October 2012

US ambassador: Cybersecurity mandates should be excluded from telecom treaty

The United States will argue that cybersecurity mandates should be excluded from an international telecommunications treaty in a new set of proposals it plans to send to a United Nations agency.

Some countries are pushing to include cybersecurity proposals in the treaty that could lead to online censorship or put one regulatory body in charge of cybersecurity mandates, U.S. Ambassador Terry Kramer said on a conference call with reporters. He said "there is no one-size-fits-all text" that will provide the right solutions on cybersecurity, and for this reason, the upcoming treaty conference in Dubai this December is not the "proper venue" for discussing the national security issue. Kramer argued that including such regulations would be a "dead end" because countries need to be agile enough to respond to cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. He acknowledged that the threat of cyberattacks is a problem, noting that 67,000 malware attacks occur each day — double the number from 2009. Instead, the U.S. is advocating for a variety of organizations to guide countries on how to boost the protection of their critical computer networks and systems, foster international cybersecurity cooperation and cyber training.

Tech Support: Who to Call in Congress

Just in time for the election, TechCrunch has launched a leaderboard rating members of Congress seeking reelection based on how closely their votes align with tech industry priorities. The board assigns B through D grades to legislators based on their stance on three bills affecting issues where TechCrunch found a clear consensus among industry lobbyists: high skills immigration, crowdfunding and the Stop Online Piracy Act. Administrators bumped some legislators up to an A or down to an F based on consultation with industry leaders. Grading on just three bills is a little thin for a full view of lawmakers’ support for the tech industry. And aligning with tech industry lobbyists, of course, is far from the same thing as supporting technology and innovation itself. The leaderboard shows promise, though, as a cheat sheet to help review candidates’ records on a narrow topic.

Two views of journalism clash in debate over Nate Silver’s work

By calling Nate Silver’s poll-driven journalism “overrated,” Politico reporter Dylan Byers has become a symbol of another view of journalism, creating a debate between practitioners and protectors of both types. Politico and Silver, who writes The New York Times’ FiveThirtyEight blog, both specialize in making you feel like an insider. Both approaches serve news consumers very well. One lets you consume politics as entertainment. The other, politics as math. Entertainment is fun, and math is hard.

For campaigns’ traveling press corps, social media has changed way game is played

[Commentary] In many ways, little has changed for traveling reporters since the old days, most famously documented in Timothy Crouse’s 1973 classic book “The Boys on the Bus.” In both Mitt Romney’s and President Obama’s press corps, there are still all the indignities of pre-dawn wake-up calls and hours of travel to hear the same speeches in different locations. There is still the dependence on pool reports, the dangers of groupthink and the temptations of Stockholm clubbiness (Flag football with the Romney staffers on the beach, anyone? Mitt’s flipping the coin!). There is drinking (less now) and eating (more now), and tensions still surface among reporters (a shouting match over journalistic ethics broke out on the Obama plane). The boredom on the Romney trail has produced photo albums’ worth of gauzy, self-documenting Instagrams.

In fundamental ways, though, nothing is the same. And not just since 1973, but since the last presidential election. Despite the usual complaints of lack of access to candidates — practically speaking, there isn’t any — the power dynamics between the campaigns and the media have shifted significantly toward reporters. And the old journalistic hierarchy that once aggrandized major newspapers and national networks has flattened out, giving any boy, girl or baby on the bus with a Twitter feed the same opportunity to drive the race as the most established brand names. In a political-media industrial complex built on conflict, this is a rare point upon which the opposing campaigns and reporters all agree.

Facebook admits error in censoring anti-Obama message

[Commentary] Larry Ward will concede that he “poked the bear.” As president of the D.C.-based Political Media Inc., Ward administers the Facebook page of a group called Special Operations Speaks (SOS), an anti-Obama group consisting of “veterans, legatees, and supporters of the Special Operations communities of all the Armed Forces.” Essentially hard guys who want the president out of office. “These are the toughest sons of a guns out there and they say what they mean,” says Ward. He posted a picture that read, “Obama called the SEALs and THEY got bin Laden. When the SEALs called Obama, THEY GOT DENIED.” Facebook sent Ward a warning about the meme. Take it down, said Facebook. Ward didn’t comply. Facebook took down the image, with this explanation: “We removed content you posted. We removed the content you posted or were admin of because it violates Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.” Ward re-posted the image along with Facebook’s rationale for removing it. Facebook took the image down again and froze the account for 24 hours, in effect stifling SOS on Facebook. After all that censorship and bureaucracy, Facebook is now acknowledging that it was a mistake. Here’s the note that Facebook’s Andrew Noyes passed along: “This was an error and we apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused. They can feel free to repost the image.”

Smarter Use of IT Could Reduce the Deficit by $220 Billion, group says

A cadre of government technology officials and vendors predict agencies could cut up to $220 billion from the annual federal deficit by upgrading IT systems and using better data analysis to cut waste and improve efficiency.

The largest share of savings, $100 billion annually, could come from adopting technology best practices from the private sector, according to the Quadrennial Government Technology Review posted online from the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council, a nonprofit government-industry group focused on federal technology. The government also could save $50 billion annually by using new data analysis tools to reduce the share of uncollected taxes due the government and the number of improper payments agencies make through error or fraud. The figure represents roughly a 10 percent reduction in the $385 billion in annual uncollected taxes and $100 billion in improper payments, estimated by the Internal Revenue Service, the review said. ACT-IAC also estimates the government can save $70 billion annually by putting new data analysis tools to work to reduce health care costs.

United Church of Christ and Faith Community Ask to Keep Local Radio Local

Seventy clergy joined with almost 250 people of faith to ask the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that the new low power radio stations granted licenses in the near future will transmit a minimum of locally-originated programming.

The request came as the Federal Communications Commission completes its final rules to implement the Local Community Radio Act of 2010. The United Church of Christ and many members of the faith community were a strong constituency supporting passage of the Local Community Radio Act. That legislation will bring new low power community radio stations to thousands of communities in the next few years. The letter stated, "We are dismayed that some low power radio stations could get a precious license and not carry any locally-originated programming." The Federal Communications Commission is expected to finish its rules this year, and to accept applications for low power radio stations in the summer of 2013.

Nonprofits, shell corporations help shield identity of ad backers

In the 2012 election, nonprofits have been the preferred vehicle for donors who prefer to keep their identities secret. But with the right lawyers, super PACs, which are supposedly transparent about their donors, can accomplish the same feat.

Social welfare nonprofits, known as 501(c)(4)s by the Internal Revenue Service, file tax returns with the IRS. The names of their top donors are revealed to the IRS — but not to the public. Super PACs, on the other hand, do report their donors. In some instances, though, those donors are nonprofits. Or the funds might come from shell corporations, which have passed through millions of dollars to the political organizations from unidentified donors in this election.

Obama Does It Better

When it comes to targeting and persuading voters, the Democrats have a bigger advantage over the GOP than either party has ever had in the modern campaign era.

All targeting carries the risk of missing the mark, and there are regularly voters whose actual attitudes defy the predictions of statistical models. But regular misfires by Republicans—which at best only waste resources and at worst mobilize Democrats who might not have voted otherwise, or provoke a backlash among those still persuadable—illustrate a gap between how the right and left practice politics in the 21st century. Contrary to the wishful intimations of the Post and Times stories, while the groups on the right could conceivably catch up with Obama and his allies in the scope and funding of their ground-level activities, in terms of sophistication they lag too far behind to catch up in 2012. In fact, when it comes to the use of voter data and analytics, the two sides appear to be as unmatched as they have ever been on a specific electioneering tactic in the modern campaign era. No party ever has ever had such a durable structural advantage over the other on polling, making television ads, or fundraising, for example. And the reason may be that the most important developments in how to analyze voter behavior has not emerged from within the political profession.

The Future, the Internet and Economic Growth

[Commentary] I am an optimist about the potential of technology – particularly information technology – to spur growth and progress in society. But this view is not universal.

In fact, a debate about the growth of our economy and the broader world economy has been emerging recently and it relates directly to the role of the Internet and mobile technologies. The debate centers on the question of whether we are facing a fundamentally different economy – both in the U. S. and globally – than we have had in the recent past. This is a very important topic because much of the current debate around what to do to spur more growth centers on understanding how the economy responds to policy changes and to the actions of various actors, such as businesses and consumers. Some believe that the U. S. economy’s basic working fundamentals have not changed much in recent years. This is the view of Ben Bernanke and many others.

But others believe that the past 250 years may prove to have been a “unique” period of expansion that may not continue in the years ahead. As a result, they believe that achieving annual growth rates of three to four percent going forward will be much more difficult than in the past. Among those making this argument is Robert Gordon. You can read Gordon’s paper at the link, but in a nutshell he believes the waves of innovation over the last 250 years (including the Internet) have largely played out, and that while new technologies and innovations will spur economic growth, a host of other factors – an ongoing global debt crisis, demographic challenges, lack of access to educational resources – will tamp down economic growth for decades to levels as low as .5 percent a year.

Is Gordon right?

Benton

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