Aug 11, 2009 (National Broadband Plan; BTOP/BIP Applications)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY AUGUST 10, 2009
The President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee meets today. See http://www.benton.org/calendar/2009-08-09--P1W/
INTERNET/BROADBAND
National Broadband Plan Workshop Will Focus on Deployment
Economic crisis fueling open network interest
American Library Association Wants Network Neutrality
Tate: FCC must make broadband access universal
Bandwidth Caps for High-Speed Internet in the US and Japan
Network Sustainability. Sustainable Broadband Adoption. Two Sides of the Same Coin.
Wireless shows promise for stimulus money
Getting Started on an NTIA Broadband Stimulus Application
How to Navigate Broadband Stimulus Application Hell
Behavioral Targeting: Putting Lipstick on a Pig
Tilting at Internet Barrier, a Stalwart Is Upended
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Cybersecurity Official Resigns
US Web-Tracking Plan Stirs Privacy Fears
Red Flags Raised By Web 2.0 Contracts
CDT Comments on Federal Web Policy Proposal
Lawmakers take to the tweets as recess heats up
Public spied on 1,500 times a day in UK
JOURNALISM
The News Americans Need
For Newspapers, Small Is (or Can) Be Beautiful
Notice Those Ads on Blogs? Regulators Do, Too
Town Hall Showdowns Fuel Health Care Coverage
BROADCASTING/CABLE
MusicFIRST asks FCC to Rule on Broadcasters using Airtime to Lobby Listeners
The Free-TV Model Is Broken, Now Where Is the Fix?
Premium TV takes a hit
Survivors say stunt left them twisted
Facebook buys social media start-up FriendFeed
MORE ONLINE...
The Nationwide Health Information Network might need more work
OECD Communications Outlook 2009
Are the Glory Days Long Gone for IT?
Russia's president criticizes country's lack of IT progress
Iowans put 911 texting to test
Social networking has hidden dangers for teens
Recent Comments on:
Prof Tests AP/iCopyright 'Copyfraud' by iCopyright CEO Mike O'Donnell
INTERNET/BROADBAND
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN WORKSHOP WILL FOCUS ON DEPLOYMENT
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission will host its second National Broadband Plan Workshop -- this one on deployment. The day will be divided to focus on 1) the deployment of wired (i.e., cable, wireline, and broadband over powerline, or BPL) broadband infrastructure used to serve all types of end-users today and in the future; 2) issues affecting the deployment of wireless broadband -- with a special focus on the extent to which wireless broadband can serve as a substitute for wired broadband in the provision of broadband applications and services; and 3) what it means to be unserved or underserved with respect to broadband access, why such areas or groups are unserved and underserved, and what actions the United States should take to help stimulate broadband deployment in these areas. See what people are already telling the FCC about broadband deployment and see the FCC's preliminary topics and the URL below.
http://www.benton.org/node/26280
More on National Broadband Plan Workshops
http://www.benton.org/node/26834
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ECONOMIC CRISIS FUELING OPEN NETWORK INTEREST
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Carol Wilson]
The economic crisis is prompting countries such as Australia and the US to rethink their broadband strategies and to consider open network infrastructures that will support applications from multiple sectors such as health care, education and energy, according to a new report by Australian consultant Paul Budde Communication. But while the US is embarking on a small-scale $7.2 billion broadband stimulus program that takes a piecemeal approach to boosting broadband, Australia's government has placed a $43 billion bet that has even brought incumbent service provider Telstra to the table in the effort to build a national wholesale fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network. This open network approach, as described in "Global Next Generation Telecoms - FTTH and Trans-Sector Strategies," will enable trans-sector participation in applications that ride the broadband pipe into the home, including telemedicine, smart utility grids and distance learning, Budde said.
http://benton.org/node/27038
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ALA WANTS NETWORK NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: SavetheInternet.com, AUTHOR: Carrie Lowe]
[Commentary] Libraries' interest in Network Neutrality is twofold. First, Network Neutrality is an intellectual freedom issue. Second, Network Neutrality is a competition issue. In addition, librarians value innovation. Many of the technologies most central to the Internet are founded in principles of librarianship. Metadata? We call it cataloging. Online search? May I point you to the online public access catalog (OPAC)? Linked content? Cross references in the card catalog. Indexes, full-text search the list goes on and on. We understand that in the context of the Internet, innovation begins at the edges; a killer app is more likely to be developed by two guys in a garage than by a highly paid executive in an industrial park. It is vital to preserve and encourage this innovation that has built the Internet. Network Neutrality is central to achieving this goal.
http://benton.org/node/27037
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FCC MUST MAKE BROADBAND ACCESS UNIVERSAL
[SOURCE: Baltimore Sun, AUTHOR: Deborah Taylor Tate]
[Commentary] There are tools available to increase broadband adoption that the Federal Communications Commission can utilize immediately, specifically the Lifeline and Linkup federal subsidy programs that provide discounts on initial home telephone installation fees, as well as for monthly service charges. These discounts are available for qualified, low-income subscribers who meet stringent income eligibility criteria. There are strict audit controls in place. The Lifeline/Linkup programs, which have been somewhat underutilized, could be expanded to provide discounts for installation and monthly charges for today's broadband services, just as they have for old-fashioned telephone services. In addition to helping the urban poor who can't afford broadband, this expansion would help people in remote areas. This step, which should not require congressional action, could be taken immediately.
http://benton.org/node/27036
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BANDWIDTH CAPS FOR HIGH-SPEED INTERNET IN THE US AND JAPAN
[SOURCE: New America Foundation, AUTHOR: Chiehyu Li, James Losey]
A report comparing bandwidth or usage cap policies between Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the United States and Japan. Bandwidth caps are imposed limits on the amount of data or traffic a subscriber can consume over their Internet connection. The report compares caps across multiple pricing tiers for residential high-speed Internet services including cable modem, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) or fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) and Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL). The report reveals a large discrepancy in the usage limits ISPs place on consumers in the two countries, with U.S. providers substantially limiting the amount of bandwidth their subscribers can consume. The data has been juxtaposed with the price and the speed of the service offering and the complete data and sources are available in an appendix at the end of the report. ISPs with the most constrictive bandwidth caps are in the United States. As shown in Chart 1, U.S. Internet service providers (ISP) have monthly bandwidth caps as low as 1GB for combined upstream and downstream traffic, while many Japanese ISPs only utilize bandwidth caps of 5GB per day or approximately 150GB per month for upstream bandwidth, with no limit on the amount of data consumers can download.
http://benton.org/node/27035
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NETWORK SUSTAINABILITY. SUSTAINABLE BROADBAND ADOPTION
[SOURCE: Fighting the Next Good Fight, AUTHOR: Craig Settles]
[Commentary] Sustainability is government speak for "having enough customers paying you enough money every year for network services so you earn sufficient revenue to cover the expense of running the network." Sustainable Broadband Adoption (SBA) is mainly the methods you use to close them. SBA is also digital inclusion. You need smart marketing to close the right customers. Though it may seem counterintuitive, if at this date your project team still believes that selling subscriptions to individuals and residences is the primary road to sustainability, your plan's in trouble.
http://benton.org/node/27026
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WIRELESS SHOWS PROMISE FOR STIMULUS MONEY
[SOURCE: NetworkWorld, AUTHOR: Joanie Wexler]
As the August 14 broadband stimulus application deadline approaches, it's noteworthy that wireless has already played a successful role in earlier programs created to get far-flung U.S. citizens "connected." Wireless has proven itself a sustainable model in several rural areas, potentially setting the stage for other forthcoming deployments using stimulus funds. Because they don't involve trenching and running cable, wireless networks can be less inexpensive and often deliver a faster payback in sparsely populated areas than terrestrial networks. As such, wireless nets have allowed grant and loan recipients in some rural areas to meet their infrastructure implementation deadlines and pay back their loans on time when fiber proved cost-prohibitive.
http://benton.org/node/27025
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HOW TO NAVIGATE BROADBAND STIMULUS APPLICATION HELL
[SOURCE: 4GWirelessEvolution, AUTHOR: Craig Settles]
[Commentary] Filing out an application for broadband stimulus funding? Find a local marketing agent, marketing director of a local business or equivalent within a government agency. Have that person review your Executive Summary as well as your description of the "Project Purpose" and "Enhanced Service for Health Care Delivery, Education and Children." He or she should look at how succinctly and powerfully the first two sentences of each narrative describe and sell the main benefits your proposal will deliver. Why? At some point, your proposal is going to sit in front of a tired, blurry eyed federal employee who has two or more proposals with the same technology, similar engineering designs and the same goal as yours, but this person may only be able to fund one. They also have to decide which proposal has to sit higher on the priority list your governor's office gets to review. All other things being equal, the ability of your opening sentence in any narrative sections of the application and supporting statements to grip the imagination and stir the heartbeat of the reader plays a big role in raising your proposal above all others. Good marketing people live by opening sentences that grip and stir.
http://benton.org/node/27028
sEE ALSO:Getting Started on an NTIA Broadband Stimulus Application
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BEHAVIORAL TARGETING: PUTTING LIPSTICK ON A PIG
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Jaffer Ali]
[Commentary] All the lipstick in the world can't make behavioral targeting any less porcine. For all the hype, behavioral targeting has such limited utility that one can only shake one's head in bewildered disbelief at its growing acceptance. The army of mathematicians that once were lionized on Wall Street has invaded Madison Avenue. Computational finance wizards now seek to become computational marketing mavens. They are finding a receptive audience among agencies, venture capitalists, industry trade publications, ad networks and marketers across the country. Desperation has a way of bringing people together. But there is a major problem; the same underlying math that destroyed Wall Street underlies BT and will destroy online marketing (indeed, BT-inspired online performance has declined more than 95% over the past decade). The adherents of behavioral targeting seem to be blind, deaf and overwhelmingly dumb to the metaphysical issues surrounding BT and to the existential implications confronting it. If you are a betting person, how much would you like to wager that the practice of behavioral targeting will remain legal? We all allocate resources where we think they have the greatest chance of success. Given the hurdles confronting BT and the looming legal battles, is this really where you want to allocate your time and money? Or are you just putting lipstick on a pig?
http://benton.org/node/27020
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FACEBOOK BUYS SOCIAL MEDIA START-UP FRIEND FEED [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Alexei Oreskovic]
Facebook, the world's largest social networking site, said it will buy FriendFeed, netting a group of prized ex-Google engineers in the fast-growing Internet business. FriendFeed, an up-and-coming social media startup, lets people share content online in real time across various social networks and blogs. The service is similar to, though less popular than Twitter. Facebook's big gain in the acquisition is the engineering talent at FriendFeed, rather than the actual product, which has won critical praise
http://benton.org/node/27032
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TILTING AT INTERNET BARRIER, A STALWART IS UPENDED
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Schwartz]
A look at Professor Charles Nesson, co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School. He took on the recording industry in an eagerly anticipated civil case here over sharing music online. But he stumbled. On July 31, a jury handed down an eye-popping $675,000 judgment against Joel Tenenbaum, a Boston University graduate student who was defended by Prof Nesson. Tenenbaum's offense was downloading and sharing 30 songs. It was a stinging defeat for Professor Nesson, and to many in the legal community, it seemed to be a moment when an eccentric scholar's devotion to a soaring vision blinded him to the practical realities of winning a legal case. Taking on a lawsuit that his own allies warned was ill-advised, Professor Nesson acted in ways that many observers found bizarre and even harmful to the case. But in an interview, Professor Nesson sounded a nearly evangelical tone, saying the case presented an opportunity to take on the recording industry's "assault on what I think of as the digital-native generation" over the industry's own failure to adapt to changing technologies. While artists deserve to be paid, he said, the solution is not to threaten and punish those who love music through a copyright regime that "produces absurd results."
http://benton.org/node/27045
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
CYBERSECURITY OFFICIAL RESIGNS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ellen Nakashima]
A top operational official in charge of protecting civilian government computer networks has resigned, dealing another blow to the federal effort to enhance cybersecurity. Mischel Kwon, the director of the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, submitted her resignation letter this week. Kwon, who is the fourth US-CERT director in five years, was frustrated by bureaucratic obstacles and a lack of authority to fulfill her mission, according to colleagues who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Her departure follows the resignation of the lead White House cybersecurity official, Melissa E. Hathaway, who said last week that she would step down. In March, another Homeland Security cybersecurity official, Rod Beckstrom, resigned, citing a lack of support inside the agency and what he described as a power grab by the National Security Agency. The resignations, although unrelated, point to a larger inability of the federal government to hire, retain and effectively utilize qualified personnel, experts said. Two months after President Obama pledged to "personally" select someone to be the White House's cybersecurity coordinator, the position remains unfilled.
http://benton.org/node/27023
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US WEB-TRACKING PLAN STIRS PRIVACY FEARS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Spencer Hsu, Cecilia Kang]
The Obama administration is proposing to scale back a long-standing ban on tracking how people use government Internet sites with "cookies" and other technologies, raising alarms among privacy groups. A two-week public comment period ended Monday on a proposal by the White House Office of Management and Budget to end a ban on federal Internet sites using such technologies and replace it with other privacy safeguards. The current prohibition, in place since 2000, can be waived if an agency head cites a "compelling need." Supporters of a change say social networking and similar services, which often take advantage of the tracking technologies, have transformed how people communicate over the Internet, and Obama's aides say those services can make government more transparent and increase public involvement. Some privacy groups say the proposal amounts to a "massive" and unexplained shift in government policy. In a statement Monday, American Civil Liberties Union spokesman Michael Macleod-Ball said the move could "allow the mass collection of personal information of every user of a federal government website." Even groups that support updating the policy question whether the administration is seeking changes at the request of private companies, such as online search giant Google, as the industry's economic clout and influence in Washington have grown rapidly.
http://benton.org/node/27043
Also see :
Red Flags Raised By Web 2.0 Contracts
CDT Comments on Federal Web Policy Proposal
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LAWMAKERS TAKE TO THE TWEETS AS RECESS HEATS UP
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jordan Fabian]
Several House Republicans have used Twitter to promote their August activities, keeping a national audience informed of their once-obscure local recess events. The hot-button issue of this year's recess has been healthcare town halls, with protesters expressing their disdain for the healthcare reform legislation at the meetings. Even though Democrats' town halls have been targeted for dissent, Republicans are seizing on the interest by touting their own meetings on Twitter to get their message out to a wider audience.
http://benton.org/node/27031
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PUBLIC SPIED ON 1,500 TIMES A DAY IN UK
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Stefano Ambrogi]
Police, councils and the intelligence services made more than 500,000 requests to access private emails and telephone records in the UK last year, according to an annual surveillance report. The figures, compiled by the Interception of Communications Commissioner, Paul Kennedy, found that about 1,500 surveillance requests were made every day in Britain. That is the annual equivalent to one in every 78 people being targeted. It included 1,500 approved applications from local councils. Each request allows public bodies to access data -- which includes telephone records, email and text message traffic -- but not the actual content of conversations or messages.
http://benton.org/node/27033
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JOURNALISM
THE NEWS AMERICANS NEED
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Dan Rather]
[Commentary] You don't have to care about media companies or reporters to care about the state of the news, because if it's in trouble -- and it surely is -- this country is in trouble. That's why, while speaking recently at the Aspen Institute, I called upon President Obama to form a commission to address the perilous state of America's news media. Some might scoff at the notion that a president and a country occupied by two wars and a recession should add the woes of the news media to an already crowded plate. But the way the news is delivered, and the quality of the information the American public receives about what's going on here and abroad, has and will continue to have a profound effect on these very issues and on the overall quality of government by, for and of the people. I am not calling for any sort of government bailout for media companies. Nor am I encouraging any form of government control over them. I want the president to convene a nonpartisan, blue-ribbon commission to assess the state of the news as an institution and an industry and to make recommendations for improving and stabilizing both. Why bring the president into it? Because this is the only way I could think of to generate the sort of attention this subject deserves. Academia and think tanks generate study after study, yet their findings don't reach the people who need to be reached.
http://benton.org/node/27022
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FOR NEWSPAPERS, SMALL IS (OR CAN) BE BEAUTIFUL
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Newspapers are hurting all over the United States, but the pain is less severe at small publications. The scarcity of other media in small- and medium-sized cities has helped shield hundreds of newspapers from the upheaval that's causing dailies in big cities to shrink in size and scope as their print circulations and advertising sales decline. Less competition means the print editions and Web sites of smaller newspapers remain the focal points for finding out what's happening in their coverage areas. In contrast, large newspapers carry more national news, as well as local, and have many competitors, including Web sites and television and radio stations. They report much of the news the day before printed newspapers reach homes and newsstands. Large newspapers' Web sites also provide the news for free a day ahead of print editions. Perhaps even more important, newspapers in smaller markets still haven't lost a big chunk of their revenue to Craigslist and other online classified advertising alternatives that have become the bane of large newspapers.
http://benton.org/node/27021
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NOTICE THOSE ADS ON BLOGS? REGULATORS DO, TOO
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stephanie Clifford]
Two of the National Advertising Review Council's investigative units plan to announce Tuesday their first decisions involving blogs. Their recommendations call for clear disclosure when a company is sponsoring a site or paying for product reviews. That's nothing shocking, but it's part of a sharper focus on the relationships between bloggers and advertisers. Attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission, which is about to expand its endorsement guidelines to include blogs, are investigating the area, along with the self-regulatory groups. "It's something everyone in the consumer protection area is newly focused on," said C. Lee Peeler, the chief executive of the National Advertising Review Council, which sets policies for the advertising industries' self-regulatory programs. "One of the issues of advertising in new media is, is it clear that it's paid-for advertising, or does it look like something else?" Paid-for advertising includes paid blogging, the programs' recommendations make clear.
http://benton.org/node/27044
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TOWN HALL SHOWDOWNS FUEL HEALTH CARE COVERAGE
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
With much of the focus on angry town hall meetings, the health care debate maintained its spot atop the news agenda for the third consecutive week. But coverage of the subject has gradually decreased since late July and last week, the economy and North Korea's release of two U.S. journalists vied for attention with the increasingly politicized health fight. The skirmishing over health care accounted for 16% of the news hole from August 3-9, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. That is down from 19% the previous week and from 25% the week from July 20-26. One key indicator of how the story was covered is who was covering it. From August 3-9 health care accounted for only 5% of the newshole in newspapers, online and network news. But it dominated cable news (37%) and radio (33%), the two sectors that include the debate-oriented programming that hammers away on polarizing issues. Indeed a PEJ examination of the 13 cable and radio talk shows in our News Coverage Index found that 59% of their airtime last week was devoted to the health care debate. And last week, the town hall showdowns—angry outbursts driven largely by opponents of Democratic health care legislation—generated plenty of partisan finger pointing.
http://benton.org/node/27041
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BROADCASTING/CABLE
MUSICFIRST ASKS FCC TO RULE ON BROADCASTERS USING AIRTIME TO LOBBY LISTENERS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The MusicFIRST Coalition has filed a petition requesting that the Commission investigate the actions of certain radio broadcasters in opposition to the Performance Rights Act (PRA). The PRA is legislation pending before Congress which would provide for the payment of royalties to artists and musicians when their work is played publicly on terrestrial radio. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and most individual broadcasters oppose the PRA, while MusicFIRST supports it. MusicFIRST requests that the Commission issue a declaratory ruling that the actions of certain radio broadcasters in opposition to the PRA are contrary to the public interest, and ensure that broadcasters cease such actions. MusicFIRST also requests that the Commission consider "strengthening the license renewal process and shortening license terms" in the appropriate proceeding. In general, MusicFIRST asserts that broadcasters are violating their public interest obligations "[b]y using their licenses over public airwaves to promote their own pecuniary interests and to distort an important matter of public debate." Comments are due Sept 8, 2009; reply comments are due Sept 23.
http://benton.org/node/27018
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THE FREE TV MODEL IS BROKEN, NOW WHERE IS THE FIX?
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Claire Atkinson]
The free-TV model is broken and someone needs to fix it, and fast. It's not that broadcast networks can't make money. They still make boatloads; in fact, the lion's share of all TV dollars are still spent in network. It's just that sitting next to cable's dual revenue stream, the equation doesn't seem to make sense anymore. And things look much worse than they really are because last year media companies had low programming costs (thanks to the writers' strike) and a stable ad environment. This year, it's the opposite. Higher programming costs sit across the ledger from ad revenue that might be down as much as 10% across TV. And those ad dollars don't look like they're coming back to pre-recession levels for many years.
http://benton.org/node/27017
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PREMIUM TV TAKES A HIT
[SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter, AUTHOR: Georg Szalai]
Basic cable might be buoyant, but premium payboxes are feeling the pinch. Latest earnings reports from entertainment and distribution biggies suggest that the likes of Starz, Encore, HBO and Showtime are seeing slower subscriber growth or even declines because of user cancellations amid the recession. Liberty Media said Friday that its Starz service saw an average sub gain of 5% in the second quarter compared with the year-ago period, and Encore essentially was flat year-over-year. But sequentially, meaning compared with the first quarter, Starz lost 3% of its subscribers in the period and Encore was down 1%.
http://benton.org/node/27016
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SURVIVORS SAY STUNT LEFT THEM TWISTED
[SOURCE: Sacramento Bee, AUTHOR: Sam Stanton]
A January 2007 radio contest left one woman dead and others emotionally damaged. Since the contest, the radio station's owners have fired 10 people, including the DJs involved; contestants developed what they say is an irrational fear of water and sued the broadcaster; the deceased's husband and children filed their own wrongful-death suit; and lawyers involved have submitted thousands of pages of claims and counterclaims. The contest required participants to drink water without urinating over a three-hour period on "the Morning Rave" program. They were asked to drink 8-ounce bottles every 10 minutes. After they had consumed eight of them, they were given 16-ounce bottles to drink every 10 minutes.
http://benton.org/node/27029
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