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Mobile has generated buzz lately as a rapidly growing tool for holiday shopping. But an annual survey by marketing services provider Epsilon suggests most people still aren’t crazy about getting messages on their mobile devices. The company’s Channel Preference 2012 report found, for instance, that 80% of U.S. consumers surveyed are not yet interested in receiving location-based mobile offers during or after a visit to a brick-and-mortar store. Mobile users, however, were more likely to be open to receiving messages via digital means than non-users. Consumers overall continue to favor direct mail over e-mail and company Web sites as communication methods. A majority surveyed again reported getting an emotional lift from postal mail, with 62% of Americans saying they enjoy checking their mailbox.
Consumers Wary Of Mobile Location Marketing
French mobile web users now consume nearly 7.5 hours of media daily; 2 hours and 20 minutes are spent on mobile devices and tablets (excluding SMS/calls), with only 1 hour and 38 minutes spent watching the TV. The results come from a survey commissioned by InMobi. The ever-present mobile device is now the primary or exclusive means of going online for 40% of mobile web users in France, stating that mobile devices are "always there" (65%) and "easy to use" (44%). Surprisingly, the research also uncovered 76% of females use their mobile device while in bed versus 65% of men.
Over Half of French Mobile Users Multi-screen: Changing Consumer Habits
South Korea's telecoms regulator, the KCC, has issued warnings to the mobile networks that they face prosecution if they offer illegal handset subsidies on the forthcoming iPhone 5 smartphone.
The handset is due to go on sale in the country later this week, and the regulator said that this raises the temptation to offer illegal subsidies to lure customers. The warning followed reports that dealers have already started offering subsidies on the smartphone to customers who plan to switch mobile networks.
Korean Operators Warned Not to Subsidize Apple's iPhone 5
Annual U.S. Telecoms Symposium
Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Washington, DC
http://www.phoenix-center.org/election2012rsvp.html
The effect of the election on U.S. broadband policy
9:30 - 10:00: Registration and Continental Breakfast
10:00: Welcome and Overview
10:10: Keynote Opening Remarks: FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai
10:30: Presentation: The New (Old?) Political Landscape
- Michael McCurry, Former Press Secretary to President Bill Clinton
- Rich Galen, Former Press Secretary to Vice President Dan Quayle and Speaker Newt Gingrich
11:00 - 12:00: Panel Discussion:
- Kathy Brown, Senior Vice President, Public Policy Development & Corporate Responsibility - Verizon
- James W. Cicconi, Senior Executive Vice President - AT&T Services, Inc.
- Jeffrey Silva, Senior Policy Director Telecommunications, Media, Technology - Medley Global Advisors, L.L.C.
12:00: Conference Adjourns
Add former Democratic FCC commissioner and media consolidation critic Michael Copps to those criticizing Democratic Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski for his media ownership proposal.
That is not a big surprise since Copps voted against a similar proposal offered up by then-FCC chairman Kevin Martin -- a Republican -- in 2007. Copps, currently heading up Common Cause's Media and Democracy Reform Initiative, blogged that he was shocked the Genachowski proposal was even more deregulatory than Martin's. In addition to loosening newspaper/TV cross-ownership, the current proposed media ownership changes include lifting limits on newspaper/radio and TV/radio cross-ownership, although it also would make some joint sales agreements subject to local ownership limits that are not being loosened. FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake said also defended the item from critics. "Reports that the order would make it easier to own a top TV station and a major newspaper in a market are wrong," said Lake. "In fact, the order would strengthen the current rule by creating an express presumption against a waiver of the cross-ownership ban to allow such a combination. In addition, the proposed order preserves the existing TV duopoly rule, which forbids ownership of more than one of the top four TV stations in any market."
Copps: Current Ownership Proposal Is Déjà Vu-Plus Promises To Keep (Benton Foundation)
The federal government's cloud services portal, which spent more than a year in development and saw limited use since its launch in 2009, will soon go offline.
Developed by former federal CIO Vivek Kundra, Apps.gov was intended to provide an efficient, cost-saving solution for government agencies looking to buy software as a service. According to Information Week, the General Services Administration notified cloud service providers including Microsoft, Amazon, Dell and AT&T, via a Nov. 29 email, that the website would soon go offline.
GSA: Apps.gov Will Go Dark
These are the really, really simple things you should be doing to keep casual intruders from invading your privacy.
- Password protect your devices: your smartphone, your iPad, your computer, your tablet, etc.
- Put a Google Alert on your name.
- Sign out of Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, etc. when you’re done with your emailing, social networking, tweeting, and other forms of time-wasting.
- Don’t give out your email address, phone number, or zip code when asked.
- Encrypt your computer.
- Gmailers, turn on 2-step authentication in Gmail.
- Pay in cash for embarrassing items.
- Change Your Facebook settings to “Friends Only.”
- Clear your browser history and cookies on a regular basis.
- Use an IP masker.
10 Incredibly Simple Things You Should Be Doing To Protect Your Privacy
Social media and social networking are no longer in their infancy. Social media continues to grow rapidly, offering global consumers new and meaningful ways to engage with the people, events and brands that matter to them.
According to Nielsen and NM Incite’s latest Social Media Report, consumers continue to spend more time on social networks than on any other category of sites—roughly 20 percent of their total time online via personal computer (PC), and 30 percent of total time online via mobile. Additionally, total time spent on social media in the U.S. across PCs and mobile devices increased 37 percent to 121 billion minutes in July 2012, compared to 88 billion in July 2011. The recent proliferation of mobile devices and connectivity helped fuel the continued growth of social media. While the computer remains as the predominant device for social media access, consumers’ time spent with social media on mobile apps and the mobile web has increased 63 percent in 2012, compared to the same period last year. Facebook remains the most-visited social network in the U.S. via PC (152.2 million visitors), mobile apps (78.4 million users) and mobile web (74.3 million visitors), and is multiple times the size of the next largest social site across each platform. The site is also the top U.S. web brand in terms of time spent, as some 17 percent of time spent online via personal computer is on Facebook.
Social Media Report 2012: Social Media Comes of Age Among U.S. Social Network Users, Smartphone Apps Trump the Mobile Web (Wall Street Journal)
It was 20 years ago that the first text message was sent. Neil Papworth used a PC to send an early Christmas greeting to the cellphone of Richard Jarvis of Vodafone.
Since then there have been trillions of texts shuttled around the globe, each delivering their messages in 160 characters or less. But, as the text message turns 20, the key question is whether the venerable short message service (SMS) is already over the hill. After all, it has all kinds of rivals. Those looking to save costs can use WhatsApp. Apple’s iPhone will automatically convert messages sent from another iPhone to its own iMessage format, while services like Skype and FaceTime offer the ability to add video to the mix. And, after years of gigantic growth, overall text message volume is starting to decline, though total messages sent each year still measure in the trillions.
The Text Message Turns 20
[Commentary] Growth in online education is now outpacing traditional enrollments by a wide margin. Why? Because it is well-suited to the needs of an increasing number of learners, extending access and allowing students to both work and study.
In addition, learning measures for online students have matched or exceeded those for on-campus students. Although graduate programs have seen the largest growth in online learning, significant increases in online undergraduate programs are expected over the next decade. Unfortunately, many universities remain averse to such change and hold to tradition and a classical notion of education. So what is the true incremental cost of serving an online student at a state university today? A study carried out by the University of Texas, comparing online versus on-campus instruction across 15 institutions serving more than 150,000 students, demonstrated a 30 percent to 50 percent cost savings for the Web-based approach. Given that students are asked to shoulder debt for services and amenities that are, objectively, nonessential to their education, people should take notice.
Online Classes Mean No Dorm, Gym or Debt