September 2010

FCC Chairman Genachowski announces programs to connect students to the Web

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced new programs aimed at keeping students connected to the Web both inside and outside the classroom.

Speaking at a public forum on education technology at the Computer History Museum, Chairman Genachowski announced:

A pilot program that will give students wireless access to the Internet after they leave school grounds. The Learning-On-the-Go program will enable digital textbooks, iPads and other wireless devices to connect to the Web outside of school at no cost to the students.
Schools and libraries participating in the E-Rate program will be allowed to take advantage of unused fiber optic lines in their areas in an effort to boost the connection speeds available to students and members of the public.
The FCC will consider expanding the "School Spots" program, where schools can choose to provide Internet access to the surrounding community after students go home. The National Broadband Plan includes a goal of connecting a school or library in every community to an affordable, high-speed broadband pipe. The School Spots program would allow local users to take advantage of that high-speed connection when it isn't being used by students.

Google, turn your gigabyte city into a science experiment

[Commentary] Chattanooga, Tennessee is running an interesting experiment . By the end of this year, its residents and firms will be able to opt into accessing an extremely high speed (1 gig per second) Internet access. This is a specific place based treatment. Will this stimulate economic growth or simply stimulate increased downloads of movies, videos, and images of Lady Gaga and other leisure activities that raise well being but won't "create jobs." Cities have tried out many placed based strategies for encouraging growth. Favorites include; new sports stadiums, new arts museums and Ed Glaeser's favorite --- building billion dollar federally subsidized rail transit systems). Could fast Internet cable achieve what these other strategies have not? I have blogged about this subject before. But, now a new point. Google is undertaking a similar effort.

Broadband Use In China Soars, US Slows

Led by a surge of broadband users in China, worldwide broadband subscriber lines have passed the 500 million mark, according to a report released by the Broadband Forum. The Broadband Forum said that China is the "powerhouse" of broadband with 43% of new broadband subscriptions added in the second quarter ending in June. According to market researcher Point Topic, broadband gains in the U.S. and Canada have slowed significantly to levels not seen in a decade.

More US doctors moving to e-prescriptions

US doctors increasingly are ditching pen and paper and sending prescriptions to pharmacies electronically, lured by up to $27 billion in government funds aimed at speeding the switch to electronic medical records. There are now 200,000 doctors who use e-prescribing, or roughly one in three office-based doctors. That compares with 156,000 at the end of last year, and 74,000 at the end of 2008, according to new data released by Surescripts, which operates the largest U.S. electronic prescribing network. They said 47 states more than doubled their use of electronic prescribing last year.

Do TV Spots Work in Web Video?

A common knock on the Web video industry is that it needs to move beyond repurposed TV spots, often shown as pre-rolls before content begins. But new research from Dynamic Logic finds that such units perform just as well as video ads created specifically for the medium when it comes to several brand attributes. In fact, repurposed TV ads aided brand awareness at identical levels as made-for-Web spots. In ad awareness and message association, TV spots outranked Web originals.

Commercial Confusion

Significant numbers of viewers -- especially older viewers -- find TV commercials confusing at least some of the time. But young adults aren't immune, either. Among 18-34-year-olds, just 2 percent said they're "very often" confused by commercials, but another 16 percent feel this way "somewhat often." This put them nearly on a par with the 45-54-year-olds, among whom 4 percent said they're "very often" and 14 percent "somewhat often" confused by TV spots. Such perplexity was least common among the 35-44-year-olds (2 percent "very often," 11 percent "somewhat often").

Dept of Transportation Proposes New Anti-Texting Rule

The Transportation Department is holding a day-long distracted driving summit in Washington during which Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the agency will implement a new rule that would ban commercial truck drivers from texting while transporting hazardous materials.

Two rules Sec LaHood announced at a similar summit last year have now become law. The rules ban commercial bus and truck drivers from texting on the job and restrict train operators from using wireless devices while driving. The Department of Transportation also announced nearly 1,600 U.S. companies and organizations, covering 10.5 million workers, have signed on to a program aimed at persuading private firms and groups to implement policies that discourage distracted driving. Another 550 organizations have agreed to adopt distracted driving policies in the next year that cover 1.5 million additional U.S. workers, the department said in a news release.

FCC Urged To Help Advance Smart Grid Technologies

Two lawmakers on the House Commerce Committee urged the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that smart electrical grid technologies can utilize unused spectrum between broadcast television channels known as "white spaces."

The FCC is set to vote Thursday on a final rule allowing for the use of white spaces for "unlicensed broadband wireless devices." In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Doris Matsui (D-CA) urged him to "ensure a variety of technologies, including smart grid applications, are able to utilize this spectrum to advance our nation's clean energy needs." They note that advances in technology can allow consumers to monitor their energy use in real time. Electrical utilities also could benefit from having access to white spaces, they added.

Why Texas is the Smart Meter Market to Watch

When it comes to the future of smart meters, keep your eyes on Texas. The Lone Star State may lag behind California in its number of smart meters deployed, but it's taken a lead in supporting them with regulations and funding, and brought different utilities' smart meter systems together in a way no other state has yet managed. Just how consumers will react remains the biggest test, however.

Put An End To Paid Political Advertising

[Commentary] Americans are sold their politicians like they are sold soap. Recent Court decisions seem to have raised the stakes by allowing nearly anyone, even corporations, an unlimited right to spend money for political purposes - to influence the outcome of elections. Responsible broadcasters should take no part in this and responsible citizens and taxpayers should demand that their radio and television frequencies not be used as a crucial determinant in the electoral process. After all, the airwaves belong to all of us. Americans who run for public office are not consumer products. They should not be sold to the public as if they were with an advantage to those with the most money to spend.

Station owners who license the public airwaves, and have the ability to operate at a profit, and then sell those licenses for a capital gain, have an obligation to serve the public interest. They already provide news, weather, and other information programming in fulfillment of that license requirement. They should also contribute to the public discourse and dialogue about elections and candidates without having to generate more revenue. The availability of free time to candidates combined with the prohibition on others buying additional time would eliminate the fundamental unfairness of "selling candidates" like so many hamburgers, automobiles or bottles of beer. Paid political advertising on radio and TV should become a thing of the past.

Benton

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