January 31, 2011 (Egypt; Network Neutrality; Google)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 2011
Last week's round-up: The State of the Union and the State of the Internet http://bit.ly/hJWONH
This week's agenda starts with Smart Grid Interoperability Standards http://bit.ly/i6tNHf
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Egypt orders mobile phone carriers to suspend service
Without Internet, Egyptians find new ways to get online
US condemns Egyptian crackdown on social networks
TV Crews Struggle in Egyptian Chaos
How Egypt Switched Off the Internet
One U.S. Corporation's Role in Egypt's Brutal Crackdown
Could Egypt Happen Here? Obama's Internet "Kill Switch"
Twitter co-founder: Freedom of expression is a human right
Homeland Security moves full-speed-ahead on Einstein cybersecurity tool
Governments Go Online in Fight Against Terrorism
INTERNET/BROADBAND
FCC Asks Court To Dismiss Network Neutrality Lawsuits
AT&T exec: FCC will recommend 4 Mb/s broadband Universal Service target next month
FairPoint meets broadband commitment in Maine
FCC Confuses Expropriation With Incentives
Stimulus funds help wire rural homes for Internet
Broadband goes to fiber optics
D Block auction sheds police, fire support
CONTENT
Biden To Head Piracy Protection Update
PRIVACY
Google reaches deal with Connecticut in Wi-Fi probe
We Fear for Our Online Privacy, But Do Little to Protect It
The Commerce Department’s Latest Privacy Initiative on Data Privacy Day
Privacy advocates don't 'like' Facebook's ad plans
HEALTH
ONC adds $80M to extension centers, HIEs and workforce programs
Health IT could power era of personalized medicine
OWNERSHIP
Comcast Takes Over NBC Universal
Critics Tell FCC To Watch New Comcast-Controlled NBCU
TELEVISION/RADIO
Computers Hooking Up With TVs
FCC Confuses Expropriation With Incentives
The Truth Behind the PBS/KCET Split
After a Year, Chirp Radio Has Made Gains, but Is Still Awaiting Its Own Frequency
NEWS FROM THE GOOGLEPLEX
Google reaches deal with Connecticut in Wi-Fi probe
Google tweaks search algorithm to favor sites with original content
Is Google Censoring the Search Function?
What If Google Is Just a One-Trick Pony?
See also:Google Searches for Mobile-App Experts
LABOR
H-1B Visas Run Out; Tech Firms Scramble
App Skills in Demand
See also:Google Searches for Mobile-App Experts
MORE ONLINE
Obama's call for innovation follows slowdown in most sectors, scholars say
Jeff Zients Will Lead Reorganization of Federal Government
Telenor moves to block VimpelCom deal
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
EGYPT SUSPENDS MOBILE SERVICE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Nathan Olivarez-Giles]
The Egyptian government has ordered all wireless phone carriers to curb mobile services in the country. Vodafone, one of Egypt's largest mobile providers, said in a statement: "All mobile operators in Egypt have been instructed to suspend services in selected areas. Under Egyptian legislation the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it. The Egyptian authorities will be clarifying the situation in due course." The mobile phone shutdown follows the government ordering the suspension of Internet service on Jan 28, just after midnight Egypt time. On Jan 27, BlackBerry Wed data was blocked, and on Tuesday, Twitter and Facebook were unavailable to Egyptians. The protests in Egypt have centered around frustrations with high unemployement and the presidency of Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power for more than three decades. The lack of Internet access has caused alarm among many human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and the Center for Democracy and Technology.
benton.org/node/49125 | Los Angeles Times | Center for Democracy and Technology
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NEW WAYS TO GET ONLINE IN EGYPT
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Nancy Gohring, Robert McMillan]
"When countries block, we evolve," an activist with the group We Rebuild wrote in a Twitter message on Jan 28. That's just what many Egyptians have been doing this week, as groups like We Rebuild scramble to keep the country connected to the outside world, turning to landline telephones, fax machines and even ham radio to keep information flowing in and out of the country. Although one Internet service provider -- Noor Group -- remains in operation, Egypt's government abruptly ordered the rest of the country's ISPs to shut down their services just after midnight local time Thursday. Mobile networks have also been turned off in some areas. Egyptians with dial-up modems get no Internet connection when they call into their local ISP, but calling an international number to reach a modem in another country gives them a connection to the outside world. We Rebuild is looking to expand those dial-up options. It has set up a dial-up phone number in Sweden and is compiling a list of other numbers Egyptians can call. It is also distributing information about its activities on a Wiki page.
benton.org/node/49130 | IDG News Service
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US CONDEMNS EGYPT
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
President Barack Obama expressed disapproval on Jan 27 of Egypt's crackdown on the Internet as police battled protestors in the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities. During an interview with Steve Grove, the head of news and politics at YouTube, President Obama cited a need for mechanisms that "allow [people] to express legitimate grievances." "There are certain core values that we believe as Americans are universal: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, people being able to use social networking and other mechanisms to communicate their concerns; and that is no less true in the Arab world than it is in the United States," he said. On Jan 28 President Obama called on Egypt to bring back the Internet and access to social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter that have been suspended this week by the government there. "The people of Egypt have rights that are universal," Obama said. "That includes the right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech and the ability to determine their own destiny. These are human rights and the United States will stand up for them everywhere. I also call upon the Egyptian government to reverse the actions that they've taken to interfere with access to the Internet, with cellphone service and to social networks that do so much to connect people in the 21st century."
"We urge the Egyptian authorities to allow peaceful protests and to reverse the unprecedented steps it has taken to cut off communications," said Sec of State Hillary Clinton. Alec Ross, the adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on innovation issues, tweeted in Arabic to say the government should not obstruct Web access.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said Internet access is a vital tool for protecting basic freedoms.
Rep. David Wu (D-OR) urged Western communications companies to defy orders from Egypt's government to shut down their services.
benton.org/node/49123 | Hill, The | National Journal | The Hill - no call to Egypt | The Hill - call to defy Egypt | LA Times | B&C | President Obama
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HOW EGYPT SWITCHED OFF NET
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Bobbie Johnson]
But how did the government shut off Internet access in the country? Is there a big kill switch inside Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s office? Do physical cables have to be destroyed? Can a lockdown like this work? Plenty of nations place limitations on communications, sometimes very severe ones. But there are only a few examples of regimes shutting down communications entirely — Burma’s military leaders notably cut connectivity during the protests of 2007, and Nepal did a similar thing after the king took control of the government in 2005 as part of his battle against insurgents. Local Chinese authorities have also conducted similar, short-lived blockades. The OpenNet Initiative has outlined two methods by which most nations could enact such shutdowns. Essentially, officials can either close down the routers which direct traffic over the border — hermetically sealing the country from outsiders — or go further down the chain and switch off routers at individual ISPs to prevent access for most users inside. In its report on the Burmese crackdown, ONI suggests the junta used the second option, something made easier because it owns the only two Internet service providers in the country. While things aren't clear yet, this doesn't look like the pattern seen in Egypt.
benton.org/node/49120 | GigaOm | Huffington Post | ars technica
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NARUS AND EGYPT
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Timothy Karr]
[Commentary] The open Internet's role in popular uprising is now undisputed. Look no further than Egypt, where the Mubarak regime reportedly shut down Internet and cell phone communications -- a troubling predictor of the fierce crackdown that has followed. What's even more troubling is news that one American company is aiding Egypt's harsh response through sales of technology that makes this repression possible. Telecom Egypt, the nation's dominant phone and Internet service provider, is a state-run enterprise, which made it easy on Friday morning for authorities to pull the plug and plunge much of the nation into digital darkness. Moreover, Egypt also has the ability to spy on Internet and cell phone users, by opening their communication packets and reading their contents. Iran used similar methods during the 2009 unrest to track, imprison and in some cases, "disappear" truckloads of cyber-dissidents. The companies that profit from sales of this technology need to be held to a higher standard. One in particular is an American firm, Narus of Sunnyvale, Calif., which has sold Telecom Egypt "real-time traffic intelligence" equipment. Narus, now owned by Boeing, was founded in 1997 by Israeli security experts to create and sell mass surveillance systems for governments and large corporate clients. The company is best known for creating NarusInsight, a supercomputer system which is allegedly used by the National Security Agency and other entities to perform mass surveillance and monitoring of public and corporate Internet communications in real time. Narus provides Egypt Telecom with Deep Packet Inspection equipment (DPI), a content-filtering technology that allows network managers to inspect, track and target content from users of the Internet and mobile phones, as it passes through routers on the information superhighway.
benton.org/node/49118 | Huffington Post, The | Free Press | Al Jazaara
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A KILL SWITCH FOR US INTERNET?
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: David Zax]
Egypt's flagrant violation of communications is possible only in the less free corners of the world, right? But since last summer, when a Senate bill was introduced by Sen Joe Lieberman (I-CT), the US has been considering an Internet "kill switch" of its own. CNET reported on a "renewed push" to implement the bill. Plenty of people criticized the first version of the bill, but the latest version has raised even more red flags. The revision bans judicial review over executive decrees. "The country we're seeking to protect is a country that respects the right of any individual to have their day in court," Steve DelBianco of the NetChoice coalition told CNET. "Yet this bill would deny that day in court to the owner of infrastructure." Now, the purpose of the bill is not, of course, to allow the president to undermine the freedom of speech, or to limit the ability of people to protest. The bill (which doesn't use the term "kill switch" itself) is in the name of cybersecurity, and allows the president to declare a state of national cyberemergency. The legislation calls for the establishment of a "list of systems or assets that constitute critical infrastructure." Homeland Security would only add systems to the list if 1) disruption of the system could cause "severe economic consequences," 2) the system is "a component of the national information infrastructure," and 3) the "national information infrastructure is essential to the reliable operation of the system."
benton.org/node/49116 | Fast Company | ars technica
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DHS AND EINSTEIN
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
The Homeland Security Department will finish by 2012 installing a somewhat controversial system, called Einstein 2, that monitors traffic on federal computer networks for potential intrusions, and will start the next phase of the application, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said during an address on the state of the agency. The delivery began what she said will become an annual tradition akin to the president's State of the Union speech. Napolitano's remarks touched on the status and future of missions related to counterterrorism; border security and immigration; cybersecurity, science and technology; resilience and response; and recruiting. Einstein 2 alerts the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team to respond whenever it detects unauthorized users trying to access government systems. Einstein 3, which DHS began testing last year, automatically responds to certain threats. Privacy advocates have raised concerns that the extent of Einstein's information sharing is unknown because parts of the initiative are classified. But according to the department's privacy assessment, personnel have access to a limited amount of information on network traffic, and cannot see the content of that traffic.
benton.org/node/49096 | nextgov
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ONLINE TO FIGHT TERRORISM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Schmitt]
In recent years, governments and allied grass-roots advocacy groups had largely ceded cyberspace to extremists, who use the Internet to recruit, raise money, spread their ideology and disseminate instructions on bomb-making and other terrorist techniques. Governments have carried out covert operations to undermine or take down extremist Web sites, but many pop back within days or weeks. Now these governments, often working with international organizations like the United Nations and European Union, and more quietly with private or nonprofit groups, are opening a counterattack to try to undermine the appeal of terrorists, expose their lack of legitimacy, and attack the credibility of their ideology and online messengers. Counterterrorism officials from more than 30 countries met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last week under the auspices of the United Nations and Naif Arab University to share tactics and strategies on how to use the Internet to counter the appeal of extremist violence. “The terrorist message, for all its deviancy and destructiveness, has gone unchallenged for too long,” said Richard Barrett, a conference organizer who heads a United Nations office that monitors sanctions on Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
benton.org/node/49132 | New York Times
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
FCC ASKS COURTS TO DISMISS SUITS
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Josh Smith]
Government lawyers filed motions Jan 28 asking a judge to dismiss lawsuits seeking to overturn new rules designed to protect the open Internet. In documents filed with the US Court of Appeals for Washington (DC), lawyers for the Federal Communications Commission call the lawsuits by Verizon and MetroPCS "fatally premature" and argue that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case. The FCC asked the court to dismiss the challenge because it was filed before the network neutrality rules were published in the Federal Register. "The rules that govern when and how parties may challenge FCC orders are clear, and Verizon and MetroPCS filed too early when they challenged the Open Internet order," a senior FCC official said.
benton.org/node/49100 | National Journal | see the FCC motions | Washington Post | Reuters
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EXPECT 4 MBS USF TARGET NEXT MONTH
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
The Federal Communications Commission on February 8 is likely to issue “some kind of order -- their vision of the way Universal Service will look in the future,” said AT&T Senior Vice President Bob Quinn. “The order will be a vision of the end-state and the principals [the FCC] will use to achieve that end state.” The initial order then will generate a series of orders and notices of proposed rulemaking over the next several years, Quinn predicted. To get that process started, Quinn believes the FCC will issue several NPRMs at the February 8 meeting. One will propose modifications to the high-cost Universal Service program, one will involve traffic pumping, and another will address phantom traffic. Many concepts that the FCC will put forth in its vision for Universal Service reform will come from the National Broadband Plan, Quinn said. For example, he believes the FCC will recommend shifting support from voice to broadband, with a minimum 4 Mb/s downstream- 1 Mb/s upstream bandwidth target. As recommended in the NBP, AT&T also expects reverse auctions to figure into FCC recommendations at the upcoming meeting. AT&T Vice President of Federal Regulatory Hank Hultquist said that the FCC is likely to use reverse auctions first in awarding funding for areas that cannot get broadband today. As for areas that already have broadband but require ongoing support, Hultquist said he expects the FCC would more likely ask for comment on whether a reverse auction would be feasible.
benton.org/node/49094 | Connected Planet
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BROADBAND STIMULUS PROJECTS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: John Curran]
Up in rural northern Vermont, it took until the 1960s to run power lines to some towns -- decades after the rest of America got turned on. These days, it's the digital revolution that remains but a rumor in much of rural America. Dial-up user Val Houde knows this as well as anybody. After moving here four years ago, the 51-year-old mother of four took a correspondence course for medical transcription, hoping to work from home. She plunked down $800, took the course, then found out the software wasn't compatible with dial-up Internet, the only kind available to her. Selling items on eBay, watching videos, playing games online? Forget it. The connection from her home computer is so slow, her online life is one of delays, degraded quality and "buffering" warning messages. So she waits until the day a provider extends broadband to her house. Bolstered by billions in federal stimulus money, an effort to expand broadband Internet access to rural areas is underway, an ambitious 21st-century infrastructure project with parallels to the New Deal electrification of the nation's hinterlands in the 1930s and 1940s. (East Burke)
benton.org/node/49140 | Associated Press
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ARRA GRANTEE IN KANSAS
[SOURCE: Salina Journal, AUTHOR: Mike Corn]
Broadband customers throughout northwest Kansas are being switched over on a regular basis to the new fiber optic network that is at the core of a massive three-year project undertaken by Rural Telephone. Already, more than 1,800 customers in nearly a dozen northwest Kansas exchanges have been "cut over," according to Larry Sevier, Rural's CEO and general manager. Part of a $101 million project, Rural Telephone, based in Lenora, is rushing headlong into converting 21 communities in 11 northwest Kansas counties to high-speed broadband. Most of that will be through fiber optic cable -- laid all the way to a customer's home, generally known as fiber to the premises. There also have been instances of people being switched from simple dial-up Internet to WiMax, high-speed wireless technology. The project is right on schedule, Sevier said. Rural was the first Recovery Act broadband project selected in the nation and is the first to connect customers. The new technology has been made available in cities including Almena, Athol, Collyer, Damar, Gove, Hill City, Bogue, Long Island, Morland, Norcatur, Phillipsburg and Hoxie. Work also is under way in Palco and in rural areas near Stockton and Plainville.
benton.org/node/49088 | Salina Journal
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D BLOCK AUCTION LOSING SUPPORT
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) have stopped lobbying for a proposal to ask first responders to share a valuable chunk of airwaves with commercial providers. Both organizations had bucked the public safety community last year by supporting a proposal to auction off the D Block of spectrum to fund an emergency broadband network, rather than directly allocating this block to emergency groups. After the Obama Administration backed reallocation last week, a reversal came from these two key groups who had underpinned auction proponents' claims that the public safety community supported their view.
benton.org/node/49142 | Hill, The
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PRIVACY
WE DO LITTLE TO PROTECT ONLINE PRIVACY
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Mathew Ingram]
We are all concerned about online privacy, but not enough to do much about it, apparently. Americans are more afraid of having their online privacy violated in some way than they are about declaring bankruptcy or losing their jobs, according to a new survey from Opera Software and market-research company YouGov that was released today to coincide with Data Privacy Day. But despite these fears, fewer than two-thirds of those surveyed used safe passwords, only about half deleted their browsing history, and just 15 percent used software that made it difficult for websites to collect personal information. Which raises the question: as more web browsers like Firefox and IE9 are offering “do not track” options for users, will anyone actually use them?
benton.org/node/49102 | GigaOm
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PRIVACY ADVOCATES NO "LIKE"
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Jon Swartz]
A new Facebook advertising format that turns members' actions into promoted content on their friends' profile pages could be a gold mine for the social-networking company. But, like many new Facebook features, it has stirred unease among privacy advocates and some consumers. The Sponsored Stories feature became available for large brands to buy last week and is being rolled out over the next few weeks to Facebook's more than 500 million members. How it works: Facebook members who click the "like" button for a brand or check in at a store could find those actions appearing on their friends' pages as a "Sponsored Story" paid for by advertisers. The promoted content will appear on the right side of a users' home page where events, questions, friends you may know and other content is located. There is no way for users to decline. The new feature is merely an extension of Facebook's popular News Feed, says company spokesman Brandon McCormick. "We're taking what is happening in your News Feed and finding a new way to distribute it so it's easy for your friends to see," he says. "It's another way for friends to tell friends what they recommend." But the new feature could prove to be a thorny issue for Facebook. Kevin Bankston, senior staff attorney for digital-rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, says Facebook is not invading privacy but is violating the trust of users. "There should be an opt-out option," he says. Facebook's McCormick points out that the promoted posts will keep the same privacy setting as the original posting and will be limited to a specific group of friends.
benton.org/node/49144 | USAToday
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HEALTH
HHS ADDS $80M TO EHR EFFORTS
[SOURCE: GovernemntHealthIT, AUTHOR: Mary Mosquera]
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has awarded a total of $80 million more for its regional extension center, state health information exchange and community college workforce programs to boost their support of providers becoming meaningful users of electronic health records. More funds will strengthen the momentum of these programs, which ONC launched last year, as physicians and hospitals begin to register for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Programs. For extension centers (RECs), which offer local technical assistance to individual physicians and small practices, ONC has provided $32 million in additional funds. The money will accelerate outreach to providers to encourage their registration in the EHR incentive program and to direct more staff in the field as providers adopt health IT in their practices, said Dr. David Blumenthal, the national health IT coordinator, in a Jan. 27 letter announcing the program awards.
benton.org/node/49099 | GovernemntHealthIT | HHS
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HIT AND PERSONALIZED MEDICINE
[SOURCE: HealthcareITNews, AUTHOR: Bernie Monegain]
Health information technology has the power to drive advances in personalized medicine that will offer better-targeted treatments and save the health system money according to a new report from the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings. Industry leaders are set to discuss the implications at a conference at Brookings. With federal officials pursuing the goal of a personal human genome map under $1,000 in five years it is possible to envision a future where treatments are tailored to individuals' genetic structures, prescriptions are analyzed in advance for likely effectiveness, and researchers study clinical data in real-time to learn what works, wrote Darrell West in the executive summary. West Is the founding director of the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings. "Implementation of these regimens creates a situation where treatments are better targeted, health systems save money by identifying therapies not likely to be effective for particular people, and researchers have a better understanding of comparative effectiveness," he adds, citing the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology 2010.
benton.org/node/49092 | HealthcareITNews | Brookings
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OWNERSHIP
COMCAST COMPLETES DEAL
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Comcast, the nation’s largest cable TV company, took control of NBC Universal late on Jan 28, making it the first cable company to own a major broadcast network. The takeover gave the cable distributor a 51 percent control of NBC Universal, which owns the nation’s fourth-ranked broadcaster, NBC; the Universal Pictures movie studio and related theme parks; and a bevy of cable channels including Bravo, E and USA. The deal had raised fears that Comcast might abuse its control of NBC Universal to favor the 23 million who rely on it for cable TV service and the 17 million who pay for Internet connections. But the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission forced Comcast to make the full suite of NBC Universal content available as a single package to online competitors on terms comparable to those reached with more established rivals, like Dish Network and DirecTV. In the deal, Comcast paid General Electric just under $6.2 billion in cash and contributed its pay TV channels like E Entertainment Television and the Golf Channel, worth $7.25 billion, to NBC Universal. G.E.’s stake in NBC Universal fell to 49 percent from 80 percent, but G.E. plans to diminish that to zero by being paid out from the venture over about seven years. This week, G.E. bought out the 20 percent stake held by Vivendi of France for $5.8 billion in order to complete the deal.
benton.org/node/49136 | Associated Press | B&C
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CRITICS TELLS FCC TO WATCH COMCAST
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The ink was hardly dry on the Comcast/NBCU deal Jan 29 when critics -- including Free Press. Media Access Project, Common Cause and the Writers Guild of American East -- filed a letter with the Federal Communications Commission promising to keep a close eye on the new company and asking FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to do the same. "The Comcast-NBC merger is the new face of media consolidation," they wrote. "As organizations representing hundreds of thousands of diverse, local citizens around the country, we are pledging today to be vigorous watchdogs, monitoring this newly merged media giant, and consistent advocates for the public interest. We ask you to make the same pledge."
benton.org/node/49138 | Broadcasting&Cable | read the letter | Free Press
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TELEVISION/RADIO
COMPUTERS AND TVs
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Jack Loechner]
According to SideReel, an independent Web TV destination with a base of more than 10 million monthly unique users, 40% of respondents had connected their computer to their TV in the past month, a three-fold increase over last year's results. 60% of people connecting a device to a TV connect their computer, and 5% use a box like Roku, Boxee or Google TV. The survey was conducted to identify usage patterns in the areas of social media, Web TV, and the use of connected devices. The average user age in 2009 was 26, and in the 2010 results, 29, but the report notes that there is no correlation between age and time spent watching online. SideReel CEO, Roman Arzhintar, noted that "... for many, traditional TV watching is starting to supplement online watching, rather than the other way around." Social Media is important, but only for 25% of online TV watchers. While 29% used Twitter, none of the check-in services including GetGlue, Miso, Clicker or Foursquare have significant usage among SideReel's TV watchers. Only 10% of users want to broadcast what they are watching or want to watch to their friends. Only 25% of SideReelers want to know what their friends are watching - down 50% from last year. 24% of SideReel visitors subscribe to Netflix. 70 % of users who stream video via the Internet to their TV do so using Netflix. 30% of users stream video other than Netflix to their TVs.
benton.org/node/49097 | MediaPost
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URBAN RADIO STILL SEEKING FREQUENCY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Idalmy Carrera]
The Local Community Radio Act, signed into law this month by President Obama, would seem a fitting first birthday present for Chirp Radio, a Chicago community radio project, except that the law does not help groups hoping to be awarded frequencies in the country’s biggest radio markets. The new law lowered the requirement for the amount of frequency space between radio stations that keeps one station from “bleeding over” another, but the new guidelines do not actually free up any frequencies, leaving Chirp (Chicago Independent Radio Project) and other low-power FM stations to petition the Federal Communications Commission for alternative methods of gaining access. In big markets like Chicago, the airwaves are jammed because of the size of the audience and the potential for advertising revenue. That leaves less frequency space for low-power stations like Chirp. When it started, Chirp drew attention for its rotating cast of volunteer D.J.’s who pride themselves on sharing music, much of it from local artists, not commonly heard on mainstream stations. Chirp broadcasts 21 hours a day, only on the Web, from its Northwest Side studios above a photo album manufacturing plant. It does not have a broadcast license and is not subject to the regulations that come with one, but its broadcasts follow the rules the FCC imposes on noncommercial radio stations.
benton.org/node/49149 | New York Times
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NEWS FROM THE GOOGLEPLEX
GOOGLE WI-SPY DEAL
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn]
Connecticut Atty. Gen. George Jepsen said his office has entered into settlement negotiations with Google over private data its Street View cars collected from unsecured networks there. As part of the deal, Google acknowledged that its Street View cars gathered information including partial or complete e-mails and addresses of requested Web pages, AG Jepsen said. The agreement will allow the Internet search giant and a 40-state coalition led by Connecticut to engage in talks "without the need for a protracted and costly fight in the courts," he said. AG Jepsen said he is prepared to file a lawsuit if settlement talks break down. Connecticut had issued a civil investigative demand, which is similar to a subpoena, to obtain the data Google collected. Google rejected the demand from Connecticut's then-Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal. Consumer Watchdog spokesman John Simpson objected to the settlement talks. "The details of the biggest privacy breach in history shouldn't be settled in secret," he said.
benton.org/node/49079 | Los Angeles Times | National Journal
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GOOGLE TWEAKS SEARCH RESULTS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Google has tweaked the algorithm for its search engine so that Web sites with original content are prioritized above sites that copy from others. In a blog post, Google search expert Matt Cutts said the move, which took effect this week, is an attempt to cut down on spam. Cutts said the change was "targeted" and will affect just about 2 percent of queries. He said less than a half percent of search results will change enough that someone "might really notice." "The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content," Cutts said in this post.
benton.org/node/49082 | Washington Post
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CENSORING SEARCHES?
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Eli Rosenberg]
Google has apparently succumbed to pressure from the entertainment industry and blocked many piracy-related terms from the "autocomplete" and "instant" function on its search bar. Here's some of the debate around this pseudo-censorship:
Commercial Censorship "It's taken a while, but Google has finally caved in to pressure from the entertainment industries ... The entertainment industries' quest to root out piracy on the Internet has yet again resulted in commercial censorship," says TorrentFreak.
Why Us and Not Them? "There's no reason for Google to throttle search results for our trademarks ... Indeed, they do still enable autocomplete for many third-party clients that use the BitTorrent protocol, including BitComet, BitLord, and even sites like The Pirate Bay and Isohunt," BitTorrent's Simon Morris told TorrentFreak, as reported on Tech Eye.
In Bed With Business? "This is a subtle form of censorship, and at first glance it seems trivial," says Charlie White at Mashable. "However, even though the censorship is slight, it still indicates Google’s willingness to change its search protocols to satisfy the needs of a certain business group, in this case members of the entertainment industry."
Not All Torrents Are Illegal, notes Mark Brown at UK's Wired. "Not every file hosted on Megaupload [one of the blocked sites] is a ripped DVD and not every torrent is a pirated album."
Putting Out a 'Forest Fire With A Wet Noodle' That's what stopping online piracy is like, says Devin Coldewey at TechCrunch, so best of luck. "It's a new high for antipiracy theater, because you can of course still search for the terms by hitting enter, and get the same results as before."
This Will Become a Larger Issue "The ultimate question at hand is what happens when pressure is put onto Google by other industries? Chances are, this is far from the last of the terms and far from the last of the industries that will want a piece of your search preferences," writes Brad McCarty at The Next Web.
benton.org/node/49081 | Atlantic, The
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IS GOOGLE A ONE-TRICK PONY?
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Mathew Ingram]
Is Google's lock on online advertising enough? It might be enough if all you want is a company that dominates the search-related keyword advertising business. Google will likely fill that role for the foreseeable future, and that’s worth a certain amount — but how much is it worth? Does it justify the price-to-earnings multiple of 24 times that Google’s stock currently trades at? Maybe not. This has been the issue with Microsoft over at least the past decade: The company generates huge amounts of cash, and is profitable as heck, but what investors are willing to pay for has continued to decline. This is why many have started to ask the question: Is Google the new Microsoft? Google’s biggest problem is that it has consistently failed to produce any new lines of business apart from keyword-related advertising, which still produces over 90 percent of its income. It’s true that — as the company took pains to point out during its recent earnings call — Google is making money from display advertising, YouTube views, mobile, etc. But this is (comparatively, at least) peanuts. The web giant is famous for giving its employees “20-percent time,” and these projects can turn into great services, such as Gmail and Google News — and there’s also the company’s expanding Android efforts and other initiatives. But do these generate new revenue or profits for the company? To the extent that they help drive search traffic, yes. But that’s still just a variation on the same trick.
benton.org/node/49084 | GigaOm
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LABOR
H-1B VISAS RUN OUT
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Fawn Johnson]
It happens almost every year. The only question is when. The Department of Homeland Security is no longer accepting applications for H-1B visas for temporary skilled foreign workers, having received enough to fill the annual cap of 65,000. This leaves employers, particularly tech firms, scrambling to figure out how they will fill engineering or other technical job openings without looking outside the United States. It's a familiar plight that coalitions like Compete America say could be fixed with a less draconian system of meting out visas. In the last year, it took 10 months to hit the cap. In other years, the allotted visas are filled within a few days after the April 1 filing period opens. "This fluctuation of demand from year to year - primarily driven by the economic cycles - demonstrates the need for a fundamental rebalance towards a market-driven approach to H-1B visa allocation," Compete America said.
benton.org/node/49077 | National Journal
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APP SKILLS IN DEMAND
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Joe Light]
Times are good for Web- and mobile-application developers. The number of online listings containing the keywords "HTML5," "Mobile app," and "Android," have skyrocketed over the past year, making them the fastest growing keywords in jobs posted online. The number of job listings requesting HTML5, the latest version of the language used to display Web pages, increased 13-fold between the first and fourth quarters of last year, according to Indeed. "Twitter" and "jQuery," which is used in JavaScript programming, rounded out the top five fastest growing keywords.
benton.org/node/49145 | Wall Street Journal
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