January 2011

Economy Hot Topic Online

In the last week of the year, bloggers' interest in the economy reached its second-highest level for all of 2010. But it wasn't exactly a passionate debate over stimulus dollars or tax policy. Instead, bloggers dissected new government parameters for measuring long-term unemployment.

For the week of December 27-31, 31% of the news links on blogs were about the economy, making it the No. 1 subject, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Only once before in 2010 did the economy generate this much attention among bloggers-from October 4-8 three different economic stories made up a third (33%) of links. The week of June 14-18 also came close at 29%, largely in response to President Obama's urging Congress to approve state and local government aid. If the economy was the overwhelmingly dominant subject among bloggers last week, the buzz among Twitter users was all about Apple (the No. 1 story at 25% of links), and more specifically its iPad. Indeed the most linked-to story was an attempt to vet rampant rumors about an expected second generation iPad.

If Google 'knows more about you than you do,' how can CSPs do the same without backlash?

When you hear someone like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg or Google’s Eric Schmidt talk of social norms shifting toward consumers being more willing to share information about themselves, you get one point of view. But there remains a portion of the population that is amazed at how much people are willing to reveal.

Recent research published by Pew showed that some 60% of adults are restricting access to their online profiles. In an earlier study the institute had found that even teenagers and young adults were upping their use of privacy controls to restrict access to online information about themselves. But do people overall have their guard up against service providers of all types—whether over the top or telcos—some of which have already been shown to compromise customer data without permission? If a company like a Google continues to grow as it has -- despite is public assertions it will know more about you than even you do -- than it seems natural that there would be acceptance of telco service providers using usage and location information to better tailor services or advertisements and promotions. It seems that acceptance by customers grows when there is a perception of value traded for what is given up. It also seems people are more amenable if there are options to “opt in” and to have some say over what types of personal information can be accessed and shared, as well as what value they want in return.

[Commerce Service Provider (CSP) - an organization that hosts commerce software applications on its own servers within its own facilities.]

Hollywood Digital Czars Rain On Smart TV Parade

Television manufacturers, take note: All those new sets you've crammed with apps and other Internet-derived content experiences aren't impressing some pretty key constituents in the entertainment industry.

A panel discussion at CES drew some sharply critical assessments of the so-called smart TVs. "They’re clearly not ready for primetime,” said Curt Marvis, president of digital media at Lionsgate, who went on to describe the poor functionality of one particular device whose manufacturer he did not identify. “Other than Netflix and Qriocity (Sony), there was nothing on there that worked very well at all. It reminded me of the old CD-ROM days.” Marvis later added, “People are loading up these BD players and sets with all these apps but I haven't seen many that are that compelling today.”

The case against the Consumer Electronics Show

A critique of the overcrowded, overstuffed, chaotic, and profoundly pointless vaporware parade known as Consumer Electronics Show.

Every major tech company follows the same tired CES script: They put on by-the-book press conferences that begin with lots of demos of stuff we already know about—count on Intel, for instance, to always show you how fast its new chips are (hint: faster than last year's chips). Next, with all the fanfare of the Second Coming, tech giants offer a few incremental improvements to old products. Finally, they show off things like the HP Slate -- gadgets in very early stages of development that have been rushed to the show and barely work as prototypes, with little chance of actually getting to market anytime soon. The fact that CES is an enormous waste of time isn't news to tech journalists. In private, gadget reporters will tell you that covering the show is a tremendous hassle and rarely yields any interesting news. But because CES demos make for great headlines and visuals -- hey look, Steve Ballmer unveiled a tablet PC even before Apple did!—and because of the sheer volume of new stuff to post about, CES is a boon for gadget blog traffic and a honeypot for advertisers.

Digital Divide Propels Barnes & Noble Past Rival

The digital divide has created a chasm between the nation's two biggest bookstore chains: While Borders is trying to hold off bankruptcy, Barnes & Noble announced its best holiday sales season in more than a decade.

"Thrilled" was the word Barnes & Noble Chief Financial Officer Joseph Lombardi used to describe the mood at his company. Holiday sales at BarnesAndNoble.com were up 78 percent over last year; store sales increased by almost 10 percent. While sales of hardcover books were better than expected, Lombardi made it clear that Barnes & Noble's popular e-readers, the Nook and the Nook Color, were behind the good news. James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research, says the Nook is a popular reading device, but selling it at the chain's stores gives Barnes & Noble an added advantage. "People buy the Nook at retail and then they go and buy digital books, but because they're in the retail location, they might pick something else up while they're there," he says. "So the good residual feeling that Barnes & Noble has after [the fourth quarter of] last year, it's all because of the foot traffic that the Nook drove. That's their salvation right now." While Barnes & Noble was developing the Nook, Borders was already having financial problems, leaving it ill-prepared to make the investments needed to meet the challenges of the digital age.

Ofcom opens up more frequencies for 3G services

Ofcom has introduced a new measure that will help mobile phone operators to increase mobile broadband speeds, deliver improved in-building coverage and widen mobile broadband coverage in rural areas.

The airwaves used by mobile phone operators for 2G services, such as making phone calls and sending texts, will be available to provide 3G services, such as mobile Internet browsing. Mobile phone operators could previously only use a limited amount of spectrum – the airwaves that mobile phones and other wireless devices use to communicate – to deliver 3G. The remainder of their spectrum holdings was licensed in the 1990s with a condition that it could only be used for 2G services – mainly voice calls and text messages. This spectrum could in future be used to meet the growing demand from smartphone devices and the like for 3G services.

South Korean police say Google collects personal info

Google collected e-mails and other personal information from unsecured wireless networks in South Korea while taking photographs for its Street View mapping service, police said.

Google accessed private data as its cars took photos of neighborhoods in Seoul and three other major cities in South Korea between October 2009 and May 2010, said Jung Suk-hwa, a police officer in charge of the investigation. Jung said the police reached the preliminary conclusion after analyzing hard disks obtained from Google, noting that police plan to wrap up the investigation as early as this month. Police suspect Google's activities break South Korean laws protecting privacy of telecommunications. It was not immediately clear whether Google and its officials might be prosecuted or penalized here. Google apologized for intruding and vowed to continue to cooperate with South Korean authorities.

India's TDSAT seeks government response on spectrum policy shift

Indian telecommunication tribunal Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has sought government response on a plea by mobile operator Idea Cellular for changing spectrum allocation policy based on first-come, first-serve principle, reports the PTI. On 10 January 2008, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) had changed the spectrum allocation policy from first-come, first-serve to first-pay, first-served basis during the regime of former telecommunication minister A Raja.

FCC survey finds faster broadband needed in schools and libraries

The Federal Communications Commission released a report on the state of broadband connectivity at schools and libraries receiving funds from the federal E-rate program, which provides support to help connect schools and libraries to the Internet. The report is based on data from a survey conducted in 2010 that examined the success and challenges related to broadband use faced by schools and libraries. This survey will help the FCC make data-driven policy decisions for the E-rate program by providing information on the educational and technological needs of schools and libraries.

The survey was commissioned by the FCC and conducted by Harris Interactive, Inc., an independent national marketing research firm. Specifically, the survey found:

Almost All Have At Least Some Broadband: 95% of all E-rate survey respondents have some form of terrestrial broadband connection to at least one facility, while 2% use satellite and 3% use dial-up.
Faster Broadband Speeds Needed: However, nearly 80% of all survey respondents say their broadband connections do not fully meet their current needs.

Slow connection speed is the primary reason current Internet connectivity does not meet the needs for 55% of these respondents.

Cost is a Big Factor: 39% of E-rate survey respondents cite cost of service as a barrier in meeting their Internet needs, and 27% cite cost of installation as a barrier.
E-Book Use to Greatly Increase: 56% of all E-rate survey respondents expect to implement or expand the use of digital textbooks in the next two to three years, and 45% expect to implement or expand the use of handheld devices for educational purposes.
Most Have Speeds Greater Than 3 Mbps: 10% of E-rate survey respondents have broadband speeds of 100 Mbps or greater and most (55%) have broadband speeds greater than 3 Mbps.

More than half of school districts (60%) subscribe to a fiber optic connection.
66% of respondents provide some wireless connectivity for staff, students or library patrons.

E-Mail Essential for Schools: For schools, e-mail is the most-used application (almost all schools, 98%, regularly use or access e-mail), and the most essential (69% consider it the most essential).
Libraries Rely on Online Reference Materials: For libraries, online reference materials are both the most used application (86% of staff and patrons regularly use or access online reference materials) and the most essential (62% consider it the most essential).

Skype is Killing it On Long Distance

Skype voice traffic is expected to grow by 45 billion minutes in 2010 to more than twice the volume added by all of the world’s phone companies combined, according to research from consulting firm Telegeography.

In 2009, Skype’s growth exceeded long distance voice-minute growth for the first time, as adoption of the company’s P2P VoIP technology took off. Today’s data shows that Skype’s momentum is continuing to grow, which means the small portion of revenue that traditional phone companies bring in for long distance could soon be a relic, like wireline revenue and per-minute domestic calling charges. According to the Telegeography report, international call traffic grew an estimated 4 percent in 2010, to 413 billion minutes — down from 5 percent growth in 2009, and way off from the 15-percent average growth rate shown during the previous two decades. Meanwhile, Skype has hit 102.5 billion minutes, which means one out of five voice minutes are now going to Skype! Telegeography Analyst Stephan Beckert put it best saying, “Demand for international communications remains strong, but ever more people are discovering that they can communicate without the services of a telco.” Beckert noted in an email to me, however, that the telcos aren't losing out on huge chunks of change.

Benton

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