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June 2012

Sen Rubio criticizes Univision over story

Sen Marco Rubio (R-FL) sat down for a rare and at times heated interview with Univision , during which he said that the Hispanic television network's conduct surrounding a 2011 story was "a black mark in the history of the Univision Network." Sen Rubio and Univision became locked in a contentious disagreement last year over a story about the criminal history of Rubio's brother-in-law, Orlando Cicilia, who was once involved in a drug bust.

What Americans Learned from the Media About the Health Care Debate

After helping define the Obama presidency for almost a year, health care reform largely disappeared as a subject in the American news media as it wended its way through the legal system to the Supreme Court. When it was a major story, however, most of the coverage focused on the politics of the bill rather than the substance of the legislation. And the language and framing of the issue favored by the bill’s Republican critics was far more prevalent in the news coverage than the language and framing favored by Democrats supporting the bill, according to research conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Health care reached its heights as a news story in the summer of 2009 and early 2010, during the rise of the tea party and the battles in the House and Senate over passage of the legislation. In the third quarter of 2009, with passions fueled by angry town hall meetings, coverage of the health care debate filled 18% of the newshole, according to PEJ’s News Coverage Index, making it the No. 1 story in the news. That number fell slightly but remained high in the last quarter of 2009 (13%) and the first quarter of 2010 (14%). But once the battle over health care shifted to the courts, largely in federal appeals court decisions, the subject received far less attention. From April 2010 through December 2011, the subject never exceeded 2% of the overall newshole in any three months period.

Momentum Growing for State-Level Telecom Deregulation

New Hampshire last week became the latest state to adopt telecom legislation that gives incumbent local exchange carriers more flexibility in making changes to the rates they charge end users for telecom service and confirms that VOIP services are not subject to regulation.

The thinking behind such legislation is that as the telecom industry has become more competitive, market forces should keep pricing at reasonable rates. Incumbent carriers – such as Fairpoint in New Hampshire – argue that such legislation creates a level playing field for all service providers. And as Ross Buntrock noted in an interview, “VOIP carriers like having the certainty that they won’t be subject to state regulation.” Buntrock is head of the communications technology and mobile practice for Arent Fox LLP, a law firm that represents a number of telcos on regulatory matters. Even traditional carriers will be happy with the resolution on VOIP because many of them provide virtual PBX services that use VOIP technology, Buntrock said.

Fastest Mobile Networks 2012

PCMag hit the road to test 3G and 4G networks in 30 US cities. Researchers tested the five largest U.S. carriers: AT&T, MetroPCS, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless.

All the carriers seems to be calling nearly everything 4G. Verizon's 4G LTE network dueled with AT&T's new 4G LTE network for supremacy; Verizon won 19 cities while AT&T won 10, and the two carriers tied in one. T-Mobile came surprisingly close for a non-LTE carrier. And the slower results in cities where AT&T and T-Mobile have less spectrum show that the spectrum crunch is real. LTE is the gold standard of 4G technologies in the U.S.A., and Verizon's 4G LTE network is now available in 258 markets across the U.S., dwarfing AT&T's still-nascent LTE system with 39 cities. AT&T, Sprint, and MetroPCS all suffered major penalties to their speed score for not being available in all 30 of our test cities, but Verizon's LTE swept the board. With industry-leading coverage and relatively symmetrical speeds, Verizon LTE is the best nationwide 4G choice.

USDA Continues Efforts Spur Job Creation and Business Growth for Tribes and Rural Communities

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the selection of 27 projects in 14 states to support small business and job creation opportunities and train workers in Native American communities.

Janie Hipp Senior Advisor for Tribal Relations made the announcement on behalf of Secretary Vilsack while attending the National Congress of American Indians mid-year conference in Lincoln, Nebraska. The announcement, follows an announcement by the Secretary to implement measures that will make it easier for individuals living in Substantially Underserved Trust Areas (SUTA) to obtain USDA funding to improve basic services, including water and sewer systems, broadband and electric infrastructure. These measures are a crucial step for American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders to build modern utility infrastructure, create jobs and improve their quality of life.

Carlos Slim’s Companies Doing ‘Very Well’ Without TV Ads

Carlos Slim’s companies are getting along fine without buying advertising on Mexico’s top two TV networks, his eldest son said, signaling that a government intervention last week may not be enough to persuade the world’s richest man to put commercials back on the airwaves.

Slim pulled his ads from Grupo Televisa SAB and TV Azteca SAB at the beginning of 2011, blaming a dispute over prices. Tensions have intensified between the companies and Slim’s America Movil because the broadcasters are pushing into the mobile-phone market, Slim’s main source of revenue. Last week, Mexico’s antitrust agency said Televisa and Azteca should offer spots to rivals at the average price that other advertisers pay, as a condition for them to form a wireless-industry partnership. Slim, 72, has relied on newspapers, online advertising and cable-TV networks to advertise his wireless service, Internet plans and retail stores. His move away from over-the-air TV came as the broadcasters encroached on the telecommunications industry he dominates.

National Press Club
July 11, 2012
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
https://techpolicyinstitute.org/events/register/103.html

While the majority of research on file-sharing has focused primarily on whether file-sharing has decreased record sales, less attention has been paid to how much of the sales decline can be attributed to file sharing. At the event, "," Stan Liebowitz, Ashbel Smith Professor of Economics at the University of Texas at Dallas, will discuss the findings of his recent paper, "The Metric is the Message: How much of the Decline in Sound Recording Sales is due to File-Sharing?" In the paper, Liebowitz applies a consistent metric to existing research and finds that most estimates indicate that file-sharing is responsible for the entire decline in record sales. Coleman Bazelon from The Brattle Group, Inc., coauthor of "The Impact of Digitization on Business Models in Copyright-Driven Industries," will discuss the findings of Liebowitz's paper.

Registration can be performed on the TPI website. Questions should be directed to Ashley Creel at acreel@techpolicyinstitute.org. Members of the press should contact Amy Smorodin at asmorodin@techpolicyinstitute.org.


Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth
Northwestern University School of Law
375 E. Chicago Avenue
Chicago, IL
http://www.law.northwestern.edu/searlecenter/conference/internet/

The Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth presents the to be held at Northwestern University School of Law, Thursday, June 21, 2012-Friday, June 22, 2012. The conference will run from 12:00 P.M. on Thursday, June 21 to 2:40 P.M. on Friday, June 22. On Thursday evening, there will be a cocktail reception, dinner, and keynote address by Joel Mambretti, Director of the International Center for Advanced Internet Research at Northwestern University.

This conference is organized by Professor Daniel F. Spulber, Research Director of the Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth and Elinor Hobbs Distinguished Professor of International Business, Professor of Management Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law (Courtesy).

The goal of this conference is to provide a forum where economists and legal scholars can gather together with Northwestern's own distinguished faculty to present and discuss high-quality research relevant to Internet search and innovation. The conference will cover academic work on Internet search and innovation, and the discussion will examine related public policy issues in antitrust, regulation, and intellectual property.
The conference organizers gratefully acknowledge the support of Microsoft, Google, and the Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth.

Thursday, June 21
Session One: Platform Competition and Internet Search
Session Chair: Catherine Tucker, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Investment Incentives in Two-Sided Platforms
Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Harvard University
Gaston Llanes*, Catholic University of Chile
Discussant: Jay Pil Choi, University of New South Wales and Michigan State University

Platform Competition under Partial Belief Advantage
Hanna Halaburda*, Harvard University
Yaron Yehezkel, Tel Aviv University
Discussant: Jay Pil Choi, University of New South Wales and Michigan State University

Strategic Search Diversion and Intermediary Competition
Andrei Hagiu*, Harvard University
Bruno Jullien, Toulouse School of Economics
Discussant: David Henriques, New York University

Platform Competition and Access Regulation on the Internet
Sue Mialon*, Emory University
Samiran Banerjee, Emory University
Discussant: David Henriques, New York University

Session Two: How Internet Search Affects Product Markets
Session Chair: Shane Greenstein, Northwestern University
To Buy or Not to Buy? A Two Stage Model of within Site Search
Ammara Mahmood*, University of Oxford
Catarina Sismeiro, Imperial College
Discussant: Sagit Bar-Gill, Tel Aviv University

Targeted Search and the Long Tail Effect
Huanxing Yang, The Ohio State University
Discussant: Sagit Bar-Gill, Tel Aviv University

"A" Business by Any Other Name: Firm Name Choice as a Signal of Firm Quality
Ryan C. McDevitt, University of Rochester
Discussant: Chris Forman, Georgia Institute of Technology

Bricks, Clicks, Blockbusters, and Long Tails: How Video Rental Patterns Change as Consumers Move Online?
Alejandro Zentner*, University of Texas at Dallas and Carnegie Mellon University
Michael D. Smith, Carnegie Mellon University
Cuneyd Kaya, University of Texas at Dallas
Discussant: Chris Forman, Georgia Institute of Technology

Keynote Address: "Creating Innovative 21st Century Communications Services and Technology: Advanced Applications, Technology, and Global Facilities"
Joel Mambretti, Director of the International Center for Advanced Internet Research at Northwestern University

Friday, June 22
Session Three: Online Advertising and Internet Search
Session Chair: Andrei Hagiu, Harvard University
Social Advertising
Catherine Tucker, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Discussant: Joseph Uri Podwol, U.S. Department of Justice

Online Advertising and Privacy
Alexandre de Corniere*, Paris School of Economics
Romain de Nijs, Paris School of Economics
Discussant: Joseph Uri Podwol, U.S. Department of Justice

To Sponsor or Not to Sponsor: Sponsored Search Auctions with Organic Links
Michael Arnold*, University of Delaware
Eric Darmon, University of Rennes 1
Thierry Penard, University of Rennes 1
Discussant: Alexei Alexandrov, U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Sponsored Search: Search Characteristics, Advertiser Quality & Click Performance
Ashish Agarwal*, University of Texas at Austin
Tridas Mukhopadhyay, Carnegie Mellon University
Discussant: Alexei Alexandrov, U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Session Four: How to Improve Internet Search
Session Chair: Paul Liu, Google Inc.
The Quest for Content: How User-Generated Links Can Facilitate Online Exploration
Jacob Goldenberg, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Gal Oestreicher-Singer, Tel Aviv University
Shachar Reichman*, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Discussant: Matthew Selove, USC Marshall School of Business

Explaining Price Dispersion in Online Auctions with Simple Search Frictions
Joseph Uri Podwol, U.S. Department of Justice
Henry S. Schneider*, Cornell University
Discussant: Matthew Selove, USC Marshall School of Business

Search with Refinement
Yuxin Chen, Northwestern University
Song Yao*, Northwestern University
Discussant: Chun-Hiu Miao, University of South Carolina

Search, Word of Mouth, and Sales Concentration
Andres Hervas-Drane, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Discussant: Chun-Hiu Miao, University of South Carolina

Session Five: How Does Internet Search Affect Content?
Session Chair: Gene Burrus, Microsoft Corporation
The Impact of News Aggregators on Internet News Consumption: The Case of Localization
Susan Athey*, Harvard University
Markus Mobius, Harvard University
Discussant: Michael Baye, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University

Media, Aggregators and the Link Economy: Strategic Hyperlink Formation in Content Networks
Zsolt Katona*, University of California at Berkeley
Chris Dellarocas, Boston University
William Rand, University of Maryland
Discussant: Michael Baye, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University

News Aggregators and Competition Among Newspapers in the Internet
Doh-Shin Jeon*, Toulouse School of Economics
Nikrooz Nasr Esfahani, Toulouse School of Economics
Discussant: Jeffrey Prince, Indiana University

Technology Shocks in Multi-Sided Markets: The Impact of Craigslist on Local Newspapers
Robert Seamans, New York University
Feng Zhu*, University of Southern California
Discussant: Jeffrey Prince, Indiana University


June 19, 2012 (Initiatives Show Obama Knows How to Work With Businesses)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2012

The House Commerce Committee begins consideration of the Internet's Multistakeholder Governance Model today http://benton.org/calendar/2012-06-19/


INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Broadband Initiatives Show Obama Knows How to Work With Businesses - analysis
   The ITU WCIT And Internet Freedom - analysis
   Sens Snowe and Warner call for cybersecurity compromise
   Broadband contract at center of state dispute

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Frequency-Hopping Radio Wastes Less Spectrum
   Google, Apple Tighten Grip on Smartphone Market
   Verizon: irrational outcomes - analysis [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   Facebook Acquires Facial Recognition Technology Company Face.com For Nearly $60 Million

PRIVACY
   Consumer groups urge Facebook to ban ads to kids
   Facebook’s $10 million privacy payout: why you get nothing - analysis

TELEVISION/RADIO
   Study: Most Cord-Cutters May Be OTA 'Opt-Ins'
   New Hits Needed; Apply to NPR [links to web]

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   Time Warner Cable posts its political file online, so why the fuss, NAB? - analysis
   Cristina Saralegui endorses President Obama [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Chinese operators hope to standardize a segmented Internet
   EU telecom operators ready to talk M&A [links to web]
   Ofcom opposed to media ownership limits

MORE ONLINE
   10 unsung fathers of technology [links to web]

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

OBAMA, BROADBAND AND BUSINESS
[SOURCE: Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, AUTHOR: David Honig]
[Commentary] For all the carping from political foes about President Obama’s supposed disdain for the business community, some recent White House initiatives designed to boost broadband suggest the President has a pretty good idea about how to work with American companies. With an Executive Order on June 14, the President took aim at a critical roadblock to broadband deployment by telling government agencies to open the door to installation of critical infrastructure on properties controlled or owned by the federal government. He said better processes could cut costs by up to 90 percent and help the private sector accelerate the delivery of high-speed connectivity across the country. The move probably won’t be featured on network news shows, daily newspapers, or online news sites, but it’s exactly the sort of thing that helps businesses succeed. Think about it. Every additional broadband line or cell tower that gets put down on government land [or on a building] means more orders for suppliers and helps broadband service providers reach more customers. All it takes is more efficiency by government. Instead of boosting their bottom line through layoffs and other cost-cutting measures, companies assisted by this Executive Order can now grow their businesses and create jobs at a faster pace. It’s really economic stimulus, without additional cost to the Treasury or haggling with Congress.
benton.org/node/126157 | Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
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ITU AND INTERNET FREEDOM
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] Very few people ever heard of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) until recently – and with good reason. For more than 100 years, the ITU managed quite nicely serving as the forum for countries and telecom carriers to coordinate insanely-technical-mind-numbingly-boring-but-really-really-important stuff related to making the phone network work internationally, distributing satellite slots, and trying to harmonize what frequencies countries allocate to what services. But now the ITU has suddenly become very interesting. Why? Because the ITU members will hold a rare meeting -- the World Conference on International Communications (WCIT) – where the 193 member countries will vote on whether to amend the current ITU rules ("ITRs") that set the framework for all this extremely important boringness. Unclear for now – especially in the pre-game – is whether and how the WCIT represents a potential threat to freedom of expression online. Even without the concern that the ITU will somehow “take over the Internet,” certain WCIT proposals advanced by a number of regimes that engage in Internet censorship threaten the future of free expression online. These proposals, from the Russian Federation and several Arab states, would for the first time explicitly embrace the concept that governments have a right to control online communications and disrupt Internet access services. This would reverse the trend of the last few years increasingly finding that such actions violate fundamental human rights – a valuable tool in trying to pressure repressive regimes to stop using such tactics.
benton.org/node/126152 | Public Knowledge
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CYBERSECURITY COMPROMISE?
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Sens Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Mark Warner (D-VA) urged the Senate to find a compromise solution for cybersecurity legislation. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sens Snowe and Warner said there is "tremendous potential" for the Senate to find a solution for securing critical infrastructure systems that "incentivizes private sector participation and collaboration." The letter seems to be a nod towards a draft compromise proposal from Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ). The endorsement from Sens Snowe and Warner for an approach that incentivizes critical infrastructure standards seems to add momentum to the Kyl-Whitehouse compromise efforts. The senators urged Sens Reid and McConnell to bring up the legislation in July and to allow amendments on the floor from any senator.
benton.org/node/126169 | Hill, The
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CONNECTED NATION
[SOURCE: Tampa Bay Times, AUTHOR: Mary Ellen Klas]
In 2009, with more than a quarter of all Floridians without broadband access to the Internet at home, state officials lined up to get some of the $7 billion in federal stimulus money to finance state-based programs to increase access. Enter Connected Nation, a little-known but well-connected Washington-based company. It won the Florida contract to use $2.5 million to map the broadband gaps for use by policymakers and telecommunications companies. A year later, when the state won a second grant for $6.3 million to extend the broadband efforts, Connected Nation, a nonprofit company, believed it had signed up to be part of a public-private partnership with the state that entitled the firm to a no-bid shot at that money too. But the Department of Management Services, the state agency that housed the project, disagreed. The DMS said the grant requires it to use some of the money to pay for three more years of broadband mapping and the rest to expand broadband access in libraries and schools. The DMS hired eight contract employees to handle administration and provide services, paying them between $72,000 and $140,000 a year until the grant ends in 2014, and defended it as an efficient use of state funds. That began a bitter feud between Connected Nation and the DMS, an agency with a lengthy history of distrust among state budget leaders. In an audacious display of lobbying clout, Connected Nation got the Legislature to force the DMS off the contract and steer the second grant to the firm.
benton.org/node/126163 | Tampa Bay Times
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

COGNITIVE RADIO
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: David Talbot]
With a rising tide of smart-phone data threatening to drown the airwaves, a White House advisory panel is poised to suggest that wireless carriers and research labs ramp up efforts to use computing to far more efficiently tap spectrum. This will require, among other things, so-called "cognitive" radios, which sense unused radio bands and can intelligently switch heavy data loads between different frequencies without any interruption. A New Jersey startup has come out with the fastest cognitive radio yet. It works on the widest possible range of spectrum, and is part of a crop of improved technologies that are crucial to bringing the technology to market and avert network overload. The gadget in question, called CogRadio, and made by Radio Technology Systems of Ocean Grove, New Jersey, can switch at fast-enough rates to be imperceptible for, say, a video viewer; as well as in sufficient quantities that any research done on it, or software written for it, will be applicable in future real-world commercial devices.
benton.org/node/126155 | Technology Review
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SMARTPHONE MARKET
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jessica Vascellaro, Amir Efrati]
Apple and Google have brought mobile giants Nokia and Research In Motion to their knees and captured more than 80% of the world's smartphone market. Now they are going after the rest. Apple is marching into new markets—most recently U.S. prepaid mobile phones—to continue the growth of its iPhone and iPad devices and iOS software. At the same time, Apple is developing software, such as mapping, that it once obtained from Google to make its devices stand out and to control some features more tightly. Google is shifting gears with its Android software to exert greater control over its destiny. In the past, Google relied on hardware manufacturers to build Android devices and on carriers and other retailers to sell them to consumers. Today, Google is partly adopting Apple's integrated model by manufacturing some devices on its own and it plans to sell several devices directly with big marketing campaigns. What's behind these moves? Apple and Google see bigger gains ahead.
benton.org/node/126175 | Wall Street Journal
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OWNERSHIP

FACEBOOK ACQUISITION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Mike Isaac]
After rumors of a deal have swirled for weeks, Facebook has officially acquired facial recognition technology company Face.com. It’s a complete acquisition, which means both talent and technology will now become Facebook’s in the deal. Though the exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, other outlets have reported the price in the neighborhood of $100 million. However, I’m hearing from two sources familiar with the terms of the deal that Face.com actually sold for a significantly lower amount, approximately $55 to $60 million in cash and stock (though it is unclear if this price is with or without an earnout included).
benton.org/node/126174 | Wall Street Journal
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PRIVACY

OPPOSITION TO FACEBOOK PLAN
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Consumer and child safety advocates pressed Facebook to beef up safety and privacy efforts if it goes forward with plans to allow children under 13 to use the social networking site. In a letter to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, the groups said any space for preteen users should be free of advertising and supervised by parents. The consumer advocacy groups, which include Consumers Union, the Center for Digital Democracy, World Privacy Forum and Consumer Federation of America, said any collection of personal information shouldn’t be used by marketers to target ads at preteens based on the interests they display on Facebook. “The company’s business model relies, at its very core, on data collection, ad targeting, and viral marketing, and many of its practices have generated public and government privacy concerns,” the groups said in their letter to Zuckerberg.
benton.org/node/126172 | Washington Post | NYTimes | LATimes | The Hill | see press release
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FACEBOOK PRIVACY SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Jeff John Roberts]
The technology industry is trapped in a cycle of privacy breaches and class action lawsuits that does nothing for the average internet user. The new Facebook settlement is just the latest example. If you missed it, Facebook says it will pay $10 million to compensate users who were turned into product pitchmen as a result of “Sponsored Stories” ads that treat ‘Likes’ as endorsements (see how one user unwittingly endorsed a jumbo tub of lubricant). None of this money, however, will go to Facebook users.
Instead, the payout will perpetuate a symbiotic relationship between tech companies and their critics that works like this: Step 1) Facebook/Google/etc. break a privacy law. Step 2) Critics blow whistle, lawyers sue for millions. Step 3) Company pays millions to critics and lawyers, nothing to you. Step 4) Wash, rinse, repeat.
benton.org/node/126164 | paidContent.org
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TELEVISION/RADIO

CORD CUTTERS AND OVER-THE-AIR
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
About 21 million homes rely on over-the-air TV, according to the latest data from GfK Media's (Knowledge Networks) Home Technology Monitor report. That is 17.8% of all TV homes, compared with a consistent 14%-15% over-the-air-only percentage for each year of the study since 2008, according to GfK. Those broadcast-only homes continue to skew lower-income and minority, but also younger households, the study found. And although cord-cutting has been popularly tied to migration from pay TV to online video viewing, GfK media researcher David Tice, in a blog about the data, confesses up front to be a cord-cutter skeptic, at least to the argument that the flight is from pay TV video to online video. He says the research shows that over 70% of those who have cancelled pay TV service said it was due to cost-cutting, with cord-cutting because of online alternatives cited by less than 20%. Tice is not saying that online video options are not an important part of the equation, but said their data does not support suggesting it is a primary driver of cord-cutting.
benton.org/node/126166 | Broadcasting&Cable | GfK Media
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

POLITICAL AD FILES
[SOURCE: Sunlight Foundation, AUTHOR: Keenan Steiner]
If posting already-public information on political ad spending is so damaging to broadcasters, as the National Association of Broadcasters argues, then why has one of the country's biggest cable providers been doing it since 2010? Back then, Time Warner Cable created an online portal to search information regarding political ads sold on its system. Initially the portal served only the east coast, but has since provided data nationwide since 2011, according to a Time Warner spokesman. The ad buy records are available as downloadable PDFs. Current law requires TV stations to keep political ad purchase orders on file at their stations — a rule that goes for broadcasters and cable networks alike.
benton.org/node/126161 | Sunlight Foundation
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

SEGMENTING THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Mikael Ricknäs]
A technology draft written by employees at China Mobile and China Telecom and submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force describes how the Internet could be split into several parts using the Domain Name System and in the process give countries more control over their own segment of the network. The DNS is one of the key building blocks of the Internet. Its most important task is translating IP (Internet Protocol) addresses to host names, which is done by a distributed system based on one unique root that is used all over the world. The technology is developed by the IETF, on whose website the Chinese "DNS Extension for Autonomous Internet" draft is available for viewing. Today, China blocks Internet access to some foreign websites. The goal outlined by the new document is to make it easier and cheaper for countries to create independent root DNS servers and realize Internet autonomy. Today, that is both costly and technically difficult, according to the draft.
benton.org/node/126150 | IDG News Service
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OFCOM AND MEDIA OWNERSHIP LIMITS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Ben Fenton]
Ofcom will not recommend setting absolute limits on newspaper or media ownership. But the UK broadcasting regulator will say that it should conduct regular reviews of plurality every four or five years which could include an assessment of whether individual organizations have too great a share of news. Ofcom said that defining what constituted sufficient plurality, that is the diversity of voices delivering news and current affairs, would be a matter either for parliament to decide itself or to delegate to an “appropriate body.”
benton.org/node/126147 | Financial Times
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Google, Apple Tighten Grip on Smartphone Market

Apple and Google have brought mobile giants Nokia and Research In Motion to their knees and captured more than 80% of the world's smartphone market. Now they are going after the rest.

Apple is marching into new markets—most recently U.S. prepaid mobile phones—to continue the growth of its iPhone and iPad devices and iOS software. At the same time, Apple is developing software, such as mapping, that it once obtained from Google to make its devices stand out and to control some features more tightly. Google is shifting gears with its Android software to exert greater control over its destiny. In the past, Google relied on hardware manufacturers to build Android devices and on carriers and other retailers to sell them to consumers. Today, Google is partly adopting Apple's integrated model by manufacturing some devices on its own and it plans to sell several devices directly with big marketing campaigns. What's behind these moves? Apple and Google see bigger gains ahead.

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