October 2012

Digging for voters with Big Data

Before the debates, before the rallies and the speeches and the millions of dollars in political ads, the hunt for voters begins at places like Aristotle Inc., one of the most powerful political data-mining firms in the country.

It's got two-inch steel doors, security cameras and a biometric censor. Democrats and Republicans have been buying voter data from Aristotle since Ronald Reagan ran for president. And this election they're buying more than ever. John Phillips is the CEO. He says elections are like one-day sales. "You've got to get all of the shoppers to the store there on one day and it's hard to argue that balloons and emery boards are an effective way to get people to vote," he says. What's effective, Phillips says, is when a candidate can make every political message feel like a personal conversation. And to do that you need to know as much about the person you're talking to as possible.

Isis mobile payments launch in Austin comes as a surprise to Austin

Isis, the new carrier-led mobile-payments platform launched on Oct 22 in Austin, Texas and in Salt Lake City, Utah, but you wouldn’t know from several merchants around town. Despite being listed on the Isis website, many local merchants had no clue they were now able to accept Isis payments, or even knew what the program was. After getting told on Oct 23 that my handset wasn’t supported under the Isis framework, and then asking a variety of merchants if I could use Isis there, I realized that this launch is softer than a goose down pillow.

Survey: States Struggle with Cybersecurity

A new NASCIO and Deloitte survey that assesses the state of cybersecurity across the nation found that only 24 percent of chief information security officers (CISOs) are very confident in their states’ ability to guard data against external threats. “We saw about 70 percent of CISOs say they saw a breach in their state,” said Michigan CISO Dan Lohrmann, “but my guess is that number is low.” He said a breach won’t necessarily make headlines; it can be something as simple as someone posting an unwanted story on your website. “My guess is it’s more like 90 percent.”

Romney super-PAC launches $18M ad blitz in 10 swing states

The pro-Mitt Romney super-PAC Restore Our Future launched an $18 million advertising blitz in 10 battleground states on October 23. The blitz includes two ads, with one titled "Genuinely Cares" aiming to personalize the GOP nominee and a second, "Better," which hammers President Obama on the economy.

The ads, airing about two weeks before the election, are set to appear in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. Spending on each state varies, with Restore Our Future putting in $1.2 million in Colorado, $4 million in Florida, $1.2 million in Iowa, $1.6 million in Michigan, $1.6 million in Nevada, $0.5 million in New Hampshire, $1.8 million in North Carolina, $3 million in Ohio, $2.9 million in Virginia and $1.3 million in Wisconsin.

Study Finds Millennial Consumers Are Heavily Swayed By Ethics and Practices of Marketers

The most important key for marketers hoping to gain brand loyalty from millennials is not promoting the attributes of products through advertising, but the respect they earn from the ethics, practices and image each company exhibits, according to a study released by consumer insights company The Intelligence Group.

The study, part of Intelligence Group's ongoing Cassandra Report "Good Guide," surveyed 900 14-34--year-olds online, asking about a variety of social issues related to their social consciousness. It was conducted from June 23-July 3, 2012. Among those surveyed, 59% expressed that a company's ethics and practices are important factors in deciding what brands they will buy.

Obama's Comments on Corporate Tax Reform at Odds With Tech Industry

President Barack Obama's efforts to differentiate himself from GOP challenger Mitt Romney on corporate tax reform are unlikely to sit well with the tech industry. Although both agree on the need to cut the corporate tax rate, President Obama has criticized Romney for also favoring the implementation of a territorial tax system, which calls for taxing only those earnings that occur inside the United States.

Under the current U.S. tax system, corporations are taxed for what they earn domestically and abroad unless they reinvest those revenues overseas. Many tech groups have joined with other business interests in pushing for a territorial tax system along with a reduction in corporate tax rates. They argue that allowing companies to bring back earnings that have been parked offshore to avoid what they describe as "double taxation" will allow them to create jobs in the United States. They say it would make the United States more competitive against many other countries that have adopted a territorial tax system. They also note that Obama's assertion that such a system would lead to the creation of 800,000 jobs abroad is based on a flawed study that did not measure the impact of tax reform on U.S. job creation.

Journalism and the Truth: More Complicated than it has Ever Been

When former New York Times public editor Arthur Brisbane asked earlier this year whether reporters for the paper should be “truth vigilantes,” the response was immediate and decisive: of course they should, readers said — after all, wasn’t that what journalists were supposed to be doing in the first place? It clearly is, but as Clay Shirky and others participating in a Poynter Institute forum pointed out, that job has gotten infinitely harder as the number of information sources has increased thanks to the web and social media. Checking specific facts may have gotten easier, now that anyone can do it, but is reaching any kind of consensus about the capital T truth even possible anymore?

The forum, entitled “Journalistic Ethics in a Digital Age,” was a co-venture between the Poynter Institute and CraigConnects — a project created by Craigslist founder Craig Newmark to increase public trust and accountability in journalism — and included a series of panels involving Shirky, Digital First Media CEO John Paton, Microsoft social researcher Danah Boyd and others, as well as an invitation-only audience of media industry luminaries such as author Jeff Jarvis and digital-media veteran Dan Gillmor. The event was livestreamed, and Poynter also created a live-blog of the session in Storify.

No more Romney interviews?

The Romney campaign is not committing to granting any network interviews in the final two weeks of the campaign.

SiriusXM CEO Mel Karmazin to Step Down

Mel Karmazin, the CEO of SiriusXM Radio, is stepping down from the company. Karmazin will depart on Feb. 1, following the expiration of his current employment agreement and a transition period. Sirius' board has launched a search committee led by Greg Maffei to seek internal and external candidates for Karmazin's successor.

Samsung wins preliminary round over Apple patent

Samsung Electronics, which is battling Apple across the globe for dominance of the smartphone market, dealt the California company a setback by winning a preliminary invalidation of a key Apple patent, according to a court filing. The fight is related to Apple's war against Google, whose Android software powers many of Samsung's devices. Samsung said in a filing that examiners at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) had taken a second look at an Apple patent and decided that it should not have been granted. The patent allows a user with a touch screen to bounce back to the image on the screen if the user goes beyond the edge.

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