January 2012

The Year on the Web

We've been living in the age of social media for a long time, but 2011 was the year that all the information we share online began to accrete into something greater than the sum of its parts.

It is creating a layer of intelligence that anyone can mine in Web searches and that content creators can use to hone their services. This is happening more readily because sharing our opinions and photos and status updates online isn't just a stand-alone application anymore—it's now an activity embedded into other things. If you're reading an article online and want to recommend it, you don't have to click over to Facebook to tell your friends you liked it; now that more and more sites are connecting themselves to Facebook's "Open Graph," you can register your approval on Facebook directly from the article's page. This means that your friends can be guided to it when they show up at the same site. Google launched something similar this year, so that you might see certain search results higher if they've been recommended by friends. That was just part of Google's efforts to improve its grasp on social networking this year. After failing last year to gain traction with a Twitter-like network called Buzz, the search giant rolled out Google+, a service that embeds information sharing into many of Google's services. At the same time, the data we generate with our sharing continues to make it easier for advertisers to target product pitches more directly. [Dec 28]

State Action Can Make Lifeline Telephone Assistance Stronger, More Effective

[Commentary] Lifeline, a program established by the Federal Communications Commission and administered by the states, provides small but critical assistance to our nation’s poorest families to help them establish this most basic of communications—telephone service—that the rest of America takes for granted.

Lifeline’s help is available only to families of limited incomes. In most states, families qualify if they receive food stamps, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Low Income Home Energy Assistance, or public housing. Families may also qualify based upon household incomes or if they have children in the free and reduced lunch program at school. In all cases, families must provide documentation to show they qualify before receiving help from Lifeline. This system works well—as long as providers of phone service do their part by requiring documentation before signing up customers. Some cell-phone service companies, however, have neglected to do so. And it appears a few are actively abandoning these rules in order to boost their customer base. This abuse must stop. Lifeline’s assistance is vital to the poor, and every time a cell-phone provider extends Lifeline assistance to an unqualified family, that company steals the opportunity from another family truly in need. Lifeline’s resources are limited. The need far exceeds the level of support the FCC provides the program. Every dollar matters, and every dollar must be used to help only those truly in need. How to reform the program? State public utility commissions need to crack down on abusive companies. They must be diligent in deciding which service providers they approve for participation in Lifeline, and they need to weed out companies that won’t follow the rules. [Dec 27]

Using Broadband to Achieve Media Diversity and Equality in the 21st Century

[Commentary] Several obstacles stand in the way of more robust media diversity in the broadband age. The largest impediment is the low broadband adoption rate among African Americans, Hispanics, and low-income households.

Although a growing number of minorities are using broadband to participate in the new media revolution, more than half of all African Americans and Hispanics remain without a high-speed Internet connection. These opportunities are only available to those who have adopted and actively use broadband at home or on a wireless device. An equally formidable impediment to more diversity in the emerging digital media sector relates to wireless broadband networks. African Americans and Hispanics are the most avid users of mobile data services, but without additional spectrum resources, carriers will be unable to provide more robust mobile connectivity. This spectrum crunch facing the nation will have a disproportionately negative impact on minorities if left unresolved. Minority participation in digital media will also be negatively impacted by a failure to address the nation’s spectrum crisis. In the 21st century, true media diversity is attainable. Digital platforms will be critical in helping to equalize minority participation in both the digital and analog media sectors. They will also assure diversity in the production, dissemination, and consumption of minority-focused content. But these opportunities are only available to broadband adopters, and many outlets for participating in the emerging minority media sector could be compromised if the spectrum crisis is not addressed immediately. Policymakers must work on several fronts to support further development of new media platforms and encourage more minority participation. Minority rights advocates must also work to ensure that more African Americans, Hispanics, and low-income households are adopting broadband and learning how to use it effectively. MMTC is doing its part as a member of the Broadband Opportunity Coalition, which has partnered with One Economy to launch a first-in-kind national broadband awareness campaign. Working together, we can achieve true media diversity in a nation that desperately needs it. [Jan 1]

Fox Sports Wins Key Ruling Against Dodgers

Fox Sports received an early Christmas present Dec 23 as a federal judge in Delaware temporarily halted the Los Angeles Dodgers' plan to sell TV rights to future games while he considers Fox's appeal.

The judge, Leonard Stark, also indicated that agrees with Fox's argument that a barnkruptcy judge was wrong to allow the team to sell the lucrative rights despite Fox having certain protections in its contract with the team. "The court is also likely to conclude that the bankruptcy court opinion and/or order are based on one or more clearly erroneous findings of fact," Stark wrote in his opinion granting Fox's request for an emergency stay. [Dec 23]

FCC scrambles to cope with data avalanche

Smartphone companies and carriers are desperate for network capacity to provide souped-up service, but they're hard-pressed to find it. The latest attempt: a government effort to use the staticky space between television channels.

It's the technology equivalent of searching the couch cushions for loose change. The Federal Communications Commission opened up the light spectrum that sits between individual television channels numbered 1 through 51. Wireless communications in those "white spaces" will be permitted as of Jan. 26 in a testbed location and will be opened up nationally in the following months. Broadcasting in the white spaces means that a company like Verizon could deliver signal between channels 5 and 6, for instance. That gives it just a little extra capacity boost to give its customers faster service. The announcement comes as wireless companies are facing a spectrum crunch crisis that has already begun to reshape the industry. [Dec 29]

Your cell phone is out of your control

Here's the takeaway from the Carrier IQ fiasco: Mobile phone owners have no clue what data-gathering tools are running on their devices, and little ability to control them.

Carrier IQ sends innocuous data from your phone back to your carrier like when and where you sent a text message, when and where a call dropped, and what apps are draining your battery. That information helps carriers find problems. Here's what it doesn't do: It doesn't send your keystrokes, the content of your text messages or what websites you visit to your carrier. "I want to make it clear that just because I do not see any evidence of evil intentions does not mean that what's happening here is necessarily right," said security consultant Dan Rosenberg of Virtual Security Research. "Consumers need to be able to opt out of any sort of data collection," he said. "There needs to be more transparency." One option would be to require government or third-party oversight. Even Carrier IQ suggested that some regulation would be welcome. [Dec 28]

Benton

Search