Aug 27, 2009 (FCC adds National Broadband Plan to today's agenda)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY AUGUST 27, 2009
Free Press is hosting a Live Chat on The Future of News in Denver and Beyond see http://www.benton.org/node/27398
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
FCC Adds National Broadband Plan, FCC Reform to Thursday's Agenda
Broadband and Job Training
Broadband as Means For Job Creation Debated at FCC Workshop
Utilities may get dedicated chunk of spectrum for smart grid
Want Fast Internet? Don't Live In the Sticks
THE STIMULUS
Broadband Stimulus: Don't Get a Headache from the Incumbents' Latest Whine
Recovery Act: The Stimulus Index
Pennsylvania Joins $100 Million Broadband Stimulus Club
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Files prove Pentagon is profiling reporters
ACLU files lawsuit on border laptop searches
San Francisco's DataSF.org Won't be a DC Copycat, CIO Says
JOURNALISM
Connected Nation Story Wins Journalism Award
Health Care Still the Summer's Dominant Story
HEALTH & MEDIA
Investors Like Health IT
Wearable radio devices to transform home health monitoring
How Web Changes Patient-Doctor Relationship
CDC: Gamers At Risk For Health Problems, Dream Pharma Target Market
WIRELESS
WashPost: Roads could be safer with a ban on texting while driving
iPhone app issue shows mobile Net growing pains
Apple: 'Technical issues' holding up Vonage app
For lost migrants to the US, cellphones can be lifeline
... AND I'LL SEE YOU IN COURT
Tribune Bondholders Fault Zell Takeover
TiVo Goes to Battle With Verizon, AT&T
Music Publishers Group Sues Lyrics Sites
MORE ONLINE ...
DHS official: Agencies must make high-risk cyber threats top priority
Cable Firm, Partners to Test TV on the Web
DVR Viewing A Bonanza For Advertisers
Newspapers slow to make digital transition
Twitter's Golden Ratio
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
FCC ADDS NATIONAL BROADBAND AGENDA, FCC REFORM TO THURSDAY'S AGENDA
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
Late Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission added some items to the agenda for Thursday morning's monthly open meeting. The FCC announced the meeting will now also include presentations on the status of the Commission's processes for development of a National Broadband Plan, and for development of FCC Reform, followed by presentation of the Excellence in Engineering, Excellence in Economics Analysis and the Employee of the Year Awards. All the award winners get free parking next to the Chairman's spot for an entire month! The previous announced agenda includes: 1) a Notice of Inquiry to seek to understand better the factors that encourage innovation and investment in wireless and to identify concrete steps the Commission can take to support and encourage further innovation and investment in this area, 2) a Notice of Inquiry soliciting information for the next annual report to Congress on the status of competition in the mobile wireless market, including commercial mobile services, and 3) a Notice of Inquiry that seeks comment on whether there are opportunities to protect and empower American consumers by ensuring sufficient access to relevant information about communications services.
http://benton.org/node/27421
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BROADBAND AND JOB TRAINING
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
On August 26, 2009, the Federal Communications Commission held a National Broadband Plan focus on the potential impact of increased broadband access on job training and job placement. Topics of discussion included: Online and remote job training, Access to jobs, Adult education, The future of job searches, and Digital literacy for adults.
http://www.benton.org/node/27422
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BROADBAND AS MEANS FOR JOB GROWTH DEBATED AT FCC WORKSHOP
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Economists speaking at the Federal Communications Commission workshop on Economic Growth, Job Creation, and Private Investment said that rolling out broadband does not necessarily translate into job creation, and online video will be the death of traditional TV. James Prieger, a professor at Pepperdine, pointed out that broadband may add to productivity, but that could mean doing more with fewer workers. He said that deploying high-speed Internet was not a Band-Aid that could be "slapped on" an ailing labor market or economy. Broadband could attract workers from town x to town y, he said, but he didn't see how from a state's point of view that was necessarily a good thing. And he called a deeper problem the issue of globalization. Chris Furman, a professor at the Georgia Tech, seconded Prieger's assessment, saying that there was "little evidence that use of advanced Internet was associated with growth in employment." Ralph Everett, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic studies, wasn't ready to concede the point. "Broadband means jobs and communities need jobs," he said. He had his own studies, including one that showed that increased broadband contributed to 52,000 or 281,000 new jobs in California in 2005. He said access to broadband was about online job searches and 21st century skills that would be necessary to live in that century. He pointed out the higher unemployment rate for African Americans and lower broadband adoption rates said the way out begins with a broadband plan that connects them and at least gives them a fighting chance for the social and economic progress that for them is now "just a dream."
http://benton.org/node/27420
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UTILITIES MAY GET DEDICATED CHUNK OF SPECTRUM FOR SMART GRID
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: John Timmer]
On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission joined the alphabet soup of federal agencies that's contemplating what its role might be in bringing our electric grid a bit of intelligence. It's not unreasonable—smart grid devices are all about starting a two-way conversation between utilities and their distribution equipment and end-user devices. But the FCC held the hearing as part of its broadband initiative, and the hearings allowed those in the industry to press the Commission to allocate the smart grid a chunk of spectrum in order to provide its components guaranteed wireless broadband. Not everyone at the hearing felt it was necessary; at least one person providing testimony suggested that existing cellular networks could easily absorb the added bandwidth. But many of those providing testimony pointed out that deadzones and strangled bandwidth might be acceptable to cellular providers, but wouldn't be tolerated by utilities.
http://benton.org/node/27419
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WANT FAST INTERNET? DON'T LIVE IN THE STICKS
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Jordan Golson]
Delaware, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts have some of the fastest Internet access speeds in the country, according to a new survey by the Communications Workers of America, while Hawaii, Alaska, Montana and Wyoming have the slowest. In other words, there appears to be a direct correlation between Internet speed and population density. States with more residents per square mile were almost guaranteed to have faster Internet access, with the exception of Hawaii (which has its own issues, being in the middle of the ocean and all). California ranked 11th in terms of both population density and download speed. The linking of population density to download speed is most likely the result of the revenue that can be gleaned by introducing high-speed services in more populated areas, along with the technical limitations of rolling out high-speeds in rural areas where customers may be many miles away from the nearest switching office.
http://benton.org/node/27418
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THE STIMULUS
BROADBAND STIMULUS: DON'T GET A HEADACHE FROM THE INCUMBENTS' LATEST WHINE
[SOURCE: 4GWirelessEvolution, AUTHOR: Craig Settles]
[Commentary] How do you know when the public is being played by the telecom incumbents? By the responsiveness of its service and the quality of its whine. The telecos have already declared the first round of broadband stimulus funding a failure. Their proof? They are not apply for funds. This is an orchestrated PR campaign by the telcos who want to set the stage so they can get incumbent-friendlier rules for Round 2 grant funding. "If the first round is a failure because we're not playing, and we're not playing because we don't like the rules, then you need to change the rules to make us happy if you don't want Round 2 to be a failure." Those of you queuing up community-focused broadband proposals, make your voices heard during the NTIA's upcoming request for input on improving the rules, or else you could wake to new ones that are worse than some of the current rules. This assumption that the incumbents not applying for stimulus spells failure for the broadband stimulus program is totally without merit because the logic underneath the claim is flawed.
http://benton.org/node/27429
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RECOVERY ACT: THE STIMULUS INDEX
[SOURCE: unstrung, AUTHOR: Dan Jones]
A list of companies that have applied for broadband stimulus funding. In this first round of funding, there's about $2.4 billion available under the rural Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) for deploying broadband in the boondocks. Meanwhile, up to $1.6 billion is available in the Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program (BTOP), which is intended to promote new broadband technology in unserved and underserved communities.
http://benton.org/node/27417
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PENNSYLVANIA JOINS $100 MILLION BROADBAND STIMULUS CLUB
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Andrew Burger]
Pennsylvania is the latest state to announce that it has filed a $100 million plus broadband stimulus program application, seeking funds from the federal Broadband Technology Opportunities (BTOP) program and the Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP). Governor Edward G. Rendell on August 24 announced that Pennsylvania has filed seven broadband grant applications totaling $108 million. The seven grant applications include: 1) Projects to connect 514 schools, libraries, colleges and universities to a broadband network aimed at closing the "digital divide"; 2) Extend broadband services to some 988,000 households,202,000 businesses, 1,222 public safety agencies; 1,180 educational organizations and 255 health care facilities in under- and unserved areas of northern Pennsylvania; 3) A state Dept. of Education program to train some 1,500 teachers and education professionals to make effective use of broadband for education and training; 4) A Dept. of Community and Economic Development program to be carried out by 13 economic development organizations that aims to help communities, businesses, first responders and "anchor" institutions; 5) Extend broadband access beyond classrooms into libraries and community colleges by providing equipment, software, training, technical support, management and oversight; 60 Helping fund an existing program to map broadband availability state-wide; and 7) A Dept. of Military and Veterans Affairs program to provide access, education and training 1,500 residents at the state's six veteran's homes. Missouri, Maryland, New Mexico, and Massachusetts are also a part of the $100 million broadband stimulus application club.
http://benton.org/node/27416
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
FILES PROVE PENTAGON IS PROFILING REPORTERS
[SOURCE: Stars and Stripes, AUTHOR: Charlie Reed, Kevin Baron, Leo Shane]
Contrary to the insistence of Pentagon officials this week that they are not rating the work of reporters covering US forces in Afghanistan, Stars and Stripes has obtained documents that prove that reporters' coverage is being graded as "positive," "neutral" or "negative." Moreover, the documents — recent confidential profiles of the work of individual reporters prepared by a Pentagon contractor — indicate that the ratings are intended to help Pentagon image-makers manipulate the types of stories that reporters produce while they are embedded with U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The new revelations of the Pentagon's attempts to shape war coverage come as senior Defense Department officials are acknowledging increasing concern over recent opinion polls showing declining popular American support for the Afghan war. The American Federation of Radio & Television Artists Wednesday joined the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and other groups to condemn the US military's actions.
http://benton.org/node/27415
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ACLU FILES LAWSUIT ON BOARDER LAPTOP SEARCHES
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit demanding that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) release details of its policy that allows the agency to search travelers' laptops at U.S. borders without suspicion of wrongdoing. The ACLU's lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is an effort to get CBP to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that the civil liberties group filed in June about the laptop-search policy. The agency has not supplied any information, although the FOIA law requires it to give a response within 30 days.
http://benton.org/node/27414
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SAN FRANCISCO'S DATASF.GOV
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Matt Williams]
San Francisco CIO Chris Vein and federal CIO Vivek Kundra seem to be reading from the same script when explaining the virtues of open government and data transparency. But their vision for the future doesn't always run parallel. Vein says DataSF.org -- a newly launched Web portal "clearinghouse" for data sets published by San Francisco's city/county government -- will likely evolve differently than a similar Web portal that Kundra launched last year when he was the CIO of Washington (DC).
http://benton.org/node/27413
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JOURNALISM
CONNECTED NATION STORY WINS JOURNALISM AWARD
[SOURCE: Stateline.org, AUTHOR: Daniel Vock]
Capitolbeat, the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, has announced its awards for the best statehouse reporting in the country. Fiona Morgan of the Independent Weekly in North Carolina won 2nd place in the In-depth Reporting category for newspapers under 75,000 circulation and weeklies for her reporting on Connected Nation's entrance to North Carolina. Her Dec 2008 article chronicles the state's telephone and cable industry associations hiring of Connected Nation, a nationwide nonprofit, to map the availability of broadband services statewide for an undisclosed fee.
http://benton.org/node/27412
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HEALTH CARE STILL THE SUMMER'S DOMINANT STORY
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, AUTHOR: Andrew Kohut et al]
Despite the emergence of several major international stories including an election in war-ravaged Afghanistan and the release of the so-called Lockerbie bomber, the public continued to be focused on domestic news particularly the ongoing debate over health care reform. Fully 45% say they followed health care developments more closely than any other story last week. That's about the same level as the previous week (46% most closely) and twice the percentage that say they followed reports about the condition of the economy most closely (21%). Using a slightly different measure, half say they very closely followed news about the economy (50%) or the health care debate (49%), according to the latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted August 21-24 for the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Several significant events overseas attracted far less attention.
http://benton.org/node/27411
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HEALTH & MEDIA
INTELLIGENT HEALTH CARE PLAYS
[SOURCE: Forbes.com, AUTHOR: Stephanie Dahle]
The progress of turning paper medical records into digital copy has been slow. Blame it on a long, confusing and -- perhaps most of all -- costly process for many medical practices. Enter the government's stimulus money. On average, it cost approximately $30,000 per doctor to implement electronic medical records; if they qualify for stimulus funds, doctors will receive $44,000 in grants in the following five years. "Some investors that are looking at a menu of health care options, look at health care IT because it is more attractive," says Todd Warner, a software and Internet infrastructure analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. "No matter what's going on, the health IT stocks aren't based on the ebbs and flows of the health care reform. You know the money is there."
http://benton.org/node/27410
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WEARABLE RADIO DEVICES TO TRANSFORM HOME HEALTH MONITORING
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Carol Wilson]
Telemedicine is hardly a new discipline for more than a decade, hospitals and doctors have been keeping tabs on patients in their homes using devices from companies such as Philips and CardioCom, connected to POTS lines via dialup modems or, more recently, broadband connections, to do daily checkups on chronically ill patients. With the advent of new radio devices that are small enough to be worn by patients and capable of providing real-time diagnostic information, a new category of telemedicine is emerging. Doctors and hospitals will be able to have a constant stream of diagnostic information about patients with heart problems, diabetes, blood disorders and much more. The health care and technology industries are gearing up to see this technology widely deployed, even as business models for how it all happens are still developing.
http://benton.org/node/27409
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HOW WEB CHANGES PATIENT-DOCTOR RELATIONSHIP
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Gavin O'Malley]
Immediately following a doctor's diagnosis, nearly half of consumers report using a search engine to further research their alleged conditions, according to a new study conducted by About.com. What is driving this behavior? Disconcertingly, only 35% of consumers say they completely trust their doctor's diagnoses. For better or worse, "the patient-doctor visits are no longer just one way conversations but rather on-going dialogues," the study concludes. "People are going online to educate themselves and confirm doctors' diagnosis."
http://benton.org/node/27408
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CDC: GAMERS AT RISK FOR HEALTH PROBLEMS, DREAM PHARMA TARGET MARKETING
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Laurie Sullivan]
Online video games could become the perfect advertising medium to reach overweight, out-of-shape, introverted, aggressive, depressed adults age 35 and older. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released findings this week suggesting that habits developed in youth appear to follow people into adulthood. The study, based on a 2006 online survey of 552 adults between the ages of 19 and 90 who lived in Seattle/Tacoma and western Washington state, suggests that children and teenage video game players tend to become physically inactive adults with health problems.
http://benton.org/node/27407
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WIRELESS
ROADS COULD BE SAFER WITH A BAN ON TEXTING WHILE DRIVING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The urge to text while driving apparently strikes widely, affecting everyone from excessively social teens to BlackBerry-obsessed business people to the District's multitasking mayor. Wherever it hits, it can be dangerous. According to a study by Car and Driver magazine, reaction time while texting is often twice as long as while legally intoxicated. Still, only 17 states and the District have passed legislation to discourage the risky behavior -- and a couple of those states have banned texting only for drivers under 21 years old. The most straightforward solution would be to use federal highway funds to encourage states to adopt bans on texting while driving, modeled on the seatbelt law. Though the ban might not be consistently enforceable, it would help people understand the gravity of being distracted while driving and would help make the unsafe practice socially taboo.
http://benton.org/node/27423
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IPHONE APP ISSUE SHOWS MOBILE NET GROWING PAINS
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Stephen Shankland]
At one level, the fracas about Google's stymied attempt to bring Google Voice to the iPhone is a squabble about who gets to control the phone's user interface. But in the bigger picture, it's a fight that was destined to happen as the free-wheeling ways of the Internet arrive in a handset-sized package. The way Shankland sees things shaking out, Google and its kind will prevail in the long run, for good or ill. As with the Internet on computers, it'll mostly be up to us to decide what applications to use. Today's kerfuffle shows that we're going through mobile Web growing pains right now as major players seek to establish their brands and seize the customer relationships, but ultimately this particular adolescence will pass.
http://benton.org/node/27406
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APPLE: 'TECHNICAL ISSUES' HOLDING UP VONAGE APP
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Steven Musil]
Apple App Store approval of a Vonage mobile voice over IP app is being held up by "technical issues," Apple said Wednesday. Vonage submitted an application for review and Apple is working with the developer to resolve the issues, Apple spokesperson Natalie Kerris confirmed. The revelation comes as federal regulators probe Apple's decision to keep the Google Voice application from the App Store.
http://benton.org/node/27405
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FOR LOST MIGRANTS TO THE US, CELLPHONES CAN BE LIFELINE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Tim Gaynor]
More than 1,000 illegal immigrants are rescued as they cross into United States from Mexico each year. They are increasingly using cellphones to save their lives, US and Mexican authorities say. Previously, most migrants were unaware that they could use cellphones to call for help. Others were reluctant to carry them in case they were used by U.S. authorities to track them, or simply because they feared they would get stolen. US Border Patrol agents say rescues initiated by 911 calls have jumped fivefold in the past three years in the area south of Tucson, the main gateway for migrants slipping into the United States.
http://benton.org/node/27404
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... AND I'LL SEE YOU IN COURT
TRIBUNE BONDHOLDERS FAULT ZELL TAKEOVER
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jeffrey McCracken, Mike Spector, Shira Ovide]
Disgruntled Tribune bondholders have asked a US bankruptcy judge to let them investigate Sam Zell's 2007 buyout of the newspaper-and-television chain in an effort to derail a plan that would hand the company over to its banks. "Fraudulent conveyance" is a legal term most often used in bankruptcy court, in which creditors allege a company has used assets in a way unfair to creditors. In the context of leveraged buyouts, creditors can argue a deal loaded up a company with too much debt, leaving it undercapitalized and unable to meet future obligations. The filing will seek to slow or nullify an advancing plan for Tribune to exit from bankruptcy protection with J.P. Morgan, Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch and other banks owning nearly all of Tribune in return for the banks forgiving about $8 billion in debt. Bondholders would likely receive only a sliver of new equity under the deal.
http://benton.org/node/27424
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TIVO GOES TO BATTLE WITH VERIZON, AT&T
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Roger Cheng, Jay Miller]
TiVo launched legal battles with Verizon Communications and AT&T alleging infringement of its patented TV "time-warping" technology. Verizon and AT&T offer television service with digital video recorders. Chief Executive Tom Rogers said TiVo tried unsuccessfully to strike deals with both companies. "We figured we had to stop the irreparable harm," he said.
http://benton.org/node/27425
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MUSIC PUBLISHERS GROUP SUES LYRICS SITES
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
The National Music Publishers Association has filed copyright infringement lawsuits against two companies, LiveUniverse and Motive Force, for allegedly operating Web sites and applications that offer users free lyrics. The lawsuits, filed this week in federal district courts in California and Pennsylvania, mark the first time the publishers group has taken lyrics sites to court, says President and CEO David Israelite. In its court papers, the publishers organization alleges that the ad-supported sites' unlicensed use of lyrics undermines music publishers' "ability to adapt to the changing marketplace" and also "cheats songwriters out of fair compensation for their creative efforts."
http://benton.org/node/27403
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