Feb 10, 2010 (Snow Daze)

Snow Forces FCC to Reschedule Public Meetings and also see FCC Reform (Would Have) Move(d) Forward At Thursday's Meeting

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2010

Too much snow in Policyland; all of today's events have been postponed http://bit.ly/bVaQ3i

NETWORK NEUTRALITY
   Australia's Internet: non-neutral and proud of it
   Did Verizon overreact by blocking 4Chan? Depends on whom you ask
   The Second Digital Divide: Closing the Gap on Broadband

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Stimulus funds for high-speed Internet access tangled up
   Kentucky Wins $2.1 million State Broadband Data and Development Grant
   Markey Introduces E-Rate 2.0
   Lowell, Massachusetts becomes testing ground for boosting broadband adoption
   Google analyst: U.S. Internet needs to get faster
   US Broadband Speeds Rose 28% in 2009
   Two New Nominees for Advanced Telecom Board
   YouTube Will Kill Flat-rate Mobile Broadband Pricing Forever
    See also:YouTube dominates mobile Internet traffic; mobile VoIP on the rise

OPEN GOVERNMENT
   Evolving the Open Government Dashboard with You
   Open government site hasn't sprouted teeth yet, observers say
   White House Names Open Government Leadership
   CRS finds federal CTO role remains undefined
   Federal CIO: Budget request includes funds for IT oversight
   Google-NSA partnership should be more public, less private
   Obama holds traditional news conference to talk bipartisanship

JOURNALISM
   Subsidies, Not Consolidation, Will Save TV
   Twitter crackdown in Baltimore Circuit Court
   All News, All the Time
   Magid Turned TV News Into Entertainment

HEALTH
In Haiti, Practicing Medicine From Afar
KLAS questions vendor claims on health information exchanges

SMART GRID
Consumer Interface With the Smart Grid
Feds Will Spur Smart Grid Cyber-Security Investment Growth to $21 Billion by 2015, Report Claims

MEDIA & ELECTIONS
What is the Impact on Broadcasters of Supreme Court Decision that Corporations Can Buy Political Ads?

MORE ONLINE
Comcast Plans Makeover To Improve Its Image With Consumers | More Content Shared on Facebook Than Ever, but User Activity Is Falling | How to split up the US using Facebook data | Super Game, Stupid Ads | 'iGeneration' has no off switch | Apple IPad's Components Cost as Little as $219 | Joint request seeks additional time to complete 2GHz BAS relocation | Amazon's price war

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NETWORK NEUTRALITY

AUSTRALIA'S NON-NEUTRAL INTERNET
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
If you want a good look at what a non-neutral Internet looks like, take a gander at Australia where bandwidth caps are common. But Australian Internet service providers take the idea one step further by setting up partnerships with entertainment services and music download companies. Any data usage directed at one of these favored services doesn't count against the monthly bandwidth cap. This is quite clearly non-neutral behavior in any sense of the term. ISPs shape traffic when the quota is reached, meaning that all traffic to non-partner sites is slowed dramatically, while the favored services continue at full speed. This isn't an outright "blocking" of other websites, which can be freely accessed until the cap is reached, but the effect is quite similar. How are high-bandwidth services like video streaming going to compete against those services favored by an ISP? How will new players ever gain market share?
benton.org/node/32104 | Ars Technica
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VERIZON VS 4CHAN
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Did Verizon Wireless overreact in blocking 4Chan.org? Depends on whom you ask. Verizon says it didn't block the popular online bulletin board, but "eliminated connectivity" to portions of 4Chan that appeared to be flooding the network with traffic from a denial of service attack. The nation's largest wireless service provider said it would restore service to the site by the end of Monday. "The most important thing we offer? Our network," Verizon spokesman James Gerace wrote in a blog. "When our network is attacked, or at risk of attack in a way that could harm our customers' ability to make and receive calls, or use wireless multimedia and data services, we jump to action." 4Chan, in an email to Post Tech late Monday, disagreed. "4Chan did *not* conduct any kind of 'malicious attack' against Verizon's network and was mostly certainly 'blocked'," wrote founder Christopher Poole. He said the company wasn't warned ahead of time that Verizon would block its sites and compared Verizon's actions to an episode with AT&T last year. So what happened over the weekend? According to 4Chan, a denial-of-service attack was launched on the company's servers, spoofing the originating IP addresses so that it appeared to be coming from the Web site. But Poole said the attack was limited. The public Interest group Free Press said that despite the origins of the problem, carriers such as Verizon need to inform online users and Web sites of such actions. And, it said, the episode underscored the need for clearer guidelines for how Internet service providers control traffic over their networks.
benton.org/node/32085 | Washington Post
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CLOSING THE BROADBAND DIVIDE
[SOURCE: EbonyJet.com, AUTHOR: David Sutphen]
[Commentary] Over the past ten years, Americans have enthusiastically embraced and adopted broadband Internet. Although we have made significant progress, a real digital divide still exists in the African American community. The Obama Administration's $7 billion stimulus investment in broadband and technologies like web-enabled smart phones are helping to close this divide, but we must continue to do more to ensure that our community gets connected. Simply put, broadband has become a critical life tool. Whether it's looking for a job, managing your finances or healthcare, pursuing a higher education, staying connected to friends, family and community, high-speed Internet is the great enabler and equalizer. There are many more effective ways to address the digital divide than divisive new regulations unrelated to adoption or deployment, which bring a high degree of uncertainty and could have unintended consequences. The FCC should invest its time and political capital where the returns are highest: in the National Broadband Strategy a common goal for all parties if it really wants to help connect every American to the benefits of high-speed Internet. The net neutrality distraction will disserve efforts to remedy persistent digital divides and imperil critical elements of the National Broadband Strategy. [David Sutphen is the co-chair of the Internet Innovation Alliance.]
benton.org/node/32103 | EbonyJet.com
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

BROADBAND FUNDS TANGLED UP
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: David Lieberman]
The Obama administration knew that there'd be a lot of interest in the $7.2 billion for high-speed Internet projects it included in last year's huge economic stimulus package. The goal was to quickly create tens of thousands of jobs and connect millions of poor and rural communities to broadband, a technology that's essential for economic development, modern medicine and education. But officials had no idea that the demand for the cash would be so overwhelming. They also were bombarded with questions and challenges from large cable and phone companies including Comcast, Time Warner Cable and AT&T. The combination has swamped the agencies in charge and created a bottleneck that might threaten disbursement. After nearly a year, about 7% of the funds has been assigned to specific projects. The effort to spend that money quickly but responsibly is like "trying to use a fire hose with a garden hose nozzle," says Craig Settles, an independent consultant who helps companies develop broadband strategies. "Getting broadband to the American public is not going to be easy." Such concerns have trained a spotlight on two agencies grappling with the biggest telecommunications program either has ever handled. Congress gave the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) responsibility to allocate $4.7 billion. The remaining $2.5 billion is being handled by the Agriculture Department's Rural Utilities Service (RUS). The agencies say that they'll meet the Sept. 30 deadline for allocating the funds.
benton.org/node/32084 | USAToday
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KENTUCKY BROADBAND MAPPING GRANT
[SOURCE: Commonwealth of Kentucky, AUTHOR: Press release]
In an effort to expand the availability and use of broadband services throughout the state, Gov. Steve Beshear (D) announced that Kentucky has been awarded a $2.1 million grant to fund broadband mapping and planning. The State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program, administered by the federal Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). NTIA has awarded the Finance and Administration Cabinet's Commonwealth Office of Technology (COT) approximately $1.6 million for broadband data collection and mapping activities over a two-year period and $500,000 for broadband planning of improvements and expansion activities over a five-year period. The process of evaluating the current accessibility of high-speed Internet access in the state will occur in three phases: the collection of existing broadband services, verification of the collected data and the reporting of the results to the NTIA. Specifically, the statewide assessment will include data on the availability, speed, location and technology type of broadband services. Kentucky's report will be included in a comprehensive, interactive, searchable national broadband map that NTIA is required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to create and make publicly available by Feb. 17, 2011. Information will be collected from public and private broadband providers throughout the state by Michael Baker Corporation, a nationally recognized engineering firm specializing in geographic information systems (GIS) mapping. Michael Baker Corporation has also mapped broadband availability in California and North Carolina.
benton.org/node/32114 | Commonwealth of Kentucky
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MARKEY INTRODUCES E-RATE 2.0
[SOURCE: Rep Edward Markey, AUTHOR: Press release]
Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) has introduced the E-Rate 2.0 Act (H.R. 4619), to update the successful E-Rate program. The bill directs the Federal Communications Commission to implement three pilot programs: 1) The first pilot program narrows the digital divide through the distribution of vouchers to enable low-income students to purchase residential broadband service. 2) The second utilizes a competitive grant program to extend funding for broadband equipment and services to selected community colleges and head start facilities that best demonstrate need and incorporation of broadband use in their educational mission. 3) The third enables certain E-Rate applicants serving particularly low-income students to apply for significantly discounted services and technologies for the use of e-books.
The bill also would provide for an inflation adjustment to the current $2.25 billion cap on the E-Rate program, so funding would increase with inflation. The bill also calls for the streamlining of the application process.
benton.org/node/32088 | Rep Edward Markey | TechDailyDose | WashPost | Multichannel News | The Hill | Track the bill
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LOWELL IS TESTING GROUND FOR BROADBAND ADOPTION
[SOURCE: NetworkWorld, AUTHOR: Brad Reed]
Increasing broadband adoption isn't just about building out networks in underserved areas -- it's also about showing people who don't use broadband what they're missing. To that end, the federal government has awarded the University of Massachusetts in Lowell a grant of $783,000 to design and implement a broadband promotion program in Lowell, Massachusetts. The grant awarded is part of the $4 billion in broadband stimulus funding released by the government this past summer. The program's key initiative will be to build 11 public computer centers that UMass Lowell estimates will "serve 6,650 new broadband users and add 7,500 additional broadband subscribers" in Lowell and the Merrimack Valley area. Robert Forrant, a professor in the Department of Regional Economic and Social Development at UMass Lowell, says the program will have three major areas of focus: working with local youth organizations to help students get after-school broadband access; working with senior centers to help educate elderly residents in the Merrimack Valley area about the uses of broadband technology; and building the 11 computer centers. "Our goal is to democratize broadband usage," Forrant says. "By creating a larger and wider infrastructure, the project will hopefully help the economic development of the region. If more people have access to high-speed Internet communications, the better the region will be equipped for what we hope will be an economic revival in the future."
benton.org/node/32099 | NetworkWorld
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US NEEDS FASTER INTERNET
[SOURCE: CNN, AUTHOR: John Sutter]
A Q&A with Google Policy Analyst Derek Slater in which he offers insights about increasing today's sluggish Internet speeds and why a unified Web can change peoples' lives. Google long has been an advocate of a single Web, one that's free of government censorship and barriers to information access. That's not the reality in today's world however. Governments from China to France put various roadblocks in the information superhighway to serve their interests, filter speech or protect copyrights. And high-speed Internet connections haven't reached all corners of the globe -- not even all parts of the United States.
benton.org/node/32100 | CNN
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US BROADBAND SPEEDS UP
[SOURCE: In-Stat, AUTHOR: Press release]
The US residential broadband speeds continue to increase, albeit at a slower rate than in 2008. Between year-end 2008 and year-end 2009, downstream bandwidth rose by 28%, reports In-Stat. The average downstream speed of a US broadband connection is 7.12Mbps. More than one quarter of survey respondents also had a mobile wireless broadband connection in addition to their wired broadband connection.
benton.org/node/32101 | In-Stat
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NOMINEES FOR ADVANCES SERVICES BOARD
[SOURCE: BroadbandBreakfast.com, AUTHOR: Sharon McLoone]
The president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners has nominated Carlito Caliboso of Hawaii and Robert Clayton of Missouri to become members of a group interested in advanced telecommunications deployment on local, state and federal levels. NARUC President David Coen has chosen Caliboso, chairman of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, to replace a seat left vacant on the Joint Conference of Advanced Services when Michael Moffett of Kansas stepped down from the Kansas Corporation Commission. The Joint Conference on Advanced Services is a board made up of members of both NARUC and the Federal Communications Commission. The conference serves as a forum for a dialogue for federal and state commissioners and local and regional entities regarding the deployment of advanced telecommunications.
benton.org/node/32098 | BroadbandBreakfast.com
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YOUTUBE KILLING FLAT-RATE MOBILE BROADBAND PRICING
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Video is driving the projected increase in both mobile and wired broadband — but it's not the proliferation of video that's the problem for mobile operators so much as the relative ease with which consumers can now access it. Indeed, while mobile operators have long faced traffic congestion at cell sites thanks to peer-to-peer traffic, the widespread availability of video in formats that the average consumer can watch has changed the industry. And that's causing mobile operators to rethink their pricing plans. In short, YouTube may be the death of unlimited mobile broadband on handsets. Given that mobile resources are constrained by a variety of things, including the spectrum allotted to carriers, it's likely that mobile broadband providers will eliminate flat-rate pricing for mobile broadband as a way to keep profits and network quality up while data use expands. When that happens should we blame YouTube — or profiteering mobile operators?
benton.org/node/32096 | GigaOm
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OPEN GOVERNMENT

OPEN GOVERNMENT DASHBOARD
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Aneesh Chopra]
Countless entrepreneurs have taught us that the key to success is to execute quickly, seek feedback from the market, and iterate. We have taken this lesson to heart and think it especially apt in our work to increase transparency, participation, and collaboration in government. Therefore it is with great pleasure that after just 60 days - U.S. CIO Vivek Kundra and I unveil what we call Version 1.0 of the Open Government Dashboard and look forward to building it together with all of you. By way of this blog post, we hope to tell you a little bit about what we've done so far and what to expect in the weeks ahead. Version 1.0 of the Dashboard focuses on agency execution of the deliverables explicitly identified in the Open Government Directive. It makes it easy for the American people to visually track progress on the deadlines to date. The Dashboard also links to each agency's Open Government Webpage, where the public can find more details on the steps taken to implement the Directive. Just look for the words "Evaluating our Progress." The next big step will be to evaluate the agencies' Open Government Plans, due April 7th. Whereas the indicators have been largely binary thus far (e.g. Do you have an Open Government Webpage?), the Plans present a special opportunity for the Dashboard to evolve over time and empower the public while spurring a race to the top amongst agencies. We share your feedback that the agency plans are the most consequential deliverable required by the Directive, as they promise to hardwire greater transparency, participation, and collaboration into the culture of every agency. As such, the Open Government Working Group is preparing a set of "stretch criteria" to help evaluate the plans and celebrate those agencies that exceed the minimal requirements of the Directive to reflect the President's vision of openness and accountability as articulated in the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government. We are eager to seek your input in this process, so keep an eye out for opportunities to weigh in over the next two weeks.
benton.org/node/32078 | White House, The
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OPEN GOV SITE
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
A White House Web site for tracking compliance with a 2009 open government directive is not an adequate enforcement tool yet, some open government advocates said after its launch last weekend. The directive, issued to agencies by the Office of Management and Budget, established several tight deadlines for initiatives intended to make government more transparent, collaborative with industry and user-friendly for the public. The site Open Government Dashboard, was one such assignment due on Feb. 6. "As it stands right now, it's not much of an enforcement tool," said John Wonderlich, policy director at the Sunlight Foundation, a government accountability group. "All they've put together is this initial dashboard, which evaluates agencies on the basis of very basic criteria." "The act of starting a Web site is not something that you can meaningfully judge," Wonderlich said. "You can make a chart for the temperature in any room, [but requirements for] transparency are a bit tougher to get into a system that's measurable and calculable." The administration plans to upgrade the dashboard.
benton.org/node/32094 | nextgov
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OPEN GOVERNMENT TEAM
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Montalbano]
The White House has named the senior officials in federal government who will drive President Obama's Open Government Directive, as well as the leaders at each government agency with responsibility for data quality. The newly formed Open Government Working Group is comprised of 34 government agency managers from a variety of job functions, including CIO, CTO, COO, chief management officer, and chief architect. The working group is focused on transparency, accountability, participation, and collaboration in U.S. government as part of Obama's open government initiative. In addition, the White House named senior officials in each federal agency who will be accountable for the quality of information related to federal spending that's released to the public through USAspending DOT gov and other sites. The assignment of that responsibility is one of the requirements set forth in the Open Government Directive, which was released in December in response to Obama's call for increased transparency and openness in the federal government. These "senior accountable officials" are tasked with ensuring that financial information released to the public conforms to Office of Management and Budget guidance on information quality and that adequate systems and processes are in place within their agencies to support that requirement.
benton.org/node/32077 | InformationWeek
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CTO ROLE STILL UNDEFINED
[SOURCE: FederalNewsRadio, AUTHOR: Jason Miller]
Nearly nine months after Aneesh Chopra was named as the first federal chief technology officer, his role remains undefined. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has issued its second report in a year looking at the responsibilities of the CTO and how this position integrates with that of the federal chief information officer and others. In a Jan. 7 report, first obtained by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) OpenCRS Web site, the research service says because the position is not established by Congress, where it would receive statutory authorities and a dedicated budget, the CTO may find it tougher to affect change. The report states: "In such a case, the efficacy of the CTO may depend largely on the mandate provided by President Obama to the CTO (and agencies' perception of the mandate), the imprimatur of the White House, and the personal attributes of the CTO (e.g., relationship with the President, past accomplishments, knowledge, professional reputation, persuasiveness).... Potential conflict between the CTO and these offices might be magnified with the co-location of the CTO within Office of Science and Technology Policy. While assigning Mr. Chopra the dual roles of assistant to the president and CTO and associate director of OSTP may contribute to better coordination and integration of CTO and OSTP functions, it may also create reporting and issue jurisdiction issues, both within OSTP and with other Executive Office of the President offices." CRS found that the White House still has not developed an official position description for the CTO nor has it sought to codify the position through legislation. The report says "the structure and official duties of the CTO remain largely undefined."
benton.org/node/32076 | FederalNewsRadio | CRS
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IT OVERSIGHT
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
A significant portion of the $50 million slated for coordinating e-government in the Obama administration's 2011 budget would go toward better oversight of information technology investments, said federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra. The money would support a recently launched project evaluation system, called TechStat, which cancels, halts or overhauls underperforming IT projects. The administration would use the 2011 TechStat allocation to increase the number of projects evaluated and the frequency of reviews. "This is going to happen with not just me alone, I'm making sure that CIOs across the government" are conducting meetings, Kundra said.
benton.org/node/32093 | nextgov
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GOOGLE-NSA NEEDS TO BE MORE PUBLIC
[SOURCE: Government Computer News, AUTHOR: William Jackson]
[Commentary] Google has raised some eyebrows lately, first by going public in January with the news that it had been hacked and blaming the Chinese government for illegally accessing some Chinese Gmail accounts. This kind of openness in the area of cybersecurity is as unusual as it is welcome. Less welcome is the recent news that Google and the National Security Agency are negotiating an agreement for sharing information, apparently with an eye toward unraveling the attack itself and creating effective defenses against future attacks. The plea for better public-private cooperation in cybersecurity has been made by both government and industry for more than 15 years, and it should be good news that Google and NSA are practicing what has been preached for so long. But if it is to serve the public interest, any public-private partnership needs to be as public as it is private. So far, this relationship does not seem to fit that description. Neither Google nor the NSA has commented publicly on the agreement. Absent any openness, there is no way for Google customers to know what information the company is giving NSA and no way for U.S. citizens to know what NSA is doing for Google in return.
benton.org/node/32075 | Government Computer News
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OBAMA PRESS CONFERENCE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Anne Kornblut]
When President Obama dropped by the White House briefing room unannounced Tuesday, it marked a tactical shift: He had not held a full-scale news conference since July, instead bypassing the traditional format in favor of other speaking venues. He had taken questions at town hall meetings, via YouTube and from network anchors, but here he was hewing to the custom of answering queries from the White House press corps -- and, in the process, answering critics who say he has been ducking scrutiny. Administration officials insisted that the visit was not a concession to Obama's detractors (or a reaction to recent articles in The Washington Post and New York Times about the lack of presidential news conferences).
benton.org/node/32113 | Washington Post
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JOURNALISM

SUBSIDIES, NOT CONSOLIDATION, WILL SAVE TV
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
A Q&A with Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver. In trying to bend laws and regulations their way, television broadcasters and their Washington representatives often find themselves opposed by public interest advocates -- like Free Press -- who have very definite ideas of how broadcasting and other media should be handled by the government. Silver says he recognizes the trouble that broadcasting and newspaper publishing is in, but he doesn't see media ownership consolidation as the way out. A better approach, he says, is direct government subsidies for noncommercial media and indirect subsidies for commercial media. He also sides with those who believe that TV stations ought to give back some of their spectrum so that it can be put to better use for broadband access. As for Comcast's proposed takeover of NBCU, he says, don't even think about it.
benton.org/node/32083 | TVNewsCheck
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TWITTER COURT CRACKDOWN
[SOURCE: Baltimore Sun, AUTHOR: Andy Green]
[Commentary] During the November trial of former Mayor Sheila Dixon, journalists and others watching the proceedings sent a constant stream of short updates to Twitter and other social media platforms about every twist and turn of the case. Those updates bounced instantly around the web from one circle of acquaintances to another as ordinary citizens added comments and debated one of the most important events in recent Baltimore civic life. When the jury finally delivered its verdict, the stream of tweets and re-tweets multiplied into the thousands within minutes. Everyone was interested, and everyone had something to say. You might call that civic engagement. But the Baltimore Circuit Court called it unacceptable. The day after Ms. Dixon agreed to a plea that included her resignation from office, Marcella A. Holland, the administrative judge for Baltimore City, issued an order banning "the use of any device to transmit information on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In or any other current or future form of social networking from any of the courthouses within the Circuit Court for Baltimore City." The order is predicated on the assumption that posting to Twitter is effectively the same as having television cameras broadcast court proceedings, which is already banned throughout the state. That analogy is false, and it exposes a misunderstanding of social networking and of the reasons why the courts have been justified in placing limited restrictions on the media in the first place.
benton.org/node/32089 | Baltimore Sun
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ALL NEWS, ALL THE TIME
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Magazine, AUTHOR: Mark Lacter]
Nancy Bauer Gonzales is news director of two CBS-owned L.A. television stations—KCBS (Channel 2) and KCAL (Channel 9)—and her mandate is to air as much local news as possible, as often as possible. That means a combined 11 hours each weekday, more news than anywhere else in the Southern California market. "They're at 5, 6, 11, 12, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11," says Bauer Gonzales, who sounds as if she's not done expanding the schedule. "I used to come into work thinking, 'OK, how can I push the business this week?'?" she tells me at the stations' headquarters in Studio City. Now it's 'How can I push it before lunch?'?" The answer always is more news. L.A. is being bombarded with news—it's on virtually nonstop, starting each morning at 4 a.m. (KNBC, Channel 4) and running throughout the day and late into the night. The stretch from 5 to 7 a.m. is especially intense: Besides KCBS and KNBC, there is news on KTLA (Channel 5), KABC (Channel 7), and KTTV (Channel 11). All told, 32 hours of local news every day, and that doesn't count non-English stations or the morning gabfests on channels 5 and 11. Expect additional slots to be filled in the coming months. TV stations are doing this not out of some newfound commitment to journalism but because the economics make sense.
benton.org/node/32080 | Los Angeles Magazine
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MAGID TURNED TV NEWS INTO ENTERTAINMENT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Stephen Miller]
Frank Magid: 1931-2010. One of television's original "news doctors," Frank Magid helped re-imagine television news as a form of entertainment. Magid, who died Friday at age 78, was a market researcher who started his career helping banks and breweries figure out how to better-serve their customers. During the 1970s, Magid's Marion, Iowa-based consultancy was hired by hundreds of stations that subsequently introduced flashy, fast-paced local news read from teleprompters by coifed anchor teams who bantered with their fellow broadcasters. The era of the starchy solo white male newsreader with a paper script came to an abrupt end. Critics called the revamped product "happy talk." But for station managers across the U.S., "news you can use" became a byword for increased audiences and advertising revenue. Newscasts could become profit centers rivaling even prime-time programming. Magid "saw that the mass American public was not enamored with the concept of news," said Craig Allen, an Arizona State University journalism professor. "He developed the research regimen and established things like consumer reporting, health and other segments that were never a part of the national news." Frank N. Magid Associates was the largest of a handful of firms that did survey and focus-group research for local stations in the 1970s. The company's approach ignited controversy among old-school journalists, who resented being directed by consultants with a computer printout in one hand and a ratings list in the other. Walter Cronkite, speaking at a 1976 CBS-TV affiliates conference, said, "Any real newsman knows that sort of stuff is balderdash. It's cosmetics, pretty packaging -- not substance."
benton.org/node/32112 | Wall Street Journal
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HEALTH

HAITI TELEMED
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Milt Freudenheim]
In the desperate days soon after the earthquake in Haiti last month, foreign medical volunteers relied on improvised, low-tech devices for consultations and coordination. But American doctors are switching to more sophisticated technology to help improve public health in Haiti, one of the world's poorest nations. Telehealth, better known as telemedicine, is an offshoot of the space program; it was developed by National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the 1960s to serve the astronauts. In the live, real-time version, it involves a video hookup between a patient on the scene and a doctor or other health professional in a hospital or office. Sometimes a doctor or nurse on the scene will consult via telemedicine with a specialist elsewhere. At the University of Miami's 240-bed tent hospital near the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where volunteer surgeons from the United States have performed 1,000 operations since the Jan. 12 earthquake, doctors should soon be able to consult via satellite with specialists in Miami and other medical centers. The satellite connection should provide sufficient bandwidth for telemedicine consultations; meanwhile, the Haiti field hospital is making do with high-speed Internet connections donated by a Miami philanthropist and connections through Access Haiti, a wireless regional network linked through the neighboring Dominican Republic.
benton.org/node/32091 | New York Times
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SMART GRID

CONSUMER INTERFACE WITH THE SMART GRID
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: ]
The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) within the Executive Office of the President requests input from the public regarding the consumer interface with the modernized electric grid, which is a vital component of the President's comprehensive energy plan. In particular, we seek comments on issues related to Smart Grid implementation options, including the ways in which each option would support open innovation in home energy services. This Request for Information (RFI) will be active from February 10, 2010 to February 19, 2010.
benton.org/node/32079 | White House, The
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MEDIA & ELECTIONS

IMPACT OF SUPREME COURT DECISION ON BROADCASTERS
[SOURCE: Broadcast Law Blog, AUTHOR: David Oxenford]
[Commentary] The Supreme Court Decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, freeing corporations to use their corporate funds to take explicit positions on political campaigns, has been mostly analyzed by broadcast trade publications as a good thing - creating one more class of potential buyers for broadcaster's advertising time during the political season - which seems to almost be nonstop in these days of intense partisan battles in Washington and in the statehouses throughout the country. What has not been addressed are the potential legal issues that this "third party" money may pose for broadcasters during the course of political campaigns. Not only will an influx of money from non-candidate groups require that broadcasters review the contents of more commercials to determine if the claims that they make are true, but it may also give rise to the return of the Zapple doctrine, one of the few remnants of the Fairness Doctrine never specifically repudiated by the FCC, but one which has not been actually applied in over a quarter of a century. Under the Zapple doctrine holds that where supporters of a candidate are allowed to buy time on a station, supporters of the opposing candidate should also be allowed to buy roughly equivalent amounts of time. Public file obligations triggered by these ads also can not be overlooked.
benton.org/node/32074 | Broadcast Law Blog
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