January 2010

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2010

A busy, busy telecom policy day http://bit.ly/7kHYy7

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Is Hillary Clinton launching a cyber Cold War?
   In Digital Combat, US Finds No Easy Deterrent
   China steps up defense of Internet controls
   Technologists agree with Clinton, say Internet freedom wins in long run
   'Network Neutrality' key to free and open Internet
   Without cyber response policies, U.S. can only denounce China attacks
   US Cybersecurity Team Takes Shape
    See also:Is the Policy Window on Cyber-Security Closing?
   GSA official: Government transparency still faces hurdles
   What Are the Implications of a Real-Time, Connected President?

THE STIMULUS
   $313.5 million for Middle Mile and Last Mile Broadband Infrastructure Projects
   Connected Nation Making No Apologies

BROADBAND
   FCC Commissioner Clyburn at OPASTCO
   Broadband a Political Issue in Minnesota

MEDIA OWNERSHIP
   Justice Approves Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger with Conditions
   Comcast Seeks U.S. Regulatory Approval to Acquire NBC Universal
   Judge Slashes 'Monstrous And Shocking' File-Sharing Verdict

WIRELESS
   Are wireless carriers preparing to increase data fees?
   AT&T Will Improve Network Performance for IPhone, Apple Says

CONTENT
   World Spending 82% More Time On Social Sites

JOURNALISM
   Covering Haiti, At a Cost

MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
   Despite court ruling, Congress can still limit campaign finance

ACCESS
   An Internet for everyone
   Obama's mixed record on tech policy

MORE ONLINE
A call for critical thinking about securing our electric grid | Data-driven health care: Will doctors buy in? | Health IT Work Groups Prepare To Fine-Tune 'Meaningful Use' Rules | Despite problems, laptops boost student test scores | A Disaster and an Election Drive the News | Debate confronts Idaho Public Television's value

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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

IS CLINTON LAUNCHING A CYBER COLD WAR
[SOURCE: Foreign Policy, AUTHOR: Evgeny Morozov]
[Commentary] Some reflections on Secretary of State Clinton's Internet Freedom address: 1) She managed to work in a lot of Cold war rhetoric. 2) There was very little about the evolving nature of Internet control (e.g. that controlling the Internet now includes many other activities -- propaganda, DDoS attacks, physical intimidation of selected critics/activists). 3) Sec Clinton was too soft on Chinese leaders, essentially granting them the right to censor whatever they'd like simply because they have "different views." 4) The U.S. government really needs to develop and then adopt a more coherent view on the ethics of cyberwarfare; otherwise, the U.S. State Dept will be accused of duplicity. We can't be tolerating cyberattacks in one context and criticizing them in another context. 5) Kudos for pointing out that authoritarian states are also avid consumers of new technologies, which they use to repress and identity dissent -- but she could have developed this idea much further, pointing out numerous fallacies in how we think about the liberating potential of information. 6) The speech made it obvious that State Department officials do not have a coherent view on online anonymity. 7) Sec Clinton also didn't mention the most obvious reform the State Department can push forward: making it easier for American tech companies to operate in authoritarian countries that currently have U.S. trade sanctions imposed on them. 8) The speech lacked any coherent intellectual vision underpinning the State Department's digital strategy.
benton.org/node/31589 | Foreign Policy
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IN DIGITAL COMBAT, US FINDS NO EASY DETERRENT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Markoff, David Sanger, Thom Shanker]
The nation's escalating cyberbattles have outpaced the rush to find a deterrent, something equivalent to the cold-war-era strategy of threatening nuclear retaliation. So far, despite millions of dollars spent on studies, that quest has failed. Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made the most comprehensive effort yet to warn potential adversaries that cyberattacks would not be ignored, drawing on the language of nuclear deterrence. There's an intense debate inside and outside the government about what the United States can credibly threaten. One alternative could be a diplomatic démarche, or formal protest, like the one the State Department said was forthcoming, but was still not delivered, in the Google case. Economic retaliation and criminal prosecution are also possibilities.
benton.org/node/31599 | New York Times
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CHINA STEPS UP DEFENSE OF INTERNET CONTROLS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Chris Buckley]
China widened its attack against U.S. criticisms of Internet censorship on Monday, raising the stakes in a dispute that has put Google in the middle of a political quarrel between the two global powers. China has defended its curbs on the Internet nearly two weeks after the world's biggest search engine provider, Google Inc., threatened to shut down its Chinese Google.cn site after a severe hacking attack from within China. The dispute could narrow room for Beijing and Washington to back down quietly and focus on other disputes such as trade, currency, human rights and U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan. "The more this case takes on high-level political import for the Chinese government, the more likely it is to stick to its guns," said David Wolf, president of Wolf Group Asia, an advisory firm covering Chinese media and telecommunications. "The Chinese government can't be seen as backing down on such a fundamental issue," said Wolf. Separately, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on Monday said the Internet needs to thrive in China as an engine of free speech and described official online censorship by Beijing as "very limited."
benton.org/node/31588 | Reuters | Reuters | The Hill
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TECHNOLOGISTS AGREE WITH CLINTON, SAY INTERNET FREEDOM WINS IN LONG RUN
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Here's what technologists say about Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's speech on Internet freedom: she's right. Not only because they agree that cyber hackers should be punished and that censorship is bad. Sec Clinton is correct, they say, that censorship won't succeed in completely clamping down systems and preventing the exchange of information over the Web. They are only temporary measures and, with just a few exceptions -- North Korea comes to mind -- won't ultimately win. The revelation from post-election demonstrations in Iran last summer was that people on the ground found ways around network censors to circulate pictures, videos and Tweets to the rest of the world, says Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter. During the Iranian New Year, a video greeting from President Obama was circulated underground in Tehran and went viral.
benton.org/node/31579 | Washington Post
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NET NEUTRALITY KEY TO FREE AND OPEN INTERNET
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Josh Silver, Craig Aaron]
[Commentary] The authors respond to an op-ed Andrew Keen of Arts + Labs, a thinly veiled front group for AT&T, Verizon and handful of big media companies that has hired a crew of flacks and shills to attack anyone who dares to question the wisdom and benevolence of Ma Bell. Keen, whom the popular blog Boing Boing has described as "a notorious spammer, failed Web 1.0 entrepreneur, blog-hating blogger, and luddite troll," is a natural fit there. He even once compared Nazis favorably to the Internet, saying "even the Nazis didn't put artists out of work." When it comes to Internet freedom, the United States of America can be a beacon to the rest of the world. But we must start at home. We need to protect consumers, prevent discrimination and prohibit Internet service providers from interfering with Internet traffic just to increase their profits. A majority of the Federal Communications Commission is already committed to Net Neutrality. And when the agency asked for public input on the issue recently, they received comments from 200,000 individuals ­ running 9-to-1 in favor of strong Net Neutrality rules. If this is the fringe, we're glad to be in the middle of it. From here, it looks like AT&T, Comcast, Verzion, Time Warner Cable, even with all their lobbyists and paid mouthpieces, are the ones who are outside the mainstream. Maybe that isolation is why they're so angry.
benton.org/node/31578 | Hill, The | Keen op-ed
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WITHOUT CYBER RESPONSE POLICIES, US CAN ONLY DENOUNCE CHINA
[SOURCE: FederalComputerWeek, AUTHOR: John Zyskowski]
US and Chinese national interests will increasingly compete — politically, economically and militarily — now and into the future on the Internet. For the moment, there is little that the US government can do in response to the alleged cyberattacks, other than condemn the hacking and ask the Chinese government for an explanation. As Computerworld reports: "The U.S. has no formal policy for dealing with foreign government-led threats against U.S. interests in cyberspace. With efforts already under way to develop such a policy, the recent attacks could do a lot to shape the policy and fuel its passage through Congress." One expert quoted in the report said the U.S. government's commitment to protecting its own computers from such threats is woefully inadequate. Others said that any sort of cyber retaliation, even if computer forensics experts could confirm Chinese government responsibility, would be counterproductive, even though they expect state-sponsored attacks on U.S. commercial and government systems to continue and intensify.
benton.org/node/31577 | FederalComputerWeek
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US CYBERSECURITY TEAM TAKES SHAPE
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: J. Nicholas Hoover]
When President Obama last month named Howard Schmidt to be the nation's cybersecurity coordinator, he filled a gap in the federal government's cybersecurity command structure. Schmidt joins a group IT decisions makers who share responsibility for keeping Uncle Sam's systems, information, and IT infrastructure safe from threats that are growing in number and sophistication. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is in charge of cybersecurity compliance guidance for federal agencies. The Office of Management and Budget and Congress are highly influential in establishing cybersecurity policy. The National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, and new U.S. Cyber Command are helping to protect both civilian and military networks. Within each of those organizations, officials such as DHS deputy undersecretary Philip Reitinger are bringing new ideas -- and applying new pressure -- aimed at strengthening the nation's cybersecurity. Who are other leading influencers in the federal government's cybersecurity efforts? They include Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, who has been nominated to be commander of the forthcoming U.S. Cyber Command, and Ron Ross, a senior computer scientist and information security researcher at NIST, who oversees the FISMA Implementation Project.
benton.org/node/31576 | InformationWeek | InformationWeek - profiles
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GOV TRANSPARENCY STILL FACES HURDLES
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Dawn Lim]
Government transparency is a work in progress for federal agencies, a top official told a group of public and private sector executives in Washington last week. "This is about a series of steps we have to go through in order to do it well," said David McClure, associate administrator of the Office of Citizen Services and Communications at the General Services Administration, outlining challenges to open government during an Association for Federal Information Resources Management event in Washington last Thursday, a day before the Obama administration's first deadline requiring agencies to post government data online. "It's going to be an evolutionary process." In December 2009, the Office of Management and Budget directed agencies to publish by Jan. 22 at least three new downloadable sets of statistics that hold the government accountable, illuminate its work, share financial opportunities with the public or meet some other need citizens convey. McClure, who has worked at the Government Accountability Office and Gartner, an IT research and advisory firm, elicited a few chuckles when he said, "I believe panic has set in, in how deadlines are announced." In the months ahead, agencies must find ways to improve the quality of federal data and present it clearly and concisely to the public. The government also must work to foster a "two-way dialogue" with the public, McClure said.
benton.org/node/31584 | nextgov
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF A REAL-TIME, CONNECTED PRESIDENT?
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Mathew Ingram]
Barack Obama is the first U.S. President to have Internet access at his desk, and the first to converse regularly via e-mail. And what does President Obama do with that connection to the Internet? He is online "constantly," and searches out "offbeat blogs and news stories, tracking down firsthand reporting and seeking out writers with opinions about his policies." He regularly communicates directly with those he wants to contact — without having to go through his chief of staff — and often emails aides late at night from his BlackBerry, with questions or comments. So what does it mean to have a U.S. president who is comfortable (or even familiar) with that new multi-directional, distributed reality, who seeks out his own sources of information wherever they might be, and makes connections directly and in real time, rather than always waiting for a report to be delivered or for a chief of staff to smooth the way? Among the things you get, obviously, are appointments like Julius Genachowski to head the FCC, and former Google manager Katie Stanton as director of citizen participation, as well as tools like the Citizen's Briefing Book and Change.gov (although both were wrapped up after President Obama took office). But what are the larger implications for the Obama years? Is a real-time connected president more likely to think for himself and look outside the usual Washington circles for ideas or input, or is being connected just a giant distraction for someone who is supposed to be leading the nation?
benton.org/node/31593 | GigaOm | WashPost
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THE STIMULUS

BIP ANNOUNCEMENT
[SOURCE: Department of Agriculture, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Department of Agriculture announced 14 new Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) grants with nearly $310 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. An additional $3,551,887 in private investment brings the total to $313,475,239.
benton.org/node/31580 | Department of Agriculture
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CONNECTED NATION MAKING NO APOLOGIES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
A Q&A with Connected Nation CEO Brian Mefford. A large chunk of the $7 billion in broadband stimulus funds is going toward creating maps of broadband coverage. Connected Nation has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the mapping grants so far. Connected Nation has partnered with 12 states and Puerto Rico. The grants to these states for broadband mapping total $25 million. In some cases, Connected Nation is receives the funding directly; in others, it is the subcontractor to the state. The organization has been criticized for taking funding from big telecom companies, potentially creating a conflict of interest when it then creates maps depicting those companies' broadband coverage. It will be in town this week at the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee's "State of the Net" conference to show off its new interactive mapping tool.
benton.org/node/31575 | Hill, The
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BROADBAND

CLYBURN AT OPASTCO
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn]
Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn is in San Diego and, speaking before the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunication Companies, addressed rural telecommunications policy on Monday. Commissioner Clyburn has been appointed to chair the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service. She said her "passion" is to ensure that broadband is truly accessible -- and far more than simply "available" -- to all US consumers. She said she believes the Universal Service Fund must be recalibrated to support both voice and broadband services at comparable rates to urban and suburban areas. She offered some steps to achieving this: 1) the FCC establishes a Broadband Fund to support the availability and affordability of high-speed Internet; 2) companies currently receiving support from the legacy high-cost programs in the Universal Service Fund should be encouraged to transition to the Broadband Fund; 3) low-income consumers should be allowed to connect to broadband through the Lifeline program; 4) the intercarrier compensation system must also be reformed, harmonizing interstate and intrastate interconnection rates, and those rates should be just and reasonable and reflect the actual costs to use the networks; and 5) there must also be a focus on broadband adoption, convincing consumers that it is important for them to be connected to broadband.
benton.org/node/31586 | Federal Communications Commission
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP

JUSTICE APPROVES TICKETMASTER-LIVE NATION MERGER
[SOURCE: Department of Justice, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Department of Justice announced that it will require Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. to license its ticketing software, divest ticketing assets and subject itself to anti-retaliation provisions in order to proceed with its proposed merger with Live Nation Inc. The department said that the proposed settlement will protect competition for primary ticketing, which will in turn maintain incentives for innovation and discounting. The department said that the merger, as originally proposed, would have substantially lessened competition for primary ticketing in the United States, resulting in higher prices and less innovation for consumers. As part of the proposed settlement, Ticketmaster must license a copy of its primary ticketing software to AEG, the nation's second-largest concert promoter and operator of some of the most important concert venues in the country. With a copy of the Ticketmaster software, AEG will be able to market a ticketing system that is an attractive choice to venues. Ticketmaster must divest Paciolan Inc., a ticketing company that it currently owns, within 60 days to either Comcast-Spectacor, which has already signed a letter of intent to purchase the assets, or some other buyer suitable to the department. Under the settlement, the merged firm will be forbidden from retaliating against any venue owner that chooses to use another company's ticketing services or another company's promotional services, including restrictions on anticompetitive bundling. [more at the URL below]
benton.org/node/31587 | Department of Justice | AP | Bloomberg
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COMCAST SEEKS REGULATORY APPROVAL
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Lorraine Woellert]
Comcast is seeking regulatory approval for its bid to gain control of General Electric's NBC Universal. The company filed formal notification of the acquisition with the U.S. Justice Department yesterday, said company spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice. The filing is the first step in the agency's review of the acquisition, which could take up to a year. Philadelphia-based Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company, wants to merge its channels, worth $7.25 billion, with NBC Universal assets, valued at $30 billion. Comcast will pay GE $6.5 billion in cash and own 51 percent of the new entity. Comcast has told regulators it will increase local and children's programming and offer rivals access to NBC television stations on fair terms.
benton.org/node/31595 | Bloomberg
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JUDGES CUTS FILE-SHARING VERDICT
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
Ruling that damage awards in a file-sharing case must have some relationship to the actual loss suffered by the record labels, a federal judge has reduced the amount that file-sharer Jammie Thomas-Rasset must pay from $2 million to $54,000. "The need for deterrence cannot justify a $2 million verdict for stealing and illegally distributing 24 songs for the sole purpose of obtaining free music," U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis in Minnesota wrote Friday. Davis cut the damage award to $2,250 per track, which is triple the statutory minimum of $750 per track. He described even the reduced $54,000 award as "significant and harsh," but said that figure would mark "the maximum amount that is no longer monstrous and shocking."
benton.org/node/31573 | MediaPost
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WIRELESS

ARE WIRELESS CARRIERS PREPARING TO INCREASE FEES?
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Matt Hamblen]
Talk is cheap, at least if you consider how AT&T and Verizon Wireless have recently chopped the price of unlimited nationwide voice calling plans from $100 to $70 a month. But there's concern among critics that these price drops are part of a secret plan to increase data access rates later, given the shift in cellular usage from voice to data for which the iPhone is the poster child. Already, data users are exposed to extraordinary charges if they use more than 5GB per month, paying from $200 to $500 more per 1GB of data above the 5GB limit. And AT&T just added a new fee on users of a category of phones called Quick Messaging Devices; they must now pay a minimum of $20 a month on top of voice plans for some combination of texting and data plans. The previous minimum on such users was $5 a month for 200 text messages, according to AT&T.
benton.org/node/31570 | InfoWorld
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CONTENT

MORE TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Mark Walsh]
Internet users worldwide spent an average of 5 and a half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in December, an 82% increase from a year ago. New data from Nielsen Online also shows that the global audience for social networks has increased 50% in the last three years, from 211 million to 307 million. When it comes to time spent on social networks, Australia led the world with an average of nearly 7 hours (6:52), trumping the U.S.(6:09), the U.K. (6:08) and Italy (6:00). But the U.S. had by far the largest audiences for social sites and blogs, with 142 million, followed by Japan (46.5 million) and Brazil (31.3 million). Total minutes devoted to social properties and blogs in the U.S. surged 210% over the last year, and average time per person increased 143%. Twitter was the fastest-growing social site in the U.S., with its audience jumping from 2.7 million to 18.1 million in 2009. But Nielsen pointed out that month-to-month, Twitter traffic has actually declined 5%, underscoring other reports that growth of the microblogging service has fallen off since last spring.
benton.org/node/31572 | MediaPost
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JOURNALISM

COVERING HAITI, AT A COST
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Marisa Guthrie]
Days after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the meter is still running for news organizations that have flooded the region with personnel. The bill for Haiti is expected to come to approximately $1.5 million for each broadcast network, say current and former television news executives. "It's an enormous investment," says one network news executive who didn't want to divulge costs on the record. Most of that will have been spent on charter flights and satellite costs. And while the tragedy has consumed headlines and galvanized charitable giving, it also comes amidst across-the-board belt-tightening for a media industry grappling with realities of a continuing recession. "I'm certainly cognizant of the world we live in these days," says Kate O'Brian, senior VP of news at ABC News. "This story has not had any more or less attention in terms of finances than any other. It has come into play on every single story I have covered. At some point, someone wants to know how much it's going to cost." The bulk of the costs are spent on getting crews in and out of Port-au-Prince, which still has no commercial air traffic. On the first day alone, NBC chartered five aircraft—four planes and one helicopter. A round-trip charter flight between New York and Port-au-Prince can easily climb to more than $50,000.
benton.org/node/31585 | Broadcasting&Cable
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MEDIA AND ELECTIONS

CONGRESS CAN STILL LIMIT CAMPAIGN FIANCE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Bruce Ackerman, Ian Ayres]
[Commentary] Now that the Supreme Court has struck down century-old restrictions on corporate money in politics, is Congress prepared to strike back? Many suppose that the court has made it impossible for Congress to restrict corporate speech. But this is wrong. While Congress can't issue a broad ban on all companies, it can target the very large class that does business with the federal government and ban those companies from "endorsing or opposing a candidate for public office." A 2008 Government Accountability Office study found that almost three-quarters of the largest 100 publicly traded firms are federal contractors. If Congress endorsed our proposal, these companies -- and tens of thousands of others -- would face a stark choice: They could endorse candidates or do business with the government, but they couldn't do both. When push came to shove, it's likely that very few would be willing to pay such a high price for their "free speech."
benton.org/node/31598 | Washington Post
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ACCESS

AN INTERNET FOR EVERYONE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Berin Szoka]
Disability advocates are demanding that government do more to increase the accessibility of the Internet and broadband devices, especially mobile phones. And their pleas haven't fallen on deaf ears. Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-MA), former chairman of the House's Internet subcommittee, introduced a bill in Congress last year that would require providers of Internet services and devices -- from desktop computers to smart phones -- to make user interfaces accessible to people with disabilities. The bill, still in committee, has more than two dozen sponsors. But for all the hand-wringing about a "digital divide" separating the disabled from the able-bodied, a new era of empowerment is already dawning -- the result not of more regulation from Washington but of Silicon Valley's technological dynamism.
benton.org/node/31597 | Los Angeles Times
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