November 2011

Is Google helping journalists, or co-opting them?

Over the past few months, Google has been rolling out new features for search results that allow writers to tag their profiles and blog posts and have them show up in Google with a photo and other information attached. Now the web giant has announced that these will also show up in Google News searches, but there is a catch: The new features are only available to writers who have created and linked to a profile on Google’s new Google+ network. Is the search company helping authors get discovered more easily, or has it crossed the line by trying to promote the use of its own social network over others?

Here’s the secret to Amazon’s, B&N’s tablet strategy

It’s too bad other tablet-makers aren’t taking a cue from Barnes & Noble as well as from Amazon and its Kindle Fire tablet: Simplicity and reasonable prices, not specs, will win the tablet wars.

Both Amazon’s and Barnes & Noble’s tablets share this idea of simplicity and relatively low cost, with each priced far below the typical $499 entry point for a larger tablet. But neither is meant to handle some of the heavier computer-like tasks of their bigger brethren. While some people have used an iPad or Android tablet to replace some — or in a few extreme cases, all — of the functions of a laptop, neither the Fire nor the Nook are computer replacements. And that allows both companies to focus on providing a great experience for the functions that consumers most want: reading digital media, browsing the web, consuming video content, checking email and running a handful of popular applications found in curated application stores.

Sprint raising debt, may fund ailing Clearwire

Sprint may be poised to rescue 4G wholesale partner Clearwire. The third-place carrier said it was planning to offer debt in the form of 7- and 10-year notes that it will use for general purposes including potentially funding 4G provider Clearwire.

If it follows through, Sprint could potentially bridge much of Clearwire’s funding needs. Clearwire said this week it needs $1 billion to continue operations and launch an LTE network. Sprint has not said how much it is raising through the notes, which are due in 2018 and 2021, and there’s no firm promise that it will use the money toward Clearwire. But the news nonetheless provided a boost to Clearwire, which saw its stock rise more than 20 percent following the announcement. The news is another sign that Sprint may be moving closer to Clearwire, which it owns a majority stake in.

The Internet as Enlightenment 2.0

The Internet is proof that John Locke was right and Thomas Hobbes was wrong, says Bertrand de La Chapelle, program director of the International Diplomatic Academy in Paris and a board member of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

The Internet's relatively ungoverned space hasn't given way to a nasty and brutish "war of all against all" as the dour political philosopher Hobbes might have guessed. Rather, for the most part, it has brought together naturally social humans who have policed themselves and each other through a complex mesh of experience raters, Facebook group administrators and volunteer editors, he said. "The reality is that when you give them the tools, people are a pretty cooperative bunch," de La Chapelle said. "Things like Wikipedia, even the rules of dispute resolution on eBay and Tweeting recommendations show the incredible natural tendency of people to get along much better than you'd expect." Based on the available evidence, De la Chapelle said, he's willing to make the "bold bet" that Internet governance -- or the lack of it -- can and will remain largely an ad hoc process in which nations, corporations, civil society groups and ordinary citizens all have their say.

White House defends We the People petition responses

The White House took umbrage with comments and blog posts claiming it hasn't taken its responses to petitions posted on its new We the People website seriously.

"Every petition that reaches the threshold is put through a review process that begins with the policy experts who deal in the appropriate area," White House Digital Strategy Director Macon Phillips wrote in a blog post. "There has been some frustration with the answers from those who disagree with Administration policy, and that's fair," Phillips wrote. But "while people may not agree with a position, it's crucial to understand its rationale . . . If these petitions are fostering a debate that might not otherwise take place about the issues Americans care about, that's a positive thing." We the People is averaging about 20,000 new users and 31,000 new signatures each day, Phillips said.

Google mulls divorcing Chamber of Commerce

Google is considering ditching the U.S. Chamber of Commerce out of frustration with its support for legislation that would force Internet companies to police websites that peddle pirated movies and fake Viagra.

The rumblings of a defection — a potentially serious blow to one of Washington’s most powerful lobbies — come weeks after Yahoo left the Chamber in October, largely over its support of Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-VT) online piracy bill, the PROTECT IP Act. Sources say is “frustrated” about paying dues to an organization promoting legislation that would “impose new liabilities” on Google. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce fired back at claims that Hollywood is leading the fight for legislation against so-called rogue sites. The anti-IP crowd is “tripping all over themselves trying to pretend (and convince others) that legislation against rogue sites is just for the benefit of Hollywood,” Steve Tepp, chief intellectual property counsel for the Chamber’s Global Intellectual Property Center, wrote. Tepp argued that anti-piracy legislation enjoys backing from plenty of companies outside of Hollywood. He notes that large businesses— such as Caterpillar, Nike and Major League Baseball — as well as smaller companies want Congress to crack down on sites that peddle counterfeit software, fake pharmaceutical drugs, entertainment content and other American-produced goods.

The Sprint Standing Skirmish: AT&T Loses Some Ground, DoJ Gets Road Map Forward.

Any tactician knows that battles can be won or lost by defining the battlefield. Skirmishes like the fight over whether Sprint and C Spire (formerly Cell South) can go ahead with their private lawsuits against AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile help define the terrain for the bigger fights to come.

By ruling on what constitutes a recognizable injury under the antitrust rules and making preliminary determinations about the nature of the market, the Order sets the boundaries of what arguments DoJ can make and what it will need to do to prove its case. Where AT&T manages to have certain market definitions locked in and certain potential injuries excluded as not cognizable under antitrust in these early rounds, it gains an advantage. By contrast, where the court rejects AT&T’s efforts to limit the scope of the review by adopting different market definitions or recognizing certain injuries as addressed by the antitrust law, DoJ gains an advantage.

AT&T, Rural Wireless Carriers Fight it Out at FCC Over Roaming

AT&T and the Rural Telecommunications Group are trading accusations against each other related to roaming charges. Both organizations sent letters to the Federal Communications Commission outlining their positions.

The RTG is arguing that AT&T has taken “anticompetitive actions” against RTG’s members that are “contrary to the public interest” by preventing its customers from roaming onto rural carrier networks, even when the customers thereby end up without service in those areas.
AT&T argues that RTG’s claims are “baseless.” The carrier says it is just trying to save money and that it is not required to support “home-on-home roaming,” which refers to a situation in which Carrier A’s customers are able to roam on Carrier B’s network in an area where Carrier A (in this case, AT&T) has its own facilities.

How the Telecom Lobby is Killing Municipal Broadband

The city of Longmont (CO) built its own 17-mile, million dollar fiber-optic loop in the mid-1990s. The infrastructure was paid for by the local city-owned electric utility, though it offered promise for bringing broadband to local businesses, government offices and residents, too. For years, though, the network has been sitting largely unused.

In 2005, Colorado passed a state law preventing local governments from essentially building and operating their own telecommunications infrastructure. Behind the law was, not surprisingly, the telecom lobby, which has approached the threat of municipal broadband all across the country with deep suspicion and even deeper pockets. Companies like Comcast understandably want to protect their corner on the market from competition with city-run non-profits. What’s less understandable is the route their interests have taken: Residents and state legislators from Colorado to North Carolina have been voting away the rights of cities to build their own broadband, with their own money, for the benefit of their own communities. This battle has largely pitted well-organized corporations against people who aren’t quite sure what they’re voting on. Such measures have now passed in 19 states. And in 2009, when Longmont put a referendum to the people asking to lift the state restrictions and return the city’s authority over its existing fiber loop, 56 percent of them said "no."

Eric Schmidt: Google Does Not Dominate Search, Mobile

After hearing testimony from Google Chairman Eric Schmidt in September, several senators had additional questions for the company. The Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee released Schmidt's responses to those queries. Here’s some highlights:

Google Is Not Dominant in Search: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) asked Schmidt to explain why Google should not be characterized as a monopoly since it is "overwhelmingly dominant" and has only one rival. Schmidt said he disagrees that Google is dominant and said instead that the company has worked "very, very hard' and been blessed with some good luck. Stats released by the likes of comScore and Hitwise give Google about 65 percent of the search market, but that doesn't tell the whole story, he said. "I am confident that Google competes vigorously with a broad range of companies that go well beyond just Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo, and that Google has none of the characteristics that I associate with market power."
Mobile? Also Not Dominant: "Google does not have a dominant position in the smartphone market. According to comScore, Android operates on only 34.1 percent while Apple's iOS runs on 43.1 percent. Moreover, competition in the market for mobile software platforms is fierce," Schmidt said.
No Favoritism Here: Does Google give preference to its own services in search results? Schmidt argues that that's not really even possible. "The question of whether we 'favor' our 'products and services' is based on an inaccurate premise," Schmidt wrote. "These universal search results are our search service—they are not some separate 'Google content' that can be 'favored.'"

Benton

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