May 2010

Agency that initiated open gov process ranks near last in open gov study

The agency tasked with spearheading the White House's open-government efforts ranked nearly last in a survey of open-government practices, according to a new report.

In an audit of those plans, which all federal agencies released in April, the group OpentheGovernment.org found that the Office of Management and Budget assembled one of the poorest open-government strategies across the entire Obama administration. That news is somewhat ironic, given that OMB under the president's orders issued a guidance in December 2009 calling for all agencies to boost transparency and connect more with voters online.Eight agencies in the new study -- including NASA, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Labor -- ranked among the strongest of all plans, exceeding the highest score possible with the help of bonus points for extra work. Another 16 agencies, including the State Department and Commerce Department, fell in the middle tier. However, OMB was ranked among the five agencies considered the "weakest," falling below the Treasury Department and the Department of Defense, and just above the Department of Energy and the Department of Justice.

Sen Pryor pushing bill to adapt Internet, tech for deaf, blind

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Arkansas) is pushing new legislation that would require technology companies, phone manufacturers and Web vendors to adapt their products to deaf or blind customers.

The senator, who chairs a Senate subcommittee on consumer affairs, plans to introduce the "Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act" on Tuesday. The legislation is Pryor's attempt to address accessibility problems that have long made it difficult for disabled persons to use new media and technology tools. The legislation would mandate that all smartphones -- including the iPhone and BlackBerry -- are compatible with most hearing aids. Pryor's bill would also require DVRs and mp3 players to support closed captioning, as most TVs already do, and would authorize new money for a fund to expand broadband service to low-income, disabled persons.

Short Films, Music Videos Featuring Products Engage Viewers With Brands by Providing Entertainment

Since Lady Gaga's nearly 10-minute video "Telephone" made its debut a few weeks back, it's garnered 28 million views on YouTube, been watched on MTV.com nearly 500,000 times and shared on Facebook and tweeted directly from the pop star's site some 150,000 times. The video-slash-short film is easily one of the most-popular pieces of longer-form content in recent times, boosting visibility for brands like Miracle Whip and dating site PlentyofFish.com that made appearances in the video. But it's also just one in a growing batch of examples that signal marketers' desire to engage with consumers for longer than the standard 30 seconds.

Package-Goods Titans Talking Tough on Network TV Upfront

A more-buoyant economy and strong scatter prices seem to signal a seller's market for what could be an $8.26 billion TV upfront, but heavyweight spenders Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Reckitt Benckiser are sending a far different message: We have credible alternatives to traditional TV advertising, and we're not afraid to use them.

Unilever is saying that its level of participation in the upfront will depend in large part on how pricey the market looks, noting that its success stories from other media, particular digital, give it plenty of options for putting money elsewhere. Helping further the point, several Unilever executives will be making a field trip to Silicon Valley this week to visit all of its major players, not just as a learning experience but also in hopes of making deals, said newly minted Chief Marketing Officer Keith Weed.

PTC targets Android, others after Apple cleans up App Store

Earlier this year, Apple made several changes to the App Store to address complaints that apps with nothing other than a prurient purpose had infiltrated the App Store. Part of the problem was that kids could still access screenshots for "racy" apps. Apple also began removing a number of these apps after it received complaints from the Parents Television Council. Though the group thinks Apple has some room for improvement, it will be focusing its future efforts on other platforms that are growing in popularity, such as Android, which currently lack Parental Controls.

Qwest-CenturyTel consumer strategies face questions

It could be another year before CenturyTel's merger with Qwest Communications closes, but it is already clear that some of the most critical strategic decisions the combined company will need to make revolve around consumer services -- and how effectively the company can leverage these services into multiplay bundles to stave of cable TV competition.

But how pervasively that scale can be leveraged in all areas of the combined operation remains to be proven. In the past week, much media coverage of the deal has portrayed it as a merger of landline telephone companies. That common link in a declining market is certainly not the only way these two companies would like to be known, but in other consumer segments, such as video and wireless, it is unclear on what the true identity of the merged firm will be based.

Health law has billions in unfunded HIT mandates

Federal, state and local governments will spend more than $5 billion in health information technology and traditional IT by 2015 to comply with the requirements of the new healthcare reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to an analysis of the law by market research firm Input. However, most of the requirements in the new law are unfunded and who will pay what and where the money will come from remains largely unclear, said Angie Petty, a senior analyst at Input.

She said the health reform law funds only $1 billion to $2 billion of the health IT and IT requirements defined in the legislation. The expenditures go beyond the $20 billion earmarked for electronic health records, health information exchanges and other health IT solutions in the HITECH portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. But they build on the earlier legislation by putting even greater emphasis on electronic health records and payment systems as critical to the success of health care reform, the firm said.

Researchers suggest EHR systems linked to higher costs

Researchers from the business school at Arizona State University, Tempe, say their work suggests electronic health-records systems in hospitals increase hospital costs, nurse staffing levels and the incidence of complications, but lower mortality rates for some conditions, according to a published report. The three-man team from the W. P. Carey School of Business at ASU found IT implementations were associated with 6% to 10% higher cost per discharge in medical-surgical acute care units. They also found relatively lower intensive IT implementations, at Stage 2 on the HIMSS Analytics adoption model, were coincident with 15% to 26% higher registered nurse hours by per day and reduced licensed vocational nurse cost by 2% to 4%. Meanwhile, higher, Stage 3 implementations were associated with 3% to 4% lower rates for in-hospital mortality for certain conditions, the report said.

Internet Security 101: What not to post on Facebook

A Consumer Reports survey found that more than half of adults who use social networks post information that puts them at risk for identity theft and other cyber crimes.

Police Wiretapping Jumps 26 Percent

The number of wiretaps authorized by state and federal judges in criminal investigations jumped 26 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to a report released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Courts authorized 2,376 criminal wiretap orders in 2009, with 96 percent targeting mobile phones in drug cases, according to the report. Federal officials requested 663 of the wiretaps, while 24 states accounted for 1,713 orders.

Not one request for a wiretap was turned down.

Each wiretap caught the communications of an average of 113 people, meaning that 268,488 people had text messages or phone calls monitored through the surveillance in 2009, a new record. Only 19 percent of the intercepted communications were incriminating, the same as in 2008. The report attributes some of the rise in the numbers to better reporting by the nation's courts.

Benton

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