February 2012

The United States government has quietly gathered a collection of tech and media superstars to advise on propaganda and public diplomacy. Just think of the new Broadcasting Board of Governors' Commission on Innovation as the Justice League of Public Diplomacy--the commission's unpaid members include Twitter and Facebook's cofounders, Steve Jobs's biographer, media and foreign policy gurus, and high-ranking muckety-mucks from all aspects of cultural life.

Members of the commission met at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Washington (DC) bureau on February 10 to discuss how changes in digital media may create new audiences in “specific markets.” So who is on the board, exactly? Attendees at the February meeting included Walter Isaacson (himself a former chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors), foreign policy expert Anne-Marie Slaughter, RealNetworks founder Rob Glaser, Twitter cofounder Evan Williams, Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes, media expert and Twitter standby Clay Shirky, Hari Sreenivasan of PBS Newshour, and officials from Google Ideas, TED, the Knight Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, the U.S. State Department, ONE, the Mozilla Foundation, the Personal Democracy Forum, New York's Museum of Modern Art, and Civic Commons.

So much for relying on your FM dial and antenna's reception. National Public Radio launched the NPR Music app for the iPad, a new platform that gives listeners access to streaming content, first-listen albums, and live concerts.

Oh, and hear this Spotify: The (free) app also features the ability to cache playlists for offline listening. The NPR Music app represents yet another push for the public radio station into the digital sphere. With 26 million listeners, NPR has actually seen its radio presence increase, according to NPR Music's Anya Grundmann, but that hasn't stopped them from recognizing where the future of radio is--on mobile devices, smartphones, and tablets.

Opposition to Petitions to Deny various aspects of the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund/Intercarrier Compensation Transformation Order were due February 9, 2012, and the Rural Associations NTCA, OPASTCO, WTA and NECA took the opportunity to refute arguments made by WISPA, wireless provider NTCH, USTelecom, Verizon, and satellite provider ViaSat, Inc. The Rural Associations’ opposition centered primarily on issues related the definition of “unsubsidized competitor,” phantom traffic call signaling rules, and intercarrier compensation reform elements.

Cisco says it is challenging Microsoft's $8.5 billion takeover of Skype at the European Union's top court to ensure Microsoft won't block other video conferencing services.

Marthin De Beer, the head of Cisco's video conferencing division, said "Cisco does not oppose the merger, but believes the European Commission should have placed conditions that would ensure greater standards-based interoperability." He said Cisco, which offers the WebEx teleconferencing service, wants the European Court of Justice to get the Commission to create open standards for video conferencing, similar to what exists for mobile phone calls