December 2008

Free Press released a comprehensive set of proposals that would deploy a forward-looking national broadband infrastructure. "Investing in the information superhighway is a concrete way for President-elect Barack Obama and Congress to kick start the economy and secure long-term prosperity," said S. Derek Turner, research director of Free Press and author of the report. "But since future generations will be footing the bill for this stimulus package, Congress must ensure that these funds deliver the next-generation networks this country needs. There should be no blank checks." The policies detailed in the new report would allocate $44 billion over the next three years, immediately producing tens of thousands of new technology-sector jobs and generating hundreds of billions of dollars in economic activity. The proposed tax incentives and grant programs are designed to trigger new investments, not to fund projects previously planned by incumbent telecommunications companies. Free Press' broadband proposals address the problems of broadband availability and adoption, while also providing substantial immediate and future economic benefits. These proposals also stipulate that all networks constructed with or supported by broadband stimulus funding must be open, freely competitive platforms for ideas and commerce.

[Commentary] With people losing their jobs, their homes, their retirement, with the costs of health care and higher education continuing to rise above the ability of many Americans to pay, with global climate change threatening our world, why should high-speed Internet access be a priority? Because universal, affordable broadband is more than an end in itself; it is also a means to spur economic growth, boost the competitiveness of the United States in the global economy, and enable all our citizens to reach for the American Dream in the Digital Age. President-elect Obama has now announced that building out broadband will be part of his impending economic stimulus package - the largest public works construction program since the inception of the interstate highway system a half century ago. The Benton Foundation applauds the President-elect's commitment to improving our information infrastructure. But that commitment to broadband deployment does not negate the need for a National Broadband Strategy. To the contrary, it makes it compelling for the new Obama Administration, immediately upon taking office, to take the lead in crafting a well-conceived and thoughtful NBS. Today, I ask you to let President-elect Obama know that you support our call. Here's how you can help. Please visit change.org, the official web site of the Office of President-elect Obama, and leave your comments at the Technology Agenda.

HHS Secretary Leavitt announced Monday new key privacy principles for electronic health information exchange. In addition, HHS's Office of Civil Rights published new HIPAA Privacy Rule guidance, which provides important clarifying information on how the Privacy Rule governs covered entities engaged in electronic health information exchange. For example, it clarifies when covered entities must enter into business associate agreements with health information exchanges; it also makes clear that HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules cover consumer personal health records offered by covered entities. However, the guidance merely encourages the adoption of stronger privacy and security policies consistent with the new principles. CDT calls on Congress and the new Administration to implement a comprehensive, enforceable framework of protections for personal health information that builds public trust and facilitates widespread adoption of health IT.

With online ad revenue down for the second quarter in a row and newspaper industry indicators suggesting that 2008 is going be the worst year yet, the frenzy continues for a new business model for news publishing that will magically boost revenue and stop the financial bloodletting. But innovation is sorely lacking in the new business models proposed; the truth is that many of them have been around since the early 1900s. In 1923, historian James Melvin Lee outlined in his History of American Journalism alternative business models that newspapers had tried to remove themselves from dependence on advertisers and circulation growth and that now seem strangely prescient: the endowment model, the municipal news model, an adless newspaper, religious news, and what can only be called the "bazooka gum" approach to circulation.