June 2011

Songs Stick in Teens' Heads

Emory University scientists studying teenagers listening to new music have discovered tell-tale brain responses that could help predict a song's commercial success.

The new finding offers an insight into the hit-making machinery of the adolescent brain, by documenting involuntary neural reactions to pop music. At the level of cells and synapses, teen-age brains simply find some songs more rewarding to hear, even when the listeners say they don't like the tunes on questionnaires and surveys, the scientists said. So far, no one knows why. "The punch line is that brain responses correlated with units sold," said neuro-economist Gregory Berns at Emory's Center for Neuropolicy, who conducted the study with Emory neuroscientist Sara Moore. That makes these neural cells in a brain region called the nucleus accumbens, normally involved in reward, pleasure, and anticipation, an effective focus group. "It is far from being a hit predictor, but it was statistically significant."

Media's Problems, While Serious, Said Fixable

On June 10, Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski and senior advisor Steven Waldmen were at the Columbia School of Journalism discussing the FCC's new report, The Information Needs of Communities.

Waldmen said he remains optimistic despite “serious problems” with today’s media landscape. “While we are all aware of very serious challenges that face us, they are fixable,” Waldman said. “If we can preserve and allow innovations to continue to address the serious problems, we really can have the system that the founders wanted and the best media system that we've ever had.” Waldman called for increased accountability by stations when it comes to “pay-for-play” disclosures, saying paid or sponsor-driven content should be labeled not only on air but also online. The practice of advertisers dictating content or reporting is “a serious problem,” but can be abated through a searchable, online database of stations that are “selling their airwaves,” Waldman said. “We propose a system based on transparency.” Waldman cited current circumstances making it increasingly hard for TV stations to produce the kind of in-depth local news that serves their communities. Staff cuts, and increased pressures on those who remain to produce more, means some of the beats stations used to cover — courts, state governments and agriculture, for example — are not getting the attention they need, he said. At the same time, though, he praised local TV news for actually growing (the number of local news hours has increased 35% in the last seven years) at a time when other legacy media, like newspapers, have been shrinking, or even folding. Many broadcasters have also taken advantage of digital opportunities to expand the reach of their local news.

Joel Meares notes that Waldman's presentation was simply an abridged version of the presentation he gave yesterday at the FCC’s open meeting where the report was first presented. There were no questions taken from the audience. The room was full of sharp minds ready to ask some challenging questions. Josh Stearns, from Free Press, for example, was in attendance, and said after the event that the FCC report had “dropped the ball” on issues of media consolidation, localism, and enhanced disclosure. Stearns was particularly concerned about the report’s recommendation to shelve the FCC’s ongoing localism proceedings, which gather information from consumers and civic organizations on how broadcasters are serving their local communities. With Waldman saying that the crisis in the media is most acute in “full-time accountability reporting” at the local level, it seems odd that measures specifically in place to address local news services would be disbanded without great explanation or obvious replacement.

EU states agree on tougher sanctions on cybercrime

European Union countries agreed on June 10 on tougher sanctions against people conducting cyber attacks. Under the new rules, which have to be agreed by the European Parliament, hackers would face a sentence of at least five years if found guilty of causing serious damage to IT systems. Tougher penalties would also affect perpetrators of attacks through botnets -- networks of infected computers programmed to send spam e-mails -- and target identity theft. Illegally intercepting data would become a criminal offence in the EU. The EU's 27 member states have also decided to boost their judicial and police cooperation by creating a cybercrime unit which could be attached to Europol, the European police agency.

IMF struck by cyber attack

The International Monetary Fund was recently struck by a cyber attack on its computer system, but just what the incident entailed isn't being disclosed. "I can confirm that we are investigating an incident," David Hawley, a spokesman for the IMF, said in an email. "I am not in a position to elaborate further on the extent of the cyber-security incident." Hawley declined to say whether any sensitive data was stolen from the IMF, an international group that oversees the financial system of its 187 member nations. He also wouldn't say when the attack took place or how the IMF was altered to the issue, stating only that "we became aware of the incident recently" and that "the Fund is fully functional."

Spain arrests Anonymous members over Sony attack

Spanish police arrested three men suspected to be members of the hacker group Anonymous on June 10, charging them with organizing cyber attacks against the websites of Sony Corp, banks and governments -- but not the recent massive hacking of PlayStation gamers.

Anonymous is a loose grouping of self-proclaimed hactivists who frequently try to shut down the websites of businesses and other organizations that it opposes. Anonymous responded by threatening to retaliate for the arrests: "We are Legion, so EXPECT US," the group said on its official Twitter feed. Spanish police alleged the three "hacktivists" helped organize an attack that temporarily shuttered access to some Sony websites. They were not linked to two massive cyber attacks against Sony's Playstation Network that resulted in the theft of information from more than 100 million customers. Police also accused the men of launching cyber assaults on Spanish banks BBVA and Bankia, and Italian energy group Enel SpA. The arrests are the first in Spain against alleged members of Anonymous, following the detention of others in the United States and Britain. Police told Reuters all three men were Spanish and in their 30s. One worked in the merchant navy.

NTIA Seeks Input on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Functions

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is accepting pubic comment on a draft statement of work on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions.

The IANA functions have historically included: (1) the coordination of the assignment of technical Internet protocol parameters; (2) the administration of certain responsibilities associated with Internet DNS root zone management; (3) the allocation of Internet numbering resources; and (4) other services related to the management of the ARPA and INT top-level domains (TLDs). The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) currently performs the IANA functions.

NTIA Offers FCC Ideas on National, Public Safety Broadband Network

In a filing at the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration highlights important issues in the development of an overarching framework to achieve a nationwide interoperable public safety wireless broadband network and suggests an appropriate course of action.

NTIA supports legislation to create a not-for profit Public Safety Broadband Corporation that would effectively oversee a nationwide network operation tailored to meet the needs of the local, State, Tribal, and Federal public safety communities. The Corporation would consult and coordinate with relevant public safety officials at State, local, or Tribal jurisdictions, as well as Federal entities where appropriate, on matters within their purview. This corporate structure would be the most efficient and cost-effective way to ensure the deployment of a truly nationwide, interoperable public safety network.

1Gbps fiber for $70 -- in America? Yup.

California Internet service provider Sonic.net is rolling out 1Gbps, fiber-to-the-home service… for $69.99 a month.

Sonic has been around since 1994, selling DSL service in California, but it has recently expanded into fiber; the company has even secured the contract to manage Google's own 1Gbps fiber network that will connect 800+ faculty homes at Stanford University. Sonic's new approach to broadband involves stringing its own fiber lines to homes and offering bargain-basement pricing; indeed, the new 1Gbps offering is the same price as the company's earlier bonded 40Mbps DSL offering (in which two phones lines each provide 20Mbps of bandwidth to a home). The price even includes home phone service. Is this really a sustainable model? After all, Comcast offers 1.5Mbps service for a list price of $40; Sonic.net's new offering is more than 600x faster at only twice the price. Dane Jasper, Sonic.net's CEO, says that the new fiber-to-the-home deployment is a trial and will reach about 700 homes when complete. "Honestly, only as those wrap up will we have a complete picture of the economic model," he says. "But I believe that fast service for a low cost is possible." If the pilot in Sebastopol, California goes well, Sonic.net hopes to expand the service across the region.

Chairman Issa to Microsoft, Yahoo: Hand over hack records

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) fired off letters to Microsoft and Yahoo asking them to preserve all e-mails from the personal Hotmail and Yahoo Mail accounts of federal officials who may have been targeted in previous hacker attacks.

Chairman Issa sent a very similar letter to Google Chief Executive Larry Page earlier this week, after the search giant recently disclosed its Gmail service suffered a hacker attack. In the letters to Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz and Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, Issa wrote that recent media reports have said hackers breached the two companies’ systems. He fears these cyber criminals may have accessed email messages of senior federal officials and military personnel. “This development is of particular concern to this committee, not only because of our interest in the broader issue of cybersecurity and its national security implications, but also because of recent news accounts describing a similar infiltration of individual users’ Google Gmail accounts,” Chairman Issa wrote. “Our committee is primarily interested in determining whether official federal communications may have been inappropriately compromised.” In the letter, Issa requests Yahoo and Microsoft produce all documents and electronic records that identify the federal officials whose Yahoo and Hotmail email accounts were believed to be compromised since the beginning of January 2010.

Lawmakers, advocates push social networks for more protection of youngest users

About 5 million US users on Facebook are younger than 10 and 2.5 million subscribers are 11 or 12 years old, according to a recent survey by Consumer Reports magazine. And the youngest of Web users aren't just on Facebook.

They are logging onto social networks such as Formspring, tweeting their location to the Web, and making friends out of strangers on Disney and other games sites. That’s a lot of freedom on the Internet for children who can't ride in the front seat of a car or leave school with a friend without a signed permission slip from Mom or Dad. Maybe too much freedom, in the opinion of child advocates and lawmakers, who are pressuring companies to work harder to keep the youngest users offline and to create federal rules that would limit how companies collect information about children on the Internet.

Benton

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