May 2014

FCC’s grab for new regulatory power could go beyond broadband providers

[Commentary] Internet application and content companies, what some refer to as “edge providers,” are increasingly concerned by the Federal Communications Commission’s newfound ability to regulate the Internet, and rightfully so.

For years, edge providers -- Pandora, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, WhatsApp, to name just a few -- have flourished from the government’s hands-off approach to the Internet. Both Republicans and Democrats championed a structure that allowed the “application layer” of Internet architecture to be free from government intervention, apart from occasional Federal Trade Commission activity.

That is now subject to change. A very real threat is that edge providers could fall within the reach of the FCC’s newly invented authority to regulate the Internet under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler recently announced the Commission will seek comment on proposed new net neutrality rules that will “meet the court’s test.” His focus may be on broadband providers, but edge providers shouldn’t be lulled into complacency. The notion of preserving an “open Internet” is so vague that any rules meant to accomplish that goal could unintentionally impact edge providers’ business models.

The only intellectually honest conclusion for net neutrality supporters is to extend the burden to everyone: broadband providers and edge providers. The only way to achieve that seems to be creative use of Section 706. With every Internet site, service and application vulnerable to Internet security threats, these could readily come under the purview of the FCC.

What Do Young Viewers Want From TV News?

During a recent TVNewser Show and Media Job Fair, mediabistroTV took the opportunity to ask young viewers what they wanted from TV news. While some answers were straight out of the "Targeting Millenials Playbook" a few of the answers might surprise you.

ANA Pushes for Governing Authority to Improve Media Measurement

Media measurement needs "a governing authority" to address shortcomings that have dogged the industry for decades, and getting one has become a top priority of the Association of National Advertisers, the group's CEO Bob Liodice said at the opening of its Advertising Financial Management Conference in Naples (FL).

“We do not have a very good handle on the performance of our media measurements," Liodice said, in an unusually pointed address opening the session.

But even in the best case it could take a year or two to establish a governing authority and how much power it would have, he said later.

The effort is an outgrowth of the Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) initiative, which involved those same groups and recently led to adoption of a standard for measuring whether online banner ads are viewed (at least 50% of pixels for at least one second). A similar standard for video advertising set to emerge in June.

Accelerating the Internet of Everything

The movement to allow everyday items to connect to the Internet has gained momentum, as toothbrushes, bathroom scales and trash cans (to name a few) are available with sensors and online access.

And now, this dominantly consumer-based field may see a new line up of enterprise-focused -- and potentially government-focused -- startups through a new program by the Alchemist Accelerator. As a San Francisco-based tech accelerator for startups that provide enterprise-level solutions, Alchemist was recently supercharged with funding from Cisco Systems to launch its first six-month accelerator program to support Internet of everything startups.

The program draws upon a portion of $150 million -- funding that Cisco allocated in April -- for growth outside traditional markets. Openings for 13 startup teams have been offered, and an application deadline has been set for May 17 with the Internet of Everything Accelerator program to start on Aug 21. Alchemist’s Managing Director Ravi Belani spoke with Government Technology to outline why the program was created and what it intends to accomplish during its inaugural debut.

What Android and iOS Can Learn From Each Other

Each of the top mobile operating systems -- Android and Apple’s iOS -- has some obvious features that the other is missing. And it would benefit consumers if each adopted its own version of these. These are some things Apple and Google could learn from each other:

Email: Android typically comes with two email apps, one of which is strictly reserved for Google’s Gmail. On the other hand, Android’s main email app, the one for Gmail, allows you to attach any file to an email as you are composing it.
Screens: In both systems, the screens are mainly filled with icons that launch apps. But Android offers more creative options.
Quick Settings: Because wading through smartphone settings can be tedious, both platforms include a quick-settings feature -- with a subset of common settings, like turning on airplane mode or adjusting brightness -- that you access by simply swiping from the top or bottom of the screen. By contrast, on the latest Samsung, the “quick” settings are so long you either have to swipe through a row of icons wider than the screen, or select an even more extensive list with 20 settings that includes marginal items.
Privacy control: On iOS, there’s a special settings section for controlling privacy. It allows you to decide which apps can use your location, contacts, calendar, photos, microphone and more -- all in one place. Some of these options are available on Android, but I couldn’t find any similar, detailed, unified privacy-control panel on the latest Samsung, Nexus or HTC models.
Customization: Apple doesn’t allow iPhone users to customize common features like the lock screen (beyond choosing a photo or design) and keyboard. By contrast, many Android phones do allow customization.
Tablet apps: Apple boasts around half a million apps optimized for the iPad in its App Store. These apps make use of the larger tablet screen to add additional panels or other user interface features that aren’t available in iPhone versions.

How to improve federal spectrum systems

[Commentary] I’m developing the idea of creating a Federal Spectrum Service, a government chartered for-profit corporation, to serve as the owner of all federal spectrum.

The FSS would control all federal spectrum use and manage it according to a ten-year plan for reducing the federal spectrum footprint in two stages. In the first stage, the FSS would be required to reduce the federal spectrum footprint by 50%, and in the second stage it would be required to reduce it by 50% once again. The spectrum thus liberated would be auctioned for public use.

Once this mission is accomplished, the FSS would cease to exist unless Congress explicitly re-authorized it to continue in some form. The FSS would have the power to meet this mandate, as it would assume immediate ownership and control of all federal systems that use spectrum directly, either as transmitters or receivers. Therefore, the FSS would be able to replace current systems with new ones that would use spectrum more efficiently and to auction the spectrum it frees up for public uses.

As a single entity with control of federal spectrum use, the FSS would not be affected by agency infighting and the fragmentation of spectrum expertise across the panoply of agencies. If the FSS finds the PCAST Report’s sharing recommendations sensible, it would be able to test them by having agencies share spectrum with each other.

While all of the liberated spectrum would be auctioned, it wouldn’t all necessarily go to the highest bidder. The proceeds from auctioning federal spectrum would easily pay for the equipment upgrades that would make even more spectrum available.

Congress is clueless on technology -- and just voted to keep it that way

A lot of members of Congress were caught off guard in 2012 when the Internet exploded in opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act. Lobbyists for the motion picture and recording industries had assured them that the proposal, which involved creating a government-sponsored blacklist and forcing ISPs to block sites on it, wouldn't be too disruptive to the Internet ecosystem.

But the people who actually run the Internet were barely consulted. It would be nice if Congress had some technical experts on staff to analyze proposed legislation and advise members about its technical implications.

And in fact, Congress did have an agency like that, called the Office of Technology Assessment, until Newt Gingrich zeroed out its funding in 1995. Rep Rush Holt (D-NJ), one of the few members of Congress with scientific training, wants to change that. He recently introduced an amendment that would have allocated funds to re-start the agency. But it was defeated in a 164-248 vote.

Concord should embrace municipal fiber optic network

[Commentary] The online world that most of us have come to depend upon for information, communication, commerce and entertainment is changing in ways that could leave Concord residents paying more for less.

In response, the city should prepare to create a municipal fiber- optic network of its own. That means that every time a city street is dug up and repaved, high-capacity fiber-optic cable should be installed.

Compared to the cost of laying open and repaving a street, the cost of the cable is small. While the Comcast and Time Warner merger needs regulatory approval and may never happen, other factors suggest the city should, as technology expert Susan Crawford suggests, see high-speed Internet service as a basic utility like the provision of electricity or water.

Concord does not have a municipally owned electric company, but it does have a municipal utility known for dependable service and a high-quality product at a fair price -- its water department. Who’s to say that it couldn’t someday provide Internet service as well as water?

All these developments bear watching. But in the meantime, the city is about to dig up Main Street and repave Loudon Road. When it does, it should lay down the cables that could eventually connect Concord to a future free of exorbitant cable bills.

US judge says search warrants extend to data stored outside the US. We disagree.

A magistrate judge in New York recently ruled that the United States government could use a search warrant to obtain an individual customer’s emails that Microsoft stored in Dublin, Ireland. The decision is contrary to well-accepted law that US courts are not empowered to issue warrants for foreign searches.

As important, the decision failed to take into account substantial international commerce and policy implications of an “extra-territorial” warrant.

It is worth noting that the consumer Internet-based email services at issue in the case before this magistrate judge are quite different from cloud computing and hosting services offered to business customers. We do not believe the magistrate judge’s decision would apply to Verizon’s non-US cloud services, where these overseas business customers process and/or store their data directly on servers outside the US.

Smart Policies to Upgrade the Internet

Policy recommendations to support the IP Transition:

Government leaders need to speed up lengthy rulemaking procedures.
Regulators need to be open to new business models and applications with the potential to improve consumer communications and commerce.
During the IP Transition, a critical priority is to protect vulnerable populations. To ensure the IP Transition has a soft landing, the elderly, disabled, and those residing in rural areas must be provided the same or better service than they are currently receiving.
Increase the number of experiments to gauge the impact of these transitions, to assess costs and benefits. Using the information from these trials to enact data-driven regulation. Regulations can use data to match the needs and responsibilities of the public sector with the innovation capacity of the private sector.
With the insatiable demand for larger amounts and faster content delivery, we need to build a next generation digital infrastructure. This new infrastructure should support innovation in commerce, health care, education, transportation, and energy.

Barriers to Innovation:

Reskilling current workers for new technologies is critical for future success. Current methods include partnering with local universities and using MOOCs to reskill workers for new technologies, but transforming a mathematics expert into a big data scientist is a difficult and timely process.
The telecommunications industry needs more spectrum.
Adaptation is vital to the ever evolving telecom industry. Some television networks have successfully transformed from a content creator to a content distributor.
There is tremendous competition to hire the qualified tech engineers. The STEM pipeline must be improved.

Benton

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