Benton RSS Feed
The window is closing — and troubles are mounting — for two tech trade associations that had hoped to combine forces before year’s end and engage the new Congress with a stronger, more unified voice.
Despite months of negotiations, the leaders of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) and TechNet remain fundamentally at odds over how they would run a newly merged entity, making any deal increasingly unlikely. ITI leaders are unrelenting in their belief that government affairs directors should remain in charge of a combined entity while TechNet members think CEOs and other company executives should stay at the wheel. Both sides have made some concessions, but it hasn’t been enough — and the trade groups are running up against their goal to move forward by the end of the year and hit the ground running in time for the 113th Congress.
Merger between ITI and TechNet on thin ice
Disruptions to Google’s Web-search and e-mail services in China over the weekend underscore the uncertainty surrounding Beijing's effort to control the flow of information into the country, as well as the risks that effort poses to the government's efforts to draw global businesses. Internet experts pointed to China's Internet censorship efforts, which have been ratcheted up ahead of the 18th Party Congress, a meeting of top Communist Party leaders in Beijing. Chinese authorities often tighten Internet control around sensitive subjects and events. But a number of users in recent weeks say Internet disruptions have worsened to an unexpected degree ahead of the congress.
Google Outage Shows Business Risks in China
The BBC’s head of news, Helen Boaden, and her deputy Stephen Mitchell stepped aside temporarily after George Entwistle, former director-general quit to take responsibility for errors by the corporation’s journalists. Boaden and Mitchell were at the center of a controversial decision to drop an investigation by Newsnight, the high profile news program, into Jimmy Savile, linking the former BBC presenter to pedophilia. Tim Davie, acting director-general, set out plans to rebuild trust in the corporation, by shunting the senior news editors aside, at least temporarily.
BBC crisis claims news chiefs Who’s who: BBC chiefs under scrutiny (FT – Who’s Who) BBC needs to relearn its journalistic ABC (FT – Commentary)
[Commentary] The work of policymaking generally grinds to a halt in the days, weeks, and, unfortunately, months before a major election as uncertainty reigns. The question isn’t just who will lead, but what direction the nation is headed. What unfolds on election night is not just vote tallies and changes in leadership. We catch sight of where we are headed and, for some, a path is revealed as well. After the November 6 election was called, re-elected President Barack Obama took the stage at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center and delivered a speech about perfecting our union. The President’s address gives a glimpse of Washington’s agenda in the coming months. There are huge challenges ahead – reducing the debt, fixing our immigration system, reforming the tax code, addressing global climate change, reducing dependence on foreign oil, ensuring our security while shaping “a peace that is built on the promise of freedom and dignity for every human being.” The President reminded the Nation that we have obligations to one another and to future generations and that with freedom comes rights and responsibilities – “love and charity and duty and patriotism.” He spoke of our shared destiny and shared obligations, of opportunity for all and addressing inequality, and of securing the middle class. The opportunities include a high quality education and employment, and American leadership in technology and discovery and innovation.
The Agenda
Obama’s regulators arrived in January 2009 with a laundry list of priorities they have largely achieved—a version of network neutrality called the “Open Internet” rule; more spectrum for wireless broadband networks; subsidies for those who don’t yet have broadband access; and limits on how much telecom companies can charge for access to high-speed lines. The second term will fill in the few blanks left by the first term, probably with new leadership at the Federal Communications Commission.
At the same time, industry leaders and regulators want to ease the transition from the current hybrid analog-digital telecom system to a digital Internet Protocol-based system run on fiber-optic lines. “What FCC will do next is try to figure out how to have a rational IP transition, just as we had a digital television transition,” says Blair Levin, a former FCC official whose name has been mentioned as a possible chairman.
What to Expect on Technology in Obama’s Second Term
President Obama's reelection means that Google is unlikely to receive a reprieve from a looming antitrust lawsuit. The Federal Trade Commission is nearing the end of a yearlong investigation into Google's business practices.
People familiar with the case say the commission staffers have concluded there is reason to believe Google is violating antitrust laws and have recommended that the commission take action. The commissioners are currently reviewing that recommendation. If Mitt Romney had won the election, he would have appointed a new FTC chairman and Republicans would have controlled three of the five commission seats. It is possible that a GOP-led FTC would have still gone after Google, but a Romney victory was probably Google's last best chance at escaping the investigation unscathed.
Google braces for antitrust suit following Obama reelection
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) may take another crack at passing cybersecurity legislation next week although Republicans and Democrats still haven't reached a compromise on the matter.
Sen Reid is aiming to bring the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 to the floor at the end of next week after the Senate votes on Sen. Jon Tester's (D-MT) sportsmen's bill, according to Senate aides. The bill's prospects look dim, however, as it appears the bill still lacks enough Republican support to clear the upper chamber. Observers expect the bill to fail just as it did in August, when Senate Republicans blocked a motion to move the measure forward after arguing that it would saddle industry with new burdensome regulations. “While we are eager to pass effective cybersecurity legislation, we are no closer to a compromise than we were this summer,” a Senate GOP aide said.
Without an agreement, Reid eyes last 2012 effort on Cybersecurity Act
Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel confirmed via Twitter on November 9 that he plans to stay in the White House during President Obama’s second term. VanRoekel was named the nation’s second-ever CIO in August 2011 after a long career as an executive at Microsoft and, more briefly, as managing director at the Federal Communications Commission.
VanRoekel Will Stay on at the White House
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that the following item will be on the tentative agenda for the next open meeting scheduled for Friday, November 30, 2012:
- Expanding Nationwide Low Power Radio Opportunities Fifth Order on Reconsideration and Sixth Report and Order: The Commission will consider a Fifth Order on Reconsideration and Sixth Report and Order, which address the final procedures to approve more than 6,000 pending FM translator radio applications and implementation of the Local Community Radio Act. The consideration of these items will represent the final steps toward enabling non-profit groups nationwide to apply for low power radio licenses to further expand the diversity of local voices in the media landscape.
FCC Announces Tentative Agenda For November Open Meeting
[Commentary] While the pundits will devour months dissecting and divining all the implications of the election, one result trumps all others: the huge, positive, and transformative impact of diversity on so many electoral outcomes, from the Presidential through Congressional, state and local contests. When the history of the 2012 elections is written, this will be its finding—a story of America turning a corner toward future elections that will be unlike any in our past.
Diversity covers a wide waterfront of issues. My beat has been communications. Minorities haven’t fared well in telecommunications and media. They are behind in accessing the opportunity-creating tools of broadband. That means they have less access to jobs, education and healthcare. They are behind in owning media outlets that could help so much to spread knowledge of diversity issues and to inform our nation’s flagging civic dialogue. They are behind in holding top managerial jobs in media and telecommunications. They continue to suffer discrimination both blatant and subtle as their issues and voices are pushed to the side by the huge consolidated media behemoths that increasingly control our nation’s airwaves. At those times when minorities are covered, it is all too often in stereotype and caricature.
The Rainbow Election