Tuesday May 19, 2009 (Commerce readies contract for broadband grant support)
"Turn off your computer. You're actually going to have to turn off your phone and discover all that is human around us."
-- Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt*
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY MAY 19, 2009
NIST hosts the Second Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Interim Roadmap Public Workshop today, while the Senate Commerce Committee has a couple of questions for Lawrence Strickling and Aneesh Choprah. Meanwhile, the 2009 Quello Communication Law and Policy Symposium considers Rethinking Media Policy in the Age of New Media. See http://benton.org/calendar/2009-05-19
BROADBAND & THE STIMULUS
Commerce readies contract for broadband grant support
How 'Buy American' Could Ruin Broadband Stimulus Plans
Health IT Standards Committee Discusses Stimulus Provisions
The Next-Generation of the Fiber-Powered Internet
How "Fast" is Broadband?
Cisco: Smart grid will eclipse size of Internet
TELEVISION/RADIO
Comcast's digital transition creates confusion
Pay-TV Services Decline On Customer-Satisfaction Survey
Copps Is Wrong To Regulate Content
FCC Opens Inquiry into Arbitron PPMs
The fight against erectile dysfunction ads
PBS Weighs Separation Of Church & Stations
Broadcast value holding up Cubs deal
OWNERSHIP
The problem with Obama's antitrust plan
Big Media Myopia
JOURNALISM
Without foreign coverage, we miss more than news
Pay Walls Alone Won't Save Newspapers
Nielsen: No correlation between visitors, profits
Newspapers No Longer Dominate Journalism Fellowships
Final edition of Tucson Citizen hits street
The Tribune is bleeding red ink
Politics Punctuate the Terrorism Debate
ADVERTISING
The FTC Takes On Paid Posts
Marketers Fight for Right to Buy Shows, Not Networks
Fox Brings Back 'Remote-Free TV' but Will Limit Use
DIGITAL CONTENT
A Book Grab by Google
The Traditional Tube Is Getting Squeezed Out of the Picture
Will Over-The-Top Kill the Video Star?
Democracy 2.0
Short(est) Stories
QUICKLY -- Clarity Is Missing Link in Supply Chain; Giants join forces to improve wireless system; Top Census appointee promises more active role in IT management; Obama's cloud initiative; ITU World Telecommunication & Information Society Awards; Fair Use is Your Friend (And Mine, Too)
Recent Comments on:
Verizon Shows The Limits of Fiber
BROADBAND & THE STIMULUS
COMMERCE READIES CONTRACT FOR BROADBAND GRANT SUPPORT
[SOURCE: WashingtonTechnology, AUTHOR: Alice Lipowicz]
The Commerce Department intends to award a contract by June 30 to obtain assistance in distributing the $4.7 billion in economic stimulus law funds devoted to broadband expansion, according to a planning document published May 15. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration intends to publish a notice of funds availability in June and conduct initial proposal processing and review from September to December, with initial grant awards made in December. A second solicitation of proposals will be made from October to December, and a third solicitation will occur from April to June 2010. All awards must be made by September 2010. The target date for awarding a contract for grants program support is June 30.
http://benton.org/node/25375
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HOW 'BUY AMERICAN' COULD RUIN BROADBAND STIMULUS PLANS
[SOURCE: xchange, AUTHOR: Kelly Teal]
Should the government require broadband buildouts funded by economic stimulus grants to use only goods produced in the United States? Is such a stipulation even realistic in a global economy in which tech companies have offshored much of their manufacturing for decades? Those are the questions facing the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the agency tasked with allocating about $4 billion in grants to further broadband's reach in the United States as part of the 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. The bill contains a "Buy American" clause that, if enforced by NTIA, would exclude most America-based vendors from helping cities, states, nonprofits and other entities install new infrastructure for high-speed Internet and data access. And if U.S. giants that manufacture many components overseas, such as Motorola, Cisco, and Alcatel-Lucent, can't participate, who can? Grant recipients could look to such businesses as Zhone Technologies that do make their products in the United States. But such companies are few and far between. Recently, the federal Office of Management and Budget said the paragraph in the "Buy American" rider applies just to public buildings and public works built by government agencies receiving grants. Therefore, some analysts say, low-cost Chinese vendors such as Huawei and ZTE Corp. could be well-positioned to take advantage of the situation. That's because the term "public works" is not well-defined; cities using broadband funds might have to adhere to made-in-America labels but a rural service provider expanding to connect communities might not. Thus, that service provider could, if NTIA doesn't clarify, resort to buying from the cheapest-priced vendors, which could be those headquartered overseas.
http://benton.org/node/25374
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HEALTH IT STANDARDS COMMITTEE DISCUSSES STIMULUS PROVISIONS
[SOURCE: ModernHealthcare.com, AUTHOR: Joseph Conn]
The initial meeting of the HIT Standards Committee was held Friday, May 15. Much of the initial work by the new committee will be focused on reviewing earlier work done by its precursor, the Health Information Technology Standards Panel, according to John Halamka, a physician informaticist who serves as chairman of the HITSP and vice chairman of the new HIT Standards Committee. Halamka is the chief information officer at CareGroup Healthcare System, Boston. Also, the new HIT Standards Panel members will be trying to anticipate and work in advance of policy recommendations around the recommendations of another stimulus act-mandated advisory panel, the HIT Policy Committee, that first met earlier this week. Both groups are working under a deadline contained in the stimulus act that an initial set of standards, implementation specifications and certification criteria go through federal rulemaking and be published by HHS by Dec. 31 of this year.
http://benton.org/node/25373
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THE NEXT-GENERATION OF THE FIBER-POWERED INTERNET
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] Over the last couple of years there's been a steady, though sporadic, push to suggest that we need to rebuild the Internet. Daily thought those calls to be alarmist and not practical. Then recently it dawned on him: the deploying of full fiber networks is in essence rebuilding the Internet. Or put more precisely, fiber points to what the next generation of the Internet can be. So what does the next generation of the Internet look like? To find out Daily thinks it's important to look at Lafayette, LA, as that's where he thinks it's being built.
http://benton.org/node/25372
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HOW "FAST" IS BROADBAND?
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Kevin Walsh]
[Commentary] Akamai recently released its quarterly The State of the Internet, a rich trove of information concerning Internet usage around the world. One portion of the Akamai report that has been widely quoted in the mainstream media covers broadband speeds. The Q4/2008 report, for the first time, ranks countries by average speed: tiny, dense South Korea (surprise) is #1 at 15 Mbps, the US ranks 17th at 3.9 Mps (others of note include Japan at 7 Mbps, Canada at 3.8 Mbps, Germany at 3.8 Mbps, France at 3.2 Mbps, India at 0.8 Mbps China at 0.8 Mbps, and Syria at a blistering 0.3 Kbps). All interesting data and useful fodder for activist governments wanting to spend taxpayer money to fix things. But while we don't really know the average "speed" of broadband connections around the world, the capacity of broadband networks is most likely higher than the Akamai report indicates. How much higher is impossible to determine. The primary problem is (most often) not the capacity of the broadband pipe but rather congestion within the overall broadband network. This congestion, while not deleterious to garden variety web browsing and emailing, severely hampers streaming video which, according to industry research firm IDC, will constitute slightly more than half of all downstream web traffic in the US by 2013. Consequently, as we endeavor to "fix" broadband with the $7.2 billion in stimulus funding, let's not lose sight of the fact that these are complex and heavily congested networks. Simply upping the size of the broadband pipe may not yield the performance improvements everyone professes to want.
http://benton.org/node/25371
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CISCO: SMART GRID WILL ECLIPSE SIZE OF INTERNET
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Martin LaMonica]
Cisco sees a $100 billion market opportunity in the smart grid. The company make communications equipment for the electricity grid -- everything from routers in grid substations to home energy controllers. Cisco's move is a sign that the creaky electricity distribution system is poised for a digital upgrade. Other high-tech companies, including IBM, Intel, and several start-ups, are ramping up smart-grid efforts to capitalize on expected investments from utilities and federal governments. Cisco estimates that the communications portion of that build-out is worth $20 billion a year over the next five years. The idea of the "smart grid" is to modernize the electricity industry by overlaying digital communications onto the grid. Smart meters in a person's home, for example, can communicate energy usage to utilities in near real time. That allows the utility to more efficiently manage the electricity supply and potentially allow a consumer to take advantage of cheaper rates.
http://benton.org/node/25370
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TELEVISION/RADIO
COMCAST'S DIGITAL TRANSITION CREATES CONFUSION
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Troy Wolverton]
At the same time Comcast is telling customers they don't have to worry about broadcast television's 'digital transition,' the company is putting its customers through a different digital transition. By the end of the year, Comcast plans to move its basic cable channels, those from 35 to 85, from analog to digital signals for all of its customers in the Bay Area. To continue to get those channels, customers will need to have a television with a digital cable tuner — or a set-top box from Comcast. Comcast's ads assuring customers they didn't have to worry about the digital broadcast transition have never made note that they would soon need to deal with a digital cable transition. And while those commercials have been running widely on Comcast's networks for a year or so now, long before broadcasters were slated to shut off their analog signals, the company didn't start talking about its own transition until early February, about six weeks before it planned to start rolling it out. Even then, the marketing messages have tended to target customers in specific communities immediately before Comcast upgraded its system in those areas, rather than an areawide mass-marketing campaign.
http://benton.org/node/25383
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PAY-TV SERVICES DECLINE ON CUSTOMER-SATISFACTION SURVEY
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Todd Spangler]
Customer satisfaction with cable and satellite TV services dropped in the first quarter, even as overall U.S. consumer confidence was up in the period, according to a quarterly survey produced by the University of Michigan's business school. The American Customer Satisfaction Index climbed 0.4% in the first three months of the year, to 76 on a 100-point scale, the second straight quarterly improvement. However, the average score for pay-TV services fell 2%, to 63, compared with a year ago -- a score that puts cable and satellite TV behind airlines, hotels, wireless carriers, fixed-line phone services, energy utilities, and fast-food and full-service restaurants. "To be in the low 60s is not really a good place to be," Claes Fornell, founder of the ASCI and University of Michigan business professor, said in an interview. "I'm surprised the numbers aren't improving more."
http://benton.org/node/25382
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COPPS IS WRONG TO REGULATE CONTENT
[SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: Lee Spieckerman]
[Commentary] There is certainly no language in the Constitution implying that operating under a government license diminishes one's First Amendment rights. But Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Copps endorses reduced license terms and increased "public interest obligations" for broadcasters. Broadcasters have always made their product available free to the American people.What could be more "in the public interest" than that? In the broadcasting business model, if a station doesn't provide programming that garners a sufficient audience, it won't sell enough advertising and goes out of business. This is surely the most democratic system for regulating media content ever devised by man.
http://benton.org/node/25369
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FCC OPENS INQUIRY INTO ARBITRON PPMs
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission has opened an inquiry into Arbitron's Portable People Meters (PPM), citing requests from broadcasters and its own Advisory Committee on Diversity. Critics of the meters allege it underreports minority radio listening and could harm diversity and competition. The Diversity Committee argued that "Arbitron's use of an audience measurement service that may not accurately measure minority audiences could lead to 'irreparable' financial harm to stations serving such audiences and, thus, lead to the loss of service that such stations provide to the public," the FCC said in laying out its reasoning for the inquiry. The FCC seeks comment and evidence on PPM methodology and its effect on minority and urban listeners, as well as suggestions for what to do about it if PPM critics are correct. While it is primarily about radio listening, the issue is important to TV stations as well.
http://benton.org/node/25368
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THE FIGHT AGAINST ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION ADS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Dan Neil]
Erectile dysfunction drug manufacturers spent $313.4 million on measured media last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence. That's up from $237.2 million in 2007. Rep James Moran (D-VA) thinks that too much, um, exposure. He's introduced the Families for ED Advertising Decency Act (H.R. 2175), a bill that calls for the Federal Communications Commission to "treat as indecent" ads for erectile dysfunction cures between the hours of 6 am and 10 pm. This is his second attempt to get the ads run by Pfizer (Viagra), Lilly (Cialis) and GlaxoSmithKline (Levitra) toned down; in 2005, he claimed to have reached an agreement with representatives of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Four years later, the ads are ever more pervasive and, according to Rep Moran, more explicit. Broadcast advertising falls into a special class of discourse, insofar as we choose the programs we do and don't want to watch but have almost no control over the advertising we are exposed to. Therefore it seems the bar of probity must be at least a little higher than it is with programming.
http://benton.org/node/25385
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PBS WEIGHS SEPARATION OF CHURCH & STATIONS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi]
PBS stations are debating the limits of one of public television's basic commandments: Thou shalt not broadcast religious programming. The discussion, some station managers fear, could lead to a ban on broadcasts of local church services and other faith-oriented programs that have appeared on public stations for decades despite the prohibition. The Public Broadcasting Service's board is to vote next month on a committee's recommendation to strip the affiliation of any station that carries "sectarian" content. Losing its PBS relationship would mean that a station could no longer broadcast programs that the service distributes, from "Sesame Street" to "Frontline." The proposal is already having local ramifications.
http://benton.org/node/25360
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BROADCAST VALUE HOLDING UP CUBS DEAL
[SOURCE: Crain's Chicago Business, AUTHOR: Ann Saphir, Mike Colias]
As all longtime Headlines readers know, the Chicago Cubs are intricately linked to our communications future. Former University of Chicago classmate Thomas Ricketts, who is leading his family's bid for Tribune Co.'s Cubs, has lined up financing for the deal, but a dispute over price is delaying the transaction. The Ricketts family, whose original bid was close to $900 million, now believes the real price should be closer to $850 million. The sides disagree over the value of the team's multiyear contract to broadcast games on Tribune's WGN network. At issue is about $40 million to $50 million — roughly 6% of the original bid, which also includes Wrigley Field and a 25% stake in regional cable channel Comcast Sports. Broadcasters pay sports teams for the right to air games. The contract between the Cubs and WGN, which was inked last fall, might have been set too low, given that the broadcaster and the sports team have been owned by the same parent: Tribune Co.
http://benton.org/node/25351
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OWNERSHIP
THE PROBLEM WITH OBAMA'S ANTITRUST PLAN
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Dominick Armentano]
[Commentary] The Obama administration recently signaled a new, tougher antitrust policy. But the free market does not need more strict antitrust policy; it needs simple protection from fraud. The problem is that, in the 119 years that antitrust laws have existed, there is little empirical evidence that "vigorous enforcement" of them can promote the interests of consumers. And it was for the alleged benefit of the consumers that the laws were created. Indeed, antitrust history is riddled with silly theories and absurd cases that themselves have restricted and restrained free-market competition and hampered an efficient allocation of resources. A look at a few examples is reason to believe that President Obama's antitrust regulation won't be any different. [Armentano is a research fellow of the Independent Institute.]
http://benton.org/node/25381
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BIG MEDIA MYOPIA
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Timothy Karr]
[Commentary] It's hard to empathize with struggling newspapers when those running them continue to suffer from the short-sightedness that got their industry into a mess. The editors at the Washington Post put on a display of such backward thinking on Saturday, when they published an op-ed by two lawyers from the influential DC firm Baker Hostetler. In writing this op-ed, the lawyers hide certain conflicts of interest that should weigh heavily against their analysis. The Post 's editors might have connected the dots for readers, but didn't. But the piece is just so stunningly stupid that it falls apart all by itself. In it, Esq. Bruce W. Sanford and Bruce D. Brown call for reactionary legal measures that would stifle access to news and information and return us to the grand old days of consolidated ownership, bloated media giants and information gatekeepers. To save journalism, Brown and Sanford argue, we must "eliminate ownership restrictions" and open floodgates to a new wave of media concentration.
http://benton.org/node/25367
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JOURNALISM
WITHOUT FOREIGN COVERAGE, WE MISS MORE THAN NEWS
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Andrew Stroehlein]
[Commentary] For years now, those of us working in and around international media have grown used to hearing about slashed foreign news budgets - an overseas bureau cut here, yet another correspondent post dropped there. The shrinking of news from the far reaches of the globe is a problem only partially addressed by a few financially constrained news agencies and a couple of hopeful media upstarts with untried business models or limited audiences. We do not need to wait for something more to hit us over the head to understand the implications of these changes. Two recent situations show us exactly what the world will be like when there are no regular foreign correspondents left.
http://benton.org/node/25380
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PAY WALLS ALONE WON'T SAVE NEWSPAPERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Pfanner]
[Commentary] Will May 2009 mark the beginning of the end for the free, unfettered Internet? I wouldn't put my money on it. Why? Let's start with newspapers. The case for charging online readers seems pretty clear, if only because publishers have relatively little to lose if they don't. Few newspapers generate even 10 percent of their revenue on the Internet, even after years of double-digit growth in advertising. Now online advertising has gone into reverse. But "pay walls" alone are not going to save the industry. Even The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, whose Web sites are perhaps the best examples of paid-for digital news, generate only small fractions of their budgets from Internet subscriptions.
http://benton.org/node/25366
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NIELSEN: NO CORRELATION BETWEEN VISITORS, PROFITS
[SOURCE: TheDeal.com, AUTHOR: Gerald Magpily]
If one looked at Nielsen Online's top 10 list of unique visitors for daily newspapers in the US, there seems to be no correlation between unique traffic and profitability. Although NYTimes.com registered No. 1 on the list with 16,546,000 unique visitors, The New York Times is questioning Nielsen's survey, which asserts that the site's traffic declined 8% compared to April 2008. The Times claims internal records and competing independent surveys do not show a traffic decline. So why is the Times fighting Nielsen? For starters, Nielsen traditionally is the standard bearer for media metrics, and given the newspaper publisher's parent, New York Times Co., lost $61.6 million in its latest quarter, the bad news could discourage future online ad sales, thereby worsening its financial position. It could even impact its restructuring efforts, which include layoffs, dividend cancellation, an investment from Carlos Slim, newspaper closures and a possible sale of its stake in the Boston Red Sox and classical radio station WQXR-FM. The Times isn't alone in questioning Nielsen's metrics.
http://benton.org/node/25353
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NEWSPAPERS NO LONGER DOMINATE JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIPS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Richard Perez-Pena]
Even though newspaper employees once dominated the top journalism fellowships, their share had been slipping for a few years, and in selections made over the last few weeks for the next academic year, it has plummeted. Four of the best-known programs — at Harvard, M.I.T., Stanford and the University of Michigan — chose 29 employees of American newspapers for fellowships in the year that is now winding down, and just 11 for next year. There have also been declines in the number of people from magazines and wire services, but not as pronounced. At the same time, applications to those four programs, for positions that are open to American journalists, jumped 62 percent this year, to about 600. The pool was swelled by legions of journalists who no longer have steady work, and by people from the growing nontraditional media. The slots that used to go to newspaper people are going, instead, to freelancers, including many who do some work for papers, and to people in online and broadcast media. Some programs are also giving more positions to journalists from overseas.
http://benton.org/node/25365
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FINAL EDITION OF TUCSON CITIZEN HITS STREET
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Arizona's oldest continuously published daily newspaper put out its final print edition Saturday with a fitting last headline: "Our Epitaph." Saturday's 48-page commemorative edition of the Tucson Citizen was filled with individual columns by editors and staffers and highlights of the Citizen's 138 years of publication. The Citizen will continue as an online-only opinion Web site.
http://benton.org/node/25364
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THE TRIBUNE IS BLEEDING RED INK
[SOURCE: MediaWeek, AUTHOR: Richard Brunelli]
You might not know Lee Abrams by name, but chances are you know some of what he's responsible for. Abrams' work has included the redesign of Rolling Stone and he was involved in the creation of the MTV cable network. But his real claim to fame was in the radio business, where he is credited with inventing the modern radio format structure, including Album Rock, Classic Rock, Urban/Dance and New Age/Jazz. Abrams was also one of the colorful minds behind "Disco Demolition Night," a stunt that took place on a hot July night in 1979. In 1993, Abrams was named by Newsweek as one of America's "100 Cultural Elite." Five years later, he took on another major challenge when he became the chief programming officer of then-nascent XM Satellite Radio. In fact, Abrams had accomplished so much in his professional life, there seemed few challenges that he hadn't taken on. In April 2007, he joined the Tribune Company. One year into Abrams' tenure, it's unclear whether there's been any sort of paradigm shift at the Tribune Co. But Abrams has made his presence felt and, just like it was in the radio days, he has both fans and people who don't want to listen.
http://benton.org/node/25363
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POLITICS PUNCTUATE THE TERRORISM DEBATE
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
With two of the nation's more politically polarizing figures helping fuel the narrative, the US campaign against terrorism was the No. 1 story last week. Terrorism coverage accounted for 22% of the newshole from May 11-17, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. But the story was much bigger on the ideological, debate-oriented talk shows on radio and prime-time cable. Indeed, terrorism filled 50% of the airtime for the 13 talk shows studied by PEJ last week. Those discussions were doubtless driven in part by a political dynamic -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was embroiled in a controversy with the CIA over waterboarding briefings, and former Vice-President Dick Cheney, who continued his public campaign against Barack Obama's policies.
http://benton.org/node/25378
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ADVERTISING
THE FTC TAKES ON PAID POSTS
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Douglas MacMillan]
This summer, the Federal trade Commission is expected to issue new advertising guidelines that will require bloggers to disclose when they're writing about a sponsor's product and voicing opinions that aren't their own. The new FTC guidelines say that blog authors should disclose when they're being compensated by an advertiser to discuss a product. It's the first revision of the FTC's guidelines for editorials and testimonials in ads since 1980, and regulators say it's needed in an era when consumers increasingly turn to blogs and other amateur Web sites for information about the goods and services they buy. The rules seek to clear up some of the tangled connections on Web sites that make it hard for readers to tell who's getting incentives from whom.
http://benton.org/node/25379
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MARKETERS FIGHT FOR RIGHT TO BUY SHOWS, NOT NETWORKS
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Brian Steinberg]
Want your ads in CBS's blue-chip "CSI"? Then you'll have to run some in "Harper's Island." Eager to get your message to the devotees of ABC's "Lost"? Then you'll have to buy some time during untested debutantes such as "Cupid." That's how it's worked for decades. Marketers and their media buyers are forced to agree to TV networks' condition that they take ad positions across entire schedules if they want to be in the hottest shows. Marketers' patience with this system is, however, running out, and many are pushing harder than ever before to buy programs and not networks. Yet in this upfront, the networks will still ask them to once again buy across the board -- and pay a premium to really build their brands into a show's DNA.
http://benton.org/node/25357
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FOX BRINGS BACK 'REMOTE FREE TV' BUT WILL LIMIT USE
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Brian Steinberg]
The fight to keep viewers from zapping past commercials continues at Fox in the 2009-2010 programming season. After experimenting with running fewer ads in select programs and charging advertisers more for the privilege of having less clutter surrounding their messages, Fox will offer the technique -- known as "Remote-Free TV" -- in more limited fashion next season. The News Corp. network will also run pieces of content during ad breaks crafted by the producers of the shows running on air at the time, part of another move to keep audiences rooted to the screen during commercial interruptions.
http://benton.org/node/25356
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DIGITAL CONTENT
A BOOK GRAB BY GOOGLE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brewster Kahle]
Commentary] A court in the Southern District of New York will soon make a decision that could determine our digital future. A ruling is expected shortly on a proposed settlement of lawsuits filed against Google in 2005 by groups representing authors and publishers claiming that Google's book-scanning project violated copyright. When Google announced its project in 2004, the company said its goal was simple yet far-reaching. Like its search engine, which points people to Web sites, Google's book search product would help people find information in books and direct them to volumes in libraries and bookstores. The project seemed in keeping with the guiding principles of the Internet, which assumes a quid pro quo between search engines and Web sites. That is, sites allow themselves to be copied and indexed as long as search engines such as Google lead people back to the original sites. But as we learned when the settlement was proposed last October, Google's search tool has become a digital bookstore. The settlement outlines business models for creating and selling electronic editions of books, and selling subscriptions to Google's new exclusive library. Whereas the original lawsuit could have helped define fair use in the digital age, the settlement provides a new and unsettling form of media consolidation.
http://benton.org/node/25386
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THE TRADITIONAL TUBE IS GETTING SQUEEZED OUT OF THE PICTURE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi]
Sit down, kids, and let Grandpa tell you about something we used to call "watching television." Why, back when, we had to tune to something called a "channel" to see our favorite programs. And we couldn't take the television set with us; we had to go see it! Ah, those were simpler times. Oh, sure, we had some technology we thought was pretty fancy then, too, like your TiVo and your cable and your satellite, which gave us a few hundred "channels" of TV at a time. Imagine that -- just a few hundred! And we had to pay for it every month! Isn't the past quaint, children? Well, it all started to change around aught-eight, or maybe '09, for sure. That's when you no longer needed a television to watch all the television you could ever want. Yes, I still remember it like it was yesterday . . .
http://benton.org/node/25361
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WILL OVER-THE-TOP KILL THE VIDEO STAR?
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Rory Altman]
It is impossible to escape intense discussion of "over-the-top" (OTT) video these days, as it has gone well beyond user-generated content on YouTube. If you believe the Hulu-hype, we are on the precipice of abandoning conventional video services from Comcast or AT&T and instead, we will simply watch Gossip Girl on our PCs. Surely, this medium that has attracted 149 million U.S. users and more than 14 billion downloads in March alone must threaten conventional video subscriptions and/or ARPU. Here's what we know: OTT video is neat and convenient. Using services such as Joost, YouTube or Veoh, we can now watch TV shows when we forget to record a show on our DVR; we delete the recording, the DVR becomes full; others are using the TV; we're away from home; or we want fringe or foreign content. People like that the flexibility and user interface resemble the Web. And, TV networks are cautiously placing their content on their own site as well as on joint venture sites like Hulu.
http://benton.org/node/25358
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DEMOCRACY 2.0
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Mike Cassidy]
Web site started by former senator Alan Cranston's son helps voters decide. The fledgling site, which debuted just before the fall election, reproduces sample ballots and provides users an easy way to see where advocacy groups, such as the California League of Conservation Voters or the California Chamber of Commerce or labor unions or the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, stand on the sometimes complex issues put to voters. It offers a way for users to register and promote their own positions. It includes a section listing big contributors to campaigns.
http://benton.org/node/25377
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SHORT(EST) STORIES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Monica Hesse]
The most compelling tweets aren't the ones that merely answer "What are you doing?" but rather the ones that create ripples throughout the online community. They prompt discussion, self-reflection and philosophizing -- if of the dime-store variety.
http://benton.org/node/25376
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QUICKLY
CLARITY IS MISSING LINK IN SUPPLY CHAIN
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Phred Dvorak]
The recession has exposed a harsh side effect of the supply-chain system. Because modern industry rewards suppliers with the leanest inventories and fastest reaction times, when economic crisis struck, tech companies up and down the line contracted as sharply as possible in hopes of being the ones to survive. Forced to guess at demand for their products in a plummeting market, everyone hit the brakes, hard. An examination of the electronics supply chain -- from retailers all the way back to makers of factory machinery -- shows that, at almost every stage, companies were flying blind as they cut.
http://benton.org/node/25362
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GIANTS JOIN FORCES TO IMPROVE WIRELESS SYSTEM
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Peter Svensson]
Computer and home entertainment industry leaders, including Intel, Microsoft, Dell, and Panasonic, said that they're forming a new association to create an even faster wireless technology for zipping large files around the home. WiGig will be more than 10 times faster than Wi-Fi, and should be able to deliver high-definition video from computers and set-top boxes to TV sets without the need for unsightly wires, the companies said. The range will be shorter than Wi-Fi -- WiGig will work well within a room, and perhaps extend to an adjacent room as well.
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TOP CENSUS APPOINTEE PROMISES MORE ACTIVE ROLE IN IT MANAGEMENT
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
President Obama's pick to head the Census Bureau told a Senate panel on Friday that he plans to take a personal role in overhauling its information technology strategy and increase the transparency of its operations. Robert Groves, who currently serves as director of the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, told the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that he would have more of a hands-on management style for IT projects than past bureau directors, and he would back initiatives to encourage research and innovation. He also said he has no plans to use statistical sampling in the 2010 or 2020 decennial counts, adding he would resign if asked to institute practices that were politically motivated. "More than that, if I resign, after I resign I will be active in stopping the abuse from outside the system," said Groves, who while serving as associate director of the census in 1990 recommended the controversial practice of statistical sampling be used to conduct the undercount.
http://benton.org/node/25355
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OBAMA'S CLOUD INITIATIVE
[SOURCE: FederalComputerWeek, AUTHOR: Doug Beizer]
Cloud computing got a big plug this month when President Barack Obama endorsed the technology in his 2010 budget request. The budget document highlights the benefits of cloud computing and directs agencies to launch pilot projects using the new approach. Cloud computing allows users to access applications, data storage and processing power via the Internet for a fee, while a third-party service provider shoulders the costs of building and maintaining the infrastructure. The support in the budget request, plus Obama's choice of cloud-computing proponent Vivek Kundra as the federal chief information officer, has many experts saying the technology is poised to be adopted at levels never seen before, though several issues still need to be resolved.
http://benton.org/node/25354
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ITU WORLD TELECOMMUNICATIONS & INFORMATION SOCIETY AWARDS
[SOURCE: International Telecommunication Union, AUTHOR: Press release]
President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva of Brazil, along with Mr Rob Conway, CEO of GSMA, and Ms Deborah Taylor Tate, former Commissioner of the US Federal Communications Commission were honoured with the 2009 ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award at a ceremony held in Geneva. H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden was the patron on the occasion of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. Announcing the awards, ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré welcomed the eminent personalities who have devoted themselves to bringing the benefits of Internet connectivity to every corner of the planet while protecting the interests of users, especially children who are among the most prolific users — and also the most vulnerable. "Protecting children in cyberspace is clearly our duty," said Dr Touré. "ITU's Child Online Protection (COP) initiative — an integral part of ITU's Global Cybersecurity Agenda — is in line with our mandate to strengthen cybersecurity and has been established as an international collaborative network for action to promote the online protection of children and young people worldwide."
http://benton.org/node/25352
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FAIR USE IS YOUR FRIEND (AND MINE, TOO)
[SOURCE: Center for Social Media, AUTHOR: Press release]
American University's Center for Social Media and AU Washington College of Law's Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, in collaboration with Stanford Law School's Fair Use Project, are launching a new video explaining how online video creators can make remixes, mashups, and other common online video genres with the knowledge that they are staying within copyright law. The video, titled Remix Culture: Fair Use Is Your Friend, explains the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video, a first of its kind document—coordinated by AU professors Pat Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi—outlining what constitutes fair use in online video.
http://benton.org/node/25350
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Full quote: "After you are done reading headlines, of course, turn off your computer."