October 2014

[Commentary] Ideally, there would be a New York Times for every state. Not literally, of course -- there’s no reason to start delivering a paper to people’s homes in 2014 in an increasingly wired world.

Think about it more in an institutional sense. States need outlets that are staffed up enough to both uncover new stories, and that have the credibility to determine which of the millions of news items that pop up through social media are truly stories the rest of us should care about. They need outlets that can serve not only as sources for breaking news, but also as platforms for local conversations and debates. This will not be a profit-making enterprise in most states. There simply may not be the subscriber base for an in-depth paper in every state. And creating a Bloomberg-style operation, while though it would likely be profitable, in most states would might skew to news covering major corporations and wealthy individuals. But the journalism need still exists.

Two industry groups are teaming up to help franchise businesses learn about cybersecurity. The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) -- backed by companies such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft, as well as the Department of Homeland Security -- will work with the International Franchise Association (IFA) on basic cybersecurity strategy. The IFA represents franchise owners from a broad swath of well-known chains, including 1-800-Flowers, 7-Eleven, Dairy Queen, Jiffy Lube, Papa John’s and KFC.

Evernote is joining Facebook, Google, Microsoft and six other tech giants as the 10th member of the Reform Government Surveillance coalition. The other members of the coalition are AOL, Apple, Dropbox, LindedIn, Twitter and Yahoo.

The coalition was formally launched in December, in the wake of revelations that the National Security Agency was snooping on the online communications of people around the world. The tech coalition has hired lobbyists to push Congress to support the USA Freedom Act, an NSA reform bill that would end the agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records. The bill is the subject of negotiations in the Senate, after the House passed a version earlier this year that many said was too watered down.

Long waits for a computer offer a flip side to the current debate over how best to reinvent Miami-Dade’s libraries. That discussion has largely focused on how to attract people with no current interest in libraries -- entrepreneurs who need office space, twenty-somethings who might like a Starbucks near the checkout counter, and 3-D printers for the “maker” movement of techie do-it-yourselfers. Yet for families without access to online homework, libraries are already the place to be on school nights. It’s just the lack of computers that has them complaining.