June 2011

A cloud gathers over our digital freedoms

[Commentary] The cloud capitalists – Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon – present themselves as the next step of the networked world.

Cloud computing allows our data to be stored remotely so it is always there to be accessed from any device we like. For consumers juggling a mass of data on an array of devices, this offers a benign mix of reliability and flexibility. Business should benefit too. The smallest start-up may be able to create an IT infrastructure from sales to manufacture in a few clicks.

So what’s not to like? Some of the misgivings about the cloud, in particular over security, are misplaced. A well-managed cloud will be more secure than a personal computer armed with a password closely resembling the name of the user’s spouse. The big issues will be about ownership and control, for example who owns the particles in the cloud: witness the furore over whether Facebook owns pictures posted by its members. More worrying, commercial providers of cloud services will have strong incentives to manage their users to maximize revenues and to discourage them from roaming from one cloud to another. You may well be confined to your Apple zone and discouraged from straying. The open web encourages people to share, mix and match software and content. The cloud will be more controlled, like Apple’s app store. Cloud services will always be looking over our shoulder, analyzing our habits, nudging us in one direction or another. The intimacy will get us more personalized services. But we will find ourselves increasingly dependent on services that will shape our behavior: think of Facebook’s clumsy definition and management of social relationships writ large. The interests of consumers and cloud capitalists will not always be as one. While almost all our culture will become digital and more of it will be available to more people than ever before, the cloud capitalists will have more pervasive power than even the likes of Rupert Murdoch.

To avoid that trap we need the digital equivalent of the classification of cloud types created by Luke Howard, an amateur meteorologist, in 1803. His scheme of cirrus, stratus and cumulus created 52 main varieties of clouds. We should seek diversity in the kinds of digital clouds we have, public and private, large and small, fleeting and permanent.

Survey: 15% of American Homes Rely on Over-the-Air TV

According to a new Knowledge Networks survey, the number of Americans now relying exclusively on over-the-air TV is 46 million, up from 42 million a year ago.

Knowledge's just-released 2011 Ownership Survey and Trend Report found that 15% of homes rely solely on over-the-air signals. Those over-the-air homes tend to skew toward lower income and minority viewers, according to the study, with 23% of homes making under $30,000 per year relying only on over-the air signals. The survey found that 23% of Hispanic homes are broadcast-only. Homes headed by younger adults are also more likely to access TV programming exclusively through broadcast signals. Twenty percent of homes with a head of household age 18-34 are broadcast only, compared with 15% of homes in which the head of household is 35-54, or 13% of homes in which the head of household is 55 years of age or older. The survey found a small but notable number of homes that have canceled pay TV service at their current home. According to the study, 4% of TV households, which translates to 5 million TV households, eliminated pay TV service in their current home at some point in the past and now rely only on over-the-air reception. Of these homes, most report overall cost-cutting (71%) or not enough value for cost (30%) as the reason for doing so (respondents could give more than one reason).

1 Gbps for $20 a Month? That’s Cheap Broadband!

In the US, if you want a 50- to 100-Mbps connection, it is going to cost you plenty: about $105 with a triple play plan. On the other side of the planet, however, you can buy a 1 Gbps broadband connection for $20 a month, as long as you sign-up for a 24-month triple play contract with Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited, a division of local Internet service provider, City Telecom.

The same company had launched 100 Mbps to the home back in 2005. In February 2010, you could buy the 1 Gbps connection for $215 a month. According to the Akamai State of the Internet report, at the end of 2010, Hong Kong was the fastest place in the world when ranked by average peak connection speeds of 37.9 Mbps. The reason it can offer at such low prices is the low cost of passing each home with fiber — it’s about $200 per home. Hong King is an extremely dense environment, and that lowers the cost of the network buildout. At present, HKBN has about a million homes passed for its fiber network and is on target to hit 2 million homes passed by end of 2011.

New FiOS pricing bundles let customers boost broadband or video service only

Verizon announced new FiOS pricing options which allow customers emphasize either broadband or video in their service bundles.

The new pricing option lets FiOS customers buying bundled video and broadband to increase the speed of their broadband connection to the next service level for an additional five dollars a month without changing their channel lineup. They also will have the option of upgrading their broadband service by two service tiers for an additional ten dollars a month. Alternatively, FiOS customers can pay an additional ten dollars a month to upgrade their video service from 200 to 400 channels without increasing their broadband speed. Previously the jump from one tier to the next was fifteen dollars.

Florida Governor Vetos Public Broadcasting Funding

Even as public television and radio stations across Florida work furiously to cope with the recent veto of nearly $4.8 million in state funding, there is one public broadcaster that will see its state support increased.

WFSU in Tallahassee will receive $2.8 million that Gov. Rick Scott left untouched in next year's budget, specifically funding TV and radio projects often focused on the workings of state government. The cash includes $1.8 million for the Florida Channel, a TV outlet based in the state Capitol that features live, unedited coverage of the governor and Cabinet, Legislature and Supreme Court. There's another $340,862 provided for closed captioning of the channel. WFSU also gets $497,522 for "statewide government and cultural affairs programming," which includes funding for the 30-year-old Florida Crossroads documentary series and the Florida Public Radio Network — a service to all public radio stations in the state that provides "in-depth coverage of the Florida Legislature, state government and issues that affect the state." Along with $162,750 provided for satellite uplink equipment, WFSU will receive a hike for these projects of more than $500,000 from last year's budget levels.

Bad News Drives Economy Coverage

A run of gloomy news -- more partisan disagreement on raising the debt ceiling, rising unemployment numbers and continued housing woes -- drove the economy to the forefront of the media agenda last week.

As the recovery appeared to falter, the U.S. economy accounted for 19% of the newshole during the week of May 30-June 5, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. That represented the biggest week for economic coverage since April 11-17, when the narrowly averted government shutdown helped to make that subject the focus of 39% of the newshole. The growing sense that the economic recovery has stalled invited the media to weigh the impact on President Obama, with analysts noting that his reelection prospects were not helped by last week’s news. The week’s No. 2 story was a related subject -- the 2012 presidential election -- that has slowly but steadily crept to the fore of the mainstream media agenda. Last week, attention to the race -- mostly focusing on the emerging and potential crop of Republican candidates -- accounted for 12% of the newshole, its biggest week of coverage yet.

Blumenthal to chair Commonwealth Fund commission

Dr. David Blumenthal, the former head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS, has been named chairman of the Commonwealth Fund's 17-member Commission on a High Performance Health System.

Blumenthal succeeds Dr. James Mongan, the former president and CEO of Partners HealthCare System, Boston, who died May 3. The commission, formed in 2005, has worked to "highlight specific areas where health system performance falls short of what is achievable and to recommend practical, evidence-informed strategies for transforming the system," according to the organization's website.

Blumenthal, a Harvard University researcher, was named by President Barack Obama to be the third ONC leader. He served from April 2009 to April 2011. He returned to academia after leaving the ONC and is a professor of medicine and healthcare policy at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Partners HealthCare System and Harvard Medical School, all in Boston.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Opens Medicare Transparency Proposal for Comment

Under a proposed rule, Medicare and private sector claims data could be used to produce public reports that evaluate the performance of physicians, other healthcare providers, and suppliers.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is proposing to allow organizations that meet certain qualifications -- including having the capacity to process the data accurately and safely -- to have access, for a fee, to patient-protected Medicare claims data from Parts A, B and D. The Medicare information would be combined with private-sector claims data to identify physicians and hospitals that provide the highest quality care at the most cost-effective rates.

Official Chinese Media Lash Out at Google

A leading Chinese government newspaper lashed out at Google, saying the company's allegations of China-based hacking were a politically motivated attempt to spark new disputes between China and the US.

The People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, printed the editorial on the front page of its overseas edition Monday with the headline, "Google, What Do You Want?" It said the company's allegations last week were politically motivated with "a vicious intent of sparking new disputes concerning Internet security between China and the U.S." Google had said hackers in Jinan, the capital of China's eastern Shandong province, tried to hijack the Gmail accounts of senior U.S. officials and other people by tricking them into disclosing their passwords. "Google shouldn't engulf itself in the international political war as a tool for political gaming," said the commentary, written by editor Zhang Yixuan. If there is "any change in the international atmosphere, I am afraid Google will become a target to be sacrificed by politics, and also will be discarded by the market."

French Broadcasters Told to Watch What They Say

In America, according to the comedian George Carlin, there are seven words to avoid saying on television. In France, the equivalent list has just grown by at least two: “Facebook” and “Twitter.”

Like broadcasters elsewhere, French news anchors sometimes urge viewers or listeners to visit Twitter or Facebook to receive updates or to comment. In a decree issued last week, the regulatory agency that oversees French television and radio said broadcasters should not mention the names of specific Internet companies when doing so, calling this a violation of French rules banning surreptitious advertising.

Benton

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