November 2013

Study: Major Shift In Media Landscape Occurs Every 6 Seconds

A major shift in the media landscape occurs approximately once every six seconds, confirming that the way information is transmitted and received in our culture is radically altered over 10 separate times in one minute.

“Based on our research, we can now confirm that in the span of just one day, the conventions of the media as we know it will transform thousands of times, with over 800 reinventions of the rules of journalism in the digital age, 450 completely new ways of looking at how news is disseminated, 900 shifts in the way people and media institutions interact and share information, and 8,000 game-changing technological breakthroughs that will forever change how the word ‘media’ itself is defined,” said Rutgers University Professor Roger Scherer, noting that the study did not account for the 64 total paradigm shifts in the media landscape that have occurred in the hours since its release. “We also know that every four seconds, new social trends cause the rise of new spheres of global interaction, which we all -- every single one of us -- must adapt to within minutes.”

A follow-up study later confirmed that this article, the social media site used to access this article, and the person reading this article are all part of a vastly outdated mode of communication.

FCC Releases New Data on Local Telephone Competition

This report summarizes the information collected about telephone services as of December 31, 2012. It demonstrates continued growth in subscribership to interconnected VoIP and mobile telephony services and continued decline in subscribership to traditional wired telephone services. In December 2012, there were 96 million end-user switched access lines in service, 42 million interconnected VoIP subscriptions, and 305 million mobile subscriptions in the United States, or 443 million retail local telephone service connections in total. Over the three-year period 2009-2012, interconnected VoIP subscriptions increased at a compound annual growth rate of 17%, mobile telephony subscriptions increased at a compound annual growth rate of about 4%, and retail switched access lines declined at about 9% a year.

Moving Forward on The Phone Transition: Trials and Conclusion

[Commentary] The argument about technical trials for the transition of the phone network has unfortunately broken down largely into two sides. AT&T and its supporters, who want to see AT&T convert a wire center under terms defined by AT&T, and everyone else, who thinks we don’t need trials at all. Public Knowledge supports well-constructed trials that actually further the debate.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler intends for the FCC to authorize “experiments,” and focuses on numerous details that such experiments would need to cover -- such as reporting requirements and consumer notice. Up for grabs are what, specifically, the new rules will be. Chairman Wheeler believes the Commission Order in January will “set forth the best process that the Commission can initiate so that, in parallel, it may decide the legal and policy questions raised by this network revolution.” In other words, those expecting to see things like “will we have mandatory interconnection for IP-based calls” decided in January 2014 are likely to be disappointed. The January Order will likely queue up important questions like these, with a method for how to decide them. I believe -- reading the tea leaves here -- it will focus heavily on exploring the right overall approach. Which, according to Public Knowledge, is the right way to go. The FCC needs to kick this up to a Commission level, assert control, and start moving us down the path of phasing out the old technology. At this stage, we need a road map for how we plan to transition the phone system. The big unknowns are the states, the local governments, federal agencies and Indian Tribes. So far, to the extent these constituencies have weighed in at all, it has tended to be at a high level policy concern. The broad nature of this process and the lack of any central proceeding makes it difficult for people to focus on the decisions that need to be made. Hopefully, that will now change.

Comcast On Pace To Complete IPv6 Network Rollout By Early 2014

Comcast has deployed native IPv6 support to more than 75% of its broadband network, making it the world’s largest, and said it is now on pace to complete the job by early 2014.

That milestone and what’s expected by early 2014 comes about eight years after the operator started to prepare for IPv6 and about four years after Comcast started its customer-facing trials and deployments. “The rubber really started to hit the road in late 2009 and early 2010,” said John Brzozowski, Comcast fellow and the cable operator’s chief IPv6 architect.

Cox Explores Bidding for Time Warner Cable

Cox Communications is contemplating jumping into the bidding for Time Warner Cable say people familiar with the situation, either on its own or with others.

Cox is the third biggest cable operator, after Time Warner Cable, with about 4.5 million television subscribers, ranking it a little ahead of Charter Communications which started the pursuit of Time Warner Cable in early 2013. Charter is backed by John Malone's Liberty Media. Comcast, the nation's biggest cable operator, is also contemplating a Time Warner Cable bid, either on its own or by backing a Charter bid, people familiar with the situation have said.

EU demands protection against U.S. data surveillance

The European Commission called for new protection for Europeans under United States law against misuse of personal data, in an attempt to keep in check the US surveillance.

EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding said she wanted Washington to follow through on its promise to give all EU citizens the right to sue in the United States if their data is misused. "I have ... made clear that Europe expects to see the necessary legislative change in the US sooner rather than later, and in any case before summer 2014," she said. Reding's message was reinforced in a draft report obtained by Reuters that called for "very close attention by the EU" in monitoring data-exchange agreements given the "large-scale collection and processing of personal information under US surveillance programs." In the report, they highlighted the need for improving transparency in the 'Safe Harbour' scheme that allows companies in Europe who gather personal information about customers, for example, to send it to the United States.

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Announces New Staff

Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel announced the appointment of Clint Odom as Policy Director.

Odom joins the Commissioner Rosenworcel from the United States Senate, where he served as Deputy Legislative Director for Sen Bill Nelson (D-FL). In this position he successfully advised the Senator on matters concerning the Senate Committees on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Finance; Budget; Armed Services; and Aging. He also served as Legislative Counsel for Senator Nelson from 2009-2012 and helped the Senator introduce and pass legislation protecting consumers from fraudulent caller ID practices.

Prior to serving as staff in the United States Senate, Clint served as Vice President of Verizon’s Government Relations in Washington, D.C. and New Jersey. Before joining Verizon, Odom served as Legal Advisor to former FCC Chairman William E. Kennard, Senior Legal Advisor to the Cable Services Bureau, and Attorney Advisor in the Office of General Counsel and the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Prior to working at the FCC, Clint practiced law in the Washington, D.C. office of Dow Lohnes PLLC. Clint clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate of the Southern District of Mississippi. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Sinclair Hires Washington Policy Point Person

Rebecca Hanson, who has been the Federal Communication Commission's point person for broadcasters looking to participate in the spectrum incentive auctions, is leaving the FCC to join a broadcaster who has signaled it is not looking to participate: Sinclair Broadcasting.

Sinclair has decided it needs a presence in DC as it "navigate[s] the challenges and opportunities that [it] will face in the coming years," according to Sinclair President, to whom Hanson will report in her post as SVP, strategy and policy. Hanson has been senior advisor on broadcast spectrum in the Media Bureau and a member of the incentive auction task force.

25 Tech Ideas for Improving Your Community

Ideation Nation, a technology brainstorming competition for civic solutions, announces its 25 top ideas for government technology projects. The five-week competition -- sponsored by citizen tech organizations Code for America and MindMixer -- announced its top 25 project ideas.

The top 25 ideas were:

Allow police officers to accept mobile payments for violations
Recycling tracker and educator for the city
Mapping software for efficient yard waste collection
Volunteer exchange
Zoning iPhone app
Gift card remainder charity website
Electricity monitoring device rentals
Integrated discovery website for camping, hiking, outdoor recreation
Use the Internet to create a more direct democracy at all levels
Lodge a complaint, get connected on civic issues
Creativity Crowd
Gaming volunteerism and rewarding impact creation
Location-based app for public recycling
Creating an online community map of underutilized spaces
Install on-demand street lighting
Create a bike share app like AirBnB
Renaissance CSA
Create a resource center to share collaborative projects
A citizen’s board of developers
My place: Our World, a civic engagement app
App for food transfer
Create a social networking platform for volunteers and NPOs
Communitywide sharing application
Common permit application
Bike-pool app

Until more feds telework more frequently, agencies won't save much money

Federal agencies’ ability to keep up the momentum on telework will largely rely on their ability to effectively demonstrate its return on investment. Yet even a recent Government Accountability Office report noted that agency telework programs are not yet mature enough to yield any real estate cost savings.

So when can agencies expect to see some cost savings associated with telework, at least when it comes to real estate? Agencies may actually see little to no real estate cost savings at all until employees telework on a more frequent, rather than ad hoc basis, says Cindy Auten, general manager for Mobile Work Exchange. “In order to reduce real estate, agencies need to have a frequent telework program,” Auten said. “The stars need to be more aligned, and it’s not like every agency can reduce their real estate at the drop of a dime. Agencies have to have a good chunk of their workforce teleworking more frequently.” Results of the 2013 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, released in early November 2013 by the Office of Personnel Management, shows that while 56 percent of federal employees say they have been notified of their eligibility to telework, just 5.1 percent do so three or more days per week. Instead, most federal workers are teleworking one or two days per week (15.9 percent), one or two days per month (6.7 percent), or an unscheduled or short-term basis (14.7 percent). Some of those eligible (13 percent) simply choose not to telework, the survey found.

Benton

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