeptics dominated the discussion. But last week, it was the believers - and they rallied behind news that 700 scientists are about to become more aggressive advocates for that view.

Public Knowledge Proposes Changes To 'Misleading and Abusive' Copyright Practices

Copyright owners are engaging in 'misleading and abusive' practices that are unfair to consumers, Public Knowledge said today in the third part of its Copyright Reform Act (CRA) project. The project was established to analyze problems with, and suggest solutions to, copyright law.

PK offered the following recommendations:

Prohibition of Misleading Copyright Warning Notices: Congress should direct the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") to promulgate and enforce rules that ensure copyright warning notices claim only exclusive rights that copyright owners have under copyright law. Copyright owners that continue to claim rights they do not have would be subject to penalties for unfair and deceptive acts under existing FTC regulations.
Required Disclosure of Technological Restrictions: Congress should direct the FTC to promulgate and enforce rules requiring the full and conspicuous disclosure of technological restrictions on consumers' ability to use products and services in ways that would otherwise be lawful under copyright law. Copyright owners failing to meet these requirements would lose their ability to hold consumers responsible for circumvention of undisclosed technological restrictions.
Motion to Strike for Copyright Misrepresentation: The Copyright Act should be amended to provide for a new special motion to strike, which would act as an efficient and effective procedural response available to targets of abusive copyright infringement claims that are based on misrepresenting the rights of a copyright owner, or that are likely to cause significant harm to competition or free expression if upheld. The motion would suspend discovery, and provide for attorneys' fees and costs if successful.

What New Deaf-Blind Equipment Program Should Look Like

In comments filed at the Federal Communications Commission, the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology addressed the Deaf-Blind Technology Equipment Distribution program, which is required under the 21st Century Communications & Video Accessibility Act of 2010.

COAT raised concerns about the definition of deaf-blind and the requirement for low-income people only to participate. They recommended that no more than 10% of available funding be allocated for research and development and suggested that the Commission make grants available for community-based organizations to conduct the necessary research and needs assessment. The Consumer Groups stated they are also strongly opposed to using existing state distribution programs for equipment distribution for the purpose of the new requirement, among other points made.

The 100 Most Influential Congressional Tweeters: Nancy Pelosi, Republicans Dominate

Republicans won the House at the mid-term election -- and they also won on social media. Democrats can take some solace in the fact that their newly elected minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), while ousted as House Speaker, is still the most influential tweeter in Congress.

HP Labs, using its unique "influence algorithm," analyzed 22 million tweets to determine the most influential representatives and Senators on Twitter. Overall, the results show that Democrats might want to reconsider their social media strategy. Of the top 100 most influential reps, 70 were Republicans. Of the 86 that were up for election this cycle, 79 of these top influencers won their races, while just seven lost. The report also showed that "popularity" was no replacement for "influence." Though Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) boasts 1.7 million followers on Twitter -- the most of any member of Congress -- he ranks just seventh, behind reps with far less fans. Now-House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi has only 15,000 followers, yet tops the list, according to HP Labs, as the most influential House rep on Twitter. Rep Michele Bachmann (R-MN) placed third, with only 22,000 followers.

FCC Headed to the Cloud

Terremark Worldwide announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has selected Terremark's Enterprise Cloud platform to support its strategy to leverage cloud computing, including the agency's plan to host its web site in the cloud.

Terremark's highly secure Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering will support the FCC's efforts to provide richer online services to citizens through a comprehensive overhaul that includes a complete and comprehensive redesign of FCC.gov and its online systems. The Enterprise Cloud provides the FCC with on-demand access to reliable computing resources delivered from an IaaS platform that is certified and accredited to Federal Information Security Managements Act (FISMA) requirements. The unique ability of Terremark's industry-leading cloud computing solution to directly and securely connect with dedicated servers housed in the FCC's datacenter was another vital differentiator in the agency's selection process.

Now that broadband grants are out, Commerce seeks money to make sure funds aren't misused

The Commerce Department is done doling out $4 billion in broadband stimulus grants. Now, it says it doesn't have enough money for oversight and monitoring of those grants to ensure they are put to good use.

In its quarterly report, Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration urged Congress to approve $23.7 million requested by President Barack Obama for broadband stimulus oversight. "Such funding is critically important to ensure that NTIA can effectively administer and monitor ... grants and to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent consistent with the Recovery Act's purposes," wrote NTIA. Indeed, the Commerce Department's Inspector General wrote in a report earlier this month that it was concerned with current oversight and management of grants, such as computer training for administrative staff. And it said funds to oversee the 233 grants would run out in December.

Emergency broadcast warnings to be sent to cellphones

The Emergency Broadcast System -- or something very similar -- could be coming to more than just the couch potatoes and radio devotees.

French telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent has engineered a system that can send warning messages to cellphones in the event of a terrorist attack, major road accident, evacuation or natural disaster. The "Broadcast Message Center" would allow government agencies to zap alerts to phones in the geographic area affected, whether across a few blocks or nationwide. For those with visual and hearing impairments, the texts would include vibrations and audio signals. The system, which is expected to begin operating in early 2012, is in advanced testing stages. Alcatel-Lucent also said that versions of the messaging system could be used by advertisers and interest groups looking for other marketing channels, companies seeking to get in touch with their mobile workforce or even service providers offering subscriber perks.

A dark trend runs through this year's Web 2.0 tech summit

[Commentary] Normally a sunny celebration about the future of the Web, one of the largest annual gatherings of the Internet elite took on a darker and more pessimistic tone this week. The fear that ran through the seventh annual Web 2.0 Summit is that the days when the Internet was a playground for startups with unlimited potential are disappearing.

Instead, we are moving into an era dominated by a handful of new Internet titans more interested in fighting each other for power and influence than in delighting users with new innovations. The names of the culprits are familiar, and include Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon.com. Each has assumed a dominant position in their respective markets -- mobile, search, social networking, e-commerce -- and are focused on how to defend their turf while infiltrating their rivals' territory. We, the consumers, are caught in the crossfire. We're likely to see fewer new products (like Twitter) and more services aimed mainly at locking us into the new Internet titans (I'd count Facebook's new message service in this category). By building up their walls, they keep us inside longer, allowing them to amass an arsenal of data about our behavior. And they have become so indispensable it becomes almost impossible for us to contemplate leaving them.

Republicans: GAO should probe NPR's dismissal of Juan Williams

Notching up the controversy dogging National Public Radio in recent weeks, two influential House Republicans want the government to probe whether taxpayer money has covered costs related to firing news analyst Juan Williams.

Reps. Joe Barton (R-TX) and Michael Burgess (R-TX), senior members of the House Commerce Committee, urged the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to examine how NPR spends its money. One concern is whether the outlet spent federal funds in its controversial decision to dismiss Williams last month following remarks the analyst made about Muslims.

"Were any federally appropriated funds expended in the course of any internal deliberations, negotiations, or drafting tasks carried out pursuant to NPR's October 20 decision to terminate its contract with Williams?" the lawmakers ask. The dismissal "may reflect a tendency on the part of NPR management to use its ethics rules to silence employees," they said. NPR might be using the pretense of ethical standards for reasons other than "[preserving] any core ethical or editorial standards."

Benton

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