April 2012

Meaningful use still a challenge despite strides, say hospitals

Most hospitals and health systems report being well along in completing electronic health record implementation, but many still have doubts about their ability to meet new EHR standards, according to a new poll from KPMG.

Forty-eight percent of hospital and health system business leaders who participated in the survey said they were confident in their organization’s level of readiness to meet Stage 1 meaningful use requirements, say KPMG officials. Thirty-nine percent said they were somewhat confident, 3 percent said they were not confident at all, and 10 percent didn’t know what their level of readiness was. The poll also found that nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of hospital and health system leaders said they are more than 50 percent of the way to completing EHR system adoption.

Merlin Media picks up 3rd Chicago radio outlets

Merlin Media has entered into a local marketing agreement to program and sell advertising on WLFM-LP (87.7 FM), giving the radio company run by former Tribune Company CEO Randy Michaels a third signal in Chicago.

The deal to lease the station from the licensee takes effect April 30. Regular newscasts from Merlin's FM News 101.1 (WIQI-FM 101.1) began airing Tuesday afternoon on WLFM, which is programmed with smooth jazz. Merlin acquired WLUP-FM 97.9 (The Loop) and WKQX-FM 101.1 (now WIQI) from Emmis Communications last June. Classic rock station WLUP is currently ranked 11th in Chicago with a 3.6 share, while FM News 101.1 is tied for 38th with a .3 share, according to Arbitron.

Has Chicago's moment to shine dimmed a bit more?

One of the big payoffs for hosting the NATO summit in Chicago — a chance for the city to star on the international stage — won't be quite as stellar as once hoped.

More than 2,100 journalists applied for credentials by the April 13 deadline, according to a NATO spokesman. That's at the low end of expectations that between 2,000 and 2,500 journalists would show up. It's not about filling hotels and restaurants during the summit — it's about filling airtime and column inches with stories about the city's appeal as a business center and tourism destination.

Transfer of Spectrum from AT&T to T-Mobile Approved by FCC

The Federal Communications Commission approved the transfer of AWS spectrum licenses from AT&T to T-Mobile USA, agreed to as part of the breakup of the proposed merger between the two companies.

This transfer provides T-Mobile with a large package of valuable AWS mobile spectrum in 128 Cellular Market Areas (CMAs), including 12 of the top 20 markets. “We applaud the FCC for acting swiftly to approve the transfer of these spectrum licenses,” said Neville Ray, chief technology officer, T-Mobile USA. “Securing this additional spectrum was a key catalyst for our plans to launch LTE in 2013 and is therefore good news for our customers.” T-Mobile recently announced its 4G evolution strategy. The company will invest $4 billion on network modernization to improve existing voice and data coverage, and broadly deploy LTE in 2013. T-Mobile continues to need more AWS spectrum to support its 4G evolution efforts and the continued growth in mobile data services.

Why the U.S. should worry about cybersecurity

A Q&A with former national security official Richard Clark.

While Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the Obama Administration agree that cyber attacks are bad, there's little agreement on the best way to raise standards. Clark says, “I think the major issue is regulation. The Senate bill, and the White House bill, propose something that looks like regulation but has no teeth; and the House bills oppose anything that looks like regulation at all. So this major issue of cyber security -- protecting our country -- has come down to a matter of ideology.” He says, “There are two things -- potentially three things -- that are at stake: a lot of money being stolen through cyber theft; secondly, a lot of intellectual property being stolen, given to foreign companies that then compete against our own companies. And the potential for the third is cyber war, where a smaller country could attack the United States through cyberspace and do severe damage to things like the banking and finance industry. And we might not even know precisely who's doing it.”

Amazon e-book prices: Good news ... for now

When the Justice Department filed suit against Apple and five major book publishers alleging e-book price fixing, the government hawked it as a triumph for consumers. The other champ, of course, was Amazon -- which called the legal action "a big win for Kindle owners."

The book giant also said it looked forward to lowering prices on more Kindle titles, as a result of settlement deals that two book publishers cut with the DOJ. If Amazon is able to dial back its e-book pricing to $9.99 across the board, rivals who can't afford to forgo profit will have a tough time competing. And while that may sound like great news for Kindle readers, some worry that Amazon will become a de facto monopoly that could eventually have enough power to raise prices as it sees fit -- or play hardball with publishers who are left with no other options.

City of Opelika, Alabama to offer residents superfast broadband

The City of Opelika, Alabama will soon be providing residents with the ability to monitor and manage their own energy consumption to help save money and make their homes greener with the help of smart grid technology from Alcatel-Lucent.

A new fiber optic network will also give residents the opportunity to access new high-quality broadband voice, data and video services, including lightning-fast Internet access, IPTV and video-on-demand services. A new high-capacity ‘Fiber-to-the-home’ (FTTH) network will bring these broadband connections to households and businesses and allow Opelika Power Services to extend the reach of its ‘smart grid’, supporting new power sensors and smart meters across the city. The new network will allow the company to dynamically monitor and measure performance across the power grid in real time, helping them more effectively manage the flow of electricity and identify and resolve problems quickly, reduce repair time for outages and minimize impact to customers. A detailed picture of customers’ energy needs will help the utility balance power supply and demand, leading to more operational efficiency, reduced waste and greener power. The use of remote sensors and smart meters will also provide savings by automating operations, enabling employees to work more efficiently and helping to minimize the risk of human error.

City of Danville Selects EXA Powered Calix E7-2 for Municipal Fiber Network

The City of Danville, Virginia has selected the Calix to support its municipal fiber network expansion.

As the city and its service provider partner Gamewood continue to expand the nDanville open access fiber network to reach new business and residential subscribers in new areas like those near Averett University, they will leverage gigabit passive optical network (GPON) technology across the E7-2 ESAP and Calix 716GE-I indoor optical network terminals (ONTs) to deliver high-speed data, voice, IPTV, and security services. nDanville was the first municipally owned open access network in the United States, delivering service across three counties beginning in the fall of 2007. This network has been a pioneer in municipal broadband, honored for three consecutive years as a Smart21 award winner by the Intelligent Community Forum. The 500-square-mile network not only has delivered services to residents and businesses in the area, but also serves the city-owned utilities and the Danville Public Schools. The Danville Public Schools, which were connected in the first phase of the nDanville network build, benefit from speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps), some of the fastest speeds available in the country. Throughout the history of the nDanville network, the entire project has been self-funded, relying solely on revenues brought in by the city.

Pulitzer winners donate their prize to their peers

Instead of keeping the $10,000 that accompanied their recent Pulitzer for investigative reporting, Ken Armstrong and Michael Berens decided to donate it so that other journalists could learn their prize-winning skills.

“So much public information is now maintained exclusively in a digital format,” said Berens. “Yet, so many reporters don’t know how to access and analyze it. Training is the key to unlocking stories.” The prize money will go to The Seattle Times, Berens and Armstrong’s home paper, which in turn will use it to offer more reporters training by Investigative Reporters and Editors, a University of Missouri-based nonprofit dedicated to the improvement of investigative reporting nationwide, mainly through resources and regional training opportunities.

Department of Homeland Security
Closed session on Tuesday, May 15, 2012, from 9:45 a.m. to 12 p.m. and
in closed session on Tuesday, May 15, 2012, from 1:45 p.m. to 5:10 p.m.
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-04-25/pdf/2012-9979.pdf

The NSTAC advises the President on matters related to national security and emergency preparedness telecommunications policy.

The committee will meet in open session to receive a briefing on the Federal Government’s current technology priorities, including initiatives to further implement the 25Point Implementation Plan to reform Federal Information Technology Management, such as progress made towards implementing the Government’s Cloud First Policy. Additionally, the NSTAC will receive a briefing on the Department of Commerce’s current initiatives with respect to the National Public Safety Broadband Network.

The NSTAC Members will then deliberate and vote on their Report to the President on Cloud Computing. The members will also discuss and vote on the National Public Safety Broadband Network Subcommittee’s Scoping Recommendations Report.

Lastly, the NSTAC will hear from the Executive Office of the President regarding potential new taskings for future examination and receive feedback regarding NSTAC open recommendations.

Read more about President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee

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