January 2010

How the FCC Will Promote Open Smart Grid Networks & Real Time Energy Data

[Commentary] At the Cleantech Investor Summit, Federal Communications Commission Energy and Environment Director Nick Sinai said that the FCC will make specific recommendations for how to bring broadband to the smart grid through the National Broadband Plan due to the U.S. Congress on March 17.

Those recommendations will include how to promote open standards and commercial networks, how to use policies to encourage utilities to provide their customers with real-time open access to energy data, and potential ways to use federal spectrum bands for utilities' smart grid deployments.

Sounds like the sector of the smart grid industry with roots in the IT world (Cisco, IBM, Silver Spring Networks) just got a close ally. All of the potential recommendations Sinai discussed could help promote innovation that will enable companies and entrepreneurs to build tools and products that interconnect with, and work on top of, smart grid infrastructure. Sinai's business-friendly presentation wasn't a surprise, given his background in the investing world, most recently as a principal at Tenaya Capital (Lehman Brothers Venture Partners) and at Polaris Ventures for three years before that. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has taken a similar pro-innovation approach throughout the FCC. Sinai said that the FCC "will look at how to remove impediments and disincentives to using commercial networks." Specifically he said the FCC is "exploring ways to encourage private networks built by utilities to operate in the same band, in order to drive down costs, and to drive open, non-proprietary standards." One of the ways to do that could be working with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to look at available federal spectrum bands, said Sinai.

Advocates for Greater Transparency and Disclosure of Broadband Terms of Service

New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative (OTI) and the Media Access Project (MAP) met with the FCC's Broadband team to discuss the need for greater transparency in and disclosure of broadband Internet access service providers' terms of service, network management practices, and network performance measurements.

They said Commission oversight should include, at minimum, creating standardized performance metrics and presentation formats that will allow end-users to compare readily and easily the quality of service offerings from competing Internet access providers. The groups say The Commission also should adopt rules mandating disclosure of both basic and detailed broadband service measurements and other information to the public, including to current subscribers who may wish to consider changing providers; potential subscribers that desire information on the speed, reliability, robustness, and price of broadband service in their immediate geographic area; and other broadband users such as application, service, and content developers. Rather than adopting static rules alone, the Commission should establish processes for updating and amending these regulations over time, so that the requirements can evolve with changing technologies and business models in this dynamic space. Nevertheless, as the Public Interest Representatives noted, decisive Commission action and leadership is vital in establishing these processes and adopting formal rules both in conjunction with formulation and implementation of the National Broadband Plan and on a continuing basis thereafter.

While the FCC must seek out and welcome comments from stakeholders such as network scientists, advocacy organizations, industry representatives, and public interest groups, it also must adopt rules to promote greater transparency in the provision of services and infrastructure so essential to our nation's civic, social, political, and economic well-being. Thus, the FCC cannot wait for far-off and potentially elusive industry consensus, nor rely on vague and unenforceable voluntary commitments by broadband Internet access service providers to promote the public interest in this regard.

Broadband's Next 100 Million Will Come From Emerging Economies

The world will reach 500 million fixed-line broadband subscribers sometime this year thanks to growth in developing countries, according to research firm Informa. What's more, through 2014 the next 100 million broadband subscribers will come from those countries as well. When it comes to wired broadband additions, China, Russia and Mexico are the new stars. The Informa report predicts that most of the wired broadband growth with come from the seven countries seeing the most growth in subscribers: China, Russia, Mexico, India, Brazil, Turkey and Argentina.

New Staff at FCC International Bureau

The International Bureau announced four new appointments:

1) Kathryn O'Brien has been appointed Assistant Bureau Chief.

2) Francis Gutierrez has been appointed Assistant Bureau Chief of the International Bureau.

3) Gardner Foster has been appointed Assistant Bureau Chief.

4) Narda Jones has been appointed Division Chief, Strategic Analysis & Negotiations Division.

COMPETES Critical to Workforce, Must be Reauthorized, Business Community Tells House Committee

The House Committee on Science and Technology held its first hearing of the second session of Congress to get opinions on the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act (P.L. 110-69), which Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) announced is a key part of the Committee's agenda for 2010.

Specifically, the hearing examined the roles that science and technology play in promoting economic security and maintaining U.S. competitiveness in the 21st century global marketplace. In this legislative hearing, Members received feedback from the private sector on ways to strengthen U.S. competitiveness to incorporate in the reauthorization of COMPETES. Witnesses were supportive of COMPETES and its role in fostering innovation and strengthening American competitiveness in the global economy. Witnesses voiced strong support for continuing and expanding public-private partnerships.

One key provision of COMPETES with a strong public-private partnership component was ARPA-E. The agency recently made its first round of awards. In addition to receiving far more concept papers for the first Funding Opportunity Announcement than expected—3,700—the awards also attracted far more funds from the private sector than was required or expected. The Chairman and the Committee have continued to look for ways to attract additional private sector support for high-risk, high-reward energy technology development.

Rockefeller Investigation Causes E-Commerce Companies to Discontinue Misleading Marketing Tactic

Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, issued the following statement today regarding letters he recently received from the CEO's of Affinion Group, Webloyalty Inc., and Vertrue Inc. Each company informed Chairman Rockefeller that following his investigation in to their business practices, it will now require a consumer to enter their full 16 digit credit card number in order to enroll in a membership program online.

"Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty's decision to change their aggressive sales tactics by adding the 16 digit credit card reentry requirement is a step in the right direction for American consumers," said Chairman Rockefeller. "Our ongoing Commerce Committee investigation into these companies' marketing tactics uncovered alarming evidence. Millions of consumers were unknowingly enrolled in membership clubs offered by the companies and hundreds of millions of dollars were charged to their credit cards without their consent. I am pleased that my Committee's investigation is improving the consumer shopping experience on the Internet, but there is more work to be done to combat the misleading tactics companies are using online and I have every intention of making sure further changes are made moving forward."

The letters to Chairman Rockefeller from Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty came after the Commerce Committee held a hearing and released a staff report in November, 2009. The Committee's investigation showed that the companies had enrolled millions of online consumers in membership programs using "datapass" marketing, which enabled the companies to acquire a consumer's billing information, including credit card number, from another e-retailer and not directly from the consumer. Hundreds of well-known e-retailers, including Classmates.com, FTD, Movietickets.com, and Fandango, had partnered with the companies and had "passed" their customers' billing information for financial gain. Affinion, Vertrue, Webloyalty and their e-commerce partners generated more than one billion dollars worth of revenue from the practice.

What China's Internet Landscape Might Look Like if Google Leaves

China's Internet landscape -- search, digital marketing, mobile media, services like e-mail and even e-commerce -- could shift dramatically if Google does pull out of the market.

The biggest changes will be in China's search market. Baidu, already the leading search engine site in the mainland, is Google's chief rival and will almost certainly soak up more traffic if Google.cn is no longer an option. Baidu may become too strong, with less incentive to innovate. And Chinese sites such as Tencent's QQ may also muscle in.

Brown's Massachusetts Win Could Mean Higher 2010 Ad Spending

Republican Scott Brown's win of a Massachusetts Senate seat could turn out to be a boon for media companies, increasing spending on political advertising this year from the $2.8 billion originally expected.

Together with announced retirements by some key Democrats, the outcome over filling Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat in yesterday's special election in Massachusetts offers an unmistakable signal to both parties that they are going to have to weigh in early to start courting voters for this year's November midterm elections. There were signals from all sides that the election could increase the number of challengers running, which in turn would boost fundraising activities and, ultimately, lift ad spending.

Social Media Aid the Haiti Relief Effort

The tragic January 13 earthquake that devastated the country of Haiti and killed an estimated 200,000 people inspired a wealth of online activity.

The online communication site Twitter played an especially large role as it quickly filled with Haiti-related information and ways to offer aid, according to this week's analysis of social media by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Social media became central to the fundraising effort that raised millions of dollars. Blogs and Twitter have played critical roles in spreading information and awareness during other international events, such as the June 2009 protests in Iran, according to PEJ's data. But the fundraising element here is something new-giving people fast, direct access to action. Social media also became a source of information, offering first-hand accounts or assembling details which some mainstream media outlets then posted on their own websites. For the entire week of January 11-15, 43% of the news links in blogs were about the tragedy in Haiti according to the New Media Index produced by PEJ. And, the event did not even occur until the middle of the week. For Thursday and Friday, 82% of the news links were on the subject.

Obama Year One: An Assessment

According to The Public Manager, a government management journal published by Bureaucrat Inc., a nonprofit, good government organization, President Barack Obama gets high grades for his management reform of the executive branch having aready made some significant changes that are on the right track.

Many of the management ideas and reforms the administration has instituted are similar to those the journal suggested in its winter 2007 and spring 2008 issues - as many as 20 recommendations. Those ideas were generated by a group of former government officials and private sector executives that Cisco brought together in the summer of 2007, months before the two political parties had nominated candidates for president. Many of the recommendations focused on technology to bring about needed management reforms and to improve government performance. More reliance on telework, relying on younger workers to infuse tradition-bound agencies with new technologies, greater transparency, and the use of Web 2.0 technologies and the changing role of the chief information officer were topics writers focused on.

Benton

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