July 2012

Google Move Buoys Chicago Tech Hub

Google is shifting 3,000 jobs from its newly acquired Motorola Mobility unit to downtown Chicago in a move Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) hopes will anchor a burgeoning tech sector in the nation's third largest city.

The jobs were based in Libertyville, a suburb an hour outside of Chicago, but will be relocated next summer following Google's purchase of the company for $12.5 billion in May. Mayor Emanuel said he hoped Google's presence would attract start-up technology companies and stem the Midwestern brain drain. "I think this offers Chicago an opportunity to be a game changer, to be a digital Mecca for the Midwest," Mayor Emanuel said. The Motorola relocation is a coup for Mayor Emanuel, who has weathered a tough summer addressing a sharp uptick in homicides and battling the city's public-school teachers' union, which is threatening to strike. Google already has office space in Chicago, but it isn't nearly large enough for Motorola, so it is investing $300 million into the move and will take over 600,000 square feet on the top four floors of the Merchandise Mart downtown. A few floors below is a recently opened 50,000 square foot innovation center for digital technology partially funded by the state of Illinois.

Xfinity? Comcast Sets Out to Explain Bundled Service

Comcast is launching a marketing campaign costing at least $170 million, to fix what Chief Executive Brian Roberts has acknowledged has been a less-than-successful two-old corporate rebranding effort. The campaign is aimed at improving consumer understanding of the Xfinity brand, introduced by Comcast in 2010 as the name for its overall umbrella of services that include TV, phone and Internet access. TV ads will air during the opening ceremonies of the summer Olympic Games on Friday, broadcast on Comcast's majority owned NBC network. Ads also will appear on radio, print media, billboards and the Web at least through the end of the year.

Lawmaker Invites Internet Users to Craft Privacy Legislation

Congress got the message. Don't mess with new Internet laws without involving the Internet community unless you want a repeat of the great Internet blackout in January over SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. Keeping that lesson in mind, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), a member of the House Judiciary Committee that eventually killed SOPA, launched a Web-based project to enlist Internet users in crafting legislation to protect consumer privacy on mobile devices. Equally telling, he launched AppRights.us on Reddit, one of the leaders of the Internet blackout. "Congress has tried to shove Internet-related legislation down the public's throat, and we've failed," Rep Johnson said. "There's an emerging consensus that the law should protect Americans' rights when we share our data with apps and app developers. How that law should be written is a question for the American people. Let's have an open conversation about it." Consumers can submit their ideas on the website, or via Twitter (@AppRightsUS) and Facebook.

Antirust Nominee Pressed on Monitoring Google's Behavior

Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) questioned Bill Baer, the Obama Administration's nominee to head the Justice Department's antitrust division, whether he would continue to monitor Google's activities to ensure it doesn't abuse its dominance in the Internet search market.

Chairman Kohl noted the panel's concerns about whether Google is using its dominant position in Internet search to favor its own products and services. The Federal Trade Commission is currently investigating such allegations against Google. "I recognize the FTC is investigating the search bias issue but Justice has and will likely continue to scrutinize many issues affecting Google. With this in mind, how will you continue to scrutinize allegations of anti-competitive behavior by Google in the Internet sector in the future and do you believe it has the capability to gain a stranglehold over this market," Chairman Kohl quizzed Baer. Baer did not directly answer the question. Instead, he said any dominant player requires close scrutiny from antitrust regulators. "Being vigilant whether its Microsoft or Alcoa Aluminum about firms that are successful, and we don't want to penalize success but to make sure it's not improperly translated into unfair advantage in other markets, is really a key part of what antitrust is all about," he said.

New News in New Orleans

National Public Radio, the University of New Orleans, and a group of business and community leaders will announce the creation of a nonprofit newsroom to compete against the city's for-profit newspaper, the Times-Picayune.

The planned operation, funded annually by $1 million to $2 million in memberships, donations and sponsorships, will have a staff of 10 to 20 producing news for the Web, mobile devices and radio. NewOrleansReporter.org will be operated by WWNO, a local NPR affiliate owned by the University of New Orleans, a state university. NPR plans to provide technical and journalistic expertise for the new operation—part of a broader national effort by NPR to build up affiliate news operations. WWNO already switched to a heavier news format.

Bad News About the News

[Commentary] Unless we, as a society, take more seriously the emergency of the loss of serious, sourced, and verified news reporting that is only picking up steam (and can be found every morning a media writer wakes up and clicks on Romenesko’s site), we will lose the ability to check the powerful’s ability to manipulate the rest of us as we increasingly leave their victims to their own devices.

@ThisIsVt, Vermonters Taking Turns on Twitter

When Sweden handed the keys to its national Twitter account, @Sweden, to private citizens late last year, it accumulated tens of thousands of followers from around the globe who read — and occasionally wince — as one uncensored Swede after another tweets about his or her daily life for a week. The Vermont tourism department was watching, too. And at a brainstorming session this month, its employees wondered if Vermont could follow Sweden’s lead, creating a Twitter account to be used each week by a different Vermonter. So on July 23, less than three weeks after that first meeting, the department fired up a feed called @ThisIsVt, as well as a Web site where Vermonters can nominate one another (or themselves) to be the state’s Twitterati.

Olympics Test Network As IPhone-Toting Visitors Clog UK

British telecommunications companies serving London’s Olympic Park say they have created a wireless system capable of handling a large city. Legions of iPhone- toting visitors are about to put them to the test. Annual smartphone purchases have risen almost fivefold worldwide since the Beijing Olympics four years ago, according to researcher IDC, and many fans and athletes in the 2.5-square kilometer (0.97-square mile) park in east London will be watching video on iPads, chatting with friends and e-mailing photos as they take in the games that kick off with today’s opening ceremony. London’s Oxford Economics estimates the city, with a population of 8 million-plus, could draw 6 million more over the course of the games, many of them crowding into the park for events. Analysts question whether preparations are enough to serve so many accessing mobile and Wi-Fi networks at once.

Senate advances bill to bolster cybersecurity defenses in 84-11 vote

The Senate agreed to move forward with Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-CT) cybersecurity bill after months of contentious negotiations. The motion to proceed to the Cybersecurity Act was approved 84-11 after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) agreed to an open amendment process. Although the bill cleared this test vote, it faces an uphill battle to reach the finish line. While senators are meeting to try and reach a final agreement, disagreements remain.

Republicans voting against the motion to proceed to the bill were Sens. Mike Johanns (NE), Rand Paul (KY), Ron Johnson (WI), Marco Rubio (FL), Dean Heller (NV), Pat Roberts (KS), Mike Enzi (WY), John Barrasso (WY) and Jerry Moran (KS). Democrats opposing the motion to proceed were Sens. Jon Tester (MT) and Max Baucus (MT).

A number of senators already have announced plans to put forward a series of amendments. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) said the co-sponsors of the Secure It Act plan to offer the competing cybersecurity bill as an amendment in the nature of a substitute in a speech on the Senate floor. Sen Hutchison said the Senate should take up Secure It over Lieberman's bill because it had a greater chance of passing both chambers. Sens. Al Franken (D-MN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Coons (D-DE) said they plan to introduce amendments aimed at beefing up the privacy protections in the bill. Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) also plans to introduce an amendment that would create a chief privacy officer in the Office of Management and Budget, which Sen Blumenthal is expected to support.

Cybersecurity Bill Moving Forward in Senate

Republican senators are indicating that they will move forward with Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-CT) cybersecurity bill but aren’t committing to supporting its passage without changes.

Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said they plan to vote to move Lieberman's bill forward as long as amendments will be brought up when the bill is considered. A key procedural vote that will determine whether the bill moves to the floor is scheduled for July 27 but may get pushed up to July 26. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he’s open to having amendments. “There’s plenty of room for changes,” Sen Reid said. “Let’s have as many amendments as people feel appropriate.”

The White House issued a statement strongly backing the legislation. The White House acknowledged that the bill lacks "some of the key provisions of earlier bills," but said the latest version "will provide important tools to strengthen the nation's response to cybersecurity risks."

Sen. Lieberman pushed back against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's claims that his cybersecurity bill is being rushed through the Senate. He said the bill has "been a long time coming" and there have been numerous hearings and discussions on the cybersecurity threat facing the United States. He noted that the co-sponsors of his bill altered the original version to respond to business groups' claims that it was too regulatory, making it "non-mandatory but still significant."
IBM sent a letter opposing the bill to Senate leadership. The company acknowledged that lawmakers made "substantial changes," but said the bill "remains flawed." IBM worried that proposed incentives would "quickly transform into a de facto government regulatory scheme."

Benton

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