October 2009

The marketing industry isn't just under threat of regulatory pressure by the federal government -- it's also under fire in states across the country. The issues range from pushes to tax advertising (under discussion in the legislatures of at least 15 states) to a county supervisor in Virginia asking his legislative committee to determine if it can regulate "human billboard" advertising. "States are under enormous financial pressure and they're looking at any source they can find," said Dan Jaffe, exec VP-government relations for the Association of National Advertisers. "That's ... why there are more taxes and creative ways to tax the industry to pay for programs that are being somewhat diminished."

Educators say a neutral Internet is a key in developing and delivering online content to distance learners and students in rural areas, and an unregulated Internet would create unfair advantages for large universities that could pay more for faster, more efficient web service. Wendy Wigen, a government relations officer for higher-education technology advocate EDUCAUSE, said failure to pass a Network Neutrality law would mean the country's largest universities could pay telecommunications companies for preferential treatment, while small community colleges without similar financial means would be at a distinct disadvantage. "[Colleges] could pay to be in the fast lane," Wigen said. "These managed services would take over what we think of as the public Internet. ... The idea that our content would be discriminated against is disturbing, to say the least. We don't want whoever pays the most [to get] the best treatment."

[Commentary] On Friday, economists at a Federal Communications Commission National Broadband Plan workshop debate how the wireline duopoly affects the market for broadband in the US and the majority of speakers insisted that when it comes to broadband access regulators need to also look at the wireless market. While typically a region will be served by one DSL provider and one cable provider, explained Marius Schwartz, a professor of economics at Georgetown University, there are also four national wireless carriers that can provide broadband service as well. If the FCC is going to view the wireless providers as a true nationwide substitution for wired broadband, then Higginbotham supposes it's good that it's trying to bring the same set of rules and standards for Network Neutrality to play for wireless operators. However, believing that wireless is a credible substitute for wired broadband is like believing that Molly McButter's powdered flakes are a credible substitute for the real thing.

A look at progressive voter contact methods shows how data-mining and targeting operations played a role in the election of Barack Obama. A year-long psycho-graphic voter targeting and contact operation performed by Catalist, a for-profit company, has been accredited with having helped Democrats win the 2008 data war. Catalist's member groups contacted a universe of 49 million adults more than 127 million times; about half of them managed to vote, representing more than 20% of all the votes cast. With a major caveat attached -- it's hard to know why individual voters are motivated to cast ballots on Election Day -- the report concludes that progressive data-driven targeting was "essential to progressive victories." In the 16 states targeted by liberal groups, more than one in three voters was contacted at least once before Election Day. The date shows the enormity of contact made by Catalist, but Catalist's CEO says the data might have just been "noise had the Obama campaign not embraced a methodology that used the data effectively."