August 2011

Comcast-NBCU Under Fire for Dragging Its Feet on Diversity

When Comcast was angling to take over NBCU, the cable giant promised prominently to increase the profile of minorities at the company and launch eight independent cable networks, including four under African-American control. But a Who’s Who of African American media figures and civil rights leaders are frustrated that Comcast doesn't seem to be moving fast enough, if at all.

That includes a recent disastrous meeting between Comcast executives and Oprah Winfrey, in which Comcast executives rebuffed the media queen's request for support for her OWN network. Leading entrepreneur Russell Simmons was rebuffed when he approached NBCU CEO Steve Burke about acquiring the Style network. The National Urban League, NAACP and Al Sharpton's National Action Network, major civil rights groups, see several trouble spots with their efforts to work with Comcast.

Why You Should Stop Worrying And Learn To Love The Smart Grid

There are actually two electrical grids being built in the U.S. right now: the "smarter grid," which is evolving around today's outdated infrastructure, and the fully networked, Internet-like smart grid of the future that is much discussed. Both promise an attractive bargain: save money and electricity by radically boosting efficiency and reliability, provide dynamic energy-saving measures and data analysis, and enable massive adoption of electric vehicles and clean renewables.

It also makes people happy, according to a Texas survey recently conducted by the DOE and energy sector firms. Three quarters of Texan households given smart meters that displayed electricity usage data in the home changed their electricity consumption behavior as a result, mostly by turning off lights or adjusting thermostats. Perhaps even more telling, more than 90% reported being satisfied with the meters, and 97% will continue using them. But that survey may be the outlier. In many other states, there is a backlash against the meters, driven by arguments that the costs and benefits may not always be such a win for consumers, reports the Institute for Electric Efficiency (IEE).

New Tool Keeps Censors in the Dark

A new approach to overcoming state-level Internet censorship relies, ironically enough, on a technique that security experts have frequently associated with government surveillance.

Current anti-censorship technologies, including the services Tor and Dynaweb, direct connections to restricted websites through a network of encrypted proxy servers, with the aim of hiding who's visiting such sites from censors. But the censors are constantly searching for and blocking these proxies. A new scheme, called Telex, makes it harder for censors to block communications. It does this by taking traffic that's destined for restricted sites and disguising it as traffic meant for popular, uncensored sites. To do this, it employs the same method of analyzing packets of data that censors often use.

Is Prince George's becoming a ‘high-tech hotspot'?

Prince George's County leaders say a new federally funded network of broadband Internet lines will upgrade the county's computers systems, bringing new services, savings and, hopefully, technology jobs.

Starting this week, the county will be installing the Intercounty Broadband Network, a $145 million project to lay high-speed fiber-optic lines that will connect government buildings across eight counties in central Maryland and two major cities. The network, which goes online in 2013, is being funded through the 2008 federal stimulus and creates fast data connections that lawmakers say will create thousands of jobs and opportunities for future projects. Contractors began laying lines in Howard County in January. By August 2013, the network will span from Frederick to Harford counties in the north, down to Prince George's in the south, and will also include Baltimore city and Annapolis.

Ex-Googlers Flock 35 Miles North to Twitter

A significant portion of Twitter employees — something like 13 percent — used to work at Google. According to LinkedIn, 87 of the 641 people who say they currently work at Twitter were formerly employed by Google. Former Googlers seem to have made a practice of infiltrating promising new tech companies as they look for the next big thing. The Google influence seems especially prevalent on Twitter’s product team. Satya Patel, who is director of product management, was formerly a well-respected Googler, and nearly every Twitter product manager seems to have had some history at the Plex — save for the four who were recently let go.

Among Affluent Americans, Print Media Is Tops

Mark Twain famously quipped that news of his death was exaggerated when the press mistook his cousin's serious illness for his own. Today, much the same could be said about traditional media. It seems that its death is foretold by any number of pundits with every new release of data on social media and digital devices. (Facebook's 500 million members would make it the third-largest country in the world! Ashton Kutcher has more than 7 million Twitter followers! IPad-mania sweeps through coffee shops around the world!) Of course, there is no denying the rapidly growing and truly disruptive impact of new devices and social media. But at the same time, there is also no denying that traditional outlets are thriving in the lives of consumers today, and that they form the core of how most consumers interact with media. This is true for the general population, and it is even true among the affluent Americans that we study, even though they have the discretionary income to indulge in an array of devices, as well as the digital literacy to get the most out of them.

Throughout 2011, we have used our Mendelsohn Affluent Barometer to track new and traditional media use among American Affluents. This monthly survey consists of more than 1,000 online interviews with respondents making at least $100,000 in annual household income -- in other words, the 20% of Americans who account for about 60% of U.S. income and approximately 70% of U.S. net worth. The survey was conducted between March and May 2011. When asked how they read magazines, 93% said they read hard-copy print versions; in contrast, less than a third read them on computers, and no other format garnered more than 10%. The same pattern is evident for newspapers, which 86% read in print, compared to the 39% who read them on computers, and 14% who read them via smartphone. TV shows are watched on TVs by 94%, followed by 23% who watch them on computers. Websites are viewed on computers by 94%, followed by 32% viewing them on smartphones. The pattern is clear across all media. The vast majority consume content through its most traditional outlet: magazines and newspapers in print, websites on computers, video content through TVs and so on.

Debt deal could be a blow for cybersecurity

The $2.1 trillion debt-cap pact that Congress passed Tuesday could hurt economic and national security as agencies postpone plans to invest in cybersecurity technology and hire more network specialists due to uncertainty over potential program cuts, computer security advisers say.

The legislation automatically chops about $1 trillion from federal activities outside of entitlement programs through spending caps between 2012 and 2021. Separately, a $1.2 billion across-the-board cut will kick in if a joint congressional committee cannot reach agreement on additional deficit reduction measures by December. The belt-buckling is happening at a time when nation-states are believed to be stealing market-moving and security-sensitive information from computers belonging to corporations and policymakers. And businesses cannot afford or are unwilling to pay for the security to do anything about it, according to some experts.

Auditors: Pentagon Cyber Budget Has Fuzzy Numbers

Federal auditors have told Pentagon officials to define "cybersecurity" so the military services adopt the same terminology, and by extension, calculate their cyber spending plans in comparable ways.

With a clear definition, the department could avoid having to redo the math on its cyber budget, something it was forced to do twice this year. The order follows the disclosure of fuzzy math in the Defense Department's cyber budget. After Nextgov questioned why the Air Force's $4.6 billion 2012 budget request for cybersecurity was $2.3 billion more than Defense's servicewide spending proposal, Pentagon officials upped their total figure from $2.3 billion to $3.2 billion. Eventually, a Pentagon spokesperson explained that the service's estimate differed dramatically because the Air Force included "things" that are not typically considered information assurance or cybersecurity.

Pentagon Seeks a Few Good Social Networkers

The Pentagon is developing plans to use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter as both a resource and a weapon in future conflicts. Its research and development agency is offering $42 million in funding to anyone who can help.

Social media will change the nature of warfare just as surely as the telegraph, the radio and the telephone did, and the Pentagon is fearful of being caught short. As social media play increasingly large roles in fomenting unrest in countries like Egypt and Iran, the military wants systems to be able to detect and track the spread of ideas both quickly and on a broad scale. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is soliciting innovative proposals to help build what would be, at its most basic level, an Internet meme tracker.

A Rift Divides Members of Journalism Groups

As the National Association of Black Journalists opens its annual conference in Philadelphia, a topic of conversation is likely to be its recent efforts to get more black anchors on prime-time news programs. But another issue may form a larger backdrop — the association’s decision to end its alliance with three other minority journalist groups after nearly 20 years.

The rift between NABJ and the Unity: Journalists of Color coalition comes as the number of minorities in newsrooms across the country has declined for the third consecutive year. When the association joined Unity in the early 1990s, its goal — along with the other members, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association and the Native American Journalists Association — was to make newsrooms and reporting more inclusive. The highlight of the alliance is the Unity: Journalists of Color conference, which brings the groups together every four years. This year, a debate erupted between board members from NABJ and Unity over how much revenue N.A.B.J. and other member organizations should receive as a result of the conference. NABJ members also questioned the need for Unity as a stand-alone organization and whether it was using its revenue to effectively support minority journalists. Unable to reach an agreement, NABJ withdrew from the 2012 Unity conference in April and announced last week that it would hold its own conference in New Orleans in June. That decision has left some NABJ members divided over how and why it was made and what they will do next year.

Benton

Search