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  2. February 2017

February 2017

18F Wants to Change the Rules, Not Break Them

The tech group 18F took some heat when a General Administration Services inspector general audit found it skirting compliance rules and security procedures, but the department’s leader says the Obama-era tech unit is still committed to hacking bureaucracy. “Our job is transforming technology in government, and our job is to push against policies and regulations that are in the way of government being effective and delivering good services,” saidTechnology Transformation Service Commissioner Rob Cook. “We’ve realized we need to do that, and we’re emphasizing changing what the compliance is rather than going around it.”

Cook said 18F was alerted to the aforementioned IG report in the summer and has spent the past six months “addressing most everything” in it. Those issues included failing to get chief information officer approval on $24.8 million worth of contracts and foregoing approval on 100 of 116 software tools the tech unit used.

We Avoid News We Don't Like. Some Trump-Era Evidence.

The United States is so polarized that it can seem that Republicans and Democrats choose to exist in two entirely different versions of the day, depending on their media diet. But a new analysis of the web traffic of 148 news organizations shows something subtler: Publications across the political spectrum broadly cover the news events of the day, but their readers appear to gloss over the stories they don’t want to see. That analysis comes from Chartbeat, a web analytics company used by hundreds of online media publishers, including The New York Times. Chartbeat’s real-time dashboards display the articles that are being read most at any given moment, along with where those readers came from and how long they stayed.

FTC Chair Says Privacy Shield Is Safe, Despite Immigration Order

Acting Federal Trade Commission Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen said that President Donald Trump’s immigration order will not in any way affect the FTC’s enforcement of the Privacy Shield, a commercial data-transfer agreement negotiated by the United States and the European Union. “We will continue to enforce the Privacy Shield protections, and we hope we will move ahead as planned,” the Republican FTC chief said. “In my opinion, nothing has changed.”

Data protection officials across the EU are reportedly worried that the White House immigration order — or its potential follow-ups — could undermine the 2016 EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, a hard-won agreement safeguarding EU residents’ personal data that is collected and stored by US companies. The pact allows for the free flow of consumer information between US and EU borders, and its weakening could negatively affect economic ties.

Board of Directors

Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
12:30 – 3:30 pm ET
http://www.cpb.org/pressroom/cpb-board-directors-will-meet-telephonicall...

On the draft agenda:

  • Approval of Minutes (public and executive sessions)
  • Chair’s and Directors’ Remarks – Committee Appointments
  • President’s Report to the Board
  • Legislative Update
  • Committee Chair Reports
  • Report on FY 2016 Audited Financial Statements
  • Discuss Renewal of External Audit Firm (executive session)
  • Update on Interconnection (executive session)
  • Update on Spectrum (public and executive sessions)
  • Future Agenda Items

With the exception of the executive sessions, the public may attend and listen to these meetings in the Blair-Killian Board Room, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 401 Ninth Street, NW, Washington, D.C.


FCC Approves LTE-U Devices

The Federal Communications Commission is opening up the 5 GHz spectrum band to unlicensed LTE use as a way to boost spectrum sharing and wireless broadband. “This is a significant advance in wireless innovation and a big win for wireless consumers," said FCC chairman Ajit Pai. “LTE-U allows wireless providers to deliver mobile data traffic using unlicensed spectrum while sharing the road, so to speak, with Wi-Fi. The excellent staff of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology has certified that the LTE-U devices being approved today are in compliance with FCC rules. And voluntary industry testing has demonstrated that both these devices and Wi-Fi operations can co-exist in the 5 GHz band. This heralds a technical breakthrough in the many shared uses of this spectrum."

The FCC certified LTE-U equipment from Ericsson and Nokia, T-Mobile said, which means the carrier can start deploying the technology in its network, which it will start doing this spring. T-Mobile says tapping into 20 MHz of 5 GHz spectrum—the "U" in LTE-U stands for unlicensed—will help it deliver gigabit LTE to more areas of the country.

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