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[Commentary] Larry Ward will concede that he “poked the bear.” As president of the D.C.-based Political Media Inc., Ward administers the Facebook page of a group called Special Operations Speaks (SOS), an anti-Obama group consisting of “veterans, legatees, and supporters of the Special Operations communities of all the Armed Forces.” Essentially hard guys who want the president out of office. “These are the toughest sons of a guns out there and they say what they mean,” says Ward. He posted a picture that read, “Obama called the SEALs and THEY got bin Laden. When the SEALs called Obama, THEY GOT DENIED.” Facebook sent Ward a warning about the meme. Take it down, said Facebook. Ward didn’t comply. Facebook took down the image, with this explanation: “We removed content you posted. We removed the content you posted or were admin of because it violates Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.” Ward re-posted the image along with Facebook’s rationale for removing it. Facebook took the image down again and froze the account for 24 hours, in effect stifling SOS on Facebook. After all that censorship and bureaucracy, Facebook is now acknowledging that it was a mistake. Here’s the note that Facebook’s Andrew Noyes passed along: “This was an error and we apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused. They can feel free to repost the image.”
Facebook admits error in censoring anti-Obama message
A cadre of government technology officials and vendors predict agencies could cut up to $220 billion from the annual federal deficit by upgrading IT systems and using better data analysis to cut waste and improve efficiency.
The largest share of savings, $100 billion annually, could come from adopting technology best practices from the private sector, according to the Quadrennial Government Technology Review posted online from the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council, a nonprofit government-industry group focused on federal technology. The government also could save $50 billion annually by using new data analysis tools to reduce the share of uncollected taxes due the government and the number of improper payments agencies make through error or fraud. The figure represents roughly a 10 percent reduction in the $385 billion in annual uncollected taxes and $100 billion in improper payments, estimated by the Internal Revenue Service, the review said. ACT-IAC also estimates the government can save $70 billion annually by putting new data analysis tools to work to reduce health care costs.
Smarter Use of IT Could Reduce the Deficit by $220 Billion, group says
Seventy clergy joined with almost 250 people of faith to ask the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that the new low power radio stations granted licenses in the near future will transmit a minimum of locally-originated programming.
The request came as the Federal Communications Commission completes its final rules to implement the Local Community Radio Act of 2010. The United Church of Christ and many members of the faith community were a strong constituency supporting passage of the Local Community Radio Act. That legislation will bring new low power community radio stations to thousands of communities in the next few years. The letter stated, "We are dismayed that some low power radio stations could get a precious license and not carry any locally-originated programming." The Federal Communications Commission is expected to finish its rules this year, and to accept applications for low power radio stations in the summer of 2013.
United Church of Christ and Faith Community Ask to Keep Local Radio Local UCC (read the letter)
In the 2012 election, nonprofits have been the preferred vehicle for donors who prefer to keep their identities secret. But with the right lawyers, super PACs, which are supposedly transparent about their donors, can accomplish the same feat.
Social welfare nonprofits, known as 501(c)(4)s by the Internal Revenue Service, file tax returns with the IRS. The names of their top donors are revealed to the IRS — but not to the public. Super PACs, on the other hand, do report their donors. In some instances, though, those donors are nonprofits. Or the funds might come from shell corporations, which have passed through millions of dollars to the political organizations from unidentified donors in this election.
Nonprofits, shell corporations help shield identity of ad backers Outside groups outspend candidates in 26 House races (Open Secrets)
When it comes to targeting and persuading voters, the Democrats have a bigger advantage over the GOP than either party has ever had in the modern campaign era.
All targeting carries the risk of missing the mark, and there are regularly voters whose actual attitudes defy the predictions of statistical models. But regular misfires by Republicans—which at best only waste resources and at worst mobilize Democrats who might not have voted otherwise, or provoke a backlash among those still persuadable—illustrate a gap between how the right and left practice politics in the 21st century. Contrary to the wishful intimations of the Post and Times stories, while the groups on the right could conceivably catch up with Obama and his allies in the scope and funding of their ground-level activities, in terms of sophistication they lag too far behind to catch up in 2012. In fact, when it comes to the use of voter data and analytics, the two sides appear to be as unmatched as they have ever been on a specific electioneering tactic in the modern campaign era. No party ever has ever had such a durable structural advantage over the other on polling, making television ads, or fundraising, for example. And the reason may be that the most important developments in how to analyze voter behavior has not emerged from within the political profession.
Obama Does It Better
[Commentary] I am an optimist about the potential of technology – particularly information technology – to spur growth and progress in society. But this view is not universal.
In fact, a debate about the growth of our economy and the broader world economy has been emerging recently and it relates directly to the role of the Internet and mobile technologies. The debate centers on the question of whether we are facing a fundamentally different economy – both in the U. S. and globally – than we have had in the recent past. This is a very important topic because much of the current debate around what to do to spur more growth centers on understanding how the economy responds to policy changes and to the actions of various actors, such as businesses and consumers. Some believe that the U. S. economy’s basic working fundamentals have not changed much in recent years. This is the view of Ben Bernanke and many others.
But others believe that the past 250 years may prove to have been a “unique” period of expansion that may not continue in the years ahead. As a result, they believe that achieving annual growth rates of three to four percent going forward will be much more difficult than in the past. Among those making this argument is Robert Gordon. You can read Gordon’s paper at the link, but in a nutshell he believes the waves of innovation over the last 250 years (including the Internet) have largely played out, and that while new technologies and innovations will spur economic growth, a host of other factors – an ongoing global debt crisis, demographic challenges, lack of access to educational resources – will tamp down economic growth for decades to levels as low as .5 percent a year.
Is Gordon right?
The Future, the Internet and Economic Growth
The essential distinction between permanent and effective ownership of a physical book, and conditional rights of access to the e-book, has, so far, been somewhat obscured by marketing strategies and use of visual images, which tend to present e-books as a superior, but also substitutable, version of the print book product.
Given the virtual reality of “traditional books” presented by e-Book platforms, buyers of e-books are likely to confuse their rights (i.e. after purchase) with the property rights model for print books. Users may be surprised to find that they are prevented from doing certain things with their e-book, within their private/ personal sphere. It has been suggested that, with digital rights management (DRM), the consumer’s relationship with their selected e-books, even those stored on their own devices8, may be better described as a “rental”, or a “license to access”, rather than a “purchase”. It would also be in the consumer interest to ensure that information explaining what the DRM is, what it restricts, and why, be highlighted for the buyer, prior to his/her purchase of the e-book. The policy concern worthy of greatest consideration is arguably consumer protection: transparency, product information, and the risk of misleading consumers. Any material limitations of use rights must be clearly and conspicuously disclosed before the sale of the content.
Users who buy e-books are often locking the purchase into a platform or hardware system and this could lead to interoperability issues across platforms and problems with consumer lock-in. The choice of reading device will, to varying degrees, affect the range of e-books available to the reader. The degree of vertical integration which has developed across the supply chain for e-books has created commercial incentives to tie the customer’s long term investment in the reading hardware to the content of a particular e-book seller. The risks of customer lock-in and market fragmentation should be considered in this context.
E-books: Developments and Policy Considerations
[Commentary] In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration monitored the international phone calls and emails of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people within the U.S. without a court order. Seven years after the New York Times broke that story, it is apparent that privacy safeguards legislated in response are inadequate — a deficiency Congress needs to rectify. Congress must strike a new and better balance between national security and the privacy rights of Americans.
How private are your phone calls?
[Commentary] Silicon Valley has served as a huge source of cash for both presidential candidates -- but not as much of a source of ideas for their campaigns. That means both men are missing the chance to use technology to paint an optimistic, big-picture vision of where they want to take the country.
Roosevelt had the New Deal; Reagan had "morning in America." Obama and Romney have what, exactly? "It really should be a part of the national discussion because it's so much a part of the national economy," said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto. "There are extraordinary opportunities ahead. I'm disappointed that there's not, out of either camp, the kind of discussion of technology issues that are so important to this country.” Both President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have tech-related positions in their platforms. And I wouldn't expect either candidate to be spending time on the stump talking about patent reform or spectrum licensing, topics vital to Silicon Valley that put the rest of the country into a coma. But what happened to the tech-savvy Obama of 2008 (remember his BlackBerry)? And while Romney's campaign is far more adept at technology than Sen. John McCain's, he also hasn't made technology issues a centerpiece.
By ignoring tech in the campaign, both candidates squander big opportunity
In this year of record political advertising spending, Little Rock (DMA 56) has been mostly bypassed and forgotten by candidates and their supporters. The presidential candidates are ignoring Arkansas because Republican challenger Mitt Romney has a lock on its six electoral votes, and there are no major state offices up for grabs. Even the open seat of retiring Rep. Mike Ross (D) in the southern part of the state hasn’t produced much ad spending, with the GOP candidate seen as having an insurmountable lead and the Democrat unable to raise much money. The state’s three other Republican incumbents in the House are breezing to re-election. But that’s how it goes with political advertising every even-numbered year. Some markets — like Little Rock — are virtually shut out, and some in presidential swing states with closely contested gubernatorial or U.S. Senate races and possibly local elections — like Roanoke-Lynchburg (VA) (DMA 68) — have trouble coping with the enormous demand for time.
Political Ad Market: From Feast to Famine