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  2. March 2011

March 2011

Rep Stearns promises new online privacy legislation

Rep Cliff Stearns (R-FL) will soon introduce legislation designed to give Web users more control of their personal data and to give the Federal Trade Commission power to enforce voluntary privacy standards developed with Internet companies, he said March 4.

Rep Stearns said he plans to introduce online privacy legislation soon. The bill's focus will be on allowing Web users to know what personal information Internet companies are collecting about them and to control how it's used, said Stearns, co-author of past online privacy bills. The bill would encourage Web-based companies to develop industry standards for privacy but would give the FTC some enforcement power, Rep Stearns said during a speech at a Technology Policy Institute (TPI) forum on privacy. Finding the right balance between privacy and online commerce is a "tough issue," but consumers are demanding more privacy protections. "We are at a tipping point where we have to come to grips with the information that's being collected," he said.

Global market for telehealth tech on upswing

Remote patient monitoring, or telehealth, has taken huge strides forward, with demand for this technology on the rise – especially among home-care agencies, disease management companies and clinical trial groups, according to a new report from market research firm Frost & Sullivan.

The advent of low-energy Bluetooth, near-field communication (NFC), secure data management and wireless sensor platforms together are driving a change in how healthcare is delivered – from a hospital-centric to a patient-centric approach, the report notes. Participation from market giants, such as GE, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Philips, Qualcomm, Siemens and Wal-Mart, has enabled development of remote monitoring products that effectively interface IT and life science technologies. Frost & Sullivan’s analysis, Remote Patient Monitoring Technologies – A Strategic Assessment, finds that with the escalating need to manage chronic diseases such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), asthma, liver diseases and congestive heart failure, especially in the elderly population, the demand for wireless monitoring has increased significantly over the past few years.

OPM updates unscheduled telework option

The Office of Personnel Management is updating its dismissal and closure procedures for the Washington (DC) area after January’s snowstorm commute – dubbed “Commutageddon” – that left some people stranded on the road for up to 13 hours. Now, when OPM announces an early departure, employees will be able to request unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework before their individually staggered early departure times, according to an OPM memo sent to agency heads March 3. “The revised announcement is not a change in policy but is simply meant to highlight that employees have the option to request unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework if they wish to leave prior to their designated early departure times,” OPM Director John Berry said. Berry acknowledged that some agencies are having difficulty implementing their unscheduled telework policies, and he said OPM will work with these agencies to “better understand their concerns and lessons learned during this year’s snow season.”

Cheap, Ultrafast Broadband? Hong Kong Has It

Hong Kong residents can enjoy astoundingly fast broadband at an astoundingly low price.

It became available last year, when a scrappy company called Hong Kong Broadband Network introduced a new option for its fiber-to-the-home service: a speed of 1,000 megabits a second — known as a “gig” — for less than $26 a month. In the United States, we don't have anything close to that. But we could. And we should. Verizon, the nation’s leading provider of fiber-to-the-home service, doesn't offer a gig, or even half that speed. Instead, it markets a “fastest” service that is only 50 megabits a second for downloading and 20 megabits a second for uploading. It costs $144.99 a month. That’s one-twentieth the speed of Hong Kong Broadband’s service for downloading, for more than five times the price. One thing working in Hong Kong’s favor, of course, is its greater population density, enabling broadband companies to reach multiuser dwellings at a much lower cost. But density is only part of the explanation. The personality of Hong Kong Broadband should be noted, too. A wholly owned subsidiary of City Telecom, it is an aggressive newcomer. It was willing to suffer seven years of losses while building out its fiber network before it turned profitable.

Hong Kong Broadband’s principal competitor is an older company, PCCW, which has several other lines of business, including phone, television and mobile. PCCW also offers gigabit service to the home and benefits from the same population density. But PCCW’s price is more than twice as much as Hong Kong Broadband’s. Despite its low prices, Hong Kong Broadband now operates in the black.

Inexpensive pricing of gigabit broadband is practical in American cities, too. “This is an eminently replicable model,” says Benoit Felten, a co-founder of Diffraction Analysis, a consulting business based in Paris. “But not by someone who already owns a network — unless they’re willing to scrap the network.”

CBS beefs up digital business with Clicker Media acquisition

CBS has acquired Clicker Media and installed its co-founder, Jim Lanzone, as president of CBS Interactive, putting him in charge of shaping the broadcast giant's strategy in the fast-changing digital world. For more than two years, Lanzone has been building Clicker into what is considered the "TV Guide" of the Internet.

The service allows consumers to sort through hundreds of thousands of TV show episodes and movies available online by cataloging them and providing search results and viewing recommendations. Now, Lanzone will have much more expansive duties at CBS, leading a group of about 3,000 employees at a critical time. All media companies, including CBS, must navigate the shifting digital landscape as they struggle to preserve their traditional economic models and figure out how to make money in the "everything for free" culture of the Internet.

About 20% of drivers using Web behind the wheel, study says

Forget texting and driving or talking on the phone and driving: Those extremely dangerous habits are old hat. The new worry, says a survey released by State Farm this week, is what the insurance company cleverly calls "webbing while driving."

That means looking up Web pages, following driving directions, reading and composing e-mails, checking Facebook, and twiddling with smart-phone apps -- activities that require sustained concentration and multiple key presses. Among the 912 smart-phone users State Farm surveyed, more than 19% of them "webbed" while driving, the company said. For those who prefer fractions, that's one smart-phone-equipped driver out of every five.

Looking to cut cable bills? Online TV could help

Amazon's launch of its free on-demand video service last week adds yet another option to the growing market of online programming. Access to the retailer's free video library is only available to select customers and still fairly limited. But the new service underscores the movement away from the living room TV set to computer screens and even mobile devices. For some households, online programming could be a way to cut down on expensive cable packages that can easily top $150 a month. The features and prices you'll find online vary greatly, however, so you'll want to go over them carefully. The market is still scattered, with the same programming often available from multiple sources. But here's a look at what you get with three well-known providers.

NPR, PBS Put Millions Into Investigative Reporting

National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting System and local public broadcast stations around the country are hiring more journalists and pumping millions of dollars into investigative news to make up for what they see as a lack of deep-digging coverage by their for-profit counterparts.

Public radio and TV stations have seen the need for reporting that holds government and business accountable increase as newspapers and TV networks cut their staffs and cable television stations have filled their schedules with more opinion journalism. In the past three years, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has invested more than $90 million in federal funds on new journalism initiatives. That includes a $10 million local journalism initiative that is paying for the creation of five regional centers that will help local PBS and NPR stations cover news that affects wider geographic areas. Also, a $6 million grant from the group expanded the PBS investigative series "Frontline" from a seasonal series with a summer break to a year-round program. Meanwhile, NPR has started an investigative reporting unit supported by philanthropic funds – including $3.2 million donated in the last year.

Community Funds Are Offered New Ways to Measure Health of News Coverage in Their Cites and Towns

People who regularly follow the news are more likely to be involved in their communities and feel they make a difference, according to a study released by three nonprofits this week.

Those findings were unveiled as the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation played host to about 350 community-foundation leaders as part of its annual Media Learning Seminar -- an event that pulls together journalism experts and foundation officials for two days of discussions about how foundations can help provide better information to their communities, in part by giving grants to news organizations. In conjunction with the release of the study, Knight unveiled a “community information toolkit” designed to help community foundations identify problems with news-media coverage and information infrastructure in their cities and towns.

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