February 2012

Mobile Disconnect:
Can Mobile Solutions Really Combat Global Poverty?

New America Foundation
Thursday, February 9, 2012
3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Mobile connectivity is the critical infrastructure of the information age and, as the Arab Spring has exemplified, a solid foundation for a more empowered, connected, and inclusive society. Nearly 6 billion mobile-cellular subscriptions exist worldwide, and mobile penetration has reached 87 percent globally, according to the International Telecommunications Union.

However, mobile growth alone does not automatically translate into social or political progress, and behind the mobile hype is a human and technological reality that is rarely addressed. The case of mobile money and the oft-glamorized example of Kenya's M-PESA provides a cautionary exemplar of both the potential and the limitations of mobile solutions. At root, we must ask one central question concerning mobile solutions to the growing ICT4D field, one that we ignore at our own peril: what does it really take to combat global poverty?

Co-hosted by Global Assets Project Director Jamie Zimmerman and Open Technology Initiative Director Sascha Meinrath.

Agenda

3:30 p.m. - Welcome & Introduction
Jamie Zimmerman (@GlobalAssetsNAF)
Director, Global Assets Project
New America Foundation

3:45 p.m. - Panel Discussion
Maura O'Neill (@MauraAtUSAID)
Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Counselor to the Administrator
U.S. Agency for International Development

Ed Al-Hussainy (@Ealhussainy)
Financial Sector Specialist, Africa Region
The World Bank

Kentaro Toyama (@Kentarotoyama)
Researcher, School of Information
University of California, Berkeley

Katrin Verclas (@Katrinskaya)
Co-Founder and Editor
MobileActive

Moderator
Sascha Meinrath (@Saschameinrath)
Director, Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation

To RSVP for the event:
http://newamerica.net/events/2012/mobile_disconnect

For questions, contact Stephanie Gunter at New America at (202) 596-3367 or gunter@newamerica.net

Read more about Mobile Disconnect: Can Mobile Solutions Really Combat Global Poverty?

Louisiana city blazes high-speed Web trail

Lafayette, Louisiana. In this tradition-rich city known for its crawfish etouffee and Zydeco stomps, high-speed Internet rules.

Web videos upload in a few quick seconds. Surgeons review online pathology reports from their living rooms. University students share bulky research files with one another electronically at lightning speeds. More than 800 miles of fiber-optic cable hum invisibly underground in Lafayette, a city of 120,000, delivering Internet speeds of up to 100 megabytes per second — rare for even major cities. The cutting-edge connectivity in the heart of Cajun country is due not to a private telecom giant but to a public municipal service that offers higher speeds and often lower rates than the private sector.

It hasn't come without a fight. From the time the cyber network was just a far-fetched concept, the city's two main private providers, Cox Communications and BellSouth (now AT&T), have fought the initiative every step of the way — from an information campaign against the project to civil lawsuits. LUS Fiber, a subsidiary of Lafayette Utilities System, the city-owned power company, offers the speedy Internet service along with cable television and phone service. The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled in favor of the city in 2007, allowing the project to proceed.

House action on DHS cyber oversight conflicts with Senate proposal

The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity approved a bipartisan bill that would make the Homeland Security Department responsible for gauging the security of private networks.

In a concession to industry, the measure would not give DHS permission to penalize companies or network operators who fail to comply with the department's protection guidelines. A forthcoming Senate package appears to have more teeth than the one the House panel passed. Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA), the author of the House measure, called his legislation, H.R. 3674, the "least intrusive" of the cyber bills under consideration. The White House last spring presented Congress with a legislative proposal that calls for propping up "an auditing regime to ensure compliance with their cyber standards," Rep Lungren said.

Under the committee's bill, DHS would not have the power to fine or otherwise punish covered critical infrastructure companies that fail to follow the standards, according to a committee aide. The House committee's legislation also would set up a nonprofit organization to mediate the sharing of cyber threat information between federal agencies and critical U.S. industries, such as the power, banking and health-care sectors. The proposed National Information Sharing Organization strives to address privacy concerns about Internet service providers being forced to share customer communications with the government.

White House: No comment on call to investigate MPAA for SOPA bribery

The White House has declined to respond to a petition calling for authorities to investigate the head of the Motion Picture Association of America for bribery related to comments he made following successful online protests against two controversial copyright enforcement bills.

A day after the massive online protests against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), MPAA Chairman and CEO Chris Dodd seemed to threaten the dozens of lawmakers voicing opposition to the bills. "This industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake," Dodd told Fox News on Jan. 19. "Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake." Those comments prompted a petition at WhiteHouse.gov asking President Barack Obama's administration to investigate Dodd "after he publicly admitted to bribing politicians to pass legislation."

"Consistent with the We the People Terms of Participation and our responses to similar petitions in the past, the White House declines to comment on this petition because it requests a specific law enforcement action," the White House said.

Chairman Upton Names New House Commerce Committee General Counsel

House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) named Mike Bloomquist the General Counsel for the committee. Bloomquist succeeds Jim Barnette, who has served as General Counsel under four GOP chairmen during his time on the Commerce Committee staff. Currently the committee’s Deputy General Counsel, Bloomquist also served as General Counsel to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.

Facebook Files for an Initial Public Offering (updated)

Facebook, the vast online social network, took its first step toward becoming a publicly traded company as it filed to sell shares on the stock market. The service, hatched in a Harvard dormitory room nearly eight years ago, is on track to be the largest Internet initial public offering ever — trumping Google’s in 2004 or Netscape’s nearly a decade before that.

In its filing, Facebook, which has more than 845 million users worldwide, said it was seeking to raise $5 billion, according to a figure used to calculate the registration fee. The company will seek to have the ticker “FB” for its shares, but did not list an exchange. But many close to the company say that Facebook is aiming for a far greater offering that would value it near $100 billion.

At that lofty valuation, Facebook would be much bigger than many longer-established American companies, including Abbott Labs, Caterpillar, Kraft Foods, Goldman Sachs and Ford Motor.

Facebook, unlike any other site, has come to define the social era of the Web. More than a portal, its value lies in its dynamic network of social connections and the massive amount of information shared by its users. Facebook, in many ways, is a data processor, archiving and analyzing every shred of information, from our interests, to our locations, to every article and link that we “like.” The collection of data is a potential goldmine for advertisers, keen to better understand and target consumers.

Additional coverage:

From Founders to Decorators, Facebook Riches (NYTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/technology/for-founders-to-decorators-...

‘Social Mission’ Vision Meets Wall Street (NYTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/technology/social-mission-vision-meets...

Facebook Sets Historic IPO (WSJ)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020487900457711078007831036...

Facebook reveals what makes its network tick (FT)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b080ad3a-4d16-11e1-bdd1-00144feabdc0.html

Facebook files – all you need to know (FT)
http://blogs.ft.com/fttechhub/2012/02/facebook-files-to-go-public-live-b...

With Facebook IPO, time to friend privacy (CSM)
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2012/0201/With-Fac...

Facebook IPO: Are users really worth $125 each? (CSM)
http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/2012/0201/Facebook-IPO-Are-users-rea...

Post-IPO Facebook may get more D.C. scrutiny (Politico)
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72338.html

Facebook Cites Google+, Shift to Mobile Devices Among Its Potential Risks (Bloomberg)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-01/google-media-coverage-among-pot...

Zuckerberg Controlling 57% of Facebook Seen as Risk to Investors (Bloomberg)
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/zuckerberg-controlling-57-of-face...

Facebook IPO: What the filing reveals about the company’s data centers (WashPost)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/facebook-ipo-what-the-fil...

How much do Facebook’s top execs make? (WashPost)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/facebook-how-much-do-f...

In filing, Facebook outlines its vulnerabilities (LATimes)
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-facebook-privacy-20120202,0,74780....

Google to allow censorship of Blogger content

Google quietly revealed earlier this month it will allow censorship in some countries of content on its Blogger service. On Jan. 9, Google said that users in some countries accessing the Blogger platform will be redirected to a country-specific Web addresses. The change will allow Google to comply with censorship requests on a "per country basis."

American Hate Radio

[Commentary] For over a century we have used the radio waves to communicate with our neighbors. Even today radio remains the primary way that Americans consume media, reaching 93% of the American population on a weekly basis. Radio can be an excellent outlet for news, democratic discourse, community engagement and even life-saving emergency information, and, in many instances, it is just that. However, something sinister is happening over many of our public airwaves. Something that many would like to ignore: hate, racism and extremism. And as mega media companies have consolidated over the past decade, this hate has grown even more prevalent, and is often syndicated through nationwide station clusters. NHMC’s latest report, , sheds light on the prevalence and the dangers of American hate radio, chronicling how hate groups and hate crimes have spiked while hate radio’s popularity and reach have risen.

American Hate Radio: How A Powerful Outlet For Democratic Discourse Has Deteriorated Into Hate, Racism and Extremism

For over a century we have used the radio waves to communicate with our neighbors. Even today radio remains the primary way that Americans consume media, reaching 93% of the American population on a weekly basis. Radio can be an excellent outlet for news, democratic discourse, community engagement and even life-saving emergency information, and, in many instances, it is just that.

Obama Favors Interviews Over Impromptu Q&A’s, Study Finds

President Barack Obama grants many more media interviews than his predecessors, but holds far fewer impromptu question-and-answer sessions, according to data compiled by a professor who studies presidential interactions with the press. By doing so, President Obama and his administration have more control over who asks questions and where they are answered.

President Obama has been interviewed a total of 408 times in his first three years as president, according to Martha Kumar, a professor at Towson University who works alongside reporters at the White House. President George W. Bush had given 136 interviews at the same period in his presidency, and President Bill Clinton had given 166. However, President Obama has comparatively avoided Q&As with scrums of reporters, according to Kumar, answering questions at 94 photo opportunities and other such sessions in his first three years. President Bush had spoken at 307 such sessions after three years in office, and President Clinton, 493. He has held 17 solo news conferences, more than President Bush (11) in the same period, but fewer than President Clinton (31) and far fewer than President George H.W. Bush (56).

Benton

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