December 2010

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

CHINA FEARFUL OF WEB
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: James Glanz, John Markoff]
As China ratcheted up the pressure on Google to censor its Internet searches last year, the American Embassy sent a secret cable to Washington detailing one reason top Chinese leaders had become so obsessed with the Internet search company: they were Googling themselves. The May 18, 2009, cable, titled “Google China Paying Price for Resisting Censorship,” quoted a well-placed source as saying that Li Changchun, a member of China’s top ruling body, the Politburo Standing Committee, and the country’s senior propaganda official, was taken aback to discover that he could conduct Chinese-language searches on Google’s main international Web site. When Mr. Li typed his name into the search engine at google.com, he found “results critical of him.” That cable from American diplomats was one of many made public by WikiLeaks that portray China’s leadership as nearly obsessed with the threat posed by the Internet to their grip on power — and, the reverse, by the opportunities it offered them, through hacking, to obtain secrets stored in computers of its rivals, especially the United States. Extensive hacking operations suspected of originating in China, including one leveled at Google, are a central theme in the cables. The operations began earlier and were aimed at a wider array of American government and military data than generally known, including on the computers of United States diplomats involved in climate change talks with China.
benton.org/node/45810 | New York Times
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HOW TO WIN A CYBERWAR
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Mortimer Zuckerman]
[Commentary] The United States has done little to enhance the safety of the networks that bolster our economy. We urgently need to develop defensive software to protect these networks and create impermeable barriers to the profusion of malware. Network convergence -- transporting all communications over a common network structure -- increases the opportunities for and the consequences of disruptive cyberattacks. Hackers and cyberwarriors are constantly devising new ways to trick systems. We should think of cyberattacks as guided missiles and respond similarly -- intercept them and retaliate. This means we need a federal agency dedicated to defending our various networks. You cannot expect the private sector to know how -- or to have the money -- to defend against a nation-state attack in a cyberwar. One suggestion recommended by former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke is that the our government create a Cyber Defense Administration. He's right. Clearly, defending the U.S. from cyberattacks should be one of our prime strategic objectives. Few nations have used computer networks as extensively as we have to control electric power grids, airlines, railroads, banking and military support. Few nations have more of these essential systems owned and operated by private enterprise. As with 9/11, we do not enjoy the luxury of a dilatory response. [Zuckerman is chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report]
benton.org/node/45820 | Wall Street Journal
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US AGENCIES MIGRATING TO CLOUD
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Marjorie Censer]
The General Services Administration's decision last week to move its e-mail program to a Web-based system modeled on Google's popular Gmail program is part of a major government drive to increase federal use of cloud computing. The GSA is the first federal agency to make the Internet switch, and its decision follows the Office of Management and Budget's declaration last month that the government is now operating under a "cloud-first" policy, meaning agencies must give priority to Web-based applications and services. Government information-technology contractors, many of them based in the Washington area, have been anticipating the shift for months, trying to position themselves for future work. The Obama administration has said that cloud computing will allow more people to share a common infrastructure, cutting technology and support costs. But some technologists have warned that Web-based software may not be as secure as systems built for a dedicated purpose. And the programs often depend on stable network connections. The push for Web-based computing is part of a broader government effort to consolidate its 2,100 data centers by at least 40 percent by 2015.
benton.org/node/45818 | Washington Post
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WIKILEAKS OFF-LIMITS TO FED WORKERS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ed O'Keefe]
Obama administration officials reminded rank-and-file federal workers and contractors late Friday to steer clear of WikiLeaks, the controversial document-sharing Web site. "Classified information, whether or not already posted on public Web sites or disclosed to the media, remains classified, and must be treated as such by federal employees and contractors, until it is declassified by an appropriate U.S. government authority," officials warned. The Office of Management and Budget sent the message in a memo addressed to agency general counsel, asking them to remind workers of existing restrictions on access to classified documents. OMB Director Jacob Lew had already instructed departments and agencies to ensure that employees with access to classified information networks did not have more access than necessary and to restrict the use of removable media such as CDs or flash drives on such networks. Those orders prompted some departments to issue warnings to employees.
benton.org/node/45814 | Washington Post
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RUSSIA DROPS PIRACY CASE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Clifford Levy]
The authorities have dismissed software piracy charges against one of Russia’s most well-known environmental groups after Microsoft indicated that it would no longer support the case. The police in the Siberian city of Irkutsk raided the offices of the group, Baikal Environmental Wave, in January and confiscated 12 computers, all but paralyzing its operations. Investigators said they believed that Baikal Wave had unlicensed Microsoft software on its computers, but the environmentalists said the motivation was entirely political. The authorities dropped the charges after The New York Times published an extensive account of the case on Sept. 12 that prompted Microsoft to overhaul its policies in Russia.
benton.org/node/45812 | New York Times
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY

OPEN INTERNET HOME AND ABROAD
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Ed Black]
[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski should be applauded for his announcement that he would proceed on open Internet rules and for recognizing that "no central authority, public or private" should be a gatekeeper to the Internet. If the United States can't preserve open, neutral Internet access, our diplomats and trade representatives will be hard-pressed to object to Internet gate-keeping -- such as censorship and filtering -- by foreign countries. Whether a corporation wants to prioritize favored Internet traffic for commercial reasons, or a government wants to censor unfavorable traffic for political reasons, the same network tools, like deep packet inspection (DPI), are at work to control what gets through to end users, and when. Without lots more competition among access providers, there needs to be a check on their power to discriminate and commercially regulate Internet activity. The battle for open Internet access abroad is growing as a trade and diplomatic priority. We have rightfully asserted that access to information is a human rights issue for the world's citizens and a critical trade issue for companies that drive the information economy. To wage that campaign successfully abroad, we can't undermine the commitment to Internet freedom here. The government has a clear interest and duty to protect public access to the open Internet at home. [Black is president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association.]
benton.org/node/45748 | San Jose Mercury News
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NO ONE HAPPY WITH NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Joel Rose]
On Dec 1, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski sketched out the rules that he said would ensure that broadband providers treat all of the data on their networks equally — an idea known as network neutrality. But some public interest groups have seen a few more details than Chairman Genachowski announced. They say the proposed rules are net neutrality in name only. "What you have is a lot of consumer groups coming out and looking at this and saying this is a real nightmare," Sascha Meinrath says. Meinrath is with the New America Foundation, a think-tank in Washington, D.C. He says the proposed rules are full of loopholes. For one thing, they would allow broadband providers to offer faster service to some companies — for a price. "These rules could end up allowing companies to pick and choose the services and applications and even content that we are allowed to see online," Meinrath says. "What it does is it gives legal protection for discriminatory behavior." Maybe the biggest loophole, Meinrath says, is that the rules would exempt wireless networks from much of the regulation governing the old-fashioned, wired Internet. The wireless companies argue that they need the flexibility to manage traffic on their networks so that a few users can't hog all the bandwidth. Those companies — particularly AT&T — offered lukewarm support for the proposed FCC rules. But Verizon's Link Hoewing still thinks it's Congress, not the FCC, that should be setting policy for the Internet.
benton.org/node/45802 | National Public Radio
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FCC FRUSTRATED GOP HILL STAFFERS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
The Federal Communications Commission's tight-lipped approach to educating Hill staffers on its net-neutrality proposal is frustrating GOP staffers who want to know more about the document, Republican aides said on Dec 3. The FCC has dispatched top aides, including general counsel Austin Schlick and adviser Greg Guice. The aides met with telecom staffers to brief them on the chairman's proposal, which has fielded solid support from Democrats and much stronger pushback from Republicans. But aides said they did not feel like the meetings imparted much about the FCC plan. "They were short on details," said one GOP aide. Various staffers said they were frustrated with how little FCC officials were willing to say about the net-neutrality proposal. The officials refused to describe the exact argument it will use to ground its legal authority.
benton.org/node/45798 | Hill, The
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NET NEUTRALITY END RUN
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Late Nov 30, the Federal Communications Commission announced plans to adopt network neutrality regulations over the objections of lawmakers and despite a federal court ruling in April that said the FCC lacked authority from Congress to restrict how Internet service providers manage traffic on their networks. If job creation and economic growth are priorities for the Obama Administration, it makes no sense to target the telecom industry with new rules that will hamper capital investment and lead to years of litigation and regulatory uncertainty. More troubling than even FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's bad judgment is the signal he is sending that the Obama Administration intends to use administrative agencies to circumvent Congress now that Democrats no longer have full control of the legislature. We hope the GOP doesn't let the White House get away with it.
benton.org/node/45800 | Wall Street Journal
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

SPECTRUM REFORM PROGRESS REPORT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker]
Speaking at the Phoenix Center 2010 Annual U.S. Telecoms Symposium, Federal Communications Commission member Meredith Baker offered a progress report on spectrum reform. She identified three strengths:
1) The Start of a Plan: The National Broadband Plan provides clear recommendations to shift us towards more efficient and effective use of spectrum. The challenge we face is that we have not built from that foundation a truly comprehensive spectrum policy or framework. We need a concerted effort to provide a more predictable and known approach to spectrum. We cannot address spectrum reform on a proceeding-by-proceeding or auction-by-auction basis. We need closer coordination with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and a renewed and upgraded mandate for the Commercial Spectrum Management Advisory Committee that has the ability to enhance opportunities for both the federal government and commercial spectrum users.
2) More Spectrum Awareness: We have collectively recognized the need for more spectrum for mobile broadband across government. The challenge is that this is all terribly hard. We must provide a pipeline of spectrum in 2011 and for the next 5 years. To do so, we need to dedicate resources and funding to the teams responsible for evaluating the 2200 MHz of spectrum, and we should prioritize those spectrum bands that have the most commercial value and are harmonized for international use.
3) Many Irons in the Fire: The FCC has launched many spectrum-related proceedings, but the challenge now is to complete them.
benton.org/node/45736 | Federal Communications Commission
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FCC TV SPECTRUM PLAN
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission took its first steps this week toward its oft-stated goal of snatching a big hunk of spectrum away from broadcasting so that it can sell it at auction to others for wireless broadband, which it feels is a superior use in that it can conquer disease, make American school kids smarter than all their counterparts in India and China who all sit in the front row and pay attention and insure a sharply rising Dow Jones Industrial Average for the next 1,000 years. It’s hard to compete with all that, even if you have Glee on your schedule. The FCC rulemaking didn't actually propose moving any spectrum. Rather, it set the stage for channel sharing and band repacking, the mechanisms the FCC hopes to use to snag 40% of the TV spectrum for auctioning.
benton.org/node/45796 | TVNewsCheck
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BROADBAND ROAMING
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Eliza Krigman]
A group of wireless firms sent a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller (D-WV) arguing on behalf of a Federal Communications Commission proposal that would force national wireless carriers to provide roaming services for customers of regional service providers. Smaller wireless carriers are concerned that their ability to offer national data plans could be undermined by the two largest wireless providers, AT&T and Verizon, who have a commercial incentive not to allow competitors to roam on their networks or charge unreasonably high prices. AT&T and Verizon dismiss claims that regulations are needed to guard against their competitors' concerns, saying the market is functioning perfectly without government intervention. Wireless providers Clearwire, Sprint, T-Mobile and others wrote Chairman Rockefeller seeking his support for the FCC plan. The FCC launched a notice of proposed rulemaking on the matter last spring, but it has yet to take further steps. Without the right to data roaming, the firms said, regional carriers' ability to keep investing in building out broadband infrastructure will be threatened. They argue that data roaming also is important to attracting the customers needed to maintain current networks or invest in greater broadband coverage, the letter added.
benton.org/node/45784 | National Journal
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MOBILE INTERNET ROAMING IN EUROPE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Kevin O'Brien]
The European Union’s telecommunications commissioner said that she would conduct a review of mobile phone roaming charges, a process that could lead to the first cap on the retail cost carriers charge for cross-border mobile Internet use in Europe. Neelie Kroes, the commissioner, said she would inform the bloc’s 27 telecommunications ministers at a meeting on Dec 3 that she would look for ways to reduce and eventually eliminate the fees. Paul Rübig, a member of the European Parliament, echoed the commissioner’s concern over the charges, saying lawmakers would probably consider imposing new retail price caps on data roaming next year.
benton.org/node/45756 | New York Times
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WIFI IN FED BUILDINGS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced legislation that would require all public federal buildings to install WiFi base stations in order to free up cell phone networks. The Federal Wi-Net Act would mandate the installation of small WiFi base stations in all publicly accessible federal buildings in order to increase wireless coverage and free up mobile networks. The bill would require all new buildings under construction to comply and all older buildings to be retrofitted by 2014. It also orders $15 million from the Federal Buildings Fund be allocated to fund the installations. The bill is aimed at preventing dropped calls that occur indoors and in rural areas due to poor cell phone coverage, while also hopefully boosting wireless network capacity by more effectively deploying broadband wireless networks. The bill is also an acknowledgement of the crucial role that cell phones and smartphones such as BlackBerrys play in the daily routine of federal workers.
benton.org/node/45792 | Hill, The
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MOBILE ADS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Tarmo Virki]
The long awaited uptake of the potentially lucrative mobile advertising market by advertisers and consumers has actually started to happen, companies from Canada, Egypt and Poland said. Advertisers have great hopes for the cellphone market due to the personal nature of phones and the potential to know where customers are at any time, but have been held back by the small screen size and potential hostility from customers. The sector got a major boost from Google's deal to buy mobile ad firm AdMob late in 2009, and Apple's acquisition of Quattro Wireless.
benton.org/node/45790 | Reuters
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP

NEW SILICON BUBBLE?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jenna Wortham, Evelyn Rusli]
Less than a decade after the dot-com bust taught Wall Street and Silicon Valley investors that what goes up does not keep going up forever, a growing number of entrepreneurs and a few venture capitalists are beginning to wonder if investments in tech start-ups are headed toward another big bust. The chief evidence, according to industry experts and analysts, is the way venture capitalists and established companies are clamoring to give money to young companies, including those with only a shred of an idea. They are piling into me-too start-ups that imitate popular Web companies that already received financing. Companies that involve social shopping, mobile photo sharing and new social networking are finding it easy to attract investors because no one wants to miss the next big thing.
benton.org/node/45808 | New York Times
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GROUPON REJECTS GOOGLE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Evelyn Rusli, Jenna Wortham]
Groupon has walked away from Google’s $6 billion takeover offer. The rejection at least temporarily thwarts Google’s efforts to buy the social buying site, which would have been its largest acquisition to date. Options for Groupon include the possibility of staying independent but securing a significant investment, as its rival LivingSocial did by accepting $175 million from Amazon this week. Groupon’s chief executive and founder, Andrew Mason, has also expressed his interest in taking the company public with a share offering.
benton.org/node/45806 | New York Times | WSJ | Bloomberg
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GOOGLE BUYS WIDEVINE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Ann Saphir]
Google has agreed to buy Seattle-based anti-piracy software firm Widevine in a bid to boost its online video services. No price was disclosed, but the software firm has raised more than $65 million from investors including Cisco Systems. Widevine's digital-rights management software is used by 250 million Web-connected TVs and other Web-connected devices to protect video content from unauthorized use.
benton.org/node/45804 | Reuters
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COMCAST AND NBC
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Television is undergoing a wrenching change. Companies like Netflix and Google TV are lining up to offer movies and TV online. Cable systems are developing online bundles as they add broadband customers but lose TV subscribers. Broadcast networks are still figuring out how to sell their shows online, and charging cable systems more as ad money moves to the Internet. Amid this change, Comcast, the biggest cable system in the country, proposed last year to buy NBC Universal, which controls Universal Studios, cable channels like Bravo and USA, and the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks. It is eager to get approval from the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice’s antitrust division this year. Regulators do not need to rush. The combined company would have the ability, and the incentive, to hamstring online innovation. The FCC and the Justice Department must carefully assess potential threats to the new competition and put precise conditions on a merger to prevent the new media goliath from stamping it out.
benton.org/node/45832 | New York Times
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COMCAST-NBC EXTENSION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Comcast and NBCU have agreed to a 90-day extension of their proposed $30 billion joint venture. That extension was conveyed to the Securities and Exchange Commission in a filing described by NBC sources as a pro-forma renewal of the deal. Either party had the option of nixing the deal a year after it was struck, unless both sides agreed to an extension for government approvals. Dec. 3 is the one-year anniversary of the announced agreement, as well as the filing of the original 8K, a form that the government requires when public companies make changes, like mergers and acquisitions, that could affect investors. The original 8K filing included two 90-day extensions of the agreement "for certain specified government approvals." Those government approvals -- from the Justice Department for antitrust review and the Federal Communications Commission for a broader public interest review -- had yet to be granted at press time. The FCC's decision could be extended into early next year. A year's worth of Comcast-NBCU coverage
benton.org/node/45752 | Broadcasting&Cable |
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HULU VISITS FCC
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Jason Kilar, chief executive of the network-backed online television platform Hulu, made a marathon tour through the Federal Communications Commission Dec 1, answering questions from commissioners and the chairman's staff on how Comcast and NBC Universal's proposed merger could affect video distribution on the Internet. According to a filing with the FCC, Hulu representatives talked in five separate meetings with Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Meredith Baker; the chairman's chief of staff Eddie Lazarus and senior counsel Rick Kaplan; and John Flynn, head of the team reviewing Comcast and NBC's merger. In the meetings, Kilar and Hulu's legal staff responded to questions about the relationship between online video programming distributors (“OVPD”), such as Hulu, and cable and telecom services that offer paid television subscriptions. Specifically, the company discussed revenue models and cost structure, program acquisition, advertising sales and audience measurement. During their meetings with FCC officials, the executives also talked about how companies like theirs will provide more competition in the future video marketplace, "to the benefit of consumers, content owners and advertisers."
benton.org/node/45750 | Washington Post | B&C
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BROADCASTING

GETTING MEDIA RIGHT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Michael Copps]
Speaking at the Columbia University School of Journalism, Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps said that , given what technology and innovation have wrought, this should be America's golden age of communications, news and information. "But the ecosystem is only as strong as its weakest link-and too many links are at the breaking point now. We should be riding on the cusp of an information and civic commons where anyone and everyone can engage, where bountiful news and information flow like water, where guaranteed openness trumps the threat of walled gardens, and where small "d" democracy is practiced on a town square paved with broadband bricks."
He proposed that the FCC conduct a Public Value Test of every broadcast station at relicensing time-which should occur every four years in lieu of the slam-dunk, no-questions-asked eight year renewals we dispense 100% of the time now. If a station passes the Public Value Test, it of course keeps the license it has earned to use the people's airwaves. If not, it goes on probation for a year, renewable for an additional year if it demonstrates measurable progress. If the station fails again, give the license to someone who will use it to serve the public interest. The FCC's Public Value Test would include the following: 1) Meaningful Commitments to News and Public Affairs Programming, 2) Enhanced Disclosure, 3) Political Advertising Disclosure, 4) Reflecting Diversity, 5) Community Discovery, 6) Local and Independent Programming. 7) Public Safety.
For new media he called on steps to create an environment where the genius of this opportunity-creating technology can truly flourish: 1) Guarantee Internet Freedom Now, 2) Encourage Broadband Competition, and 3) Push for Digital Literacy.
benton.org/node/45788 | Federal Communications Commission
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RURAL PUBLIC TV
[SOURCE: Department of Agriculture, AUTHOR: Press release]
Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager announced the selection of public television licensees in 13 states to receive funding to complete digital TV conversion projects. The funding is provided through the Public Television Digital Transition Grant Program, which is administered by USDA's Rural Utilities Service. The program provides equipment funding to public stations that serve substantial rural populations. The funding will support digital transition efforts, which include replacing outdated transmission equipment in isolated rural areas. For example, the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television (KATV) has been selected to receive a grant to place digital translators in eight isolated rural communities. USDA funds will also be used for one digital translator to serve a rural part of southern West Virginia that had previously received analog service. The project will provide public broadcasting coverage to several counties which lost good quality over-the-air signals. The grant funding totals $6.2 million.
benton.org/node/45773 | Department of Agriculture
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BUDGET OUTLOOK FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Jensen]
From 2008 to 2009, nonfederal support of public television stations declined an estimated $260 million, said Mark Erstling, a senior vice president at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which administers federal money. For 2010, the public radio and television stations that the corporation surveyed were expecting to lose 14 percent of their overall revenue, he said. In less than four weeks, NJN, the public radio and television network owned by New Jersey, will run out of state money to operate. Without a last-minute intervention, its outlets will go off the air on Dec. 31, and NJN’s 130 employees have already received layoff notices. With plenty of competing options being floated to reinvent NJN, no one really expects it to go dark in the long term. Last week, Gov. Chris Christie told The Star-Ledger in Newark that he expected to delay the cuts in order to give interested parties time to come up with a plan. NJN had been receiving about $11 million a year in state subsidies, including $4 million as part of its $18 million operating budget. But the brinkmanship underscores a difficult reality for public broadcasters. Even as they nervously wait to see whether Republicans carry through on threats to cut their federal financing, many are already grappling with deep cuts at the state level. The cuts have already taken their toll in Pennsylvania, where last year the elimination of nearly 90 percent of the state’s $8 million for public stations led to layoffs and the disappearance of local programs like WPSU-TV’s “Scholastic Scrimmage” quiz show for high school students. Other states, including Utah, South Carolina and Idaho, have already reduced public broadcasting subsidies, and public money may be cut in Mississippi and Virginia, too. Two years ago, New York’s public broadcasters faced a 50 percent reduction that was changed to 20 percent, and they had no cuts last year. The state-level cuts are part of a broader tough economic environment for stations, which also raise money from individual donors, foundations and corporate underwriting.
benton.org/node/45828 | New York Times
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WANING SUPPORT FOR COLLEGE RADIO
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Vorwald]
As colleges across the country look for ways to tighten budgets amid recession-induced shortfalls, some administrators — most recently in the South — have focused on college radio, leading even well-endowed universities to sell off their FM stations. That trend was felt this summer at Rice and Vanderbilt, among the most prominent of Southern universities, stirring debate about the viability of broadcast radio, the reach of online broadcasting and the value of student broadcast programming.
benton.org/node/45826 | New York Times
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RABBIT EARS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Matt Richtel, Jenna Wortham]
Some viewers who have decided that they are no longer willing or able to pay for cable or satellite service, including younger ones, are buying antennas and tuning in to a surprising number of free broadcast channels. These often become part of a video diet that includes the fast-growing menu of options available online. The antenna reception has also led many of these converts to discover -- or rediscover -- the frustration of weak and spotty signals. But its fans argue that it is tough to beat the price. From April to September, cable and satellite companies had a net loss of about 330,000 customers. Craig Moffett, a longtime cable analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, said the consensus of the industry executives he had talked to was that most of these so-called cord-cutters were turning to over-the-air TV. “It looks like they’re leaving for the antenna,” he said. Neil Smit, president of Comcast Cable, acknowledged in a recent call with investors that some customers had dropped cable for free signals. Company executives also said they expected business to rebound with the economy. Last month, Time Warner Cable fought back with a lower-cost package that it said might appeal to people who are feeling the economic squeeze. For $40 in New York, or $30 in Ohio, customers can get a slimmed-down set of channels. To be sure, around 90 percent of American households still pay for cable or satellite television — a figure that in recent years has been slowly and steadily rising. But American’s relationship with television has recently been in flux, in part because of the switch last June to digital broadcast signals.
benton.org/node/45824 | New York Times
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PRIVACY

DATA-MINERS READY TO REVEAL
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Emily Steel]
Seeking to head off escalating scrutiny over Internet privacy, a group of online tracking rivals is building a service that lets consumers see what information those companies know about them. The project is the first of its kind in the fast-growing business of tracking Internet users and selling personal details about their lives. Called the Open Data Partnership, it will allow consumers to edit the interests, demographics and other profile information collected about them. It also will allow people to choose to not be tracked at all. When the service launches in January, users will be able to see information about them from eight data and tracking firms, including BlueKai Inc., Lotame Solutions Inc. and eXelate Inc. Additional tracking firms are expected to join once the system is live, but more than a hundred tracking firms and big Internet companies including Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. are not involved. The companies involved represent some of the most aggressive trackers of Internet users.
benton.org/node/45754 | Wall Street Journal | GigaOm
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CONGRESS DEFENDS FACEBOOK?
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
Columbia Law Professor Eben Moglen seemed to have touched a nerve on Capitol Hill when he touted the social networking start-up Diaspora, which he advises, while simultaneously bashing Facebook in his written testimony. Immediately before Moglen was set to testify at the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, Rep. Zachary Space (D-OH), chided the professor. "Congress tries to foster highest level of decorum," Rep Space lectured. "I would ask you to avoid personal attacks against any companies or company employees.'" These remarks spurred a flurry of tweets from curious industry observers who wanted to know which company Moglen had criticized. That question took a surprisingly long time to answer, thanks to a highly questionable decision to remove Moglen's prepared statement from the subcommittee's Web site. After a round of complaints on Twitter about the apparent attempt to toss Moglen's remarks down the memory hole, privacy expert Chris Soghoian posted a link to a pdf of the testimony hosted by the Software Freedom Law Center, where Moglen serves as director. Shortly afterward, Moglen's original statement reappeared on the House Subcommittee site. What did the professor write that was deemed worthy of censorship? For one thing, he called Facebook's privacy settings "mere deception, a simple act of deliberate confusion." Secondly, he pointed out that Facebook has access to vast amounts of data about people.
benton.org/node/45780 | MediaPost
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DO NOT TRACK
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: David Kaplan]
While many major publishers, ad networks and ad agencies have been united in their opposition to the idea of a Federal Trade Commission’s “Do Not Track” button, not all of these players would be impacted equally if Do Not Track were to be implemented. Publishers still rely mostly on contextual ads on their sites, while Do Not Track would cause the most disruption in the world of behavioral targeted advertising. Who relies most on that behavioral data? The ad networks that sell it to the ad agencies, and, to a lesser degree, the ad agencies themselves that use it to promise their clients greater effectiveness. Where publishers feel Do Not Track would hurt them most is in disrupting their internal ad settings, things like “frequency caps,” which allow a publisher to limit the same ad users might see as they navigate the site and are based in cookies. Also, they feel that eliminating those cookies would make their sites more annoying to users -- who wants to sign in to a site everytime? -- and would reduce their traffic and time spent on the site and ultimately hurt them that way. But agencies and advertisers and ad networks have the most to lose.
benton.org/node/45775 | paidContent.org
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OPTING OUT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tanzina Vega, Verne Kopytoff]
The Federal Trade Commission’s proposed privacy mechanism could cause a major shift in the online advertising industry, as companies that have relied on consumers’ browsing history try to make up for what could be billions in lost revenue. If the vast majority of online users chose not to have their Internet activity tracked, the proposed “do not track” system could have a severe effect on the industry, some experts say. It would cause major harm to the companies like online advertising networks, small and midsize publishers and technology companies like Yahoo that earn a large percentage of their revenue from advertising that is tailored to users based on the sites they have visited. Under a situation where many users opt out of being tracked, other companies, like Google, may take a much smaller hit because the vast majority of its revenue comes through search ads that would not be affected by a do-not-track mechanism. Microsoft, which also sells display advertising through its ad network, could also survive a hit to user data collection since it earns revenue from sources other than advertising, including software and gaming, experts say. The FTC is seeking comment over the next two months on whether a do-not-track mechanism should allow consumers to control the types of advertisements they would like to see in addition to having the ability to completely opt out of having their data collected. During this period, the commission will seek comments on the possible unintended consequences of the proposal, including the likely effect if a large number of consumers opt out.
benton.org/node/45830 | New York Times
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PRIVACY AND HEALTH RECORD DATABASE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Aimee Miles]
An Office of Personnel Management plan to launch a comprehensive database of federal workers' health-care records has raised the ire of some privacy advocates, employee unions and consumer groups. The OPM is organizing a research database of insurance claims filed by the 8 million workers and dependents enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, as well as participants in two other federally administered programs. The claims data, which will be supplied by the private insurers that participate in the FEHBP, will help the OPM figure out ways to lower costs, improve quality and fight fraud, the agency has said. But critics - including the American Civil Liberties Union, Consumers Union and the American Federation of Government Employees - argue that the government should avoid setting up a repository of sensitive information that could be vulnerable to privacy breaches. At minimum, they say, the OPM should provide more information about how the database, the Health Claims Data Warehouse, will work and who will have access to it.
benton.org/node/45816 | Washington Post
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TELECOM

LIFE AFTER POTS
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Juan Vela]
[Commentary] Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) has been a chief revenue source for service providers since the early 20th century. Over the last decade that has changed dramatically as evidenced by the number of voice lines cut every month across the country. Some larger incumbents have gone so far as to call for an “end of life” to what once was the mainstay of their business. While there has certainly been erosion in the number of POTS lines, it is not the death knell for voice. Like many technologies before it, voice is simply evolving. POTS, a service that was once the only revenue source for service providers, is rapidly becoming an application that can be bundled into a suite of communications and entertainment services—each essential to a diversified revenue stream. Today’s voice service can be infrastructure-based or cloud-based. It can be delivered over traditional technology, like tip and ring, or via wireless or cable modem over a variety of network architectures and a variety of media, ranging from DSL to cable to fiber. Or, like the Skype App on the iPhone & iPad, it can even be an application that runs on a mobile device. The dilemma for today’s wireline network operators is how to create voice applications that generate revenue and compete against cloud-based services like Google and Skype. One solution could be to meld current and future technological capabilities with the habits of today’s consumers. [Vela is Director of Solutions Marketing & Strategy for Occam Networks]
benton.org/node/45742 | Connected Planet
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EDUCATION

THE STIMULUS AND ED TECH
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: ]
Nearly two years after the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was passed, two new reports offer varying perspectives on how successful the billions of dollars in federal stimulus funds were in spurring educational technology gains and school reform. One report, from the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), highlights important educational technology gains across many states, while another report takes a more critical look at the effect that federal stimulus funds have had on education and school reform in general. Both reports warn that the future will be less than smooth for cash-strapped districts once the stimulus funds run out. The Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) state block-grant program received $650 million under ARRA. In FY2010, EETT suffered cuts that brought its funding to $100 million, and the Obama administration has proposed eliminating EETT altogether in FY2011, instead making educational technology funding a key part of its school reform and improvement programs. In SETDA’s report, “ARRA Investments in Technology, Innovation, and K-12 Reform: The Digital Education Funding Cliff,” the organization notes that the budget cut of nearly 65 percent to regular EETT funding in FY10, coupled with the administration’s request to eliminate the program in its FY11 budget, “has slowed the pace of [educational technology] implementation” within many states.
benton.org/node/45782 | eSchool News
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ENERGY

SUSTAINABLE BROADBAND?
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: David Zax]
Though we tend not to mention it in the same breath as transportation, heating our homes, or lighting our offices, downloading data consumes energy too. As more people turn to the Internet for increasingly data-intensive activities, computer scientists from the UK's Bristol University decided to crunch the numbers and project the ultimate impact on the environment. The results are staggering. The researchers assumed that people in the developed world would maintain the same level of media consumption, but move it entirely to the cloud, and that the global middle glass would reach a similar level of data use. With those assumption in place, the researchers reckon that each person will demand, on average, over 3 gigabytes of data per day. That'll come to 2,570 exabytes per year for the global population, by 2030. (An exabyte is a billion gigabytes.) The average power needed to sustain such activity would be 1,175 gigawatts. It takes an entire large coal-fired power plant to produce just one gigawatt of energy, so imagine 1,175 of those churning out power just to fuel the world's data hunger. Big numbers--as any global figures are--and they've led researchers Chris Preist and Paul Shabajee to propose innovative strategies for containing consumption. Intriguingly, Preist and Shabajee talk about cloud computing in terms more familiar to recycling programs: they want us to change our behavior to reduce "digital waste." Taking a page from behavioral economics and the authors of the popular book Nudge, they advocate "persuasive" web design that nudges users into choosing less data-intensive options--avoiding that high-res photo when a medium-res would suffice.
benton.org/node/45778 | Fast Company
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TELEVISION

WHAT NETFLIX WANTS NEXT
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Andrew Wallenstein]
Put yourself in Netflix’s shoes and ask: What kind of shows would the TV industry actually be willing to do a deal on without derailing its gravy train, the syndication marketplace? There’s a pretty logical subset of shows to target: serialized dramas. These are the densely plotted one-hour shows like AMC’s Mad Men that don't get anywhere near the millions per episode that procedural dramas like CSI get in syndication because their episodes can't air out of order. They also don't stay on the air long enough to reach over 100 episodes, a total that guarantees buyers really pay through the nose. If Netflix scooped up serials, it could actually find itself in the position to be something of a saving grace to the TV industry that too often gets burned gambling on these shows only to make nothing on the back-end. Fortunately for Netflix, on-demand consumption actually lends itself to serialized episodes and the number of episodes is irrelevant. The smart money says this is where Netflix will be shopping to keep its momentum going in TV, which the company recently signaled accounts for half of its streams. But there could be a hitch. If you think of the seller that has the most to offer Netflix in serialized shows, it’s HBO. But look inside the trove of shows Netflix currently offers for streaming and you'll notice there’s nothing from the pay-TV king even though rivals like Showtime have licensed their programs.
benton.org/node/45738 | paidContent.org
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ESPN CABLE CUTTER STUDY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
Seeking to understand the cutting of cable cords, ESPN has waded into the Nielsen Company’s audience sample and concluded that the cancellations are currently a “very minor” phenomenon. The sports network’s study provides a new answer, or at least a new set of data, for a question that looms over the television industry: how many Americans are dropping their costly cable subscriptions and watching TV on the Internet instead? This action, often called cord-cutting, has happened in 0.28 percent of households in the United States in the last three months, ESPN found in a study that it plans to release on Monday. Offsetting those losses, though, 0.17 percent of households that had been broadcast-only signed up for pay TV and broadband. “So the net amount of cord-cutting for one quarter was just one-tenth of 1 percent,” said Glenn Enoch, the vice president for integrated media research for ESPN. The study is significant because the prospect of cord-cutting has deeply worried television executives. Established players like ESPN that depend on subscriber revenue have been eager to figure out how much cord-cutting is going on — and to dispel myths about the behavior.
benton.org/node/45822 | New York Times
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ELECTIONS

PAC SPENDING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: TW Famam]
The newly created independent political groups known as super PACs, which raised and spent millions of dollars on last month's elections, drew much of their funding from private-equity partners and others in the financial industry, according to new financial disclosure reports. The 72 super PACs, all formed this year, together spent $83.7 million on the election. The figures provide the best indication yet of the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions that opened the door for wealthy individuals and corporations to give unlimited contributions. The financial disclosure reports also underscore the extent to which the flow of corporate money will be tied to political goals. Private-equity partners and hedge fund managers, for example, have a substantial stake in several issues before Congress, primarily the taxes they pay on their earnings. "Super PACs provide a means for the super wealthy to have even more influence and an even greater voice in the political process," said Meredith McGehee, a lobbyist for the Campaign Legal Center, which advocates for tighter regulation of money in politics.
benton.org/node/45794 | Washington Post
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Analysis

December 2010

One Data Plan for Multiple Devices: What a Concept!

Department of Health and Human Services to fund state Health Info Exchange breakthrough pilots

A Copyright Office for the 21st Century

December 6, 2010 (Comcast and NBC One Year Later)

Comcast and NBC

In Online Privacy Plan, the Opt-Out Question Looms

A Bleak Budget Outlook for Public Broadcasters

Waning Support for College Radio Sets Off a Debate

Rabbit Ears Perk Up for Free HDTV

ESPN Says Study Shows Little Effort to Cut Cable