December 9, 2010 (FCC to Launch Retransmission Proceeding)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2010
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Level 3: Comcast Charging For Local Access, Not Peering
Apple, Google Asked to Pay Up for Network Upgrades as Data Clog Bandwidth
New Data on Internet Access Services
Nielsen: Internet Access On Rise In Latin America
Four technologies for faster broadband in 2011
Pew: 8% of online Americans use Twitter
TELEVISION/RADIO
FCC To Launch NPRM On Retransmission Consent
Reaction to FCC Retransmission Announcement
New Policy Paper Recommends Transformation of Public Media
Copps Calls For Stricter Broadcast Station License Renewal Standards - Could It Happen?
Radio for the People
Moonves to Google TV: Pay Up
MEDIA OWNERSHIP
FCC Ownership Rules Decision Won't Come 'Til At Least Q2 2011
Why Groupon Said No To Google's $6 Billion
Ex-Tribune CEO Erased E-mails
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
FCC Media Bureau to Broadcasters: Help Us Structure Spectrum Auctions
Verizon CEO Sees 4G as Substitute for Premium Home Services
AT&T CFO sees potential to add new data pricing tiers
Google Android phones biggest network hogs
Brussels renews effort on roaming charges
India Agency Raids Former Telecom Minister's Houses
LABOR
Tech Sector Adds 47,000 Jobs So Far in 2010
Report shows most U.S. cities lost hi-tech jobs in 2009
BUDGET
House Passes Bill to Fund Government
POLICYMAKERS
Washington Rule Makers Out of the Shadows
Panel Backs Waxman For House Commerce Committee Ranking Spot
India Agency Raids Former Telecom Minister's Houses
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
WikiLeaks Fallout: Unease Over Web Press Freedoms
Hackers Give Web Companies a Test of Free Speech
WikiLeaks' resilience shows strength of Internet-age lifelines
USDA moves to the cloud
Google says shut out of USDA cloud computing deal
Happy Birthday, Open Government Directive
ADVERTISING
Cloudy outlook as Google steps up push to rule web
Has Facebook Jumped the Shark?
Charge For Searches And Content To Rid Internet Of Ads
EDUCATION
ITIF: Fresh Approaches to STEM
HEALTH
PCAST Releases Health IT Report
MORE ONLINE
As jurors go online, US trials go off track
New California bill would let consumers just say no to smart meters
Cablevision overwhelmingly favors Democrats
INTERNET/BROADBAND
LEVEL 3 REPLIES TO COMCAST
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Todd Spangler]
Level 3 Communications objected to Comcast asking for payment for local interconnections to the cable operator's network -- which is a separate issue from backbone peering relationships, according to company president and COO Jeff Storey. "We carry Netflix traffic or other traffic deep into the Comcast network, and we hand it off to them generally at the last point we can," Storey said. "We respond to that request [for content by Comcast's subscribers] by handing it off at the last possible minute, not the first possible minute." Level 3 last week griped that Comcast was erecting a "toll booth" on the Internet by demanding payment to deliver additional traffic, after Level 3 landed a contract as a primary content delivery network for Netflix. Level 3 accused Comcast of violating network neutrality principles. In response, the cable operator said Level 3 was asking to dump twice the amount of traffic on its network without paying customary CDN fees. Storey said the crux of the dispute was that Comcast now wants to charge for access at the local network level. "If I were handing off traffic to Comcast in New York and expecting them to deliver it in San Diego, I would expect to pay for that," Storey said. "But that's not what we're doing. We spent billions of dollars to get into this business and expect to use that infrastructure in an efficient way."
benton.org/node/46043 | Multichannel News
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EUROPE HAS WHITACRE MOMENT
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Matthew Campbell, Jonathan Browning]
Google, Apple, and Facebook need to pitch in to help pay for the billions of dollars of network investments needed for their bandwidth-hogging services, European phone operators say. As mobile and Web companies add videos, music and games, operators including France Telecom SA, Telecom Italia SpA and Vodafone Group Plc want a new deal that would require content providers like Apple and Google to pay fees linked to usage. “Service providers are flooding networks with no incentive” to cut costs, France Telecom Chief Executive Officer Stephane Richard said last month. “It’s necessary to put in place a system of payments by service providers as a function of their use.”
benton.org/node/46041 | Bloomberg
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FCC RELEASES NEW DATA ON INTERNET ACCESS SERVICES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
This report summarizes information about Internet access connections over 200 kilobits per second (kbps) in at least one direction in service in the United States on December 31, 2009, as collected by FCC Form 477. Form 477 gathers standardized information about subscribership to Internet access services in the fifty states, District of Columbia, and inhabited insular areas (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands). The information is reported by telephone companies, cable system operators, terrestrial wireless service providers, satellite service providers, and other facilities-based providers of advanced telecommunications capability.
benton.org/node/46069 | Federal Communications Commission | see for yourself
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8% TWEET
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Aaron Smith, Lee Rainie]
Eight percent of the American adults who use the Internet are Twitter users. Some of the groups who are notable for their relatively high levels of Twitter use include:
Young adults – Internet users ages 18-29 are significantly more likely to use Twitter than older adults.
African-Americans and Latinos – Minority Internet users are more than twice as likely to use Twitter as are white Internet users.
Urbanites – Urban residents are roughly twice as likely to use Twitter as rural dwellers.
Women and the college-educated are also slightly more likely than average to use the service.
Twitter users are nearly equally divided between those who check the site daily and those who check it infrequently or never. More than a third of Twitter users (36%) check the site on a daily basis or multiple times a day; 2 in 5 (41%) say they check the site less than every few weeks or never check it at all. The remaining one-quarter of users say they check the site for updates a few days each week or every few weeks.
"People are increasingly relying on their social networks to find things that are of interest to them and make sense of the world around them," said Aaron Smith, a Pew senior research specialist. "For a segment of the online population, Twitter helps serve that role by giving them a place to share their thoughts, find news that their friends have deemed important and pass on things that they think are interesting or cool."
benton.org/node/46083 | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project | LATimes | San Jose Merc
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TELEVISION/RADIO
NEW PROCEEDING ON RETRANSMISSION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake announced that the FCC plans to issue a proposed rulemaking on retransmission consent. He said the FCC plans to issue a broad notice looking at what more it could do "to advance the statutory objectives of allowing retrans fees to be set by market forces while protecting the interests of consumers." In addition to posing that question, it will also provide "some limited guidance" on what good faith bargaining entails, and may also "try to identify additional practices that will be treated as per se violations of the duty to bargain in good faith," though leaving that open for public input as well. Lake suggests the FCC's NPRM is meant to address the old African saying that "when the elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers." And in the spirit of the Christmas season, Lake suggested something of a naughty-or-nice test (our interpretation, not his) for possible FCC action. "We will pay close attention to...future developments in the marketplace," he said. "Are the disruptions of the last year an anomaly -- perhaps just a sign of friction as prices move to a new level? Or will we see a continuing pattern of disputes that threaten viewers’ access to programming?"
benton.org/node/46047 | Broadcasting&Cable | B&C
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TRANSFORMING PUBLIC MEDIA
[SOURCE: Aspen Institute, AUTHOR: Barbara Cochran]
Former Radio and Television News Directors Association and Foundation President Barbara Cochran offers a set of steps that public broadcasting stations and networks need to take to become more relevant and improve service to their communities. The strategies include strengthening local news operations, sharing digital platforms among public entities, recruiting more diverse workforces, and reforming public media structures. Cochran is a journalist and former news executive who led both public and commercial newsrooms.Cochran calls on Congress, public media entities, philanthropic organizations and others to:
Restructure the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as the Corporation for Public Media. Break down barriers between television and radio and consider a new structure based on strengths in types of content;
Allow public media entities to operate with greater efficiencies by making it easier for stations to consolidate and merge;
Improve community governance structures and increase digital experience among board members;
Increase congressional support through a special appropriation to enable public media to offer content more broadly on digital platforms as key community anchor institutions under the national broadband plan, and restore reauthorization;
Encourage investment from government, foundations and corporations;
Seek foundation partners to jump-start the process and engage community foundations to support fulfillment of community information needs; and
Keep digital content free.
benton.org/node/46021 | Aspen Institute | read the paper | Broadcasting&Cable
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COULD PUBLIC VALUE TEST HAPPEN?
[SOURCE: Broadcast Law Blog, AUTHOR: David Oxenford]
[Commentary] What's likely to happen to Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps' proposal for a Public Value Test for broadcast license renewal? This is obviously a contentious issue, and there probably is no single answer as to whether the government can force broadcasters to meet some objective public interest standard. For broadcasters, it is good that Commissioner Copps recognizes the importance of the broadcast media, and cares about its performance. But there are significant difficulties, as recognized in the comments filed in the localism proceeding, in determining how to quantify any such obligations. One of the biggest difficulties in coming up with any objective standards to evaluate the service that broadcasters provide to their communities is the broad diversity of the broadcast community. Specific quantitative public service requirements that a TV station in New York City might be easily able to meet, might impose a crushing burden on a station in eastern Washington State, most cities in Montana or in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A Mom and Pop radio station providing the only service to a county of 10,000 in rural Nebraska is going to be able to provide a much different program service, and to have an entirely different ability to handle specific government mandates, than is a big FM in Los Angeles or Dallas. Even in these cities, a rock and roll radio station is going to be expected by its listeners to provide a wholly different experience than an all news or news talk station. Coming up with standards that try to judge the public interest value of a Senatorial election debate versus promoting a Toys for Tots collection point at a Black Eyed Peas concert in a community is a daunting task.
benton.org/node/46019 | Broadcast Law Blog
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RADIO FOR THE PEOPLE
[SOURCE: The American Prospect, AUTHOR: Nancy Scola]
[Commentary] The Local Community Radio Act, despite its eminent sensibility and bipartisan support, remains mired in the Senate. In the end, though, radio doesn't have to prove itself to Congress. The radio spectrum belongs to the American people, and at the moment, Congress is enforcing an artificial scarcity just so big broadcasters can dominate the landscape for yet another decade. By passing the Local Community Radio Act, Congress can send a signal that that game is up. For Democrats, it's a chance to prove that they're for the little guy. For Republicans, especially those enthralled with the Tea Party movement, it's a victory in the cause of localism. This lame-duck Congress has a chance to take a stand for the idea that media should actually benefit the people. If only our elected representatives could hear the message.
benton.org/node/46027 | American Prospect, The
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
MEDIA OWNERSHIP REVIEW UPDATE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
According to Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, the commission's review of broadcast ownership rules will not be completed before March 2011. He said that the FCC is still in the process of commissioning "eight or nine" studies, getting the last commission out the door only this week. The FCC said it needed the studies to provide a "bottoms-up review." He cited an absence of funding and some "contracting difficulties" with not having gotten the last study out the door until this week. Lake said the studies typically take four months to be completed, then the FCC has to vet them. "We will try to get a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking as soon as we can," he said, "but that has to be after we've seen the result of the studies so we know what the facts are." Specifically, the FCC is looking at five rules: the local TV ownership rule, the local radio ownership rule, the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule, the radio/TV cross-ownership rule, and the dual-network rule.
benton.org/node/46067 | Broadcasting&Cable
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WHY DID GROUPON REJECT GOOGLE?
[SOURCE: Silicon Valley Insider, AUTHOR: Nicholas Carlson]
Why did Groupon's board and executives say no to Google?
How do you turn down hundreds of millions of dollars in personal wealth? The simple answer, of course, is by believing you are NOT saying "no" to hundreds of millions of dollars or a billion dollars, but are saying "yes" to billions of dollars. But there's also a more nuanced answer. Confirming lots of speculation, a source close to Groupon board members said that anti-trust concerns ultimately forced Groupon to turn down Google's $6 billion offer. This source says the view on Groupon's board was that a Google-Groupon merger would draw more regulatory scrutiny than any other deal Google has ever done. That's saying a lot.
benton.org/node/46051 | Silicon Valley Insider
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MISSING TRIBUNE E-MAILS
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Erik Sass]
Randy Michaels, the former CEO of the bankrupt Tribune Co., is in the hot seat again for erasing emails and data related to the ongoing controversy over bankruptcy reorganization plans from his computer, after a forensic examiner was unable to locate the relevant messages and data. However, the examiner was able to retrieve 15 emails from the ex-CEO's corporate phone. The loss of the emails on Michaels' computer may not be an insuperable obstacle, since Tribune should also have copies of the emails on its servers; investigators are currently trying to locate them there. However, it's not clear whether the other data (which wasn't described) was duplicated anywhere else; Tribune is recovering "back-up" tapes from September 2009 which may contain some of the deleted data. Meanwhile, the company's current management is asking the Delaware bankruptcy court to investigate the circumstances surrounding Michaels' deletion of the emails and data, and is also requesting that Michaels' colleagues and associates save all their email exchanges with him, to allow examiners to reconstruct missing exchanges.
benton.org/node/46061 | MediaPost
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
SPECTRUM AND BROADCASTERS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake suggested to broadcasters that the FCC needs to look at taking spectrum back from broadcasters who are not capitalizing on the digital "dividend" to operate more efficiently. He said that "some broadcasters are making good use of this spectrum dividend; others are not. This means it is inevitable that, as we look for sources of spectrum, one place we need to look is broadcast spectrum that is not being efficiently used." But he said that while it "may be tempting to be wistful about the way things were...this is your chance to be part of the solution by working creatively with us." The FCC is planning to reclaim as much as 120 MHz of broadcast spectrum, and launched its effort to do so at its last monthly meeting Nov. 30. It proposed rules to reclassify broadcast spectrum so that wireless broadband is also entitled to use it, allowing for channel sharing by broadcasters, trying to make the VHF band more DTV-friendly and increasing opportunities for flexible use. Lake said he wanted broadcaster input on those proposals. "We would love to receive the constructive input of people in this room on the ideas in that Notice, and on each of the future steps that will be necessary to implement the proposal." But he suggested that input needed to be informed by two facts: "The stratospheric growth of wireless broadband use" and "that the digital transition makes it possible to transmit broadcast TV programming more efficiently."
benton.org/node/46065 | Broadcasting&Cable
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4G FOR HOME BROADBAND?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Roger Cheng]
Verizon Communications Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg said its next-generation wireless network could become a "modest substitute" for other home-entertainment services such as traditional cable or Internet access. Seidenberg previously said he expects the trend of "cord cutting," where consumers cut their cable access and rely solely on their Internet connection for entertainment, to take hold. It was a position the cable companies strongly disputed. "They don't see cord cutting? Fair enough," he told analysts during an investor conference. He warned that while relatively newer technology such as wireless access is initially additive, it eventually starts to cut into discretionary spending for other services, particularly premium ones. His comments come a few days after Verizon Wireless launched its fourth-generation service, which touts speeds that are comparable to landline access. While Mr. Seidenberg doesn't see a wholesale jump from wired Internet service to his 4G network, he does expect some customers to make the switch. In response, he said his company's decision to invest in FiOS, which can deliver even higher fixed Internet speeds, gives him confidence in the business.
benton.org/node/46025 | Wall Street Journal
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EUROPEAN ROAMING CHARGES
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Stanley Pignal]
European travellers using their mobile phones within the European Union could be allowed to choose a different network than the one they subscribe to at home under plans that would upend “roaming” rules. Brussels is looking at ways to regulate roaming charges in an attempt to change its current approach – moving away from price caps it imposed in 2007, which are due to expire in July 2012. The proposals are part of a plan outlined by Neelie Kroes, telecoms commissioner. She wants roaming charges to disappear within the EU by 2015, meaning there should be no premium to mobile phone calls made while travelling within the 27-member bloc. In a consultation paper, the European Commission outlined the option of moving to a new framework. That could be paired with an overhaul of how operators negotiate the rates at which they carry each other’s calls, by disallowing bilateral deals between operators in favour of a “spot exchange” open to all. The new model, if adopted, would allow customers attached to a single network in their home country to pick from a range of operators as they travelled to other European countries.
benton.org/node/46079 | Financial Times
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LABOR
TECH SECTOR ADDING JOBS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Olga Kharif]
Tech jobs are coming back after hitting bottom early this year, according to economy tracker Moody's Analytics. The U.S. economy has added 47,000 technology jobs so far this year amid resurgent demand for tech products in Asia and Latin America. That represents 15 percent growth in tech jobs, compared with an 11 percent jobs growth in the economy overall since the beginning of the year, according to Moody's. Since a peak at the end of 2007, the tech industry had lost 307,000 jobs nationally in the economic downturn. "It seems like this industry is embarking on a new growth spurt," says Sophia Koropeckyj, a managing director for Moody's Analytics. "Tech jobs seem to be accelerating." Asia and Latin America's demand for tech products has resulted in new hiring and is one contributor to the recovery, Koropeckyj says.
benton.org/node/46039 | Bloomberg
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CITIES LOSING TECH JOBS?
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
Fifty-three of the country's top 60 metro areas lost hi-tech jobs last year due to the recession, according to a new TechAmerica Foundation report.
"Most of the metro areas we examined lost tech jobs in 2009 as the full force of the economic downturn hit the industry,” said Josh James, vice president of research and industry analysis at TechAmerica Foundation. James emphasized the jobs lost were highly desirable with an average salary in excess of $100,000 in cities like Washington and San Francisco. “These are the types of jobs every city wants. They are very well-paid, with 57 of the 60 cybercities having average tech industry wages that are 50 percent higher than the average private sector wage," he added. TechAmerica Foundation chair Phillip Bond said cities will have to focus on how to attract and retain hi-tech workers and firms or face the possibility of them moving abroad.
benton.org/node/46037 | Hill, The
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BUDGET
HOUSE PASSES BUDGET
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Corey Boles]
The House approved a $1.2 trillion bill to fund the federal government through the remaining nine and a half months of fiscal 2011. The spending package incorporates a request from President Barack Obama for a two-year pay freeze for federal employees, though members of the military are exempted. House lawmakers voted 212-206, largely along party lines, to approve the legislation. No Republicans supported the bill, while 35 Democrats joined the minority party in opposing the measure. The spending bill contains big funding boosts for federal securities and futures regulators working to erect a regulatory regime for the over-the-counter derivatives market. The resolution would continue funding the federal government at fiscal 2010 levels, though there are some changes to individual agency budgets. The federal government's 2010 fiscal year ended Sept. 30. The measure is necessary because Congress failed to pass a single one of the dozen spending bills that must be approved each year to set the budgets for the various departments and agencies of the federal government. Since the end of fiscal 2010, lawmakers have passed two short-term bills to avert a shutdown of the federal government. The latest of those expires on Dec. 18. The Senate must still act on a spending measure. Aides said lawmakers in that chamber planned to introduce a different version in coming days. If senators decide to do so rather than take up the House bill, it could delay final passage of the spending legislation further.
benton.org/node/46091 | Wall Street Journal
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POLICYMAKERS
RULE MAKING TAKES CENTER STAGE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Lichtblau, Robert Pear]
Federal rule makers, long the neglected stepchildren of Washington bureaucrats, suddenly find themselves at the center of power as they scramble to work out details of hundreds of sweeping financial and health care regulations that will ultimately affect most Americans. The boom in rule-making -- the bureaucratic term for the nitty-gritty of drafting regulations -- is a result of the mega-bills approved by Congress this year at the urging of President Obama: the health care bill signed into law in March, and the financial overhaul law signed in July. “There has never been a period like what we are going through now, in terms of the sheer volume and complexity of rule-making,” said Paul Dennett, senior vice president of the American Benefits Council, a trade group for large employers. And what was already shaping up as a rancorous lobbying battle over the rules is likely to become more contentious when Republicans take control of the House, having been swept to power on a pledge to influence health care and financial regulation. At the very least, Republicans will be able to hold public hearings to spotlight financial regulations they see as too restrictive and health care rules they see as too disruptive, and they could pressure regulators to soften them.
benton.org/node/46089 | New York Times
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WAXMAN RETAINS TOP SPOT
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Apparently, current Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) is likely to retain his spot as the top Democrat on the House Commerce Committee in the 112th Congress when the GOP takes control of the House. Chairman Waxman was approved as the ranking member by the House Democratic Steering Committee. The full Democratic caucus is expected to vote Dec 9 on whether to ratify the steering committee's vote on Waxman's spot and other committee ranking posts. Rep Waxman has served as chairman since 2009 when he successfully challenged the panel's longtime top Democrat, Rep John Dingell (D-MI) for the chairmanship.
benton.org/node/46063 | National Journal
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TELECOM MINISTER'S HOUSE RAIDED
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: R Jai Krishna, Nupur Acharya, Romit Guha]
India's top federal investigative agency searched homes belonging to former telecommunications minister Andimuthu Raja and four other officials, as an inquiry into the 2008 allotment of telephone bandwidth proceeded. Raja resigned as minister last month after a government audit concluded that the telecom department sold the bandwidth without an auction at prices set in 2001, when the number of mobile-phone users was much smaller than in 2008. That decision, the audit said, deprived the country of a potential $38.9 billion in revenue.
benton.org/node/46077 | Wall Street Journal
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
WIKILEAKS FALLOUT
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Alan Greenblatt]
The legal and political troubles that WikiLeaks has encountered since publishing thousands of State Department cables in recent weeks may have troubling implications for more traditional media outlets, advocates of free Internet expression warn. The backlash against WikiLeaks has already started. A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation last week, the SHIELD Act, which would make it illegal to publish the names of U.S. military and intelligence informants. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, last week called on companies doing business with WikiLeaks to "immediately terminate" such relationships. "Although he is a First Amendment supporter, the First Amendment does not trump national security interests," Lieberman's spokeswoman says. "The senator believes that Amazon, PayPal, Visa and other businesses that severed their ties with, and therefore their services to, WikiLeaks have done the right thing and acted as good corporate citizens."
benton.org/node/46013 | National Public Radio
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THE INTERNET AND FREE SPEECH
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ashlee Vance, Miguel Helft]
A hacking free-for-all has exploded on the Web, and Facebook and Twitter are stuck in the middle. Anonymous hackers took aim at companies perceived to have harmed WikiLeaks after its release of a flood of confidential diplomatic documents. MasterCard, Visa and PayPal, which had cut off people’s ability to donate money to WikiLeaks, were hit by attacks that tried to block access to the companies’ Web sites and services. To organize their efforts, the hackers have turned to sites like Facebook and Twitter. That has drawn these Web giants into the fray and created a precarious situation for them. Both Facebook and Twitter -- but particularly Twitter -- have received praise in recent years as outlets for free speech. Governments trying to control the flow of information have found it difficult to block people from voicing their concerns or setting up meetings through the sites. At the same time, both Facebook and Twitter have corporate aspirations that hinge on their ability to serve as ad platforms for other companies. This leaves them with tough public relations and business decisions around how they should handle situations as politically charged as the WikiLeaks developments. Some Internet experts say the situation highlights the complexities of free speech issues on the Internet, as grassroots Web companies evolve and take central control over what their users can make public. Clay Shirky, who studies the Internet and teaches at New York University, said that although the Web is the new public sphere, it is actually “a corporate sphere that tolerates public speech.”
benton.org/node/46087 | New York Times | Financial Times
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WIKILEAKS' RESILIENCE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Joby Warrick, Rob Pegoraro]
Over the past several days, the anti-secrecy Web site WikiLeaks has been hit with a series of blows that have seemed to threaten its survival. Its primary Web address was deactivated, its PayPal account was frozen, and its Internet server gave it the boot. The result: WikiLeaks is now stronger than ever, at least as measured by its ability to publish online. Blocked from using one Internet host, WikiLeaks simply jumped to another. Meanwhile, the number of "mirror" Web sites - effectively clones of WikiLeaks' main contents pages - grew from a few dozen last week to 200 by Sunday. By early Wednesday, the number of such sites surpassed 1,000. At the same time, WikiLeaks' supporters have apparently gone on the offensive, staging retaliatory attacks against Internet companies that have cut ties to the group amid fears they could be associated with it. On Wednesday, hackers briefly shut down access to the Web sites for MasterCard and Visa, both of which had announced they had stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks' long-term survival depends on a number of unknowns, including the fate of its principal founder, Julian Assange, who is being held in Britain while awaiting possible extradition to Sweden related to sexual-assault allegations. But the Web site's resilience in the face of repeated setbacks has underscored a lesson already absorbed by more repressive governments that have tried to control the Internet: It is nearly impossible to do.
benton.org/node/46085 | Washington Post | Financial Times
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USDA MOVES TO CLOUD
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Brian Kalish]
The Agriculture Department announced that it will become the first Cabinet-level agency to move to a cloud-based messaging system. The system will use Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite -Federal cloud collaboration tool and will consolidate 21 messaging systems into one. BPOS-Federal, which will serve 120,000 users, will contain all of USDA's enterprise messaging services, which include e-mail, Web-conferencing, document collaboration and instant messaging, according to a department news release. The shift will begin in early 2011. "USDA's IT modernization will allow us to streamline our operations and help us use taxpayer dollars more efficiently," Chief Information Officer Chris Smith said in a statement. "With a focused cloud roadmap, we saw a clear opportunity to help achieve our cost savings and consolidation goals and tap into the promises of the cloud." USDA did not provide an estimate of expected savings. Smith said the move was similar to car ownership: "Basically, the car we owned was getting ready for a major engine overhaul. All our servers were at least three years old. We're going from owning the car and paying for the tires, the oil and the upkeep to basically buying a Zip car that's wherever we need it, whenever we need it."
benton.org/node/46057 | nextgov | USDA
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GOOGLE OBJECTS TO USDA DEAL
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Bill Rigby]
Google didn't get the chance to compete for the largest federal government "cloud computing" deal yet announced, according to the company, adding to its concerns that government agencies are unfairly favoring rival Microsoft. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it was moving 120,000 of its employees onto email, Web conferencing and messaging systems provided over the Internet by Microsoft, generally referred to as "cloud computing." The move is the largest of its kind by a federal agency and the first by a cabinet-level department in a growing area that is hotly contested by Microsoft -- which has long provided technology to local and national governments -- and emerging competitor Google, which offers cheaper but less well-known online alternatives. The USDA said its move to the cloud was part of a deal signed in May with computer-maker Dell Inc to provide online services from Microsoft. The government agency, which oversees the U.S. farming, agriculture and food industries, said it had been working with Microsoft and Dell for the past six months on the project, which it said would cut costs and improve efficiency. Google, which claims its services save more money than Microsoft, and that its presence in a bidding situation usually means lower prices regardless of who wins, said it had no opportunity to formally bid on the contract at any point.
benton.org/node/46059 | Reuters
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OPEN GOVERNMENT DIRECTIVE
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Carolyn Lukensmeyer, Patrice McDermott]
[Commentary] One year ago, President Obama kicked off a bold experiment in making the federal government more open and participatory. The administration's Open Government Directive required federal agencies to tell the public how they will become more transparent, participatory and collaborative. During the past year, agencies have made significant progress toward these goals, but there is still a long road ahead. They will need additional support and direction from the administration to become more accountable to the public. But we believe the process Obama set in motion can be a transformative one. The primary success of the Open Government Directive to date has been developing infrastructure that makes information more available to the public and that increases opportunities for people to provide agencies with input and feedback. [Carolyn Lukensmeyer is founder and president of AmericaSpeaks, a national nonprofit that engages citizens in policymaking. Patrice McDermott is director of OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition that seeks to promote openness and reduce secrecy in government.]
benton.org/node/46055 | nextgov
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ADVERTISING
GOOGLE PUSH TO RULE THE WEB
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Richard Waters]
Google’s ambitions are so sweeping, the theatres in which its campaign is being advanced so dispersed, that it is not always easy to trace the outlines of the broader war it is fighting. Sometimes it takes simultaneous advances on a number of fronts to bring its progress into focus. This has been one of those weeks. What other company, after all, would take public aim at not one, but three big rivals – Amazon, Apple and Microsoft – in the space of just a couple of days? Not doing any one thing well enough against formidable competitors like these could end up being Google’s biggest problem. But it is counting on having an ace up its sleeve: the ability to connect with users across a broader range of devices, and with a wider array of services and media content, than anyone else. This “cloud” strategy – relying on services run in Google’s data centers, and delivered to consumers using standard web technologies – is still a work in progress, but some of its contours are becoming more discernible. Google could eventually assume a truly scary cross-media dominance. All the information about user behavior collected across multiple cloud services, mixed with its core search data, could give it better insight into users than anyone – and the ability to match that with personalized advertising campaigns delivered across different services and devices.
benton.org/node/46081 | Financial Times
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HAS FACEBOOK JUMPED THE SHARK?
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Judy Shapiro]
[Commentary] Although many believe that "bigger" is the main value to marketers, Shapiro believes that Facebook feature overkill will result in a complicated user experience that is going to work against the company over time. Successful societies deliver more and better benefits to their members which, invariably, leads to the tax of "complexity." This tax is easily born by members until the added complexity does not add enough incremental value to compensate for the "complexity" tax due. Then, over time, the burden of complexity causes the society to implode in on itself. This was the trap that had caught Facebook in its grip. In chasing scale, they used "feature sprawl" to attract users and in doing so made the Facebook experience more and more complex, imposing a tax that ultimately would not be borne by users. Far better, in my mind, would have been for them to have anchored their growth strategy in their heritage as a trusted social network by creating more trusted interactions between members and innovating in the "trust" space within the Facebook experience.
benton.org/node/46033 | AdAge
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CHARGE FOR SEARCHES
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Laurie Sullivan]
[Commentary] Maybe Google, Bing and Yahoo should charge $1 for every search -- and $2 for each piece of content served up. Would consumers pay those prices to avoid having data collected about the types of Web sites they visit? A "Do Not Track" list to stop online data collection might appease privacy advocates and comply with Federal Trade Commission guidelines -- but stopping companies from collecting data to serve up ads won't work on the Internet, whose business model, for the most part, relies on free content. But you, more than anyone, should know free comes with a price. In exchange for content, companies can serve up ads that entice you to buy something. It's your job to have the willpower to resist.
benton.org/node/46031 | MediaPost
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HEALTH
REALIZING HIT POTENTIAL
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Rick Weiss]
The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology released a highly anticipated report providing detailed recommendations to the President and Federal agencies about how to take better advantage of information technology to increase healthcare quality while reducing costs. "Realizing the Full Potential of Health Information Technology to Improve Healthcare for Americans: The Path Forward" notes that healthcare could benefit enormously from greater use of information technology (IT). Yet it is one of the few economic sectors in the Nation that has largely failed to tap into the power of IT. Reflecting input from industry and IT experts, privacy groups, healthcare professionals, and others, the report calls upon the Federal government to facilitate the widespread adoption of a “universal exchange language” that would allow the transfer of pieces of health data while maximizing privacy. Such a system would allow people’s health data to follow them wherever they go, and help physicians provide the highest possible level of care, while giving patients unprecedented control over who has access to their information. At the same time, it can save the Nation money by increasing efficiency and reducing redundancy. Importantly, implementation of PCAST’s recommendations would not require physicians to replace their existing electronic health records systems, virtually all of which could be made compatible through “apps” and other “middleware.” And they do not call for creation of a centralized Federal database of people’s health information or the assigning of Federal healthcare identifier numbers to individuals. To help implement its recommendations, the report calls upon ONC and CMS to create appropriate definitions of “meaningful use” as they craft standards for health information technology, which under law must be achieved in stages by 2013 and 2015. It also calls upon CMS to accelerate the modernization and restructuring of its IT platforms and staff expertise.
benton.org/node/46029 | White House, The | read the report | ModernHealthcare.com
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