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  2. April 2012

April 2012

Maureen Ohlhausen Sworn in as Federal Trade Commissioner

Maureen K. Ohlhausen was sworn in as the Federal Trade Commission's newest commissioner.

President Barack Obama named Ohlhausen, a Republican, to a term that ends on September 25, 2018. She was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 29, 2012.

Ohlhausen has been a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP since 2009, focusing on privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity. She previously served for 11 years at the FTC, most recently as Director of the Office of Policy Planning from 2004 to 2008, leading the FTC's Internet Access Task Force. She also formerly was an attorney advisor for former Commissioner Orson Swindle. Before joining the agency's General Counsel's Office in 1997, she spent five years at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, serving as a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle. Ohlhausen previously clerked for Judge Robert Yock of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims from 1991 to 1992. Ohlhausen graduated with distinction from George Mason University School of Law in 1991, having graduated with honors from the University of Virginia in 1984. She previously was a senior editor of the Antitrust Law Journal and a member of the American Bar Association Task Force on Competition and Public Policy.

(April 4)

White House IT Official Says Tech Key to Streamlining Government, Saving Money

The Obama Administration has started to close the gap between businesses and government in productivity, skills, and technology, federal chief information officer Steve VanRoekel said.

Using an overhead projector to illustrate how far technology has advanced, VanRoekel told an audience at an information technology conference in Washington that budget woes have forced the government to seek an innovative culture. Traditionally, businesses have used resources from existing or older programs to fuel new projects, he said. Government, on the other hand, often either can't or won't give up older programs. In order to develop new programs, government agencies have often simply increased their spending. Those days are over, VanRoekel said. "This is a model that hasn't worked," he said. "We need to innovate with less."

(April 3)

It’s Time for America to Invest in Broadband

[Commentary] This year, Congress and the White House agreed to pump $7 billion into planning and building a nationwide high-speed wireless network for public safety — a system that law enforcement has wanted for years. Also, the FCC is trying to reform the Universal Service Fund (USF), created to ensure basic, affordable phone service for all citizens, so that it would support the buildout of broadband in rural and underserved communities. In this issue, Contributing Writer Emily Montandon details the controversy the FCC’s plan is stirring as the federal government tries to repurpose those USF surcharges that appear on consumers’ phone bills. All these broadband initiatives are expensive, but they’re necessary if the U.S. wants to maintain standing as a superpower in the world economy, which is being driven more by online commerce. I want to see the U.S. set a world record for most money spent on broadband. It wouldn’t be the sexiest accolade, but it might be the most consequential for our future.

(March 30)

States Race to Improve Broadband Speeds

High-speed Internet plays a key role as regions compete to attract employers and encourage participation in today’s global economy. Many states stepped up efforts in the past year and set ambitious goals to wire more areas — particularly in rural localities — so they don’t fall behind. Communities like Ralls County (MO) are now finally plugging in, bridging the digital divide that exists throughout much of the country. Deploying broadband in rural areas presents a challenge for providers, often with a hefty price tag. Hodges said crews have encountered 2,000-foot drops when installing fiber. Other times, homes in farming communities span miles apart.

(April 3)

Time to move beyond ‘sharing’ and ‘stealing’ in the debate over content

In the debate over online content, Robert Levine is a rare honest broker.

The former Wired journalist doesn’t parrot the fear-mongering of major copyright owners and nor does he embrace the tech utopias of the other side. Speaking at the Copyright Clearance Center’s OnCopyright 2012, Levine dressed-down the rhetorical excesses of the copyright industry and its opponents. Levine called out the industry for invoking loaded terms like “stealing” and “child pornography” as a pretext to obtain draconian enforcement powers. But he also had choice words for those who frame any sort of copyright controls as inherently oppressive. “It’s not stealing but it’s also not sharing,” said Levine. “There’s a difference between curation and piracy. Megaupload is not curation, it’s massive illegal distribution.”

(April 3)

FCC prepares for ‘complicated spectrum auction’

Congress granted Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski’s wish for the power to hold an airwaves auction that will pay broadcasters to abandon some of their frequencies, but turning that wish into reality is going to be a challenge. The agency is trying to figure out how to design and conduct the complex auctions, which for the first time will pay people to give up valuable airwaves.

Congress provided for the auctions in the payroll tax package. The goal: to free up a big chunk of spectrum for commercial wireless carriers. “There are essentially two auctions that have to run in parallel,” said Peter Cramton, a University of Maryland economics professor who led the team that designed an airwaves auction for the United Kingdom. “There is the reverse auction that will make spectrum available from TV broadcasters that will determine the supply, and the forward auction that is the more standard variety, that will allow the wireless companies to buy.” In a nod to the difficulty of the task, Chairman Genachowski recently announced a new incentive auction task force, headed by Ruth Milkman, a former chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Genachowski also hired a who’s who of auction experts to aid the commission in its efforts.

(April 4)

On Social Media, A Conversation About Race

The often explosive issue of race became a common thread in social media last week as two very different kinds of stories generated passionate conversations. For the second straight week, the February 26 shooting death of African American teenager Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman was a widely discussed topic. From March 26-30, it was the No. 1 topic on Twitter and No. 3 on blogs, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

In addition, a video connected to the case was the most-viewed news clip on YouTube last week. On Twitter last week, the largest storylines in the discussion were outrage that no arrest has been made in the case and sympathy for Martin and his family. "Don't ask. Demand justice for 17 year old Trayvon Martin's family," retweeted many users. "Heart goes out to Trayvon Martin's family, that was completely unnecessary," wrote Sir, Amit Bakshi. On blogs, the racial element of the story was the top theme in the conversation, given Martin's race and questions that have arisen about the racial attitudes of Zimmerman, a Hispanic man. The commentary on blogs and Twitter was largely in keeping with the findings of an earlier PEJ study that tracked the response to the controversial case from March 17-28. That report found that calls for justice (21% of the conversation) and sympathy for the victim (19%) were the top themes on Twitter while the racial issue (15%) was the leading topic on blogs.

(April 4)

Scientific Integrity Policies Released

Responding to an initial call by the President -- amplified in a memorandum developed by my office with significant input from science stakeholders and the public -- departments and agencies across the Federal government have been diligently crafting scientific-integrity policies to guide them as they pursue their diverse missions.

As I’ve documented in previous blog posts, the number of agencies that have worked this complex process to completion has grown steadily in the past year. By December 2011, all departments and agencies with science and technology as core parts of their mission had either completed or were very close to completing their policies. But most were still conducting internal reviews and had not made their policies public. In February, in keeping with this Administration’s commitment to maximizing openness and transparency, I asked all departments and agencies to make their policies public by March 30, whether those policies were final or still in final draft form. The response was positive; as of this week almost every covered Federal entity is in compliance, and the few remaining others report they are very close to unveiling their final policies.

Specifically, the following departments and agencies have released their scientific integrity policies: the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, Justice, State, and Transportation, as well as the US Agency for International Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Marine Mammal Commission, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Science Foundation, Intelligence Community, and Veterans Affairs.

Three Departments reported last week that they would miss the March 30 deadline but expect to release their policies very soon—most likely by the end of this month. They are the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Labor.

(April 6)

The rise of e-reading

One-fifth of American adults (21%) report that they have read an e-book in the past year, and this number increased following a gift-giving season that saw a spike in the ownership of both tablet computers and e-book reading devices such as the original Kindles and Nooks.

In mid-December 2011, 17% of American adults had reported they read an e-book in the previous year; by February, 2012, the share increased to 21%. The rise of e-books in American culture is part of a larger story about a shift from printed to digital material. Using a broader definition of e-content in a survey ending in December 2011, some 43% of Americans age 16 and older say they have either read an e-book in the past year or have read other long-form content such as magazines, journals, and news articles in digital format on an e-book reader, tablet computer, regular computer, or cell phone. Those who have taken the plunge into reading e-books stand out in almost every way from other kinds of readers. Foremost, they are relatively avid readers of books in all formats: 88% of those who read e-books in the past 12 months also read printed books.2 Compared with other book readers, they read more books. They read more frequently for a host of reasons: for pleasure, for research, for current events, and for work or school. They are also more likely than others to have bought their most recent book, rather than borrowed it, and they are more likely than others to say they prefer to purchase books in general, often starting their search online.

(April 4)

10 ways your smartphone knows where you are

One of the most important capabilities that smartphones now have is knowing where they are.

More than desktops, laptops, personal navigation devices or even tablets, which are harder to take with you, a smartphone can combine its location with many other pieces of data to make new services available.

"There's a gamification aspect, there's a social aspect, and there's a utilitarian aspect," said analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis. Greengart believes cellphone location is in its second stage, moving beyond basic mapping and directions to social and other applications. The third stage may bring uses we haven't even foreseen. Like other digital technologies, these new capabilities come with worries as well as benefits. Consumers are particularly concerned about privacy when it comes to location because knowing where you are has implications for physical safety from stalking or arrest, said Seth Schoen, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Yet most people have embraced location-based services without thinking about dangers such as service providers handing over location data in lawsuits or hackers stealing it from app vendors.

(April 6)

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