March 19, 2009 (Paging Mr Noam)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY MARCH 19, 2009
The NTIA and RUS are back in DC today, but that's not all -- BroadbandCensus is hosting Navigate the $7.2 Billion Broadband Stimulus: A Compass For Stakeholders and the Senate Commerce Committee discusses Cybersecurity - Assessing Our Vulnerabilities and Developing An Effective Defense (see http://www.benton.org/calendar/2009-03-19)
THE TRANSITION
Nomination Hearing: Gary Locke to Be Secretary of Commerce
THE STIMULUS
The Washington broadbandwagon
The broadband stimulus scramble
What Private Entities Should Qualify for Stimulus Dollars? It's Easy.
Bridging the Digital Divide by Ensuring Broadband on Indian Tribal Lands
Health care experts warn of challenges for IT adoption
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Optical amplifiers, wireless technology may help overcome rural broadband challenge
Computer Experts Unite to Hunt Worm
CONTENT
Consumers want unrestricted Internet access: survey
Amazon Feared the Bad, Crushed the Good, and Made the Bad Worse
Bring integrity to the Internet
JOURNALISM
The Net and the news
QUICKLY -- White spacers press FCC on database plan; Cable industry hopes downturn keeps people at home; San Diego paper finds buyer; Getting Their Kirk On
THE TRANSITION
NOMINATION HEARING: GARY LOCKE TO BE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
[SOURCE: US Senate Commerce Committee]
On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on the nomination of former-Gov Gary Locke (D-WA) to be the nation's 36th Secretary of Commerce. Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said he wanted to get Locke confirmed as quickly as possible, and said the former governor's financial records made for "clean and happy reading." Locke assured the Committee the Department of Commerce will be in charge of the 2010 census. Locke also fielded a number of questions about the transition to digital television, which is overseen by Commerce. He said he would not push to extend the June 12 deadline for the complete switch from analog. Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) wanted to make sure Locke is clear that the new DTV hard date of June 12 is not moving. The Committee did not vote on Locke's nomination, giving the Senators the rest of the day to submit more questions. According to a source, the plan Thursday is to hold an off-the-floor markup. That is when the committee members are polled as they come off the floor, and if nobody objects, the nomination is approved. It will then be up to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to schedule a full-Senate vote, but committee approval likely spells confirmation.
http://benton.org/node/23456
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THE STIMULUS
THE WASHINGTON BROADBANDWAGON
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Eli Noam]
[Commentary] Noam offers ten principles to guide the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's new broadband program: 1. Focus on stimulating the economy first and second on accelerating connectivity to the high-speed Internet. 2. Simplicity -- criteria for funding must be straightforward, quantifiable, and public. 3. Shovel-ready technology projects. 4. Decentralization -- state Public Utility Commissions, State-level Internet expansion agencies, and local first-mile boards should play a real input in the initial review and ranking of the grant applications, with criteria and final decisions set in Washington. 5. Transparency via auditing and law enforcement. 6. Incentives -- top-performing projects should be rewarded through further grants. 7. Independent Performance Evaluation. 8. Willingness to Fail. 9. Feedback to inform future grant activities. 10. Government Accountability -- aggregate and evaluate the performance of the money and its impact.
http://benton.org/node/23474
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THE BROADBAND STIMULUS SCRAMBLE
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Ed Gubbins]
[Commentary] The uncertainty of what the broadband stimulus package will fund may be slowing -- or even stopping -- and progress on current projects. Until we know -- at least -- the definition of some of the key terms being used to determine grant awards, such as "unserved" and "underserved" in particular (not even my spell-checker recognizes the former), most telcos with a shot at winning stimulus money will be looking at their entire deployment plans in order to best determine where they should be standing when the candy in this $7.2-billion piñata starts to fall. As if the process weren't complicated enough -- with intersecting criteria such as whether a project enhances service for health care, education and children or whether the applicant is a "socially and economically disadvantaged small business" -- even the simple goal of achieving the most broadband bang per buck creates a lot of complexity because it encourages applicants to hurriedly marry up with partners for joint proposals.
http://benton.org/node/23455
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WHAT PRIVATE ENTITIES SHOULD QUALIFY FOR STIMULUS DOLLARS? IT'S EASY
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] One hot topic in discussions over how broadband stimulus dollars should be allocated is what private entities should qualify for a waiver on the restrictions that only public entities and public/private partnerships can get the money. But to be honest, I'm not sure why this is a difficult question to answer. First off, it's obvious that Congress wants us to prioritize public entities and public/private partnerships, otherwise they wouldn't have put the need for a waiver in. So to me that means that when applications come in those from public entities and public/private partnerships should go to the front of the line. So now we've narrowed the scope to only discussing whatever money is left over after all the qualified and viable public and public/private projects are funded. Assuming there are funds left over, then I think determining which private-only projects deserve funding could be done easily simply by saying that in order to qualify private-only projects must have the support of the communities in which they're going to build. The only thing to determine now is how to quantify that local support.
http://benton.org/node/23454
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BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE BY ENSURING BROADBAND ON INDIAN TRIBAL LANDS
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Jesse Masai]
The digital divide between America's well-to-do regions and its rural and tribal countryside were on display in the first panel of the federal government's Tuesday public meeting, in Las Vegas, on spending the broadband stimulus. The first of three panel discussions during the joint meeting of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Agriculture Department's Rural Utilities Service March 17 focused on the state of "vulnerable populations" within the United States, the need to drive demand for broadband, and the role of strategic institutions.
http://benton.org/node/23453
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HEALTH CARE EXPERTS WARN OF CHALLENGE FOR IT ADOPTION
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Stephanie Condon]
President Obama has called health information technology the "low-hanging fruit" of health care reform, but implementing the use of electronic medical records nationwide will be incredibly difficult, pundits at an event hosted by the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute warned. The health care providers and buyers attested to the improved quality of care and efficiencies that can result from the use of properly implemented electronic medical records. Yet without new policies to incentivize the use of health IT systems, the stimulus funds may go to waste, they said.
http://benton.org/node/23452
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS, WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY MAY HELP OVERCOME RURAL BROADBAND CHALLENGE
[SOURCE: The Industry Standard, AUTHOR: Sindya Bhanoo]
While the U.S. government and the telecommunications industry discuss how more than $7 billion in stimulus money will be spent upgrading the nation's broadband infrastructure, engineers are considering the practical challenges of wiring rural areas for high-speed Internet traffic. One challenge will be extending the reach of high-speed connections, even though traffic speed tends to degrade over distance. Researchers in Australia may have a solution in a technology that boosts the reach through the use of an amplifier. Dr. Ka Lun Lee and his colleagues at the University of Melbourne are using a device called a Raman amplifier that increases the power and reach of an optical signal by a factor of ten. Their experiment successfully transmitted data over 37 miles of single mode fiber at a speed of 2.5 Gbps. Without the amplifier, the reach is about 19 miles. Currently, a significant number of rural residents in the Australian state of Victoria do not have high-speed Internet. Lee estimates that with the 37 miles reach, 99% of residents in Victoria would have broadband access. Rural residents in the United States face a similar situation.
http://benton.org/node/23451
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COMPUTER EXPERTS UNITE TO HUNT WORM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Markoff]
An extraordinary behind-the-scenes struggle is taking place between computer security groups around the world and the brazen author of a malicious software program called Conficker. The program grabbed global attention when it began spreading late last year and quickly infected millions of computers with software code that is intended to lash together the infected machines it controls into a powerful computer known as a botnet. Since then, the program's author has repeatedly updated its software in a cat-and-mouse game being fought with an informal international alliance of computer security firms and a network governance group known as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Members refer to the alliance as the Conficker Cabal. The existence of the botnet has brought together some of the world's best computer security experts to prevent potential damage. The spread of the malicious software is on a scale that matches the worst of past viruses and worms, like the I Love You virus. Last month, Microsoft announced a $250,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the Conficker author.
http://benton.org/node/23472
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CONTENT
CONSUMERS WANT UNRESTRICTED INTERNET ACCESS: SURVEY
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Foo Yun Chee]
Nine in 10 people expect their Internet service providers to offer open and unrestricted access to the Web, a survey showed on Wednesday. The survey, commissioned by Google, Yahoo and Web telephone company Skype, came as the European Parliament and EU states hold talks on a joint deal to reform the bloc's telecoms rules to boost competition.
http://benton.org/node/23449
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AMAZON FEARED THE BAD, CRUSHED THE GOOD, AND MADE THE BAD WORSE
[SOURCE: PublicKnowledge, AUTHOR: Daniel McCartney]
[Commentary] When hobbyists at mobileread.com wrote a guide for reading legally purchased third-party books on a Kindle, Amazon lawyers demanded the guide's removal. Instead of encouraging the good uses, Amazon feared the bad and made it worse. By hurling legal grenades at hobbyists who are teaching each other to read legally purchased books, the effort is a twofold failure. First, it steers the hobbyists toward bad uses since they are attacked for even explaining the good. And second, Amazon comes off as a petulant tyrant instead of the enlightened titan of the Net that we know they can be.
http://benton.org/node/23448
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BRING INTEGRITY TO THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Mark Franek]
[Commentary] Today, anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can post defamatory statements to the Web in a matter of seconds. The fact-checking apparatus and journalistic integrity standards that once provided a healthy buffer and filter between words and a wide audience have come crashing down. Beware what appears in its place. The First Amendment gives people without integrity on the Web tremendous power, too. We need to develop an awareness among Internet users of the importance of acting with honesty and in good faith. Some schools are starting to teach net etiquette and online citizenship. Some bullies, however, never grow up; for them, the online world is one giant playground. For the rest of us, our real power is our moral high ground. Unfortunately, integrity can't be searched.
http://benton.org/node/23469
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JOURNALISM
THE NET AND THE NEWS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] National Public Radio's decision to cancel its newspaper subscriptions raises questions about how papers pay the bills when they give away their work online. Even if publishers find a way to make their content scarce online -- a well-nigh impossible feat, as the music and movie industries will attest -- they may succeed only in withdrawing from the competition for readers. That competition is what it's all about. Any business model that limits a newspaper's potential readership is hurting its own prospects. At the same time, it's far from clear how newspapers will turn their growing online audience into revenue. Newspapers used to be uniquely positioned to convey advertisers' messages to their local audiences, but one of the disruptive aspects of the Internet is that it has given advertisers multiple ways to reach customers directly. Disrupting technologies force companies to rethink everything they do, rather than simply trying to sustain old cost structures in a new environment. While we at The Times struggle with this transition, we encourage our fellow journalists at NPR to keep reading -- and citing -- our work. Every reader counts in today's battle for audience, even the ones who don't pay.
http://benton.org/node/23473
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QUICKLY -- White spacers press FCC on database plan; Cable industry hopes downturn keeps people at home; San Diego paper finds buyer; Getting Their Kirk On
WHITE SPACES PRESS FCC ON DATABASE PLAN
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
Representatives of the White Spaces Database Group met with officials in the Federal Communications Commission's Office of Engineering and Technology last week to discuss their "commitment to the timely creation and operation of a geolocation database" for the service. The Group wants the FCC to get moving on the core of the location system that's intended to protect TV channels and unlicensed microphones from device interference—presumably because, despite broadcaster opposition and stock crashes, they'd still like to get their products to market.
http://benton.org/node/23450
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CABLE INDUSTRY HOPES DOWNTURN KEEPS PEOPLE AT HOME
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Nicola Leske]
Cable and online TV companies are betting they can defy the global economic crisis and grow despite tough times, arguing consumers are choosing to sit out the downturn and spend on home entertainment.
http://benton.org/node/23447
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SAN DIEGO PAPER FINDS A BUYER
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Robert MacMillan]
The Copley Press said on Wednesday that a private equity company will buy The San Diego Union-Tribune. Platinum Equity, a private equity firm in Beverly Hills, California, will buy the Union-Tribune for an undisclosed price. It will end 80 years of Copley ownership of the paper.
http://benton.org/node/23446
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States Underwrite Films, Some in Narrowest Release
STATES UNDERWRITE FILMS, SOME IN NARROWEST RELEASE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Cieply]
For a growing number of films subsidized by states around the country, they may not be coming to a theater near you. Under an unusually aggressive program of state film incentives that began in April, nearly two dozen feature-length movies (in addition to short films, documentaries and television shows) were shot in Michigan last year with public support that can reach 42 percent of a movie's cost, the largest such incentive offered in the United States. The idea is to create employment in that economically depressed state. The ploy was recently matched by California, which devised a film credit of its own to compete with incentives now offered by three dozen states, including New Mexico, New York and Louisiana. The first round of Michigan credits cost that state's taxpayers about $48 million in 2008, while generating about $53.8 million in new employment income, and the equivalent of 1,102 full-time jobs, according to a report last month by the Center for Economic Analysis at Michigan State University. But only a handful of pictures shot with the subsidy have secured theatrical distribution.
http://benton.org/node/23471
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Advocates Fault System Of Lobbying Disclosure
ADVOCATES FAULT SYSTEM OF LOBBYING DISCLOSURE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Dan Eggen]
A common phenomenon in the lobbying world: firms report collecting money from clients while claiming on public disclosure forms that they did not contact any members of Congress or administration officials in return. A study to be released today by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics identifies 19,000 such lobbying reports over the past decade, totaling nearly $600 million in payments. The frequency of such reports is also increasing, the study shows, accounting for more than one out of 10 filings last year. Many lobbyists say the situations are attempts to be transparent even in cases in which firms end up doing no lobbying work during a given period.
http://benton.org/node/23470
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GETTING THEIR KIRK ON
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Thomas Vinciguerra]
For all you media wonks that are also Star Trek geeks (and we know you're out there)... Serious Trekkies have long fashioned copies of their favorite costumes and props, and, back in the '70s and '80s, a few even put together homemade knockoffs of the captain's chair, using reference materials like the "Starfleet Technical Manual" and "U.S.S. Enterprise Bridge Blueprints." But lately fans have been building or buying more sophisticated versions of the command module from which James T. Kirk, played by William Shatner, ordered "Ahead, warp factor six." Moreover, they are making them the centerpiece of their homes, thus conquering what is for them a final frontier of domestic décor.
http://benton.org/node/23468
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Happy birthday, young man. I'm not promising you a Kirk chair, but maybe, if you're good... Have a great day! Now back to work and get me my public health information.