The Honduran interim government shut down radio and TV stations that support ousted President Manuel Zelaya, but the Internet helps them evade the ban. Radio Globo director David Romero says the station has over 400,000 listeners online, four times its regular following. "It is frustrating the government," he says, laughing. "They can´t stop us."
Dozens of colleges — including Amherst, Bates, Carleton, Colby, Vassar, Wellesley and Yale — are embracing student blogs on their Web sites, seeing them as a powerful marketing tool for high school students, who these days are less interested in official messages and statistics than in first-hand narratives and direct interaction with current students. But so far, none of the blogs match the interactivity and creativity of those of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where they are posted prominently on the admissions homepage, along with hundreds of responses from prospective applicants — all unedited. Not every admissions office has been so ready to welcome uncensored student writing. M.I.T.'s bloggers, who are paid $10 an hour for up to four hours a week, offer thoughts on anything that might interest a prospective student. Some offer advice on the application process and the institute's intense workload; others write about quirkier topics, like warm apple pie topped with bacon and hot caramel sauce, falling down the stairs or trying to set a world record in the game of Mattress Dominos.
Speaking at the Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture, Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps said he believes that many of the media reform and justice causes for which Everett Parker worked are closer to achievement now than they have ever been. "A window of change and reform has opened for our country," Commissioner Copps said. "[A]fter years of dangerous drift and worse, America is poised at last to move ahead." He identified universal, affordable broadband as "the central infrastructure challenge of this first half of the Twenty-first century" and said that the FCC's charge to write a National Broadband Plan is "truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." But Commissioner Copps did not ignore traditional media policy. "The Internet opens wonderful new opportunities, to be sure-but what we have gained there hasn't yet begun to match what we have already lost because of bad choices that have been made regarding traditional media," he said. "Bad choices by the private sector through, for example, heedless consolidation that saddled companies with unmanageable debt and sacrificed localism and diversity to uniformity and program homogenization. Bad choices by government through, for example, mindless deregulation-particularly on the part of the Commission of which I am a member-gutting most of the public interest protections that under-girded our media landscape for decades. These private and public choices exacted a heavy toll on consumers, on all our citizens and, in the end-as we've come to see-on the companies themselves."
Intellectual property lobbyist Steven Metalitz urged lawmakers at a Capitol Hill briefing to monitor the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and weigh in "if something goes wrong with the plumbing." The pact between the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and ICANN, which replaces a multiyear contract that expired Wednesday, requires a vetting of concerns about a plan to bring to market potentially hundreds of new domain names. The NTIA-ICANN accord sets up a review panel to ensure the continuance of a public database of Web site owners that is regularly used by law enforcement. Brenden Kuerbis of Syracuse University's Internet Governance Project warned the agreement contains design flaws. The review panels that it creates could add "another layer of politics and second guessing ... on what is already a messy and pretty diffuse process," he said. He also warned the "top-down" appointment of experts to serve on the panels could short-circuit ICANN's bottom-up governance mandate.
The most amazing thing happened. House Republicans on the Commerce Committee voted to regulate the Internet. Really. So did Democrats, but many of them don't find that as abhorrent as the Republicans say they find it. After all their talk about how the government should stay out for fear of hurting technology, innovation, yada, yada, the Committee passed a bill put requirements on peer-to-peer (P2P) software passed by voice vote with enthusiastic endorsement from even the most dedicated opponents of making sure the Internet functions free of discriminatory control by the telephone and cable companies.
As Minnesota develops a plan to increase high-speed broadband to rural areas, advocates complain that the organization chosen to map the state's broadband access — and the process Gov. Tim Pawlenty's administration used to make the selection — lack sufficient transparency. Commissioners of the Minnesota Departments of Commerce and Employment and Economic Development have recommended Connected Nation as the state's vendor for broadband mapping. The commissioners arrived at their decision in July, but without seeking the input of the Ultra High Speed Broadband Task Force, whose members Pawlenty appointed. "The Governor signed off and [Connected Nation] is off to the races," wrote task force member Mike O'Connor. "I'm pretty cranky about this process. Nice n' cozy. Nice n' closed. Nice bypass of the Task Force. No public input at all as far as I can see," he said.
The government requires disclosure labels on everything from new cars to refrigerators to pre-packaged food. The New America Foundation says that broadband needs its own labels, and it has already mocked up a sample.
[Commentary] National policy makers and local advocates must address the broadband needs of local businesses. In economically troubled times, small businesses are crucial to job growth and recovery. They collectively hire the most people and profitable small businesses shore up the tax base. For small business owners and entrepreneurs in rural communities, broadband is a game changer. This technology enables them to expand beyond their local neighborhoods to access new customers around the globe. Broadband increases local opportunities as well, bringing profit-generating improvements to business operations, such as inventory management and marketing communications that can allow the smallest firms to compete with the largest. These businesses must have broadband to compete for talent on the same basis as companies in the tech corridors near Washington, Boston or San Francisco.
President Barack Obama proclaimed October 2009 as , calling upon Americans to recognize the importance of cybersecurity and to observe this month with appropriate activities, events, and trainings to enhance our national security and resilience. Cyber attacks and their viral ability to infect networks, devices, and software must be the concern of all Americans. The Administration is committed to treating our digital infrastructure as a strategic national asset. Protecting this infrastructure is a national security priority, and in the process, we will ensure that these networks are comprehensive, trustworthy, and resilient.
House lawmakers are ramping up their oversight of the multibillion-dollar effort to protect government computer networks amid concerns that the Obama administration has put its cybersecurity agenda on the back burner. House Intelligence Technical and Tactical Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman C.A. (Dutch) Ruppersberger (D-MD) said he is launching a series of strategy and budget meetings with officials from federal agencies and private companies who deal with cybersecurity. He said he plans to produce a comprehensive report with recommendations.
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