July 29, 2010 (Easing FBI access to records of Internet activity)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010

Today's agenda http://www.benton.org/calendar/2010-07-29

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Rep Dingell tells FCC to drop move for broadband regulations
   A peek inside the "secret, backroom" network neutrality meetings
   OPASTCO members unmoved by Genachowski address
   US Telecom, FCC square off on broadband
   Franken: Internet gatekeepers biggest threat to free speech [Video]
   What the U.K.'s Growing Rural-Urban Net Divide Can Teach the US
   Who is the World's Biggest Broadband Company?

WIRELESS
   FCC Response Regarding Public Safety Interoperability
   Security Researchers Catalog Mobile Vulnerabilities
   Jail-breaking law change will have limited impact: analysts, companies
   Justifiable 'jailbreaks' on the Apple iPhone

TELEVISION
   With NBCU, Comcast Eyes $10 Billion Ad Haul
   Bakers Dozen Reps Rap Retrans
   Implementing STELA

BUDGET
   FCC FY 2011 Funding Update

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   White House proposal would ease FBI access to records of Internet activity
   Survey tells two tales about feds' social media use
   GSA, union negotiate on rules for workers' posts on Facebook, other social media
   Reining in runaway IT projects is key to controlling costs, forum participants say

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   2010 likely to bring more negative campaign ads than ever
   Money spoke against Disclose Act

DIGITAL CONTENT
   Congress Rethinks Its Ban on Internet Gambling
   Amazon writes new chapter in its strategy
   E-Books Fly Beyond Mere Text
   Online privacy and building reputations
   How to Fill a Stadium? Offer Video Better Than TV

HEALTH
   Lawmakers Raise Issues on 'Meaningful Use' at Congressional Hearing
   'Meaningful Use' Marks Solid Start for Federal Health IT Efforts
   Health IT key to national health security plan
   Final Rules for Electronic Health Record Incentive Program
   Final Rules for Electronic Health Record Technology

EDUCATION
   Lighting Fiber with the E-rate
   ALA on E-rate Reform

RESEARCH
   In Study, 2 Economists Say Intervention Helped Avert a 2nd Depression

JOURNALISM
   Wikileaks busts myth about the irrelevance of mainstream media
   Internet And TV Capture News Seekers

CYBERSECURITY
   NIST seen as epicenter for cybersecurity
   Cybersecurity Conference Considers Challenges; Debates Need for New Solutions

STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines presented in partnership with:

   Trade policies force transfer of tech expertise to China
   No Personal Info in Google Wi-Fi Data, U.K. Group Says
   $400 million cable to double Internet capacity out of Australia
   Japanese Antitrust Official Defends Approval Of Google Deal
   Tech Firms Lobby EU on Privacy

MORE ONLINE
   Some senators expected to block Postal Service's proposal to limit mail delivery

back to top

INTERNET/BROADBAND

DINGELL RESPONDS TO FCC
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Rep John Dingell (D-MI), former head of the House Commerce Committee, said July 28 that the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission should drop his push to re-regulate broadband service. In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Rep Dingell said he felt the controversial effort was being done in haste. He came up with that conclusion after receiving a "paucity" of answers from Chairman Genachowski on the move. "Unfortunately, the Commission could not respond to my questions in sufficient detail," said Rep Dingell. "This substantiates my fear that the Commission is proceeding along a precarious path that will lead to bad policy and result in protracted litigation." He suggested the FCC should "work with Congress to enact law that resolves the matter."
benton.org/node/40053 | Washington Post | Dingell press release | FCC 7/26 response | Dingell 7/28 letter to FCC | The Hill | B&C
Recommend this Headline
back to top

A PEEK INSIDE THE MEETINGS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
Free Press is still up in arms over what the reform group calls the Federal Communications Commission's "back room" meetings with big corporations to cut a deal on network neutrality rules. But for "secret," "closed," "back room" meetings, these have been remarkably open affairs. Here's the sordid history of these allegedly clandestine gatherings, summaries of which a FCC blog. These conversations have all been earmarked in the FCC's two main net neutrality proceedings—broadband reclassification and open Internet proposals. But because they go beyond specific agency rules and deal with ideas for Congressional action, the FCC has more leeway to pick and choose with whom they wish to meet. In that sense, they're less open than normal FCC gatherings, and it's unclear whether other groups are going to get their chance to tell the agency what Congress should do. But if everybody ran their "secret" meetings the way the Commission is running them here, Washington, DC would be a much more transparent place.
benton.org/node/40039 | Ars Technica
Recommend this Headline
back to top

GENACHOWSKI AT OPASTCO
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski addressed the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies in Seattle on July 28. He sought support for the National Broadband Plan's recommendation to fund broadband connections at speeds of 4 Mb/s downstream and 1 Mb/s upstream, but OPASTCO members seemed unconvinced. "Four megabits is the initial level for minimum service that would apply to funding," Chairman Genachowski said. "It is designed to increase over time." The chairman added that the plan specifies "actual" download speeds of 4 Mb/s and that actual download speeds often are lower than those advertised. An actual download speed of 4 Mb/s would be equivalent to a connection advertised at 8 Mb/s today, he said. Four megabits per second also would be a 20-fold increase over the broadband definition used today of just 200 kb/s, Genachowski added, and would represent a 40-fold increase if actual speeds were taken into account. Most other countries have not set a specific level for broadband service, and those that have typically have focused on speeds of 2 Mb/s or lower, the chairman said. "We can't deal with four meg," said John Rose, chairman of OPASTCO, in a panel presentation immediately following Genachowski's address. "We'll have to wear them down," he added later. Rose also expressed concern about the disparity between the 4 Mb/s funding level for rural broadband and the National Broadband Plan goal of 100 Mb/s connectivity to 100 million homes by 2020. "If we divide 100 meg by four meg, that's 25 times more," Rose said.
benton.org/node/40040 | Connected Planet | Chairman Genachowski | Broadcasting&Cable
Recommend this Headline
back to top

USTELECOM VS FCC
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Rick Kaplan, chief counsel to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, and Walter McCormick, president of USTelecom, squared off on July 27 on whether the FCC was right to tell Congress this month that broadband is not being deployed in a timely and reasonable way to all U.S. residents. "We think that it is alarmist; we think it was intended to alarm, and as a result we are alarmed," McCormick said. McCormick noted that 95 percent of people in the U.S. have access to broadband -- the same percentage covered by the healthcare reform law, which has been categorized as "universal" in scope. McCormick said a chief concern is that the report will be used as "a predicate for increased government regulation in a dynamic sector of the economy." Kaplan countered that the report, which the agency regularly issues to Congress, reflects the fact that up to 24 million Americans remain without broadband. He said the report considered the perspective of consumers who do not have access, rather than attempting to attack broadband providers.
benton.org/node/40038 | Hill, The
Recommend this Headline
back to top

FRANKEN ON NETWORK NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
Sen Al Franken (D-MN) turns out to be a surprisingly articulate and strident voice in favor of network neutrality and against the Comcast/NBC merger. At last week's Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas, Sen Franken put aside all pretense of subtlety. While government was once the greatest threat to First Amendment rights regarding freedom of speech, Sen Franken argued that the great threat now is corporations. Specifically, the threat comes from corporations who also control the major Internet pipes. "I believe that net neutrality is the First Amendment issue of our time," Sen Franken said. "Comcast merges with NBC. How long do you think it will take for Verizon and AT&T to start looking at CBS/Viacom and ABC/Disney? If no one stops them, how long do you think it will take before four or five mega-corporations effectively control the flow of information in America, not only on television but online? If we don't protect net neutrality now, how long do you think it will take before Comcast/NBC/Universal or Verizon/CBS/Viacom or AT&T/ABC/DirecTV or BP/Halliburton/Walmart/Fox/Domino's Pizza [laughter] will start favoring its content over everyone else's?"
benton.org/node/40034 | Ars Technica
Recommend this Headline
back to top

CAN UK TEACH US?
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Kit Eaton]
As the U.S. broadband expansion plan stalls at the starting blocks, officials could learn a trick or two from the old country. The UK's Net development plans demonstrate both shining examples and pitfalls to avoid. It all boils down to a mix of engineering and fiscal issues. Supplying a Net connection to an end-user isn't as simple as just throwing a switch in a phone exchange--a lot of infrastructure is required behind the scenes to shunt data through the cable network and onto and off huge server arrays. Investing in this infrastructure is costly, and the return on the investment is always going to be bigger in cities as there are more subscribers per exchange, and fewer long tracts of "empty" cable, as you find in the country. It's raw economies of scale, in a subscribers-per-square-kilometer sense. And as newer technologies like fiber are coming online, ISPs are obviously going to invest in urban areas first.
benton.org/node/40009 | Fast Company
Recommend this Headline
back to top

WORLD'S BIGGEST ISPs
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Om Malik]
Given that Asia dominates the list of 100 Fastest Internet cities and China is the most populous nation in the world, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that China is home to the largest broadband service provider in the world. The latest data gathered by Telegeography, a research firm, shows that at the end of the first quarter of 2010, China Telecom led the top 10 broadband service providers rankings. It was followed by China Unicom. The two Chinese ISPs account for nearly 20 percent of the world's broadband subscribers. At the end of the first quarter of 2010, there were close to 492 million broadband subscribers worldwide. The rise of these two carriers also mirrors the rise of China as an Internet behemoth, pushing the U.S. into the second spot. ?The United States had four broadband ISPs in the top ten list: Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Verizon. ?Korea Telecom cracked the top 10 and edged out Telecom Italia, pushing it to the No. 11 spot. These top 10 broadband service providers in total account for roughly 39 percent of world's total broadband customers, and they collectively added about 23.3 million new subscribers between the first quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010.
benton.org/node/40013 | GigaOm
Recommend this Headline
back to top

WIRELESS

MOBILE SECURITY CATALOG
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Bilton]
A group of researchers and security experts from the mobile security company Lookout announced that they were creating a catalog of applications for mobile phones, calling their effort the App Genome Project. Their goal, they said, is to identify security threats on mobile devices, especially situations in which applications surreptitiously collect personal information or threaten a phone owner's privacy. Lookout's researchers said they had already scanned nearly 300,000 mobile applications and have mapped nearly a third, which were specifically designed for the Apple iPhone and Google's Android platform.
benton.org/node/40015 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top

IMPACT OF LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DECISION
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
The impact of the Copyright Office's cell phone jail-breaking decision probably won't have a big practical effect, analysts say. For one: breaking open locked devices to download unauthorized applications takes some technical savvy. A separate copyright law prevents a cottage industry of breaking open phones. "It does not extend to allow businesses to set up services and tools to allow those individuals to crack the access controls, which is prohibited by another section of the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act]," wrote Rebecca Arbogast, head of tech policy research at Stifel Nicholaus. "So this means that clever, tech-savvy people can take advantage of this, aided by operations that are providing some tools to help them, but large-scale business models to provide a widely available service are unlikely to spring up because they still have liability risk."
benton.org/node/40014 | Washington Post
Recommend this Headline
back to top

TELEVISION

COMCAST AD HAUL
[SOURCE: MediaWeek, AUTHOR: Anthony Crupi]
While local and national advertising accounts for around 5 percent of Comcast's overall revenue haul, Comcast chief operating officer Steve Burke said that a merger of Comcast and NBCU assets would command some $10 billion in annual ad sales revenue. "Advertising has got to be the biggest headline," Burke said. "We signed the deal when advertising was going backwards. Now we're seeing it going up, and that's a big deal." Burke added that he was optimistic that Comcast would clear the regulatory hurdles that stand between it and a consummated NBCU deal. "We have been there before where you feel everything goes against you," Burke said, in a nod to Comcast's fruitless 2004 bid to scarf up The Walt Disney Co. for $54 billion. "This time everything is going our way." Burke has been leading the charge to close out the NBCU transaction since it was first announced in December 2009. Under the new structure, Burke will run the suite of broadcast and cable networks, which includes flagship NBC as well as high-performance cable channels USA Network, Bravo, Syfy and Oxygen. Upon completion of the deal, Comcast will own a 51 percent stake in NBCU. Current parent GE will hold the remaining 49 percent share.
benton.org/node/40036 | MediaWeek
Recommend this Headline
back to top

BUDGET

FCC FUNDING
[SOURCE: US Senate Committee on Appropriations]
The Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Financial Services approved a fiscal year 2011 spending bill that includes $355.5 million for the Federal Communications Commission. The full committee is scheduled to mark up the legislation on July 29. The Obama Administration had requested $352.5 million for the FCC, up from the $335.8 million it got in FY 2010 to help it implement the National Broadband Plan and broadband mapping, conduct a spectrum inventory, launch an Emergency Response Interoperability Center, and achieve other goals.
benton.org/node/40035 | US Senate Committee on Appropriations
Recommend this Headline
back to top

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

PROPOSAL ON INTERNET MONITORING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ellen Nakashima]
The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation. The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication. But what officials portray as a technical clarification designed to remedy a legal ambiguity strikes industry lawyers and privacy advocates as an expansion of the power the government wields through so-called national security letters. These missives, which can be issued by an FBI field office on its own authority, require the recipient to provide the requested information and to keep the request secret. They are the mechanism the government would use to obtain the electronic records.
benton.org/node/40054 | Washington Post
Recommend this Headline
back to top

FEDERAL SOCIAL MEDIA USE
[SOURCE: FederalComputerWeek, AUTHOR: Alice Lipowicz]
Social media applications for government are becoming more popular, but significant numbers of federal employees and agencies are not making use of those tools, according to a new Market Connections Inc. research survey of government social media use. In a recent survey of 321 federal employees, 60 percent said they use social media at home or work, while 35 percent said they were not using social media; 5 percent said they do not know about social media, John Kagia, research director at Market Connections, said. Statistics on social media utilization are just starting to be released. On July 22, the Government Accountability Office reported that 22 out of 24 major federal agencies are using social media applications, including Facebook, Twitter, GovLoop, LinkedIn, wikis, blogs, videos and podcasts. However, Market Connections' survey found a smaller percentage of utilization. Twenty-nine percent of the employees surveyed said their agencies were using social media, 48 percent said their agencies were not using social media, and 23 percent did not know whether their agencies used social media.
benton.org/node/40010 | FederalComputerWeek
Recommend this Headline
back to top

SOCIAL MEDIA RULES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ed O'Keefe]
The General Services Administration is attempting to become the first civilian federal agency to codify how workers should behave on Facebook and Twitter, but it faces resistance from one of its unions over the use of social media Web sites. GSA officials and representatives of the National Federation of Federal Employees' GSA National Council are set to resume negotiations Wednesday, two weeks after talks broke down over the proposed social media policy. The government wants GSA workers who post comments on non-agency Web sites to consider adding a disclaimer that their opinions do not reflect official GSA policy. It also wants to remind workers not to share details of internal discussions or agency policy on non-GSA blogs.
benton.org/node/40037 | Washington Post
Recommend this Headline
back to top

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

MORE POLITICAL ADS COMING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Shailagh Murray]
In each election cycle, the tone of campaign rhetoric seems to grow sharper and more personal. But a 2010 calendar front-loaded with contested primaries, combined with scores of vulnerable incumbents and both sides playing underdog, means there's an extra dash of hot sauce this year. "We always say this is the most negative cycle, but 2010 probably will be it," said Evan Tracey, who tracks campaign ads for the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which is based in Northern Virginia. "The national issues are huge, and both parties hold the view that you have to blow up your opponent." Tracey, who is tracking media buys in 130 races, estimates that TV ad spending is running about $100 million ahead of 2006 levels. And ad rates still haven't fully rebounded from the recession, he said. The general rule for congressional races is that the party out of power wages the more negative campaign -- which, for Republicans this year, is translating into an ad ratio of about 80 percent negative to 20 percent positive. That formula was borrowed from the Democrats' successful 2006 game plan. But Democrats can't afford to stay positive, either, not with Obama's slumping popularity and voter opposition to the Democratic agenda.
benton.org/node/40044 | Washington Post
Recommend this Headline
back to top

HEALTH

HOUSE COMMERCE HEARING RECAP
[SOURCE: iHealthBeat, AUTHOR: ]
On July 27, lawmakers and hospital officials attending a House Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing expressed concerns about the federal government's final rule for designating "meaningful use" of electronic health records. Chief among the issues discussed was an objection to the government's classification of hospital systems with several facilities as one entity for the purpose of incentive payments. Hearing attendees also questioned whether the certification process for EHRs will be implemented in time to meet deadlines established under the federal stimulus package, which assigns penalties beginning in 2015 for non-compliance.
benton.org/node/40030 | iHealthBeat | House Commerce Committee
Recommend this Headline
back to top

DIGITAL CONTENT

ONLINE GAMBLING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Sewell Chan]
With pressure mounting on the federal government to find new revenues, Congress is considering legalizing, and taxing, an activity it banned just four years ago: Internet gambling. On July 28, the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill that would effectively legalize online poker and other nonsports betting, overturning a 2006 federal ban that critics say merely drove Web-based casinos offshore. The bill would direct the Treasury Department to license and regulate Internet gambling operations, while a companion measure, pending before another committee, would allow the Internal Revenue Service to tax such businesses. Winnings by individuals would also be taxed, as regular gambling winnings are now. The taxes could yield as much as $42 billion for the government over 10 years, supporters said. The two measures -- which are backed by banks and credit unions but have divided casinos and American Indian tribes -- are far from becoming law. A bill to legalize online poker sponsored by Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, has not yet had a hearing. The Congressional timetable has little spare room before the midterm elections, and the Obama administration has not taken a position. But the vote suggests a willingness by Congress to look for unconventional ways of plugging holes in the budget and comes as struggling states have also been looking to extract revenue from the gambling industry, which took a hit as consumers cut back on travel and entertainment during the recession but continues to reap billions of dollars in annual profits. The committee vote Wednesday was 41 to 22, with seven Republicans joining most Democrats on the panel in favor of the measure.
benton.org/node/40052 | New York Times | Congress Daily
Recommend this Headline
back to top

AMAZON'S NEW STRATEGY
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Kenneth Li]
Last November, Amazon, the online retailer, flew a dozen of the top US literary agents to a day-long meeting at the company's Seattle headquarters to try to tone down its image as the 800-pound gorilla of bookselling. The meeting, called "Agents Summit", focused on discussing the timing of e-book releases and on compensation structure. Executives from Amazon, which makes the popular Kindle e-reader, did not discuss striking deals directly with authors, which they are doing on a limited basis, or about becoming a publisher itself, said one agent familiar with the proceedings: "They had no interest in being a publisher." But, a month later, "that all changed," the person said. John Sargent, chief executive of Macmillan, smallest of the big six US publishers, in January delivered an ultimatum to Amazon that led to Macmillan's books being removed from Amazon's virtual shelves. Sargent had been pushing to shift Macmillan's contract with Amazon to the so-called "agency model", by which publishers set the retail price and take 70 per cent of the revenues. That is similar to deals offered by Apple that would return less to publishers - but would give them more control over retail pricing of e-books. Since then, in spite of playing the role of friendly facilitator, Amazon has tried to cement its position as an unconventional player in the publishing world that intends to exploit opportunities at the edge of the industry. It has brought the retailer closer to the center of the publishing business, agents said.
benton.org/node/40046 | Financial Times | FT - Wylie Agency
Recommend this Headline
back to top

E-BOOKS ARE MORE THAN TEXT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Julie Bosman]
E-books of the latest generation are so brand new that publishers can't agree on what to call them. In the spring Hachette Book Group called its version, by David Baldacci, an "enriched" book. Penguin Group released an "amplified" version of a novel by Ken Follett last week. And on Thursday Simon & Schuster will come out with one of its own, an "enhanced" e-book version of "Nixonland" by Rick Perlstein. All of them go beyond the simple black-and-white e-book that digitally mirrors its ink-and-paper predecessor. The new multimedia books use video that is integrated with text, and they are best read -- and watched -- on an iPad, the tablet device that has created vast possibilities for book publishers. The start-up company Vook pioneered the concept as a mobile application and for the Web in 2009, but with the iPad, traditional publishers are taking the multimedia book much more seriously.
benton.org/node/40050 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top

TUROW ON PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
A Q&A with Joseph Turow, a professor of communications at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert in online privacy. He thinks Internet users are woefully unaware of what information is being collected about them and how marketers are using that data. Worse, Turow told Senate lawmakers those advertisers and Web sites may be wrong in their assumptions about users. The consequences go beyond poorly placed ads, he said. Our reputations are at stake, and users don't have enough say to control how we're being viewed online, he said.
benton.org/node/40048 | Washington Post
Recommend this Headline
back to top

WIRELESS, VIDEO USED TO FILL STADIUMS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Schmidt]
How do you keep football fans as regular visitors to stadiums when the television coverage of every play is so good? For the Giants and the Jets, the answer, perhaps surprisingly, is more and better video than people can get at home. This season, the New Meadowlands Stadium will offer fans free smart-phone applications that they can glance at to see video replays, updated statistics and live video from other games -- and that will work only inside a stadium. Over the next few years, stadium officials say, the applications will provide fans with statistics on the speed of players and the ball, and fantasy games that will allow them to pick players and compete against other fans. A real-life game no longer seems to be enough. In recent years, television coverage of the National Football League has become so rich and detailed that teams and stadiums have no choice but to respond with their own technology plays. Last spring the league's commissioner, Roger Goodell, said the experience for fans in stadiums needed to be elevated to compete with television broadcasts, to keep fans engaged -- and to keep them buying tickets -- in a challenging economic climate. To do that, stadium officials here have taken steps few other NFL stadiums have. About $100 million has been spent on the stadium's technology, and a former television production executive was hired to oversee the fan experience to offer more than fans can get sitting at home on their couches in front of their high-definition television sets.
benton.org/node/40051 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top

RESEARCH

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF STIMULUS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Sewell Chan]
Like a mantra, officials from both the Bush and Obama administrations have trumpeted how the government's sweeping interventions to prop up the economy since 2008 helped avert a second Depression. Now, two leading economists wielding complex quantitative models say that assertion can be empirically proved. In a new paper, the economists argue that without the Wall Street bailout, the bank stress tests, the emergency lending and asset purchases by the Federal Reserve, and the Obama administration's fiscal stimulus program, the nation's gross domestic product would be about 6.5 percent lower this year. In addition, there would be about 8.5 million fewer jobs, on top of the more than 8 million already lost; and the economy would be experiencing deflation, instead of low inflation. The paper, by Alan S. Blinder, a Princeton professor and former vice chairman of the Fed, and Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, represents a first stab at comprehensively estimating the effects of the economic policy responses of the last few years.
benton.org/node/40016 | New York Times | Wall Street Journal | Columbia Journalism Review
Recommend this Headline
back to top

JOURNALISM

WIKILEAKS AND MAINSTREAM MEDIA
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Anne Applebaum]
[Commentary] By releasing 92,000 pages of intelligence documents relating to the Afghanistan war onto the laptops of an unsuspecting public, the proprietor of WikiLeaks has made an iron-clad case for the mainstream media. If you were under the impression that we no longer need news organizations, editors or reporters with more than 10 minutes' experience, think again. The notion that the Internet can replace traditional newsgathering has been revealed as a myth. Without more investigation, more work, more journalism, these documents just don't matter that much. To argue that they are significant because they will inform an ignorant public is ludicrous: If you don't know by now that the Pakistani secret service helped create the Taliban, or that civilian casualties are generally a problem for NATO, or that special forces units are hunting for al-Qaeda fighters, all that means is that you don't read the mainstream media. Which means that you don't really want to know.
benton.org/node/40049 | Washington Post
Recommend this Headline
back to top

NEWS SEEKS
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Jack Loechner]
According to a new study by Gather, Inc., individuals are increasingly turning to the Internet to get, share, and discuss the news. The report reveals trends in how people are receiving and interacting with the news, starting millions of conversations across America. Nearly half of adults surveyed consider the Internet their primary resource for news. Self proclaimed "news junkies" are more likely to rely on traditional media sources. 53% still cite the newspaper as their main source of news. Younger people get their news on demand. 65% of respondents younger than 25 years old described their news habits as interest-based, only reading about breaking news stories or stories of interest. 70% of respondents in this age group turn to the Internet to learn more about a breaking news story and share information about a news story. The majority of adults surveyed admitted to sharing news online, through either Twitter, Facebook, Social Networks such as MySpace, Email or Bookmarking sites like Digg. 90% of respondents younger than 25 years old use Twitter or Facebook to share news, double the amount of respondents 40+.
benton.org/node/40012 | MediaPost
Recommend this Headline
back to top

CYBERSECURITY

NIST AND CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: FederalNewsRadio, AUTHOR: Max Cacas]
Sen Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) would like to enhance the National Institute of Standards and Technology's role in cybersecurity. At the Commerce Department's Symposium on Cybersecurity in the Commercial Space on July 27, Sen Mikulski detailed plans to create a "National Cybersecurity Center for Excellence," to be headquartered at NIST. The NIST National Cybersecurity Center for Excellence would serve as a cybersecurity technology transfer center for academia and industry; will help fund, what she calls, "merit-based research" into cybersecurity; and also promote leap-ahead next-generation cybersecurity technology. She included language and funding for the idea in the recently approved Commerce Department appropriations bill. She says the goal is to boost NIST's role in setting the technical standards for the equipment that will protect all of the nation's cybersecurity infrastructure. "This new technology needs to be built to standards...and the standards should be and must be a United States standard, not a China standard. I believe that the country that creates the standards first, will create the products and the jobs first," she says. The proposal to boost NIST's cybersecurity profile has been approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee as part of the Commerce Department appropriations bill. It now goes to the full Senate for consideration.
benton.org/node/40007 | FederalNewsRadio
Recommend this Headline
back to top

STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines presented in partnership with:


CHINA'S TRADE POLICIES
[SOURCE: ComputerWorld, AUTHOR: Patrick Thibodeau]
China's goal to become a technology giant is being helped by government policies that may force businesses to transfer their technical know-how for access to China's market, a new report finds. These foreign technology products may be "re-innovated" by Chinese companies who will then take these products to market and emerge as new competitors. This is just one of the concerns described in a new report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which looks at China's policies and warns that trade disputes may come of it. China's government has set ambitious goals to create entire homegrown industries, especially in the tech area, with the help of a policy called "indigenous innovation," which U.S. officials have said will force companies to transfer the fruits of their technical expertise in exchange for access to China's market. "[China's] indigenous innovation political and economic campaign amounts to an all-hands-on-deck call to action for the Chinese nation to roll up its sleeves and complete the mission of catching up and even surpassing the West in science and technology," wrote James McGregor, a senior counselor for the consultancy Apco Worldwide and author of "One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China" (Free Press 2005), in the report commissioned by the chief U.S. industry body.
benton.org/node/40005 | ComputerWorld
Recommend this Headline
back to top

GOOGLE WI-SPY
[SOURCE: PCMagazine, AUTHOR: Chloe Albanesius]
Data protection authorities in the U.K. said this week that they are satisfied that Google's recent unauthorized Wi-Fi data collection did not include any meaningful personal data about residents in the region. "On the basis of the samples we saw we are satisfied so far that it is unlikely that Google will have captured significant amounts of personal data," the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said after ICO officials went to Google's office to examine the U.K. data. "There is also no evidence as yet that the data captured by Google has caused or could cause any individual detriment." "We wanted to make our own judgment as to the likelihood that significant personal data had been retained and, if so, the extent of any intrusion," the organization said. That examination led the ICO to conclude that the data "does not include meaningful personal details that could be linked to an identifiable person." ICO stressed that it could not comment on data collected in other countries, and said it will "remain vigilant and will be reviewing any relevant findings and evidence from our international counterparts' investigations."
benton.org/node/40032 | PC Magazine
Recommend this Headline
back to top

NEW NET CONNECTION FOR AUSTRALIA
[SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, AUTHOR: Ben Grubb]
Two companies will invest an estimated $US400 million in a new 13,600-kilometer submarine cable that they say will double telecommunications capacity out of Australia and further reduce broadband costs to consumers. Telecommunications company Pacnet and a new company created specifically for the new cable, Pacific Fibre, will invest the money and have it built by 2013. They will tender for its build before year's end. The plan to build the cable was revealed in March, when Pacific Fibre was searching for an investment partner. The cable will travel between Australia and New Zealand and then on to California in the United States. Australia has five major submarine telecommunications cables that carry Internet traffic between it and other countries. The two companies intend to increase wholesale price competition between telecommunications providers such as Telstra, which has owned most of the cable capacity that leaves the country, and others, Pacnet chief executive Bill Barney said.
benton.org/node/40006 | Sydney Morning Herald
Recommend this Headline
back to top

JAPANESE ANTITRUST OFFICIAL DEFENDS APPROVAL OF GOOGLE DEAL
[SOURCE: Tech Daily Dose, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Japan's antitrust authority defended its decision Wednesday to approve Yahoo Japan's deal with Google to use its search services after critics such as rival Microsoft criticized the agreement as anticompetitive. Under the non-exclusive deal formally announced Tuesday, Google will provide both search and search-related advertising platform services to Yahoo Japan, which will license some of its Japanese search content to Google for use in its Japanese search results. Yahoo Inc. owns a minority stake in Yahoo Japan, which is a subsidiary of Softbank. "Both companies will remain independent search and advertising providers, will not share any customer or pricing information and will continue to vigorously compete in Japan," Daniel Alegre, vice president of sales for Google Japan and Asia-Pacific, wrote in his blog post Tuesday. "Our hope is that through this deal we can drive further innovation in ads and search and spur each other--and other companies--towards greater competition."
benton.org/node/40041 | Tech Daily Dose
Recommend this Headline
back to top

EU PRIVACY RULES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John Miller]
Microsoft, Google and other US tech giants are pushing to streamline Europe's privacy rules in order to offer more remote computing and data-storage services. These companies, which are investing billions of dollars to build big data centers in Europe, are seeking a single set of rules across the 27-nation bloc for so-called cloud-computing services. They want to sell computer capacity to businesses and governments—as well as storage space for everything from pictures of grandma to the medical records of diabetics, to 500 million consumers. The EU's fractured rules may prove "real hurdles or speed bumps to sales" said Mike Hintze, Microsoft's associate general counsel. "That's the case for us, as well as other cloud-services providers." At the moment, there is a patchwork of sometimes contradictory regulations for cloud computing. That could change as part of what the European Commission, the EU's executive, calls its Digital Agenda, a plan to draft 31 legislative initiatives governing areas such as broadband infrastructure as well as pirated music and software. But work on that only began in May; a preliminary text is due in the fall. "It's way too early to say whether the EU directive will create a pan-European authority" to oversee cloud computing and privacy issues, said Matthew Newman, an EU spokesman.
benton.org/node/40047 | Wall Street Journal
Recommend this Headline
back to top