November 2010

Tech-savvy put explosion of data to work

Analyzing large sets of data to rev up business operations is as old as arithmetic. But two big variables have changed.

First, the sheer volume of data amassed over the past decade is not just unprecedented, it's mind-boggling. This year the amount of digital information created and replicated is expected to hit an astounding 1.2 zettabytes. That's 1 trillion gigabytes, enough data to fill a stack of DVDs reaching from Earth to the moon and back, according to researcher IDC. That number will approach 35 zettabytes by 2020; picture a stack of DVDs reaching halfway to Mars.

Second, the general populace has become tech savvy. Most people are at ease surfing the Internet and using mobile devices. Combine the two variables, and you find business intelligence exploding on several fronts.

Unwrap a new way to watch TV

Watch what you want to, when you want to. And because the Internet is so vast, you can find virtually anything you're interested in online — Spanish guitar performances, cooking demos, silly videos, artsy student films — and enjoy it from the comfort of your bed or couch on a flat-screen TV in high-definition, instead of on a small computer screen.

You don't have to ditch cable to enjoy one of the Web TV set-top boxes. Instead, you can use the box to complement what you currently get on TV. Missed the latest episode of Fox's Glee and don't want to wait for the rerun in January? Rent it for a buck via Amazon on Roku or iTunes on Apple TV. Already paying monthly for Netflix? Why wait for the discs to arrive? With Apple TV, Roku, Google TV, Boxee and Western Digital's new WD TV Live Hub, you can access Netflix's library on your set. Installation for most of the boxes is simple: Just power them up and plug an HDMI cable from the back of the unit into the TV.

Google, Facebook, Microsoft huddle with GOP transition chairman and Treasury official

Government affairs executives from some of the nation's leading technology companies met with top officials from both parties at an off-the-record summit at TechNet's Washington (DC) offices. Top policy officials from Google, Facebook, Cisco, Microsoft and nearly 40 other companies convened with GOP Transition Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and Gene Sperling, counselor to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. Their summit included remarks from Sperling and Walden and focused on the tech sector's usual concerns, including high-skilled immigration, taxes and how to move toward policies that spur job creation and innovation.

Patrick Butler to Head APTS

The board of the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) has named Patrick Butler as its new president and chief executive officer.

Butler retired as senior vice president of the Washington Post Co. in December 2008 after 18 years managing the company's public policy, new business development and special corporate projects. Among his Post Company duties, Butler was founder and president of Newsweek Productions, which produced more than 200 hours of non-fiction television programming, including Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History, which won the Emmy Award for Best Documentary of 2003.

He is chairman of the Maryland Public Television Foundation, whose Thinkport online education platform has been credited with helping improve the scholastic performance of Maryland students. He has served on the board of APTS since 2009.

Butler earlier was Washington vice president of Times Mirror, the corporate parent of the Los Angeles Times, and as government relations vice president of RCA, which owned NBC.

In government service, Butler was a speechwriter for President Gerald R. Ford and special assistant to US Senate Majority Leader Howard H. Baker, Jr of Tennessee. Nominated by President Reagan and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a member of the National Council on the Humanities, he chaired the public programs committee of the National Endowment for the Humanities and recommended funding for Ken Burns's The Civil War, among other projects.

Online Travel Sites Lobby Congress To Block Google-ITA deal

In its ongoing effort to try to block Google's acquisition of ITA Software, a coalition of online travel sites sent a letter to every member of Congress warning against the negative repercussions that merging the two companies could have on consumers.

"This combination threatens to enable Google to dominate online flight and travel search, which can reduce the quality of travel information available to consumers, increase advertising costs, and result in higher airfares," according to the letter from the Fair Search coalition, which includes Expedia, Hotwire, TripAdvisor, KAYAK and Travelocity. ITA, which makes travel technology software, provides the backend flight search technology for American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Continental Airlines, Bing, Kayak, and Orbitz and others. With Google's dominance in the search market overall, travel search competitors fear they will be squeezed out of the marketplace.

"We believe that Google should not be allowed to enter a market in a way that simultaneously undermines the ability of other competitors to provide quality products to consumers and continue to innovate themselves," the coalition said.

TV Station Groups Enjoy Political Ad Windfall

Eighty percent of the $3 billion spent on political advertising went for spot TV.

With stations in Las Vegas and Phoenix, Meredith posted a record amount of political ad dollars this election season. The $33.2 million for its 12 stations blew away its intake in the presidential run of 2008, and nipped the $32.6 million it garnered four years ago. The Sinclair group took in about $42 million -- 2% above 2008. Sinclair has a CW-MyNetworkTV duopoly in Las Vegas. Meredith has the Fox station in the Nevada market that had Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spending liberally to hold onto his seat. In Phoenix, Meredith's CBS affiliate was positioned to benefit from Sen. John McCain efforts to stay in office.

Phone books may become (white) pages of the past

Score another one for the digital revolution. The phone book -- or at least the residential white pages -- is going the way of the rotary telephone and the phone booth.

Verizon, the largest provider of land line phones in the Washington region, is asking state regulators for permission to stop delivering the residential white pages in Virginia and Maryland. The company plans to make a similar request of the D.C. Public Service Commission in the next several weeks, Verizon spokesman Harry Mitchell said. Instead, the directories will be available online or, by request, in printed form or on CD-ROM. But the inches-thick white pages, a fixture in American households for more than a century, would no longer land on porches with a thud each year.

US Courts Afghans Through Television

In a country where police are often known for drug use, bribe-taking and bungled operations, one elite squad stands out -- well-trained officers who protect the weak, effortlessly take out would-be suicide bombers and also look good in tank tops. They are the fictional police unit of "Eagle Four," the first of several television shows funded by the U.S. government as part of a strategy to galvanize Afghans behind their security forces. The show's first episodes debuted in recent weeks on Tolo TV, one of Afghanistan's largest stations. Tolo will follow up in the spring with "Birth of an Army," a reality show that follows recruits from their first training missions to their battles with insurgents.

The US-backed shows are part of a broad allied effort to counter a Taliban propaganda offensive against coalition and Afghan forces, a push that runs parallel to the surge of forces on the ground. TV is seen as an effective way for the US to spread its message to Afghanistan's largely young and illiterate population. A cop show appeals to the core demographic: impressionable young men.

BT warns of challenge to Ofcom fees ruling

British telecom has warned it could sue UK telecoms regulator Ofcom if it refused to let the fixed-line phone company use a rise in wholesale fees levied on rivals to help repair its pension deficit.

Ian Livingston, BT Group's chief executive,said he would take a "very serious look" at launching a legal challenge if Ofcom did not let the company raise the fees. His stance is likely to alarm British Sky Broadcasting and TalkTalk, which have opposed BT's plea that the wholesale charges should partly reflect the cost of servicing BT's pension deficit.

The Impact of Broadband Speed and Price on Small Business

The availability, speed and price of broadband services vary significantly between metro area and rural businesses, according to a study released today by the SBA Office of Advocacy.

The study found that when prices are held constant, rural small businesses get less service compared with metro small businesses. When services are held constant, rural small businesses pay higher prices than metro small businesses. The Office of Advocacy was directed to conduct this study by Congress under the Broadband Data Improvement Act (Public Law 110-385 Section 105).

The study surveyed small businesses to evaluate their options to broadband services. The study finds that small businesses want both competition and choice in the broadband service market. They see competition as key to innovation, customer service, and lower prices. The survey data demonstrate that, in most cases, the small business Internet market does not provide this competition or choice to small businesses from or price perspective. The report also examined local service and pricing. A case study comparing the prices paid by small businesses and residential Internet consumers in Minnesota and Tennessee found that small business Internet customers pay two to three times more than what residential Internet customers pay for equivalent speeds, irrespective of the community under analysis.

Benton

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