December 2012

It was 20 years ago that the first text message was sent. Neil Papworth used a PC to send an early Christmas greeting to the cellphone of Richard Jarvis of Vodafone.

Since then there have been trillions of texts shuttled around the globe, each delivering their messages in 160 characters or less. But, as the text message turns 20, the key question is whether the venerable short message service (SMS) is already over the hill. After all, it has all kinds of rivals. Those looking to save costs can use WhatsApp. Apple’s iPhone will automatically convert messages sent from another iPhone to its own iMessage format, while services like Skype and FaceTime offer the ability to add video to the mix. And, after years of gigantic growth, overall text message volume is starting to decline, though total messages sent each year still measure in the trillions.

Targeted television advertising ostensibly helped President Barack Obama solidify his re-election. But can it provide the same efficiency for consumer marketers?

The industry is slowly adopting set-top box and third-party data to make TV buys based on criteria other than Nielsen demographics. But President Obama's successful use of "the optimizer," and an unorthodox decision to choose airtime only by time of day and channel, could advance the strategy. His camp matched its extensive voter data with data purchased from Rentrak and FourthWall to determine what potential voters were watching. This allowed the campaign to buy advertising based on model voters as opposed to traditional age- and gender-based ratings, said Carol Davidsen, director of integration and media targeting for the Obama campaign. As a result, the campaign bought networks and time slots it might not have previously considered, including daytime and overnight, and national buys on TV Land and Syfy. Traditionally, political campaigns make buys based on content relevancy, with a huge dependence on news programs. This model worked so well for President Obama, who was trying to target specific voter groups to tip the margins in his favor, it's expected to become the norm for major elections, Davidsen said. But it might not be the most-effective strategy for some consumer marketers.

One key to rationalizing the way information technology is managed in government is to mandate transparency about what agencies are buying and from whom, said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), who appeared onstage with Rep Issa at Nextgov Prime, agreed.

“Off the shelf software for agency X, identical to that same software for agency Y, ought not to be proprietary information,” Rep Connolly said. “Right now, often, it is. The same company selling the same software to two agencies can insist that one agency can’t know what the other one is paying for it. And it is not uncommon, as Darrell indicated, that, as a result, we have 24 different price structures for the same item.” Rep Issa has proposed legislation to reform federal information technology acquisitions that, among other things, would urge agencies to use open source software when possible. A coalition of industry groups criticized that provision and others in an open letter to Issa Friday, saying they could not endorse the legislation in its current form.

The ongoing challenge for governments is to ensure that cybersecurity policies support prosperity and development rather than undermine it. To this end, the OECD promotes a risk-based approach whereby a certain level of risk is accepted in order to preserve the economic and social benefits made possible by an open Internet.

Security should thus aim to reduce risk to an acceptable level through appropriate and balanced measures rather than to simply control threats by reducing openness and interconnectivity. The flexibility, scalability and management aspects of this approach reduce the cost of security, without restricting choice, stifling innovation or limiting the adoption of new technologies. An OECD consultation of non-governmental perspectives found that multi-stakeholder collaboration is the best means to develop effective cybersecurity policies that respect the fundamentally global, open and interoperable nature of the Internet. NGOs however express concerns regarding the blurring of boundaries between the economic and social dimensions of cybersecurity and the emergence of sovereignty considerations. The OECD has now launched a broad consultation of all stakeholders from member and non-member countries to review its Security Guidelines. The review will take into account newly emerging risks, technologies and policy trends around such areas as cloud computing, digital mobility, the Internet of things, social networking, etc. It will also build on successful policies in national cybersecurity strategies and consider ways to foster greater international co-operation among governments, consistent with the 2011 OECD Recommendation on Principles for Internet Policy making.