January 2012

ON THE AGENDA

FCC AGENDA
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that the following items will be on the tentative agenda for the next open meeting scheduled for Tuesday, February 15, 2012. The FCC will consider:
Robocalls Report and Order: a Report and Order that protects consumers from unwanted autodialed or prerecorded calls (“robocalls”) by adopting rules that ensure consumers have given prior express consent before receiving robocalls, can easily opt out of further robocalls, and will experience “abandoned” telemarketing calls only in strictly limited instances.
Streamlining Cellular Service Licensing Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order: a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order proposing a staged approach to
revising the licensing model for the Cellular Service from a site-based to a geographically-based approach. The proposal will offer greater flexibility and reduce regulatory requirements, while enabling greater rural deployment. The item also includes several other proposals to streamline the Cellular Service rules, including interim restrictions and procedures for cellular service applications.
Extending Outage Reporting Obligations to Interconnected VoIP Services Report and Order: a Report and Order to extend outage reporting under Part IV of the rules to interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers. Extended reporting will enable the Commission to fulfill statutory E9-1-1 obligations and help protect the growing number of Americans who rely on VOIP phone service.
benton.org/node/111654 | Federal Communications Commission
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WALDEN ON SPECTRUM LEGISLATION
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) is confident that House and Senate negotiators will include his version of spectrum legislation in a payroll tax package given that it would generate more cash to pay down the deficit than the Senate Commerce Committee's version. Chairman Walden and House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) are among the House conferees picked to help negotiate the differences between the House and Senate versions of legislation that would extend a payroll tax holiday and other tax breaks. The House's payroll tax bill, passed last month, included the spectrum legislation authored by Chairman Walden that was approved by his subcommittee in November. The Senate Commerce Committee approved its own version of spectrum legislation last summer. Both the Walden and Commerce bills would authorize auctions to entice broadcasters to voluntarily give up some of their spectrum for a share of the money generated. Among the notable differences between Walden's measure and the Senate Commerce bill is that his would generate about $10 billion more for deficit reduction, Chairman Walden said. Walden said he believes it's likely that some version of the spectrum legislation will be included in the payroll tax package the House and Senate negotiators are trying to hammer out.
benton.org/node/111649 | National Journal
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FCC REFORM BILL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Rep Greg Walden (R-OR), chairman of House Commerce Committee's communications subcommittee, said he plans to push ahead with legislation that would overhaul how the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) operates. He emphasized that the FCC only has the authority that Congress gives it. "It's beginning to feel like it's another tool of the White House," Chairman Walden said at a briefing for reporters. He expects the full Commerce Committee to mark up the FCC overhaul bills on Feb. 7. Chairman Walden said the legislation would improve transparency and openness at the FCC, but Democrats argue the measures are really about hamstringing the agency's power to adopt new regulations and oversee corporate mergers. When asked whether he thinks the legislation has any chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate, Chairman Walden said, "I would hope that Senate would be supportive."
benton.org/node/111608 | Hill, The | Broadcasting&Cable
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

OBAMA’S INTERNET PLANS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) pushed back against President Obama's call during his State of the Union address to invest in expanding Internet access. Chairman Upton argued that if President Obama is serious about spurring innovation, he should relax regulations rather than spending more on infrastructure. “The President said we have an incomplete high-speed broadband network, but his Federal Communications Commission is protecting its turf instead of joining us to free up airwaves to build the next generation communications networks," Chairman Upton said. "And while he acknowledged that some regulations are outdated, unnecessary, or too costly, the reality is that the vast federal bureaucracy continues to churn out some of the most expensive rules in history, putting jobs at risk and driving up prices for middle class families."
benton.org/node/111659 | Hill, The
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ONLINE SALES TAXES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ian Mount]
It is hardly surprising that states are taking it upon themselves to increase their sales tax income. Residents are supposed to declare and pay sales tax on goods they buy from out-of-state retailers, but few do, which deprives states of tax revenue and gives Internet retailers an advantage over physical stores. California hoped to collect some $200 million the first year after passing an affiliate nexus tax, and the large brick-and-mortar retailers that support nexus bills hope that the bills will level the playing field with Internet competitors. But these laws have collateral damage. Caught in the crossfire of the nationwide fight — New York and other states have also passed nexus laws — are a large but rarely examined part of the Internet economy, affiliate marketers. These third-party Web sites, which contract with retailers to advertise their wares, come in many forms. There are coupon clearinghouses with multimillion-dollar revenues, like FatWallet and Ebates, which some online shoppers visit religiously to track down daily bargains, and there are tiny mom-and-pop blogs that run affiliate marketing ads related to their content — a pet blog, for example, might carry advertising for pet shops.
benton.org/node/111684 | New York Times
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GEORGIA BROADBAND BILL
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Brian Heaton]
The fight to retain local government authority over building community broadband networks in Georgia has officially begun. The Broadband Investment Equity Act (SB 313) was introduced in the Georgia Senate on Jan. 19. If it becomes law, the bill would enact numerous barriers to providing government-owned broadband services, including the requirements that private providers be solicited first before establishing a community broadband network and that a special election must be held for citizens to approve the project. According to a statement released by the Georgia Senate Press Office, the goal of SB 313 is to encourage private investment and level the playing field by making government entities adhere to the same rules that private companies follow when establishing communication networks.
benton.org/node/111636 | Government Technology
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

UNLIMITED DATA IS DEAD
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Chris Ziegler]
For the smartphone-heavy United States, the notion of unlimited wireless data is dead, kaput, finis. It's not coming back. Many other parts of the world are in the same boat, and those that aren't will eventually get there. That said, our brave new (limited) reality has a long way to go to mature, stabilize, and find the balance between supply and demand. There's an important fight to be waged — but screaming for the return of unlimited data is a non-starter, and simply complaining that data is too expensive isn't sufficient. Carriers, and the government, need specific and actionable items in order to evolve this market in a way that's beneficial and fair to everyone. Here's what we should be asking for.
Better Accountability: The Federal Communications Commission should be demanding more accountability from the companies that occupy this spectrum.
More Tiers: Customers can and should be upset about the lack of plan flexibility.
Data is Data is Data: Customers on limited data plans should demand to be able to use tethering and mobile hotspot features on their devices at no additional cost, no matter the bucket.
Interoperability: We should be demanding interoperable phones, at least among all American carriers on 4G networks.
benton.org/node/111577 | Verge, The
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ICE CREAM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Chen]
A new wave of smartphones and tablets will be introduced this year with “Ice Cream Sandwich,” the latest version of Google’s Android software. The mobile operating system has been expanded to run on both smartphones and tablets, but it remains unclear how it will fix the problem that plagues Android at its core: fragmentation. Manufacturers of Android phones and the carriers decide which version of Android goes on their phones and tablets, and as a result, many different devices are not running the same version of Android. For businesses that make apps, that often means they have to make multiple versions of the same app to work on different devices. For customers, the end result is that some Android devices are compatible with certain apps, while others are not. Hence the term fragmentation — a splintered experience as opposed to a tidy software ecosystem, like Apple’s iOS. Ice Cream Sandwich bridges the gap between Android tablets and smartphones; now software makers can write apps that scale easily to both types of products. Nvidia, the chipmaker whose Tegra processor is found in the Asus Transformer, which runs Ice Cream Sandwich, thinks this solves fragmentation.
benton.org/node/111617 | New York Times
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OLD IPHONES MAY RING BELLS AT CARRIERS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Rolfe Winkler]
Used iPhones may be telecom carriers' new best friends. As the market for new Apple iPhones exploded last quarter, so too did the market for used iPhones on sites like eBay, Amazon.com, Craigslist and Gazelle. That is according to a consumer survey recently conducted by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. It estimates that, since the iPhone 4S launched in October, used models of Apple's earlier handsets accounted for 11% of total iPhone activations at U.S. carriers. Why are used iPhones great for carriers? Because carriers don't pay Apple a roughly $400 subsidy, as they do when a new iPhone is purchased. Yet customers bringing their own used device generally pay an activation fee (about $35), are required to sign up for a data plan (minimum $20-$30 a month) and still typically sign a contract. In other words, carriers get the benefits of signing a new, high-margin smartphone customer without the primary cost associated with doing so.
benton.org/node/111682 | Wall Street Journal
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PIRACY

THE SOPA DRAMA
[SOURCE: Hollywood Reporter, AUTHOR: Kim Masters]
For years, the Motion picture Association of America used a combination of "sophisticated effort and a lot of money" to win battles over issues like copyright protection. It used to be that the industry's bill "passed with huge margins and the opposition just got crushed." For a time, it looked like that would happen with the anti-piracy legislation, too. And the studios went for the gold, not so much in the Senate but in the House with the broader Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). "They teed up what many people thought were needlessly draconian measures, going for the best possible version of what they wanted," says Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project. Michael O'Leary, the MPAA's senior executive vp global policy and external affairs, acknowledges that some of the House bill's "sharp edges finally could have been softened" but adds, "That assumes the opposition wanted to make some kind of accommodation." And the MPAA says the enemy (aka Google) wasn't interested in that. Instead, the studios believe Google's real agenda was protecting revenue from advertising on illegal sites. But there was little effort to make it appear, at least, that the studios and their supporters tried to negotiate with Google. When the House Judiciary Committee held a Nov. 16 hearing on SOPA, there was only one witness on the list testifying in opposition: Google's policy counsel, Katherine Oyama. "It was a stacked hearing," says Sherwin Siy of the Washington nonprofit Public Knowledge. By the time the committee met Dec. 15-16 to mark up the bill, the battle was no longer so one-sided. Various opponents tried to amend the bill and were voted down. The markup turned into something of a circus, with some members conceding that they didn't fully understand provisions of the bill, says Siy, who adds, "I was incredulously tweeting a lot of it." The mark-up "really drove home a lot of the problem to the broader grassroots," he says.
benton.org/node/111672 | Hollywood Reporter
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NEW BUSINESS MODELS
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: John Tarnoff]
[Commentary] Which business models are going to be successful in tapping the entertainment content market in the 21st century? The only way to stem piracy is to make more content more widely available at a competitive price point, and include added-value that pirates can't match. It seems so obvious, at least to those of us not invested in failing 20th century business models. Piracy exists because consumers want content and can't get it legitimately. Legislation can't fix this. Technology will find a way around enforcement every time. We have to figure out new ways of dealing with the fact that consumers are telling us what our content is worth. We can no longer dictate pricing based on what our content cost to produce. We have to figure out how to work within the new consumption patterns in the market to successfully monetize and drive buyers to our products.
benton.org/node/111647 | Huffington Post, The
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PRIVACY

GOOGLE PRIVACY BACKLASH
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
Google’s announcement that it is sharing more user data across its services has already raised the hackles of privacy advocates, technology writers and caught the attention of at least one national data-protection agency. Google announced that it was placing 60 of its Web services under a unified privacy policy that would allow the company to share data between any of those services. (Google Books, Google Wallet and Google Chrome are excluded due to different regulatory and technical issues.) Any user with a Google account — used to sign in to services such as Gmail, YouTube and personalized search — must agree to the policy. Users who don’t want to have their data shared have the option to close their accounts with Google. Not having the right to choose what information is shared between services is the source of a great deal of criticism. Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) said that he thinks it is “imperative” that users have control over what information they want to have shared between the services Google offers. Others saw the decision as a sign that there’s been a shift in the company culture at Google. Danny Sullivan, a technology blogger and expert in search, said that the change is just a logical step in Google’s move toward becoming a Web portal.
benton.org/node/111614 | Washington Post | The Hill | Bloomberg | Politico | nextgov
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GOOGLE’S PRIVACY POLICY, IRELAND AND FRANCE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Aoife White]
Google may have changes to its privacy policy assessed by the Irish and French data-protection agencies. Google said it will combine more than 70 privacy policies for some of its separate products, including Android software for mobile phones, to create a “beautifully simple, intuitive user experience.” The changes take effect on March 1. Ireland’s data-protection agency will “be further assessing the implications of the changes now that they are launched to users,” Gary Davis, the country’s deputy data- protection commissioner, said. Google and Facebook have their European headquarters in Ireland. Facebook last month agreed to overhaul its service in Europe after a probe by the country’s data-protection agency. Google was targeted earlier by data- protection authorities across the European Union over its Street View program, which lets users click on maps to see photographs of roadsides. France’s National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties will also examine the policies, Bertrand Pailhes, an official at the agency known as CNIL, said. He said CNIL intends to reach an informal opinion that won’t be legally binding.
benton.org/node/111613 | Bloomberg
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SHOULD GOOGLE PRIVACY POLICY CONCERN YOU?
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Mathew Ingram]
[Commentary] Google seems determined to push the boundaries of what people expect from the company, for better or worse — just days after launching a new personalized search that has drawn criticism from both competitors and users, the company’s announcement that it is revising its privacy policies has touched off another wave of discontent about the implications for users. So is Google’s new omnibus policy another sign that it has broken its promise and is becoming more evil by the day? Or is the fuss over the new version, which will allow the search giant to share data among its various services, just a tempest in a privacy teapot? The policy issue seems to have highlighted for many a crucial question: Is Google having all of that info about you — including web searches, Google Analytics data from your website, even location information — a good thing? Mat Honan at Gizmodo says that Google is clearly straying over the line towards being evil, and others argue that the changes mean the company is turning its back on privacy for its own selfish interests. Some privacy advocates say the new policy is “frustrating and a little frightening.” The bottom line is that whether you see Google’s new privacy policy as evil or not depends on what you think the company’s purpose is: Is it to help users find information that is relevant to them? If so, then pooling information is probably good. But if Google’s potential distortion of that purpose with its personalized search and favoritism towards Google+ results has you suspicious about its motives, then it might look a little evil. In the end, you have to answer the question: “Does Google have my best interests at heart?”
benton.org/node/111612 | GigaOm
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TIME TO PROTECT YOUR DIGITAL SELF
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Sara Marie Watson]
[Commentary] Going forward, Google is compiling its user data across all of its products, resulting in an omniscient, informed, one-true profile of you, all in the name of serving you more relevant information -- and, of course, ads. To me, the result of this consolidation that gives me cause for concern is the fundamental integration of my entire digital life. When you start pulling together email data with browser data, that really begins to paint a near-complete picture of a life lived on the internet. It's not just search terms, not just circles of friends. It's every last digital scrap of me. As we've moved to cloud-based services, browsers have become the first and perhaps the only application we need to open to get things done on our computers or our phones. I've come to terms with the fact that the convenience of internet-enabled life involves a data trail, but now Google is demanding free reign (March 1 going forward) to piece those data trails together with all the other bits of information it has collected about us.
Personally, I'm inspired to find ways of disentangling myself from my complete and utter reliance on Google products. It's the kick in the pants I needed to export my bookmarks and switch back to Firefox as my default browser. And perhaps I'll start uploading new pictures to Flickr. But I'll admit, I won't be giving up Gmail or moving my searches over to Bing anytime soon. I'm not calling for a boycott by any means, I'm just looking for a little more critical public discourse on our data.
We must each begin to test our thresholds for levels of exposure and begin to question the nature of our relationships with these companies. We must ask ourselves, at what point does Google know more about me than I'm comfortable with? And we must think about these questions not only based on companies' postures today, but on their unpredictable potential use down the road.
benton.org/node/111643 | Atlantic, The
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MMA PRIVACY GUIDELINES
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Gavin O'Malley]
Addressing a touchy topic for consumers and their advocates, the Mobile Marketing Association has released new guidelines on application privacy. According to the MMA, the completed guidelines address the industry’s core privacy issues with regard to current data processing standards. Mobile app developers knew that industry guidelines were inevitable, and even beneficial to their businesses. According to Greg Stuart, CEO of MMA Global, they only asked that the policy language be clear, transparent and easy for consumers to understand. The new guidelines “gives the app development community the meaningful support they need,” said Stuart. Key issues include annotated guidance on core privacy principles and consumer-friendly language for developers to consider; ways to inform users on how data is obtained and used; and guidance on security and confidentiality of information.
benton.org/node/111590 | MediaPost
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MORE ON CONTENT

GOOGLE’S MOTTO
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Joshua Topolsky]
[Commentary] “Don’t be evil.” That’s Google’s unofficial motto, in case you didn’t know. In 2004, when the company went public, its founders even based the company code of conduct on the phrase, which has since become known as the “Don’t Be Evil’” manifesto. The first signs that Google was brewing plans that were not-exactly-not-evil might have actually come in 2009, when it signed a partnership agreement with Verizon Wireless. Slowly but surely, we’ve watched Google try to find a way into spaces where its search is increasingly less relevant. That’s where Google+ comes in. Google+, unveiled in June, is the company’s first real answer to Twitter and Facebook. A few weeks ago, Google made one of the biggest changes to its search product. If you happened to be signed in to your Gmail account, Google search began including — no, not just including, but promoting — Google+ links inside of your search results. Sure, you can turn off this personalized search feature, but many users might not know how. So if you had searched for Ryan Gosling, it might have also displayed information about other people named Ryan that you’re friends with or showed you images that your friends have shared at the top of image results. This week, Google announced another radical change to Google search — but this time on the back end. It said that beginning March 1, Google would begin integrating information about searches you run while signed into a Google account, including your Android phone, with data from 59 other Google products such as Gmail and YouTube.
The real problem is that Google’s search policy shift and the change in its privacy policies suggest a shift in core values at the company — values you didn’t need a road map to figure out a few years ago. Those were values that placed the user first and stood in stark contrast to monopolistic practices of companies like Microsoft in the 1990s. They were Google Values, and they felt right. They felt good. If Google can’t see how perverse some of its decisions look today by comparison, maybe it’s time to rethink the company motto.
benton.org/node/111681 | Washington Post
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TELECOM

GETTING RID OF VERIZON COPPER
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
If Verizon has to visit a copper line customer more than twice to repair the line, the communications company thinks it’s a better idea to just switch the customer over to fiber. Verizon has sold off much of its landline and DSL business in the last few years, but it still has about 9.9 million copper voice and 3.9 million DSL customers on the books. And while its FiOS expansion isn’t expected to move forward rapidly anymore, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said the company would embark on a strategic initiative to replace problem copper lines with FiOS for lines that experience “chronic problems.” Shammo said: “So what you’re going to see this year is a very strategic initiative, that we go out and we look at areas where there are chronic copper problems and we start to transform them onto our FiOS network. And the math would say if there is a chronic problem that we have to visit more than two times a year, the actual financial benefit of us transforming that to FiOS pays for itself within that year.”
benton.org/node/111593 | GigaOm
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JOURNALISM

REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS REPORT
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Jack Mirkinson]
The targeting of journalists covering the Occupy Wall Street movement has caused the United States to drop precipitously in a leading survey of press freedom. Reporters Without Borders' latest Press Freedom Index reflects some of the tumult that took place in the world in 2011, as well as the impact that those events had on journalists across the globe. Reporters became targets over and over again throughout the year, both in the Middle East and on the streets of New York. Some examples of the change wrought by the Arab Spring could be found in Tunisia, which the compilers moved up 30 places on the list in the wake of that country's democratic revolution. Not so lucky were Bahrain and Egypt, both of which cracked down on journalists and on the popular movements pressing for further change in their countries. They fell 29 and 39 places, respectively, on the scale. But the U.S. tumbled almost as far as Bahrain did in the wake of the repeated crackdowns on journalists covering Occupy movements. Reporters Without Borders was explicit in its summary of its report, saying that "the United States (47th) also owed its fall of 27 places to the many arrests of journalist covering Occupy Wall Street protests."
benton.org/node/111592 | Huffington Post, The
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ELECTIONS & MEDIA

GIVING VOTERS WHAT THEY WANT
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Erika Fry]
The political news landscape is expanding, becoming more immediate, and becoming more customizable. So Fry was struck, when speaking with voters in the run-up to last week’s GOP primary in South Carolina, how many said they turned for information about the candidates to the most old-school and embattled of media outlets: the local newspaper. The lesson isn’t that the media should shrink from an active role in identifying and pursuing important stories. When there’s a story that merits scrutiny, national (and local) press should jump on it, even when that means aggravating voters who have been primed to resent the “elite media.” Meanwhile, as the circle of insiders expands, it makes sense that more media outlets will compete for a share of the “politics junkie” audience. But it’s worth remembering that one of the first things voters need to know (and want to know) about the campaign is simply where the candidates stand—and that, even in a fragmented media landscape overrun with never-before-seen quantities of “paid media,” many readers still turn to trusted local sources for that information. Political reporters should aspire to do more than the basics, and to bring scrutiny and skepticism to bear on the messages coming out of the campaigns. But that process begins with helping voters learn what those messages are.
benton.org/node/111641 | Columbia Journalism Review
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FUNDRAISING

SILICON VALLEY FUNDRAISING
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Michelle Quinn]
President Barack Obama is assembling a cast of tech industry bigwigs to rake in campaign cash from Silicon Valley. And any technical know-how they can provide would certainly be welcome, too. His campaign has created a fundraising focus group co-chaired by leading lights in the tech industry whose job it is to “rally the tech community to endorse, and to commit time and talent to the campaign.” Called Technology for Obama, the committee co-chairs include Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com, Jeremy Stoppelman of Yelp and LinkedIn’s co-founder Reid Hoffman. Sean Parker, who co-founded Napster and was Facebook’s original president, is on the committee, as is Craigslist’s Craig Newmark. The list includes a number of venture capitalists, including former California Treasurer and gubernatorial candidate Steve Westly, and Steve Spinner, who was involved in the Solyndra debacle. The campaign said the group was formed by technology leaders who are fundraisers for Obama 2012. The committee’s website says the committee list is “in formation.”
benton.org/node/111645 | Politico
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HOLLYWOOD FUNDRAISING
[SOURCE: Hollywood Reporter, AUTHOR: Tina Daunt]
A committee working on behalf of President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee is offering an array of novel fund-raising “packages” to deep-pocketed Hollywood supporters. An invitation being circulated this week by the Obama Victory Fund, which splits the contributions it receives between the president’s campaign and the DNC, offers well-heeled entertainment industry Dems three contribution opportunities built around the First Family’s upcoming visits to Los Angeles. Donors willing to give $71,600 per couple will receive the “Platinum Package”, which entitles them to two seats at the Democrats’ five-event local 2012 speaker series, entry to a Jan. 31 reception for first lady Michelle Obama with a photo opportunity and a February dinner with the President at a private home.
benton.org/node/111644 | Hollywood Reporter
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CYBERSECURITY

CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Sean Gallagher]
National Security Agency Director Mike McConnell claimed that the US has already used cyberattacks against an adversary successfully. And it's just a matter of time before someone unleashes cyberattacks on US critical infrastructure, he warned. McConnell didn't spell out who exactly the US had attacked with its offensive capabilities. However, security experts have "all but confirmed" that the US was at least partially behind the Stuxnet worm that damaged Iran's efforts to enrich uranium, working in concert with Israel. Now a vice-chairman at Booz Allen Hamilton and leading the firm's cyberwork, McConnell is on a campaign to raise awareness of the threat of such attacks being used against the US. "There will be a thousand voices on what is the right thing to do," he said. And, he added, it will likely take a crisis to achieve consensus—a consensus that would arrive too late.
benton.org/node/111653 | Ars Technica
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EDUCATION

COSN REPORT
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: Laura Devaney]
Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), one of the nation’s major educational technology advocacy groups, has identified five key goals in a new three-year advocacy plan that will help advance new K-12 ed-tech learning opportunities.
Close the Access Gap: Increase awareness of requirements to close the technology access gap for learning inside and outside of school.
Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Skills: Enhance the skills and competencies of CTOs and raise expectations as defined in CoSN’s Framework of Essential Skills of the K-12 CTO and measured by certification.
Team Capacity: Build district-wide support for educational technology through strategic partnerships and professional learning opportunities.
Voice: Advocate for investments in education technology to enhance learning opportunities and drive economic growth.
State Capacity: Expand the capacity of CoSN chapters by enabling professional learning opportunities and developing the ability to influence state policy.
benton.org/node/111596 | eSchool News
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JOBS

HUMAN COSTS OF APPLE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Charles Duhigg, David Barboza]
In the last decade, Apple has become one of the mightiest, richest and most successful companies in the world, in part by mastering global manufacturing. Apple and its high-technology peers — as well as dozens of other American industries — have achieved a pace of innovation nearly unmatched in modern history. However, the workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems. Employees work excessive overtime, in some cases seven days a week, and live in crowded dorms. Some say they stand so long that their legs swell until they can hardly walk. Under-age workers have helped build Apple’s products, and the company’s suppliers have improperly disposed of hazardous waste and falsified records, according to company reports and advocacy groups that, within China, are often considered reliable, independent monitors. More troubling, the groups say, is some suppliers’ disregard for workers’ health.
benton.org/node/111691 | New York Times
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STIMULUS AND JOB CREATION
[SOURCE: CNNMoney, AUTHOR: Chris Isidore]
There's no doubt that Apple is doing far better than the U.S. economy as a whole. But that doesn't mean Steve Jobs had a better jobs record than President Barack Obama. In the Republican's response to the president's State of the Union address, Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN) proclaimed that Apple has created more jobs than President Obama's job creation program did. The only problem with that nice play on the Apple founder's name is that Daniels' math just doesn't add up. Not even close.
Apple's latest filing shows the company had about 60,400 full-time employees and 2,900 temporary and contract workers. About two-thirds of those jobs are in the United States. And most of those Apple employees are not high-paid engineering or manufacturing jobs -- 36,000 are in company's retail division.
Jobs also founded animation studio Pixar, which he sold to Disney in 2006. It had 850 employees at the end of its last year as an independent company.
But estimates of jobs created by the $787 billion 2009 stimulus act show that Obama's stimulus program helped many more people become gainfully employed than did Apple. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the stimulus act passed in February 2009 saved or created at least 1.4 million jobs. And a separate study by Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics and an advisor to John McCain's presidential campaign, and Alan Blinder, a former Federal Reserve vice chairman and advisor to President Clinton, estimates that the stimulus act created about 2.7 million jobs.
According to a study by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) a Michigan think tank, the bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler Group saved 1.5 million jobs.
benton.org/node/111657 | CNNMoney
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POLICYMAKERS

FRONT-RUNNERS FOR DOJ SPOT
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
A trio of attorneys has emerged as top contenders to succeed Sharis Pozen as head of the Justice Department's antitrust division.
The leading contender to replace her is Arnold & Porter antitrust group head William Baer, who previously served as the director of the Federal Trade Commission's Competition Bureau. Baer's law firm represented AT&T in the T-Mobile matter, but that fact is not expected to affect his candidacy. Baer is reportedly being vetted for the position by the Obama Administration.
Also on the short list are Antitrust Division special adviser Leslie Overton and Senate Antitrust subpanel general counsel Seth Bloom. Overton was previously mentioned as a possible candidate for chairman of the FTC; her husband, Spencer, is a political appointee in the Department of Justice. The couple, both Detroit natives, have been extremely active in support of President Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.
Bloom has the strong backing of Senate Antitrust Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) and was credited with orchestrating the panel's efforts on the AT&T deal, as well as last year's hearing featuring Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
benton.org/node/111637 | Hill, The
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