August 13, 2008 (Technology and Election '08)
** Participate in Discussion on FCC Policy on Net Neutrality. See http://benton.org/node/16053 for more info. **
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY AUGUST 13, 2008
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Democratic Party's Technology Platform
John McCain, Internet dunce
Text the Vote
Late-Night Informercial for Obama
Is 2008 the Last TV Election?
INTERNET/BROADBAND
McDowell Addresses Broadband Issues at Heritage Foundation
Broadband Populism or Broadband Pragmatism
Telecommuting Is A Double-Edged Sword
US fails to prosecute Internet fraud cases
Hitwise provides more proof of Google's search dominance
BROADCASTING/CABLE
NAB Unveils Quiet-Time Proposal
NATOA, PEG Ask Appellate Court to Amend Franchising 'Shot Clock' Rule
CNN to double US newsgathering presence
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM
[SOURCE: The Democratic Party]
At its meeting in Pittsburgh in early August, the full Platform Committee recommended that the Convention adopt the Democratic Party's national Platform "Renewing America's Promise" when it is presented in Denver later this month. Here's a look at the technology-related sections. The Dems say they will "implement a national broadband strategy, especially in rural areas, that enables every American household, school library and hospital to connect to a world-class communications infrastructure" ensuring that "all Americans have access to broadband and the skills to use it effectively." If you've followed this year's campaign closely, you'll notice some proposals put forth by Sen Barack Obama: to appoint a Chief Technology Officer and harness the power of technology to hold government and business accountable.
http://benton.org/node/16054
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JOHN MCCAIN, INTERNET DUNCE
[SOURCE: Salon, AUTHOR: Amanda Terkel]
Sen John McCain rarely talks about technology. McCain has not released a tech platform, although he may do so this week. On this front, he lags behind Barack Obama, who unveiled his last year. Mark Lloyd, vice president of strategic initiatives at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, pointed to the fact that some of McCain's top advisors also advised President George Bush. Sen McCain has long served on the Senate Commerce Committee which has had oversight over implementation of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the first major overhaul of U.S. telecom law in nearly 62 years. McCain had to choose whether to be pro-competition or pro-big business. In most instances, he chose the latter route, by opposing increased Internet access for schools and libraries, backing large mergers to benefit the telecom industry and supporting a virtual system of haves and have-nots. McCain's long history in the Senate has one main theme: Government can do no good in telecom policy.
http://benton.org/node/16067
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TEXT THE VOTE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Garrett Graff]
[Commentary] Sometime between now and the convention, Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) will send a text message announcing his pick for vice president. The ploy may seem silly but it's an important part of one of Sen Obama's most under-recognized campaign efforts. The move should add thousands -- and more likely tens or hundreds of thousands -- of cellphone numbers to what is already one of the most detailed political databases ever created. A study conducted during the 2006 elections showed that text-message reminders helped increase turnout among new voters by four percentage points, at a cost of only $1.56 per vote -- much cheaper than the $20 or $30 per vote that the offline work of door-to-door canvassing or phone banking costs. For Obama, who is building his campaign around bringing in new young voters and registering minority voters, there's no more effective outreach than a text message.
http://benton.org/node/16066
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LATE-NIGHT INFOMERCIAL FOR OBAMA
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
First Barack Obama's campaign made political and broadcast history by buying $5 million of advertising in NBC Universal's Olympics programming. Now it's marking another political first, running the first infomercial of the 2008 presidential campaign. If you hadn't noticed, that may be because the nearly 30-minute program aired at 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 10, on Ion Television. The Obama campaign confirmed the airing of what it called a "long-form commercial," but provided no details and also declined to answer questions on why it ran the ad. The mostly biographical, 28-minute, 30-second program included scenes of the Illinois senator's keynote speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, as well as scenes from other campaign appearances, background about Sen. Obama and frequent call-in numbers. "It is a first. I guess they are going after the insomniac vote," said Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of TNS Media Intelligence's Campaign Media Analysis Group. He said the unusual time slot for the spot appears to allow the campaign to test the effectiveness of the infomercial format without spending much.
http://benton.org/node/16064
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IS OBAMA THE FIRST 'CYBERGENIC' CANDIDATE?
[SOURCE: Baltimore Sun, AUTHOR: David Zurawik]
The conventional wisdom holds that Sen Barack Obama, if elected, would be the first "cybergenic president," the first to understand the many ways in which the Internet and other new media are transforming politics and American life. Zurawik believes it is more accurate to say that a President Obama would be the last "TV president." Nothing speaks to the primacy of TV over the Internet this year like the record $5 million and $6 million spent by the Obama and McCain campaigns, respectively, in advertising buys on the Olympics. Follow the money if you want to know what the candidates and their handlers really believe in - and it's TV, not the Internet, that comes first. It's TV, not the Internet, stupid. And that's historic, too, because this could be the last time the really important stuff in a presidential election happens on that old media screen.
http://benton.org/node/16063
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
FCC COMMISSIONER ROBERT MCDOWELL ADDRESSES BROADBAND ISSUES AT HERITAGE FOUNDATION
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Drew Bennett]
Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell spoke at a Heritage Foundation event Tuesday, presenting an overview of the Commission's recent work concerning broadband Internet services, addressing the issues of network management, cable franchising, spectrum auctions and spectrum management, deregulation of broadband services, and the debate over the US' broadband performance. On the topic of broadband data and national metrics for household connectivity, Commissioner McDowell cited a number of flaws in the current data that he has noted in the past and posited that the US is and will continue to be a world leader in consumer broadband. He also reiterated the importance of a hands-off approach when it comes to the regulation of broadband services. In addition to broadband data issues, Commissioner McDowell also addressed questions regarding the FCC's recent order in response to its investigation of Comcast's network discrimination practices. McDowell expressed his displeasure with the decision, stating that the FCC is essentially "enforcing rules we don't have." He briefly explained the regulatory history of broadband services -- which have been deemed to be deregulated services as opposed to Title II regulated services - and stated that: "In this decision we explicitly foisted upon broadband services Title II regulation...this is the fatal flaw in the decision." McDowell predicted that the order "will be shot down on appeal."
http://benton.org/node/16062
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BROADBAND POPULISM OR BROADBAND PRAGMATISM
[SOURCE: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, AUTHOR: George Ou]
[Commentary] A response to Tim Wu's "OPEC 2.0" op-ed. Ou argues that broadband service performance has gone up significantly while prices have declined. Wired long distance fees have almost become nonexistent because unlimited nationwide phone service costs as little as $40 a month. Wireless prices have remained relatively constant but minutes have multiplied. The real reason Wu advocates muni-fiber and open spectrum is because he believes that these municipal fiber or wireless overbuild projects will somehow result in lower costs to consumers. But most of these wireless overbuild projects lay out redundant broadband connections to communities that already have broadband. In doing so, even Wu must surely acknowledge that the result will be higher overall telecommunications expenditures. After all, adding a third wire in a community (municipal fiber to supplement existing telephone and cable broadband), or a new wireless system, is certainly more expensive than just having the existing two. Someone has to pay for the third redundant system. The only way these additional costs could possibly lead to lower prices for consumers is if the profits of companies selling services on the first two wires (cable and telephone companies) were monopolistic. If this were the case, the added competition, while increasing overall costs to society, would reduce profits hopefully enough to outweigh the increased costs (but not so much to limit further investment). Yet, there is no evidence that broadband profit levels are excessive.
http://benton.org/node/16061
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TELECOMMUTING IS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD
[SOURCE: TelecomWeb, AUTHOR: ]
Even in this time of high gas prices and a perceived emphasis on telecommuting, a new survey says a majority of office workers fear working at home can hurt their career prospects. However, more than half believe it's beneficial for a company to endorse the option. According to the Workplace Index Survey, almost half of the respondents polled said their companies allow them to telecommute, but less than a third take advantage of this opportunity. Most office workers feel that their companies prefer them in the office to control their work environment (72 percent) and prevent a decline in productivity (71 percent)." In addition, 80 percent of respondents believe telecommuting is a trend that will continue to grow during the next five years. And despite any hesitance of most office workers to telecommute, most have favorable impressions of working outside the office.
http://benton.org/node/16060
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US FAILS TO PROSECUTE INTERNET FRAUD CASES
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Diane Bartz]
According to the Center for Democracy and Technology, federal and state law enforcement authorities are doing little to resolve what has become a multi-billion-dollar problem: online fraud and abuse. Rather, most investigations and prosecutions involving the Internet appear to be focused on sexual enticement of minors and child pornography. Such cases accounted for more than 60 percent of the cases highlighted in 2007 and 2006 by the National Association of Attorneys General in its bimonthly Cybercrime Newsletter, which lists Internet-related cases brought by state attorneys general. Among other cases highlighted, 8.9 percent involved data security, confidential records, or identity theft and 15.5 percent involved online sales and services, such as failure to deliver on a purchase or failure to provide a product or service that meets advertised quality. This type of crime has clear parallels to fraud conducted in the physical world—the Internet is merely the medium for the transaction. This is not the case, however, for spyware, adware, spam, and phishing, which represent completely new categories of fraud and abuse. Over 2007 and 2006, the Cybercrime Newsletter highlighted just 14 cases (8.3 percent of the total) brought by state attorneys general in these areas, 10 of which were brought by Washington or New York.
http://benton.org/node/16059
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HITWISE PROVIDES MORE PROOF OF GOOGLE'S SEARCH DOMINANCE
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Jim Kerstetter]
[Commentary] Researchers at Hitwise released new data Monday indicating that Google in July topped a 70 percent share of U.S. Web searches (70.77 percent to be exact). That's up 10 percent from the same month a year ago and 2 percent from the previous month. Yahoo search was second at 18.65 percent, MSN search was third at 5.36 percent, and Ask.com came in fourth at 3.53 percent. At 70 percent, Google is joining a club of tech giants that really know how to dominate a market, including Cisco Systems in routers, Intel in chips, and Microsoft in a whole bunch of stuff.
http://benton.org/node/16058
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BROADCASTING/CABLE
NAB UNVEILS QUIET-TIME PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: P.J. Bednarski]
The National Association of Broadcasters' board of directors announced that it will put a four-week stop on negotiating retransmission-consent agreements around the time of the digital conversion, scheduled for February 17, 2009. The board is asking members to voluntarily commit "to make available to all of their distribution partners those broadcast signals being provided as of Feb. 4, 2009, through March 4, 2009," two weeks after the conversion. In practical terms, the NAB wants to make sure that any station or station group in dispute with a cable, satellite, or telco distributor over retransmission issues suspend hostile action, like refusing to permit the distributor to show the station, while the digital conversion is near or in its first weeks. By law, stations can't be removed from a distributors system during a sweeps period, so that extends the NAB quiet period for virtually the entire month of March. Some in the cable industry, including the American Cable Association and cable operator Mediacom Communications, asked for a longer quiet period than the one the NAB proposed Tuesday, suggesting that it begin in January 2009 and extend until May 31. The ACA said earlier that thousands of retrans agreements expire in December. ACA president Matt Polka said in a statement that while he "welcomes" the initiative, a start date of Feb. 4 "is simply too late and will not go far enough to protect consumers whose signals could be pulled by broadcasters before Feb. 4." He reiterated the ACA's original January-May quiet period.
http://benton.org/node/16057
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REGULATORS ASK APPELLATE COURT TO AMEND FRANCHISING 'SHOT CLOCK' RULE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Haugsted]
The National Association of Telecommunications Officer and Advisors, the Alliance for Community Media and the Alliance for Communications Democracy have asked the US Court of Appeal for the Sixth Circuit to reconsider its decision supporting the 2007 ruling by the Federal Communications Commission mandating that local governments approve new franchising applications in 90 days or less. The appeal alleges that the appeals court decision conflicts with rulings of the Supreme Court and the Sixth Circuit's own precedents. The groups argue that federal and circuit court decisions expressly give state and local authorities, not the federal agency, authority over cable franchising. The earlier decisions alter the balance of powers among state, local and federal authorities, the en banc request states. Further, the Supreme Court has ruled that agencies can't create remedies where Congress has already specified one.
http://benton.org/node/16056
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CNN TO DOUBLE US NEWSGATHERING PRESENCE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: ]
Time Warner's CNN plans to double its news-gathering presence in the United States, even as threats of an advertising recession have led to job cuts at other news organizations. The cable TV channel will double the number of regions from which its news-gathering staffs operate to 20. It will begin operations in Columbus, Ohio; Denver; Houston; Las Vegas; Minneapolis; Orlando, Florida; Philadelphia; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; and Seattle. CNN will hire a handful of new employees, while reassigning some current employees to new jobs. The goal is to have a mix of traditional network correspondents and what CNN calls "all-platform journalists" or APJs, who gather news using lightweight kits that include laptops, cameras and editing tools for Internet, as well as on-air programming in all 20 cities.
http://benton.org/node/16055
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