November 2011

Building Networks to Advance the Innovation Economy

Like President Obama, the top priority of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s new Secretary John Bryson is jobs. Advancing innovative economies is key to achieving sustainable job creation.

On Nov 8 I traveled to Columbus, Ohio to address innovators, technology business leaders and economic development professionals to discuss ways to accelerate America’s innovation economy to create good jobs and increase our global competitiveness. I was joined by my colleagues Phil Singerman, Associate Director for Innovation and Industry Services at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Sean Greene, Associate Administrator for Investment and Special Adviser for Innovation at the Small Business Administration at a conference hosted by State Science & Technology Institute (SSTI) – an organization that seeks to improve the economy through science and technology. We discussed how under President Obama’s leadership federal agencies are making the smart investments needed to promote American innovation and support entrepreneurship and small business development.

Improving Patient Safety through Health IT

Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care, a report commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), reaffirms years of studies dating back to the seminal IOM reports To Err is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm that underscored the tremendous potential of health IT to improve patient care and safety. While the IOM report today recognizes the early safety successes of EHRs, including how computerized drug prescribing has significantly reduced the number of patients receiving incorrect medications, it also highlights how some of the complexities associated with EHRs have introduced new risks into the system. The report also highlights the importance of health IT to continuously improving health care quality and safety by rapidly and reliably flagging potential patient safety risks and preventing adverse events in the clinical setting.

The Politics of Regulating the Internet

[Commentary] The bizarre politics of network neutrality revolve around proponents’ desperate attempts to represent the Federal Communications Commission’s regulations as something that they are not.

First, proponents falsely claim that the FCC is not regulating the Internet by defining “the Internet” differently than it is actually defined in law, by the Supreme Court or by the FCC previously. Second, proponents falsely claim that the FCC Open Internet Order only maintains the status quo – the order represents a radical shift from the status quo, current law and previous FCC precedent. Third, proponents claim that the order would create “certainty and predictability.” Does anyone really believe that imposing new controversial Internet regulations for the first time somehow creates “certainty and predictability?” Fourth, proponents claim the FCC is only preserving the “Open Internet.” When the internationally accepted definition of an “open” market has always meant free trade without government regulation, what kind of tortured logic can assert that a previously-unregulated Internet market that is now regulated by the FCC for the first time, somehow preserves openness?

[Cleland is President of Precursor LLC a consultancy serving Fortune 500 clients]

FCC Spokesman David Fiske to Leave Commission

Longtime Federal Communications Commission spokesman David Fiske has announced he will be leaving the FCC effective Dec. 31. Fiske has been a spokesman for the agency, including most recently deputy director of the office of media relations, for the past 16 and a half years.

White House Threatens Veto of Network Neutrality Bill

The White House threatened to veto legislation that would overturn the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules aimed at creating a more “open” Internet.

“The administration strongly opposes Senate passage of S.J. Res. 6, which would undermine a fundamental part of the nation’s open Internet and innovation strategy – an enforceable, effective, but flexible policy for keeping the Internet free and open,” the White House said in a statement. “Today more than ever, the open Internet is essential to job creation, economic growth, and global competitiveness.” “It would be ill-advised to threaten the very foundations of innovation in the Internet economy and the democratic spirit that has made the Internet a force for social progress around the world,” the White House said. “If the president is presented with S.J. Res. 6, which would not safeguard the free and open Internet, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the resolution.”

FTC settles two Internet privacy complaints

The Federal Trade Commission announced settlements of two privacy complaints on Tuesday, adding to a string of enforcement measures over the last year that focus on Internet privacy.

The FTC said Skid-e-kids’, an operator of a social networking site for children, settled a complaint that it collected personal information about 5,600 young users without permission from parents, a violation of children’s online privacy laws.

The consumer protection agency also announced a settlement with online advertiser ScanScout, which was charged with deceptively claiming that consumers could opt out of receiving targeted ads by changing their computer’s web browser settings to block cookies. But ScanScout used Flash cookies that users couldn’t block on their Web browsers. The site www.skidekids.com violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by allowing users under 13 to register for the site and provide personal information such as their date of birth, e-mail address, first and last name, and city of residence. According to federal law, companies must get parent’s permission before collecting information about minors. The FTC said the site’s operator, Jones O. Godwin, made deceptive claims in Skid-e-kids’ privacy policy about its data collection practices.

Supreme Court appears troubled by police use of GPS tracking without warrants

The Supreme Court expressed deep reservations about police use of GPS technology to track criminal suspects without a warrant. But the justices appeared unsettled about how or whether to regulate GPS tracking, and whether they should look at other high-tech surveillance techniques in resolving this case.

The court heard arguments in the Obama administration’s appeal of a court ruling that threw out a drug conspiracy conviction against Antoine Jones. FBI agents and local police did not have a valid search warrant when they installed a GPS device on Jones’ car and collected travel information. The justices were taken aback when the lawyer representing the government said police officers could install GPS devices on the justices’ cars and track their movements without a warrant.

Department of Justice ready to take AT&T to court: Attorney General

The Justice Department's antitrust division is prepared to take AT&T Inc to court to stop its acquisition of T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG, Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

GPS Groups Ask FCC to Prevent LightSquared Operation Close to GPS

The Coalition to Save Our GPS has asked the Federal Communications Commission to rule that LightSquared can "never" use its upper 10 MHz of spectrum for a wholesale 4G wireless broadband network it plans to deliver using its satellite spectrum and a waiver from the FCC for terrestrial service.

In a filing with the FCC, the coalition said the FCC should make the company "surrender" its use of that portion of the spectrum because "all of the evidence points to the fact that LightSquared will never be able to use the upper 10 MHz band for terrestrial operations" without interfering with critical GPS applications. "The FCC owes it to all concerned to immediately act to ensure that this cloud is removed and that LightSquared is put on clear notice that it will not be allowed to pursue future terrestrial use of the upper MSS band spectrum." Coalition members said that it has been working with LightSquared to try to find a solution in the lower band, but that the upper band should be off the table. They said it was not a case of letting the upper 10 MHz next to GPS lie fallow, but that it should be used for the satellite operations already using it, rather than the super high-powered terrestrial service. The coalition's members include dozens of GPS, shipping and travel companies and associations including TomTom, Garmin, UPS, FedX, the Air Transport Association, and the Association of American Railroads.

The children are our future, and they’re not paying for TV

A weak economy is putting pressure on the pay television industry, as it struggles to get new users to sign up for cable, IPTV and satellite services. But the short-term issue around the affordability of cable is hiding a bigger trend of young people who are choosing not to pay for TV.

The latest evidence of this comes from statements made by Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen, who’s trying to figure out how to keep pay TV subscribers that are increasingly watching over-the-top video.

Ergen said:

“Young people who move to an apartment or get a house for the first time don’t subscribe to any MVPD (multichannel video programming distributor) and they just… get their network programming from Hulu and they get Netflix… As an industry where people pay between $70 and $92 a month, that’s a lot of money to a young person today who is getting their first job when they can go out and watch Hulu for free and Netflix for $7.99. So it’s a threat.”

Benton

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