Benton RSS Feed

February 7, 2013
Source 
Verizon
Author 
Link Hoewing
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

[Commentary] A decade ago, Verizon laid the groundwork for gigabit networks when we first started architecting FiOS, our top-rated fiber-to-the-home service. We committed over $23 billion to deploy a fiber network that would one day deliver Gigabit speeds. At the time, 10 Mbps was considered ridiculously fast, and when we introduced FiOS with a top speed of 30 Mbps (much faster than anything available at the time), our technicians actually had to tweak customer PCs to make sure they could handle that speed. But offering a high speed connection to the home does not tell the full story when it comes to delivering the best possible and most capable broadband service. A high number of bits-per-second-connection alone isn't sufficient, because other factors aside from speed affect the quality and capability of a connection. Internet traffic usually has to “hop” through many points in the “network of networks” to reach its final destination. As a result, latency (or the lag in how long it takes for packets to reach a destination) and jitter (how “smoothly” packets arrive at their destination) matter a lot when it comes to quality and performance. So do a number of network architecture issues, like the development and adoption of video delivery protocols. Bandwidth doesn’t cure all problems, and sometimes even with lots of bandwidth, other factors can significantly affect how well services work.

What Broadband Speed Can Do - and Can’t

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February 7, 2013
Source 
Media life
Author 
Bill Cromwell
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

One immediate consequence of the US Postal Service’s schedule change could be pushing magazine publishers even further along toward digital delivery, an avenue that has seen significant growth over the past few years.

“The bigger issue here, I think, is the continuing trend moving media consumption away from content in hard-copy form (whether it is mail, magazines, etc.) and into digital form,” says Carol Pais Hammond, director of print buying at Fallon. With electronic delivery, whether as a digital download or as a tablet edition, magazines can entirely circumvent the postal service issues, and at a huge cost savings, while also continuing on their current distribution schedule. Interrupting that schedule could be an issue for subscribers. “Consumers are typically rather attached to the magazines they subscribe to, so if they have to wait an additional two days until Monday, there could be some backlash,” Pais says.

What the USPS decision means for media

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February 7, 2013
Source 
InfoWorld
Author 
By Woody Leonhard
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

[Commentary] Software companies in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Microsoft's spending more than a million bucks trying to convince customers that Google's "Scroogled" email dumpster-diving is somehow more invasive than Microsoft's own antics. That's hogwash. You see, Microsoft only matches up ads with Outlook.com/Hotmail email subject lines -- not the entire contents of the message. This, in Microsoft's opinion, gives Redmondians the moral high ground in its dirty ad campaign. Both Google Gmail and Microsoft/Outlook.com/Hotmail scan the contents of all messages for malware detection and spam triage, of course. Ditto for every other online email provider.

Microsoft is attacking Gmail for tactics it uses itself

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February 7, 2013
Source 
International Telecommunications Union
Author 
Carla Licciardello
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

The 10th annual Safer Internet Day -which took place on 5 February 2013 – focused this year’s theme on Online Rights and Responsibilities. In recognition of Safer Internet Day 2013, ITU Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré spoke of the fundamental role that ICTs have facilitated in driving social and economic progress, as well as opening new frontiers and opportunities for young people to cultivate their inherent creativity, innovation and dynamism in a digital environment. The Secretary-General also talked passionately about the dramatic changes associated with the proliferation of ICTs, which also potentially brings with it new threats and risks to the safety and security of children – who are the most vulnerable members of society.

Safer Internet Day 2013 Focuses on Online Rights and Responsibilities

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February 7, 2013
Source 
World Financial Review
Author 
Joshua Gans
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

Information content providers, especially publishers of media (including books, news, journals, music and video), have been concerned that “information wants to be free.” The reason is obvious. If information wants to be free, it may be hard to make it expensive and get people to pay for it. Digitization has only increased these concerns because, at the very least, information is now costless to disseminate and copy. The economics, therefore, appear to be consistent with the free possibility.

However, as Stewart Brand noted there are forces pushing information to be expensive as well because it can be valuable. The issue has been reconciling that with the notion that many consumers believe that information can and should be free. Economics does have much to say about what information might want and it is not necessary to be free. If information wants something, it wants to be shared. Sharing is a mechanism by which potential consumers of information are alerted to both its existence and its value. Sharing from the right people prioritizes information and helps individuals manage their attention. Sharing information is an active process that better matches information with the right people. Significantly, one of the most significant impacts of digital technologies is that they have enabled a new era of sharing. There is both a demand and a supply side to the notion of information sharing. In this article I want to focus on the supply-side question: How do you fund information creation? The traditional approach is to restrict access to it. That will create an artificial wall on the use of information and, in theory, provide users with a reason to pay to breach that wall. But the tragedy of that is that it doesn’t cost providers anything more to distribute information to one or a million users. By restricting use, demand is restricted and some users who would pay something for that information do not have the opportunity to do so. Economists refer to this as the public good nature of information and suggest that it would be better to find ways of getting all users who value information to contribute something towards the cost of its production rather than to hit them with a one size fits all stick.

Why Information Providers Need To Be Open To Sharing in Their Business Models

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February 7, 2013
Source 
Project Syndicate
Author 
Joseph Nye
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

Beneath the Arab political revolutions lies a deeper and longer process of radical change that is sometimes called the information revolution. We cannot yet fully grasp its implications, but it is fundamentally transforming the nature of power in the twenty-first century, in which all states exist in an environment that even the most powerful authorities cannot control as they did in the past. Governments have always worried about the flow and control of information, and our age is hardly the first to be strongly affected by dramatic changes in information technology. Gutenberg’s printing press was important to the origins of the Protestant Reformation and the ensuing wars in Europe. Today, however, a much larger part of the population, both within and among countries, has access to the power that comes from information. Governments and large states still have more resources than information-empowered private actors, but the stage on which they play is more crowded. How will the ensuing drama unfold? Who will win, and who will lose? It will take decades, not a single season, to answer such questions. As events in Egypt and elsewhere have shown, we are only just beginning to comprehend the effects of the information revolution on power in this century.

The Information Revolution Gets Political

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February 7, 2013
Source 
Center for Public Integrity
Author 
Dave Levinthal
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

Pro-business powerhouse Americans for Job Security cannot, by federal law, make politics its primary purpose. But as contentious federal elections and state-level ballot initiatives raged during 2012, the nonprofit organization’s income spiked at least tenfold compared to 2011, a non-election year, records show.

The cash windfall fueled tens of millions of dollars of overtly political spending, much of it in the form of relentless advertisements skewering President Barack Obama. New IRS Form 990 filings show Americans for Job Security raised $2.5 million during fiscal year 2011 and carried just $727,000 in reserve through October 2011. IRS records for 2012 are not available and likely won’t be until the year’s end. But Federal Election Commission filings show in 2012 the group spent $15.2 million to attack Obama and another $650,000 to oppose Eric Hovde, a U.S. Senate candidate in Wisconsin, during a Republican primary. The organization, which was founded and run by a Republican political operative, also spent $11 million to help support passage of an anti-union California ballot proposition, the state’s campaign finance regulators revealed.

Non-political nonprofit's spending spikes in election years

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February 7, 2013
Source 
Department of Commerce
Author 
Dennis Alvord
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

The Obama Administration has just launched Round 2 of the Presidential Innovation Fellows program.

This high-profile White House-sponsored program brings top innovators, entrepreneurs, and change agents into government for 6-12 months to develop game-changing solutions that benefit the American people in all kinds of ways – saving lives, saving taxpayer money, and helping to fuel job growth. Under the BusinessUSA initiative, the Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration are pleased to support the MyUSA presidential innovation fellow project that helps American businesses access the information and services that will help them grow, hire American workers, and export to foreign markets.

Help America’s Businesses by Becoming a Presidential Innovation Fellow

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New America Foundation
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
6:00pm - 7:30pm
http://newamerica.net/events/2013/the_smartphone_has_hijacked_your_life

Smartphones put the world at your fingertips. With a seemingly endless supply of apps, you can get a date, scout out the best restaurant in town, and pull up the fastest route to the dinner table, all in a matter of seconds. The services behind apps like these seek to give you the best experience, tailored to your specific tastes. But are they reducing our experiences to ones dictated by algorithms? Should we worry about living the mediated life, or embrace it?

Participants

Christine Rosen
Bernard L. Schwartz Fellow, New America Foundation
Senior Editor, The New Atlantis

Daniel Sarewitz
Co-director, Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, Arizona State University
Professor of Science and Society, Arizona State University

...No it hasn't!

Marvin Ammori
Bernard L. Schwartz Fellow, New America Foundation
Author, On Internet Freedom

Miriam Warren
Vice President of New Markets, Yelp

“That’s Debatable” is a new debate series hosted by the New America Foundation. Drinks and light refreshments will be served.

February 7, 2013 (Postal Service to End Delivery of Letters on Saturdays)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Broadband Adoption and Usage – What Have We Learned? http://benton.org/calendar/2013-02-07/


COMMUNITY MEDIA
   Postal Service to End Delivery of Letters on Saturdays
   Editorials React to Postal Service Announcement [links to web]
   Netflix may actually be helped by loss of Saturday postal service [links to web]

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
   NTIA Announces Availability of $121.5 Million in State Grants to Assist with FirstNet Planning - press release

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Broadband Adoption and Usage: What Has Four Years Taught Us?
   Digital Divide Creates 'Two Americas' [links to web]
   Building the Business Case for Government Fiber Networks: There Is Life After I-Nets and Stimulus - analysis
   New Rules for Rural Broadband Access Loans and Loan Guarantees - public notice [links to web]

CYBERSECURITY
   White House: Executive order is 'not magical,' cyber bill still needed
   House Intel chairman says US 'under siege' from cyberattacks [links to web]
   More Executives Worry About Cyberattacks, Study Says [links to web]
   The Two Classes of Cyber Threats - analysis [links to web]
   EU proposes new cybercrime reporting rules

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   Five things to know about ‘free’ public Wi-Fi

PRIVACY
   Ovum: Big data collection colliding with privacy concerns
   Think Europeans are more into data privacy than Americans? Think again. [links to web]
   Ad Nets Step Up Self-Regulation
   Staying Private on the New Facebook [links to web]
   Gmail is target of new Microsoft privacy campaign against Google [links to web]

CONTENT
   Seven Copyright Principles for the Digital Era
   Aaron Swartz and How a Martyr Makes a Law
   How the Internet Reinforces Inequality in the Real World
   Racism is Poisoning Online Ad Delivery, Says Harvard Professor [links to web]
   Kids are three clicks away from adult content on YouTube, study says [links to web]
   DreamWorks’ Katzenberg Says Mobile Viewers Will Pay by ‘Inch’ [links to web]
   Turning cash into online payments for the unbanked [links to web]
   Who's Watching 'House of Cards'? And Why It Really Matters [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   Murdoch Coveting Papers Must Wait as Rift Stalls Media Rules

TELECOM
   Outdated Infrastructure Gets New, Digital Life

JOURNALISM
   Can Fox News break its fatal embrace with the Republican party? op-ed [links to web]
   Fox News Most -- And Least -- Trusted Network, Says Poll [links to web]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Survey Finds Big Opportunities for Government in Mobile Apps [links to web]
   LA Mayor Villaraigosa announces redesigned city website and new mobile app [links to web]

FCC REFORM
   Bills to Allow FCC Commissioners to Meet Privately Reintroduced

COMPANY NEWS
   Google’s changes to mobile advertising could fix company’s major problem [links to web]
   Coming Soon to Yahoo: Ads From Google [links to web]
   Facebook isn’t making its own phone, but it’s pre-loading its software into millions of devices [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   Silicon Valley job growth has reached dot-com boom levels, report says [links to web]
   Five Online Courses Are Eligible for College Credit [links to web]
   Deputy Secretary Blank Joins President Obama in Honoring National Medal of Technology and Innovation Winners - press release [links to web]
   Europe’s Plan for GPS Limps to Crossroads [links to web]

COMMUNITY MEDIA

POSTAL SERVICE TO END SATURDAY DELIVERIES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ron Nixon]
Saying it needed to take drastic steps to stem billions of dollars in losses, the Postal Service announced that it would seek to stop Saturday delivery of letters, a sweeping change in the way the agency operates that immediately drew criticism from postal unions and some businesses. The financially struggling agency said the change to a five-day mail delivery schedule would occur in August and would save about $2 billion annually. The Postal Service would continue to deliver packages on a six-day schedule, and post offices would continue to be open on Saturdays. “Our financial condition is urgent,” said Patrick R. Donahoe, the postmaster general, at a news conference announcing the change. “This is too big of a cost savings for us to ignore.” Donahoe said the move to end Saturday delivery was part of a five-year plan to return the agency to profitability. Last year, the Postal Service had a net loss of $15.9 billion. Since 2010, the agency has reduced hours at many small, rural post offices and cut staff, and also announced plans to reduce the number of its mail processing plants. But post office officials say the cuts and staff reductions are not enough. The agency has long sought Congressional approval to end mail delivery on Saturdays. But Congress, which continues to work on legislation to overhaul the agency, has resisted. Under a Congressional mandate that has been in place since 1981, the Postal Service is required to deliver mail six days a week. But post office officials argue that since the government is operating under a stopgap budget measure, known as a continuing resolution, that mandate does not apply, giving them the authority to make the changes without Congressional approval.
benton.org/node/144692 | New York Times | LA Times | Huffington Post
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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

FIRSTNET PLANNING GRANTS
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) today announced the availability of $121.5 million in grants to assist states as they prepare for a nationwide public safety broadband network. The grants will be available to all 56 states and territories, and will support planning, consultation, education and outreach activities as well as help fund efforts to collect information on infrastructure and equipment that could be used by the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) in building a wireless public safety broadband network. The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 created FirstNet and directed it to deploy a nationwide wireless broadband network that will enable first responders to better communicate with each other during emergencies and save lives. The Act directed NTIA to establish the State and Local Implementation Grant Program (SLIGP), making grants available to states, in collaboration with regional, tribal, and local jurisdictions, as FirstNet takes steps to help make this nationwide, interoperable network a reality. Applications are due to NTIA from the states and territories by March 19, 2013. NTIA anticipates awarding the grants by July 15, 2013.
benton.org/node/144691 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration | Federal Funding Opportunity announcement | Supplemental Application Narrative
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

BROADBAND ADOPTION AND USAGE
[SOURCE: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, AUTHOR: John Horrigan]
As a prelude to the February 7, 2013, Federal Communications Commission/National Telecommunications and Information Administration summit, Vice President and Media and Technology Institute Director Dr. John Horrigan has released a statement on broadband adoption knowledge since the release of the National Broadband Plan. In September 2009, the FCC’s Broadband Task Force, appointed by Chairman Genachowski and run by Blair Levin, made a lengthy presentation before the Commission to give an interim report on how development of the National Broadband Plan (NBP) was going. You can see all 168 slides here. I was privileged to be part of the FCC’s team that assembled the NBP. To prepare for my participation in the FCC’s February 2013 Broadband Summit, I went back and looked at the 2009 presentation which, at the time, represented the received wisdom about the state of broadband adoption. Below I discuss four lessons learned in light of what we thought we knew in 2009 and what we know today. To summarize, we learned that:
The previous decade’s fast growth rates in broadband adoption was not sustainable into this decade;
Barriers to adoption are more complex than we thought;
The non-adoption problem is solvable. The research showed that non-adopters aren’t a hopeless group of (mostly old) people who dislike technology. The right kinds of programs can lure people to broadband;
Smartphones help close adoption gaps, but have limits as standalone access devices and are mostly used to add to users’ access means, not as a substitute for wireline.
The future challenge is how to sustain progress. To do that, I recommend:
Developing a “best practice” tool-kit on broadband planning to help states and localities better engage with stakeholders to improve their broadband environment, and;
Using reform of the Lifeline/Link-Up program to direct a portion of Lifeline funds to state and local planning and program activities to support broadband.
benton.org/node/144682 | Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
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GOVERNMENT FIBER NETWORKS
[SOURCE: CTC Technology and Energy, AUTHOR: Joanne Hovis]
With the lucky few recipients of the federal broadband stimulus grants now hard at work building their networks, localities that did not win funding (or were not in a position to apply) would be forgiven for thinking that they have missed the opportunity to operate a government-owned fiber optic broadband network. This would seem especially true in any community that is in danger of losing its Institutional Network (I-Net)—that hard-fought concession of cable contracts from an earlier franchising environment—because of regulatory or technical changes. But despite the closing of the $7 billion broadband stimulus window and the ongoing shift away from franchise-funded I-Nets, there remain viable options for communities to build next- generation networks to serve governmental and institutional needs. The drivers in this new paradigm are not direct government or cable-company funding, but rather new federal E-rate regulations and innovative new ways to analyze the benefits and potential revenues from municipal fiber networks. Separately or together, these tools may be the key to a successful business case.
[Editor’s note: Joanne Hovis is a member of the Benton Foundation board of directors]
benton.org/node/144680 | CTC Technology and Energy
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CYBERSECURITY

CYBERSECURITY ORDER AND LEGISLATION
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Andy Ozment, a senior director for cybersecurity at the White House, said that an executive order aimed at securing critical infrastructure from cyberattacks won't replace the need for comprehensive legislation. "I think it's worth highlighting that an executive order is not magical. It doesn't create new power or authorities for any government agency," Ozment said during a keynote at the winter meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. "Instead, it's an expression of the president's strategic intent." "It's, again, critical to highlight that this is not a substitute for legislation. We need comprehensive cybersecurity legislation," he added. "We cannot do everything under our existing authorities."
benton.org/node/144679 | Hill, The
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EU CYBERSECURITY RULES
[SOURCE: BBC, AUTHOR: ]
Over 40,000 firms, including energy providers, banks and hospitals could be required to report cyber-break-ins under new rules proposed by the European Union. It is part of a move to intensify global efforts to fight cybercrime. Digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes said that Europe needed to improve how it dealt with cybersecurity. But firms are concerned that reporting online attacks and security breaches might damage their reputations. The EU is keen that member states share information about attacks and shore up their cyber-defenses. Under the proposals, each country would have to appoint a Computer Emergency Response Team and create an authority to whom companies would report breaches.
benton.org/node/144699 | BBC
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

WI-FI PROPOSAL FOLLOW UP
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
A front-page Washington Post story Feb 4 on a push by the Federal Communications Commission to broaden access to public Wi-Fi networks around the nation generated a lot of discussion. Senior FCC officials say they actively support the proposal, and the idea has sparked a lot of questions from readers. Here are five things to know about the FCC’s plan:
The FCC won’t build or run the super Wi-Fi networks.
The idea is part of a bigger plan: The proposal is part of the FCC’s landmark reorganization of television broadcast spectrum that would be repurposed for mobile broadband services and emergency first responders.
The FCC is taking public comments before voting.
It could take years for this to happen.
It’s part of the FCC’s mission: The FCC has a congressional mandate to repurpose airwaves for the public use. And agency officials believe that broader Web access, or what is expected to be free services, will lead to more innovation and choices for consumers, especially the poor.
benton.org/node/144658 | Washington Post
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PRIVACY

BIG DATA AND PRIVACY
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
A recent push in the IT industry to collect and monetize big data is headed for a clash with privacy concerns from Internet users and potential regulation from some governments, according to tech analyst firm Ovum. Internet advertising networks and other companies that depend on the collection of personal data online should prepare for a "rebalancing" of the relationship between themselves and Web users, with Web users having more control of their data, said Mark Little, principal analyst at the U.K. tech and business analysis firm. Web users are becoming more aware of privacy tools and appear ready to use them, Little said. "More and more consumers are deciding to effectively become invisible in data terms on the Internet," he added. "It will shake the Internet economy as more and more users decide they don't want to be tracked."
benton.org/node/144674 | IDG News Service
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ADVERTISING SELF-REGULATION
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
A billion-dollar business, online ad networks track consumer clickstream activity in order to sell behaviorally targeted ads to clients. But as more advertisers embrace the practice, fears about privacy concerns have intensified, leading many policymakers to doubt that self-regulation is sufficient to protect consumers from companies that may be secretly monitoring (and profiting) from their every click. It’s a perception Marc Groman, a little more than a year into his position as executive director of the Network Advertising Initiative, would like to turn around. Groman is hoping that the self-regulatory organization’s annual compliance report, released Feb 7 along with a recently revamped web site designed to educate consumers about the benefits of targeted advertising and their opt-out options, will go a long way toward turning around the negative perceptions inside the Beltway.
benton.org/node/144703 | AdWeek
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CONTENT

COPYRIGHT PRINCIPLES
[SOURCE: Brookings, AUTHOR: John Villasenor]
The World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Intellectual Property System developed and published a set of digital copyright principles that we hope will provide a framework for addressing copyright in light of the many new technologies for creating, disseminating, and consuming content.
Creators and producers of creative works should receive meaningful protection, recognition and compensation for their contributions to economic and cultural development.
Copyright law should reflect an appropriate balance between the rights of creators and copyright owners and the interests of consumers and other users of works.
Copyright law should be regularly reviewed and updated as appropriate to respond to new technologies and uses.
Copyright systems should enable rights to be meaningfully, practically, cost-effectively, and proportionally enforced.
A wide range of means should be available for creative works to reach the public, as enabled by Internet and other technologies -- maximizing choice for both rights holders and users. It is desirable to have as much quality content as possible available in as many formats as possible.
Licensing should be streamlined in a content-appropriate manner and simplified to be as easy and efficient as possible, including for different types of content and across national boundaries.
The public should be educated about the purpose, scope and nature of copyright protections, including exceptions, and the reasons for proposed changes or government action.
benton.org/node/144672 | Brookings
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AARON SWARTZ AND HOW A MARTYR MAKES A LAW
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Brian Resnick]
Congress enacted the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in 1984, before there was a World Wide Web. And yet, it took Internet wunderkind Aaron Swartz’s apparent suicide for efforts to reform it to get traction. Sometimes to make a law, it takes a martyr. Swartz died in the midst of a controversial trial. In 2010, he downloaded millions of academic papers from the JSTOR database. For him, this was likely a political act. He believed all journal information should be free. Federal prosecutors in Boston thought otherwise. Even though JSTOR didn't pursue legal action against Swartz, the text of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) allowed for criminal charges. Swartz's allies argued that the criminal proceedings didn't fit the crime, saying federal prosecutors were trying to make an example of him. The word "persecution" — not "prosecution" — often appears in discussions of what happened. He was facing up to 35 years in prison. However, it was more likely that he would serve less than a year in a minimum-security setting. His allies argue that this is what led Swartz to take his own life. Now, in death, his accomplishments, coupled with his connections in Washington, are galvanizing to establish a law—“Aaron’s Law”— that would exonerate him.
benton.org/node/144663 | National Journal
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DIGITAL AND REAL WORLD INEQUALITY
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Emily Badger]
Maps have always had a way of bluntly illustrating power. Simply appearing on one can be enough to make a place or community matter. Meanwhile, absence from "the map" conveys something quite the opposite. Recall 19th century colonial surveys of Africa with the continent’s vast interior labeled as “unknown.” That one word on unmapped territory was simply another way of saying – in the eyes of the mapmaker – that the region was of little consequence. Whoever lived there didn't matter. This old idea of paper maps as power brokers offers a good analogy for how we might think today about the increasingly complex maps of digital information on the physical world that exist in the "geoweb." This is where Wikipedia pages and online restaurant reviews and geocoded tweets live, all theoretically floating atop the actual cities and neighborhoods they describe. "In many ways, it’s not even an analogy," says Mark Graham, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute. "We actually are talking about maps of some sort, in a way. Just because they’re maybe more ephemeral, or maybe more invisibly layered over our cities, it doesn’t mean they’re any less important or any less real." On these maps of digital information, a familiar trend is emerging. Some places are covered much more densely with information than others (Manhattan compared to upstate New York, Europe compared to Africa). But that information density bears no direct relationship to the density of human populations. And the gap between these two metrics provides a new way of looking at old questions of inequality.
benton.org/node/144661 | Atlantic, The
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OWNERSHIP

MURDOCH AND MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Todd Shields, Edmund Lee]
A move to make it easier for companies to own U.S. daily newspapers and nearby broadcast stations has stalled amid partisan tension that could prevent deals between companies such as Tribune Company and News Corp. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski hasn’t won approval of his proposal to ease a ban on cross-media ownership almost three months after asking fellow commissioners to vote for it. The FCC proposal’s fate may determine whether News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch has a chance to buy Tribune Co. newspapers in U.S. markets where his company owns Fox television stations. Tribune emerged from bankruptcy Dec. 31 with a plan to focus on its broadcast properties, and Murdoch plans to take a close look at the newspapers if they become available, according to a person with knowledge of his thinking. “They’d be changing rules for Rupert Murdoch to potentially make a run at the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times,” said Craig Aaron, president of the Florence, Massachusetts-based policy group Free Press.
benton.org/node/144655 | Bloomberg
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TELECOM

UPDATING OUTDATED INFRASTRUCTURE
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: ]
Ideas are starting to materialize for New York City's Reinvent Payphones initiative, a city-backed effort to inject new life into the 11,000 payphones located throughout the city. According to techPresident, one promising concept comes from students in NYU's Interactive Telecommunication Program. Called "Street Beacon", the proposal suggests allowing people to call individual payphones, via the Internet, to access information on the noise levels and air quality of that neighborhood. Citizens on foot could also consult a touchscreen display at the payphone location to access the same information. Broadly used in times of compromised cell service, like during Hurricane Sandy, New York City wants to find new ways to repurpose the phones that are more in line with the needs of a modern citizenry. Other payphone pilots now in progress in the Big Apple include equipping the units with free Wi-Fi and touchscreens armed with neighborhood information and targeted advertising.
benton.org/node/144654 | Government Technology | techPresident
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FCC REFORM

FCC SUNSHINE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Bills to allow three or more Federal Communications Commission commissioners to meet in private, so long as they don't take any official agency actions, are being reintroduced in the House and Senate. Current sunshine rules prevent more than two commissioners from meeting in a nonpublic setting. According to a joint announcement, Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), John Shimkus (R-IL) and Mike Doyle (D-PA) have already reintroduced a House version, with a Senate version being introduced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar ((D-MN) and Dean Heller (R-NV). That was among a number of FCC reform bills that did not pass last Congress, but it was the most bipartisan of that bunch and could have a good chance at passage.
benton.org/node/144673 | Broadcasting&Cable | FCC Commissioner Pai
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