January 2010

The Benton Foundation seeks a Public Policy Analyst to assist in the management and direction the foundation's media and telecommunications policy objectives. The Public Policy Analyst is responsible for helping to carry out a comprehensive policy strategy and help design and administer programs that advance our policy goals.
http://bit.ly/7ZpHMB

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2010

A busy day for wonks http://bit.ly/8DWmr9

NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
   Increasing Broadband Adoption for Minorities and Their Communities
   FCC Explains Relationship of Ideascale Postings to the Record in the National Broadband Plan Proceeding

THE STIMULUS
   Reflections on 'Sustainable Adoption' for Round 2 of Broadband Stimulus

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   A Pragmatic, Sustainable Federal Spectrum Policy
   Public safety officials seek additional spectrum for first responders
   Your mobile future: From smartphones to superphones -- and beyond
   AT&T's wireless unit sued for taxing consumers
   The Rise of Connected Devices

NETWORK NEUTRALITY
   Comcast and "Open Internet" Rules

TELECOM
   Little Support for Big Cable's USF Reform Proposal

HEALTH IT
   Meaningful use panel ponders rule changes
   Brailer: Proposed meaningful use criteria 'feel right'
   More Docs Are Using Electronic Health Records

TELEVISION
   Watching TV shortens life span, study finds
   'Consumer can't win' as costs of TV services rise

POLICYMAKERS
   C-SPAN's modest proposal
   Which tech execs have the White House's ear?
   Secretary Clinton dines with high-tech titans to talk diplomacy
   FCC Launches 'Reboot' Web Site to Spur Discussion of Agency Reform and Data
   Fox deal lifts Palin's presidential hopes
   Nixon aide Colson said The Post needed to curry favor with administration
   New Film May Sway Brazil's Vote on President

MORE ON BROADBAND/INTERNET ...
   Blindness groups, university settle suit over Amazon.com's Kindle
   Verizon: metered billing much fairer than all-you-can-eat
   Europe's Internet kids like to keep it real

ADVERTISING
   Intel, Microsoft Offer Smart-Sign Technology
   Arbitron CEO Skarzynski resigns

WHAT NEWS WAS
   Terror Tops the News Agenda

Recent Comments on:
Why the White House is backing away from Network Neutrality?
Free to Invest: The Economic Benefits of Preserving Network Neutrality
Think People
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NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN

INCREASING BROADBAND ADOPTION FOR MINORITIES AND THEIR COMMUNITIES
[SOURCE: National Black Caucus of State Legislators, AUTHOR: Calvin Smyre]
The National Black Caucus of State Legislators, the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women, the National Conference of Black Mayors, the National Association of Black County Officials and the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials sent a letter and a report to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski offering their shared recommendations on how to promote national broadband adoption and use, particularly among low-income, unserved, underserved and minority populations. Section I of the report discusses disparities currently existing among different race and ethnic groups and the barriers African Americans are facing on broadband adoption. A set of policy recommendations to increase broadband adoption among minorities are illustrated in Section II with three case studies. Section II also recommends ways broadband could be used to improve healthcare, education and employment. The last section details the call for action from African American elected officials committed to helping government and industry overcome these barriers and increase sustainable broadband adoption for African Americans.
benton.org/node/31135 | National Black Caucus of State Legislators | Policy Recommendations
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FCC EXPLAINS IDEASCALE'R ROLE IN FORMULATING NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission launched an idea collaboration platform to allow public feedback, comment, and discussion that will help the FCC in developing the best possible National Broadband Plan. In creating this forum, the FCC recognizes the need to reconcile such innovative use of the Internet in communicating with the government with the more traditional requirement of creating an administrative record, (i) to give interested parties notice of other parties' comments, and (ii) to allow the Commission to address significant issues. Postings on the collaboration platform are also deemed to be part of the same public record. For this reason, interested persons are advised to review not only FCC's electronic filing system, but also the collaboration platform to ensure that they are aware of all relevant views expressed to the FCC concerning the National Broadband Plan. But the postings on the collaboration platform do not have to be submitted to the Commission's Secretary for inclusion in the public record.
benton.org/node/31142 | Federal Communications Commission | see the site
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THE STIMULUS

SUSTAINABLE ADOPTION
[SOURCE: BroadbandBreakfast.com, AUTHOR: Don Samuelson, Andrew Lowenstein]
[Commentary] The answer to the question ­ why did the chicken cross the road ­ is that the chicken saw sufficient value on the other side of the road to take the trouble and assume the risk of crossing the road. The analysis of why vulnerable populations adopt and sustain broadband/Internet usage involves similar calculations. Prospective users have to see that there are important and practical benefits available through the Internet worth the time, effort and cost of getting online and using the Internet. For senior living communities, once successful adoption programs bring broadband to seniors in their apartments, the buildings can enjoy cost savings and improved operating efficiencies. First, in order to embrace adoption programs, both owners of senior buildings and residents need to appreciate how Internet benefits are meaningful to them. Building owners need to see cost savings sufficient to justify capital investments. Seniors need to experience benefits to warrant the cost of a broadband subscription. These benefits become "sustainable" once continuous and growing benefits exceed costs and owners of senior buildings and seniors themselves pay for the cost of broadband services.
benton.org/node/31133 | BroadbandBreakfast.com
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

A PRAGMATIC, SUSTAINABLE FEDERAL SPECTRUM POLICY
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] Everyone involved in the National Broadband Plan says we need more spectrum. We need a long-term sustainable strategy. Unfortunately, the proposals getting the most traction amount to the equivalent of expanding offshore drilling and other ways to squeeze out more product without changing our consumption habits. In wireless policy, the spectrum equivalent of "drill, baby, drill" is "clear and auction." This competes with the vision of open spectrum solutions, such as the broadcast white spaces, or trying to stretch existing allocations, such as through roaming agreements and improving receiver standards. Not that the FCC has entirely neglected these things. To the contrary, the FCC has recently taken steps to move forward with the broadcast white spaces proceeding and may well include recommendations to enhance receiver standards. But what grabs headlines and takes up all the air at spectrum policy debates these days is finding more spectrum to auction. To use the energy crisis analogy, if clearing and auctioning is like expanding drilling and adding ethanol, improving receiver standards and mandating roaming is like raising mileage requirements, and shared spectrum is like developing an electric car that works on hydrogen fuel cells. Where could we find a set of spectrum policy recommendations that: (a) generates federal revenue, (b) doesn't clear and auction federal spectrum, while (c) working to make federal users more efficient while meeting future federal need, and (d) encourages innovation and competition?
benton.org/node/31134 | Public Knowledge
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PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICIALS SEEK ADDITIONAL SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Bob Brewin]
Top public safety officials plan to ask Congress to enact legislation directing the Federal Communications Commission to allocate a slice of cellular communications spectrum to first responders and halt auctions to commercial carriers. The push comes seven years after the 9/11 Commission recommended in its report that local public safety agencies be assigned new spectrum quickly. In what it described as an "unparalleled event," the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International said it will hold a briefing at the National Press Club on Tuesday with leading police and fire officials to urge Congress to immediately reallocate the 700 megahertz D block cellular spectrum for public safety use. "This is the last opportunity we have to get this spectrum," said Charles Dowd, deputy chief of the New York City Police Department. Securing it would allow safety officials to transmit video from a fire scene and track firefighters electronically. The broadband network also could support automated license plate recognition and biometric technologies, including mobile fingerprint and iris identification, according to APCO.
benton.org/node/31143 | nextgov
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AT&T'S WIRELESS UNIT SUED
[SOURCE: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, AUTHOR: Péralte Paul]
AT&T faces a potential class action lawsuit over fees its Atlanta-based mobile phone unit collects related to wireless data and Internet plans. The suit, filed this week by Robert Wilhite in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, argues that the fees are really taxes that AT&T is barred from collecting. It seeks unspecified damages and for AT&T to fees collected to its wireless customers. The suit, one of 30 filed across the country since November that make similar claims against AT&T, says the fees violate the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act. That law prohibits state and local governments from imposing taxes on Internet access between Nov. 1, 2003 and Nov. 1, 2014.
benton.org/node/31126 | Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Chicago Sun-Times
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY

COMCAST AND OPEN INTERNET RULES
[SOURCE: Comcast, AUTHOR: David Cohen]
[Commentary] On Friday, Comcast presented oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in the company's challenge to the FCC's "Bit Torrent" Order. Comcast and others (including two FCC Commissioners) thought the order was simply wrong, both legally and factually. Some activists insist that Comcast's challenge to the FCC is a fight about network neutrality. That's simply not true. The primary basis for our challenge, and the basis on which we hope the court will decide this case, is that no federal agency can subject any company or individual to sanctions for violation of federal standards when there was no law in the first place. This is a basic issue of fair notice, regardless of the issue at stake. So it shouldn't matter whether you are for or against "net neutrality" regulation — this is simply not the way the government should conduct its business. If the FCC — or any agency — wants to regulate in an area, it needs first to establish binding regulations and apply them properly, consistent with the process that Chairman Genachowski has now proposed. So where does Comcast stand on whether net neutrality rules are needed? On Friday Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts endorsed the FCC trying to make clear what the rules of the road are moving forward. But we continue to question whether the record will show a need for new rules — because broadband competition and consumer demand will ensure that the Internet remain open as it has always been — the FCC may decide otherwise. If that is the result, we are obviously better off having "clear rules," as Roberts stated, than with the confusion of having the FCC try to enforce an unenforceable and vague "policy statement." It's truly sad that the debate around "net neutrality," or the need to regulate to "preserve an open Internet," has been filled with so much rhetoric, vituperation, and confusion. That's gone on long enough. It is time to move on, and for the FCC to decide, in a clear and reasoned way, whether and what rules are needed to "preserve an open Internet," and to whom they should apply and how. In launching the rulemaking, the FCC said that greater clarity is required, and we agree. Comcast will join many other interested parties in making comments to the FCC this week regarding its proposed open Internet rules. Our goal is to move past the rhetoric and to provide thoughtful, constructive, and fact-based guidance as the FCC looks for a way forward that will be lawful and that will effectively balance all the important interests at stake.
benton.org/node/31129 | Comcast
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TELECOM

LITTLE SUPPORT FOR BIG CABLE'S REFORM PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
Last week a number of commenters weighed in on the National Cable and Telecommunications Association proposal to overhaul the federal Universal Service Fund by establishing procedures for reducing the amount of universal service high-cost support provided to rural rate of return carriers (RLECs) in areas where NCTA claims there is extensive unsubsidized facilities-based voice competition. [more at the URL below]
benton.org/node/31136 | Benton Foundation | Rural ILECs | USTA | NTCA | American Cable Association | Rural Cellular Association | ITIA | USA Coalition
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HEALTH IT

MEANINGFUL USE PANEL PONDERS RULE CHANGES
[SOURCE: GovernemntHealthIT, AUTHOR: Mary Mosquera]
A Health & Human Services Department advisory panel Friday explored potential clarifications and tweaks of its proposed meaningful use rules, the set of requirements healthcare providers must meet in order to qualify for thousands of dollars in federal health IT incentive payments. It its first session on Jan. 8 following the release of the proposal, the meaningful use workgroup of HHS's Health IT Policy Committee signaled it might revisit aspects of the plan, including the number of quality measures it requires and the effect on physicians trying to apply them. But the panel said it would concentrate on "philosophical" comments instead of specific changes. "Clearly, clinical quality reporting and quality measures tied to outcome improvement is one of those big topics," said Paul Tang, the workgroup co-chairman and chief medical information officer at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. The panel will share its recommendations with the Health IT Policy Committee, which will then submit its comments on the proposed rule to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT in March.
benton.org/node/31132 | GovernemntHealthIT
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BRAILER: PROPOSED MEANINGFUL USE CRITERIA 'FEEL RIGHT'
[SOURCE: HealthcareITNews, AUTHOR: Patty Enrado]
The "hand of thoughtful policy" created the proposed criteria for meaningful use, according to David J. Brailer, MD, former healthcare IT czar for the Office of the National Coordinator. "It would have been easy to be symbolic rather than meaningful," the founder and chairman of the San Francisco-based healthcare investor firm Health Evolution Partners said. He expected the criteria to "be looser, less meaningful." Instead, he said, "I'm pretty impressed." In the short term, the recently released criteria reflect the body of work and the broad consensus of the definition of standards from the private sector, quality agencies and forums, a product certification organization and the old AHIC (American Health Information Community), he said. As health IT chief, Brailer's philosophy was having government be a supportive agent of the consensus of the work being done by the private sector. "The meaningful use criteria are highly consistent with what we did," he said. "It feels right to me."
benton.org/node/31139 | HealthcareITNews
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MORE DOCS ARE USING EHRs
[SOURCE: MedPage Today, AUTHOR: Emily Walker]
Just over 40% of office-based physicians reported using electronic health record (EHR) systems in 2008, more than double the percentage at the start of the decade. From 2007 to 2008, usage of EHRs increased by nearly 19% according to the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), and preliminary data for 2009 show the increase continuing, with 44% of physicians reporting using an EHR.
benton.org/node/31138 | MedPage Today
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TELEVISION

TV SHORTENS LIFE SPANS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jeannine Stein]
Watching television for hour upon hour obviously isn't the best way to spend leisure time -- inactivity has been linked to obesity and heart disease. But a new study quantifies TV viewing's effect on risk of death. Researchers found that each hour a day spent watching TV was linked with an 18% greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, an 11% greater risk of all causes of death, and a 9% increased risk of death from cancer. The study, released Monday in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Assn., looked at health data among 8,800 men and women older than 25 who were part of the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study. Participants recorded their television viewing hours for a week, and researchers separated the results by amount of viewing: those who watched less than two hours of TV a day, those who watched two to four hours a day, and those who watched more than four hours a day.
benton.org/node/31147 | Los Angeles Times
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CONSUMERS CAN'T WIN
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: David Lieberman]
The year's off to an ominous start for television viewers hoping to get a break on rising costs. Network owners want more cash from cable, satellite and phone companies. That could pressure distributors such as Comcast, DirecTV and Verizon to raise monthly fees or drop channels. "The consumer can't win," says Leo Hindery of investment firm InterMedia Partners. "The cable operators can't win. And some cable programmers who deserve to win will lose." Time Warner Cable and AT&T may be bellwethers: They raised TV service fees more than 7% for 2010, perhaps "in anticipation of higher costs," says Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett. By contrast, Comcast's TV rates are up less than 5% — close to the recent industry average. Moffett says it may have wanted to avoid upsetting federal regulators who will review its planned acquisition of NBC Universal. What's pressuring prices: 1) Broadcasters want to be paid. 2) New 3D channels. 3) Upgrades. 4) Sports.
benton.org/node/31146 | USAToday
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POLICYMAKERS

C-SPAN'S MODEST PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Congress is approaching the finish line on healthcare legislation, reaching the crucial stage where the House and Senate reconcile their different versions in one final bill. C-SPAN, the network that covers gavel-to-gavel business in Congress, wants to make sure Americans can watch this final lap. "The American people pay for all this that goes on in this town," says C-SPAN's chief executive, Brian Lamb. And "if we pay for something, and it's the public's business, we ought to be able to see how it's done. It's just that simple." But as logical as C-SPAN'S proposal sounds, it's not so simple - even if, as a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised C-SPAN coverage of healthcare negotiations so "the people" can see who is making arguments on behalf of them and who is making them on behalf of drug and insurance companies. The first hurdle for C-SPAN's cameras is that there will be no public conference meetings to record. Even if there were such meetings, they would likely amount to little more than a photo opportunity, which is what the modern-day conference has become.
benton.org/node/31152 | Christian Science Monitor, The
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WHO HAS WHITE HOUSE'S EAR?
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
Who has the ear of the White House when it comes to technology issues? When it comes to tech executives from the private sector, Google and Microsoft have both done well at getting into the White House. Many of the visitors were other government technology people, such as Casey Coleman (CIO of the General Services Administration) and Gopal Khanna (CIO for the state of Minnesota). Some were executives, like Rod Beckstrom, the head of ICANN. But more interesting were the lobbyists, think tankers, and public interest personalities who attended meetings with various technology policy staff members. Free Press and Public Knowledge, two groups that have learned to "punch above their weight" in DC, have also done well at the White House—no surprise, really, given Obama's early tech picks like FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Susan Crawford. Public Knowledge lawyer Harold Feld, who has been mixing it up with the cable industry lately over Selectable Output Control (SOC), visited twice. Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge's president, also had two separate meetings. Josh Silver of Free Press stopped by one time in July. Robert Atkinson, an Obama transition team member and head of the ITIF think tank, paid a visit. So did Michael Calabrese, who does plenty of work with wireless networks and white space devices over at the New America Foundation (where Eric Schmidt of Google is currently Chairman).
benton.org/node/31131 | Ars Technica
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SEC CLINTON AND HIGH-TECH TALK DIPLOMACY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met last week with a handful of high-tech's titans to talk about how the Internet and gadgets can intersect with the nation's foreign diplomacy needs. Sec Clinton's meeting with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey, Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie and others was over a quiet and exclusive dinner in the State Department's gilded diplomatic eighth floor dining room that is steeped in American history. The topic: how technology can be used to meet the nation's foreign diplomacy goals. The agency sees that blending as integral to its strategic vision as the nation's representatives to the rest of the world. On Jan. 21, Clinton is scheduled to give a policy speech on "Internet freedom" and a push against censorship on the Web in nations like Iran and Cuba. The State Department's senior advisor on innovation, Alec Ross organized the dinner which also included Shervin Pishevar, CEO of mobile game company Social Gaming Network; Jason Liebman, CEO of online video aggregator Howcast; James Eberhard, founder of mobile donations company Mobile Accord; Andrew Rasiejj founder of nonprofit Personal Democracy Forum; Luis Ubinas, president of the Ford Foundation; Tiffany Shlain, founder of the Webbys Awards; and Sue Bostrom, Cisco's chief globalization officer.
benton.org/node/31128 | Washington Post
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ANOTHER LOOK AT REBOOT FCC SITE
[SOURCE: BroadbandBreakfast.com, AUTHOR: Chris Naoum]
The Federal Communications Commission Reboot.FCC.gov, a new interactive website attempting to foster public discussion on how to best improve the agency. Following FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's introductory message, the second post on the RebootBlog tackles the issues of redesign. David Kitzmiller, Internet Working Group Chairman, admits that "although web guidelines and cooperation between content providers has proved successful... the usability of the site design has not improved along with it." Their main task on redesigning the website is to create a user-centric design: "People expect page elements to be in certain standard places on webpages ...content is king and intuitive navigation is the key that unlocks it," said Kitzmiller. He was tasked with discovering what people come to the website to accomplish and then organizing the content along those lines. Statistics based on research and collected data are used to help determine the FCC's top tasks and prominence of which they are featured on the website. Without data, said Kitzmiller, the agency cannot be sure whose needs the site aims to fill.
benton.org/node/31130 | BroadbandBreakfast.com
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FOX DEAL LIFTS PALIN'S PRESIDENTIAL HOPES
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, Edward Luce]
Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential nominee, on Monday revved up what many see as her campaign to position herself as a 2012 presidential candidate by signing a "multi-year" deal with Fox News. The former Alaska governor will appear as a regular contributor on the News Corp-owned channel and the Fox Business Network, giving her a powerful media platform with which to reach the conservative core of the Republican party. The one-time television sports presenter in Anchorage, who has often attacked the media and once told journalists to "quit makin' things up", said it was "wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news". Fox News, which declined to disclose financial details of the agreement, said she would also host episodes of a series exploring "real-life tales of overcoming adversity throughout the American landscape". Palin, whose biography became one of last year's biggest sellers, has continued to command intense media attention long after the end of the 2008 presidential campaign. She will join a stable of commentators who have given the network a rabble-rousing reputation as a polarized country has been wracked by the healthcare debate, two wars and the emergence of a political movement from last year's "tea party" tax protests. Palin's appointment came a day after Matthew Freud, son-in-law of News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, denounced Roger Ailes, the chairman and chief executive of Fox News. "I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes's horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to," Freud told The New York Times.
benton.org/node/31153 | Financial Times
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NIXON AND THE WASHINGTON POST
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Walter Pincus]
Charles Colson, special counsel to President Richard M. Nixon, suggested in January 1973 that The Washington Post fire Executive Editor Ben Bradlee, pull Watergate stories off the front page or produce "obviously friendly editorials" on the Vietnam War as ways to prove it wanted to end its warfare with the White House, according to a document released Monday by the Nixon Presidential Library. The Jan. 15, 1973, "eyes only" memo for the file is among 280,000 pages of documents the Nixon Library made public. It recorded a conversation Colson had had three days earlier with Robert F. Ellsworth, a former congressman and at the time a partner in Lazard Freres, a New York investment-banking firm. The firm had helped The Washington Post Co. go public through a stock offering in 1971. Colson wrote that the bankers were concerned about the company's financial future, given its newspaper's contentious relationship with the White House.
benton.org/node/31151 | Washington Post
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NEW FILM MAY SWAY BRAZIL'S PRESIDENTIAL VOTE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Alexei Barrionuevo]
In the opening scenes of a new Brazilian movie, a 7-year-old boy roams barefoot through the parched, cactus-filled dirt of the northeastern town of Caetés, collecting water from a creek where cows drink while his mother waits in the one-room house he shares with seven brothers and sisters. The boy, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, would become president of Brazil and one of the world's most popular leaders, despite his fourth-grade education and impoverished childhood. The movie, "Lula, the Son of Brazil," which opened in Brazilian theaters on New Year's Day, traces his inspiring biography from the hardscrabble childhood with a doting mother and a hard-drinking, abusive father, to his heroic rise as a union leader who was briefly imprisoned by the military dictatorship. "What Lula has offered Brazilians is freedom from an inferiority complex," said Fabio Barreto, the film's director, an avowed supporter of the president who makes no apologies for glossing over any rough spots in his story. "This society has always been treated as inferior and lazy and less than what they are. No one has ever come here to tell us that our people are strong." The story stops before Mr. da Silva's political career takes off. But that has not stopped politicians and other critics from questioning the intentions of the producers, who released the film during a presidential election year.
benton.org/node/31150 | New York Times
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MORE ON BROADBAND/INTERNET ...

BLINDNESS GROUP, ASU SETTLE OVER KINDLE
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Two organizations representing the blind have settled a discrimination lawsuit against Arizona State University over its use of Amazon's Kindle e-reader device. Arizona State is among several universities testing the $489 Kindle DX, a large-screen model aimed at textbook and newspaper readers. Last June, the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind joined a blind ASU student in suing Arizona State, alleging that the Kindle's inaccessibility to blind students constituted a violation of federal law. The blindness organizations and ASU announced the settlement on Monday. It does not involve payment of any damages or attorney's fees. Rather, the groups cited ASU's commitment to providing access to all of its programs for students with disabilities, and noted that the pilot program was already ending this spring.
benton.org/node/31145 | Associated Press
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VERIZON: METERED BILLING MUCH FAIRER THAN ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
Verizon's top technologist says that low-bandwidth users are just subsidizing the "hogs" at the bandwidth trough. It would be fairer for everyone just to pay for what they use. The history of metered billing attempts suggests otherwise, however. As a principle metered billing is fair enough, though the move away from flat-rate billing will also make people think twice before accessing non-essential Internet services. That's great for Verizon, but really, really bad for streaming video companies like Netflix, etc. The second issue with dropping flat-rate pricing concerns Verizon's newly "open" stance. The company is preparing itself for a world in which bazillions of wireless devices may attach to its network but have no need for today's voice and data plans. Think e-readers like the Kindle, or smart water and electricity meters; such devices will need much simpler, pay-for-what-you-use billing models or other less traditional arrangements. Switching to a metered payment arrangement for devices that will make only limited use of the data network makes sense and is likely to generate no controversy. But when it comes to tinkering with all-you-can-eat data plans for computers and cell phones, Verizon knows it needs to tread carefully.
benton.org/node/31141 | Ars Technica
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EUROPE'S INTERNET KIDS LIKE TO KEEP IT REAL
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Alexander Clare]
A new survey of eight to 14-year-old Europeans by U.S. entertainment, film and theme park company Walt Disney Co showed that the children of Generation X are web-savvy, videogame-playing environmentalists who love their parents. The survey of 3,020 children across Europe -- who Disney has dubbed "Generation XD" -- said they embraced cutting-edge technology and traditional family values at the same time, using the Internet as a toy and a tool for homework.
benton.org/node/31137 | Reuters
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ADVERTISING

SMART-SIGN TECH
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Don Clark, Nick Wingfield]
Intel and Microsoft are promoting the idea of advanced digital signs in stores that aren't just for shoppers to look at. These look back. The two technology giants said Monday that they will collaborate to help companies create and use new forms of digital signs. By exploiting Intel chips and Microsoft software, the companies hope to bring more interactivity to such devices and help retailers customize marketing offers to consumers. Signs equipped with cameras and specialized software could recognize the age, gender and height of people in front of them, and tell what products and images received the most attention, the companies said. By gathering information about which messages are more effective, they add, traditional retailers could develop marketing approaches that better counter Web-based competitors.
benton.org/node/31149 | Wall Street Journal
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ARBITRON CEO RESIGNS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi]
The chief executive of radio-ratings company Arbitron unexpectedly resigned Monday as questions were being raised about the truthfulness of his recent congressional testimony. Skarzynski's resignation comes six weeks after he testified about the PPM system in a hearing before a congressional subcommittee. The panel's chairman, Rep Edolphus Towns (D-NY), said Monday that Skarzynski may have "intentionally misled" the panel. Congressional sources said that the resignation was related to Skarzynski's testimony and that subcommittee staff members were reviewing the transcript. Arbitron is to radio what Nielsen is to television: the dominant supplier of audience ratings to ad agencies, marketers and stations. Arbitron surveys listeners and assembles the data on which billions of dollars in advertiser decisions are based.
benton.org/node/31148 | Washington Post
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WHAT NEWS WAS

TERROR TOPS THE NEWS AGENDA
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
More than eight years after 9/11, the ability of a terror attack—even a failed one—to transform and dominate the news landscape was evident last week. With the fallout from the Christmas Day airline bombing plot as the No. 1 story, topics intertwined with terrorism accounted for more than one-third (36%) of the newshole from January 4-10, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. That represents the biggest week of terror-related coverage since PEJ's News Coverage Index began in January 2007. At the same time, the two top domestic policy issues, the economy and health care, combined to account for 15% of last week's overall coverage.
benton.org/node/31144 | Project for Excellence in Journalism
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