BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2013
Broadband and Employment: African Americans’ Use of the Internet in Job Search http://benton.org/calendar/2013-11-06/
THE AGENDA
Opening Day at the FCC: Perspectives, Challenges, and Opportunities - press release
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Report: Refocusing Needed to Bridge the Digital Divide
Older Americans' Internet Use Up vs. 2002, but Still Lags - research
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
US Is Losing Advantage in Spying, Report Says
Revealed: Britain's 'secret listening post in the heart of Berlin'
Apple releases government request report [links to web]
Google’s NSA outrage: Correct and hypocritical -- analysis
Attorney General Holder questions NSA phone data collection [links to web]
Sec John F. Kerry visits Poland; discusses NSA spying, military and economic collaboration [links to web]
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Parks Tread a Digital Divide
Update: In 700 MHz Interoperability Push, FCC Acts Promptly on AT&T Prompt - analysis [links to web]
Phone Makers’ Android Tweaks Cause Security Problems [links to web]
TELEVISION/RADIO
ACA Takes Aim at Sinclair/New Age [links to web]
NAB: FCC Catalog Of Repacking Items Is Lacking [links to web]
Hispanic Audiences Fueling TV News Growth [links to web]
How I Did the Impossible: HBO Without Cable TV - analysis [links to web]
FCC Acts To Stop Use Of False Emergency Alert Sounds - press release [links to web]
ADVERTISING
Yale Study: Fast Food Restaurants Still on the Hook for Kids' Health [links to web]
Users More Likely to Click On Ads With AdChoices Icon [links to web]
JOURNALISM
Conflicts of Interest: U.S. News columnist Brian Walsh on the NRSC payroll [links to web]
OPEN GOVERNMENT
Google Nudges Cities for More Data
GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
President Obama Calls For IT Procurement Reform
LOBBYING
'Revenge Of The Nerds': Tech Lobbyists Walk Off Job In Dramatic Shakeup [links to web]
ITI rolls out big-name hires, procurement push [links to web]
COMPANY NEWS
T-Mobile doubles its LTE speeds, capacity in at least 40 major cities [links to web]
T-Mobile’s new love of MVNOs helps drive its subscriber growth [links to web]
Here comes Mark Zuckerberg's knowledge economy [links to web]
The Intelligent Ihome Cometh, If Apple's Patent Ideas Come True [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
MPAA’s Dodd accuses Google over film piracy [links to web]
Elite Grads in Business Flock to Tech [links to web]
Melissa Joan Hart: ‘I’m Pretty Much Surrounded by Republicans’ in Hollywood [links to web]
THE AGENDA
PERSPECTIVES, CHALLENGES, AND OPPORTUNITIES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
[Commentary] These are important days in determining the future of our networks and their effect on our commerce and our culture. As a history buff, I love John Gardner’s observation, “History doesn’t look like history when you’re living it.” There is no doubt that today we are living history in the midst of the fourth great network revolution. Gutenberg’s printing press enabled the original information revolution; the railroad was the first high-speed network; and the instantaneous electronic transmissions of the telegraph opened the door to everything from broadcasting to the telephone. Each of these network revolutions redefined mankind’s path forward. What makes our revolution different from its predecessors, however, is the speed with which it has developed and the velocity with which it continues to evolve. We’ll have more to say about the role of the FCC in the changing communications landscape in the coming weeks and months, I’m sure. Suffice it to say, that as networks change, those charged with the responsibility of overseeing those networks must also evolve. Congress instructed us to act in the “public interest, convenience and necessity.” I look forward to working with the Congress and to carrying out those instructions. This agency is a pro-competition agency. We stand for the things that are important regardless of the network technology being used: 1) To promote economic growth, 2) To maintain the historic compact between networks and users, and 3) To make networks work for everyone. Our challenge is to be as nimble as the innovators and network builders who are creating these great opportunities.
benton.org/node/166361 | Federal Communications Commission
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
REPORT: REFOCUSING NEEDED TO BRIDGE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Andrew Burger]
Internet access has spread to the degree that, in order to bridge the digital divide, a shift in priorities will be according to a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). “The focus,” according to “Redefining the digital divide”, should now be on “the willingness and ability of citizens to use [broadband] for productive purposes.” Current strategies to bridge the digital divide “don’t necessarily address the underlying gaps such as affordability, usage and relevance of content,” the report authors point out, “with country approaches varying significantly in terms of leadership, funding and technologies.” Commissioned by Huawei, key takeaways from the report include:
Affordability remains a key obstacle to ICT adoption.
The urban/rural divide is a key concern, particularly the need for greater speeds outside major urban areas.
Policymakers and telecommunications executives are sharply divided on the key obstacles to solving the divide.
Funding is the biggest area of disagreement between the industry and policymakers
Competition is crucial but regulation is equally important.
benton.org/node/166356 | telecompetitor
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OLDER AMERICANS' INTERNET USE UP VS. 2002, BUT STILL LAGS
[SOURCE: Gallup, AUTHOR: Frank Newport, Michael Moffett]
Americans' self-reported Internet use has risen from 69% in 2002 to 87% today, but significant gaps in usage remain across age, education, and income groups. Over a third of seniors still do not use the Internet. Americans aged 65 and older saw the biggest change in Internet use among any age category over the last 11 years (up 32 percentage points), but even with those gains, a third of older Americans say they don't personally use the Internet. In contrast, 30- to 49-year-olds report almost universal use of the Internet today, with slightly lower but still high levels of use among adults younger than 30 and 50 to 64. Those making less than $20,000 a year have experienced growth almost as large as that among seniors, but again, a considerable percentage of low-income Americans still do not use the Internet. On the other hand, use of the Internet is essentially universal among those making $50,000 a year or more. Finally, adults with no more than a high school education have increased their use of the Internet significantly over the past 11 years, but, at 77%, their rate of use remains the lowest of any educational category. More than nine in 10 Americans with at least some college education use the Internet, including nearly universal use among those who have postgraduate education.
benton.org/node/166353 | Gallup
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
US LOSING SPYING ADVANTAGE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Sanger]
A congressional panel created long before the recent revelations about government electronic spying operations issued a blistering report charging that the intelligence world’s research-and-development efforts are disorganized and unfocused. An unclassified version of the report, based on two years of work by independent experts and two officials from inside the agencies, concludes that the United States is losing its technological superiority over its rivals, which are gaining “asymmetric advantages” by making their own investments in such efforts and, in some cases, stealing American inventions. In a separate white paper on cybercapabilities -- an area in which the Defense Department, the National Security Agency and the United States Cyber Command have made big investments -- the panel, the National Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the United States Intelligence Community, concludes that President Obama’s efforts to differentiate the roles of competing agencies have largely failed.
benton.org/node/166417 | New York Times
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REVEALED: BRITAIN'S 'SECRET LISTENING POST IN THE HEART OF BERLIN'
[SOURCE: The Independent, AUTHOR: Duncan Campbell]
Documents leaked by the US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden show that GCHQ is, together with the US and other key partners, operating a network of electronic spy posts from diplomatic buildings around the world, which intercept data in host nations. An American intercept “nest” on top of its embassy in Berlin -- less than 150 meters from Britain’s own diplomatic mission -- is believed to have been shut down last week as the US scrambled to limit the damage from revelations that it listened to mobile phone calls made by Chancellor Angela Merkel. But the NSA documents, in conjunction with aerial photographs and information about past spying activities in Germany, suggest that Britain is operating its own covert listening station within a stone’s throw of the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, and Merkel’s offices in the Chancellery, using hi-tech equipment housed on the embassy roof.
benton.org/node/166223 | Independent, The
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GOOGLE’S NSA OUTRAGE: CORRECT AND HYPOCRITICAL
[SOURCE: Salon, AUTHOR: Natasha Lennard]
[Commentary] “It’s really outrageous that the NSA was looking between the Google data centers, if that’s true,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt told the Wall Street Journal, noting, “The steps that the organization was willing to do without good judgment to pursue its mission and potentially violate people’s privacy, it’s not OK.” Mr. Schmidt, I couldn’t agree with you more. However, please don’t take this as a pat on the back. Google’s position since the slew of National Security Agency revelations began being published has been at best a PR scramble, at worst an exercise in gross hypocrisy. It was, after all, Schmidt who in 2009 said “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Such an attitude -- what I’ve described before as a dangerous Silicon Valley transparency ethic, smacking of privilege -- contributed significantly to the crystallization of the surveillance state as status quo. Google’s recent public efforts to push for greater transparency around NSA programs, and Schmidt’s outrage over secret NSA data center hacking, should not exempt the firm from censure over their crucial role in building the US’s sprawling surveillance nexus.
benton.org/node/166210 | Salon
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
WIRELESS IN PARKS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ana Campoy]
The National Park Service faces competing interests as it debates how to expand mobile-phone and wireless Internet service within park grounds. Park managers across the country are devising ways to use wireless technology to engage park-goers -- from coded signs they can scan with their cellphones to access online information about park features to text messages with weather and traffic information. Park officials say enhancing wireless access is one way to connect with visitors increasingly attached to their electronic devices. But as park officials go digital, they are struggling with how to keep those tools -- and the cell towers and other equipment they require -- from interfering with visitors' enjoyment of nature. Critics argue that cellphone signals simply don't belong in national parks. Once cellular access is available, they say, controlling how it is used by visitors is nearly impossible.
benton.org/node/166416 | Wall Street Journal
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OPEN GOVERNMENT
GOOGLE NUDGES CITIES FOR MORE DATA
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: ]
Since its inception, Google has worked to perfect and personalize its search engine results, and the company may have revealed its next big push for improvement: open government data. Margo Georgiadis, Google’s president for the Americas, called upon municipal leaders to open access to greater volumes of city data to support custom user results in Google’s search engine. Georgiadis voiced her comments in Chicago at an annual luncheon of the Metropolitan Planning Council, where she extoled the virtues of search innovation and open government as two faces of the same coin. “Think about all the information that the government has. It has a huge wealth of information that would be incredibly useful to what we’re all doing every day,” said Georgiadis. Google would couple the expanded city data with information that it aggregates from users like calendars, Web searches, location and other profile data to deliver targeted results and suggestions. Georgiadis described Google’s ultimate objective for search to become an intuitive personal assistant for each individual -- she envisions the search bar to eventually become a thing of the past. To accomplish this, she suggested the “default” of city data and its related processes would need to be an open access environment, a decision that would allow residents -- and Google -- a window to the data for greater use.
benton.org/node/166216 | Government Technology
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GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
OBAMA CALLS FOR IT PROCUREMENT REFORM
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Tom Shoop]
President Barack Obama called for an overhaul of the way the federal government purchases information technology in the wake of the troubled launch of the Healthcare.gov website. “There are a whole range of things that we’re going to need to do once we get this fixed -- to talk about federal procurement when it comes to IT and how that’s organized,” President Obama said in remarks in Washington before members of Organizing for Action, a grassroots advocacy organization that grew out of his presidential campaign. President Obama said, “I personally have been frustrated with the problems around the website on health care. And it’s inexcusable.” Several observers of the Healthcare.gov implementation have said the ultimate problem is with the federal procurement system and the way contractors are selected for major projects.
benton.org/node/166215 | nextgov
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