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September 2014

Elizabeth Sembler Elected Board Chair and Lori Gilbert Elected Vice Chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

The board of directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) unanimously elected Elizabeth Sembler to serve as chair and Lori Gilbert to serve as vice chair. These are each one year terms.

Elizabeth Sembler was reappointed to the CPB board by President Barak Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate for a second term on September 11, 2014. Sembler is the director of engagement at Congregation B’nai Israel in St. Petersburg, Florida. Sembler has served on the board of directors for WEDU-TV in Tampa, Florida since 1993. She was the public television station’s board chair from 2001-2003. From 2006-2008, she served on the board of directors for the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS). Sembler currently serves on the board of advisors of the Davidson Graduate School of Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City; on the board of directors of the Academy Prep Center of St. Petersburg, a privately funded middle school for students qualifying for needs-based scholarships; and on the board of directors of the Florida Orchestra.

Lori Gilbert was reappointed to the CPB board by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate for a second term in August 2013. Gilbert, who began her career in broadcasting in 1983 specializing in providing broadcast news to rural communities, hosts a daily half-hour community news program, "Elko Live," which provides listeners throughout northeastern Nevada with first-person news accounts of local, regional and national issues. In addition to her work in radio, she is the news director and a reporter for KENV-TV (NBC) and hosts a weekly news program. Gilbert previously served as a member of the board of directors of the Associated Press Television and Radio Association of California and Nevada and advised association members on rural news gathering and communications. She currently serves on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of Elko, Nevada.

Sinclair Challenges Incentive Auction in Court

Sinclair Broadcasting has challenged the Federal Communications Commission's broadcast incentive auction order in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Sinclair said that as a broadcaster it was “aggrieved and otherwise injured" by the decision.

Sinclair did not lay out an elaborate case for what it thought was wrong, or make any suggestions for how it could be fixed, as did the National Association of Broadcasters and noncommercial outlets in their respective petitions challenging portions of the order. Noncommercial stations petitioned the FCC for the change, while NAB, like Sinclair, sought review by the DC court. Sinclair took aim at it all. Sinclair seeks review of the order on the grounds that it "was adopted in excess of the Commission's authority; violates the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012....is arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion under the Administrative Procedure Act and violates Section 5(c) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. § 155(c); and is otherwise contrary to law." It asked to “hold unlawful, vacate, enjoin, and set aside the Order and grant such additional relief as may be necessary and appropriate.”

The sexism of the television industry

Women are still highly underrepresented in the television industry. According to a new study, women's roles both on screen and behind the scenes have declined in the past few years.

The report, titled "Boxed In," was conducted by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University and randomly selects one episode to use as analysis. That's a small sample size, but it bears out what other industry trends and studies have reflected. The report analysis studies broadcast network television and cable television, and Netflix, so yes Orange is The New Black is included. For all forms of television combined, the report found that women comprised only 40 percent of speaking roles on the screen. Behind the scenes, women only comprised 25 percent of individuals in key roles.

New America Foundation
Friday, September 19, 2014
9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

After the surveillance disclosures by Edward Snowden in 2013, government officials and other public figures in Europe and elsewhere have been proposing changes that qualify as attempts to gain "technological sovereignty". Most prominent have been various data localization proposals especially in Brazil or continental Europe ("Schengen cloud") that have attracted significant attention. Others include calls for stronger encryption, new undersea cables, and support for local industry.

While some proposals lost traction, the German government has been turning others into action. For example, the government cancelled a contract with Verizon and is now expecting companies to guarantee that they are not required by other contracts or laws to share confidential data with foreign security agencies. As part of the joint project "Transatlantic Dialogues on Security and Freedom in the Digital Age", New America's Open Technology Institute and the Global Public Policy Institute are hosting this event to take stock of the current state of this debate and its implications. What are the political dynamics around the proposals in Europe and in Brazil? Do the measures discussed help achieve their purported goals of protecting government and industry secrets as well as citizens from foreign spying and surveillance? What are their side-effects for a free and open Internet?

Join the conversation online using #techborders and following @OTI.

Welcome:
Alan Davidson @abdavidson
Vice President, Technology Policy and Strategy and Director, Open Technology Institute

Introductions:
Thorsten Benner @thorstenbenner
Director, Global Public Policy Institute

Featured Speakers:
Ansgar Baums @hp_govrel
Director of Government Relations, Hewlett Packard, Germany

Joseph Nye @Joe_Nye
Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and member of the Global Commission on Internet Governance

Carolina Rossini @carolinarossini
Vice President for International Policy, Public Knowledge

Moderator:
Tim Maurer
Research Fellow, New America's Open Technology Institute

To RSVP for the event:
http://www.newamerica.net/events/2014/digital_borders_and_technological_...

For questions, contact Kirsten Holtz at New America at (202) 735-2806 or holtz@newamerica.org


Friday, September 19, 2014
8:45 a.m. until approximately 12:15 p.m.

PRIMARY TOPICS:

  • Education Technology
  • Advanced Manufacturing
  • Alternative Visions of Where Science and Technology May Take Us
  • STEM Education

KEY SPEAKERS:

  • Neil Gershenfeld, Director, MIT Center for Bits and Atoms
  • Jill Tarter, Bernard Oliver Chair, Center for SETI Research, SETI Institute
  • Peter Schwartz, Senior Vice President for Global Government Relations and Strategic Planning, Salesforce.com
  • Shirley Tilghman, President Emerita and Professor of Molecular Biology and Public Affairs, Princeton University
  • Marc Kirschner, Founding Chair and John Franklin Enders University Professor of Systems Biology, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School
  • Harold Varmus, Director, National Cancer Institute

REGISTRATION: To attend in-person, please register online http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/pcast/meetings/future

WEBCAST: This event will be live-streamed on the web http://www.tvworldwide.com/events/pcast/140711/

Agenda


Senators opposing network neutrality rake in more campaign cash

Senators who have vocalized their opposition to network neutrality are taking in, on average, 40 percent more campaign cash from the broadband-delivery industry than those who support it, according to an analysis of campaign data.

The data highlights the disparity between what the moneyed Washington interests want compared to the public's desires. Most of the 800,000 initial public comments to the Federal Communications Commission backed the FCC adopting net neutrality rules. The commission is weighing whether to enact regulations that, among other things, could prevent broadband providers from charging for Internet fast lanes.

NAB Neutral on Network Neutrality

Broadcasters may be fighting for a foothold in the broadband future, but they are not making much of a stir in the network neutrality docket.

A National Association of Broadcasters spokesperson would only say NAB was remaining "neutral" on the issue. But the National Religious Broadcasters weighed in squarely behind the FCC's proposal to use Sec. 706 authority -- not Title II common carrier regulations -- to buttress new Open Internet rules. NRB said that if it thought it had to have more authority than Title I, Sec. 706, it should ask Congress for it. NRB wants the FCC to prevent content blocking, but it is not focused on ISPS. Instead it talks about the censorship of speech rights it says is practiced by edge providers, which it argues have shown an "overall pattern" of squashing religious viewpoints on social platforms and App stores with takedown policies defended under the broad rubric of "hate speech."

Wheeler: Only On-Record Info Will Be Used to Vet Deal Merits

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler says the FCC will only use information placed on the record when it renders decisions on mergers.

In a letter to Sen Dean Heller (R-NV), he assured him that the FCC agrees with the senator's admonition that "when orders that have significant impact on the industry are crafted based on information provided in secret and go unchallenged, I believe it can undermine the effectiveness of that order." That is why Chairman Wheeler assured him that, per the Administrative Procedures Act, "[The] FCC uses only information that is placed on the record when it renders a decision on whether to allow a transaction to proceed, with or without conditions." He said the exemption "for entities who seek confidentiality 'due to fear of possible reprisal or retribution'" was only one way entities can present information not on the public record -- another is meetings after a transaction has been announced but before it is put on public notice. He said that while the exempted communications can't be used to make a decision on the merits of a deal, "it could be used, however, to help the Commission formulate appropriate questions to applicants or other parties; questions (and subsequent responses) which could be placed on the record. Alternatively, it could be used as a means of encouraging persons or entities to put their information on the record."

Atlantic Broadband Gigabit Service Launched

Another cable company has joined the gigabit network club. Atlantic Broadband said that it has begun delivering gigabit service in parts of its Miami serving area. Atlantic Broadband’s gigabit offering initially is available to residents of Indian Creek Village, but the cableco said it is currently evaluating expansion opportunities. Indian Creek was a greenfield deployment for Atlantic Broadband. Accordingly the company installed a fiber-to-the-home network -- an approach the company plans to use for other greenfield deployments, an Atlantic Broadband spokesperson said.

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