November 2010

Online advertising to balloon to $50 billion

Morgan Stanley's Mary Meeker predicts a $50 billion online advertising boom. Meeker pointed out that people spend 28% of their time on the Internet but that only 13% of advertising is there. She also said that Facebook has "one of most undermonetized classes of advertising on the web" and that "Twitter is in a similar situation." She predicted that in 2012, smart-phone shipments will overtake those of personal computers. A new wave of companies, such as Dave Morin's Path, are building on that prediction, focusing on mobile apps rather than on websites.

FEMA asks newly elected lawmakers to promote their widgets

The Federal Emergency Management Agency urged newly elected members of Congress to put widgets on their new congressional websites that tell constituents how they can apply for disaster assistance in the event of an emergency.

As member-elects get the lay of the land this week on Capitol Hill, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate used the opportunity to try to build a bridge between the soon-to-be lawmakers and the agency, which has received a plethora of criticism over the years for inept responses to disasters. The FEMA widget that Fugate suggested member-elects place on their official House webpages would help spread public awareness about the partnership between the agency and their constituents, FEMA officials said. FEMA officials also pointed to its first mobile site, m.fema.gov, which launched in May and allows disaster survivors to apply for federal assistance directly from their smartphones, as well as Fugate's own Twitter account and FEMA Facebook and YouTube pages, as tools of outreach.

Comcast: NBCU Deal Would Be $290M Net Gain For Consumers

Countering a recent study promoted by small cable operators, Comcast says its proposed merger with NBC Universal will result in $290 million worth of consumer benefits, not the $2.4 billion cost to consumers alleged in a study by the American Cable Association.

Comcast researchers Mark Israel and Michael Katz say the ACA study understates the deal's cost savings, ignores data, provides no basis for the conditions ACA is proposing on the deal, and lacks credible evidence of any horizontal competitive harms. They say pricing models used in the ACA study are unsubstantiated. ACA President Matthew Polka said in a statement: "After almost a year of first producing and then revising its economic arguments to justify government approval of this transaction, Comcast is surprising no one by again revising its arguments for why this deal is not harmful to the American consumer."

US sees "huge" cyber threat in the future

The United States faces a major threat in the future from cyber technologies that will require civil-military coordination to shield networks from attack, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. "I think there is a huge future threat. And there is a considerable current threat," Sec Gates said. "And that's just the reality that we all face."

The Defense Department estimates that over 100 foreign intelligence organizations have attempted to break into US networks. Every year, hackers also steal enough data from US government agencies, businesses and universities to fill the Library of Congress many times over. Sec Gates said the U.S. military had made considerable progress protecting its own sites and was working with its private-sector partners "to bring them under that umbrella." But how to allow Pentagon know-how to be applied to protecting domestic infrastructure can be tricky for legal reasons, including fear of violating civil liberties.

Ramer, Pryor Elected to CPB Leadership Posts

The board of directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) elected Bruce Ramer and David Pryor to serve one-year terms as chairman and vice-chairman, respectively.

Ramer is an attorney and partner at Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown, a firm specializing in entertainment and media matters. He has been active in public television for nearly 20 years, joining the board of KCET in Los Angeles in 1992 and serving as chair from 2001 to 2003. He was appointed to the CPB board by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate in October 2008. Ramer also currently chairs CPB's American Archive Task Force, which oversees the preservation of audiovisual content throughout the public media system. In addition to serving on the CPB board, Ramer is a member of the board of trustees of the University of Southern California (USC), chairman of the USC Institute on Entertainment Law and Business, and a member of the board of councilors of the USC Annenberg School for Communication, the USC Gould School of Law and the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education.

David Pryor, who joined the CPB Board in November 2006, has had a distinguished career in public service, first elected in 1960 to the Arkansas Legislature, where he served until his election to the United States Congress in 1966. He served three full terms in the House before returning to Arkansas. Elected governor in 1975, he served four years before being elected to the United States Senate in 1978. Mr. Pryor was reelected in 1984 and 1990, serving three full terms before his retirement in January 1997. He was chairman of the Special Committee on Aging during the 101st through 103rd Congresses. Following his retirement from the Senate, he returned to Arkansas and served as dean of the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock from 2004 to 2006. For two years, he was director of the John F. Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics at Harvard University. He presently serves on the board of trustees of the University of Arkansas.

Rep Upton Announces Bid For House Commerce Chair

In a letter to House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), who is expected to be the next speaker of the House, Rep Fred Upton (R-MI) formally announced his bid to chair the House Commerce Committee when Republicans take control of the House in the 112th Congress.

Rep Upton touted his work as both chairman and ranking member on three Commerce Committee subcommittees: Oversight, Communications and Energy, where he currently serves as the top Republican. He noted his work in passing legislation to curb indecency on television and targeting online predators. "My vision for the Energy and Commerce Committee is a conservative agenda that focuses on cutting spending, removing the regulatory burden, restoring freedom, keeping government accountable through rigorous oversight, and jobs," Rep Upton wrote. "We are going to take a coordinated approach that involves other committees and our conference, and focuses on an aggressive communications strategy that effectively articulates our message to the American people."

Pennsylvania Launches Broadband Map

The Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development unveiled a new tool for identifying the availability and speed of broadband connections throughout the state. The interactive broadband map gives policy makers and state officials a snapshot of where broadband service exists and which areas still need access. The map will become part of a national broadband map that the US Department of Commerce plans to launch in February. A $7.3 million grant from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act paid for the map, which will be updated semi-annually.

16 Months Later -- Google Voice for the iPhone

The wait is over. The Google Voice application is now available for the iPhone.

As you're probably well aware, this app has had quite the contentious history. Google originally submitted it to the App Store about a year and a half ago. But 16 months ago, Apple decided they weren't going to accept it. Not only that, other third-party apps with Google Voice functionality were pulled from the App Store as well. While Apple and Google were both silent on the issue at first, the government got involved and both sides were made to disclose at least part of their stance on the app, their relationships with carriers, and the relationship with each other. Apple's stated stance was that they didn't like the Google Voice app because it was too similar to the functionality of their own built-in calling system on the iPhone. They also said that they hadn't rejected the app, just that they were still considering it for approval. BS or not, Apple controlled their own App Store, and there was little Google could do. The decided to build a web app for Google Voice instead. But this past September, Apple, perhaps pushed by the governmental inquiries, decided to ease up on many of their strict App Store rules. This led to third-party Google Voice apps being allowed back into the App Store.

Is high-speed Internet a human right?

A Q&A with telecom consultant Laura Bradley. More and more of modern life is moving online. And governments, including Canada's, have begun to look at how they can ensure everyone in the country has access to a secure, high-speed Internet connection in an era where everything is moving online -- from interactions with friends and family to government and medical services.

In a country the size of Canada, which also has a dispersed population, that is no easy task. Large Internet service providers have built huge wireless broadband networks and the government is finishing up with a $225-million broadband strategy. But many communities are still left without affordable and high-quality connections -- and could be stranded for many more years. In some cases, municipal politicians have become so frustrated that they have embarked on campaigns to fund their own networks.

The Perils of Digital Diplomacy

These days, the buzz at the State Department is all about Civil Society 2.0 - the idea that the United States can help non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) prosper through judicious use of technology and the Internet. Civil Society 2.0 projects have names like Random Hacks of Kindness and Tech@State.

But one well-known international relations wonk believes Civil Society 2.0 will actually empower repressive regimes. Tufts University's Daniel Drezner is a popular blogger at Foreign Policy magazine and a prominent expert on international politics. In a recent article published in The Brown Journal of World Affairs, Drezner puts forth the case that social networking actually helps repressive regimes once, say, the heady days of protests in the streets of Tehran come to an end.

Benton

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