August 11, 2011 (Next Generation 9-1-1)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2011
On Friday, a FCC's Emergency Access Advisory Committee http://benton.org/node/83562
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
Five-Step Action Plan to Improve the Deployment of Next Generation 9-1-1
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Upton, Kerry Could Boost Prospects For Spectrum In Deficit Deal
Stock market slide clouds AT&T's plan to merge with T-Mobile
Law Firm Says 1,000 Customer Arbitration Cases Filed Seeking to Stop AT&T-T-Mobile Deal
Mayors support AT&T/T-Mobile merger
If AT&T marries T-Mobile, all of us will lose - op-ed
Rep Inslee not happy with AT&T, T-Mobile answers on jobs
AT&T’s $39 Billion T-Mobile Bid Shouldn't Be Approved, Consumer Watchdog Says
A Smaller Strike at Verizon Wireless
FCC asks for more information on LightSquared, GPS
Visa Unveils Incentives to Speed Shift to Mobile-Payment Systems [links to web]
Ford investigates creating a mobile data network using the cars themselves
FTC Focuses Probe on Android, Web Search
LABOR
Verizon Landline Unit at Heart of Strike
A Smaller Strike at Verizon Wireless
CONTENT
The Lawsuit Against Apple And Big Publishers: What’s In It
How Media Companies Play With Steve Jobs’s New Rules: Give In, Go Around or Compromise
Lifeline Facebook App Challenge
Hey Mr. Deejay, Show Me Your License
NBC Sports Group Nets Major League Soccer Rights Deal
Amazon shows media companies the future of the web [links to web]
When Social Media Mining Gets It Wrong
In Shift To Streaming, Netflix Customers Find Holes [links to web]
Cablevision, Viacom Resolve Dispute Over iPad Streaming [links to web]
Nonprofit releases apps to promote government transparency [links to web]
Sex, rights and the Internet - press release
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Colbert PAC Releases First Ad
CHILDREN AND MEDIA
Junk food still stars in TV ads seen by kids
New web-search formulas have huge implications for students and society
TELEVISION
Why 193,000 people stopped paying for TV last quarter
Public File Fines Catching the Attention of Broadcasters at License Renewal Time - analysis
NBC Sports Group Nets Major League Soccer Rights Deal
ENERGY AND CLIMATE
Plug in the patient: A planetary monitoring network
The opportunities for the Internet and clean power
Ford investigates creating a mobile data network using the cars themselves
CYBERSECURITY
Bono Mack wants cyberattack briefing from McAfee [links to web]
Comments on the Internet Policy Task Force Cybersecurity Green Paper [links to web]
COMPANY NEWS
Media Stocks Head Lower Again [links to web]
Verizon sees FiOS less profitable than copper [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Australian National Broadband Company shifts sign-ups to net retailers [links to web]
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 imports banned in most of Europe [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
ICANN responds to ANA criticism [links to web]
Apparently, small ISPs and rural telcos love Google Apps [links to web]
Illinois State's attorney: Law shielding reporters doesn't protect Northwestern students [links to web]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
FCC 911 PLAN
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced his five-step action plan to chart the transition to Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG911) services. Working with the public safety community, carriers, manufacturers and other service providers, Chairman Genachowski’s goal is to ensure that effective emergency response is a critical element of the broadband environment.
Under the Chairman’s five-step action plan, the FCC will:
develop automatic location accuracy mechanisms for NG-911,
facilitate the completion and implementation of NG911 technical standards for the hardware and software that carriers and public safety answering points (PSAPs) use to communicate NG911 information,
work with state 911 authorities, other Federal agencies, and other governing entities to provide technical expertise and develop a coordinated approach to NG911 governance,
develop an NG911 Funding Model focused on the cost-effectiveness of the NG911 network infrastructure linking PSAPs and carriers and
enable consumers to send text, photos, and videos to PSAPs.
Next month, the FCC is expected to launch a rulemaking to consider how to accelerate NG911 adoption to help answer practical, technical questions about how to enable text, photo, and video transmission to 911, including how to ensure adequate broadband infrastructure to deliver the bandwidth PSAPs will need to provide NG911. As part of the proceeding, the FCC will examine interim solutions for ensuring that carriers and service providers support transmission of text-to-911.
benton.org/node/86296 | Federal Communications Commission | Chairman Genachowski | Fact Sheet | The Hill | Reuters
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
SPECTRUM AND THE DEFICIT
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Congressional leaders have named two key players -- House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Sen John Kerry (D-MA) -- in the debate over spectrum legislation to a special congressional committee charged with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit savings, raising the possibility that spectrum-related measures could be included in that package. The investment research firm Stifel Nicolaus said in a research note that the presence of Sen Kerry and Rep Upton on the super committee increases prospects that spectrum legislation may be part of the proposals included in the deficit reduction package. Stifel Nicolaus added, however, that House Commerce Republicans and Senate Commerce leaders differ on some key policy proposals in the spectrum legislation, most notably whether to give a chunk of spectrum known as the D-block to public safety officials for their broadband network or whether to stick with current law and auction those airwaves to commercial bidders. The Senate Commerce bill would reallocate the D-block to public safety, which CBO has said would cost $2.75 billion. The Commerce GOP draft bill would maintain current law. Regardless of whether spectrum legislation is part of the deficit package, the firm and others say they still believe Congress is likely to move a spectrum bill in this session.
benton.org/node/86304 | National Journal
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STOCKS AND AT&T/T-MOBILE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: David Sarno]
The stock market squeeze is threatening to take the air out of AT&T's best argument for the regulatory approval of its $39-billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA. The nation's largest telecommunications company has argued that the combination would not stifle its rivals because there was already "intense competition" in the wireless industry. But with the market slide eroding the already troubled fortunes of many wireless companies, regulators may be wary of a deal that could leave newly merged AT&T too strong in a market with debilitated competitors, analysts said. Critics of the acquisition believe that with fewer companies competing for customers, it's easier for the strongest firms to raise prices and get away with lackluster service.
benton.org/node/86313 | Los Angeles Times
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CUSTOMERS LINE UP TO BLOCK AT&T/T-MOBILE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ina Fried]
A law firm hoping to use arbitration complaints to stop AT&T’s planned $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile said that more than 1,000 people have agreed to file challenges to the deal. Bursor & Fisher, which has specialized in law suits against wireless carriers, last month said it was aiming to use AT&T’s mandatory arbitration clause against the firm. “There seems to be a real groundswell against this merger,” lawyer Scott A. Bursor said in a statement. “The good news is that it can be stopped. AT&T’s contracts give every customer the right to arbitration. And we've assembled a team of lawyers standing by ready to represent them on a purely contingent basis, with no out-of-pocket costs whatsoever.” AT&T maintains the arbitrators have no authority to weigh in on the T-Mobile deal.
benton.org/node/86271 | Wall Street Journal
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MAYORS SUPPORT AT&T/T-MOBILE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
One hundred and two mayors from around the country support AT&T's proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA. The mayors cited potential job growth and improved mobile broadband access as reasons to support the deal. “Because small business is the lifeblood of our regional economy, I'm confident that the improvements and efficiencies they experience as a result of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger will translate into a boost for our regional economy," said Kevin Johnson, mayor of Sacramento (CA). "The significant investment in our infrastructure will provide faster wireless technologies which will help our small businesses and our growing tech sector stay competitive.”
benton.org/node/86269 | Hill, The
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WE ALL LOSE
[SOURCE: Sacramento Bee, AUTHOR: Mark Lemley]
[Commentary] Over the course of only a few years, Americans have seen a revolution in wireless technology. We have moved from a world in which mobile devices were about making phone calls to one in which they are about having a portable computer with you wherever you go. This tremendous innovation is a result of fringe competition in the marketplace. It was outsiders like Apple and Google and fringe competitors like T-Mobile, not Verizon or AT&T, that drove this revolution. AT&T's proposed merger with T- Mobile, however, has the potential to fundamentally alter the wireless marketplace in a way that threatens innovation. The wireless market today is concentrated. AT&T and Verizon function as a duopoly with fringe competition from Sprint, T-Mobile and a few local firms. Economic theory has trouble predicting how duopolies will behave. Sometimes they work in parallel and act like monopolies. In other cases, they compete vigorously. But economics does teach us that fringe competition is critical to deciding whether duopolists will compete or collude. Fringe competition does not only influence price; it can – and does – drive innovation. [Lemley is the William H. Neukom Professor at Stanford Law School, where he teaches intellectual property, antitrust and Internet law.]
benton.org/node/86268 | Sacramento Bee
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INSLEE NOT HAPPY WITH ANSWERS ON JOBS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) said AT&T and T-Mobile USA have failed to satisfy his concerns about job losses from their proposed merger and joined the call for the Federal Communications Commission to hold field hearings on the merger. Rep Inslee wrote to both firms last month expressing his concern that the merger could destroy jobs, particularly in his home district. He is running for governor, and T-Mobile’s headquarters is just outside his district. In his letter, Rep Inslee asked for a detailed explanation of AT&T’s claim that the merger will result in $10 billion in savings through cuts to support and administrative services, including any estimated job losses. Rep Inslee said that both firms — and AT&T in particular — failed to adequately respond to his questions about jobs. His statement appears to place him with the small but growing number of Democrats opposing the deal, which would leave AT&T Wireless and Verizon with more than 80 percent of the wireless market.
benton.org/node/86292 | Hill, The
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CONSUMER WATCHDOG OPPOSES AT&T/T-MOBILE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Sara Forden]
US regulators should reject AT&T’s proposed $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA because it will lead to higher prices for consumers, the public-interest group Consumer Watchdog said. “T-Mobile customers who are forced to migrate to AT&T’s network will have to buy new phones, agree to more expensive rate plans or cancel their contracts and pay a termination fee,” the said in a letter. “Once known for its low prices, T-Mobile has already begun increasing its rates and decreasing options in anticipation of the merger,” Consumer Watchdog said. The letter was addressed to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, Attorney General Eric Holder and Commissioner Catherine Sandoval of the California Public Utilities Commission.
benton.org/node/86291 | Bloomberg
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MORE INFO NEEDED FROM LIGHTSQUARED
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
The Federal Communications Commission has asked for more information from LightSquared and the U.S. GPS Industry Council about possible interference between their networks. In a letter from FCC engineering and technology chief Julius Knapp, the agency asked both parties to spell out exactly what devices see interference and how those devices will interact with LightSquared’s newly scaled-down deployment plan. Knapp asked the GPS industry to provide some more specifics about the number and lifespan of devices that it believes interfere with the spectrum licensed to LightSquared for the deployment of its satellite broadband network. The agency also requested that LightSquared provide more information about how many base stations it plans to deploy under its scaled-back plan. Originally, LightSquared had said it would deploy 40,000 base stations, but it has not provided an updated figure since it submitted a revised plan to roll out its network in a more limited band of spectrum.
benton.org/node/86306 | Washington Post
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CONNECTED CARS
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
A car can already tap into the mobile wireless network: accessing navigation information, connecting to emergency services and even downloading and streaming content to in-vehicle entertainment systems. But what if the car went one step further? Instead of being the end-node of a network like any other smartphone or laptop, what if the car could be used to create a network? What if it could connect to other cars to form constantly morphing mobile mesh network that helped drivers avoid accidents, identify traffic jams miles before they encounter them and even act as a relay point for Internet access? These are the questions Ford Motor Company chief technology officer and vice president of research Paul Mascarenas is not only asking but is pretty close to answering. Mascarenas was recently in Chicago, the country’s most congested major market, to show what ad hoc networking in vehicles could do to save drivers hours of commute time and even save a few lives.
benton.org/node/86249 | Connected Planet
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FTC'S GOOGLE PROBE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Thomas Catan, Amir Efrati]
The Federal Trade Commission is focusing its investigation of Google on key areas of its business, including its Android mobile-phone software and Web-search related services. Six weeks after serving Google with broad subpoenas, FTC lawyers, in conjunction with several state attorneys general, have been asking whether Google prevents smartphone manufacturers that use its Android operating system from using competitors' services. They also have inquired whether Google grants preferential placement on its website to its own products, such as Google's "Places" business listings, its "Shopping results" and Google Finance services above most other results. And they're looking into allegations that Google unfairly takes information collected by rivals, such as reviews of local businesses, to use on its own specialized site and then demotes the rivals' services in its search results.
benton.org/node/86308 | Wall Street Journal | WSJ
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LABOR
VERIZON LANDLINE STRIKE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steven Greenhouse]
In the nation’s largest strike in four years, Verizon Communications and its unions are deeply divided over the company’s assertions that its traditional landline business is performing so badly that it needs large-scale concessions. The unions’ refusal to believe Verizon is one reason, labor relations experts say, that the 45,000 workers who went on strike are already dug in and braced for a lengthy walkout. Heightening the stakes, some industry analysts say Verizon sees the weak economy as a prime opportunity to chop union costs. Verizon has repeatedly stressed that it needs to cut costs in its landline business because that division’s customer base and profit margins have fallen over the last decade. Many consumers have dropped landlines in favor of competing options like mobile phones, cable and Skype. Verizon officials describe its heavily unionized landline division as a laggard, while Verizon Wireless, a largely nonunion joint venture in which Verizon is majority shareholder, is hailed as the shining star, its hefty profits lifting the rest of the company. In the first six months of this year, Verizon Wireless had operating income of $9 billion, the company reported, while its landline business had operating income of $606 million. In defending the company’s push for concessions — including a pension freeze, fewer sick days and far higher employee health contributions — Verizon’s chief executive, Lowell McAdam, said in a letter to employees, “The existing contract provisions, negotiated initially when Verizon was under far less competitive pressure, are not in line with the economic realities of business today.”
benton.org/node/86316 | New York Times
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STRIKE AT VERIZON WIRELESS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Greg Bensinger]
Verizon Communications' argument to striking wireline workers is they have to accept deep cuts to benefits to help offset falling sales at its traditional phone business, but 70 striking union members are mounting a different fight -- they work for the company's highly profitable wireless unit. The group of 70 wireless workers, by contrast, has already had pension accruals suspended, with no pensions for new hires, and its members already pay variable monthly rates towards their health-care premiums. Their benefits generally match those of nonunion employees on the wireless side, which has about 84,000 employees. Among the wireless workers' demands are a cap on their monthly health-care expenses, a restoration of the Martin Luther King Day holiday and increased pay for a special shift on late nights and weekends to help resolve emergencies. The wire-line workers, on the other hand, have been asked by the company to do away with holidays for Martin Luther King Day and Veterans Day. While most of the 45,000 Verizon workers who were on strike for a fourth day Wednesday are employed by the company's land-line business, a tiny portion—less than 0.2%—are part of its Verizon Wireless operations, a legacy from a merger 15 years ago. These employees, who are the only unionized workers at the wireless arm, are part of the striking Communications Workers of America union but are negotiating separately with the company. "Verizon can't tell us they're losing customers, they can't tell us they're not one of the most profitable companies in America," said Dan Gutierrez, a CWA Local 1101 member helping to lead negotiations on the wireless agreement. "I don't see a reason why we can't get a better contract."
benton.org/node/86315 | Wall Street Journal
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CONTENT
LAWSUIT AGAINST APPLE
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Laura Hazard Owen]
Seattle-based law firm Hagens Berman filed a class action lawsuit against Apple and five of the “big 6” publishers claiming that they illegally fixed e-book prices (through the agency model, in which book publishers set their own e-book prices) in order to “boost profits and force e-book rival Amazon to abandon its pro-consumer discount pricing.” Here are the main points from the complaint, as well as a quick look at agency pricing.
The defendants named in the case are Apple, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, HarperCollins and Penguin. The sixth “big six” publisher, Random House, which also uses the agency model but was the last to adopt it, is not included. Here’s a definition of the agency model. Under the agency model, book publishers set their own e-book prices and the retailer (agent) receives a commission. Under the traditional wholesale model, which is used for print books and was used for e-books as well until publishers adopted the agency model in 2010, publishers set a book’s retail price and retailers can discount the books to any price that they want.
benton.org/node/86251 | paidContent.org | Seattle Times
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DEALING WITH APPLE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Kafka]
Apple’s new subscription rules for its iTunes app store have been in effect for less than two months. But that’s long enough for us to get a good idea of how media companies are responding. Short version: A few prominent players have accepted Apple’s terms and will be giving Steve Jobs a big chunk of their subscription revenue. Many more are sticking around the App Store, but removing any kind of e-commerce link from their apps. This makes their apps less useful, but at least it doesn't cost them any money. And a third group is trying an end run by building their own Web apps that will work on Apple devices without requiring the company’s approval.
benton.org/node/86294 | Wall Street Journal
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LIFELINE FACEBOOK APP
[SOURCE: Department of Health and Human Services, AUTHOR: Nicole Luri]
The ‘‘Lifeline Facebook App Challenge’’ is a challenge aimed at multidisciplinary teams of technology developers, entrepreneurs, and members of the disaster preparedness, response and recovery communities to use Facebook as a platform for connecting individuals together through an application (app) that will provide actionable steps for Facebook users to increase their own personal preparedness and strengthen connections within their social networks for the sake of personal preparedness and community resilience. This challenge will provide useful tools for public health promotion and protection, a key goal for the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Submission period for initial entries begins 12:01 am, EDT, August 15th, 2011, and ends 11:59 pm, EDT, September 15th, 2011.
benton.org/node/86246 | Department of Health and Human Services
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MUSIC LICENSING
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Erin Griffith]
Are digital music services doomed to a life of ugly licensing wars? The tale of an underdog music startup, brought to tragic demise by greedy record labels, is so familiar it’s practically a cliché. The road to iTunes is littered with the corpses of reimagined Napsters. But a new class of wide-eyed digital music startups hope to change all that. Free or “freemium” services like Pandora, Spotify, Slacker, Turntable.fm, Rdio, Grooveshark, Radical.fm, and CBS-owned Last.fm are competing for ears and a piece of an $800 million pool of audio ad dollars, according to eMarketer’s 2011 spending prediction (other revenue streams—like display ads—are also available to most). But before they can mature into ad-ready businesses, the services need permission to distribute music (something ad-supported terrestrial radio has never worried about). Last week a group of Nashville songwriters sued Grooveshark for streaming unauthorized music after Universal Music Group and EMI had done the same.
benton.org/node/86287 | AdWeek
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NBC, MLS, AND US TEAM
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Mike Reynolds]
The NBC Sports Group, the Major League Soccer, and the U.S. men's national team have agreed on a three-year pact, commencing with the start of the domestic circuit's 2012 campaign, calling for NBC Sports Network (now known as Versus) to air 41 MLS matches -- 38 during the regular season, three in the playoffs -- plus a pair of men's national team affairs. For its part, NBC will air two matches apiece from MLS's regular- and post-season, as well as two men's national team games. That will mark the first time four MLS matches will be broadcast on English-language network television since 2002. The deal, which sports media community sources peg at some $12 million annually, wrests the MLS package, comprising 31 regular-season games and three playoff tilts, that has been held by Fox Soccer Channel. FSC reached a one-year extension with MLS, estimated as somewhere between $6 million and $8 million, in February. MLS also has national rights deals with ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, as well as with Univision Communications via match telecasts on broadcast network TeleFutura and cable network Galavision. NBC Sports Group's men's national team contests come in addition to the matches that ESPN televises via a deal with the U.S. Soccer Federation.
benton.org/node/86285 | Multichannel News | Reuters
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SOCIAL MEDIA MINING
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: Erica Naone]
A complex picture of your personal life can now be pieced together using a variety of public data sources, and increasingly sophisticated data-mining techniques. But just how accurate is that picture? Last week in Las Vegas, at the computer security conference Black Hat, Alessandro Acquisti, an associate professor of information technology and public policy at the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University, showed how a photograph of a person can be used to find his or her date of birth, social security number, and other information by using facial recognition technology to match the image to a profile on Facebook and other websites. Acquisti acknowledges the privacy implications of this work, but he warns that the biggest problem could be the inaccuracy of this and other data-mining techniques. Acquisti says that his current work is an attempt "to capture the future we are walking into." In this future, he sees online information being used to prejudge a person on many levels—as a prospective date, borrower, employee, tenant, and so on. The Internet, he says, could become "a place where everyone knows your name"—a worldwide small town that won't let you live anything down.
benton.org/node/86244 | Technology Review
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NEW RESEARCH ON SEX INFO ONLINE
[SOURCE: Association for Progressive Communications, AUTHOR: Press release]
Carried out in Brazil, India, Lebanon, South Africa & USA new research looks at how the Internet plays host to critical information about sex education, health, fighting sex discrimination and defining one’s own sexuality. It debunks the commonly-held view that sexuality online is just about pornography. Each of the country teams engaged with diverse sections of society and communities, including young women (India), library users and particularly young people among them (US), transgender people (South Africa), lesbian women (Lebanon, India and Brazil), sexual rights advocates (Lebanon and Brazil), social networking users (all countries) and men who advocate for relationships with young people (Brazil). The five EROTICS country reports map the current landscape of sexual and Internet rights, and examine the value of the Internet in the exercise of rights by people of diverse sexualities.
benton.org/node/86310 | Association for Progressive Communications
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
COLBERT PAC
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Stephen Colbert's SuperPAC has released its first advertisement, attempting to make some mischief with the Ames, Iowa, straw poll. The ad points out that other "SuperPACS, which can spend unlimited funds on campaign ads thanks to the Citizens United decision, are flooding the airwaves asking folks to vote for Texas Gov. Rick Perry for president." The Colbert PAC was launched earlier this summer as a way to comment on the Citizen's United decision's removal of restrictions on direct corporate and union treasury fund expenditure for electioneering ads -- advocating the election of a particular candidate. Its ad calls out PACs it says are flooding the airwaves with Perry ads and asks its followers instead to write in the name of Rick Parry, with an A, "for America and for Iowa."
benton.org/node/86286 | Broadcasting&Cable
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CHILDREN AND MEDIA
KIDS SEEING JUNK FOOD ADS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Amy Norton]
Children are seeing fewer sugary, fatty foods advertised on TV, but unhealthy fare still makes up the bulk of food commercials they see, a new study suggests. What's more, researchers found, children were actually seeing more fast-food commercials in 2009 compared with six years earlier. The study, reported in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, was aimed at gauging the effects of a voluntary food industry program called the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI).
benton.org/node/86264 | Reuters
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NEW WEB SEARCH FORMULAS
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: Dennis Pierce]
A quiet revolution has taken place in recent months, as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and other Internet gatekeepers have revised their search algorithms in an attempt to bring users more personalized information. This subtle shift has enormous implications for students, researchers, and society at large, experts say. When web surfers use Google or Bing to look for information about, say, the national debt, the search results they now see at the top of the page might differ from those of their neighbor. That’s because all the major search engines have revamped their formulas to include social media data as key indicators of a website’s importance. Every time we click on an Internet link, we’re contributing to our online profile. In effect, we’re telling Google (and Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Facebook), “This is a source I like and trust.” Now, the ranking systems of all the major search engines take these hundreds of little endorsements we make every day and use them to deliver information that the companies behind these tools assume we'll value: The links from our most “trusted” sources -- such as our friends, or the websites we visit every day -- appear at the top of our search results. The reasoning behind this game-changing move is to help us sift through the overwhelming amount of information at our fingertips. The major search companies recognize that we need a filtering system to save us from information overload, and the system they've created now relies more heavily on our history of preferences than on an objective calculation of relevance to bring certain resources to the front of the pack.
benton.org/node/86260 | eSchool News
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TELEVISION
CORD CUTTERS?
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Ryan Lawler]
With Cablevision reporting a loss of 23,000 subscribers and Dish Network shedding 135,000 in the second quarter, the U.S. pay TV industry has lost nearly 200,000 subscribers in the second-quarter — and those are just the ones we know about. But if there was a lack of concern about cord cutters on second-quarter earnings calls, it’s not because operators were unaware of the losses; it’s because in most cases, they didn't want those subscribers anyway. operators are increasingly shying away from customers who might not want to pay for the premium cable package, multiple DVRs and other bells and whistles. DirecTV and Dish Network both run credit scores of potential subscribers to weed out those who might turn out to be flakes and cancel after an introductory deal is over. The goal — to get customers signed up for as many value-added services as possible — is not just about driving up revenues, but about making those services sticky and increasing customer lock-in. The problem is that in a world where all the cable operators are trying to sell ever-more expensive packages of services, there’s a sad truth of business they’re running up against, and it’s that not everyone is a luxury car buyer. That is, not everyone is in the market for the biggest and best. But in the cable world, there’s very little choice if all you want is a Kia.
benton.org/node/86259 | GigaOm
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BROADCASTERS' PUBLIC INSPECTION FILES
[SOURCE: CommLawCenter, AUTHOR: Scott Flick]
The Federal Communications Commission is hardening the line on public inspection file violations. One of the questions on the broadcast license renewal form requires applicants to certify that they have fully complied with the public file rule and that their files are complete. Once upon a time, a station that could not make that certification and was therefore required to disclose its file's shortcomings to the FCC might well get an admonition from the FCC to do better in the future, combined with an acknowledgement that the applicant had at least voluntarily disclosed its infraction. Then the FCC began issuing $2000 fines for public inspection violations, which crept upward in the last license renewal cycle to $3000 and then to $4000. During this time, there was much consternation among broadcasters who had sought to comply with the rule, admitted to the FCC any shortcomings in their public file, and felt that they were being unfairly punished for being forthright with the FCC. Since submitting a false certification on a federal form can lead to far worse penalties than a fine, broadcasters have but one option for avoiding a $10,000 (or worse) fine, and that is by making sure their stations' public inspection files are above reproach. With the next license renewal cycle now upon us, broadcasters would be wise to ensure their public file is getting the attention it deserves.
benton.org/node/86300 | CommLawCenter
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ENERGY AND CLIMATE
PLANETARY MONITORING NETWORK
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Katie Fehrenbacher]
Thank the humble, cheap sensor, the standard wireless radio and basic data bases for the future of planetary assistance. A massive sensor and data network called the National Ecological Observatory Network, or NEON, could go under construction as soon as this summer and will pull data from the air, water and soil across the U.S. and act as the first comprehensive and free data depository for scientists, researchers and educators. While NEON has been under development for years (having already spent $80 million and with 140 staff members), the nonprofit group behind the network was recently allocated $434 million from the National Science Foundation to begin construction of the network. The funding has acted like a gun at the starting line of the project, and NEON is expected to start streaming data by next year and be up and running within five years. The U.S.-wide network will have 100 tracking towers, 30 aquatic sites, 3 air-born platforms and will use mobile and fixed data collection technology, ground and air sensors, and finally smart staff to observe environmental conditions. All of that data will be drawn into a depository and made available online for free to researchers.
benton.org/node/86258 | GigaOm
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NET AND CLEAN POWER
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Katie Fehrenbacher]
As more and more of our devices connect to the Internet — the trendy tablet, the standard laptop, heck, even our cars — data centers that keep the web up and running are consuming significant amounts of energy. It’s this energy consumption growth, along with other factors, that has been putting Internet companies in a unique position to consume, promote, educate and get involved with clean power not only by directly buying it to run their power-hungry servers, but also through their intimate access to millions of Internet users. Let’s take a look at a couple examples.
benton.org/node/86256 | GigaOm
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