1. Monthly archive
  2. January 2010

January 2010

One year in, resistance to open government memo lingers

One year after President Barack Obama announced an initiative to open the government, agency leaders have demonstrated a strong track record of embracing emerging media to disclose information, but some mid-level managers have been reluctant to move outside the traditional chain of command.

Agencies must publish at least three new downloadable sets of statistics that hold the government accountable, illuminate their work, share financial opportunities with the public or meet some other need conveyed by citizens. The Obama administration laid the groundwork for this task in May, when it launched a storage space for all manner of federal data sets called Data.gov. But critics have complained that much of the information on Data.gov is not in Web-friendly formats. Some government personnel and technology industry observers expect Friday's releases will be equally hard to use and might not be revealing.

How Apple and Nokia divvy up the world

Forget North and South. East and West. First World, Second World and Third. According to AdMob, the mobile advertising company acquired late last year by Google, the world is divided — at least in terms of smartphone usage — into two parts: Apple's and Nokia's.

Apple's iPhone OS dominates the North American, Australian and Western European markets. Nokia's Symbian is the most popular operating system in Africa and Asia, and continues to have a significant market share in Eastern Europe and Latin America. However the numbers, as AdMob measures them, are trending in Apple's favor. Apple's share of requests in the AdMob network increased from 9% in Q4 2008 to 36% in Q4 2009 while Nokia's share declined from 33% in Q4 2008 to 18% in Q4 2009.

Blumenthal Rethinks National Data Exchange

A Q&A with National Coordinator for Health Information Technology David Blumenthal.

The US government for six years has been developing the Nationwide Health Information Network, a network of regional health information networks to enable the secure sharing of patient data. Now NHIN is being re-envisioned. Instead of aiming to have all healthcare providers on one granddaddy of a national network, the new goal is to get more providers sharing data, even if it's just with practitioners in their immediate vicinity.

Health Sites: Some Are More Equal Than Others

Eric Schmidt wants to solve health care's "platform database problem" and one critic has countered that "computers cannot practice medicine." One of Google's initiatives is to guide consumers to safe, trusted health websites. Is that such a bad thing? Google's search results can make or break a site or a business model, which is where dot-com blogs come in, but they also have the potential to make or break a consumer's access to health information, which is where e-patients.net comes in.

Former FCC Chairman Martin Opposes Comcast-NBCU Deal

Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is teaming up with opponents of the proposed Comcast-NBCU merger.

According to several sources, the Republican ex-chairman attended -- perhaps representing fledgling cable programmer WealthTV -- a meeting last Friday (Jan.15) in Washington convened by a coalition of more than 20 consumer, labor and public interest groups, among others, that are fighting to stop -- or at least condition -- the deal between the two media giants. If Martin has weighed in on efforts to fight the Comcast-NBCU merger, he will be picking up where he left off as chairman.

During his tenure at the FCC, Martin frequently clashed with Comcast and other major cable operators in his efforts to impose more regulations on them.

Air America Shuts Down

Air America Media, the left-leaning radio network with a political mission, told its employees Thursday (Jan. 21) that it had filed for bankruptcy and will shut down operations by Monday Jan. 25 at 9 p.m. In a letter to employees, Charlie Kireker, chair of AAM, blamed the economy.

Google: The Mobile Web Could Be Better Than the PC Web

Google did well in the fourth quarter, giving the company runway to talk about its next wave of initiatives. Specifically, executives that said alongside the larger category of display advertising, mobile will be the No. 1 growth area in the next year, with significant revenue to accompany the widespread uptake of mobile devices that can handle data. With phone features like GPS and cameras, and the incorporation of personalization, social and local features, Google Senior Vice President of product management, Jonathan Rosenberg, said on today's earning call for press and analysts, "There is potential to make this mobile web better than the PC web." Rosenberg said advertisers are also wising up to mobile, finding that including their phone number or address will increase click-through rates. Further, targeting tools and analytics are improving monetization rates. However the company declined to break out mobile revenue.

ONC contends with right balance in EHR standards

Federal health information technology policymakers said yesterday they crafted a set of more flexible standards for electronic health records systems to make it easier for providers to qualify for meaningful use when the first phase of the health IT incentive program starts next year.

After 2011, as providers face more challenging requirements for meaningful use of EHRs they purchase under the plan, these standards could tighten, members of the Health IT Standards Committee said in their Jan. 21 meeting. Policymakers discussed setting a path for introducing EHR technical standards over the course of the 2011-2016 incentive plan. The standards are part of the Interim Final Rule (IFR) that lays out requirements for certified EHRs physicians and hospitals must use to qualify for health IT incentives. In tuning the standards, ONC tried to strike a balance between using regulation and market forces, officials said, with enough specificity to allow for innovation on one hand and the stiff arm of rulemaking on the other.

House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
Rayburn House Office Building
Thursday, January 21, 2010
10:00 a.m.

The Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet held a markup session on Thursday, January 21, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building to consider H.R. 3125, the Radio Spectrum Inventory Act, and H.R. 3019, Spectrum Relocation Improvement Act of 2009.

Both bills were agreed to by a voice vote and forwarded to full House Commerce Committee.


NOTE: This meeting is being postponed a week until Thursday, February 18, 2010, at 3:00 PM.

FCC Open Meeting (February 2010)

Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street SW
Washington, DC 20554
Wednesday, February 11
10:30 am

Agenda

  • The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to enhance the efficiency, openness, and transparency of the Commission's proceedings by improving and modernizing certain organizational and procedural rules.
  • The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to improve the transparency and effectiveness of the FCC's decision-making process by reforming the ex parte rules.
  • The Commission will consider an Order and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to enable schools that receive funding from the E-Rate program to allow members of the general public to use the schools' Internet access during non-operating hours at no additional cost to the Universal Service Fund.
  • A report on the status of the National Broadband Plan, providing a framework for the national purposes portion of the plan.

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