February 2010

Wilmington, NC takes white spaces to swamp, ballparks

Wilmington, North Carolina was the first spot in the country to transition from analog to digital TV. Now, more than a year later, the city is again serving as a testbed, this time for unlicensed broadband operating in the empty channels ("white spaces") of the TV band. But the goal isn't to bring broadband suddenly to everyone -- not at first.

White spaces gear first has to prove that it can save local government real money, and that means deploying somewhere unique: the swamp. "You can learn from your own mistakes or you can learn from other people's mistakes," said Rick Rotondo of Spectrum Bridge when I spoke to him yesterday about the Wilmington project. Spectrum Bridge is operating the test project under a special experimental license from the FCC, and it doesn't intend to repeat some of the mistakes made by enthusiastic early boosters of municipal WiFi. Those projects too often began without a clear economic model, and many subsequently collapsed. While Rotondo certainly hopes to offer broadband access to homes and businesses in the future, he knows that white spaces broadband first needs to prove its efficiency to the city of Wilmington. Only when it's clear that the tech pays for itself will the focus move to extending Internet access. To that end, the city has identified a host of specific test applications for the gear where digging a trench or even running aerial fiber or a wire would be cost prohibitive. One such place is the wetlands that surround Wilmington. They're studded with various water sensors to monitor the condition of the wetlands, and the EPA requires them to be monitored, especially when construction is taking place nearby.

Sec Locke Focuses On Commercializing Research

The competitiveness of American industry is at risk unless the nation improves at turning academic research into marketplace profits, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a speech Wednesday.

High unemployment and rising competition from abroad mean that "the United States cannot afford to merely fund research and say a prayer that some entrepreneur will commercialize it down the road," he said in prepared remarks. Technological innovations too often fail to turn into new jobs, said Sec Locke, speaking at a National Academy of Sciences forum. "As a result, we are losing our lead in promising industries and jeopardizing the future of our economy," he said. Challenges to confronting the problem include connecting entrepreneurs with researchers and balancing the "competing demands of [pursuing] knowledge for its own sake and focusing on discoveries that have real potential to spawn new industries, new businesses and new jobs."

Sec Locke used the forum to ask academics for guidance on "how the Commerce Department and the Obama administration can help."

Survey: Newspaper Web Sites Still Top Source for Local Info But Competition is Closing In

More people go to newspapers Web sites for complete local information than any other source, according to a new survey from the Newspaper Association of America and comScore.

Of the more than 3,000 adults surveyed, 57% chose newspaper Web sites as the top source for local information. However, the survey reveals that the competition is moving in. While 57% of identified newspapers as the top source of local information, 54% cited online portals while 53% went with local TV web sites. The respondents also rely more on portals for local information (31%) followed by local newspaper Web sites (23%)and local TV Web sites (22%). Newspapers have a tiny lead when it comes to being the most trust worthy local source. Thirty-three percent said newspaper sites while 32% said local TV Web sties. The source used most often by respondents by content type? Newspaper Web sites had only 30% of the vote for local news versus 31% for local TV sites. Newspaper Web sites bested other sources for local classifieds: 39% of respondents look to newspapers Web sites for that category -- far and away more than the next source, specialty Web sites at 14%.

HHS awards $100M for children's health IT, quality measures

The Health & Human Services Department awarded $100 million in grants to 10 states to test provider performance measures, and to use pediatric electronic health records and other health information technologies to promote quality improvements.

The five-year grants aim to improve healthcare quality for children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), both of which are managed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The grants were funded by the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA). Eight of the 10 awardees will test a new set of child health quality measures, and seven of the 10 states will use the funds to deploy health IT, with two states specifically planning to develop a new pediatric electronic health record format.

The awardees - Maine, Oregon, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Massachusetts, Colorado, Utah, South Carolina and Maryland -- will head both single-state projects and multi-state collaborations.

Senators get involved in combating online file-sharing dangers

Sens Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Thune (R-SD), introduced legislation Wednesday to inform Internet users of the privacy and security risks associated with file-sharing software programs.

Their bill would require software developers to clearly inform users when their files are made available to other users over the Internet. Such software, known as peer-to-peer programs, are most commonly used to download music and movies and make up the largest portion of Internet traffic. The bill would require file-sharing software to display a pop-up box alerting Internet users when they encounter such programs. The bill would also let consumers and employers block or disable file-sharing programs.

Similar legislation passed the House in December.

Department of Justice Will Not Challenge Proposed Online Subscription News Service

The Department of Justice announced that it will not challenge a proposal by MyWire to form the Global News Service, an online subscription news aggregation service.

The service would provide interconnections among different publishers' online content, such as news articles and video and audio clips, that relate to the same topic. Based on representations made by MyWire, the department said that the formation and operation of the news service is not likely to reduce competition among Internet publishers and could provide procompetitive benefits to both publishers and consumers. The Department of Justice's position was stated in a business review letter to counsel for MyWire from Christine Varney, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. The service would provide Internet publishers with a "related-item" content block that a publisher would add to its Web page. The block would contain hyperlinked abstracts of content from other participating publishers' Web sites. By clicking these hyperlinks, consumers would be able to browse among related material from different publishers' websites.

Disney hopes kids will take online World of Cars out for a spin

Walt Disney Co. believes that World of Cars, its new subscription-based online community aimed at boys and based on the Pixar movie "Cars," won't get lost in the traffic of virtual worlds.

Things are already a bit congested. Some 200 virtual worlds target children under 12. Each competes for a slice of the 10 hours and 45 minutes a day the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that kids spend viewing media, simultaneously vying for screen time against a growing number of portable media players and smart phones that offer their own diversions. That's not deterring Disney, however, which is testing World of Cars for rollout this summer. The game will allow kids to create their own car persona and rub hubcaps with characters from the movie. The launch marks the latest exercise in corporate cross-branding for Disney, which hopes it can leverage the movie's popularity into monthly subscription payments from boys and their NASCAR dads in advance of the release of "Cars 2" in summer 2011 and the Cars Land attraction that opens in 2012 at Disney's California Adventure theme park.

Wireless carriers tell FCC they disclose fees

The nation's biggest wireless carriers are telling federal regulators that they give consumers adequate notice about early termination fees that apply when a service contract is broken before it expires.

AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA and Google made their comments in letters filed with the Federal Communications Commission late Tuesday in response to an FCC inquiry into early termination fees. The companies told the agency that such fees allow them to subsidize handset purchases — including purchases of cutting-edge smart phones — for customers. Wireless carriers normally recover those subsidies over the life of a contract, but cannot do that when a customer breaks a contract early. In addition, the companies said the U.S. wireless industry is highly competitive — with four national carriers and a number of smaller providers all offering many choices of plans, including prepaid and month-to-month plans with no contract and no early termination fees.

Italian verdict on Google privacy sets dangerous precedent

An Italian court has convicted three former Google executives of violations of Italy's privacy code early Wednesday morning.

The decision comes after months of back and forth on the case, all of which began with a video uploaded by some delinquent teenagers of themselves beating on a classmate with Down Syndrome. Though the judge in the case absolved the executives of defamation charges (and a fourth was found not guilty of all charges), the verdict is shocking and is likely to have serious repercussions for sites that host user-generated content in Italy. The three-minute video was uploaded in 2006 and had a short lifespan on Google Video Italia, as complaints were quickly lodged and it was pulled within hours. That didn't stop an Italian Down Syndrome support group called Vivi Down from arguing that it should never have appeared in the first place. The group filed a complaint that resulted in a two-year investigation, and eventually, Milan public prosecutor Francesco Cajani agreed that the Google execs had violated Italian law by allowing the video to be uploaded. The four executives in question were Google's global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer, senior vice president and chief legal officer David Drummond, former chief financial officer George Reyes, and London-based Google Video exec Arvind Desikan. As Google has pointed out repeatedly, none of these executives had any involvement in the video and only learned about its existence after it had been removed. Nonetheless, Desikan was the only one of the group who was not convicted, while Drummond, Fleischer, and Reyes were all found guilty of privacy violations and received suspended six-month jail sentences.

Former Broadcaster Walden Takes Leave Of Absence From Key House Committee

House Communications Subcommittee member Rep Greg Walden (R-OR), a former broadcaster and one of the industry's strongest champions on the House Commerce Committee, is taking a leave of absence to push for House reforms as leader of the GOP Congressional Transparency Initiative. He will be replaced on the committee and subcommittee by Rep. Parker Griffith (R-AL).

Rep Walden will become the GOP Leadership Chairman, according to a spokesman, leading an effort to, among other things, mandate that bills are posted online at least 72 hours before they are voted on so that the press and public can see what is in them. He will also push for cameras in the rules committee so the press and public can follow the process of getting a bill to the floor, as well as making sure votes are posted online promptly and that no phantom amendments get added to bills. According to Walden's spokesman, he will retain his seniority and return to the committee likely no later than next year.

Benton

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