March 2011

Constitutional Amendment on Internet Freedom

[Commentary] It's time we added the first 21st Century amendment to the Constitution -- an amendment that parallels the First Amendment but explicitly prohibits the government from ever shutting down the Internet.

Freedom of the Internet in today's world is just as important as freedom of the press, religion or speech. As revolutions spread around the world questioning dictator after dictator, it is clear that the Internet has been the same kind of catalyst that a free press has been in past democratic revolutions -- it has given people an easy way to share their experiences, a tool for organizing, and served to publish atrocities in cases where the press was blocked. Anything as powerful as the Internet is something that governments irresistibly will try to control over time -- they are at the heart of our communications here and abroad. We have urged others to say hands off -- how about committing the US to the same position for the next 200 years in the only ironclad way we have -- a 21st Century Constitutional Amendment on Freedom of the Internet.

In The Never-Never Land of Net Neutrality Opposition, Favored Companies Win

[Commentary] In the never-never land of the House of Representatives, where reality seldom intrudes, legislators will get around to passing legislation to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from constructing a Network Neutrality rule.

Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), one of the leading lights opposing a free, open and job-creating Internet, doesn't like the government interfering because there has been no “market failure,” as if a situation would ever be recognized as such. So Congress must act. But it’s not enough to roll back an FCC regulation that exists. The House also has to act to foreclose a FCC regulation that doesn't exist, much less any “market failure.” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who has said there would be no compromise on killing Net Neutrality, has another legislative item in his FCC file: prohibiting the Commission from bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. If anything, that goal is, to use the familiar phrase, “a solution in search of a problem.” No one has even hinted at bringing back the old Fairness Doctrine, which was honored mostly in the breach even before it was killed off in 1987.

Reconsidering broadband stimulus

A lot of news media recently picked up a story about the state of Wisconsin declining broadband stimulus funding it had won. But this isn't a totally unique occurrence. The Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies’ new chairman Ron Laudner said recently that one of his own companies made the same choice.

One consideration was that the company declining the award had already applied for a conventional loan from the Rural Utilities Service and therefore had to choose between the two funding mechanisms. Laudner opted for the traditional loan, which the company applied for about a year ago. (When I spoke with Laudner a few weeks ago, the loan had not yet been approved but Laudner was confident it would be. The RUS, he said, has been taking longer than usual to approve these loans as a result of its added responsibilities in administering the stimulus program.) Laudner made the decision to stick with the conventional RUS loan, where that was an option, because the traditional RUS loan program has more flexibility about completion dates. Laudner also believed it would be easier to manage the regular RUS loan process.

Broadband stimulus and poverty

About a quarter of the nation’s 400 poorest counties are in areas that will be reached through the broadband stimulus program. These are predominantly rural areas where 20% or more of the population has lived below the poverty level over a period of several decades. Brian Dabson, director of the Rural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri, argues that broadband is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for improving economic conditions for people in these persistent poverty areas.

“The provision of broadband won't in and of itself change much in terms of economic prospects,” Dabson said. “But without it there is very little chance you can improve.” For a long time, Dabson said, people talked about broadband “like it was some sort of luxury.” But now, he said, “we’re at a point where you can't operate a business, education or health system unless it’s properly connected to the Internet.” “Our mantra has been that communities have to figure out how to grow their own entrepreneurship,” he said. The danger with outside assistance programs, Dabson said, is “when you pour money into low-capacity areas where there is no capacity to use the money and recirculate it into the economy, it will flow out again.” The real question, he said, is “how can we take advantage of resources, use them, recycle them and build a long term base?” Ultimately, he said, “just supplying broadband on its own isn't going to turn these areas around; it won't suddenly make these areas magnets for new investment--but if you don't supply it, these areas will continue to be mired in poverty.”

How the iPad 2 Will Revolutionize Education

The iPad 2's wealth of new features is a boon for tech-hungry classrooms. Enhanced Facetime will be great for remote lectures or office hours, high-definition video editing will facilitate exploratory learning and reporting, and real-time image mirroring will stylize lectures in science, history, and geography.

Additionally, mobile learning is made possible through the iOS 4.3 hotspot update, permitting Internet connectivity for apple phones, tablets, and laptops. This will be especially valuable for recession-hit school districts, such as Detroit, scrambling for ways to solve ballooning class sizes. Skeptical educators can be relieved that the iPad was deemed classroom ready by Reed College, and that remote learning can be just as effective as in-class lecturing.

Who is Winning the U.S. Smartphone Battle?

The battle for the hearts and minds of consumer smartphone owners continues to be a heated one according to data just released by The Nielsen Company. When it comes to consumer marketshare by operating system, Android (29%) appears to be pulling ahead of RIM Blackberry (27%) and Apple iOS (27%). But an analysis by manufacturer shows RIM and Apple to be the winners compared to other device makers since they are the only ones creating and selling smartphones with their respective operating systems. HTC follows with 12 percent of consumer smartphone owners having an HTC Android device and 7 percent owning an HTC device running a Microsoft OS. Ten percent of consumer smartphone owners had a Motorola Android device and one percent owned a Motorola device running a Microsoft OS. Finally, of the three most popular smartphone operating systems, Android seems to attract more young consumers.

UK Government Approves News Corp's BSkyB Takeover

The UK government approved News Corp.'s proposed GBP7.8 billion takeover of British Sky Broadcasting Group after the media giant agreed to spin off 24-hour news channel, Sky News, into a separate company to avoid a prolonged investigation by the nation's competition regulator.

The deal, which will add BSkyB's extensive pay-television operations to News Corp.'s extensive stable of media operations, has been criticized by UK rivals, who said it would hurt competition and limit media choice for consumers. But the UK government, which was reviewing the merger to see if such concerns were valid, said News Corp.'s proposal to spin off Sky News allayed its concerns and it therefore approved the deal, subject to a short public consultation. Once approval is confirmed, News Corp. and BSkyB will start negotiating on price, although BSkyB Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch refused to speculate about a bid price.

Cellphone Networks and the Future of Traffic

Ask someone what they think the future of driving is and the most likely response is autonomous cars. It’s true sensing and autonomy are dramatically changing cars, but there’s another information revolution afoot. Cheap sensors and network availability aren't just making cars smarter, they’re boosting the brainpower of the environment cars drive in.

Networks of sensors connected by the web make it possible to monitor traffic, parking availability, air pollution, road quality and more in real time across vast distances. Traffic monitoring in particular has been revolutionized. This kind of data gives drivers real-time travel time predictions, fosters creation of smart roads where tolls and signals can adapt to changing conditions and provides urban planners with accurate pictures of traffic usage and its effects, improving planning.

Sec. of State Hillary Clinton: Al Jazeera is 'Real News', U.S. Losing 'Information War'

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear that she is worried the United States is losing what she calls the “information war” abroad.

China and Russia, she says, have started English-language networks that push their message overseas and even the Taliban controls the airwaves in Afghanistan. And in the Arab world? Al Jazeera is king, and Sec Clinton says she can see why. “Al Jazeera has been the leader in that are literally changing people’s minds and attitudes. And like it or hate it, it is really effective,” she said. “In fact viewership of al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it’s real news. You may not agree with it, but you feel like you’re getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and, you know, arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news which, you know, is not particularly informative to us, let alone foreigners,” she added. Sec Clinton said that the US has dropped the ball since the Cold War, when VOA and others US broadcasts were influential. “We have not really kept up with the times,” Sec Clinton argued.

The Internet: A Tool for Civic Engagement?

A recent study, funded by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University, has found youths who pursue their interests on the Internet are more likely to be civically and politically engaged.

The study, written by Joe Kahn, an education professor at Mills College, found that youths who participated in interest-driven online communities also did more volunteer and charity work, as well as advocacy for community issues. It also disputed concerns about the "echo chamber"-that students are only exposed to political viewpoints they agree with on the Internet. It found the perhaps disconcerting reality is that 34 percent of students surveyed said they did not come across political messages at all, while only 5 percent said they were only exposed to political viewpoints consistent with their own. The study, which grew out of surveys of 2,500 students in 19 California districts, including 400 students who were followed for 3-and-a-half years, also found that digital media literacy education significantly increased students' exposure to differing political perspectives and boosted engagement with civic and political issues in youth.

Benton

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