August 2016

ELECTION 2016

DNC 2016: BROADBAND PLATFORM AND LEAKED E-MAILS
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Robbie McBeath]
This week, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party swept into Philadelphia (PA) for the 2016 Democratic National Convention. The party unveiled its platform, which contains a plan for universal broadband, a commitment to an open Internet both here and abroad, and -- ironically, it turns out -- cybersecurity promises. Just prior to the convention, Wikileaks released e-mails from top Democratic National Committee staffers, resulting in the resignation of party Chairwoman Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). The shadow cast by the leaks was the backdrop to a convention that featured Clinton making history as the first woman nominated by a major political party in the U.S. to be President. Let’s unpack some of the most important parts of DNC 2016.
benton.org/headlines/dnc-2016-broadband-platform-and-leaked-e-mails | Benton Foundation
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FBI PROBES HACKING OF DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL GROUP
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Joseph Men, Dustin Volz, Mark Hosenball]
The FBI is investigating a cyberattack against another US Democratic Party group, which may be related to an earlier hack against the Democratic National Committee, apparently. The previously unreported incident at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, and its potential ties to Russian hackers are likely to heighten accusations, so far unproven, that Moscow is trying to meddle in the US presidential election campaign to help Republican nominee Donald Trump. The Kremlin denied involvement in the DCCC cyber-attack. Hacking of the party's e-mails caused discord among Democrats at the party's convention in Philadelphia (PA) to nominate Hillary Clinton as its presidential candidate. The newly disclosed breach at the DCCC may have been intended to gather information about donors, rather than to steal money, apparently. It was not clear what data was exposed, although donors typically submit a variety of personal information including names, e-mail addresses and credit card details when making a contribution. It was also unclear if stolen information was used to hack into other systems. The DCCC raises money for Democrats running for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The intrusion at the group could have begun as recently as June.
benton.org/headlines/fbi-probes-hacking-democratic-congressional-group | Reuters | The Hill
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TRUMP’S BLACKLIST
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Hadas Gold]
Republican Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence (R-IN) said the Trump campaign is having conversations about lifting the blacklist it has applied to certain media outlets. Speaking to radio host Hugh Hewitt, Gov Pence defended his own history of dealing with the news media, saying he authored legislation while in Congress to help protect journalists’ confidential sources. “We’re going to have those conversations internally and I fully expect in the next 100 days we’re going to continue to be available to the media, whether they’re fair or unfair," Gov Pence said. The Trump campaign has blacklisted certain outlets, including Politico, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post and others, from attending his events because of what he considers unfair coverage. CNN’s Chris Cuomo said he is blacklisted from the Trump campaign “because of how we conduct our interviews.” Trump may be the Republican nominee, but the Republican National Committee refuses to get involved or even comment on Trump’s treatment of the news media, instead diverting all questions to the campaign.
benton.org/headlines/gov-mike-pence-trump-campaign-discuss-lifting-media-blacklist-rnc-stays-out-it | Politico | Politico- RNC
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

BIG TELECOM WANTS A DC CIRCUIT NET NEUTRALITY REVIEW. HERE'S WHY THAT'S UNLIKELY
[SOURCE: Vice, AUTHOR: Sam Gustin]
The nation’s largest cable and telecommunication industry trade groups on July 29 asked a federal court for a rare “en banc” review of June’s decision upholding US rules protecting network neutrality, the principle that all content on the Internet should be equally accessible to consumers. “The likelihood that the full DC Circuit would agree to rehear the case, much less reverse the panel’s decision, is extremely remote,” Andrew Schwartzman, Benton Senior Counselor at the Public Interest Communications Law Project at Georgetown University Law Center's Institute for Public Representation, wrote in a recent article. “The DC Circuit typically agrees to rehear a case only a few times each year, at most, usually where there is a sharp split on an important issue on which other circuits have taken a different stance,” Schwartzman wrote. “This case doesn’t meet those criteria and thus starts out as a particularly poor candidate for rehearing.” There is no fixed timeline for the DC Circuit to respond to the broadband industry’s petitions. Federal courts typically respond to en banc requests within a few weeks, but given the fact that August is a slow month for the federal bench, the court could wait until September or even October to respond, according to Schwartzman.
benton.org/headlines/big-telecom-wants-dc-circuit-net-neutrality-review-heres-why-thats-unlikely | Vice | Benton article
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WHEELER STATEMENT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
Industry groups have filed petitions asking for an en banc rehearing of the DC Circuit Court’s decision to uphold the FCC’s Open Internet rules. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said, ““It comes as no surprise that the big dogs have challenged the three-judge panel’s decision. We are confident that the full court will agree with the panel’s affirmation of the FCC’s clear authority to enact its strong Open Internet rules, the reasoned decision-making upon which they are based, and the adequacy of the record from which they were developed.”
benton.org/headlines/fcc-chairman-wheeler-statement-industry-petitions-rehear-open-internet-court-case | Federal Communications Commission
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MADISON TESTS PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS TO REDUCE ITS DIGITAL DIVIDE
[SOURCE: Coalition for Local Internet Choice, AUTHOR: ]
Over the next two years, the City of Madison (WI) will invest $500,000 in general obligation capital funds to experiment with a creative public private partnership to bring fiber-to-the-building services to more than 1,000 underserved families. Madison has been attacking the community’s digital divide from an anchor institution angle for years and using public-private partnerships to get there. "[Broadband Technology Opportunities Program] layed the framework,” said Richard Beadles, Technical Services Manager for the city. Mayor Paul Soglin made digital equity a priority five years ago, and the City won a $10 million BTOP grant to build a fiber middle mile network to connect its municipal buildings and libraries, higher education, schools and other municipalities in the area. The new Metropolitan Unified Fiber Network (MUFN) was born. In exchange for using part of the network for commercial services, a company called Wisconsin Independent Network (WIN) connected all the schools and the 14 community centers to fiber and gave them free 100 Mbps symmetrical service. A non-profit called DANEnet managed the network and data communications for those community centers. Then two years ago, the City budgeted and fiber connected another 10 cultural centers. WIN was required to provide free Internet service to the centers by contract and worked with ResTech Services to provide 100 Mbps service at no cost.
benton.org/headlines/madison-wi-tests-public-private-partnerships-reduce-its-digital-divide | Coalition for Local Internet Choice
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CALIFORNIA’S UNDERCONNECTED
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Michelle Quinn]
[Commentary] At first glance, the latest data on California's digital divide looks like amazingly good news. A whopping 84 percent of Californians now have access to broadband internet at home, up 9 percentage points since 2014, according to a new Field Poll. At that rate, the digital divide -- the gulf between the information haves and have nots -- could be wiped out in less than three years. But most of those gains have come from increased smartphone use. In the past year alone, there's been a near doubling -- from 8 percent to 14 percent -- of state residents now online because of smartphones. Meanwhile, the percentage of Californians connecting to the internet via a laptop or a desktop has remained flat for several years. It’s alarming that outside of smartphones, the same old digital divide persists and keeps minorities, the poor and many seniors from reaping the riches of the information age. The digital divide should be a call to Silicon Valley technologists, who are working on the next generation of smartphones and apps: Make smartphones even more useful. What else can you do? The digital divide is not about just about laptop brands and broadband speeds. It's about equality -- who gets access to information and opportunity that others take for granted. Those who are being left behind are doing their best to catch up by using smartphones. We shouldn't make it so hard.
benton.org/headlines/growth-underconnected-californians-should-alarm-us | San Jose Mercury News
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EDUCATION

TECH AND SCHOOLS
[SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Binbin Zheng, Mark Warschauer,]
[Commentary] An international study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found no positive evidence of impact of educational technology on student performance. It did not find any significant improvement in reading, math or science in countries that heavily invested in technology to improve student achievement. In fact, the report found that technology perhaps even widened the achievement gaps. Does this mean we should abandon attempts to integrate technology in schools? We are researchers of technology and learning in K-12 environments, and our research suggests this would be shortsighted.
[Binbin Zheng is an Assistant Professor, Michigan State University. Mark Warschauer is Professor of Education and Informatics, University of California, Irvine.]
benton.org/headlines/how-beneficial-are-one-one-laptop-programs-schools | Christian Science Monitor
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TELEVISION

SINCLAIR SETTLES FCC INVESTIGATION INTO RETRANS NEGOTIATION VIOLATIONS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission announced that Sinclair Broadcast Group will pay $9,495,000 to resolve a number of Media Bureau investigations, including the Bureau’s investigation of allegations that Sinclair violated its obligation to negotiate for retransmission consent in good faith. The Commission’s retransmission consent rules, as mandated by Congress, forbid a broadcaster to negotiate jointly for one of its stations and for another station in the same market that it does not control. In its investigation, the Media Bureau found that, over the course of seven months, Sinclair negotiated retransmission consent on behalf of dozens stations that it did not control at the same time that it was negotiating for its own stations in the same markets. In addition to agreeing to pay $9,495,000, Sinclair has agreed to implement a compliance plan aimed at ensuring no similar violations in the future. This action is the first of its kind to enforce the Commission’s long-standing retransmission consent rules. The settlement also resolves a number of other issues that had been pending for Sinclair-owned stations, and the Bureau has agreed to grant all pending Sinclair renewal applications as part of the settlement terms.
benton.org/headlines/sinclair-settles-fcc-investigation-retransmission-negotiation-violations-95-million | Federal Communications Commission | Broadcasting&Cable
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

TRUMP'S WISH FOR HACKING POWER SETS UP DISASTER SCENARIO SNOWDEN FEARED
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Trevor Timm]
[Commentary] Donald Trump shocked a lot of people when he suggested (maybe sarcastically, maybe not?) that he hopes Russia is hacking the e-mails of Hillary Clinton so they can find the ones she deleted from her private server. There was another phrase, however, he used later in the day that didn’t get the same attention yet was perhaps more disturbing. While claiming he didn’t have anything to do with the hacking of his political enemies at the Democratic National Committee, he said: “I wish I had that power, man, that would be power.” This really gets at the crux of why civil libertarians have been arguing for years that the National Security Agency has to be significantly curtailed. Even if you believe that the Obama Administration is 100 percent trustworthy and no one at the NSA under his watch has abused the agency’s vast spying powers (which, by the way, evidence refutes), the real danger is the infrastructure in place that would allow some future leader to wreak havoc. A future leader just like Donald Trump. In fact, this was the exact scenario that Edward Snowden warned about when he first went public in 2013.
[Trevor Timm is the executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation.]
benton.org/headlines/donald-trumps-wish-hacking-powers-sets-disaster-scenario-snowden-feared | Columbia Journalism Review
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POLICYMAKERS

ALAN PERCE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: ]
Dr Alan Perce died at the family home in Lexington (VA) on July 10, 2016. Perce was born November 10, 1937, in Manchester, England. He studied at the London School of Economics and Indiana University, where he received a Doctor of Philosophy in Business. Perce was one of the prime architects of the information era, coming to Washington (DC) in 1970 as Chief Economist at the Federal Communications Commission, and later working for the House Subcommittee on Communications, and at the White House, Office of Telecommunications. Dr. Pearce founded Information Age Economics, providing consulting services to high tech companies. Before coming to the US, Perce was a newspaper reporter, and worked as Foreign Desk Editor for Independent Television News (ITN). A Memorial Service will be held September 10.
benton.org/headlines/alan-perce-former-chief-economist-federal-communications-commission | Washington Post
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August 2016

Code for America's Quest to Save the Brigades

Debate commission to Donald Trump: The dates are set

Op-Ed: What Google Can Learn from Microsoft’s Antitrust Problems

GlaxoSmithKline and Google team up to create new bioelectronics health company

Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine will answer questions on Quora, following Trump's Reddit AMA

When a Native American Newspaper Gains its Independence

Uber’s rival in China isn’t just buying Uber — it’s buying its algorithms

The day that video killed the radio star: Aug 1, MTV was Born

August 1, 2016 (Alan Perce)

The growth in 'underconnected' Californians should alarm us