BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 2011
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
UK Government Wants Police Empowered To ‘Close’ Twitter, BBM
See also: England Riots Boost Local Newspaper Sales And Traffic [links to web]
Muslim-Majority Nations Stifling Online Expression
OPEN INTERNET
This is the Internet, do not power it down - op-ed
GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
Scientific Integrity Policies Submitted to OSTP
JOBS
From Silicon Valley to Main Street Virginia
T-Mobile acquisition of great concern to lawmakers, employees
CWA Fights A Valiant Battle, But... - analysis
UNIVERSAL SERVICE
Carriers Latest FCC Proposal Would Cost You - editorial
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Unredacted AT&T Filing Shows $3.8B Price Tag
AT&T Hires Bankers to Advise Asset Sales
T-Mobile acquisition of great concern to lawmakers, employees
T-Mobile to Start Charging Overages on Low-End Data Plan
In smartphones, same old story: Apple and Android win
Android Market driven by prolific, active devs [links to web]
Google Tells ITC Judge: Microsoft Revealed Our Secret Source Code [links to web]
LightSquared blames GPS makers for network problems
CONTENT
LinkedIn Retreats in Privacy Flap
FCC Adds Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act Provisions to E-rate - public notice
Will Social Networks Replace Search as Our Primary Source?
See also: Measuring the value of search [links to web]
Zediva bows to court order, suspends online DVD service [links to web]
Social Media Users Blast Debt Deal [links to web]
England Riots Boost Local Newspaper Sales And Traffic [links to web]
ADVERTISING
Political Ads See a Slight Boost in Iowa
Facebook ads to target zip codes [links to web]
CBS Launches New Ad Campaign, Branding Itself the Network of ‘Original Reporting’ [links to web]
StumbleUpon Launches Program to Help Nonprofits [links to web]
ENERGY
Why Internet companies are abandoning home energy plans - analysis
HEALTH
Rep Ellmers queries HHS about health IT errors
FROM THE STATES
Tennessee governor wants Amazon to collect sales taxes [links to web]
Google signs big lease at Sunnyvale offices that the tech giant could fill with 2,900 employees [links to web]
COMPANY NEWS
Media Stocks Gain as Market Rebounds [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
World Trade Back in NYC Broadcast Picture [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
UK AND SOCIAL MEDIA
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Robert Andrews]
The UK’s Home Secretary will meet media and social media companies regarding blocking access during emergency situations, in the wake of England’s mass looting. Prime Minister David Cameron is also inviting police chiefs to tell him that they require the power to “close” services including Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger, the latter of which is this week being credited with having helped looters coordinate raids. "We are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality,” Cameron said during a session in the House Of Commons, which had been recalled from its summer recess to debate, and in scripted comments. “When people are using social media for violence, we need to stop them.” Cameron’s call will give chills to even conservative techno-libertarians, who are already complaining about it. Although the issue appears to be a balance between - on the one hand - preventing theft, assault and criminal damage and - on the other - keeping Twitter open for onlookers to react, one tech writer calls the Prime Minister “stupid”. If enacted, it would move the UK closer to rules in some Middle East countries, which exercise a degree of control of BBM for instance.
benton.org/node/86510 | paidContent.org
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STIFLING ONLINE EXPRESSION
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Neal Ungerleider]
Majority-Muslim countries regularly engage in faith-based censorship of the Internet, according to a new report by prominent watchdog group, The OpenNet Initiative. The study, written by Helmi Noman, examined 15 states and territories. Out of these, 14 blocked sites that were considered to be critical of Islam and five blocked “liberal, secular, and atheistic comment.” The report, titled "In the Name of God," primarily examined Middle Eastern and South Asian states and territories. Some countries, such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, were also found to be enthusiastically blocking religious websites catering to faith minorities such as the Ba'hai's and Ahmadiyyas. The Ahmadiyyas, an Islamic sect who believe the messiah arrived in the 19th century, are persecuted in Pakistan and prohibited from calling themselves Muslims.
benton.org/node/86587 | Fast Company
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OPEN INTERNET
DO NOT POWER DOWN INTERNET
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Dominic Basulto]
[Commentary] When the Web launched twenty years ago with a single website and a single server, it was entirely non-commercial and intended to provide open access to a universe of hyper-linked documents. The past twenty years, when seen as part of a larger technological cycle, is a period of openness and global participation. This era gave rise to a uniquely social architecture that encourages the rapid proliferation of information to everyone. In fact, the very first Web site Berners-Lee created included easy-to-follow instructions for anyone to create their own website. In technology circles, there is a tendency to create linear narratives about the trajectory of innovation, in which one technological innovation leads inevitably to the next. These narratives reassure us that, when it comes to the increasingly fast pace of technological change, there is a method to the madness. Today, when asked what comes next for technology, we usually hear quick, easy answers like this: “Every year, mobile phones will become smaller.” And don't forget this classic: “Each iteration of an operating system will be faster and more powerful.” And then there’s this oft-repeated answer: “Each new online innovation will make the world more democratic and more open.” However, if this is, indeed, the end of an era, that means these answers no longer suffice, presuming they did before. So, what comes next for the Web? The Web — propelled forward by memes, hyper-sharing and the remix culture — is free to develop in the same way as other industries, where trends and ideas come in and out of fashion in regular cycles. However, if we take a step back and view the variety of forces that impact the future development of the Web — rumors of a coming cyberwar with China, the growth of the mobile Internet, the sudden appearance of Anonymous hackers, and the demand for Net Neutrality — it is clear that the future of the Web is uncertain. What is to keep corporations from attempting to charge heavy Internet users for bandwidth? What will prevent the government from introducing super-secret Internet Kill Switches? What will stop organizations from trampling our right to online privacy?
benton.org/node/86532 | Washington Post
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GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY POLICIES
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Rick Weiss]
Federal departments and agencies are making good progress on the development of scientific integrity policies, as initially called for by White House Office of Science and technology Policy (OSTP) Director John Holdren in a December 2010 Executive Branch memorandum. Some 19 Federal entities had submitted either draft or final policies as of last week, the deadline Dr. Holdren had set for draft submissions. That number is smaller than the 30 agencies and departments that had responded in April to an OSTP call for progress reports, but it includes the full spectrum of departments and agencies that had responded at that time. The smaller number reflects the fact that some departments have since decided to develop policies that will apply broadly to a number of their daughter agencies.
Dr. Holdren’s latest directive of May 5 had asked that agencies and departments submit drafts of their policies by last week. However, five Federal entities went further and submitted final policies. The five were NASA (with plans to make modest changes by fall); the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and Interior (which had finished and submitted its policy earlier this year); and the Intelligence Communities represented by the Director of National Intelligence. OSTP also received 13 draft policies—from NOAA; the National Science Foundation; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Social Security Administration; the Veterans Administration; and the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Labor, and Transportation. In addition, OSTP has crafted a draft policy that would apply to its activities and is under consideration for adoption by the Council on Environmental Quality. OSTP is also working with the Office of Management and Budget to ensure that all relevant offices within the Executive Office of the President will be covered by an appropriate policy. Finally, the Department of State and the US Agency for International Development have notified OSTP that their respective draft policies are in clearance and will be submitted soon, while Commerce has notified OSTP that NIST’s policy is under development.
benton.org/node/86581 | White House, The
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JOBS
JOBS, JOBS, JOBS
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Aneesh Chopra]
Last week, I joined the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness for a discussion in Silicon Valley on the importance of high growth companies to job creation in the US. On August 5, my travels to Blacksburg, VA, on behalf of the White House Rural Council, validated three key messages discussed earlier in the week with the Jobs Council:
Immigrant entrepreneurs create American jobs.
Silicon Valley’s "Open Ecosystem" fosters more American jobs.
America's "So-Lo-Mo" (social-local-mobile) industry creates jobs.
benton.org/node/86509 | White House, The
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ACQUISITION CONCERNS
[SOURCE: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, AUTHOR: Nick Eaton]
As internal T-Mobile documents point out, the AT&T/T-Mobile deal, announced on March 20, is not a merger but an acquisition. "From a true business perspective, this is an 'acquisition,' in which one company purchases all of the ownership interests in another company," the company's internal website states. "This means that technically we're being absorbed by AT&T," one T-Mobile employee, who wished to remain anonymous, wrote. "In reality, it's more like a car-jacking. AT&T will strip us for 'parts' (spectrum, towers, customers) and throw the drivers (employees) to the curb. "After all, when you steal a car, you don't need the driver anymore." This employee's sentiments appear to be widespread through the halls of T-Mobile's Factoria complex and across the country. T-Mobile employs about 38,000 workers in the U.S. at offices and retail locations. Sure, some T-Mobile workers aren't as cynical, but many are realistic that they may not have jobs in a year. Layoffs seem likely, especially in the face of AT&T's statements that it expects savings of $10 billion by "consolidating platforms, customer care centers and headquarters organization." Translation: Job cuts.
benton.org/node/86534 | Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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CWA FIGHTS A VALIANT BATTLE, BUT...
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Art Brodsky]
[Commentary] Two ways to look at the Communications Workers of America (CWA) strike against Verizon are mirror images of each other.
First: Why should the striking workers have it better than everyone else? Why should they get away with having paid-for health care and time off and all the other things that the company now wants to take away?
Second: Why don't other workers have it as good as the striking workers? Why don't other people have paid-for health care and time off and all the other things that Verizon now wants to take away?
Financially, Verizon is doing well, with more than $30 billion in profits over the last three years on which they have paid no taxes — and even got $1 billion in tax benefits. Verizon wants to do away with paid health care, cutting disability benefits, reducing sick days and holidays, to name just a few items on the bargaining table. Why? In most sectors, there is international competition depressing prices and competition to see who can hire the cheapest overseas labor. But telecommunications is not one of those sectors. The industry has the type of jobs not easily shifted overseas. Maintaining a telecom network and serving customers has to be done by people in the area. Verizon is stuck with American workers and their salaries and benefits.
But with whom is the company concerned about remaining competitive? It has a near-monopoly on landline businesses and could soon find itself in a duopoly on the wireless side of which it now has close to 40% of the business. If any companies are sitting pretty these days, phone companies come the closest. The industry has dominated the regulatory apparatus so that, in the name of “deregulation,” most competition and consumer choice has been eliminated. It has spread sufficient wealth in the legislature to members of both parties so that any attempts to impose any rules that enable competition, fairness or consumer choice are met with immediate denunciations and angry letters with many signatures.
Why, with the company taking such a hostile attitude toward its workers, would the union stroll arm in arm with Verizon (and with AT&T for that matter) through the telecom public policy world supporting policies that hurt consumers? What benefits can they possibly derive from supporting the companies’ efforts to do away with an Internet in which everyone has an equal opportunity to get online? Does the union think that by supporting AT&T’s takeover of T-Mobile that the company will go easier on them when their contracts come up (even as the odds of the deal happening are dropping)? Why does the union defend the companies at every turn, even defending the loss of jobs because the traditional wireline business is fading?
It would be nice if coming out of this strike, and anticipating negotiations with AT&T or other companies, CWA would take a more enlightened stand toward consumers generally, along with concern for union members and jobs. Given the union’s history, however, it’s not likely.
benton.org/node/86594 | Public Knowledge
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UNIVERSAL SERVICE
LATEST USF REFORM PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: Jonathan Feldman]
[Commentary] Affordable broadband access has always been important to IT managers, and so has affordable access to telephone voice circuits, which is why a plan proposed to the FCC by some of the largest telecom players is so off base. Not only would it raise the price of voice lines, but it also fails to address the bigger issue: the need for a wholly new, IP-based regulatory model rather than just a tweak of the outdated voice-based model. The new model that the telecoms are advocating would, among other things, "reduce all rates to a small per-minute charge of $0.0007." So it doesn't get rid of the access charge requirement, but it makes it relatively small. Here's the problem: "You rely on access charges big time if you're a rural carrier." If the access charges go away, you need to make it up somewhere else. And since the proposed plan also does away with the USF in favor of a "Connect America" broadband fund, that means that local telecom carriers will be raising rates. Bottom line, says Jim Cawley, a commissioner with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission: "Local rates are going to have to go up." That, of course, is a further incentive for business to avoid their voice local exchange carrier for intra-company voice traffic and choose VoIP, which travels on a network that doesn't have complex and arcane compensation rules. Regulation is a necessary evil in any society comprised of human beings and companies who would otherwise game the system. But regulators would be wise to heed Google's simple truth: It's not about voice anymore. Voice is just one app in an IP world. So simply tweaking the existing voice regulatory environment to include broadband would be a massive mistake. It would introduce further complication to a system that's complicated enough already. A forklift is what's needed. It's going to be a wild ride. IT leaders must pay very close attention to how this regulatory environment shakes out.
benton.org/node/86536 | InformationWeek
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
AT&T BUILDOUT PRICE TAG
[SOURCE: Wireless Week, AUTHOR: Maisie Ramsay]
AT&T’s pledge to expand its LTE network to an additional 55 million Americans if the T-Mobile USA mega-merger goes through carries a $3.8 billion price tag, according to data accidentally leaked by the company. The operator’s promise to expand its LTE network to rural areas of the country has served as the proverbial carrot on a stick in its efforts to build support for the controversial acquisition. Politicians, consumer groups and top corporations in the tech industry who support the deal have all cited the company’s plan for extra LTE coverage as one of the main reasons the Federal regulators should allow the massive merger to go through. AT&T’s first LTE plan covered just 80 percent of the U.S. population, but the company says it will expand the network to 97 percent of Americans if the T-Mobile deal is approved. In a partially redacted letter mistakenly posted to the Federal Communications Commission’s website for several hours, AT&T revealed it will cost the company $3.8 billion in additional capital expenditures to build out the LTE network to additional markets outside of its previous plan. The ex parte filing detailed a meeting between AT&T’s lawyers and FCC officials. The document was posted by AT&T’s law firm and has since been pulled from the FCC’s website. AT&T has published scores of heavily redacted documents in conjunction with the agency’s review of the T-Mobile merger. The expansion’s price tag and the operator’s decision to deploy HSPA+ in the same rural markets by the end of next year put a kibosh on the proposal until AT&T decided to buy T-Mobile. The company said its merger with T-Mobile would spread the cost of the LTE expansion over a larger revenue base, allowing it to “better absorb the increased capital investment and lower returns associated with deploying LTE to over 97 percent of the U.S. population.”
benton.org/node/86605 | Wireless Week
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AT&T HIRES BANKER FOR ASSET SALES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Dana Cimilluca, Anupreeta Das]
Apparently, AT&T Inc. has hired bankers to advise it on selling assets, in a significant step aimed at winning government approval for its planned $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA. The U.S. telecommunications giant hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch to line up buyers of customers and wireless spectrum. The assets sales could be worth $8 billion or more, the people said, based on internal analyses of the customer markets that might have to be shed to gain regulatory approval. The deal could be green-lighted by the end of the first quarter of 2012. Still, analysts say the deal faces tough regulatory scrutiny and completion is far from guaranteed. To win antitrust approval for the deal, which would combine the second and fourth-largest U.S. wireless-phone companies, AT&T will likely need to sell off network assets that would otherwise give the combined company too much market power. Most of the divestitures are expected to come from T-Mobile's holdings although AT&T may elect to sell some of its own properties in certain markets.
benton.org/node/86604 | Wall Street Journal
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T-MOBILE TO CHARGE FOR OVERAGES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ina Fried]
T-Mobile pioneered the notion of throttling data speeds rather than charging overages for those who use up their allotted data amount in a given month. Now the company has decided it needs to start assessing overage charges on its lowest-end data plan. “Customers will incur overages of $0.10 per MB when they exceed 200MB of data ($10 for 100MB) up to a maximum monthly payment of $40 with both Value and Classic plans for data including the 200MB add-on fee,” T-Mobile said. The company typically charges between $5 to $10 for its basic data plan, which includes just 200MB of monthly data usage. T-Mobile said it will start notifying customers when they reach 90 percent of that level, and then again when they hit the 200MB limit, offering them the option to move to a higher-end data plan. The changes are effective Aug. 14.
benton.org/node/86602 | Wall Street Journal
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APPLE AND ANDROID WIN
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Darrell Etherington]
Smartphones were up 74 percent in the second quarter of 2010, accounting for a full quarter of overall mobile sales, versus just 17 percent last year, according to Research firm Gartner. Meanwhile, overall mobile device sales increased by 16.5 percent year over year. The companies benefiting most from the increased drive toward smartphones? Apple and Google. Android and iOS combined represented a total of just under 62 percent of all worldwide smartphone sales in the second quarter of 2011, doubling the combined market share percentage of the Google and Apple smartphone platforms during the same period last year. Android and iOS were the only two major platforms that saw significant growth year over year, too. Nokia’s Symbian plummeted from 40.9 to 22.1 percent of global smartphone sales, while Research In Motion’s BlackBerry platform also stumbled from 18.7 to 11.7 percent. Microsoft didn't fare well, either, falling from 4.9 to just 1.6 percent. But taking a closer look at the combined Android and iOS 62 percent market share reveals that Google’s mobile OS, not Apple’s, is doing most of the heavy lifting. Android was the biggest gainer overall by a significant margin, growing from 17.2 to 43.4 percent of smartphone sales, while iOS showed more modest growth, going from 14.1 to 18.2 percent.
benton.org/node/86515 | GigaOm | IDG News Service
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LIGHTSQUARED BLAMES GPS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
LightSquared blamed the makers of global positioning system devices for interference problems between their products and the company's broadband network in a letter sent to the Federal Communications Commission. Jeffrey Carlisle, LightSquared's vice president for regulatory affairs and public policy, accused the GPS industry of ignoring Defense Department and international standards. “Had the GPS industry complied with DoD’s recommended filtering standards for GPS receivers, there would be no issue with LightSquared’s operations in the lower portion of its downlink band,” Carlisle wrote. He also said GPS makers ignored the receiver design recommendations of a United Nations agency that sets international standards for radio and satellite spectrum.
benton.org/node/86593 | Hill, The
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CONTENT
LINKEDIN PRIVACY FLAP
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Shayndi Raice]
LinkedIn backed away from an advertising product that used members' photos and recommendations, marking a rare privacy gaffe for the social network.
The professional networking site, which has 120 million profiles, has largely been able to stay out of the spotlight over privacy issues that affected social media sites such as Facebook. In late June, LinkedIn began testing a new form of advertising it called "social ads" that shared users' public actions, like recommendations or following companies, in a commercial format. The ads would show a user the photo of another user in their network of personal connections and indicate that they had recommended a product or company. The company announced the new ads on its blog and also placed a banner ad informing members of the new initiative. It also informed users how to opt out. It took users and bloggers who watch the company a few weeks to take notice, and complaints began surfacing. On August 11, the company retreated, informing members their photos would no longer accompany ads. Instead, ads will state the number of a user's connections who either follow or recommended the product or company.
benton.org/node/86601 | Wall Street Journal
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E-RATE UPDATE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
This order adds the statutory language from the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act regarding the education of students about appropriate online behavior to the existing Federal Communications Commission rules implementing the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) for the schools and libraries universal service support mechanism (also known as the E-rate program). The FCC’s CIPA rules were also implemented at the direction of Congress, and school and library E-rate applicants that seek to receive discounts on Internet access or internal connections have been required to certify their compliance with CIPA since 2001. The Protecting Children in the 21 st Century Act directs E-rate applicants to also certify that their CIPA-required Internet safety policies provide for the education of students regarding appropriate online behavior including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms, and regarding cyberbullying awareness and response. The FCC implements this statutory language verbatim. The FCC also makes minor non-substantive revisions to rules to conform to existing statutory language from the CIPA statute where necessary.
benton.org/node/86599 | Federal Communications Commission
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CAN SOCIAL REPLACE SEARCH?
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Jared Keller]
The Pew Internet and American Life Project has a new round of surveys out measuring how people spend their time online. The interesting takeaway from this round of Pew data is the increasing use of social networks. In comparison to the proportional growth of email and search, the use of social networks has exploded since Facebook was founded. At first glance, the explosion of social media suggests the continued inflation of what Eli Pariser calls the "filter bubble," where algorithms interpret search queries based on the user's past history and, as a result, present information that confirms past search biases. While the problem isn't absent from Google and Yahoo, which rely on search history to surface bits of information, it's far more pronounced in networks like Facebook and Twitter, where users can selectively choose the pool of friends or sources that shape their daily information diet. Another problem is that what's trending (and therefore, to some extent, what's most visible) in the social space isn't necessarily what matters. As social networking catches up to search as the primary activity of Web-based information consumption, it follows that the quality of information consumed on a regular basis will decline, or that valuable information will be watered down with nonsensical memes and other Internet ephemera. But social media skeptics need not wring their hands just yet. Regardless of the growth of social networks, classic search engines remain on top.
benton.org/node/86584 | Atlantic, The
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ADVERTISING
POLITICAL ADS IN IOWA
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
Republicans are apparently taking all of this debt talk to heart. With the political season underway and the Iowa straw poll slated for Saturday, the GOP has turned into one frugal lot. Certainly the big four network affiliates in Des Moines have seen an influx of spending from three of the nine GOP candidates competing in the straw poll: former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Rep. Michele Bachman (MN), and Rep. Ron Paul (TX). Pawlenty and Rep Paul began spending in earnest last month. Between July 1 and 24, Pawlenty led the field, placing 378 ads, according to Nielsen. Ron Paul ran 88. Rep Bachman ran no ads during the period, but according to stations, she and Pawlenty are the most active in the days leading up to Saturday's straw poll—they're also the two with perhaps the most at stake in Iowa. There has been some additional limited PAC spending from Crossroads GPS and Citizens United. (And not to be outdone, comedian Stephen Colbert's Super Pac, Americans for a Better Tomorrow Tomorrow, began airing its first ad yesterday, satirically throwing support behind Rick Parry with an "a.")
benton.org/node/86525 | AdWeek
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ENERGY
HOME ENERGY PLANS
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Katie Fehrenbacher]
Throughout 2009 and 2010, Internet companies like Microsoft, Google and even router giant Cisco launched experimental software and hardware to help building managers and home owners monitor and control their energy consumption. While Microsoft and Google focused on consumer-facing software, Cisco decided it would build a home-energy dashboard and also sell building-energy-management products. But now, 12 to 24 months later, all three of these players have ultimately made the decision to abandon those projects. Cisco was the latest one to jump ship. Cisco plans to move away from both its building-energy tools, which it purchased via Richards-Zeta back in 2009, as well as its Home Energy Controller, an energy dashboard it had developed. All of these firms were really just dabbling in and experimenting with the energy-management field. Ultimately Google and Microsoft shut down PowerMeter and Hohm, partly because not enough consumers signed up to use the service. The tools were free and easily available on their websites, but at this point consumers just lack the fundamental interest in spending time managing their home energy consumption.
benton.org/node/86523 | GigaOm
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HEALTH
HEALTH IT ERRORS
[SOURCE: HealthcareITNews, AUTHOR: Mike Miliard]
Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in which she requested that HHS consider a study of health IT's benefits and cost effectiveness, with a focus on gauging medical error rates. Rep Ellmers, chair of the House Small Business Committee's Subcommittee on Healthcare and Technology, told Sec Sebelius that her subcommittee held a hearing in June, during which "physicians testified that the cost to purchase and maintain a health IT system, in addition to staff training and downtime during the transition to health IT, are significant burdens for small practices.” In addition, Rep Ellmers – a former nurse who also served as clinical director of Trinity Wound Care Center in Dunn (NC) – expressed concern about "recent news reports" spotlighting health IT errors.
benton.org/node/86518 | HealthcareITNews
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