April 2012

Advertisers Seek Answers To Glitch For New Internet Name System

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for managing the address system on the Internet, has run into a glitch, confirming advertisers' worst fears -- that adding hundreds of new top-level domains to the Internet too quickly is foolhardy.

ICANN was forced April 12 to pull offline its system for accepting applications from companies for new TLDs (dot-apple, dot-coke, dot-bank) after the system leaked to some applicants the file names and user names of other applicants. As a result, ICANN also had to postpone a planned April 30 announcement of which companies have applied for new TLDs. That's about all anyone knows about the application process that opened Jan. 12 under protest from the advertising community, worried about defensive registrations to protect their brands on the Internet. Seeking answers, advertisers called on ICANN's president and CEO Rod Beckstrom to hire a neutral, third-party expert to investigate.

Reps Walden, Eshoo Appoint Members of Bipartisan Federal Spectrum Working Group

House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and Ranking Member Anna Eshoo (D-CA) launched a bipartisan Federal Spectrum Working Group to examine how the federal government can use the nation's airwaves more efficiently. The working group will build on the momentum to improve commercial spectrum allocations through incentive auctions as well as the reforms to the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act made in the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012.

Representatives Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Doris Matsui (D-CA) will co-chair the group. Rounding out the panel will be Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), Rep. John Barrow (D-GA), and Rep. Donna Christensen (D-VI). Subcommittee Chairman Walden and Ranking Member Eshoo will serve as ex-officio members.

“This working group will take a comprehensive, thoughtful, and responsible look at how to improve federal spectrum use as part of our ongoing effort to make the most efficient and effective use of the public's airwaves,” said Chairman Walden.

Ranking Member Eshoo said, “The working group will be tasked with examining ways in which we use spectrum and how we can use it more efficiently.”

AT&T eyes smaller spectrum acquisitions

Don't expect AT&T to strike any big deals in the near future.

AT&T's wireless chief, Ralph de la Vega, said the company will continue to seek out smaller deals, as it looks to shore up its spectrum position. "We're looking for small acquisitions and will continue to look for more, since we don't see data growth slowing," de la Vega said. AT&T likely became reluctant to pursue another big deal, after regulators threw up roadblock after roadblock in front of its planned acquisition of T-Mobile. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson noted that 10 smaller deals closed in the first quarter, while four more are still going through approvals with the FCC.

Speaker Boehner: CISPA Will Help Economy, Protect Jobs

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) expressed his support for controversial cybersecurity legislation, calling it a "common-sense solution" that will help protect America's economy.

"The private sector owns and operates most of the networks under assault. So instead of imposing new mandates, or having government agencies monitor or police private networks, [CISPA] helps private-sector job creators defend themselves and their users," he said. "The House is already on record here; we voted last year to stop federal bureaucrats from regulating the Internet," he said. "The government has no business monitoring or regulating what you do online."

Brits score white space first with city-wide network

The English city of Cambridge is now home to the world’s first city-wide white space network. The Cambridge pilot is seen as the potential for a “smart city” service — a network of connected devices that can talk to each other, and to service providers, without having to use any of the traditional communications channels.

Want to see how close TV and broadband are? Check out this chart.

Looking at a snapshot of global internet traffic during March of 2012 (courtesy of Sandvine) shows that real-time entertainment (primarily video) traffic is almost 65 percent of US network traffic, up from 53.6 percent compared to a snapshot taken last September.

Should the NY Times charge for early access to the news?

The New York Times recently ran an exclusive exposé about Wal-Mart and bribery allegations in Mexico, a story that helped to shave about $16 billion from the retailing giant’s market value over the past few days. For Reuters blogger Felix Salmon, that sparked an idea: why not sell early access to that kind of story to customers who might want to pay for it — say, hedge funds who could trade on the information? After all, he argued, Reuters and Bloomberg have a huge business providing financially sensitive information to paying clients. But is that really the kind of game the New York Times wants to start playing with the news?

Social Media Directors are Finding a Place in Government

From the White House to New York City to small cities and counties, people are being hired to focus on how social media strategies and efforts can best be used by government to interact with the public.

And Generation Y — aka Millennials — are the preferred choice for these positions. Their comfort level with social media and Web-based communications tools, for instance, provides a welcome change for state and local governments that rely solely on old-fashioned public outreach methods. Social media or new media directors are fairly new in government, but their numbers are growing at all levels — and these positions are primarily being filled by individuals born in the mid-1970s and later.

Few Know What They're Paying Google, Facebook

It’s official: Facebook and Google’s privacy policies are more confusing than government and financial services documents.

According to a survey released by branding firm Siegel + Gale, consumers -- after reviewing the privacy policies of both Google and Facebook -- could only correctly answer questions about the policy 36% of the time. When it came to Facebook, only 39% could provide correct answers. In similar studies, 70% of consumers correctly answered questions regarding government notices and 68% had the right answers to credit card agreements.

Facebook Sued For Selling Virtual Currency To Kids

The mother of an underage Facebook user has sued the company for allegedly refusing to refund money that her son spent on virtual currency for the in-app game Ninja Saga. Arizona resident Glynnis Bohannon says in her lawsuit that her son ran up hundreds of dollars purchasing Facebook Credits for use in Ninja Saga. She says she initially allowed her son to charge $20 on her MasterCard for the Facebook Credits. But after that first transaction, her son, identified in court papers as "I.B.," made hundreds of dollars’ worth of additional in-game purchases. She doesn't provide her son's age in the complaint, except to say he's a minor. Bohannon alleges that the social networking service didn't initially specify that it would store her credit card information. She adds that I.B. "thought he was expending virtual, in-game currency" on his subsequent purchases. She adds in her complaint that she left a telephone message with Facebook about the charges, but hasn't yet received a refund. Bohannon also says she wasn't able to find an email address for someone who could deal with her complaint.

Benton

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