March 2010

Audiences Don't Pay for Content

[Commentary] The media industry needs to get healthy but we won't get there if we think about the Internet as the reason that consumers have stopped paying for content. Instead, we need to take a dispassionate view of mass media content and ask ourselves why the Internet is a reason that consumers should start paying for content.

The reader willingly pays for access to an infinite amount of content even though they are only able to absorb the tiniest slice of what they pay for. This makes sense. The audience for mass media cannot be expected to predict which content they will want to see in the future. Breaking news, new needs, time management and serendipity play a role in the content the consumer decides to ingest each day. The value of mass media to the consumer is much greater when they do not have to micro-manage their needs.

Web Video Audience OK With More Ads, Report

According to comScore, people who watch TV shows on the Web are far more tolerant of ads than perhaps once thought, and would actually stand for more clutter.

Specifically comScore found that while sites like Hulu typically serve around four minutes of ads for every hour of content served, users would be OK with six to seven minutes of ads. That flies in the face of conventional thinking in the industry, which is that users who elect to watch TV shows on the Web are ad-avoiders by nature and don't understand the value exchange when they consume free content.

Google Says Local Intent is Behind One-Third of Mobile Searches

Speaking at a Mobile Marketing & Advertising event in Las Vegas to coincide with CTIA Wireless 2010, Diana Pouliot - director of mobile advertising at Google - revealed that one-third of all Google searches via the mobile web pertain to some aspect of the searcher's local environment.

Paul Feng, Google's mobile-ads group product manager, echoed Pouliot's sentiments and expounded on Google's efforts to make the search giant's advertising reach as local as possible. Building on the changing ad formats foreshadowed by Google in recent months, Feng suggested further tweaking of those formats in the near future - changes that may even involve new forms of user interaction, including navigation.

Feds to rely on technology to make health reform law a reality

The historic health care reform bill President Obama signed into law on Tuesday calls for development of states' health care exchanges that eventually will allow Americans to compare insurance through Web portals as easily as they price and book airline tickets.

The exchanges will create a "market where Americans can one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefits and prices, and choose the plan that's best for them." The exchanges, which will provide coverage to individuals and small businesses not covered by plans offered by larger employers or the federal government's Medicare program for the elderly, will become fully operational in 2014. But language in the 906-page Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act directs the Health and Human Services Department to consult with states to set up by a Web site no later than July 1 that will allow the public to search for the most affordable health coverage.

How Did the Internet Affect the Health Care Battle of 2009-10?

[Commentary] With the year-long debate over health care reform now entering its denouement (or a new chapter), how do you think the Internet affected the course of the political battle? The Internet forced the process much more into the open. The relatively open process fueled a lot of passionate engagement on all sides, with rightwing blogs, GOP outfits like Freedom Works and Tea Party protesters along with leftwing blogs, Democratic efforts like HCAN and OFA, and MoveOn and the PCCC all turbocharging their efforts by using the latest tools for connecting, coordinating, collaborating, raising money, and moving messages and troops. The overall effect was for many more voices to speak effectively in the process.

Conservative media channel history to portray health care bill as great tragedy

Right wing media figures have compared the passage of landmark health care reform legislation to historical events including the Black Plague, the attack on Pearl Harbor, Bloody Sunday, the passage of the Stamp Act, the federal government's refusal to bail out New York City in the 1970's, the Jonestown massacre, and The Day The Music Died.

CIOs Embrace Open Government

Federal chief information officers have embraced the Obama administration's open government initiative by trying to increase access to government information and encouraging public participation and collaboration, a new survey of these officials released Tuesday found.

The 20th annual survey of CIOs, conducted by TechAmerica and Grant Thornton, found that CIOs are trying to improve access to government information through portals such as Data.gov, USASpending.gov, Recovery.gov and the Federal IT Dashboard and aiming to increase public participation through social media, wikis, Web. 2.0, Twitter and next-generation Web applications. "The CIOs think that broadening public participation and involvement in government will create greater trust in government, increase the value that citizens receive from government, and unleash innovation with respect to governing and government services," Paul Wohlleben, a partner in the Global Public Sector practice at Grant Thornton, LLP, said.

New Cookie Rules, April 7

The White House early next month plans to change a federal Web site policy that bans tracking devices called cookies, which many commercial sites use to customize their pages for users, administration officials said on Tuesday.

As part of comprehensive guidance called for under a December directive, the Office of Management and Budget on April 7 will resolve regulatory barriers to open government, including the current cookie policy, Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra said in an interview with Nextgov. For privacy reasons, existing policy bars federal sites from using persistent cookies, or files deposited on a user's computer to collect information about personal preferences and other statistics to enhance interaction. The directive instructed agencies on steps they must take to improve transparency, civic participation and public-private interaction in government, largely by using technology. One step is a review and repair of existing policies, such as the cookie policy, that impede open government and the use of new technologies. Many agency Web managers and even White House officials have argued that the present policy prevents the government from engaging citizens. Kundra also said the April guidance will include specific rules for agencies on reporting sub-award spending.

ONC names managers for 'Beacon' grants program

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has named two healthcare policy experts to manage its "Beacon" communities project, a $200 million grant program designed to showcase how health IT can improve population health.

ONC named Aaron McKethan, a research director at the Brookings Institution's Engelber Center for Health Reform as the Beacon program director. Craig Brammer, a project director at Cincinnati's Aligning Forces for Quality, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was named deputy director. He will report to McKethan. McKethan came on board March 15 and Brammer will start in April, an ONC spokesman said. Under the Beacon Communities program, ONC will award grants to about 15 non-profit organizations or government bodies where communities are well on their way to meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs).

Wieman Tapped for Office of Science and Technology Policy

President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Dr Carl Wieman to be Associate Director for Science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Dr Wieman currently divides his time between the University of British Columbia and the University of Colorado. At each institution, he serves as both the Director of Collaborative Science Education Initiatives aimed at achieving widespread improvement in undergraduate science education and as a Professor of Physics. From 1984 through 2006, he was a Distinguished Professor of Physics and Presidential Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado. While at the University of Colorado, he was a Fellow of JILA (a joint federal-university institute for interdisciplinary research in the physical sciences) and he served as the Chair of JILA from 1993-95. Dr. Wieman has conducted extensive research in atomic and laser physics.

Benton

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