December 2014

FCC Seeking Nominations For The Third Annual Chairman's Awards For Advancement In Accessibility

The Federal Communications Commission will accept nominations for the Chairman’s Awards for Advancement in Accessibility (Chairman’s AAA) beginning January 5, 2015 through March 5, 2015 for products, services, technologies or practices introduced to the public between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2014. The Chairman’s AAA is an FCC project coordinated by the FCC’s Accessibility and Innovation Initiative that grants awards to outstanding private and public sector ventures designed to advance accessibility for people with disabilities. The winners will be recognized at a ceremony to be held in June 2015.

No Limits to Freedom of the Press?

[Commentary] In the case of James Risen and the appealed subpoena over his decision to not reveal his source who provided him with classified information, the question stands: Who is to judge whether the publication of state secrets harms national security? Should each reporter or publisher be free to make this decision? If yes, who qualifies these days as a reporter or publisher? As long as one grants that the United States' security requires that the state be able to keep some secrets, the question stands: should there be some limitations on the freedom of the press and who and how will determine what these ought to be?

[Amitai Etzioni is a Professor International Relations at George Washington University]

Jill Abramson on putting the public interest first

[Commentary] During the Bush and Obama Administrations, I dealt on more than a dozen occasions with requests from the White House that [the New York Times] not publish stories based on classified national security leaks. When the Times was asked to withhold information from readers because of national security concerns, such requests almost always involved difficult editorial decisions. There was always a difficult balancing test on what and whether to publish, in which reporters and editors weigh the concerns of the government against the press’ duty to inform the public. Is the public better off knowing about the government’s secret massive eavesdropping programs? The answer is an unqualified yes. Has publication of these stories harmed national security? So far, the government has offered scant evidence that it has.

[Jill Abramson is a former Executive Editor of The New York Times]

Misinformer Of The Year: George Will

Media Matters recognizes George Will as the 2014 Misinformer of the Year.

Will has a long history of pushing misinformation, but it finally caught up with him in 2014, tarnishing the reputation as a public intellectual he had spent decades cultivating. He started the year one of the most respected members of the conservative media elite, and ended it with hundreds protesting his speeches. The syndicated conservative columnist, considered by many a thoughtful intellectual rather than a bomb-thrower, severely damaged his brand when he wrote a June 2014 column dismissing efforts on college campuses to combat the epidemic of sexual assault and suggesting that women who say they were raped receive "privileges." The column has sparked hundreds to protest his public appearances, challenges from US Senators and women's rights groups, and the dropping of his column from a major newspaper.

President Obama Taps Mary Minow for National Museum and Library Services Board

President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Mary Minow to serve on the National Museum and Library Services Board.

Minow is an Adjunct Professor at the San Jose State School of Library Science and at the Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She is also an author, attorney and a consultant, and has been advising libraries nationwide about legal issues such as free speech, privacy, and copyright since 1998. Ms. Minow manages the Stanford Copyright and Fair Use site and in 2004 founded the LibraryLaw blog. She has served as a Member of the National Museum and Library Services Board since 2010. Ms. Minow is on the board of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and is Chair of the Intellectual Freedom Committee of the California Library Association. She was President of the California Association of Library Trustees and Commissioners in 2002. Ms. Minow received a B.A. from Brown University, an M.L.S. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a J.D. from Stanford University.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Upton Announces Hearing Series in 2015 On Growing Threats to Digital Economy and Electronic Commerce

In light of the recent developments surrounding the Sony breach, House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) announced that the committee will hold a series of hearings throughout 2015 to examine the numerous threats to electronic commerce and the overall American economy posed by cybercrime. The hearings will continue work begun over the last four years to examine ongoing cyber threats.

A Test for UPS: One Day, 34 Million Packages

United Parcel Service all year has been focused on one day above the rest: Monday Dec. 22, when it will deliver 34 million packages, more than any other in its history. To avoid a recurrence of 2013's costly holiday debacle, UPS has spent about $500 million preparing for the holidays with projects including automated sorting systems to rapidly identify ZIP codes and swiftly reroute packages in the event of bad weather. That automated system -- known as its “Next Generation Sort Aisle" -- is now operating at three hubs around the country. The new technology scans packages and quickly flashes instructions to workers so they can process 15 percent more packages a day, or as many as 47,000 parcels an hour, as measured at one of the hubs. Home delivery from online shopping has been a drag on UPS profitability in the US. And with e-commerce soon to account for half of all US packages, the company is trying to automate and digitize its operations to boost profitability and improve productivity.

A decade from now, will our offices commute to us?

What if our offices could commute to us? In a project that looked at the future of “automobility,” design firm IDEO outlines how office space could become mobile in the not-so-distant future, as self-driving vehicles begin to hit roads. The designers envision that “Work on Wheels” pods, running on electric power, would charge at night in warehouses, and then travel to underused spaces during the day -- anywhere with vacant land, access to basic facilities, and reasonably close proximity to employees’ homes. As more work happens digitally, face-to-face meetings are less common; the pods could be ordered on demand only on days that co-workers need to be in the same room.

North Korea's Internet appears to be under mass cyber attack

Internet connectivity between North Korea and the outside world, though never robust to begin with, is currently suffering one of its worst outages in recent memory, suggesting that the country may be enduring a mass cyberattack a few days after President Barack Obama warned the US would launch a "proportional response" to North Korea's hack against Sony. While it's entirely possible that this is due to run-of-the-mill maintenance or technical issues, it's hard to miss that the outage comes just days after President Obama condemned North Korea as responsible for the massive cyberattack against Sony and pledged a "proportional" US response.

China condemns cyberattacks, but says no proof North Korea hacked Sony

China said it opposed all forms of cyberattacks but there was no proof that North Korea was responsible for the hacking of Sony Pictures, as the United States has said.

North Korea has denied it was to blame and has vowed to hit back against any US retaliation, threatening the White House and the Pentagon. China made no reference to calls by the United States for joint action with it and other countries to counter any similar cyberattacks. "Before making any conclusions there has to be a full (accounting of) the facts and foundation," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. "China will handle it in accordance with relevant international and Chinese laws according to the facts."

Benton

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