April 2010

NEWS FROM THE HILL

RECAP HOUSE HEARING
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee]
The House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet held a hearing entitled "The National Broadband Plan: Competitive Availability of Navigation Devices" on Thursday, April 29. The hearing examined recommendations contained in the National Broadband Plan to stimulate competition and innovation in set-top boxes and other video navigation devices. The NBP points out that while consumers have access to hundreds of mobile and computing devices, there is not a similarly diverse retail market for set-top boxes and other video navigation devices. The NBP states that further innovation in set-top boxes could lead to higher broadband utilization as video encourages more broadband usage. Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) said the ability to have plug-and-play capability for set-top boxes remains an elusive goal, but one that an Federal Communications Commission-proposed gateway box could solve. he's pleased that the FCC had proposed such a gateway device be implemented by 2012 (as part of the FCC's national broadband plan). He also said a workable CableCARD regime could help drive a competitive marketplace. That regime, he said, is now riddled with problems. "Revised CableCARD rules are needed for the near term," he said. The FCC has failed to aid consumers by creating the competitive market for set-top boxes Congress envisioned in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld testified. The result, Feld said, is that customers for cable, satellite and telephone-provided video services still must rent their set-top boxes from those companies and can't easily take advantage of a more competitive market for devices like digital video recorders (DVRs).
benton.org/node/35238 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee | B&C - Boucher | B&C - PK | PK - press release | PK - testimony
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RECAP OF SENATE HEARING
[SOURCE: US Senate Commerce Committee]
The Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance held a hearing on protecting the privacy of children using the Internet. Kathryn Montgomery, an American University communications professor and also an architect of COPPA, said that the current regulations, enacted in 2000, need to be updated to reflect new developments in communications. "The commission must ensure that its regulations implementing COPPA include the full range of Internet-enabled or connected services, including the increasingly ever-present cell phones children use, along with Web-connected gaming devices and online, interactive video," she said. [much more at the URL below]
benton.org/node/35237 | US Senate Commerce Committee | Senate Commerce Committee | Chairman Rockefeller | Congress Daily | The Hill | The Hill - Apple, Google | B&C - Progress and Freedom Foundation | FTC | MediaPost
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MARKEY AND DIGITAL COPY MACHINES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
Beware of that copy machine in your office: it could be storing sensitive information on its digital hard drive. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) is concerned that digital hard drives in copy machines are storing images of every document scanned, copied or emailed by the machine. And the machines are usually leased and then passed on to other companies, making previously stored documents accessible on the hard drives for years to come. Rep Markey sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, urging the agency to "immediately investigate the matter" and giving consumers information about privacy risks associated with digital copy machines.
benton.org/node/35235 | Hill, The | Rep Markey | WashPost
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SUPREME COURT ON TV?
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
A handful of lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee hope to compel the Supreme Court to begin televising its proceedings. Days after Justice Steven Breyer shot down the prospect that the high bench would permit cameras in the court room this year, 13 committee members from both parties voted to advance legislation that would force SCOTUS to do just that. A similar effort to express the "sense of the Senate in support of permitting the televising of Supreme Court proceedings" also cleared the committee on a 13-6 vote on Thursday. However, that effort is more symbolic, and would not have the force of law. "Television coverage of the Supreme Court is long overdue, and I'm pleased that the Committee made progress on this front today," said Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA). "The Supreme Court makes pronouncements on Constitutional and federal law that have a direct impact on the rights of all Americans. Those rights would be substantially enhanced by televising the oral arguments of the Court so that the public can see and hear the issues presented." The committee also cleared a third bill on Thursday that would instruct lower federal district and circuit courts to televise their proceedings too. Led by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the legislation carves out an exception for cases that could "endanger trial participants."
benton.org/node/35231 | Hill, The
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ELECTIONS AND HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
The House subcommittee that has jurisdiction over some of the biggest technology issues could have a drastically different roster after this year's elections. At least six members of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet are either retiring or running for higher office. Several others are facing tough races in their districts and are at risk of losing their seats. The subcommittee's chairman, Rep Rick Boucher (D-VA), is facing a tough challenge from state House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith. Rep Boucher, who's held his seat for 28 years, has spearheaded a number of initiatives on the committee, from drafting privacy legislation to making plans to reform a telecom fund that could expand the reach of broadband into rural areas. He is the 10th most powerful member of the House, but Republicans have attacked him for his support of cap-and-trade legislation, despite his district's roots in coal-mining. And some critics say he has been in Washington so long that he's lost touch with his constituency.
benton.org/node/35234 | Hill, The
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WIRELESS INDUSTRY PUSHES SPECTRUM BILL
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: John Poirier]
The US wireless industry is pressing a key senator to clear the way for a government study that could accelerate plans to free up airwaves for devices such as smart phones. Sen Tom Coburn (D-OK) has blocked the Senate's spectrum inventory measure from moving through the chamber because he believes the measure will add to the country's budget deficit due to its $22 million price tag. But a meeting on Tuesday between Sen Coburn and Steve Largent, who heads the CTIA wireless industry trade group yielded some progress, raising hopes the strained wireless industry could get relief.
benton.org/node/35229 | Reuters
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CAMPAIGN FINANCE BILL INTRODUCED
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: David Morgan, Thomas Ferraro]
Democratic lawmakers on Thursday introduced legislation to blunt the impact of a recent Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations, unions and other groups to spend unlimited funds on political campaigns. Unveiled by Sen Charles Schumer (D-NY) on the steps of the court, the White House-backed initiative calls for the unprecedented disclosure of money in politics three months after the court ruled 5-4 that long-standing campaign finance limits violated the free speech rights of corporations. New measures require corporations, unions and other groups to disclose their financial roles in political TV campaigns including those that favor or oppose specific candidates. The measures require corporate, union and advocacy group leaders to disclose their names in TV ads. The measures also ban election spending by government contractors, companies with over 20 percent foreign ownership and bank bailout recipients. "This legislation will stop the funneling of big money through shadow groups in order to fund ads that are virtually anonymous," said Schumer, who wants a Senate vote by July 4.
benton.org/node/35228 | Reuters | Broadcasting&Cable
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OPEN INTERNET/BROADBAND REGULATION

ISPs URGE FCC TO NOT RECLASSIFY
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Representatives from three major Internet service providers and five industry trade groups sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on Thursday to discourage the agency against classifying broadband as a telecommunications service, which would boost the FCC's power to regulate broadband providers. In the letter, AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and other signers pushed back on the argument that classifying broadband in this way would be returning to oversight schemes that existed before the FCC was under the control of the administration of Republican President George W. Bush, which consumer advocates say imposed deregulatory policies. The companies said the letter aims to "set the record straight" by explaining that "the commission has never classified any kind of Internet access service (wireline, cable, wireless, powerline, dial-up or otherwise) as a ... telecommunications service, nor has it ever regulated the rates, terms and conditions of that service -- Internet access service has always been treated as a Title I information service."
"This latest letter from the telephone and cable industries is yet another sign that the industry will make any argument to avoid the simple fact that consumers deserve protection against companies [that] block or degrade service and deserve more competition in Internet services," Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld said in a news release. Feld argued that the carriers got the facts wrong and that "the Internet flourished with much more regulation on the telephone companies (which should have also been applied to cable companies) than anyone is discussing now."
benton.org/node/35239 | CongressDaily | read the ISP letter | The Hill | Public Knowledge
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OPEN INTERNET FORUM IN SEATTLE
[SOURCE: Seattle Times, AUTHOR: Brier Dudley]
A panel of academics, wireless executives and others headlined a public forum the FCC held in Seattle to solicit public input on how to preserve the "Open Internet." "Open Internet" in this case applies to the discussion of new regulations that would prevent Internet service providers from throttling their pipes or restricting any particular type of content. Someone must have hired a PR. firm because "Open Internet" is more catchy than "net neutrality," but either way it's still a confusing policy hairball. About 70 people attended the hearing at the Jackson Federal Building, including a blend of "Open Internet" activists and telecommunications lawyers and lobbyists monitoring the situation. Nobody came out and spoke against having an open Internet, of course, although Washington Policy Center small business director Carl Gipson questioned whether new regulations will help consumers or increase costs. The first applause came late in the nearly four-hour session, when Gigi Sohn, president of Washington, D.C., advocacy group Public Knowledge, fired up on the topic of whether telecom companies can prioritize Internet traffic. "Who chooses winners and losers in the marketplace?" she said. "Who chooses who gets to be prioritized? Is it the access provider or is it you?"
benton.org/node/35205 | Seattle Times | Seattle PI
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SEARCH NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
If Internet service providers should be subject to "network neutrality," should companies like Google be subject to "search neutrality"? The term "search neutrality" now fills the FCC filings of companies like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and AT&T, all of whom see no reason why their businesses should be picked out for regulatory scrutiny while Google goes about its business unmolested. Back in 2008, the University of Minnesota's Andrew Odlyzko wrote an important piece called "Network neutrality, search neutrality, and the never-ending conflict between efficiency and fairness in markets," which he later updated in 2009. The piece took a big picture look at the debate over net neutrality, arguing that the ideas behind it were really part of a policy debate "going back for centuries." He and Weiser agreed: the debate reflected a fundamental tension between "efficiency and fairness in markets, a tension that has never been completely resolved." Odlyzko is a hugely respected voice on the economics of networks and on the growth of Internet traffic, so his words carried particular weight: "Should net neutrality or some similar set of rules come to dominate (either because of market forces, or through regulation), attention would likely turn to other parts of the economy that might be perceived as choke points for social, economic, and political activities. If Net search becomes as important as the Google stock price seems to imply, for example, it might be the focal point for such concerns... It is possible to argue that the best outcome might be to have Google defeat AT&T in the battle over net neutrality, but then (and likely in any case) society might have to get ready to regulate Google!"
benton.org/node/35242 | Ars Technica
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MORE ON BROADBAND

BROADBAND TAKING OVER BROADCAST
[SOURCE: Fortune.com, AUTHOR: Daniel Hays]
[Commentary] On-demand video is starting to out-compete broadcast, and it looks like that trend is going to keep going. The recent federal appeals court ruling against the FCC's net neutrality assertions will probably support the growth of on-demand video. Various forces are converging to open the floodgates for broadband service providers and content owners to deliver content on-demand. Likewise, the National Broadband Plan, published in March, presents significant challenges for broadcasters, calling for the reallocation of more than 120 Mhz of their current 300 MHz of allotted spectrum. The broadband camp is harnessing a host of new weapons to use in the battle against broadcast. Tablet computers and fourth-generation (4G) wireless smartphones are coming out this year. Other devicesincluding Apple's iPad, which operates on AT&T's 3G network, and HTC's EVO, which will operate on Sprint Nextel's 3G and Clearwire's 4G networkswill be among the first gadgets to truly embrace high-definition, streaming, on-demand video content and games. Broadband service providers and their network equipment suppliers are constantly strengthening their arsenals to support the on-demand revolution. Verizon and Clearwire are developing speedy 4G wireless networks using global technology standards such as LTE and WiMAX. Even more capable, fiber-optic-based wireline networks are rolling out in most metropolitan areas to bring lightning-fast broadband speeds to communities. Verizon's FiOS and AT&T's U-verse are prime examples. These networks will allow a growing base of users to shift from today's broadcast paradigm to one of on-demand usage. [Dan Hays is a director in the Services, Electronics, and Software practice of PRTM, a global management consulting firm.]
benton.org/node/35203 | Fortune.com
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THE CLOUD AND THE FOURTH AMENDMENT
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: David Couillard]
In mid-April, a coalition of privacy groups filed a brief in federal district court in Colorado, defending Yahoo against attempts by the federal government to obtain the contents of Yahoo Mail messages without first obtaining a warrant. One month earlier, the Justice Department filed a 17-page brief arguing that Yahoo Mail messages do not fall under current statutory protection because, once opened, those messages are not considered to be in "electronic storage." The privacy coalition -- which included Google -- came to Yahoo's defense, arguing that users with e-mail stored in the cloud have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of that e-mail, and should thus be protected from warrantless searches by the government. (Hopefully the irony of Google opposing robust searches is not lost on Google's attorneys.) Unfortunately, the protections afforded by the warrant requirement have not yet been fully extended to the digital "cloud." This handy metaphor for the ethereal Internet as a storage and access hub is coming to have other implications: can we really conceal our data inside this cloud, shielding it from government intrusion? In fact, there is not even any guarantee that e-mails stored locally on a personal home computer will be afforded such protection. But as this novel question has remained unanswered by the sloth-like pace of legal innovation, a dozen more questions have cropped up. Meanwhile, the technological innovators are demanding faster answers.
benton.org/node/35222 | Ars Technica
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GET READY FOR THE EXACLOUD
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
Bret Swanson, the man who coined the term "exaflood" (referring to the exabytes of data surging through the Internet's routers), filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission this week about the "exacloud" -- call it online gaming or cloud streaming... "It is cloud computing but of a scope and scale never seen before." He adds, "This exacloud will transform video games, movies, virtual worlds, business software, and most other media. Piracy goes away. So do DVDs, game boxes, and maybe even expensive personal computers. New content and software subscription models open up. Based in the cloud instead of on your device, interactivity thrives. This new paradigm generates enormous amounts of Internet traffic. High-definition video requires big bandwidth, and real-time applications tolerate very little delay. UC-San Diego estimates that 55% of total American information consumption, or 1,991 exabytes per year, is (brace yourself) video games. If just 10% of these games moved online, they would generate twice the worldwide Internet traffic of 2008. Video is not always the most important content on the Web, but it defines the architecture and capacity of (and often pays for) the networks, data centers, and software that make all the Web's wonders possible."
benton.org/node/35221 | Ars Technica
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MORE NEWS FROM THE FCC

FCC ANNOUNCES TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR MAY 20th OPEN MEETING
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that the following items will be on the tentative agenda for the next open meeting scheduled for Thursday, May 20, 2010:
Mobile Wireless Competition Report: The 14th edition of the Mobile Wireless Competition Report, analyzing the state of competition in the mobile industry by expanding upon previous FCC inquiries and considering the broader mobile wireless ecosystem.
WCS-SDARS Report and Order: A Report and Order that enables robust mobile broadband use of 25 MHz of spectrum in the 2.3 GHz Wireless Communications Service (WCS) band while protecting neighboring incumbent operations.
E-Rate NPRM: A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking initiating reforms to the E-Rate program to make broadband more accessible in schools and libraries, and to cut red tape.
Pole Attachments Order and FNPRM: An Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement the National Broadband Plan recommendations to foster competition and broadband deployment by ensuring nondiscriminatory, just, and reasonable access to utility poles.
Local Number Portability Report and Order: A Report and Order standardizing the processes for transferring telephone numbers in one business day to ensure the benefits of competition for consumers.
benton.org/node/35224 | Federal Communications Commission | The Hill
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JOURNALISM

PRESS FREEDOM
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Howard LaFranchi]
The glory days of global press freedom appear to be long past, with a Washington-based freedom watchdog organization finding that a retrenchment of press freedoms continued in 2009. In its annual report on press freedom in the world, Freedom House finds an overall decline for the eighth year in a row - with noticeably negative movement in China, the Middle East, and parts of Latin America. The trend is particularly worrying, advocates say, because press freedom often acts as a kind of bellwether of the direction an array of political and social freedoms are taking. the general decline in global press freedom also includes measures taken to rein in the Internet and cyberspace, as governments catch up with new technologies, media experts say.
benton.org/node/35244 | Christian Science Monitor, The
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JOURNALISM IN TURMOIL
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Charles Firestone]
[Commentary] The journalism industry is in turmoil. The digital revolution has hit content providers of all kinds, changing their business models and in some cases altering the nature of the underlying content itself. Music has seen this most starkly. But print content, most particularly newspapers, have also faced significant disruption. Digitization and the communications revolution have placed in the consumer/user the tools to access the content they want, when they want it, at little or no cost. But there needs to be something to access: content needs to be created and paid for at some level. The good news is that there are many revenue streams for news and information visible today. Journalists serve as watchdogs to the effective operation of government, and provide much of the information a citizen needs to exercise his or her functions of citizenship. They also supply much of the day-to-day information necessary for an individual to get along in civil society. As the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy so aptly describe, these functions are all essential to a thriving democracy. So too is the quest for finding sustainable models for the functions of journalism, however they are realized.
benton.org/node/35214 | Huffington Post, The
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APPLE REPORTED PHONE STOLEN
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Karen Gullo]
An Apple lawyer told law enforcement officials last week that a prototype iPhone belonging to a company engineer was stolen, sparking an investigation that led a crime task force to seize computers from an editor whose blog bought the phone, a prosecutor said. An attorney with O'Melveny & Myers LLP representing Apple and the engineer contacted the District Attorney's office to report the item as stolen, said San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe. They were referred to California's Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, which started an investigation. "They said there was a belief that this had been stolen and we want to make sure it's investigated, and we agreed," Wagstaffe said today in a phone interview. "It was reported as stolen property."
benton.org/node/35226 | Bloomberg
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TELEVISION

ENGAGEMENT - NOT TURNING OFF THE TUBE - BEST BOLSTERS KIDS' READING, MATH SCORES
[Source: Canwest News Service, AUTHOR: Misty Harris]
Although the negative link between a child's hours of television-viewing and performance on cognitive tests is well known, a new study finds no evidence that one actually causes the other. The comprehensive research - which draws on the behavior of 3,351 kids age five to 10 during the 1990s and 2000s - suggests advocacy efforts aimed at reducing children's TV exposure aren't likely to improve math and reading scores. ``Our objective isn't to defend television,'' says study co-author Abdul Munasib, an assistant professor of economics at Oklahoma State University. "We simply don't find that watching more TV is what's causing kids to do badly." Munasib and co-author Samrat Bhattacharya confirm the negative relationship between TV and cognitive scores, but those correlations disappear once such idiosyncrasies as ambition, family structure and household income are considered.
benton.org/node/35198 | Canwest News Service
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TV STATIONS TO MAKE MORE MONEY!
[SOURCE: MediaWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
With the ad economy bouncing back and political revving up, analysts are revising their forecasts for TV stations upward. In its latest forecast, BIA/Kelsey is calling for a 6.5 percent increase for over-the-air TV station revenue to $17 billion. It's the third time BIA/Kelsey has made an adjustment to its forecast. In March, the firm predicted TV station revenue would increase 4.3 percent to $16.8 billion. The digital revenue forecast hasn't changed. BIA/Kelsey still forecasts digital will hit $600 million in 2010, a 20 percent gain. In 10 states where there are hotly contested races, TV revenues are expected to grow by nearly 8 percent or more, such as in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio and Colorado.
benton.org/node/35225 | MediaWeek | Broadcasting&Cable
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STATIONS DELIVERING CONTENT ON MULTIPLE PLATFORMS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A study from the Radio-Television Digital News Association and Hofstra University finds almost a third of TV station news directors say they run local news on another TV station, while twice as many are putting content on a mobile device as were in 2009. The largest markets are focusing on three screens-on-air, online, and mobile-with 68.8% saying those are their major platforms. Another 60% say they are in a news-sharing situation, whether it be a feed or a helicopter. Of those not pooling resources now, another 28% said it was on the radar screen.
benton.org/node/35220 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NIELSEN TURNS OFF THE CHANNEL
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Joe Mandese]
In a move that is a bit ironic and very symbolic for the television industry, Nielsen Wednesday said it has effectively turned off the TV channel. As part of the release of an annual report on America's television audiences, Nielsen said it had dropped one of its most popular features - data showing how many channels the average TV household receives - because in a digital, time-shifted multichannel universe, there no longer is a "consistent" meaning for the term "channel." "In an analog world, one channel generally represented a single viewing source," Nielsen explained in the release of its annual Television Audience Report. "With the growth and evolution of digital television technology this is no longer the case." The move is ironic, because Nielsen originally got into the TV business in the 1950s by measuring which channels TV households were tuning to. It is symbolic, because Nielsen, and others in the media industry, are pushing to redefine television as something else: one of many platforms in a rapidly expanding "video" marketplace chockfull of potential new clients and reports to sell.
benton.org/node/35212 | MediaPost
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ED TECH

ED TECH MISSING THE POINT
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: William Badke]
[Commentary] Though I'm a technology junkie, I continue to revel in the fact that so much of the world's information is never more than a few keystrokes away. I remember the days of those terrible old search engines that returned 10 million results, most of them irrelevant. I marvel now at the ability of Google or Bing or Wolfram Alpha to deliver pretty much what I ask for. Educators, from K to Ph.D., have assumed that our most foundational task is to put the best technology into the hands of as many people as possible. Once they have the tools, the assumption goes, our students can flourish. Whether delivering unbelievably cheap laptops or sophisticated scientific databases, education is in a providing mood despite the economic downturn. Many are predicting that the result will be a utopia in which education and technology create the super-student of the future. My institution -- Trinity Western University, in Langley, British Columbia -- has technology: lots of it, from campus-wide Wi-Fi, to extensive library databases, to laptops in the hands of most students. One would think that utopia was just on the horizon, and the coming techno-student was emerging before our eyes. But, as necessary as technology is to education, something crucial has been left out. The give-them-technology movement is missing the point. We are not teaching our students how to handle information.
benton.org/node/35217 | eSchool News
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PRIVACY

FACEBOOK AND PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Eliot Van Buskirk]
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears to have been outed as not caring one whit about your privacy -- a jarring admission, considering how much of our personal data Facebook owns, not to mention its plans to become the web's central repository for our preferences and predilections. Also interesting is how this came about: Not in a proper article, but in a tweet by Nick Bilton, lead technology blogger for the The New York Times' Bits Blog, based on a conversation he says was "off the record" and which he may have confused with "not for attribution." "Off record chat w/ Facebook employee," begins Bilton's fateful tweet. "Me: How does Zuck feel about privacy? Response: [laughter] He doesn't believe in it."
benton.org/node/35207 | Wired
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MANAGING BEHAVIORAL TARGETING
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
Spam compliance company UnsubCentral will unveil a new service Thursday that enables marketers to allow Web users to manage the types of behaviorally targeted ads they receive. The new program, dubbed PreferenceCentral, will allow brands to collect information directly from consumers about whether they want targeted ads, and if so, for which types of products. The program is designed to work in conjunction with the soon-to-debut behavioral targeting icons, which will carry metadata that includes information about the advertiser and links to the company. The PreferenceCentral platform can be included in the icons' landing page for marketers; consumers who click on that link would be able to visit a marketer's page where they can let the company know their preferences regarding behaviorally targeted ads. The tool is slated to launch in the third quarter.
benton.org/node/35213 | MediaPost
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COMMUNITY MEDIA

This headline is presented in partnership with:

ALA ISSUES STATE OF AMERICA'S LIBRARIES REPORT
[Source: American Library Association]
When jobs go away, Americans turn to their libraries to find information about future employment or educational opportunities. This library usage trend and others are detailed in the 2010 State of America's Libraries report, released today by the American Library Association. The report shows that Americans have turned to their libraries in larger numbers in recent years. [more at the URL below]
benton.org/node/35199 | American Library Association
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April 2010

April 30, 2010 (Two hearing recaps)

China Passes Tighter Information Law

Senate keeps nominees waiting

Government contests offer different way to find solutions for problems

'No Phone Zone' rallies join texting fight

India bans Chinese telecoms imports

iPhone case puts task force, firms in spotlight

Press freedom falls around the world

Cyberattacks: Washington is hyping the threat to justify regulating the Internet

Search neutrality? How Google became a "neutrality" target