November 2009

"If it bothers you that the China government does it, it should bother you when your cable company does it."
-- Andrew McLaughlin, Deputy Chief Technology Officer, Internet Policy

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY NOVEMBER 24, 2009

MEDIA & ELECTIONS
   Gross Failure of the Media

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Free speech is Network Neutrality foreign policy
   Iran Expanding Effort to Stifle the Opposition
   Voice of America expands audience
   Free speech: It's the ACLU's deal

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   More Bandwidth, Money Needed For Broadband Research
   Green: Broadband Plan Could Learn From Cable Labs Collaborative Model
   FCC's Baker concerned about unintended impact of online rules
   USF legislation could be a game-changer for broadband innovation
   Broadband and Energy Hearing at MIT
   Telcos to FCC: give us billions, but don't make us share lines
   Survey Shows Fiber Reaching Rural America
   Launch of National Broadband Research Center Puts Focus on Adoption, Not Access
   UN ponders 'Net "10 commandments"
   How Web 2.0 is changing the way we work
   Price War Brews Between Amazon and Wal-Mart
   Row 44's in-flight Internet service gets off the ground

WIRELESS/TELECOM
   Apple's Schiller Defends iPhone App Approval Process
   Does AT&T turn into a pumpkin in June?
   Smartphone growth to continue strong in 2010
   Word of Advice To AT&T: If You're The Only One Ranting, You Look Awkward
   Will the 'smartbook' be a better Netbook?
   AT&T offers pay by day, week, month data options

OWNERSHIP
   Google Moves to Acquire Teracent
   FCC Filing Deadline for the Commercial Broadcast Ownership Report
   Organizations Ask FCC Not To Delay Date For Collecting Ownership Information
   MMTC Opposed to FCC's Collection Of Social Security Numbers
   Malone: Key To NBCU/Comcast Deal is What Government, Affiliates Want
   Ciena buys Nortel unit to expand footprint

THE STIMULUS
   Time short to agree on smart grid standards
   Better reporting technology an unexpected byproduct of stimulus
   MGMA warns that IT stimulus money could be wasted

ADVERTISING
   FTC Asked To Redefine Definition of Programming Targeted To Kids, Teens
   Study: Kids in home-based day care watch more TV
   Google teams up with TiVo to give advertisers a clearer picture

MORE ONLINE ...
   PTC Upset Over Adam Lambert AMA Performance
   Transforming Learning in the Digital Age

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MEDIA & ELECTIONS

GROSS FAILURE OF THE MEDIA
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Cenk Uygur]
[Commentary] A new poll by Public Policy Polling shows that 52% of Republicans believe that Obama did not really win the 2008 election. You think that's absurd, get a load of why -- ACORN stole it for him. Yes, a majority of Republicans in the country believe ACORN flat out stole the election for Obama. Only 27% of Republicans believe Obama won the election legitimately. 27%. Those are stunning numbers. There is not one shred of evidence that ACORN "stole" one vote for Obama in the 2008 election. Do you know how many it would have needed to "steal" to swing the election from Obama to McCain? 9.5 million. But it's not just Republicans. 26% of Americans believe that ACORN stole the 2008 election. Only 62% of the country believes Obama was legitimately elected. How can over a quarter of the country believe something so patently untrue and utterly ridiculous? It's because conservative media puts these messages out there non-stop without any effective challenge. They poison the conversation with absolute falsehoods and no one fights back. Who's fighting for ACORN now? Who is telling people that ACORN did not steal any votes in 2008? There is a continual battering ram of lies from one side and no response from the other.
benton.org/node/30002 | Huffington Post, The
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

FREE SPEECH, NET NEUTRALITY, FOREIGN POLICY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
When President Obama told university students in Shanghai last week that he's a "big supporter of non-censorship," it took 27 minutes for one major Chinese portal to delete that part of his speech. After two-and-a-half hours, almost all portals in the nation took out the comments from news coverage. Despite what appeared to be the Chinese government's clampdown on the controversial issue of online censorship, an explosive exchange about Obama's support for "open Internet use" surfaced on blogs and on Twitter. "That is the optimistic part of the story," said Andrew McLaughlin, the nation's deputy technology officer, recounting the event. In a telecom law conference last Thursday by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln law school, McLaughlin and Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia University, talked about how an open Internet, or so-called net neutrality, underlies free speech on the Web. Without it, censorship can occur. "If it bothers you that the China government does it, it should bother you when your cable company does it," McLaughlin said.
benton.org/node/29992 | Washington Post
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IRAN EXPANDING EFFORT TO STIFLE THE OPPOSITION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Robert Worth]
After last summer's disputed presidential election, Iran's government relied largely on brute force — beatings, arrests and show trials — to stifle the country's embattled opposition movement. Now, stung by the force and persistence of the protests, the government appears to be starting a far more ambitious effort to discredit its opponents and re-educate Iran's mostly young and restive population. In recent weeks, the government has announced a variety of new ideological offensives. It is implanting 6,000 Basij militia centers in elementary schools across Iran to promote the ideals of the Islamic Revolution, and it has created a new police unit to sweep the Internet for dissident voices. A company affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards acquired a majority share in the nation's telecommunications monopoly this year, giving the Guards de facto control of Iran's land lines, Internet providers and two cellphone companies. And in the spring, the Revolutionary Guards plan to open a news agency with print, photo and television elements.
benton.org/node/30017 | New York Times
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VOICE OF AMERICA EXPANDS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Juan Tamayo]
Facing a group of presidents loudly critical of Washington, the U.S. government's Voice of America broadcast is expanding its audience in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, VOA officials said. VOA's Spanish-language division also will step up its use of Radio/TV Marti's production facilities in Miami because of budget pressures on both broadcasters, the officials added. The VOA effort to grow its Latin American audience comes as the Obama administration tries to counter the attacks on U.S. policies by several presidents in the region: Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.
benton.org/node/30005 | Washington Post
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FREE SPEECH AND THE ACLU
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
The American Civil Liberties Union is vilified by conservatives as a left-wing lobby disguised as an advocate for free speech for all. And certainly it's true that many supporters of the organization are liberal in their political views. But to its credit, the ACLU often puts its commitment to free expression above those opinions. The latest example is its support for a student group at the University of Nevada that invited Jim Gilchrist, an extreme opponent of illegal immigration, to take part in a panel discussion.
benton.org/node/30004 | Los Angeles Times
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

MORE BANDWIDTH, MORE MONEY NEEDED FOR BROADBAND RESEARCH
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Academics at a Federal Communications Commission National Broadband Plan workshop focused on broadband research signaled that the country was going to need more bandwidth and money to help support research into broadband. Virginia Tech professor Charles Bostian made a pitch for spectrum sharing rather than wholesale reclamation of spectrum from other users and for sharing it where it would do the most good, which he argued was not in the band where broadcasters and public safety operations reside. Bostian said that everybody agrees more spectrum is needed, but that the idea of sharing the so-called "white spaces" in TV channels is not the way to go. He said that instead there needed to be more focus on developing spectrum that could be more easily and efficiently shared, the unlicensed WiFi spectrum for example. He also said the goal there should not be to avoid all interference, but to manage it. Vint Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist, talked about repurposing, but aimed it at the cable and satellite folks. He said that both cable -- he was including telco services as well -- and satellite had huge capacity dedicated to "decreasingly quality video" and, in the case of satellite, to "raining down digital bits." He said if some of that could be repurposed to "rain down" Internet capacity, "we could be doing some very interesting experiments," pointing out that would require partnerships between private industry and government. Chip Elliot, chief engineer at BBN Technologies, argued for requiring any broadband deployment using government funds to be research-enabled, meaning that researchers would get to share it for experimental purposes.
benton.org/node/30001 | Broadcasting&Cable
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GREEN: BROADBAND PLAN COULD LEARN FROM CABLE LABS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Former Cable Labs chief Dick Green wants the government to promote the kind of collaborative research that resulted in the DOCSIS standard for cable high-speed modem data delivery and to find ways to incentivize research through government contracting. Speaking at an Federal Communications Commission broadband workshop on spurring research, Green pointed to the National Cooperative Research Act of 1984, which allowed Cable Labs to form by removing antitrust problems with joint research. Green also took the opportunity to put in a plug for that standard, pointing out that by 2010 it will have the capability of delivering more than 300 megabits per second. He said the government, as part of the national broadband plan, should encourage more such collaborations, which increases the number of joint projects and boosts competitiveness of the U.S. in research. It has numerous benefits, he said, including reducing costs, eliminating duplicative efforts, and encouraging synergies.
benton.org/node/30009 | Broadcasting&Cable
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FCC'S BAKER AND UNINTENDED IMPACT
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
Federal Communications Commission member Meredith Attwell Baker spends most of her time thinking about the Internet — debating questions about whether it should be regulated, how it should be expanded and where the FCC can find the necessary airwaves to do so. Internet companies, public interest groups and telecom carriers have lobbied Attwell heavily during her short tenure at the FCC on the network neutrality rules now under consideration. The rules would require broadband service providers to treat all Internet traffic equally. Commissioner Baker voted to move the rulemaking process forward, but made clear she is worried about the unintended consequences of any regulation. Baker has taken a keen interest in the spectrum shortage the FCC faces. As the former acting administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an agency within the Commerce Department that oversees the airwaves licensed to federal agencies, Baker thinks the government and companies need to use their spectrum resources more efficiently. Broadcasters may be the source of some of the spectrum necessary to build wireless networks fast enough to provide broadband service, she said. The FCC is also moving forward to make empty broadcast airwaves known as "white spaces" available for unlicensed use, a proposal broadcasters have opposed vehemently.
benton.org/node/30008 | Hill, The
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USF LEGISLATION AND BROADBAND INNOVATION
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Craig Settles]
[Commentary] It's difficult to see the potential diamonds of innovation in the rough phase our current economy, but proposed legislation to reform the Universal Service Fund could result in broadband innovations - if people with vision see the light. The challenge, of course, will be in getting from here to there once the light bulb goes off. The High Cost Fund is the specific USF program that would support the broadband funding. Currently it provides vital telephone services (and occasionally some broadband projects are funded) for which many are thankful. But there probably isn't much resulting from this you'd call innovative. This can change if creative people are willing to influence the hearts and minds of those writing and eventually voting on the reform bill, as well as inspire the business thinking of rural telecom companies that are intended fund recipients. Congress should change the High Cost Fund into a Digital Communication Enhancement Fund. Just nuke once and for all this concept that there are separate worlds of voice communication and data communication. It's a digital world now, folks! Voice can be reduced to 0's and 1's similar to everything else we use to communicate information. Our legislation and rules for grants need to reflect and reinforce this reality.
benton.org/node/29991 | Fierce
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BROADBAND AND ENERGY HEARING AT MIT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission will hold a field hearing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology focusing on how broadband can help the nation achieve its energy and environmental goals, including energy independence, greenhouse gas emissions reductions and clean energy generation. The public is encouraged to attend and participate.
benton.org/node/29990 | Federal Communications Commission
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TELCOS TO FCC: GIVE US BILLIONS, BUT NO LINE SHARING
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
It was a report that went right to the roots of United States broadband policy, so it should come as no surprise that it's getting hammered by the telecommunications industry. Harvard's Berkman Center study of global broadband practices, produced at the FCC's request, is an "embarrassingly slanted econometric analysis that violates professional statistical standards and is insufficiently reliable to provide meaningful guidance," declares AT&T. The study does nothing but promote the lead author's "own extreme views," warns a response from Verizon Wireless. Most importantly, it "should not be relied upon by the FCC in formulating a National Broadband Plan," concludes the United States Telecom Association. Reviewing the slew of criticisms, Berkman's blog wryly notes that the report seems to have been "a mini stimulus act for telecommunications lawyers and consultants." (Interestingly, not everything the Berkman study observes is repugnant to the telcos—hint: big direct public subsidies.) But the ISPs have good reason to go after Harvard scholar Yochai Benkler's survey on "Next Generation Connectivity" around the world, because if the Federal Communications Commission does endorse the study's conclusions in its impending National Broadband Plan, that document might say something like this: "FCC line-sharing policy since 2002 has taken the United States off track when it comes to broadband deployment. The agency should reverse course and require AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and the other big ISPs to open their networks to smaller providers of residential broadband service at regulated wholesale rates. This will foster competition, lower prices, and more innovative broadband offerings across the country, as it has elsewhere." That's what's at stake in this debate, and it's not a pretty prospect for Big Telecom.
benton.org/node/29989 | Ars Technica
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FIBER REACHING RURAL AMERICA
[SOURCE: BroadbandBreakfast, AUTHOR: ]
According to a survey of rural carriers conducted by the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, these rural providers are deploying fiber considerably faster than one would expect. Consumers are seeing an increase in broadband speeds due to the increase of fiber availability that was given to the communities, said NTCA. NTCA's 2009 broadband and Internet availability survey found that nearly three-quarters, or 73 percent, of respondents with a fiber deployment strategy intend to offer fiber to the node to more than 75 percent of their customer base by 2011. Among respondent, 55 percent plan to offer fiber to the home to more than half their customers in that same time frame ­ more than double the amount of 26 percent last year. Of the respondents of the survey, 53 percent said their customers now can receive broadband at between 3 and 6 Megabits per second (Mbps), and 39 percent said their customers can receive service in excess of 6 Mpbs.
benton.org/node/29988 | BroadbandBreakfast
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NATIONAL BROADBAND RESEARCH CENTER
[SOURCE: BroadbandBreakfast, AUTHOR: Eli Evans]
Declaring that its prior mission had been accomplished, on Thursday the Alliance for Public Technology rebranded itself as the National Broadband Research Center, a new organization charged with carrying the banner for broadband adoption. When the Alliance for Public Technology was founded twenty years ago, its members saw themselves as leaders in the call for equal access to technology. Now, "the goal of universal access is not really new," said Kenneth Peres, president of the board of directors, and an economist for the Communications Workers of America. Peres said that equal access is approaching realization: among other achievements, almost 100 percent of American classrooms are now wired. The leaders of APT believe that there is now a more fundamental problem with demand. Hence the National Broadband Research Center steps in. The NBRC mission is to "foster adoption of high-speed applications by unserved, underserved, under-resourced and under-represented communities through educating, informing and connecting them to relevant resources," according to the center.
benton.org/node/29987 | BroadbandBreakfast
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UN PONDERS 10 COMMANDMENTS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Janna Quitney Anderson]
Write a new 10 Commandments of the Internet, Peter proposed, and draft them on a tablet PC on Mount Sinai. The "Peter" in question was Internet historian Ian Peter, and the place was the UN-backed Internet Governance Forum 2009 held last week in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, a few kilometers from Mount Sinai. Peter's model for his proposed commandments isn't Moses, but the engineers and computer science guys who dreamed up the Internet back in the 1960s, building it through an amazingly open and collaborative effort that continues functioning to this day. When he asked if anyone would be interested in formally documenting the principles of the Internet ethos, Internet ecosystem or whatever one might call it, hands shot up all around the room.
benton.org/node/29998 | Ars Technica
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PRICE WAR BREWS BETWEEN AMAZON AND WAL-MART
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: ]
Ali had Frazier. Coke has Pepsi. The Yankees have the Red Sox. Now Wal-Mart, the mightiest retail giant in history, may have met its own worthy adversary: Amazon.com. In what is emerging as one of the main story lines of the 2009 post-recession shopping season, the two heavyweight retailers are waging an online price war that is spreading through product areas like books, movies, toys and electronics. "It's not about the prices of books and movies anymore. There is a bigger battle being fought," said Fiona Dias, executive vice president at GSI Commerce, which manages the Web sites of large retailers. "The price-sniping by Wal-Mart is part of a greater strategic plan. They are just not going to cede their business to Amazon."
benton.org/node/30016 | New York Times
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WIRELESS/TELECOM

APPLE'S IPHONE APP APPROVAL PROCESS
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Arik Hesseldahl]
Apple is under fire from some developers for the way it vets applications that can be sold on its online App Store. Facebook developer Joe Hewitt goes so far as to say he's "philosophically opposed" to the very notion of a company deciding which applications can and can't be used on its hardware. The presence of "gatekeepers" in software development "sets a horrible precedent," he says. But in his first extensive interview on the subject, Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice-president for worldwide product marketing, outlines the many reasons Apple keeps close tabs on which applications can be downloaded onto the iPhone and iPod Touch. He also outlined ways the company is trying to become more flexible in its approval process. "We've built a store for the most part that people can trust," he says. "You and your family and friends can download applications from the store, and for the most part they do what you'd expect, and they get onto your phone, and you get billed appropriately, and it all just works."
benton.org/node/29985 | BusinessWeek
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DOES AT&T TURN INTO A PUMPKIN IN JUNE?
[SOURCE: Fortune, AUTHOR: Philip Elmer-DeWitt]
Broadpoint AmTech's Brian Marshall predicts that the contract that gives AT&T exclusive access in the U.S. to Apple's iPhone expires in June 2010. He also says that Apple is now getting a $450 subsidy from AT&T for each iPhone it sells; after June, that subsidy will be reduced to $300 for all carriers, domestic and international. He also says the 4% of AT&T subscribers who use the iPhone consume roughly 40% of the network's bandwidth.
benton.org/node/29982 | Fortune
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SMARTPHONE GROWTH TO CONTINUE STRONG IN 2010
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Tarmo Virki]
The wireless chip industry expects smartphone market surge to continue, with British microchip designer ARM saying growth would likely even accelerate further next year. The smartphone market slowed drastically in the September quarter, but chip makers -- whose products are sold weeks, if not months, before phones are sold to consumers -- said they were seeing strong market growth, indicating third quarter slowdown was temporary. ARM's designs are in 90 percent of mobile phones, including Apple's iPhone and Nokia's new top-of-the-range model N900.
benton.org/node/29993 | Reuters
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AT&T, IF YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE RANTING ...
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] Perhaps AT&T accepts Google's explanation that Google Voice is an information service? But it is also consistent with AT&T's overall strategy of trying to duck substantive issues and debates on network neutrality and bring in a host of proceedings that don't belong — other than as opportunities to try to make this about Google rather than about substance. Certainly there are plenty of folks out there objecting to the network neutrality proposals. For the most part, however, they appear to be following the advice of Commissioner Clyburn and others in urging commenters to focus on issues and not invective. While I certainly disagree with Verizon, Comcast and others who say that a rule is unnecessary, or harmful, or beyond the FCC's authority, these are relevant and substantive arguments that need to be addressed in a serious manner. Happily, AT&T appears to be the only provider still consistently harping on the theme that it is "all about the Google" and that therefore anything Google does is somehow relevant to network neutrality — even when it legally isn't.
benton.org/node/29984 | Public Knowledge
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OWNERSHIP

GOOGLE ACQUIRES TERACENT
[SOURCE: MediaWeek, AUTHOR: Mike Shields, Brian Morrissey]
Google has reached an agreement to purchase Teracent, a startup which has built a technology platform that promises to enable advertisers to adjust and customize online display ads on the fly. Teracent's technology customizes graphic advertisements based on who is watching them, so that a retailer's closest store could become part of an ad, for example, or new products could be swapped into a company's standard ad with minimal effort. Ads can also be changed based on the time of day and a person's language. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Executives at Google expected the transaction to close during the current quarter. The Google acquisition is part of an effort to expand the base of display advertisers by automating the creative process. Google has long predicted that via the Internet, brands, particularly direct response brands, will eventually be able to advertise every single product in their portfolio, rather than putting resources behind a product or two in a single national ad campaign.
benton.org/node/30000 | MediaWeek | Reuters
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FCC DELAYS OWNERSHIP REPORT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has extended -- until January 11, 2009 -- the deadline for broadcast stations to file Form 323, the commercial broadcast ownership report.
benton.org/node/29999 | Federal Communications Commission
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ORGANIZATIONS ASK FCC NOT TO DELAY DATE FOR COLLECTING OWNERSHIP INFO
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A group of organizations -- including ownership diversity fans Common Cause, Free Press, and United Church of Christ -- have asked the Federal Communications Commission not to delay the Dec. 15 date for collecting more and more detailed ownership information from station owners. Expanding reporting requirements were part of then acting FCC Commissioner Michael Copps' effort to tee up minority ownership reforms by collecting more and better data on just who owns what. In a filing with the FCC Monday, the groups were opposing a motion for a stay filed last week by Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth which told the FCC the changes it made to the form earlier this year were an "unexpected revision...inappropriately adopted." They require more information, including social security numbers from anyone with an interest, attributable or not, in a broadcast property. United Church of Christ et al. says wrong on both counts, and a few more as well.They say the law firm is not a party to the proceeding and did not comply with the rules regarding filing stay motions. As for the argument's merit about the revision being unexpected and there potentially being irreparable harm from providing all those SSNs, the groups said there wasn't any to either argument.
benton.org/node/30012 | Broadcasting&Cable
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MALONE ON COMCAST/NBC
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Liberty Media Group Chairman John Malone says the NBCU/Comcast deal could give Comcast some content market power "without betting the farm." Malone said powering up in content made strategic sense for Comcast, but said an x-factor is how much the government would allow it to use its market power. The Obama Administration has signaled it wants to take a closer look at mergers than its predecessor. The general theory is that the NBCU/Comcast deal will not be blocked, which Malone said he ascribes to, but that there will be conditions. And not just from the government. He said the key political issue will be what the NBC affiliates want out of this deal: "What will the broadcast affiliates of NBC say they want [in order] to not fight this transaction."
benton.org/node/29986 | Broadcasting&Cable | CNBC video | WashPost
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THE STIMULUS

TIME SHORT TO AGREE ON SMART GRID STANDARDS
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Martin LaMonica]
The first crack at vital smart-grid technical standards are due next year and some companies are already gumming up the works by pushing their own networking technology. The need to hammer out interoperability standards is urgent and the task is extremely complex, said George Arnold, the national coordinator for smart-grid interoperability at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) who gave a presentation at a seminar organized by the IEEE on Saturday. There will eventually be hundreds of standards covering many areas, from cybersecurity to how meters talk to plug-in cars. "We've never tried anything of this magnitude before," Arnold said. "It's more complicated than the Internet and Internet standards have been evolving for over 20 years." By contrast, smart-grid standards need to be agreed on quickly, with the next phase of a multiyear process due next to begin year. Technical interoperability through standards is supposed to safeguard various players, including consumers and utilities, against technical obsolescence and wasted investment. About $8.1 billion of federal, state, and industry money will be spent on upgrading the electricity grid in the next three years.
benton.org/node/29997 | C-Net|News.com
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BETTER REPORTING TECHNOLOGY AN UNEXPECTED BYPRODUCT OF STIMULUS
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
Technology that states have deployed to report how they spent federal stimulus funds is likely to permanently change information exchange across the public and private sector, despite controversy over figures on the number of jobs created and saved, said New York officials, academics and federal leaders. "Data is always problematic; it always can be improved," said Deborah Cunningham, coordinator for educational management services at the New York State Education Department. "This is the first time that I'm aware that the whole country reported at the same time in a 10-day period, and I think it's the way of the future." The mandate to make spending transparent led New York and other states to develop systems for rapidly gathering and reporting information to the federal government. The administration, in turn, used new systems to make the data, in some instances just weeks old, available to the public.
benton.org/node/29996 | nextgov
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MGMA WARNS THAT IT STIMULUS MONEY COULD BE WASTED
[SOURCE: ModernHealthcare.com, AUTHOR: Joseph Conn]
Medical Group Management Association CEO William Jessee, in a sharply worded, five-page letter to David Blumenthal, head of HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, warns of potential dire consequences if the government overreaches in setting up the health IT subsidy program created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Jessee spoke of deep concerns that a possible "inappropriate definition of meaningful use" and "inefficient administration" of an IT subsidy program under the federal stimulus law could "result in the needless squandering of resources and significant disruption to the nation's healthcare system." To qualify for an estimated $34 billion in federal reimbursements to purchase, install and maintain electronic health-record systems, providers, including physician-led groups, must demonstrate that they not only have the systems up and running, but also that they're being used in a "meaningful manner," and those so-called "meaningful use" criteria be stiffened over time. The stimulus law, however, gives only a partial definition of the term, "meaningful use." A proposed rule from the CMS fleshing out the definition is expected before the end of the year, but an HHS federal policy advisory committee established under the law and reporting to the national coordinator has held a series of meetings on meaningful use and has issued a matrix of recommendations on what should be included as meaningful use criteria. Jessee's letter extensively addresses the upcoming meaningful use criteria, but also calls for specific procedural measures in administration of the subsidy program, such as running a pilot program before the 2011 "payment year" arrives "to ensure that the process of demonstrating meaningful use is achievable and practical."
benton.org/node/29995 | ModernHealthcare.com
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ADVERTISING

FTC ASKED TO REDEFINE DEFINITION OF PROGRAMMING TARGETED TO KIDS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A consortium of kids activists and academics has asked the Federal Trade Commission to redefine its definition of programming targeted to kids and teens to be able to collect more information on the marketing by popular TV shows, and to collect it from program distributors as well as food marketers. "The Commission should inquire into industry expenditure and exposure data for marketing that reaches large numbers of children and adolescents even when they are a small percentage of the overall audience," said the Food Marketing To Children Workshop in comments filed at the FTC. Currently, the FTC defines ads targeted to kids as any program for which kids made up at least 30% of the audience, and teen-targeted is any program with at least a 20% adolescent audience. But the group, which was assembled by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Berkeley Media Studies Group, points out that the FTC conceded that excludes the top five TV shows watched by adolescents in 2006. It wants the FTC to modify the definition to capture such shows, which include The Simpsons and American Idol. The group also wants the FTC to collect more data, including on targeted marketing, privacy, and to expand the collection to media companies who carry the ads as well as food marketers.
benton.org/node/30010 | Broadcasting&Cable
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STUDY: KIDS IN HOME-BASED DAY CARE WATCH MORE TV
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Emma Brown]
Children who attend home-based day-care programs are watching twice as much television per day as was previously thought, according to a study released online Monday and published in the December issue of Pediatrics. In a survey of 168 child-care programs in four states, researchers found that toddlers, ages 1 to 3, in home-based day-care centers watched an average of 1.6 hours of television there each day, including videos and DVDs. Preschool-age children, 3 to 5 years old, watched 2.4 hours a day in home-based centers. Prior studies have estimated that preschool-age children watch one to three hours of television a day. But those relied on reports from parents about children's habits at home and did not count the time they spent in front of the television during day care, underestimating the total TV time by up to 100 percent, researchers said.
benton.org/node/30015 | Washington Post
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GOOGLE TEAMS UP WITH TIVO
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Alex Pham]
Google, which sells television and online ads, said it agreed to subscribe to TiVo's user data. Google promises that advertisers pay only when their ads are seen. But TiVo lets viewers fast-forward through commercials. Now, with TiVo's data, collected from millions of digital video recorders across the country, Google can tell exactly which of those commercials are being bypassed. If all the commercials are being skipped, the channel gets no money. It's easy to see why TV executives get heartburn over this. While the deal takes place with immediate effect, it will be some months before the TiVo data is synthesized into Google's ad buying service. For the first time though, agencies will be able to see second-by-second data about how their commercials are viewed plus DVR playback data. Currently, the industry currency is based on commercial ratings calculated as an average across each pod by Nielsen.
benton.org/node/30007 | Los Angeles Times | Broadcasting&Cable
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