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January 2011

What If Google Is Just a One-Trick Pony?

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.

Google tweaks search algorithm to favor sites with original content

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.

Is Google Censoring the Search Function?

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.

Google reaches deal with Connecticut in Wi-Fi probe

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.

H-1B Visas Run Out; Tech Firms Scramble

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.

January 22-28: The State of the Union and the State of the Internet

Compiling Headlines we often notice a strange balance between government efforts to both improve and censor communications. This week offers an example of this stark contrast.

On January 25, President Barack Obama delivered his 2011 State of the Union address. The eyebrows of communications policy watchers raised when the President devoted a solid portion of his speech to improving the state on broadband -- and especially wireless broadband -- in the US. To move toward connecting every American, including rural communities, to the digital age, the President launched a National Wireless Initiative to provide 98 percent of Americans access to high-speed Internet. This initiative, the Administration said, will enable businesses to grow faster, students to learn more, and public safety officials to access state-of-the-art, secure, nationwide, and interoperable mobile communications. (more on this below) The initiative is meant to foster the conditions for the next generations of wireless technology, nearly doubling the amount of wireless spectrum available for mobile broadband (through incentive auctions and other mechanisms to ensure spectrum is used more efficiently) and providing critical support for research and development in wireless innovation.

Much of the President's address focused on the US's international, economic competitiveness and it is helpful to put in context the state of broadband in the US vs the rest of the world. On January 24, Akamai released its quarterly State of the Internet report which provides Internet statistics on areas such as broadband adoption and mobile connectivity. According to Akamai, the US and China account for 38% of the Internet addresses in the world.

But China’s Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) released data the same day showing that the nation of 1.3 billion now has 457 million broadband users, more than the U.S., Mexico and Canada combined. Broadband penetration in China is 98 percent, which suggests that if folks have wired access they are connected, unlike in the US where penetration rates are closer to 80 percent and even more dismal in certain states. The CNNIC reports that there are 303 million mobile web users in China, up 69.3 million from the same period in 2009. Mobile internet users accounted for 66.2 percent of total internet users, up from 60.8 percent at the end of 2009. The number of rural internet users reached 125 million, or 27.3 percent of total users, an increase of 16.9 percent. The Chinese are spending billions to build out better mobile and wireline broadband, concerning some about the US continuing to push out faster networks and drive more citizens online so we can stay competitive.

In terms of overall average broadband speeds by country, Akamai reports that the United States lags behind eight others. South Korea (14Mbps), Hong Kong (9.2Mbps), Japan (8.5Mbps), Romania (7.0Mbps), the Netherlands (6.3Mbps). The United States is tied for ninth place with such countries as Taiwan and Denmark with an average speed of 5.0Mbps. That's well above the global average of 1.9Mbps. The 11 cities with the fastest average broadband speeds are all in South Korea with speeds ranging from 18.3Mbps on average to 13.9Mbps on average. Kanagawa, Japan appears at No. 12 at 13.3Mbps. From there, it's all Japanese and South Korean cities and regions until the 46th slot, when Hong Kong shows up with an average speed of 8.9Mbps. A handful of Romanian, French, German, Dutch, and Norwegian cities appear on the top 100 list, above all but one American city: San Jose (CA)

The Federal Communications Commission took some action to help the spread of wireless broadband on January 26 by allowing satellite broadband start-up LightSquared to lease its airwaves for traditional mobile phones. The FCC decision allows LightSquared to proceed with its plans to build a high-speed Internet network from satellite feeds. The service is aimed at companies that may want to offer mobile devices without partnering with major carriers. The plan could introduce more competition into the market for high-speed wireless Internet services.


As noted above, the National Wireless Initiative is also intended to help meet the needs of public safety. For public safety officials, high-speed, mobile broadband can mean the difference between success and failure, or even life and death, as such technologies can allow emergency workers to access building designs at the scene of an accident and police officers to send pictures to one another in real-time. The National Broadband Plan recognizes that the US needs a nationwide public safety broadband wireless network that allows first responders nationwide to communicate with one another at all times and without delay. There is, however, an ongoing debate on how to allocate the spectrum needed for this network. The FCC, in the National Broadband Plan, envisioned an auction of 10 megahertz Upper 700 MHz D Block for commercial use that is technically compatible with public safety broadband services. Some Members of Commerce, notably Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) favor a straight allocation of the spectrum for use for a nationwide, interoperable, wireless broadband network for public safety. On Jan 27, the Obama Administration made it clear that it will press Congress to allocate instead of auction the spectrum.

Elsewhere in the world, there was news about preventing Internet communications than encoraging it. The revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen are driven by deep dissatisfaction with authoritarian regimes, but Internet technology has played a crucial role as a 21st-century weapon for democracy movements, experts say. Inspired by the recent overthrow of the Zine El Abidine Ben Ali dictatorship in Tunisia, citizen activists on Jan 27 escalated their protests in Egypt and Yemen, denouncing their respective governments. And social media played the dual role of a virtual town square where protest leaders rally the masses and counter government disinformation. Services such as Twitter and Facebook are "playing an increasingly large role in almost any mass protest around the world," said John Palfrey, a law professor at Harvard University who studies limits on Internet expression. "We will see more of this." The demonstrations in Egypt, where the government completely shut down the Internet Jan 27, "were started primarily by the April 6 Movement, which was basically a Facebook campaign that started in 2008 and called for protests about workers' rights," said Lina Khatib, a Stanford University expert on Arab reform. During the latest unrest, Twitter became an instant information tool, she said: "People were spreading the news on Twitter. They would alert people where demonstrators were gathering." US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Egypt to unblock social networking sites that have been used to organize protests, such as those operated by Facebook and Twitter. By urging Egypt’s government “not to prevent peaceful protests or block communications, including on social media,” Sec Clinton renewed her call for freedom of expression and assembly online, and fueled debate over how to promote those goals without undermining other US interests. Clinton’s defense of social networking is “a very delicate balancing act,” because of the longstanding US relationship with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said Ethan Zuckerman, a senior researcher at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. “At the same time, we’re starting to see evidence of an anti-authoritarian revolution in the region, and she doesn't want to be on the wrong side of that either. The safe stance is to be pro-free speech,” he said.

January 28, 2011 (Egypt moves to cut access to Internet)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 2011

Health Information Technology and Antitrust on today's agenda http://bit.ly/hFiavZ


INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Ambitious tech agenda faces hurdles
   Obama, Mobile Broadband Won't Save Us
   Netflix rates North American ISPs
   New NTCA report answers two of Blair Levin's three Universal Service questions

OWNERSHIP
   Verizon to Buy Cloud Provider Terremark for $1.4 Billion
   Comcast Leaders Aim to Reassure NBCU

TELEVISION
   FCC Corrects CableCARD Order
   Public Broadcasting on the Ropes
   ‘Skins’ Loses Advertisers — and Viewers

PRIVACY
   Children's Online Privacy Advocates Call for Better Protection for Teens
   Why you should quit Facebook now
   Location Services Have Die-Hard Fans, But Privacy Is A Big Issue

POLICYMAKERS
   Will Marsha Blackburn be GOP’s next tech policy champion? Is she owned by telecom industry?
   Accountability: Who Else Will Go the Way of Congressman Bobby Rush?
   NPR firing prompts review of leadership

TELECOMMUNICATIONS
   AT&T, local phone companies in $38M fight in Minnesota

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
   A Big Boost for National Emergency Network
   Key Republican backs reallocation of valuable D Block for public safety use

CYBERSECURITY
   Reid, Key Chairmen Pledge To Push Cybersecurity

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   ISPs Are the New Secret Police, Says Report
   Can Governments Really 'Block' Twitter?
   See also:We need a serious critique of net activism
   Blackberry Says It Can't Help India on Monitoring
   Baltimore Builds Social Media Into Open Data Platform
   Egypt moves to cut access to Internet
   Internet technology a tool for political change in Arab world
   China seeks to regulate 'online army' of marketers

COMMUNITY MEDIA
These headlines presented in partnership with:

   Keeping Up With Community Radio
   Local public libraries keep up with fast-moving tech world
   Haiti community media still struggling
   Wanted: Mass digital literacy training for all higher ed students
   MEDIA LITERACY: The Younger the Better

MORE ONLINE
   A political Week in the Blogosphere
   Film lobby seeks to regain status
   What US Carriers Mean by ‘4G’
   Is Google Biased? Sure It Is. But Good Luck Proving It

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

AMBITIOUS TECH AGENDA FACES HURDLES
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Eliza Kigman]
The State of the Union address gave the technology community plenty of lip service on areas of importance to them — investment in research and development, tax reform, and expanding the reach of the Internet — but few details on how the rhetoric will translate into practice. In his most concrete commitment to the tech agenda, President Barack Obama laid out the bold goal of making mobile broadband available to 98 percent of the population over the next five years. Telecom experts say the feat is possible, but faces a host of challenges. In order to expand the reach of wireless broadband, the Federal Communications Commission must free up more airwaves, also known as spectrum, that power mobile Internet devices. But bringing more spectrum to market is no easy task. The process requires jumping through a slew of bureaucratic hoops and threading the needle of the complicated politics that lie behind it. Part of the political challenge will be overcoming the ill will generated by the Open Internet regulations the FCC recently adopted — to the dismay of Republicans. The net neutrality regulations will stifle the private investment needed to build out broadband, the GOP claims. Rebecca Arbogast, managing director at investment firm Stifel Nicolaus, called the five-year roll out plan “ambitious.” “The reason is that it all ends up being buried in the details of what qualifies as wireless broadband,” she said. Much of the current broadband coverage is physical cable, she noted. What’s more, she said, reaching remotely-located houses is not financially attractive for businesses.
benton.org/node/48959 | Politico
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MOBILE BROADBAND WON'T SAVE US
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
[Commentary] I'm all for fast wireless broadband, but relying on wireless to solve this nation’s looming broadband gap is like relying on low-fat Twinkies to solve the nation’s obesity problem. Mobile broadband is a poor substitute for the faster wireline broadband; it’s more expensive; and it’s not subject to network neutrality rules, which means anyone surfing the web on a wireless connection may end up with a fragmented and bastardized Internet experience. Mobile broadband is a wonderful solution for expanding access to broadband for less money than a wireline connection will cost, but mobile broadband tends to cost more per month, offer lower speeds (even Verizon’s 4G network will offer 5-12 Mbps as opposed to Verizon’s FiOS network, which offers up to 100 Mbps), and the fact that wireless providers don't have to abide by network neutrality rules is hugely problematic. I understand that for some people mobile broadband is the only means of accessing the web, but I don't think the U.S. should accept that as an optimal solution for rural broadband. Especially as we start talking about Universal Service Fund reform and how to support expanding broadband access to those that don't have it, I'd be leery of an agenda that attempts to subsidize or push wireless connectivity at the expense of cheaper and more future-proof wireline networks.
benton.org/node/48985 | GigaOm
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NETFLIX RATES ISPs
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
Netflix made good on a promise and released data on which US Internet providers offer the best access to Netflix streaming content. The company's data puts it "in the unique position of having insight into the performance of hundreds of millions of long duration, high-definition video streams delivered over the Internet." Netflix displays throughput from Netflix content delivery networks to subscriber homes. Netflix's best quality HD streams are encoded at 4,800Kbps, and it's clear that no ISPs can sustain this level of service across an entire movie. But "the higher the sustained average, the greater the throughput the client can achieve, and the greater the image quality over the duration of the play," says the company. In the US, Charter delivers the best performance over time (2,667Kbps average), with Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner Cable taking the next three spots. The disparity between the top and bottom ISPs is stark; Clearwire offers only about half the sustained throughput as Charter (as a wireless operator, this is expected), but wireline ISPs like Frontier and CenturyTel also perform poorly (both companies do have large rural footprints, however). Netflix has promised to update the charts monthly, which may exert at least a bit of pressure on ISPs who might be tempted to throttle or otherwise downgrade Netflix quality.
benton.org/node/48999 | Ars Technica | Netflix research | B&C
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NCTA ANSWERS LEVIN
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
In response to rural telco complaints that the 4 Mb/s minimum broadband speed recommended in the National Broadband Plan is set too low, NBP crafter Blair Levin has challenged the telcos to answer three questions. What should the speed be? What will it cost? And who is going to pay for it? The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) seems to have answered at least two of those questions in a report that it recently issued. Fifteen percent of all NTCA member respondents estimated that they could bring all of their customers up to 25 Mb/s service for $1 million or less. An additional 30% could do so for between $1 and $10 million. Twenty six percent more said they could do so for between $10 and $20 million, and another 11% said their cost would be between $20 and $50 million. The final 19% estimated that the total cost would exceed $50 million. The report didn't discuss how those costs should be covered. That wasn't the goal of the report. Based on comments provided by respondents, however, it seems clear that the small telcos are hoping a broadband Universal Service program would operate in a similar fashion to how today’s voice-centric program works. Respondents were asked what obstacles they had encountered in their efforts to deploy fiber to their customers and how conditions would need to change to allow them to successfully overcome those obstacles. A typical response was “As long as we have some sort of USF regime and USDA funding we would continue to deploy.”
benton.org/node/48980 | Connected Planet
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OWNERSHIP

VERIZON BUYS TERREMARK
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Amy Thomson]
Verizon Communications, the second-largest US phone carrier, agreed to buy Terremark Worldwide for $1.4 billion as it expands services that let corporate customers store data and programs offsite. The cash deal, which values Terremark at $19 a share, represents a 35 percent premium over the company’s closing share price. Verizon plans to complete its offer later this quarter. Verizon is expanding its business that allows companies to store their data in the so-called cloud, or server computers maintained by other companies that provide less-expensive access to electronic records and software. The acquisition, which brings on corporate and government customers, is part of a broader strategy to make customers’ information, including music, personal data and corporate data, available across devices and locations, Verizon said.
benton.org/node/48996 | Bloomberg
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COMCAST TOWN HALL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and incoming NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke moved to reassure NBC Universal staffers that they want the company to be the kind of company where they'll want to work. Roberts said that new management is bound to make "some mistakes," but that while "we are in business for profit . . .we can stand for so much more than that." Burke said that the new NBCU will have many opportunities to take its programming and put it into new distribution systems. NBC is "the only major broadcast network with multiple entertainment channels and shame on us if we can't find a way to take advantage of that." But Burke made it clear that he wanted things to work Comcast's way. He said Comcast grew through acquisitions and that his strategy was "to hit the ground running and make it very clear what the company's all about." In a year, if he's successful, everyone will "know what this company's all about."
benton.org/node/48986 | Broadcasting&Cable | Comcast memo to staff
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TELEVISION

FCC CORRECTS CABLECARD ORDER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission has issued a bunch of corrections/clarifications to its CableCARD order, including allowing operator-supplied low-cost, one-way set-top boxes to have an Internet protocol interface but only so long as the IP connection isn't used to access a cable operator's video on demand and digital video recorder services. The commission adopted rules last October to improve its CableCARD regime while it contemplates mandating a new, universal set-top that would wed online and traditional video. But the FCC conceded in a new order that it left some things unclear and other things out and that now "modifications and clarifications are needed in order to fully and accurately reflect our intent in adopting these rule changes." The FCC also took the opportunity to point out it had also dropped a footnote, and to deny a petition from Public Knowledge, Free Press and others to reconsider an earlier waiver allowing cable operators to offer the limited-function integrated boxes. It pointed out that the CableCARD order mooted that since it provided a blanket waiver for "one-way set-top boxes without recording functionality."
benton.org/node/48965 | Broadcasting&Cable | read FCC order
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PUBLIC BROADCASTING ON THE ROPES
[SOURCE: Variety, AUTHOR: Ted Johnson]
The new Republican majority in the lower house of Congress, emboldened by sweeping victories in November, has called for across-the-board cuts in discretionary spending. And although they've been criticized for a lacking specifics, it didn't take long for a few conservative lawmakers to offer them, including Rep Doug Lamborn (R-CO), who introduced a bill his month to eliminate all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization charged with distributing funds to public stations, National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and another bill that would more narrowly restrict any tax dollars going to NPR. "Government-funded broad-casting is now unnecessary in a world of 500-channel cable TV, satellite radio and cell phone Internet access," Lamborn wrote in an op-ed in the Hill on Jan. 12 after introducing the legislation.
benton.org/node/48957 | Variety
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SKINS LOSES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stuart Elliott, Brian Stelter]
The second episode of MTV’s “Skins” suffered a dramatic drop in the ratings this week, to 1.6 million viewers from 3.3 million the prior week, as a half-dozen advertisers publicly distanced themselves from the provocative new drama series. Since the sexual content of the series came under scrutiny last week, General Motors, the Wm. Wrigley Jr. division of Mars, the Taco Bell division of Yum Brands, H&R Block, the Schick division of Energizer Holdings and Subway restaurants have all withdrawn from the series. Others that were in the debut episode on Jan. 17 were not back in the second episode, among them Foot Locker. MTV has continued to defend the series publicly. It has not directly commented on its plans to edit some of the more explicit scenes featuring actors under the age of 18. Last week, concerns were raised inside MTV about whether the scenes could violate federal child pornography statutes. The show’s advertisers were targeted by the Parents Television Council, a television watchdog group that has called the show “dangerous.”
benton.org/node/49009 | New York Times
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PRIVACY

ONLINE PRIVACY FOR TEENS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A coalition of children's online privacy advocates has called on the Obama administration to include teenagers in online privacy protections the Department of Commerce is promoting. Commerce's Internet Policy Task Force, which is led by Commerce Attorney General and former cable attorney Cameron Kerry, recently issued a paper on commercial data privacy. But the groups -- including the Center for Digital Democracy, Benton Foundation, and others -- argue that those initial recommendations do not sufficiently protect adolescents. The groups want the end point to include behavioral targeting information as part of the definition of protected personal information, a definition of "online services" broad enough to include online gaming, digital signage, mobile phones and applications, and giving more protections to adolescents. Also signing on to the letter were American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Academy of Pediatrics, Children Now, Consumer Action Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Watchdog, National Consumers League Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, World Privacy Forum.
benton.org/node/49008 | Broadcasting&Cable
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QUIT FACEBOOK NOW
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Matt Liebowitz]
[Commentary] In November 2009, I quit Facebook. I had had an account for about a year, but with my 30th birthday and a cross-country move both looming, I felt it would be a symbolic way to shed my youth, a gesture that signified “I'm grown up now.” I didn't miss it — I didn't think much of it at all, in fact — until I took this job writing about cybersecurity. After six months of reporting on Facebook scams and the privacy infringements its users face daily, I came to a conclusion: You should quit Facebook. And you should do it now.
benton.org/node/49007 | Christian Science Monitor, The
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LOCATION BASED SERVICES
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Joe Mullin]
One of the big selling points for consumers deciding to upgrade their feature-phones to smartphones is “location-based services,” like maps that constantly update themselves as you move. A new study commissioned by Microsoft finds that consumers who are aware of location services are very fond of them, but that they’re also seriously concerned about sharing that information with groups like advertisers—and even with their own social set. Another finding: There’s a fair amount of confusion about what exactly location-based services are, even among some people who say they are users. The study also contained findings about which location services are the most popular, and which demographic groups are the heaviest users of LBS in general. As smartphones take off, location-based services, in particular, are dramatically increasing the amount of data available to advertisers, and potentially the government. Here are results of the survey, which polled 1,500 people in five different countries: the US, UK, Canada, Japan and Germany:
Consumers who use location-based services (LBS) love it
Only a few want to share their location with others
Privacy concerns loom large
Free stuff rules
Google, Facebook are top dogs in LBS
There’s confusion over just what LBS is
benton.org/node/48975 | paidContent.org
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POLICYMAKERS

WHO IS MARSHA BLACKBURN?
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
In the first few weeks of 2011, Rep. Marsha Blackburn didn't just test the tech policy waters, she dove in head first. On the opening day of the 112th Congress, the Tennessee Republican reintroduced a bill to bar the Federal Communications Commission from instituting net neutrality rules. Days later, she spoke on an online privacy panel at the geek equivalent of the Oscars: the International Consumer Electronics Show. Last week, she keynoted the State of the Net conference — the biggest tech policy fete in the capital so far this year. Blackburn’s turf, however, is far from the tech hubs of Silicon Valley, New York’s Silicon Alley or Boston’s Route 128 corridor. She’s from Brentwood (TN), a suburb of Nashville, known more for producing country music than silicon chips or Web startups.The tech community has taken notice. Jason Linkins looks at who's financing Rep Blackburn's campaigns and finds Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association near the top of the list.
benton.org/node/48995 | Politico | Huffington Post
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THE CASE AGAINST BOBBY RUSH
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: James Rucker]
[Commentary] No member of Congress is beyond reproach. Every member of Congress should be open scrutiny of their record, and every member should be judged by his or her record. It's critical to an effective democracy. Last week, Congressman Bobby Rush's record of carrying water for big telecom corporations — at the expense of the communities he represents — came back to haunt him when he lost his bid to become Ranking Member of the subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. Rep. Rush had been almost certain to get the position until more than 16,000 ColorOfChange.org members opposed his candidacy because of his record of advocating against net neutrality. Now, Congressman Rush is trying to change the subject. But it won't work — not now, at a time when a politician's statements and voting record are readily available for the public to see and evaluate. [Rucker is executive director of ColorOfChange.org]
benton.org/node/48981 | Huffington Post, The
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NPR LEADERSHIP
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi]
When Vivian Schiller became NPR's chief executive in early 2009, she knew enough to know that she didn't know very much about producing radio news. For that, Schiller, who formerly headed the New York Times' cable and digital businesses, relied on Ellen Weiss, NPR's top news executive. A savvy veteran, Weiss had worked her way up NPR's ranks from the bottom, spending her entire 29-year career at the organization. By all accounts, the two women worked well together. While Schiller devoted her attention to reorganizing NPR's management and successfully closing a budget gap, Weiss concentrated on building audiences for NPR's audio programs and online news. And then, all at once, the relationship was no more. On Jan. 4, nearly three months after Weiss had made a fateful phone call to fire analyst Juan Williams for controversial comments he made on a Fox News Channel program, Schiller met with Weiss and made a stunning demand: Resign or be fired. Two days later, NPR announced, without elaboration, that Weiss had quit. The resignation stupefied staffers at NPR; many believed that Weiss had been pushed out to appease critics livid about the firing of Williams. Williams's firing had reignited Republican calls to eliminate federal funding for NPR, PBS and their affiliated stations. Insiders also linked Weiss's fate to a bad moment for Schiller: Weiss's departure came on the same day that NPR announced that its board of directors had voted to sanction Schiller for the Williams debacle by stripping her of her 2010 bonus. In fact, the reasons behind Schiller's ultimatum to Weiss were more complex.
benton.org/node/49011 | Washington Post
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS

AT&T VS RURAL TELEPHONE PROVIDERS
[SOURCE: Minneapolis Star-Tribune, AUTHOR: Steve Alexander]
AT&T is trying to get Minnesota to slash the cost of one of the last vestiges of a bygone telecommunications era, a move some argue could raise phone rates for rural consumers by as much as 50 percent as rural phone companies try to recoup the revenue. At issue is an estimated $38 million in so-called access charges that firms such as AT&T pay to the local telephone networks to deliver their long-distance calls within Minnesota. The charges were devised by the federal government during the 1980s breakup of the AT&T telephone monopoly as a way to subsidize rural phone companies and their presumed higher operating costs with their relatively few customers spread out over a wide area. But, AT&T says, most rural phone companies don't need the subsidy today and cutting access charges will lower its long-distance rates for consumers. It also argues that, as phone calls shift from land lines to wireless and the Internet, companies such as Sprint and Skype, which pay much cheaper charges, should shoulder more of the burden.
benton.org/node/48961 | Minneapolis Star-Tribune
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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

BOOST FOR NATIONAL EMERGENCY NETWORK
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Edward Wyatt]
The Obama administration will press Congress to allocate a coveted block of wireless telecommunications airwaves for the building of a nationwide emergency communications network, administration officials said, a reversal that is likely to cement support for an issue that has been the subject of disputes since Sept. 11, 2001. Ever since the attacks exposed the inability of fire, police and rescue departments to talk to one another via radio in an emergency, public safety officials have pushed for the allocation of additional airwaves, also known as spectrum, for their dedicated use. But Congress had mandated that the wireless spectrum at issue — a prime block of airwaves known as D Block — be auctioned off to a commercial wireless company, which would raise money that could then be used to help build a public safety network. Both the Bush and Obama administrations had supported auctioning the spectrum, as had the Federal Communications Commission. Last June, the FCC published a white paper saying that a better public safety communications network could be constructed at lower cost by using airwaves already dedicated to public safety, supplemented by the right to essentially take over commercial networks in an emergency. After nine months of intense lobbying by public safety officials, senior administration officials informed public safety leaders shortly before the State of the Union address that President Obama would support their cause. How the reallocation will be paid for remains an issue, because the auction of D Block had been expected to raise more than $3 billion. Obama administration officials said they believed that their broader plan to conduct auctions of other spectrum, including unused airwaves voluntarily given up by broadcasters, will raise the extra money required to prevent the D Block allocation from increasing the federal deficit.
benton.org/node/49016 | New York Times
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MORE SUPPORT FOR D BLOCK ALLOCATION
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Rep Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) -- the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee's Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications Subcommittee -- has backed devoting a valuable chunk of the airwaves to public safety purposes, a position endorsed by the public safety community. He says the best way to build a mobile broadband network for police and fire fighters is to allocate the valuable D Block of spectrum to this purpose. That's as opposed to auctioning off the D Block and asking public safety to share the airspace with commercial providers. “Reallocating the D Block would finally provide an opportunity to reduce the cost and complexity of first-responder communications rather than continuing the costly and ineffective need to operate multiple systems to allow firefighters and police officers to communicate with one another,” Chairman Bilirakis said. Others supporting D Block reallocation include the White House, House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-NY), and Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).
benton.org/node/48966 | Hill, The
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CYBERSECURITY

SENATE PLEDGE TO ADDRESS CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and the chairmen of the seven Senate committees with jurisdiction over cybersecurity introduced a measure this week that recognizes the need to act to secure the nation from cyber attacks and calls on the Obama administration and lawmakers to enact legislation. The non-binding legislation appears to set a marker for future cybersecurity legislation. It calls on Congress to enact and the president to sign "bipartisan legislation to secure the United States against cyber attack, to enhance American competitiveness and create jobs in the information technology industry, and to protect the identities and sensitive information of American citizens and businesses." The measure outlines 10 areas that should be addressed by this still-to-come legislation. They include enhancing the "security and resiliency" of the U.S. government's networks from cyber attacks; incentivizing the private sector to "quantify, asses", and mitigate cyber risks to their communications and information networks;" improving the ability of the federal government and private sector to assess cyber risks and prevent, detect, and robustly respond to cyber attacks; improving protections for U.S. critical infrastructure; and bolstering the tools for investigating and preventing cyber crimes. In a statement announcing the legislation, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller (D-WV) and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT), pledged to pick up where they left off in the last Congress on the issue.
benton.org/node/49012 | National Journal
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

ISPs AS SECRET POLICY
[SOURCE: IDG News, AUTHOR: Jennifer Baker]
More and more European Union member states are delegating online policing to private companies and Internet service providers, according to a study by the organization European Digital Rights (EDRI).Where law enforcement agencies would traditionally have tackled the problem of illegal online content, more powers are being given to ISPs in the name of industry self-regulation. That trend is likely to become stronger with increasing "extra-judicial sanctions" against consumers, EDRI said. International trade agreements such as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and bilateral trade agreements the E.U. has signed with India and South Korea, all leave the door open for intermediary liability.
benton.org/node/48977 | IDG News
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CAN GOVERNMENTS BLOCK TWITTER?
[SOURCE: Foreign Policy, AUTHOR: Joshua Keating]
This week, Egypt became the latest Middle Eastern country to see massive anti-government street demonstrations. As in Tunisia earlier this month and Iran last year, activists have made heavy use of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook -- and the Egyptian regime has responded harshly. On Jan. 25, Twitter officially confirmed reports that access to its site had been blocked. Is it really possible to do that? Yes, but not very effectively. Unfortunately for the censors, Twitter allows other companies to develop their own applications using its programming interface. This has led to the development of a plethora of tools that allow users to post to Twitter without ever pointing their browsers to Twitter.com. These third-party clients still appear to be functioning in Egypt. There have even been reports of activists updating Twitter through the professional résumé-sharing site LinkedIn.
benton.org/node/48973 | Foreign Policy
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BLACKBERRY SAYS IT CAN'T HELP INDIA ON MONITORING
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: R Jai Krishna, Romit Guha]
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion reiterated that it can't give Indian security agencies access to its corporate smartphone email service. While talks will continue, the issue casts uncertainty over the popular service in the world's fastest-growing telecom market. The Indian government fears the heavy encryption on BlackBerry smartphones makes them easy for terrorists to use undetected. The government has been holding talks with the company to find ways of monitoring RIM's corporate email services. It hasn't, however, set a target date for resolving the matter. RIM has argued that what the Indian government wants is physically impossible for it to accomplish. A company official reiterated that there is no technology available that will allow monitoring of the email service, because it's controlled by the servers at the companies that use the service.
benton.org/node/48968 | Wall Street Journal
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EGYPT CUTS INTERNET ACCESS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Janine Zacharia]
Opposition activists in Egypt vowed to defy a government ban and turn out by the thousands for demonstrations Jan 28, prompting authorities to apparently cut access to the Internet in an attempt to limit their ability to organize. Egyptian officials started cutting Internet access in the country early Friday, and also moved to disable text messaging services and disrupt cellphone networks, according to a US official. The Egyptian shutdown, if continued Friday, could be the most drastic move against anti-government activists' use of technology since the Iranian government cracked down on protests in 2009. The U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said the actions to shut down the Internet and cellphones began after midnight Thursday.
benton.org/node/49005 | Washington Post
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INTERNET AND POLITICAL CHANGE
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: John Boudreau]
The revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen are driven by deep dissatisfaction with authoritarian regimes, but Internet technology has played a crucial role as a 21st-century weapon for democracy movements, experts say. Inspired by the recent overthrow of the Zine El Abidine Ben Ali dictatorship in Tunisia, citizen activists on Thursday escalated their protests in Egypt and Yemen, denouncing their respective governments. And social media played the dual role of a virtual town square where protest leaders rally the masses and counter government disinformation. Services such as Twitter and Facebook are "playing an increasingly large role in almost any mass protest around the world," said John Palfrey, a law professor at Harvard University who studies limits on Internet expression. "We will see more of this." The demonstrations in Egypt, where the government completely shut down the Internet late Thursday, "were started primarily by the April 6 Movement, which was basically a Facebook campaign that started in 2008 and called for protests about workers' rights," said Lina Khatib, a Stanford University expert on Arab reform who was in Cairo on Thursday before leaving for Paris. During the latest unrest, Twitter became an instant information tool, she said: "People were spreading the news on Twitter. They would alert people where demonstrators were gathering."
benton.org/node/49003 | San Jose Mercury News
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CHINA'S ONLINE ARMY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Chico Harlan]
Yang Feiyun belongs to an army that the Chinese government doesn't like. Yang's army operates online, obeying few rules. Its members spend long hours in front of the computer, normally for meager wages, posting comments in as many places as possible. The army, Yang has learned from experience, can change almost any opinion in China in a matter of just 72 hours. The army can cause panics, create celebrities, or push for social justice. It can also cause China's 420 million Internet users to believe things that aren't true. In recent weeks, China's central government, as part of its long-running crusade to regulate and police the Internet, has aimed its efforts at this vast network of mercenaries with a startling ability to manipulate public opinion. Within the last year, Chinese authorities have uncovered several cases in which major companies paid members of the so-called online army to flood influential message boards, blogs and chat rooms with false information about competitors. China's State Council Information Office says these smear campaigns have "disrupted normal Internet communication order."
benton.org/node/49001 | Washington Post
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A Big Boost for National Emergency Network

The Obama administration will press Congress to allocate a coveted block of wireless telecommunications airwaves for the building of a nationwide emergency communications network, administration officials said, a reversal that is likely to cement support for an issue that has been the subject of disputes since Sept. 11, 2001.

Ever since the attacks exposed the inability of fire, police and rescue departments to talk to one another via radio in an emergency, public safety officials have pushed for the allocation of additional airwaves, also known as spectrum, for their dedicated use. But Congress had mandated that the wireless spectrum at issue — a prime block of airwaves known as D Block — be auctioned off to a commercial wireless company, which would raise money that could then be used to help build a public safety network. Both the Bush and Obama administrations had supported auctioning the spectrum, as had the Federal Communications Commission. Last June, the FCC published a white paper saying that a better public safety communications network could be constructed at lower cost by using airwaves already dedicated to public safety, supplemented by the right to essentially take over commercial networks in an emergency. After nine months of intense lobbying by public safety officials, senior administration officials informed public safety leaders shortly before the State of the Union address that President Obama would support their cause. How the reallocation will be paid for remains an issue, because the auction of D Block had been expected to raise more than $3 billion. Obama administration officials said they believed that their broader plan to conduct auctions of other spectrum, including unused airwaves voluntarily given up by broadcasters, will raise the extra money required to prevent the D Block allocation from increasing the federal deficit.

Reid, Key Chairmen Pledge To Push Cybersecurity

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and the chairmen of the seven Senate committees with jurisdiction over cybersecurity introduced a measure this week that recognizes the need to act to secure the nation from cyber attacks and calls on the Obama administration and lawmakers to enact legislation.

The non-binding legislation appears to set a marker for future cybersecurity legislation. It calls on Congress to enact and the president to sign "bipartisan legislation to secure the United States against cyber attack, to enhance American competitiveness and create jobs in the information technology industry, and to protect the identities and sensitive information of American citizens and businesses." The measure outlines 10 areas that should be addressed by this still-to-come legislation. They include enhancing the "security and resiliency" of the U.S. government's networks from cyber attacks; incentivizing the private sector to "quantify, asses", and mitigate cyber risks to their communications and information networks;" improving the ability of the federal government and private sector to assess cyber risks and prevent, detect, and robustly respond to cyber attacks; improving protections for U.S. critical infrastructure; and bolstering the tools for investigating and preventing cyber crimes. In a statement announcing the legislation, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller (D-WV) and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT), pledged to pick up where they left off in the last Congress on the issue.

NPR firing prompts review of leadership

When Vivian Schiller became NPR's chief executive in early 2009, she knew enough to know that she didn't know very much about producing radio news. For that, Schiller, who formerly headed the New York Times' cable and digital businesses, relied on Ellen Weiss, NPR's top news executive. A savvy veteran, Weiss had worked her way up NPR's ranks from the bottom, spending her entire 29-year career at the organization.

By all accounts, the two women worked well together. While Schiller devoted her attention to reorganizing NPR's management and successfully closing a budget gap, Weiss concentrated on building audiences for NPR's audio programs and online news. And then, all at once, the relationship was no more. On Jan. 4, nearly three months after Weiss had made a fateful phone call to fire analyst Juan Williams for controversial comments he made on a Fox News Channel program, Schiller met with Weiss and made a stunning demand: Resign or be fired. Two days later, NPR announced, without elaboration, that Weiss had quit. The resignation stupefied staffers at NPR; many believed that Weiss had been pushed out to appease critics livid about the firing of Williams.

Williams's firing had reignited Republican calls to eliminate federal funding for NPR, PBS and their affiliated stations. Insiders also linked Weiss's fate to a bad moment for Schiller: Weiss's departure came on the same day that NPR announced that its board of directors had voted to sanction Schiller for the Williams debacle by stripping her of her 2010 bonus. In fact, the reasons behind Schiller's ultimatum to Weiss were more complex.

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