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October 2009

Oct 19, 2009 (Closed networks hinder Internet access)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2009

We posted a weekend update at http://bit.ly/Sg0oJ


NETWORK NEUTRALITY/OPEN ACCESS
   Since When Did Nearly 10 Years of Study Become a "Rush"?
   Big Telecom Wants To Squash The Free Internet, Starting Now
   Closed networks hinder Internet access

BROADBAND
   States weigh campaign rules for the Internet age
   Calling America's bluff on Internet gambling
   In some classrooms, books are a thing of the past
   Now that everybody and his mother is on Facebook, is it time to look for the next big thing in social networking?

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS/JOURNALISM
   White House officials to appear on Fox News
   Finding a new model for news reporting
   A Newsroom Subsidized? Minds Reel

TELEVISION
   Nielsen To Add Internet Meters To Entire TV Ratings Sample: Timing, Integration TBD
   The Worth of NBC as a Piece of GE
   NBC Universal Tees Up Cause-Related Shows

MORE ONLINE ...
   UK Spectrum auction faces delay
   Lawmakers Battle on Census Question
   At Book Fair, a Subplot About Chinese Rights

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NETWORK NEUTRALITY/OPEN ACCESS

SINCE WHEN DID NEARLY 10 YEARS OF STUDY BECOME A "RUSH"?
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] The most recent reminder of my age and wisdom/oncoming decrepitude is the rather silly argument that we are somehow "rushing" into network neutrality — because nearly ten years of study and debate cannot possibly be enough to justify this being the first major policy initiative for the Genachowski Federal Communications Commission. Yes, it was 9 years ago last month when the FCC launched its first inquiry asking how to classify "high speed access to the Internet over cable and other facilities. Back then, of course (as I explained in my first net neutrality blog post back in 2006) we didn't have the term "network neutrality." We talked about interconnection obligations and the prohibition on messing with user content and the ability to connect devices to the network, but we didn't have the term "network neutrality." Instead, we talked about the far more ambitious "open access," which meant allowing retail competitors to lease access to the underlying network (or at least have interconnection access at key points).
benton.org/node/28907 | Public Knowledge
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BIG TELECOM WANTS TO SQUASH THE FREE INTERNET, STARTING NOW
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Art Brodsky]
[Commentary] Congressional Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and progressives are sending hostile letters to the Federal Communications Commission all in the cause of - making sure that AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and the rest can run the Internet the way they want to and to hell with the way the Internet has developed for the past 10 years. That's worth spending millions of lobbying, campaign and ad dollars on, don't you think? And the FCC hasn't even issued its proposed rules yet -- that doesn't happen until Thursday (Oct. 22), much less taken public comment, nor made a final decision. Surely this is something of which Big Telecom is very, very afraid. The point of all this activity is to cow the FCC into proposing weak and ineffective Net Neutrality rules -- in essence to fix the game before it gets started. That's why there is this unprecedented outpouring of lobbying and letters ahead of time. Start the pressure early. Keep it on late, and the FCC and the White House will cave. That's the Big Telecom strategy. Who is more worthy of our elected representatives advocacy? Big telecom companies which want to exercise control over something they never controlled? Or the millions of people who are used to an Internet in which they, not big media, make decisions about how to go about their online lives, whether investing millions of dollars, uploading a video or just listening to music. So far, it's the first batch. And unfortunately, the misguided members of Congress aren't alone in their campaign to destroy today's Internet. Telecom industry organizations, labor and even some state governors and civil rights groups, are getting in on the act, urging the FCC, when it proposes rules on Thursday, to allow AT&T, Comcast and Verizon to have unlimited power to do what they want to online.
benton.org/node/28906 | Huffington Post, The
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CLOSED NETWORKS HINDER INTERNET ACCESS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson]
US reluctance to force telecoms and cable operators to open their networks to competitors has led to the country being overtaken in rankings of broadband penetration and affordability, according to a study for the Federal Communications Commission. The study by the Berkman Center for Internet and society at Harvard University could strengthen expectations of change in the stance held by the FCC for much of this decade, which contrasted with countries from the Netherlands to South Korea that have "open access" policies. It notes that open access has been "a closed issue in US policy debates" since 2002. The report's authors said their "most surprising and significant finding" was that unbundling, wholesaling and functional separation had played core roles in the transition to first-generation broadband access in most high-performing countries. Pushing incumbent telecoms providers to restructure and open networks was playing an equally central role in planning for the next generation of high speeds and ubiquitous access, it said.
benton.org/node/28905 | Financial Times
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BROADBAND

STATES WEIGH CAMPAIGN RULES FOR THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Ryan Foley]
Many states currently require political ads to include disclaimers saying who paid for them, although some exempt small items such as bumper stickers, buttons and T-shirts where a disclaimer is impractical. Paul Ryan, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, said text messages and small pay-per-click online ads might become "the campaign buttons of the Millennium Era." So far, the Federal Elections Commission has taken a mostly hands-off approach, as campaigns still spend far more money reaching voters through television, radio and direct mail. The commission ruled in 2006 that campaign regulations do not apply to most Internet activity, except for paid political advertising on someone else's Web site. Bloggers are exempt as long as they write voluntarily and are not paid by a campaign.
benton.org/node/28904 | Associated Press
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IN SOME CLASSROOMS, BOOKS ARE A THING OF THE PAST
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ashley Surdin]
Textbook-free classrooms are by no means the norm, but they may be someday. Slowly, but in increasing numbers, grade schools across the country are supplementing or substituting the heavy, expensive and indelible hardbound book with its lighter, cheaper and changeable cousin: the digital textbook. Also known as a flexbook because of its adaptability, a digital textbook can be downloaded, projected and printed, and can range from simple text to a Web-based curriculum embedded with multimedia and links to Internet content. Some versions must be purchased; others are "open source" -- free and available online to anyone. Some praise the technology as a way to save schools money, replace outdated books and better engage tech-savvy students. Others say most schools don't have the resources to join the digital drift, or they question the quality of open-source content. Hardbound books still dominate the $7 billion U.S. textbook market, with digital textbooks making up less than 5 percent, according to analyst Kathy Mickey of Simba Information, a market research group. But that is changing, as K-12 schools follow the lead of U.S. universities and schools in other countries, including South Korea and Turkey. In Florida's Broward County, students and teachers log online to access digital versions of their Spanish, math and reading books. In Arizona, classes at one Vail School District high school are conducted entirely with laptops instead of textbooks. And in Virginia this year, state officials and educators unveiled a free physics flexbook to complement textbooks.
benton.org/node/28902 | Washington Post
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WHAT'S NEXT IN SOCIAL MEDIA?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Monica Hesse]
Last month, Facebook gained its 300 millionth user and turned a profit for the first time in its six-year history. Can we just Facebook forever, friend requesting until we are officially connected to everyone? One year into Facebook's unchallenged social networking domination -- three years ago this month from its availability to the general public -- and suddenly people are beginning to speculate about its demise. All social networking sites eventually die off, mutate or find a second life elsewhere, as evidenced by the ones that have come before. But why are we so eager to move on?
benton.org/node/28896 | Washington Post
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS/JOURNALISM

WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALS TO APPEAR ON FOX NEWS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Krissah Thompson]
After impugning the objectivity of Fox News and saying that they would begin to treat the network as "an opponent," White House officials said Sunday that they will allow administration officials to appear on the network. The back-and-forth played out on political talk shows Sunday, with others in the president's inner circle criticizing Fox, which is home to several staunch Obama critics -- including Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, who has called the president a racist. Beck also has pushed against administration hires. Most notably, the commentator used his show to campaign for the ouster of Van Jones, a White House environmental adviser who had been criticized for past statements and associations. Jones was then forced to resign. Without citing specific complaints against Fox, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said on CNN's "State of the Union" that the way "the president looks at it and we look at it is it is not a news organization so much as it has a perspective." Karl Rove, a Fox News contributor who advised President George W. Bush, said Obama's aides have tried to "demonize" Fox and compared their approach to that of President Richard M. Nixon.
benton.org/node/28901 | Washington Post | USAToday
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FINDING A NEW MODEL FOR NEWS REPORTING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Leonard Downie Jr, Michael Schudson]
[Commentary] News reporting that holds accountable those with power and influence has been a vital part of American democratic life, especially in places with daily newspapers profitable enough, and with owners public-spirited enough, to maintain substantial reporting staffs. That journalism is now at risk, along with the advertising-supported economic foundations of newspapers. American society must now take some collective responsibility for supporting news reporting -- as society has, at much greater expense, for public education, health care, scientific advancement and cultural preservation, through varying combinations of philanthropy, subsidy and government policy. It may not be essential to save or promote any particular news medium, including print newspapers. What is paramount is preserving independent, original, credible reporting, whether or not it is profitable, and regardless of the medium in which it appears.
benton.org/node/28900 | Washington Post
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A NEWSROOM SUBSIDIZED?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
[Commentary] We're facing a paperless recovery wherein old-line content companies need to continue to slash in order to stay ahead of what looks to be a broad secular decline. Former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr and Michael Schudson, a professor at the Columbia University Journalism School, were commissioned by Nicholas B. Lemann, the dean of the journalism school, to write a report on the future of news and the newsroom. It was Mr. Downie who came up with the insight a few years back that the most important fight is not for newspapers, but for the newsrooms they support. The report's title, "The Reconstruction of American Journalism," telegraphs its sober intent, a realpolitik way of thinking that is reflected in the opening words of the report: "Fewer journalists are reporting less news in fewer pages, and the hegemony that near-monopoly metropolitan newspapers enjoyed during the last third of the 20th century, even as their primary audience eroded, is ending." In other words, the current advertising model won't continue to support so-called accountability journalism.
benton.org/node/28899 | New York Times | WashPost
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TELEVISION

NIELSEN TO ADD INTERNET METERS TO ENTIRE TV RATINGS SAMPLE
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Joe Mandese]
Nielsen Co. has decided on a plan to install Internet meters alongside TV meters in its entire TV measurement panel over the next year, with the possibility of providing a so-called "single source" measurement of television programming viewed across the two media as soon as 2011. The timing of the plan, and a final decision to integrate the measurement of the two media, ultimately will be decided by Nielsen's clients, but the decision to begin a system-wide deployment of Internet meters in its entire TV meter sample was effectively decided Friday, following a "special" meeting with its most influential clients to brief them on the concept, and to gauge their interests and concerns.
benton.org/node/28894 | MediaPost
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THE WORTH OF NBC AS A PIECE OF GE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Rob Cox, Aliza Rosenbaum]
General Electric at long last appears ready to part with NBC Universal, the media and entertainment business it assembled through 24 years of management effort — and at least $33 billion of shareholders' money. A deal in the works with the cable operator Comcast that could value NBC at around $24 billion wouldn't be a big disaster. But it would hardly qualify as an advertisement for G.E.'s vaunted management and capital allocation skills: when the value of all the transactions undertaken by NBC is added up, it comes to at least $33 billion, according to Dealogic data. That includes partial stakes in assets like the Weather Channel. That means G.E. may have paid billions of dollars more over the years to build NBC than it will get back.
benton.org/node/28898 | New York Times | Wall Street Journal | New York Times -- Vivendi
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NBC UNIVERSAL TEES UP CAUSE-RELATED SHOWS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Suzanne Vranica]
With ad spending still in the doldrums, NBC Universal has won some extra business by offering marketers the chance to hitch their products to programs promoting a cause or health or social issue. The General Electric unit is increasingly creating programs across its broadcast, cable and online properties—and packaging existing episodes—that promote a cause, such as the environment. It is touting these issue packages as a way for marketers to better target ads and product placements. Last week, the company, which is the subject of deal talks between GE and cable giant Comcast, announced its latest cause: health and wellness, with a focus on obesity. It is starting to sell ad time on programs based on those themes after previously offering similar packages tied to the environmental movement and women's issues. In doing so, NBCU is piggybacking on one of the few areas of marketing that has continued to grow despite the weak economy. Spending on cause sponsorships in the U.S. is expected to increase 3.1% this year to $1.57 billion, according IEG, a Chicago research firm owned by ad-holding company WPP, and is expected to grow faster than sports and arts sponsorships. Campbell Soup has signed on to the latest NBCU push, and plans to sponsor a multiday health segment on NBC's "Today" show next month, and in February, says Lisa Walker, the company's vice president of soup innovation.
benton.org/node/28897 | Wall Street Journal
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Since When Did Nearly 10 Years of Study Become a "Rush"?

[Commentary] The most recent reminder of my age and wisdom/oncoming decrepitude is the rather silly argument that we are somehow "rushing" into network neutrality — because nearly ten years of study and debate cannot possibly be enough to justify this being the first major policy initiative for the Genachowski Federal Communications Commission. Yes, it was 9 years ago last month when the FCC launched its first inquiry asking how to classify "high speed access to the Internet over cable and other facilities. Back then, of course (as I explained in my first net neutrality blog post back in 2006) we didn't have the term "network neutrality." We talked about interconnection obligations and the prohibition on messing with user content and the ability to connect devices to the network, but we didn't have the term "network neutrality." Instead, we talked about the far more ambitious "open access," which meant allowing retail competitors to lease access to the underlying network (or at least have interconnection access at key points).

Big Telecom Wants To Squash The Free Internet, Starting Now

[Commentary] Congressional Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and progressives are sending hostile letters to the Federal Communications Commission all in the cause of - making sure that AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and the rest can run the Internet the way they want to and to hell with the way the Internet has developed for the past 10 years. That's worth spending millions of lobbying, campaign and ad dollars on, don't you think? And the FCC hasn't even issued its proposed rules yet -- that doesn't happen until Thursday (Oct. 22), much less taken public comment, nor made a final decision. Surely this is something of which Big Telecom is very, very afraid. The point of all this activity is to cow the FCC into proposing weak and ineffective Net Neutrality rules -- in essence to fix the game before it gets started. That's why there is this unprecedented outpouring of lobbying and letters ahead of time. Start the pressure early. Keep it on late, and the FCC and the White House will cave. That's the Big Telecom strategy. Who is more worthy of our elected representatives advocacy? Big telecom companies which want to exercise control over something they never controlled? Or the millions of people who are used to an Internet in which they, not big media, make decisions about how to go about their online lives, whether investing millions of dollars, uploading a video or just listening to music. So far, it's the first batch. And unfortunately, the misguided members of Congress aren't alone in their campaign to destroy today's Internet. Telecom industry organizations, labor and even some state governors and civil rights groups, are getting in on the act, urging the FCC, when it proposes rules on Thursday, to allow AT&T, Comcast and Verizon to have unlimited power to do what they want to online.

Closed networks hinder Internet access

US reluctance to force telecoms and cable operators to open their networks to competitors has led to the country being overtaken in rankings of broadband penetration and affordability, according to a study for the Federal Communications Commission. The study by the Berkman Center for Internet and society at Harvard University could strengthen expectations of change in the stance held by the FCC for much of this decade, which contrasted with countries from the Netherlands to South Korea that have "open access" policies. It notes that open access has been "a closed issue in US policy debates" since 2002. The report's authors said their "most surprising and significant finding" was that unbundling, wholesaling and functional separation had played core roles in the transition to first-generation broadband access in most high-performing countries. Pushing incumbent telecoms providers to restructure and open networks was playing an equally central role in planning for the next generation of high speeds and ubiquitous access, it said.

States weigh campaign rules for the Internet age

Many states currently require political ads to include disclaimers saying who paid for them, although some exempt small items such as bumper stickers, buttons and T-shirts where a disclaimer is impractical. Paul Ryan, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, said text messages and small pay-per-click online ads might become "the campaign buttons of the Millennium Era." So far, the Federal Elections Commission has taken a mostly hands-off approach, as campaigns still spend far more money reaching voters through television, radio and direct mail. The commission ruled in 2006 that campaign regulations do not apply to most Internet activity, except for paid political advertising on someone else's Web site. Bloggers are exempt as long as they write voluntarily and are not paid by a campaign.

Calling America's bluff on Internet gambling

[Commentary] The US approach to Internet gambling, which is legal in much of the rest of the world, is absurd. The activity is unstoppable, so let's regulate it.

In some classrooms, books are a thing of the past

Textbook-free classrooms are by no means the norm, but they may be someday. Slowly, but in increasing numbers, grade schools across the country are supplementing or substituting the heavy, expensive and indelible hardbound book with its lighter, cheaper and changeable cousin: the digital textbook. Also known as a flexbook because of its adaptability, a digital textbook can be downloaded, projected and printed, and can range from simple text to a Web-based curriculum embedded with multimedia and links to Internet content. Some versions must be purchased; others are "open source" -- free and available online to anyone. Some praise the technology as a way to save schools money, replace outdated books and better engage tech-savvy students. Others say most schools don't have the resources to join the digital drift, or they question the quality of open-source content. Hardbound books still dominate the $7 billion U.S. textbook market, with digital textbooks making up less than 5 percent, according to analyst Kathy Mickey of Simba Information, a market research group. But that is changing, as K-12 schools follow the lead of U.S. universities and schools in other countries, including South Korea and Turkey. In Florida's Broward County, students and teachers log online to access digital versions of their Spanish, math and reading books. In Arizona, classes at one Vail School District high school are conducted entirely with laptops instead of textbooks. And in Virginia this year, state officials and educators unveiled a free physics flexbook to complement textbooks.

White House officials to appear on Fox News

After impugning the objectivity of Fox News and saying that they would begin to treat the network as "an opponent," White House officials said Sunday that they will allow administration officials to appear on the network. The back-and-forth played out on political talk shows Sunday, with others in the president's inner circle criticizing Fox, which is home to several staunch Obama critics -- including Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, who has called the president a racist. Beck also has pushed against administration hires. Most notably, the commentator used his show to campaign for the ouster of Van Jones, a White House environmental adviser who had been criticized for past statements and associations. Jones was then forced to resign. Without citing specific complaints against Fox, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said on CNN's "State of the Union" that the way "the president looks at it and we look at it is it is not a news organization so much as it has a perspective." Karl Rove, a Fox News contributor who advised President George W. Bush, said Obama's aides have tried to "demonize" Fox and compared their approach to that of President Richard M. Nixon.

Finding a new model for news reporting

[Commentary] News reporting that holds accountable those with power and influence has been a vital part of American democratic life, especially in places with daily newspapers profitable enough, and with owners public-spirited enough, to maintain substantial reporting staffs. That journalism is now at risk, along with the advertising-supported economic foundations of newspapers. American society must now take some collective responsibility for supporting news reporting -- as society has, at much greater expense, for public education, health care, scientific advancement and cultural preservation, through varying combinations of philanthropy, subsidy and government policy. It may not be essential to save or promote any particular news medium, including print newspapers. What is paramount is preserving independent, original, credible reporting, whether or not it is profitable, and regardless of the medium in which it appears.

A Newsroom Subsidized? Minds Reel

[Commentary] We're facing a paperless recovery wherein old-line content companies need to continue to slash in order to stay ahead of what looks to be a broad secular decline. Former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr and Michael Schudson, a professor at the Columbia University Journalism School, were commissioned by Nicholas B. Lemann, the dean of the journalism school, to write a report on the future of news and the newsroom. It was Mr. Downie who came up with the insight a few years back that the most important fight is not for newspapers, but for the newsrooms they support. The report's title, "The Reconstruction of American Journalism," telegraphs its sober intent, a realpolitik way of thinking that is reflected in the opening words of the report: "Fewer journalists are reporting less news in fewer pages, and the hegemony that near-monopoly metropolitan newspapers enjoyed during the last third of the 20th century, even as their primary audience eroded, is ending." In other words, the current advertising model won't continue to support so-called accountability journalism.

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