November 2013

[Commentary] The Obamacare story that will matter, and linger, is that the Affordable Care Act was the first major law implemented almost entirely online. It’s the template for the future, and rather than using its launch as an excuse to renew attacks on the law, we need to learn what we can because, like this bill or not, it is part of the next wave of government.

The tenor of the recent oversight hearings, convened by the Republican-controlled House, is that the design of the website exposed the fundamental failings of the law and government incompetence. But what’s actually been exposed is that the US government has not yet made the transition to a digital age. While the Administration could have and should have done far better, the reasons for its failure are less about a flawed process than a system currently ill-designed for this type of legislation. Testing publicly only works when there is some consensus on what the outcome should be, which in almost all cases is the actual release of the product. But imagine the political blowback if an early version of the site had been tested and then scrutinized by adversaries. They would have used the glitches as a compelling case to delay the implementation. When a fair number of people would use the flaws revealed during testing as a way to torpedo the project, optimal testing just can’t be done.

Restricting the ability of wireless giants AT&T and Verizon to bid for repurposed broadcast TV spectrum during the Federal Communication Commission’s planned incentive auction could reduce auction revenues by more than $5.8 billion, according to a new study sponsored by the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition and the Consumer Electronics Association.

The research also says an FCC staff proposal to reduce the auction payoffs of smaller broadcasters could undermine station participation in the auctions. “To attract the critical mass of broadcasters necessary to make the auction a success, we need competitive bidding among all wireless carriers for every license, and the assurance that every TV station will be fully compensated for its spectrum rights,” said Preston Padden, executive director of the broadcasters coalition.

Google's Chrome team recently came under fire for its long-held practice of making saved passwords visible in plain text. If you hand your computer to a friend or leave it unguarded and unlocked, the friend or a passerby could go into Chrome's settings and view any website passwords you've saved without typing in your system password. Chrome still makes passwords viewable in plain text by default, but the latest build of Chromium for Mac -- the open source browser from which Chrome draws its code -- gives users a new way to protect their passwords.

Tom Wheeler was officially sworn in as the Federal Communication Commission’s new chairman and the agency’s new top commissioner vowed that his leadership team would “hit the ground running.”

He was sworn in by his predecessor, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “With critical work to be accomplished for the American people and the Internet becoming ever more important in the lives of consumers and businesses across the nation, this [his new FCC leadership] team provides an excellent mix of governmental, private-sector and public-interest expertise,” Wheeler said in his first official statement.