August 31, 2011 (AT&T Plans to Bring Back Jobs Sent Abroad)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY. AUGUST 31, 2011
** Planning a communications-related course for 2011? See http://benton.org/headlines_in_the_classroom to learn how Headlines might help. **
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
Lessons From Hurricane Irene on Cell Phone Reliability - analysis
State Attorneys General Call for Reallocation Of Spectrum For Public Safety Network
Attorney General Holder Makes Pitch For Public Safety Network [links to web]
CONTENT
NLRB: Employers' Social Media Policies Can Violate Labor Laws
Move By Universities Creates New Problem For Google Books Deal
Copyright Office Again Recommends Phasing Out Distant Signal License [links to web]
Video game competition, not violence, could be culprit in aggression, study says [links to web]
Your Friends Are Not Your Audience: A Disturbing Internet Lesson In Perspective [links to web]
The Internet's $10 Million Mix Tapes [links to web]
JOURNALISM
Covering 2012, Youths on the Bus
Bill Nye Discusses Climate Change With Fox Business Network's Charles Payne
OWNERSHIP
Ex-FCC chief Martin on media ownership
Fox Moves to Majority Position in Big Ten Network [links to web]
Bloomberg to FCC: Comcast Can -- and Should -- Move Its TV Channels [links to web]
INTERNET
FCC Chairman Sees Rural Realities in Southwest Alaska
GAO: Conflicting orders have led to confusion over DOD’s cyber strategy
Graphene finding could lead to super-fast Internet [links to web]
Tight Budget? Look to the ‘Cloud’ - op-ed
Lawmakers using wrong tactic on Amazon tax - editorial [links to web]
In Latest Breach, Hackers Impersonate Google to Snoop on Users in Iran
WIRELESS
AT&T Plans to Bring Back Jobs Sent Abroad
Onavo begins assault on high Android data usage [links to web]
Cellphones Could Help Doctors Stay Ahead Of An Epidemic
ADVERTISING
Attention: The Online Ad Industry Is Now Officially Regulating Itself
Google investor sues board over online drug ads
STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines is presented in partnership with:
Western Firms Aided Libyan Spies
Baidu criticized for fraudulent keyword advertising [links to web]
Top Chinese official warns Sina's Twitter-like service [links to web]
Australia condemns 'irresponsible' Wikileaks cable leak [links to web]
See also: Cyberattack downs WikiLeaks website [links to web]
Three UK Offers Free Mobile Broadband to Rural Villages
Australia regulator may delay Telstra separation plan [links to web]
New Zealand government approves Telecom's asset allocation plan [links to web]
Samsung bruised by twin court rulings [links to web]
See also: Samsung still top mobile handset maker [links to web]
Italian Networks Bid $3.3 Billion for 4G Licenses [links to web]
Facebook voting comes to UK’s ‘Big Brother’ [links to web]
Cellphones Could Help Doctors Stay Ahead Of An Epidemic
MORE ONLINE
Lessons in transformation -- telcos can learn from other industries' mistakes [links to web]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
LESSONS FROM IRENE
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Edward Tenner]
Only a year or two ago, I was ready to argue that old-fashioned phone service was a vital community lifeline. It's clear that as the expense of maintaining it is falling on fewer and few subscribers, it won't be sustainable in the long run, together with its famous standard of 99.999 percent reliability and ample backup power in emergencies. Power outages, winds, and flooding can knock out cell towers. A few long emergency calls on hold could quickly drain even fully charged batteries. Running a vehicle cell charger isn't always an option, especially if a car or truck has been disabled by a storm or earthquake or fuel is short. It's unsafe to idle cars in urban garages. Some products purporting to be emergency cell phone backup batteries are not compatible with all phones, as I discovered even before the storm. Even if fully charged, my cable modem is rated at only about seven hours, while some of my local friends have been without power for over 24. Local libraries are crowded with laptop refugees. There's an obvious need for ways to extend the reserve. Since cell phones and Internet phone service is becoming the norm, bringing them up to the five-nines standard may be a less expensive goal than maintaining and upgrading the landline infrastructure. Internet service providers and cell phone companies need to work out better affordable and standardized emergency hardware: hand-cranked generators, backup batteries, signal boosters, and even automatic emergency forwarding of Internet-based calls to cell numbers and vice versa whenever one system or another is down.
benton.org/node/88366 | Atlantic, The
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AGs CALL FOR PUBLIC SAFETY SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Most of the nation's state attorneys general are calling on Congress to reallocate spectrum to public safety officials for the creation of a national broadband network aimed at improving emergency communications. In a letter to congressional leaders, 42 state attorneys general urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would reallocate a swath of spectrum known as the D-block to public safety officials for a national broadband network. That spectrum is slated under current law to be auctioned to commercial bidders. The Senate Commerce Committee approved spectrum legislation in June that would give the D-block to public safety agencies and authorize funding to build such a network, but GOP leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee would prefer to see the D-block auctioned.
benton.org/node/88380 | National Journal
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CONTENT
SOCIAL MEDIA AND EMPLOYEES
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
Late last year, the National Labor Relations Board sided with an emergency medical technician, Dawnmarie Souza, who was fired after complaining about her boss on Facebook. The NLRB argued that Souza's dismissal by the ambulance company, American Medical Response of Connecticut, violated a federal labor law protecting employees' rights to unionize. That law allows employees to discuss salaries, working conditions and other issues that could be covered by union negotiations. Now the NLRB has issued a 24-page report examining employers' social media policies. In its report, the agency looks at various incidents involving employer-employee disputes involving social media that came to the NLRB's attention in the last year. While the NLRB didn't side against employers every time, it found several companies' social media policies unlawful. For instance, the NLRB said in one case that a nonprofit social services provider unlawfully fired five people who discussed high workloads (and other job-related matters) on Facebook. "The Facebook discussion here was a textbook example of concerted activity, even though it transpired on a social network platform," the NLRB wrote.
benton.org/node/88367 | MediaPost
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UNIVERSITIES AND ORPHAN WORKS
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Jeff Roberts]
As authors and publishers wait to learn the final fate of the Google Books settlement, a group of universities has quietly launched a major initiative that could reshape the future of copyright law. As part of its quest to digitize the world’s books, Google has scanned millions of titles. But it can't make them available to the public until a judge gives his blessing to a troubled settlement the company has reached with authors and publishers. One of the sticking points has been what to do about books that are still in copyright but whose owners can't be found. Now, the universities, which include Cornell, Duke and Michigan, have decided that they aren't going to wait for the judge’s OK to make those e-books available. They have announced they will allow library users to have full access to the digital text of those so-called orphan works, which are estimated to number in the millions.
benton.org/node/88327 | paidContent.org
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JOURNALISM
BILL NYE VS FOX BUSINESS NETWORK
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: ]
In a recent interview with the Fox Business Network, Bill Nye (yes, the Science Guy) explained to host Charles Payne that Al Gore's recent comments on the need for climate change discourse may not be far off point, especially when one considers the science behind it all. The clip, available on Media Matters, aired just after Hurricane Irene had passed the East Coast of the U.S. It is from a segment of the show "Freedom Watch," discussing a link between climate change and extreme weather. At the beginning of the clip, Payne mentions a Newsweek article from May that suggests extreme weather is the “new normal” because of climate change. When asked if Irene was “proof of global warming,” Nye patiently explained that it is likely “evidence” for or “a result of” global warming. He added that the climate modeling needed to actually determine this will take at least several months, but he seemed confident of what the results would be. After showing a clip of Al Gore's recent comments about confronting climate deniers, Payne asked Nye whether it helped climate change believers “to always bring in things like racism” or if it “denigrate[s] anyone who might just have an inkling that maybe this stuff doesn't exist.” Nye responded that after measuring temperatures worldwide, “you can't disagree” with the fact that the world is getting warmer. He also argued that, “when you learn the science of climate change, in my opinion, you will find it quite compelling. And you will want to do something about it, rather than pretend it doesn't happen.” Payne thanked Nye, but said he was “confusing some of the viewers.”
benton.org/node/88376 | Huffington Post, The
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OWNERSHIP
MARTIN ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP
[SOURCE: Triangle Business Journal, AUTHOR: Sougata Mukherjee]
Kevin Martin, the former head of the Federal Communications Commission, says media companies could take a recent appellate court decision to the U.S. Supreme Court after the appeals court restored a long-standing ban of media companies owning both a newspaper and a television station in the same market. Martin relaxed the rules in 2007 when he was in charge of the FCC by arguing the ban made no sense since the Internet completely has transformed the way consumers get their news. Public interest group challenged Martin’s ruling, stating that large corporations that own media companies eventually could have scooped up other media outlets, quashing the many voices of the media. “I will not be surprised if media companies continue to battle this ban,” Martin says. “The question is, will the case be reheard.”
benton.org/node/88322 | Triangle Business Journal
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INTERNET
GENACHOWSKI IN ALASKA
[SOURCE: KTUU, AUTHOR: Rhonda McBride]
An Internet super highway is under construction in Southwest Alaska this year, but will the average household be able to afford access? The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission toured Alaska last week to explore this issue. The last time an FCC Chairman was in Alaska was 2003. And a lot has changed since then. Sometime this year, 65 communities in Southwest Alaska will get high speed Internet access through “Project Terra,” an 88 million dollar effort funded by a combination of grants and loans to GCI, an Alaska telecommunications company. The money comes from the federal stimulus program. One of the reasons FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski came to Alaska was to check on the progress of “Project Terra.” He says it fulfills the Obama administration’s goals of job creation in more ways than one. First, more than 200 people were hired to build Project Terra’s network of fiber optic cables and microwave relays. And then, says Genachowski, there are also future jobs that broadband access will generate in Rural Alaska. He told a group that had gathered at a celebration in Dillingham that government can't do this job alone – and GCI’s “Project Terra” is a good model for building telecommunications infrastructure in Rural Alaska. “Public-private partnerships are necessary to achieve that goal. It won't happen by itself,” said Chairman Genachowski. From Dillingham, the FCC Chairman flew to New Stuyahok with Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska). “I think it was an eye-opener,” said Sen Begich. “I don't think he’s ever seen a village. When he thinks of rural, he thinks “traditional” rural. You get to drive from one city to the next.”
benton.org/node/88324 | KTUU
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CONFLICTING ORDERS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: John Bennet]
The military’s war-fighting commands are unsure how to handle cyberspace activities, but a strategy that could alleviate the confusion is months from completion. “Conflicting statements have led to confusion among the combatant commands about command and control over cyber operations,” Government Accountability Office analysts said. A 2008 Defense Department-wide plan assigns the new U.S. Cyber Command with the duties for overseeing military network operations, as well as all planning for and defending against cyberspace foes. “But it also states that geographic combatant commanders are to exercise authority over all commands and forces within their areas of responsibility,” the GAO analysts said in a briefing presented as part of an online forum sponsored by Government Executive magazine.
benton.org/node/88378 | Hill, The
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BUDGETS AND THE CLOUD
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Vivek Kundra]
[Commentary] As the global economy struggles through a slow and painful recovery, governments around the world are wasting billions of dollars on unnecessary information technology. This problem has worsened in recent years because of what I call the “I.T. cartel.” This powerful group of private contractors encourages reliance on inefficient software and hardware that is expensive to acquire and to maintain. When I joined the Obama administration as the chief information officer, we quickly discovered vast inefficiencies in the $80 billion federal I.T. budget. We also saw an opportunity to increase productivity and save costs by embracing the “cloud computing” revolution: the shift from hardware and software that individuals, businesses and governments buy and then maintain themselves, to low-cost, maintenance-free services that are based on the Internet and run by private companies. The budget crisis will accelerate the move toward cloud services. Governments, businesses and consumers all have a lot to gain, but not everyone will have an equal say at the table. Public and private organizations that preserve the status quo of wasteful spending will be punished, while those that embrace the cloud will be rewarded with substantial savings and 21st-century jobs.
benton.org/node/88391 | New York Times
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GOOGLE HACK
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Somini Sengupta]
Hackers passed themselves off as the Internet giant Google with the apparent goal of snooping on people using Google services in Iran, the company said. It was the latest in a string of breaches that call into question the reliability of certificates that are supposed to verify the authenticity of Web sites. Such breaches make dissidents and human rights workers particularly vulnerable because they can allow repressive regimes, or supporters of those regimes, to spy on their online activities. In this case, the attackers hacked into the site of a Dutch company, one of many that have the authority to issue the digital certificates, and obtained one that they used to impersonate Google. When users in Iran went to a Google site, including Gmail and Google Docs, they could be intercepted by the impostors in what is known as a man-in-the-middle attack.
benton.org/node/88393 | New York Times | FT
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WIRELESS
AT&T JOBS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael De La Merced]
AT&T, its $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA under pressure from multiple fronts, is now seeking to promote one benefit of the blockbuster deal: jobs. The company plans to announce on August 31 that it will bring back 5,000 call-center jobs that were outsourced abroad. AT&T also plans to commit to maintaining its and T-Mobile’s more than 25,000 call-center jobs in the United States. AT&T’s move — which the company describes as one of the biggest job repatriations since the financial crisis — is meant in part to assuage critical lawmakers’ fears of possible job cuts. “Does this shore up an issue that people have?” Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s chief executive, said. “Sure, I hope it does.” AT&T currently operates about 55 call centers throughout the country, while T-Mobile runs about 24. Mr. Stephenson said that his company had yet to determine where the new call-center jobs would be located. The existing call centers are in many locations around the country, including T-Mobile’s headquarters in Washington and AT&T’s home in Texas, as well as in Pennsylvania and Maine. Stephenson added that he had become comfortable that AT&T would still meet its projected cost savings despite the move.
benton.org/node/88394 | New York Times | AP
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JOURNALISM
COVERING 2012
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeremy Peters]
A group of five fresh-faced reporters from National Journal and CBS News clicked away on their MacBooks one recent afternoon, dutifully taking notes as seasoned journalists from the campaign trail shared their rules of the road. The journalists were mostly in their 20s, learning the basics: never get too close to a source; master the art of eating while driving; never rely on a hotel wake-up call. For decades, campaign buses were populated by hotshots, some of whom covered politics for decades, from Walter Mears to David S. Broder to Jules Witcover. It was a glamorous club, captured and skewered in Timothy Crouse’s best-selling “The Boys on the Bus,” about the 1972 campaign. Now, more and more, because of budget cutbacks, those once coveted jobs are being filled by brand new journalists at a fraction of the salary. It is not so glamorous anymore.
benton.org/node/88390 | New York Times
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ADVERTISING
IAB SELF-REGULATION
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Jeff Roberts]
August 30 is the day that online advertisers formally implement a code of conduct. The industry hopes it will persuade Congress to leave them alone -- and convince Internet users there is nothing inherently creepy about their business. Will it work? The code, created and promoted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, strikes the right tone by emphasizing education, transparency and consumer empowerment. It requires members -- who include heavyweights like Google, MTV and the New York Times -- to allow consumers to dictate how their data is collected and to be vigilant about ensuring that the data they collect remains safe and anonymous. For Internet users, the only noticeable change will be the increased presence of a small blue triangle and an “Ad Choices” or “About our Ads” link at the bottom of the websites they visit.
benton.org/node/88360 | paidContent.org
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GOOGLE SUIT
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Dan Levine]
Google's board of directors faces a lawsuit for previously allowing Canadian pharmacies to advertise prescription drugs to U.S. customers via the Web search leader. The civil lawsuit, filed on behalf of a Google shareholder on Monday, claims the ads -- which Google stopped displaying in February 2010 -- led to what it calls the "illegal importation" of the drugs. The lawsuit follows Google's $500 million settlement last week of a U.S. criminal probe over such ads. The shareholder charges that the board breached its fiduciary duty and seeks unspecified damages. The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Patricia M. McKenna, derivatively on behalf of Google Inc., v. Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt et al., No. 11-4248.
benton.org/node/88370 | Reuters
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines is presented in partnership with:
FIRMS ADDED LIBYAN SPIES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Paul Sonne, Margaret Coker]
On the ground floor of a six-story building, agents working for Moammar Gadhafi sat in an open room, spying on e-mails and chat messages with the help of technology Libya acquired from the West. The recently abandoned room is lined with posters and English-language training manuals stamped with the name Amesys, a unit of French technology firm Bull SA, which installed the monitoring center. A warning by the door bears the Amesys logo. The sign reads: "Help keep our classified business secret. Don't discuss classified information out of the HQ." The room provides clear new evidence of foreign companies' cooperation in the repression of Libyans under Col. Gadhafi's almost 42-year rule. The surveillance files found here include e-mails written as recently as February, after the Libyan uprising had begun.
benton.org/node/88337 | Wall Street Journal
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THREE UK OFFERS FREE MOBILE BROADBAND TO RURAL VILLAGES
[SOURCE: cellular-news, AUTHOR: Ian Mansfield]
Mobile network, Hutchison 3G UK (Three) and the rural affairs lobbying group, the Countryside Alliance, have jointly launched a project aimed at getting people online in rural areas of poor or non-existent broadband. Called the Rural Broadband Working Group, the initiative will see the operator work with local politicians and the Countryside Alliance to identify rural broadband 'not-spots' and give away around 4m MBs of free connectivity, alongside the dongles and MiFi's needed to get people online. The first wave of activity will see the group working with local political influencers to identify eleven rural communities, and to provide free mobile broadband data and devices for a year. In addition, free public access will be provided in communal areas such as pubs and community centers using a MiFi device.
benton.org/node/88346 | cellular-news
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CELLPHONES AND EPIDEMICS
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Christopher Joyce]
The year 2010 was a very bad one for Haiti. It started with an earthquake that killed over 300,000 people, mostly in the crowded capital of Port-au-Prince. After that, cholera originating in a U.N. camp broke out in a northern province and eventually spread to the city. But public health researchers learned something useful from the tragedy: Cell phones can help stem an unfolding epidemic and funnel aid to the needy.
benton.org/node/88383 | National Public Radio
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