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  2. July 2011

July 2011

Google+ and the loss of online anonymity

As Google rolls out its Google+ social network, it is struggling with the same questions about identity that have caused problems for Facebook in the past: namely, how much should it force people to use their “real” names?

The web giant has been disabling user accounts on Google+ for a variety of reasons over the past few weeks, but it has caused an outcry from many who feel it is being too strict in some cases and not enough in others. The big issue at the root of this battle, as we have pointed out before, is that in many cases anonymity (and pseudonymity) has real value. Are we losing that as a result of Google and Facebook’s real-name obsession? Google senior vice-president Vic Gundotra, the man who is in charge of Google’s social efforts, said in response to a post by blogger Robert Scoble that Google doesn't necessarily want to force people to use only their legally given names — he says the web company is fine with users setting up accounts under “commonly used” names, although it’s not clear how this is defined. This would presumably cover celebrity users like 50 Cent or Lady Gaga (Gundotra noted that even he doesn't use his legal name on Google+). The Google executive said he simply wants to maintain a “positive tone” on the network, and compared it to requiring people to wear shirts in a restaurant. While this is an appealing metaphor, it’s not as simple as that, unfortunately.

Before giving websites the ax, feds should consider public satisfaction, analyst says

A task force charged with slashing and rationalizing the federal government's Web presence should look at traffic, redundancy and user satisfaction as it decides which sites should get the ax, an analytic agency recommended.

The company, ForeSee Results, manages the E-Government Satisfaction Index, a quarterly survey of customer satisfaction with participating federal websites. The White House has embarked on a major campaign to slash and consolidate the more than 20,000 government websites that have sprung up since the 1990s. Many of those websites were built around a specific issue or initiative and are now rarely visited and poorly maintained. Other websites are visited more often but were built with distinct architecture so it's difficult for casual Web surfers to tell what's official and what's not. ForeSee primarily analyzes high-profile websites, such as agencies' main websites or those with popular customer service functions, not antiquated sites that are likely to be cut entirely. A customer satisfaction metric similar to the one ForeSee uses to assess often-visited sites could be a useful tool in determining which lower level sites to drop, the company argues.

GAO decries 'decentralized' DoD cyber efforts

The Defense Department unveiled its sweeping cybersecurity proposal a little more than a week ago. Now, a recently declassified Government Accountability Office report shows just how much the Pentagon is up against in its efforts to better coordinate its cyber capabilities.

The report, which was originally prepared in May 2010 and declassified today - thus pre-dating the most recent Pentagon plan - aimed to address how DoD is organized with regard to cybersecurity. The answer: not very. DoD's organization to address cybersecurity threats is "decentralized and spread across various offices," GAO found, including the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff and the military. And while there have been several attempts at publishing joint strategies for addressing cyberspace operations, GAO found that "the discussions are insufficient, and no single joint publication completely addresses cyberspace operations." GAO also identified so-called cyber "capability gaps," which the watchdog agency said the Pentagon has not done enough to address. DoD "has not completed a comprehensive, departmentwide assessment of needed resources, capability gaps and an implementation plan for addressing any gaps," GAO said.

Pew: 71% of online adults now use video-sharing sites

Fully 71% of online Americans use video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo.

On any given day, 28% of Internet users go to such sites. These figures come from a new national survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and they both are notable increases from 2010. The previous survey found that 66% of online Americans had ever used video sharing sites and that on a typical day 23% of Internet users were visiting them. Moreover, the use of video-sharing sites on any given day also jumped five percentage points. In our May 2001 survey, 28% of online Americans said they had gone to such sites “yesterday,” compared with 23% who had reported using video-sharing sites “yesterday” – or on a typical day in May 2010.

Rural Internet users are now just as likely as users in urban and suburban areas to have used these sites, and online African-Americans and Hispanics are more likely than Internet-using whites to visit video-sharing sites.

Pirates of the ISPs: Tactics for Turning Online Crooks Into International Pariahs

At the beginning of the 19th century, piracy was an ongoing threat and an accepted military tactic. By the end of the century, it was taboo, occurring solely off the shores of failed states and minor powers. The practice of hijacking did not vanish entirely, of course; it is flourishing now on the world’s computer networks, costing companies and consumers countless billions of dollars. Cybercrime today seems like a nearly insoluble problem, much like piracy was centuries ago. There are steps, however, that can be taken to curb cybercrime’s growth -- and perhaps begin to marginalize the people behind it.

Some of the methods used to sideline piracy provide a useful, if incomplete, template for how to get it done. Shutting down the markets for stolen treasure cut off the pirates’ financial lifeblood; similar pushes could be made against the companies that support online criminals. Piracy was eventually brought to heel when nations took responsibility for what went on within its borders. Based on this precedent, cybercrime will only begin to be curbed when greater authority -- and accountability -- is exercised over the networks that form the sea on which these modern pirates sail. In this new campaign, however, private companies, not governments, will have to play the central role, as Harvard’s Tyler Moore and others have suggested. After all, the Internet is not a network of governments; it is mostly an amalgam of businesses that rely almost exclusively on handshake agreements to carry data from one side of the planet to another. The vast majority of the Internet’s infrastructure is in the hands of these 5,000 or so Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and carrier networks, as is the ability to keep crooks off that infrastructure. If this relatively small group can be persuaded to move against online criminals, it will represent an enormous step towards turning these crooks into global pariahs.

Most rural hospitals wouldn't meet meaningful use: report

A large majority of rural and critical-access hospitals would not meet the measures needed to qualify for incentive payments tied to the meaningful use of health information technology, according to research published in the latest issue of the Journal of Rural Health.

The report, based on hospital-reported data from an American Hospital Association survey on IT use for 2007, is published in the journal's Summer 2011 issue. Just 5% of rural hospitals and 3% of critical-access hospitals participating in would be ready to demonstrate meaningful use of an electronic health-record system, according to the report's authors.

Why The U.S. Government Should Embrace Smart Cities

[Commentary] Global companies, having wired people throughout the world, are now on a mission to connect cities, within and without, through the integrated application of advanced technologies like wireless sensors and processors, mobile and video telecommunications, and geographic information systems. The tantalizing prospect: cities and metropolitan areas that use technology to manage urban congestion, maximize energy efficiency, enhance public security, allocate scarce resources based on real time evidence, even educate their citizenry through remote learning.

The United States would seem tailor made for this market transformation. One of the most urbanized countries in the world, cities and metropolitan areas house over 83% of the population and generate 90 percent of national GDP. American companies (and the U.S. military) have been innovative leaders in the invention of technologies critical to making cities smart. Despite these natural advantages, the U.S. lags rather than leads the move towards smart cities.

July 26, 2011 (AT&T Customers Sue)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2011

Spectrum, Privacy, and Cybersecurity on today's agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2011-07-26/


MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
   Gawker Will Go to Court in Fox Investigation

AT&T/T-MOBILE
   AT&T Customers File Arbitration Cases Seeking to Block T-Mobile Merger
   AT&T Offers FCC More Data on Proposed Merger
   With merger before feds, T-Mobile, AT&T ramp up lobbying spending
   Group says AT&T/T-Mobile merger bad for mobile app makers
   Republicans may be winning the social media war [links to web]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Sen Reid Budget Proposal Includes Spectrum Auctions
   NAB's Smith: FCC Withholding Spectrum Reclamation Information
   Cell phone market bigger than we thought
   Eight small telcos ink deals to evaluate new broadband wireless technology [links to web]
   FCC: No Contact With Gips About LightSquared [links to web]
   Los Angeles sues AT&T for unpaid taxes [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   To Cap, or Not - editorial
   Satellite Broadband: We’re Best Option for 40% of Unserved Broadband Homes
   Judge Rejects Effort to Slow Broadband Internet Project in Wisconsin
   Let States Tax Amazon, E-Commerce at Source - editorial
   Early Media Prophet Is Now Getting His Due [links to web]

CYBERSECURITY
   US-CERT Director Leaves Abruptly
   House panel approves cybersecurity standards bill
   For Suspected Hackers, a Sense of Social Protest [links to web]

PRIVACY
   Time is running out on Internet companies on online tracking issue - editorial

OWNERSHIP
   News Corp. Board Challenged
   Murdoch Newspaper Veterans Portray a Fully Engaged Boss

TELEVISION
   Nexstar Files Antitrust Suit Against Granite
   New York City LPTV Goes for $5.3 Million [links to web]
   TV Helped Drive Traffic to Online Poker Websites, Irking Justice Department [links to web]

CONTENT
   How Google's New Face Recognition Tech Could Change The Web's Future
   Netflix addresses customers 'upset' with price hike [links to web]

ACCESSIBILITY
   FCC Releases Reports on Closed Captioning of Video Programming Delivered Using Internet Protocol and Emergency Calling for Persons With Disabilities - press release

TELEWORK
   Agencies lack clear guidance on telework during emergencies, report says

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   China Steps Up Web Monitoring, Driving Many Wi-Fi Users Away
   Vodafone faces pressure over Egypt protests
   Now for a slimmer, more distinctive BBC - editorial [links to web]

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MEDIA AND ELECTIONS

GAWKER INVESTIGATES CHRISTIE-AILES CONNECTION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
Gawker is going to court to investigate the relationship between the Fox News chairman, Roger Ailes, and Gov Chris Christie (R-NJ). The company and one of its reporters, John Cook, plan to file a civil suit against Christie’s office to try to obtain records of the communications between the two men. Cook, who regularly uses freedom of information and open public records acts to ferret out information for his Gawker articles, said the court action represents the first lawsuit filed by Gawker to obtain information. The lawsuit has its origins in a New York magazine story in May which reported that Ailes had called Gov Christie and “encouraged him to jump into the race” for president earlier this year. The report piqued the attention of people like Cook who believe that Ailes, a former Republican strategist who has run Fox News since its founding in 1996, still has a hand in politics. Gov Christie has repeatedly ruled out running for president in the current election cycle. In an interview with The Daily Beast weeks later, Ailes denied urging Mr. Christie to run, but acknowledged having dinner with him last summer.
benton.org/node/83873 | New York Times | Associated Press
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AT&T/T-MOBILE

SUIT TO BLOCK MERGER
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ina Fried]
A group of lawyers has filed arbitration cases on behalf of 11 AT&T customers in hope of blocking the company’s planned $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA. The New York-based firm of Bursor & Fisher law firm filed a 236-page arbitration demand on July 21, alleging that the proposed deal would harm competition in violation of the Clayton Antitrust Act. Although the deal already requires approval from the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission, the law firm is seeking to represent individual AT&T customers who want to bring their own legal challenges to the deal. “Government enforcement is an important part of the antitrust laws, but the Clayton Act also permits private parties who may be adversely affected to challenge a proposed merger,” attorney Scott Bursor said in a statement. “That means any AT&T cellphone, data or iPad customer who will suffer higher prices and diminished service because of this merger can sue to stop it from happening.” AT&T’s standard contract terms prevent class-action suits but allow for disputes to be brought up for arbitration, at AT&T’s expense.
benton.org/node/83577 | Wall Street Journal | see FightTheMerger
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NEW DATA FROM AT&T
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
AT&T is expected to submit a filing to the Federal Communications Commission on Monday with a technical explanation on how combining its network with T-Mobile's will create new capacity, a key argument it has made in advocating for the merger. AT&T argues that merging the two companies' cell networks will create new capacity for smart phones and tablets just as networks are under increasing strain. AT&T also submitted filings to the FCC on July 22, again at the agency's request. One filing aimed to beat back arguments that the merger will kill innovation in the handset market. The other one reinforced AT&T's view that competition in the wireless market should be reviewed on a local basis--where various companies offer service--rather than a national basis, where just four companies compete, including T-Mobile.
"It is clear that AT&T's submission of a new justification for taking over T-Mobile is exactly like the coach of a losing team calling time out so he can work the referees. While the Federal Communications Commission stops its merger review process to examine the new plan, AT&T will use the time to spend more millions of dollars lobbying federal, state and local officials and recruiting non-governmental groups to support what is clearly a failing action," Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said.
benton.org/node/83576 | National Journal | Public Knowledge | Robert Willig via AT&T | AT&T - local promotions | AT&T - LTE | The Hill
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AT&T/T-MOBILE LOBBYING
[SOURCE: TechFlash, AUTHOR: Greg Lamm]
AT&T, seeking regulatory approval to buy T-Mobile USA, has ramped up lobbying efforts in Washington (DC). The telecommunications giant has spent $4.9 million to lobby the federal government in the second quarter of 2011, up 58 percent from the same quarter a year ago. The lobbying money was reported in the company’s recent quarterly earnings report. Meanwhile, T-Mobile reported spending $1 million on lobbying efforts in the second quarter, according to Bloomberg Businessweek, up from the $602,000 that T-Mobile spent in the second quarter of 2010 and up from the $690,000 T-Mobile spend in the first quarter of 2011. AT&T also is lobbying for support to create a national wireless broadband network, and AT&T wants federal approval to use more spectrum for mobile apps and online videos.
benton.org/node/83574 | TechFlash
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CCIA OPPOSES AT&T/T-MOBILE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
Allowing AT&T to purchase T-Mobile would give two firms too much control over the market for mobile software applications and services, according to the Computer and Communications Industry Association. CCIA President Edward Black said that the deal would hurt the entire Internet ecosystem by giving AT&T the ability to block innovation in the wireless marketplace. Aside from app makers, Black said the merger would also negatively affect handset makers, who would have fewer potential buyers for their wares. However, unlike app developers, which are often small firms, he said handset makers are large and have shown leverage against carriers in the past.
benton.org/node/83871 | Hill, The
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

SPECTRUM AND DEFICIT REDUCTION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is proposing a $2.7 million package of cuts and revenue-raisers that included spectrum auctions, according to a summary of the proposal. According to Reid's office, the plan anticipates $15 billion in "spectrum sales." Part of the proceeds from an incentive auction to reclaim broadcast spectrum for wireless broadband will go toward deficit reduction according to various bills now in Congress. The Senate bill, S 911, was scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) as providing $6.5 billion for deficit reduction. The possibility or either appending one of the current spectrum auction bills to the financial package or writing in new language has been on the table for several weeks and was raised in a slide presentation last month by Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), one of the lead Republicans on the debt negotiations, although he had a figure of $20 billion-$25 billion.
benton.org/node/83882 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NAB ON SPECTRUM PLAN
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Association of Broadcasters took aim at the National Broadband Plan in an effort to defend its spectrum turf. The Federal Communications Commission countered that the association was employing scare tactics instead of working with it on a shared goal of preserving a strong over-the-air broadcasting system. NAB President Gordon Smith said that NAB was providing some "facts" about the impact of repacking and moving channels since the FCC had not come out with its modeling for such impacts, even though NAB had been asking for it. He argued legislators should know those facts before voting on incentive auction legislation. NAB has said it does not oppose incentive auctions, which would compensate broadcasters who want to give up spectrum for re-auctioning, but at the same time it has been making the point that broadcasters have a lot to live for, as it were, including mobile DTV and multicasting and even a one-to-many delivery model for broadband at peak loads times. And it has also pointed out that repacking and moving stations to clear blocks of spectrum for wireless auction is by definition not voluntary and will be disruptive to the stations that remain behind.
benton.org/node/83573 | Broadcasting&Cable
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GLOBAL CELL PHONE MARKET
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Erica Ogg]
The researchers at Deutsche Bank are throwing out old estimates of the worldwide mobile phone market because they say we’re still underestimating its size. The reason? They’re still trying to grasp how many cell phones are made and sold in China. As a result, Deutsche Bank is increasing its 2011 forecast of the worldwide market to 1.68 billion phones, up from 1.57 billion earlier this year. The problem with counting the phones sold in China is that a sizable chunk of them are “Shanzhai” phones, or knock-off phones that are cheap to make and popular in China and in neighboring emerging markets. The manufacturers of these handsets don't have official licenses to build phones from the Chinese government and typically do not sell them through what we might think of as traditional retail channels.
benton.org/node/83880 | GigaOm
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

BROADBAND DATA CAPS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] As people do more with their broadband connections — streaming movies, downloading music, moving files to and from the cloud — it might seem natural for Internet service providers to impose data caps on users to manage their networks and deal with congestion. Wireline data caps are billed as a way to manage traffic, but they could also hamstring the user’s experience, blunt competition online and stymie innovation on the Internet. This problem is of particular concern because there is hardly any competition in high-speed broadband services (speeds above 10 megabits per second). Some users have a choice between a cable company and a phone company. In many areas they have no choice. Caps should not just be a way for Internet providers to extract monopoly rents. Data caps are a blunt way of managing broadband. Moving an extra gigabyte of data at off-peak times costs virtually nothing. Peak demand is the problem. Yet caps make no allowance for this. Moreover, there is no crunch in wireline broadband capacity, as there is in wireless. Internet providers must recoup substantial investments in their networks, but adding capacity is cheaper than putting up a network, and becoming cheaper all the time. Caps can be used anticompetitively — to discourage the use of services that rival an Internet service provider’s in-house offerings. The Federal Communications Commission should seek to understand how effective they are at relieving congestion and what effect they have on services that rival Internet providers’ in-house offerings, like video. And it should keep an eye on whether caps respond to network efficiency gains and capacity increases. Caps must not impede development of broadband.
benton.org/node/83579 | New York Times
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SATELLITE BROADBAND
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
Satellite companies are doing their best to make sure their technology is considered a viable option to receive universal service funding as the high-cost USF program transitions to focus on broadband, as evidenced by a satellite industry ex-parte this week with the Federal Communications Commission. “Satellite broadband service is the most cost-effective technological solution for over 40% of the unserved households that the FCC has identified,” wrote WildBlue/ViaSat General Counsel Lisa Scalpone in an ex parte summary letter. The FCC has previously stated that about seven million homes lack access to broadband, which would put the satellite companies’ target number at around 2.8 million households. The commission’s own research focused on a considerably lower number of about 250,000 homes that could be served most economically using satellite. The FCC expects to set a minimum bandwidth threshold of 4 Mbps for the proposed broadband universal fund -- and although some satellites do not meet that minimum threshold today, several companies including WildBlue/ViaSat should be able to meet that minimum requirement using satellites launched this year. Some have questioned why satellite companies should receive Universal Service funding because their costs of serving each individual customer are virtually identical, regardless of where each customer is located. Terrestrial –based technologies, on the other hand, are considerably more expensive to deploy in sparsely populated rural areas or in areas with rough terrain -- and the aim of the USF program traditionally has been to help cover costs in high-cost areas. Satellite providers argue, however, that if they can obtain funding through the USF program, they will be able to deploy higher-capacity satellites and make other network
benton.org/node/83565 | telecompetitor
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WISCONSIN BROADBAND PROJECT
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Dane County (WI) Judge Peter Anderson against Wisconsin Independent Telecommunications Systems, a telecommunications company that wanted to slow down a broadband project in rural communities. The University of Wisconsin System and others were awarded more than $37 million in grants for the project. Its goal is to deliver telecommunications capabilities to schools, hospitals and emergency services. The project will bring broadband services to project in Eau Claire, Chippewa, Douglas, Dunn, Grant, Marathon and Menominee counties. Wisconsin Independent Telecommunications Systems claims the project violates state law. It wanted a temporary restraining order to stop the project.
benton.org/node/83563 | Associated Press
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TAX AT SOURCE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Ramesh Ponnuru]
[Commentary] There are dueling studies about how much revenue state and local governments forgo by not collecting taxes from Internet sales. But experience seems to side with the low estimates. A far better solution would be for states to levy sales taxes based on where products are coming from rather than on where they’re going -- or for Congress to tell them to do so. Under an origin-based tax rather than a destination-based tax, for example, Washington state would have the power to tax Amazon.com’s sales. For physical stores, sales taxes would keep being collected as before. This would be a much simpler tax system with lower compliance costs. It would tend to constrain sales taxes by increasing competition among the states: A state that raised its rates too high would induce businesses, particularly catalog or Internet businesses that can sell remotely, to locate elsewhere.
benton.org/node/83894 | Bloomberg
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CYBERSECURITY

CYBERSECURITY OFFICIAL RESIGNS
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Montalbano]
The director of the agency that protects the federal government from cyber attacks has resigned abruptly in the wake of a spate of hacks against government networks.
U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) director Randy Vickers resigned his position July 22, effective immediately, according to an e-mail to US-CERT staff sent by Bobbie Stempfley, acting assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications. Vickers served as director of US-CERT since April 2009; previously, he was deputy director. Current US-CERT deputy director Lee Rock will serve as interim director until the DHS names a successor for Vickers.
benton.org/node/83857 | InformationWeek
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CYBERSECURITY BILL IN HOUSE
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Josh Smith]
The Science, Space, and Technology Committee approved the first piece of cybersecurity legislation in the House of Representatives this year, passing a bill designed to increase education, research, and development to confront cyberthreats. The committee overwhelmingly approved the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2011 on July 21. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX and Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL), mirrors legislation passed last year by the House but that never made it to the Senate. The bill would authorize research, education, and the development of standards at the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It also gives NIST the authority to set standards for federal agencies. Rep McCaul said he expects the bill to be debated by the full House after the August recess. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has introduced companion legislation in the Senate.
benton.org/node/83567 | nextgov
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PRIVACY

DO NOT TRACK COMING?
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Privacy groups and some members of Congress are up in arms, and rightfully so, over a new study revealing that many online advertising companies continue to follow people's Web activity, even after users believe they have opted out of tracking. Consumers have legitimate worries about the information that's being collected and used online. It's time for the Internet industry to come to a collective agreement about the privacy protections it will guarantee. Six months ago we warned that if innovators did not find a way to police online tracking, Congress would feel compelled to regulate the industry. Washington does not have a good track record when it comes to imposing rules on technology; too often it has either slowed Silicon Valley innovation or done significant damage to tech firms' bottom line. But there is little confidence the industry will do the right thing, either. The Do Not Call registry, enacted in 2005, shows that Congress can act when consumers' privacy is in jeopardy. The Internet industry must move quickly to assure lawmakers and the public that it is capable of responding to these legitimate consumer concerns.
benton.org/node/83897 | San Jose Mercury News
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OWNERSHIP

NEWS CORP'S BOARD
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Russell Adams, Joann Lublin]
News Corp.'s board, under scrutiny for its supervision amid a reporting-tactics scandal at the U.K. newspaper division, is expected to sit tight for at least the next couple of weeks, comfortable that the steps the company has taken so far are appropriate for addressing the crisis, barring other significant developments, according to people familiar with the matter. Critics, however, contend the board lacks the level of independence it needs to ensure the mess is cleaned up properly. A week ago, News Corp. formalized a management and standards committee tasked with cooperating on investigations into voicemail interceptions and alleged improper police payments at its U.K. newspaper unit, "conducting its own enquiries" and proposing new standards. The committee ultimately reports to independent director Viet Dinh, who was an assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush. However, the structure of the management committee, which reports through News Corp. Executive Vice President Joel Klein, raised questions about the board's ability to properly police the company. It also bolstered longstanding criticism about the lack of truly independent oversight at News Corp. overall. Corporate-governance experts say any investigation into the company's conduct can't pass muster if it is overseen by a senior executive who reports to the chief executive and controlling shareholder, Rupert Murdoch.
benton.org/node/83902 | Wall Street Journal
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MURDOCH AN ENGAGED BOSS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Sarah Lyall, Graham Bowley]
In last week’s parliamentary hearing on phone hacking, Rupert Murdoch sought to distance himself from the hacking scandal, explaining that because he employs “53,000 people around the world” he cannot be expected to know everything everyone is doing at The News of the World. He may have come across at the hearing as vague, detached and unfocused — as an old man who was at times not quite all there. Investors in the News Corporation have been pressing for years for the company to arrange a clear succession plan for Murdoch, who is 80 years old, and speculation about his future is rife now that the company has suffered a significant blow to its reputation. But Murdoch, who every morning reads avidly from what one former editor referred to as “the best clippings service I have ever seen,” has never been a disengaged boss, especially from his newspapers. “I really didn't buy that, to be honest,” said Roy Greenslade, a former Murdoch editor who is now a professor of journalism at City University London. “I'm sure he’s not as interfering as he was 20 years ago, but you can see through the way The Sun and The News of the World operate that his word remains law.” Indeed, in January, as the phone hacking scandal began to gain traction and Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor, quit his job as the government’s top spokesman (he has since been arrested on suspicion of phone hacking and bribing the police), Mr. Murdoch postponed his trip to the World Economic Forum and swept into London to take charge.
benton.org/node/83901 | New York Times
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TELEVISION

NEXSTAR SUIT AGAINST GRANITE
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
Nexstar Broadcasting Group today filed a federal civil antitrust lawsuit in the Northern District of Indiana against Granite Broadcasting, alleging that Granite is monopolizing local TV sales in Fort Wayne (IN). According to Nexstar, Granite will control the local ad sales in the market for stations affiliated with Fox, NBC, ABC, CW and MNT. The suit is an apparent reaction to Granite's WISE picking up the Fox affiliation in Fort Wayne after Nexstar was unable to come to terms with Fox on renewing the affiliation for its WFFT. WISE is named in the suit. WISE is an NBC affiliate that now carries MNT on a subchannel. Starting Aug. 1, it plans to split the time on the subchannel between MNT and Fox. Under an arrangement with Malara Broadcasting, WISE also operates ABC affiliate WPTA, which carries the CW on a subchannel. Nexstar’s lawsuit asserts that Granite’s actions violate Section 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, Section 7 of the Clayton Act, and Indiana antitrust law.
benton.org/node/83860 | TVNewsCheck
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CONTENT

GOOGLE BUYS PITT PATT
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Kit Eaton]
Google just bought a high-tech face recognition unit called Pitt Patt. Built into Google products, it could change everything about the web. Yes, everything. Pitt Patt was founded in 2004 as a spin-off firm built upon a decade of research into object recognition by scientists at Carnegie Mellon University. Now it's a Google property. What will the Net behemoth be able to do with Pitt Patt's technology? Almost anything to do with advanced face recognition, from video to Picasa's popular images to photos uploaded and shared via Google+. Pitt Patt (for Pittsburgh Pattern recognition) developed a highly successful system for recognizing people's faces. At its core are two algorithms that recognize faces -- one mostly front-on with a yaw angle of 18 degrees and one that can ID people who've tilted their faces up to 36 degrees from head-on. It's also capable of tracking people and objects -- meaning it's good for video feeds, too--and has a complex API to allow for sophisticated integration into different products.
benton.org/node/83854 | Fast Company
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ACCESSIBILITY

TWO REPORTS OF ADVISORY COMMITTEES ON DISABILITIES ISSUES RELEASED
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission has posted on its website reports presented to the FCC by the Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee (VPAAC) and the Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC).
This first VPAAC report focuses on issues involving the transfer of closed captions provided on television programs to the online environment, including the identification of protocols, technical capabilities, and procedures needed to encode, transport, receive and render closed captioning of video programming delivered via the Internet. The VPAAC is tasked with developing recommendations on closed captioning of Internet programming previously captioned on television; the compatibility between video programming delivered using Internet protocol and devices capable of receiving and displaying captioning, video description and emergency information on video programming; the provision of video description and accessible emergency information on television programming; accessible user interfaces on video programming devices; and accessible programming guides and menus.
The EAAC conducted a national survey of persons with disabilities and senior citizens to obtain feedback on the means by which people with disabilities access 9-1-1 services, as well as the emergency access preferences of such individuals in an NG 9-1-1 environment. The EAAC Report contains an in-depth review and analysis of the survey, which covered the full range of equipment and services used for reaching 9-1-1 emergency assistance, as well as all disability populations covered by the new law. The EAAC will now use the results of the survey to develop and submit to the Commission recommendations to ensure equal access to the technologies used to access NG 9-1-1 services.
benton.org/node/83570 | Federal Communications Commission | VPAAC report | EAAC report
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TELEWORK

TELEWORK REPORT
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Kellie Lunney]
Governmentwide guidance on telework does not clearly or comprehensively instruct agencies on incorporating the practice into their emergency planning, according to a new report. Four agencies provide guidance on telework during emergencies: the Office of Personnel Management, the General Services Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Protective Service. None of the guidance, however, contains a standard definition of how to incorporate telework in individual agency continuity of operations plans or provides "a cohesive set of practices" that agencies can adopt, the Government Accountability Office found. The 2010 Telework Enhancement Act requires agencies to fold their telework policies into their continuity and emergency plans. "This lack of a definition or description calls into question the reliability of the results of a survey OPM annually conducts to assess agencies' progress [on telework]," the report stated. GAO identified other potential problems with the government's telework capabilities in an emergency in the areas of information technology, personnel readiness and program monitoring. Federal wireless networks are increasingly vulnerable to attack, GAO said, and a 2009 review from the watchdog found that, in an emergency where 40 percent or more of the population was absent from school or work, most residential users including federal teleworkers would experience congestion on the Internet.
benton.org/node/83569 | nextgov | GAO-11-628
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

WEB MONITORING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Jacobs]
New regulations that require bars, restaurants, hotels and bookstores to install costly Web monitoring software are prompting many Chinese businesses to cut Internet access and sending a chill through the capital’s game-playing, Web-grazing literati who have come to expect free Wi-Fi with their lattes and green tea. The software, which costs businesses about $3,100, provides public security officials the identities of those logging on to the wireless service of a restaurant, cafe or private school and monitors their Web activity. Those who ignore the regulation and provide unfettered access face a $2,300 fine and the possible revocation of their business license. It is unclear whether the new measures will be strictly enforced or applied beyond the area of central Beijing where they are already in effect. But they suggest that public security officials, unnerved by turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa partly enabled by the Internet, are undaunted in their efforts to increase controls.
benton.org/node/83889 | New York Times
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VODAFONE AND EGYPT
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Parker]
Campaigners will seek to use Vodafone’s annual meeting on July 26 to call on the mobile phone group to prevent a repetition of how its network in Egypt was used to carry propaganda on behalf of the country’s former ruler. Access, a New York-based non-governmental organization, wants Vodafone and other telecoms operators to sign up to an action plan that would commit them to resisting any efforts by governments to take control of their networks.
benton.org/node/83886 | Financial Times
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News Corp. Board Challenged

News Corp.'s board, under scrutiny for its supervision amid a reporting-tactics scandal at the U.K. newspaper division, is expected to sit tight for at least the next couple of weeks, comfortable that the steps the company has taken so far are appropriate for addressing the crisis, barring other significant developments, according to people familiar with the matter.

Critics, however, contend the board lacks the level of independence it needs to ensure the mess is cleaned up properly. A week ago, News Corp. formalized a management and standards committee tasked with cooperating on investigations into voicemail interceptions and alleged improper police payments at its U.K. newspaper unit, "conducting its own enquiries" and proposing new standards. The committee ultimately reports to independent director Viet Dinh, who was an assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush. However, the structure of the management committee, which reports through News Corp. Executive Vice President Joel Klein, raised questions about the board's ability to properly police the company. It also bolstered longstanding criticism about the lack of truly independent oversight at News Corp. overall. Corporate-governance experts say any investigation into the company's conduct can't pass muster if it is overseen by a senior executive who reports to the chief executive and controlling shareholder, Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch Newspaper Veterans Portray a Fully Engaged Boss

In last week’s parliamentary hearing on phone hacking, Rupert Murdoch sought to distance himself from the hacking scandal, explaining that because he employs “53,000 people around the world” he cannot be expected to know everything everyone is doing at The News of the World. He may have come across at the hearing as vague, detached and unfocused — as an old man who was at times not quite all there.

Investors in the News Corporation have been pressing for years for the company to arrange a clear succession plan for Murdoch, who is 80 years old, and speculation about his future is rife now that the company has suffered a significant blow to its reputation. But Murdoch, who every morning reads avidly from what one former editor referred to as “the best clippings service I have ever seen,” has never been a disengaged boss, especially from his newspapers. “I really didn't buy that, to be honest,” said Roy Greenslade, a former Murdoch editor who is now a professor of journalism at City University London. “I'm sure he’s not as interfering as he was 20 years ago, but you can see through the way The Sun and The News of the World operate that his word remains law.” Indeed, in January, as the phone hacking scandal began to gain traction and Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor, quit his job as the government’s top spokesman (he has since been arrested on suspicion of phone hacking and bribing the police), Mr. Murdoch postponed his trip to the World Economic Forum and swept into London to take charge.

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