February 2013

1st, 2nd Amendments Closer Than I Thought

What strikes Harry Jessell about the arguments of gun advocates is how similar they are to the ones that he and other broadcasting apologists/free speech advocates regularly make.

For instance, they say the answer to too much gun violence is more guns. We say the answer to false, hateful and pernicious speech is more speech. Maybe you just can't cherry pick the Bill of Rights. If it turns out that you can gut one of those 10 amendments, you may be able to gut them all. Maybe the gun nuts aren't such nuts after all.

Is Facebook About to Run Into Privacy Issues Again?

There's always inherent risk—as well as opportunity—when you make it up as you go. Facebook's new plan to work with big data vendors to connect consumers' offline purchasing data with its member profiles for targeted ads has once again put the social network in the crosshairs of the privacy hawks, even as it has potential advertisers excited.

The timing isn't good for Facebook, just as lawmakers and regulators are investigating whether or not offline data collected by data brokers, when combined with online data, may violate consumers' privacy. As soon as next week, Facebook will announce it is expanding its custom audiences ad program that allows advertisers to link their customer lists with Facebook users to include offline third-party databases advertisers contract with including Acxiom, Datalogix and Epsilon. The three databases—Facebook users, advertiser customer lists and third-party databases—would be anonymously matched via user emails and phone numbers for targeting more relevant ads. While attractive to advertisers, privacy advocates are alarmed.

Analyst: Nielsen's Revised Sample Won’t Immediately Impact Ad Market

If a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, Nielsen's plans to expand its sample to include non-linear TV deliveries is a bit like lacing up one’s boots before planting one foot in front of the other.

While Nielsen's goal is to capture "all viewing in all homes," thereby validating the deliveries that occur beyond the bounds of the tube, the new criteria won’t take effect until the start of the 2013-14 broadcast season. As such, during the spring upfront negotiations the networks won’t be making ratings guarantees against any additional deliveries. In other words, as broadcasters complete the process of securing commitments for as much as 80 percent of their seasonal ad inventory, any ancillary viewership in the fall will go unrewarded. Should the new standard demonstrate an actionable increase in non-linear viewing, those deliveries conceivably can be sold in the scatter market. Analysts weighing in on the announcement said it was unlikely that the new measurement scheme would pay off in higher ratings, at least in the short term.

NTIA Oversight Is Helping BTOP Projects Succeed

As the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) nears completion, National Telecommunications and Information Administration staff is continuing to work closely with our grantees to ensure that projects are wrapping up on time and within budget, delivering the promised broadband benefits to the communities they serve.

Ensuring projects meet their milestones and protecting taxpayer funds is of paramount importance to NTIA. Our staff performs extensive and diligent oversight and provides technical assistance to our recipients tailored to their needs. This oversight involves a significant level of effort, and requires our staff to sometimes take tough enforcement action to protect taxpayer funds. NTIA oversees our projects in a number of ways. Staff remains in close and frequent contact with award recipients via regularly scheduled conference calls, email exchanges, drop-in calls on specific administrative or programmatic topics, and in-person conferences. These contacts serve as a means to reinforce the terms and conditions associated with each award and help ensure that NTIA quickly addresses challenges that arise. Additionally, recipients must report quarterly and annually to NTIA on key financial and programmatic activities. These reports are posted publicly and provide detailed information on progress in achieving program outcomes, use of funds, challenges faced, and expected future progress. Finally, NTIA conducts site visits to projects and has conducted over 150 oversight visits representing more than 94 percent of BTOP federal award dollars. As issues arise, NTIA utilizes tools such as technical assistance, Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs), Corrective Action Plans (CAPs), award suspension, or award termination, to highlight concerns and provide opportunities for recipients to get back on track.

C-SPAN: Sky Angel Suit Has No 'Plausible' Sherman Act Elements

C-SPAN suggests that while Sky Angel's antitrust complaint against the cable industry-backed public affairs net "bristles with indignation," it has combed Sky Angel's complaint in vain for plausible Sherman Antitrust elements "sufficient to avoid dismissal."

C-SPAN made its case for dismissal of the complaint once again in reply comments to a D.C. District Court. "Sky Angel's arguments with respect to C-SPAN and some unnamed number of cable companies whose employees sit on C-SPAN's board of directors, and their degree of control (or lack thereof) over C-SPAN, are inconsistent and contradictory," said C-SPAN, according to a copy of the filing. "And, inexplicably, Sky Angel's Opposition disclaims the core allegations of conspiracy and market power that are essential elements of the two Sherman Act counts in its Complaint. Such inconsistent and contradictory pleading is itself a basis for dismissal."

Mobile Tech Could Sharply boost Fed’s Productivity

[Commentary] Over the past 25 years, private sector productivity in America has risen by more than 50 percent according the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Government, unfortunately, cannot make the same claim. While the BLS stopped tracking general public sector productivity in 1995, comparing private sector productivity to even the most commercially-oriented government enterprises reveals a large and growing gap in productivity. So what explains this disparity? Technology. The private sector generally absorbs technological improvements and captures and capitalizes on the associated productivity benefits more effectively than government. Mobile technology presents government with an opportunity to hit the reset button and seize the productivity benefits that have eluded it in the past. Mobile devices enable employees to work from any location at any time and remain productive. Although the public sector is often a late adopter of new technologies, its entry into the mobile world is picking up speed.

[Eggers leads Deloitte’s public sector research]

DOJ uses Aaron Swartz's 'Open Access Manifesto' to justify harsh prosecution

The Department of Justice didn't simply consider Aaron Swartz's alleged crime of copying files when proposing his 35-year jail sentence, according to reports; the DOJ also took into account Swartz's "Guerilla Open Access Manifesto," a document he wrote in 2008 in which he said that freely sharing knowledge, regardless of copyrights, was a "moral imperative."

Report urges use of health IT to reduce disparities

Health information technology can both benefit patients but also serve as a barrier to patients of color, immigrants and those who don't speak English well, according to a new report by four not-for-profit consumer and minority rights organizations.

Their 24-page report, Equity in the Digital Age: How Health Information Technology Can Reduce Disparities, was presented at a White House summit on achieving e-health equity held by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the Office of Minority Health, both at HHS, and ZeroDivide, a not-for-profit using technology to benefit underserved communities. According to the report, the use of health information technology must respond to “the needs of all populations to make sure that it enhances access, facilitates enrollment and improves quality in a way that does not exacerbate existing health disparities for the most marginalized and underserved.” It recommended that mobile technology be leveraged to increase healthcare access for communities of color. The report also made several recommendations about using technology to minimize barriers in health insurance enrollment, which is expected to expand in minority and non-native English speaking populations with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Those technologies include developing online applications “that recognize complex mixed-status households” and web portals that take into account “differences in culture, language, and health literacy among its potential users,” the report said.

Networks Scramble to Boost Live Programming as DVRs Shift Audiences

At a time when nearly half of all U.S. homes have DVRs, networks are shelling out an estimated $7 billion for rights to air NFL games, awards shows are popping up all over the dial, and there doesn’t seem to be a major cable network that isn’t exploring a foray into topical late-night.

On Feb. 14, CBS -- already home to a mix of awards shows and sports -- announced it would not only provide content for but also invest in Mark Cuban’s AXS, a fledgling cable channel devoted to live programming. Advertisers, too, are clamoring for such opportunities in a fractured, ad-skipping environment, shelling out $444 million on awards shows and live nonsports events in 2012, up 22 percent compared with five years ago, according to Kantar Media. Thirty-second spots during the Feb. 24 Oscarcast went for as much as $1.8 million.

Spectrum Management: Further Consideration of Options to Improve Receiver Performance Needed

The growth of commercial wireless broadband services and government missions, including public safety and defense, has increased demand for radio-frequency spectrum. The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 directed GAO to study spectrum efficiency and receiver performance.

GAO studied four areas related to improving receiver performance, including:
1) actions taken by manufacturers and commercial licensees,
2) actions taken by the federal government,
3) challenges, and
4) options identified by stakeholders.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which manages commercial and other nonfederal spectrum use, believes it lacks general authority to impose receiver standards and rather relies on the marketplace to improve receiver performance. In specific cases, FCC has provided incentives for nonfederal spectrum users to improve receivers. Both NTIA and FCC have taken additional actions to improve receiver performance, like undertaking studies and hosting public workshops.

Although industry and government have taken actions, stakeholders identified three challenges to improving receiver performance:

Lack of coordination across industries when developing voluntary standards: Standards are often developed for a single industry and not coordinated with those using adjacent spectrum.
Lack of incentives for manufacturers or spectrum users to incur costs associated with using more robust receivers: The benefits of improved receiver performance, namely freed-up spectrum for new services and users, often accrue to others and not those incurring the costs to improve receivers.
Difficulty accommodating a changing spectrum environment: When spectrum is repurposed for a new use, upgrading or replacing receivers currently in use to mitigate interference can be difficult and take considerable time.

The GAO recommends that the FCC should consider collecting information on the practical effects of options to improve receiver performance. FCC replied that it had initiated such a fact-gathering process; GAO believes FCC's process to date may not provide information on the practical effects of these options.

[GAO-13-265]

Benton

Search