April 2010

Committee shows hits, misses from stimulus law

Since passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act early last year, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has had its hands full doing what its name implies—stage managing a massive national health IT promotional production.

A meeting on April 28 of the Health Information Technology Standards Committee provided examples of federal actors both hitting and missing their marks. The committee was created under the stimulus law to advise the ONC. One section of the meeting dealt with a presentation by Doug Fridsma, acting director of the Office of Standards and Interoperability at the ONC, and Arien Malec, who is working at the ONC on development of a lightweight version of the proposed National Health Information Network called NHIN Direct. Malec is the coordinator of the project under an HHS contract with A+ Consulting. Malec is on a leave of absence from RelayHealth, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical wholesaler and health IT system vendor McKesson Corp., San Francisco.

Google 'still world's top brand'

Google's tribulations in China have failed to knock the Internet giant from its perch as the world's most powerful brand, according to a report.

WPP-owned research company Millward Brown puts Google at number one in its annual top 100 global brand power list for the fourth year running, with a 14% year-on-year increase in its value to $114bn (£75bn), despite the fact it has effectively pulled out of China over censorship issues. However, Facebook once again failed to make even the top 100 on the Millward Brown list. Despite the incessant hype around Facebook and its potential market valuation, The Brandz report gave Facebook a brand value of just $5.5bn, Peter Walshe, director at Millward Brown, explained that despite having an exceptionally strong brand the company had a long way to go to prove its financial clout. The report, which balances brand power with financial performance, bumped the Apple juggernaut up three places to third slot with a 32% year-on-year increase in brand value to $83bn. The phenomenal popularity of the iPhone, along with the hype surrounding the iPad, sent Apple's share price to a record high earlier this month as profits jumped 90% in the first quarter.

Report: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Doesn't Believe In Privacy

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."

New Study: Left More Likely to Make Blogging a Group Affair

Research that finds that liberal and political blogs are equally polarized might be missing out on an important, even mitigating, factor: how much those blogs encourage participation, are open to hearing from a range of in-house voices, and engage in collaborative actions like online fundraising. That's a gist of a new study from researchers Yochai Benkler, Aaron Shaw and Victoria Stodden that was put out by Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

FCC "Open Internet" forum in Seattle draws a few minor jabs, cheers

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?"

The FTC may not be fining bloggers yet, but it's got an eye on them

If there were any doubt about the Federal Trade Commission making good on its promise to crack down on blogger freebies, it has been laid to rest this week.

The group just completed an investigation of retailer Ann Taylor. They won't be asking for any reparations from the company, but that's only because Ann Taylor cooperated and promised not to offer any more $10 gift cards to bloggers. For bloggers thinking they would remain outside the FTC's purview, this case could serve as a warning that all sponsorships are under scrutiny.

Broadband is taking over broadcast

[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 devices-including 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 networks-will 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.]

Fact Checking Steve Jobs: Apple's Entire Behind a Free, Open Net

Apple's iPhone system is very locked down, and Apple's historical promotion of tech standards isn't as blemish-free as purists would prefer to think. But it's a strategy that's incredibly, mind-bejiggingly successful, and has shattered the old, broken smartphone paradigm.

In fact, without the closed proprietary nature of the iPhone platform, its unique, user-pleasing "just works" qualities probably wouldn't have been possible. But we're talking about the platform here, folks. The Web and media standards supported by the iPhone platform are open, and as a result of having over 80 million iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads in people's hands around the world, Apple's actively promoting a very open-standards Web future. It's like this: Household door sizes are standardized and regulated for a number of very good reasons...but the upshot is that they work reliably, and you can easily replace a door with a new one, of a different design, at any time you wish. And then you can open the door, and step into a free-form, standards-free world of adventure.

US Homes Add Even More TV Sets in 2010

The average American home now has 2.93 TV sets per household, up from 2.86 sets per home in 2009, the largest year-over-year increase since 2006 according to Nielsen's latest Television Audience Report.

This year the number of US homes with three or more TV sets increased to 55%, 28% have two sets and 17% have one set. The report also finds that while the total population continues to increase, the number of people per TV home holds steady at 2.5, carrying on the trend of more TVs per home than people.

Where Did Journalism Classes Go?

In the last decade over 200 high schools in California have scrubbed journalism. Nationally, the situation is similarly worrisome.

According to Anita Luera, a director at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in Arizona, "Many high school journalism programs have suffered in recent years, the victim of budget cuts and other priorities, especially at schools with large minority populations"...A study by the Newspaper Association of America showed that students who worked on high school papers and yearbooks scored better on college admission tests and tended to have higher grades in their first year of college. Notably, while the journalism trend line is plunging at high schools, it is actually rising at the college level...the knowledge gap between those whose schools offered journalism and those for whom it was no longer available was stunning. It's difficult to imagine the latter group succeeding in college journalism courses.

Benton

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