November 2012

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

FCC UPDATE ON COMMUNICATIONS AFTER SANDY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: David Turetsky]
The Federal Communications Commission continues to collect data from communications companies about the impacts of the storm, but we have begun narrowing our data collection to a more targeted geographic area as restoration progresses, and will continue to do so as needs change. As a result, today’s report does not contain data for Delaware, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, where service has been largely restored. Our report covers 146 counties in the remaining seven states and Washington D.C., down from an earlier total of 158 counties. This remains a fluid situation, and we consider the data supplied each morning by communications providers to be preliminary but useful. As of 10 a.m. November 2, our assessment indicates continued steady improvements in wireline and wireless communications networks throughout the affected area. As before, however, restoration efforts in the hardest hit areas – including New York and New Jersey – are more difficult. While communications providers are still working hard to replenish fuel supplies for generators, they tell us that the fuel situation is beginning to improve. Our latest data still indicate that calls throughout the affected area can be received at 9-1-1 call centers, but there are still limited cases where calls are being re-routed to another center or do not contain location information. We are staying in contact with the affected 911 centers, state and local authorities, and communications providers to help ensure that 9-1-1 remains operational while full capabilities are restored. … The data indicate that the number of cell site outages has declined to 15 percent overall. This is down from approximately 25 percent on Tuesday morning and 19 percent yesterday morning for the earlier, larger reporting area. As before, this figure includes many cases where cell sites that are otherwise operational are effectively inoperable because of outages in other parts of the communications infrastructure, which is highly interdependent. With regard to cable services, it appears that outages for today’s smaller geographic are at 17 percent. Today’s estimate includes, for the first time, data from a company that serves many areas that have been severely affected by the storm and widespread power outages. Excluding the additional reporting, the percentage of cable outages would have shown a continued decline from yesterday’s estimate of 12-14 percent of subscribers.
benton.org/node/138467 | Federal Communications Commission
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OUTAGES HIGHLIGHT WORRIES ON PHONE NETWORK
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Anton Troianovski]
Local officials and first responders in storm-battered coastal New Jersey faced a daunting task last week: communicating with stricken residents whose cellphones and cable-company landline phones didn't work. The failure highlights regulators' concerns about the reliability of communications networks as more people switch entirely to cellphones or get landline service from their cable-TV providers. Those networks are governed by few federal rules or guidelines aimed at ensuring their dependability, and the telecom industry has fought off such oversight even as it has heavily promoted its wireless-service plans.
benton.org/node/138486 | Wall Street Journal
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CELLPHONE SERVICE POST-SANDY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Chen]
To wireless customers, cellphone networks might seem to be made out of thin air. But they are plenty vulnerable to catastrophic storms — and bringing service back can take an excruciatingly long time. On November 2, four days after Hurricane Sandy, the major carriers — AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA and Sprint — were still busily rebuilding their networks in the hardest-hit areas. One-quarter of the cell towers in the storm zone were knocked out, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Many had no power, and their backup battery systems soon drained. The lines connecting those towers to the rest of the phone network were ripped out. Carriers deployed generators to provide power, but eventually those required more fuel — another limited resource. In an emergency, a lack of cellphone reception can be dangerous, especially as more people have chosen to snip landlines out of their budgets. About 60 percent of American households have landlines, down from 78 percent four years ago, according to Chetan Sharma, an independent mobile analyst. The carriers say they are trying their best to deal with an unusual disaster. But in the past, they have steadfastly objected to recommendations from regulators that they spend more money on robust emergency equipment, like longer-lasting backup batteries.
benton.org/node/138466 | New York Times
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HOW SANDY CHANGED REPORTING
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Steve Rosenbaum]
[Commentary] The changes in news media around Hurricane Sandy surprised me in a number of ways. In particular: their speed, volume, and news value. Mainstream media no longer tried to ignore the power of social media; instead, they used the crowd-sourced information to feed (and in some cases mislead) their audiences. On the local news stations, anchors literally held their phones in their hand, scrolling through tweets as they ad-libbed their way through their newscasts. Perhaps the most surprising was the volume -- the sheer volume of video that made its way unfiltered onto the web. So, the question is: Does this replace professional journalism? Far from it. UGC Newsgathering adds sources, point of view, and reach. But it also adds noise, and inaccuracy, and fakes. Tons of fake PhotoShop images. Tons of false reports about water on the floor of the stock exchange, or other rumors amplified by the speed of the social web. So, going forward, we need the power and voice of UGC news, as well as the curatorial tools and fact checking chops of working Journalists to help us filter signal from noise. Welcome to the new world of media, where the volume is massive, and the filters are human. It's a new way to think of news, but it's the way we're going to in the future.
benton.org/node/138465 | Huffington Post, The
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COMMUNICATIONS AND SANDY
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] At least 74 deaths. An estimated $50 billion in economic damages. Superstorm Sandy measured 1,000 miles across, lashed winds up to 90 miles per hour, dropped 12.5 inches of rain on Eaton, Maryland and 34 inches of snow on Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The storm forced evacuations from Ocean City, Maryland to Dartmouth, Massachusetts. In its wake, some 8.5 million homes were without power. These numbers alone can’t help us comprehend the impact of the huge storm that hit the Eastern Seaboard this week. So we look at just a small slice of it: the critical role of communications in preparing for, surviving and recovering from a natural disaster. What this week teaches us, again, is that during an emergency, one of the most precious commodities is information and the ability to communicate it without impediments.
http://benton.org/node/138409
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EMERGECY COMMUNICATIONS REMAIN FLAWED
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: David Talbot]
More than 11 years after the September 11 attacks exposed the inadequacies of U.S. emergency communications networks, Hurricane Sandy strikes a nation still plagued by incompatible and incomplete emergency systems. “If Hurricane Katrina or 9/11 happened today, the results, from a communications standpoint, would largely be the same,” says Vanu Bose, CEO of Vanu, a wireless communications company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who served on a committee that wrote a federal report on spectrum allocation this summer. “Maybe in the next five to 10 years we can actually solve the problem.” During the September 11 attacks, problems included police and fire units using different communications channels—a factor that contributed to the deaths of some firefighters who didn’t receive evacuation messages (see “Communicating in Crisis”). Similar interoperability problems, as well as poor communications between different levels of government, plagued the response to the Katrina disaster in New Orleans and surrounding areas in 2005. Despite the explosion in commercial mobile communications in the ensuing years, a nationwide data-capable emergency network is still unbuilt, with many agencies instead using voice-only systems that aren’t always compatible with one another.
benton.org/node/138488 | Technology Review
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NEW JERSEY TELEVISION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Jensen]
Hurricane Sandy was the first major test for NJTV, which WNET, the New York public broadcaster, has operated since July 2011. The change occurred after Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), despite criticism, dismantled the New Jersey Network, the state’s public broadcasting operation. The network’s public radio stations were sold to WNYC of New York and WHYY of Pennsylvania, and the contract for the television operation went to WNET. Critics said they feared the outsiders would not devote resources to cover New Jersey. Many of those critics did not respond or declined to comment on NJTV’s storm coverage. For its newscasts, NJTV turned to its three reporters and a freelancer. They used rented $30,000 backpacks with live uplink capabilities and cellphones to file reports. The backpacks had been rented for NJTV’s election coverage. “We don’t have the money to buy them,” said John Servidio, general manager of NJTV. NJTV also relied on the New Jersey News Commons, a nascent coalition for online news — commercial, nonprofit and volunteer — based at Montclair State University, in Montclair. The school was an unsuccessful bidder for the NJN television operation, but since then has created a campus hub for statewide news coverage. NJTV and WNYC are basing operations there.
benton.org/node/138487 | New York Times
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HOW TO TWEET RESPONSIBLY
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Garance Franke-Ruta]
[Commentary] Since Oct 29's tweeting on Hurricane Sandy, there's been a great debate in social-media circles over whether Twitter is self-correcting, or whether misinformation spread there and on other social-media platforms can then flood into the real world, outside the range of any pullback. "What happens on Twitter doesn't stay on Twitter," warned Bloomberg's Jared Keller. Writing on GigaOM, Matthew Ingram had a contrary view, hailing Twitter as a "self-cleaning oven" for news. The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal got into the fact-checking business here on this site, knocking down fake Sandy photos and pondering ways to counter misinformation on the viral web. And Poynter's Craig Silverman even proposed that his organization and other groups should "work together to secure a grant and test whether a centralized, non-profit organization could act as a (mis)information clearinghouse during breaking news and other big events, as well as a source of best practices for knocking down misinformation." But I wonder almost if this is over-thinking the issue. "When we get mad at others for fooling us, we should also be mad at ourselves for fooling our readers," the Guardian's Heidi Moore wrote. She's right.
benton.org/node/138463 | Atlantic, The
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IT’S ABOUT THE INFO, NOT THE OUTLET
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Anna Codrea-Rado]
As Hurricane Sandy devastated the eastern seaboard, news outlets, networks, and Twitter flooded the airwaves with information. For those able to turn to the Internet for help, locating correct information in an instantly digestible format wasn’t an easy as it should have been. While many news outlets did a solid job providing coverage, it was a map produced by Google that stood out as the most comprehensive display of the data available about the storm and its recovery. Google’s Superstorm Sandy map and its NYC version aggregated information about weather conditions, shelters, evacuation zones, and transportation. The maps were built by Google’s Crisis Response Team which is a project of , Google’s philanthropic arm. The Crisis Response Team has been responding to natural disasters since 2005, when members worked on a similar project for Hurricane Katrina. Google’s map is effective because it pulls the right data in quickly and displays it clearly. The layout is clear and simply formatted; users can select various layers of information they want displayed. For example, they can filter out all the other layers except for shelters. They can then add on the traffic update layer to see the fastest and safest route to their closest shelter.
benton.org/node/138459 | Columbia Journalism Review
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

THE CANDIDATES ON TECH ISSUES
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: TC Sottek]
This election won’t hinge on technology issues. Just look at prevailing discussions this year at the national level: major candidates have sparred over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the role of government, inane comments on the female body, and, to nobody’s surprise, the economy. Despite that fact, many decisions will be taken up by the next US president and those in Congress that will affect the world of tech, and by consequence, the real lives of citizens and human beings around the world — from alternative energy, to the use of killer drones, the regulation of wireless spectrum, and policies that aim to control content on the internet. First, there’s the place we know and love: the internet. The internet, as a vast, multi-faceted network involving individuals, businesses, and governments at various levels, is subject to increasing regulation — especially as it becomes more ubiquitous in every facet of daily life. The next president is likely to sign into law or receive bills from Congress that affect the internet, and as the head of federal agencies, will determine regulatory priorities in key areas like wireless broadband access and competition.
benton.org/node/138434 | Verge, The
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PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES IGNORE ONLINE CONTROVERSEY
[SOURCE: BBC, AUTHOR: Matt Danzico]
President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent Mitt Romney both argue that innovation is key to creating a strong US economy. Yet critics claim both candidates have largely ignored one of the crucial issues of the internet age: how to keep the web open so ideas and information are accessible to all. According to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, internet freedom is essential for entrepreneurial start-ups to develop the kind of innovative products and services that will drive the economy in the 21st Century. Ohanian crossed the US this month in a bus tour to argue that an open internet - with all links having equal status rather than being put in a hierarchy determined by price or regulation - matters to everyone, not just "geeks".
benton.org/node/138429 | BBC
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Any Way You Describe It, 2012 Campaign Spending Is Historic

HISTORIC CAMPAIGN SPENDING
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Peter Overby]
As relentlessly as the candidates have courted voters, they've also shown their love to donors. A recent report by the Center for Responsive Politics places the total cost of the 2012 elections at an estimated $6 billion, which would make it the most expensive election in U.S. history. President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney both rejected federal public financing — another first — and each of them collected nearly as much as the entire field in 2004. That's largely due to many of the Watergate-era laws limiting campaign money that have been nullified or circumvented. The 2012 presidential election cycle marks the first since Citizens United, the Supreme Court ruling that swept away key restrictions on money from corporations and the wealthy. Each side had its strength. President Obama's four million small donors have contributed online or even by text message. At the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, analyst Bob Biersack says it's not just about technology — or liberals. "There's nothing partisan about it," Biersack says, "You have to have some kind of spark." Meanwhile, Romney's big-money backers also have been making contributions of a million dollars or more, often in secret, to superPACs and so-called social welfare organizations.
benton.org/node/138483 | National Public Radio
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JOURNALISTS DONATE
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Dave Levinthal, Tarini Parti]
Reporters for Romney? Editors for Obama? Numerous journalists — self-identified reporters, editors and photographers affiliated with established news organizations — contributed money in September and October to the campaigns of President Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. Some equate their contributions to free speech or cite the right to act on personal political views during an increasingly tight election’s most critical stage. Others say they’re driven by history, or offer no explanation at all.
benton.org/node/138470 | Politico
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THREE QUESTIONS ABOUT CAMPAIGN COVERAGE
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Walter Shapiro]
I want to raise some questions about the craft of campaign reporting—questions whose answers may begin to emerge with the rush of returns on election night, but will only become clearer with more reflective post-election analysis. These are the some of the queries that need to be wrestled with before campaign junkies like me make our first exploratory trips of the 2016 campaign to Iowa and New Hampshire next summer.
Does a National Election Exist Any More? If, as I suspect, swing-state polls turn out to have been a more accurate predictor of the election than national surveys, then news organizations and campaign reporters may have to rethink how they cover presidential politics.
Did Reporters Spend Too Much Time with the Candidates and Not Enough with Voters? With candidate press conferences now a relic from the Osborne computer era and aides increasingly taking refuge in robotic spin, it is worth asking whether travel on campaign planes can be justified in this era of parched newsroom budgets.
Did the Press Corps Do Enough To Follow the Money? In this case, the answer is already known—and, sadly, it’s “no.”
benton.org/node/138431 | Columbia Journalism Review
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POLITICAL ADS SKIPPING SPANISH-LANGUAGE TV
[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: Joseph Torres, Josh Stearns]
An analysis of political ad spending in the battleground states of Colorado, Florida and New Mexico. Political ad buys have skyrocketed to record-breaking levels nationwide, and much of that money is being spent in swing states, particularly by Super PACs and other third-party groups. But in the three states studied, Free Press found that few political ads have aired on Spanish-language stations. Free Press inspected political files at Spanish-language stations in these markets and interviewed a variety of Latino leaders, media analysts and political experts. Super PACs and other third-party groups have also made very few ad buys at these stations.
benton.org/node/138433 | Free Press
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ONLINE POLITICAL VIDEOS AND CAMPAIGN 2012
[SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Aaron Smith, Maeve Duggan]
55% of registered voters have watched political videos online this election season. We asked about six different types of political videos and found that, among registered voters who use the internet:
48% watch video news reports about the election or politics
40% watch previously recorded videos of candidate speeches, press conferences, or debates
39% watch informational videos online that explain a political issue
37% watch humorous or parody videos dealing with political issues
36% watch political advertisements online
28% watch live videos of candidate speeches, press conferences, or debates
We also find that political videos are highly social. Some 52% of registered voters say that other people have recommended political videos for them to watch this election season, with social networking sites playing a prominent role in this process. In addition, 19% of registered voters have recommended online political videos for other people to watch.
benton.org/node/138432 | Pew Internet & American Life Project
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FIRM DEFENDS TEXTS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
The Republican marketing firm that bombarded people's cellphones with unsolicited anti-Obama text messages is undeterred by criticism of the practice, claiming it is protected by its right to free speech. Gabriel Joseph, president of Virginia-based ccAdvertising, believes the text messages are an effective campaign tactic and he is open to sending more of them before the election. "The fact that some people are bothered by this doesn't offend me at all," Joseph said. "It means what we're doing is working. It means it's effective." Joseph said he sent the messages on behalf of a client, but he declined to name the client or disclose how many messages he sent. Many people in the Washington, D.C., metro area received the messages, but Joseph wouldn't say whether he targeted a particular region.
benton.org/node/138448 | Hill, The
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HOW TARGETING AFFECTS POLITICAL AD SPEND
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
If you're an independent female voter living in Ohio, and boast more than 100 Facebook friends, the two presidential campaigns have spent as much as $50 to advertise to you in the last four months. Conversely, if you're a registered Democrat living in New York who never uses the social networking service, the campaigns have spent as little as $5 in ads directed to you. That's according to privacy company Abine, which released a tool this week that allows people to estimate how much their vote is worth to the presidential campaigns, as measured by ad dollars. The interactive tool asks users to enter factors like gender, voting history, state of residence, number of Facebook friends, and how often they visit news sites. The tool then calculates an estimate of the amount of ad spending in all media by campaigns to reach that user; spending in online media accounts for approximately 6-9% of the total, according to Abine. To arrive at the estimate, Abine started with the premise that average ad spending by campaigns per U.S. voter comes to $22. The company adds up to $7 to that figure for users who live in battleground states like Ohio, and subtracts the same amount for those in solidly blue or red states, like Massachusetts. Beyond state of residence, the tool also looks at how many Facebook friends people have, how many news sites they tend to visit, and voting history.
benton.org/node/138440 | MediaPost
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

THE NEXT HURRICANE SANDY MIGHT COME WITHOUT A WARNING
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Bob Brewin]
The Obama Administration’s plan to share weather satellite frequencies with commercial cellular carriers could severely degrade scientists’ ability to forecast hurricanes and monitor flooding, weather and spectrum, experts say. The Federal Communications Commission proposed reallocating spectrum used by weather satellites in the 1675-1710 MHz band for commercial use in its 2010 National Broadband plan, a shift widely opposed by weather organizations worldwide. FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration narrowed the portion of the weather spectrum up for grabs to the 1695-1710 MHz band and endorsed sharing that band with commercial users at an August 2012 spectrum planning meeting. John Snow, professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, said this plan could interfere with the reception of data from sounding instruments on Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites that measure atmospheric temperatures, cloud cover, moisture and humidity.
benton.org/node/138456 | nextgov
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INCENTIVE SPECTRUM AUCTIONS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Appearing on C-SPAN's "The Communicators", Mignon Clyburn, a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), expressed confidence in the agency's ability to execute its ambitious plan to auction off television stations' airwave licenses to cellular service providers. "We have no plan B, there's a plan A. We're doing all that we can to make sure that there are market synergies, that there are market forces, that there are market opportunities that both the buyers and sellers can take advantage of," Commissioner Clyburn said. She said the auctions could be extremely beneficial to the United States and the FCC is working hard to make sure the process is underway by its 2014 deadline, so she's not concerned that wireless carriers will go to back Congress to ask for more spectrum. "It has the opportunity to bring more spectrum into play than we've seen in 25 years, so I am not concerned. We are doing all we can to make it all that it can be," Commissioner Clyburn said. "I'm not going to be speculative as to how much [spectrum] it will bring to market, but it has the potential to really put us on a firm pathway of meeting the needs of this nation by way of mobile engagement."
benton.org/node/138455 | Hill, The
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

TELECOMMUNICATIONS TREATY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
US Ambassador Terry Kramer warned that countries like China and Iran are looking to propose troublesome language for a telecommunications treaty that could lead to online censorship and government monitoring of Web traffic. The countries say those proposals are intended to protect computer networks from malicious spam and crack down on online child pornography, but the methods they suggest to accomplish this via the treaty would allow them to see "what information is flowing on the Internet," including what people are doing and saying on the Web, Kramer said at an event hosted by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Transatlantic Relations. "There are a variety of non-democratic nations that are seeking to put some content restrictions out there, that are saying they want to know how traffic flows," said Kramer, who is heading up the U.S. delegation for the upcoming treaty conference in Dubai this December. He said these cybersecurity proposals initially look innocuous, but upon a second look, they propose to broaden the scope of the treaty so it shifts from regulating telecommunications networks to regulating information online.
benton.org/node/138449 | Hill, The
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PRIVACY

FTC ON DO NOT TRACK
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Alex Byers]
The Federal Trade Commission supports attempts by Web browsing companies, advertisers and privacy groups to develop industry standards on Do Not Track technology and wants to see ongoing talks play out before backing a legislative solution. At the same time, the FTC isn’t taking a position on a fight between stakeholders about whether to make DNT a default setting in Web browsers, even as Microsoft butted heads with Yahoo last month over its announcement that it would turn on those signals by default in the next version of Internet Explorer. The officials said during a meeting Nov 2 that they’re trying to support consumer privacy by stepping in when they think companies have gone over the line and promoting values like transparency and choice across the online ecosystem. That includes the agency’s work with Internet stakeholders to design a system whereby consumers have a choice about where their data goes, although that has been a “two steps forward, one step back” process, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said. Discussions among World Wide Web Consortium members about Do Not Track standards seem to be moving forward, the officials said, and the FTC wants to nurture that process.
benton.org/node/138480 | Politico
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ADVERTISING

GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Julia Angwin]
Google’s quest to guess what we want before we want it has produced an unusual side effect: a disparity in the results the company presents about the presidential candidates. A Wall Street Journal examination found that the search engine often customizes the results of people who have recently searched for "Obama"—but not those who have recently searched for "Romney." Here's how it works: When a user searches for the name Obama, Google includes links about President Barack Obama in subsequent searches on terms such as "Iran," "Medicare" and "gay marriage." The altered results are labeled in gray type: "you recently searched for Obama." Testers searching for "Romney," however, didn't see customized links containing Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney's name in their subsequent search results. The search links are altered only for a short period, and there is no indication that Google is intentionally biasing its results. Nor does the pattern affect only political topics: Searches for words such as "iPhone," "sports," "health," "social security" and "twilight" also can trigger customized results in subsequent searches.
benton.org/node/138471 | Wall Street Journal
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OWNERSHIP

GOOGLE CASTS SHAWDOWS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steve Lohr, Claire Cain Miller]
Regulators in the United States and Europe are conducting sweeping inquiries of Google, the dominant Internet search and advertising company. Google rose by technological innovation and business acumen; in the United States, it has 67 percent of the search market and collects 75 percent of search ad dollars. Being big is no crime, but if a powerful company uses market muscle to stifle competition, that is an antitrust violation. So the government is focusing on life in Google’s world for the sprawling economic ecosystem of Web sites that depend on their ranking in search results. What is it like to live this way, in a giant’s shadow? The experience of its inhabitants is nuanced and complex, a blend of admiration and fear. The relationship between Google and Web sites, publishers and advertisers often seems lopsided, if not unfair. Yet Google has also provided and nurtured a landscape of opportunity. Its ecosystem generates $80 billion a year in revenue for 1.8 million businesses, Web sites and nonprofit organizations in the United States alone, it estimates. The government’s scrutiny of Google is the most exhaustive investigation of a major corporation since the pursuit of Microsoft in the late 1990s.
benton.org/node/138472 | New York Times
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PATENTS

CONCERNS OVER SECRECY
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Dan Levine]
Two weeks before a high-stakes trial pitting Google's Motorola Mobility unit against Microsoft, Google made what has become a common request for a technology company fighting for billions of dollars: A public court proceeding, conducted largely in secret. Google and Microsoft, like rivals embroiled in smartphone patent wars, are eager to keep sensitive business information under wraps - in this case, the royalty deals they cut with other companies on patented technology. Microsoft asked for similar protections in a court filing late. Such royalty rates, though, are the central issue in this trial, which begins November 13 in Seattle. US District Judge James Robart has granted requests to block many pre-trial legal briefs from public view. Though he warned he may get tougher on the issue, the nature of the case raises the possibility that even his final decision might include redacted, or blacked-out, sections. Legal experts are increasingly troubled by the level of secrecy that has become commonplace in intellectual property cases where overburdened judges often pay scant attention to the issue.
benton.org/node/138447 | Reuters
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

OPM CALLS ON AGENCIES TO SUBMIT TELEWORK STATS
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Brittany Ballenstedt]
The Office of Personnel Management is making its annual call for federal agencies to submit their telework data online, in an effort to gauge progress on telework programs. In a letter to agency human resources directors, Angela Bailey, associate director of employee services at OPM, asked agency telework managing officers and coordinators to submit their data on a Web-based form by Dec. 7. “Telework is an important flexibility useful to achieving agency human capital objectives, including retention and performance,” Bailey wrote. “OPM is committed to supporting telework and assisting agencies to meet their goals.” One of the greatest challenges for federal telework programs going forward is the ability of agencies to accurately measure success.
benton.org/node/138437 | nextgov
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CENSORSHIP ROYALTY
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Kathrin Hille]
A city run by one of China’s incoming political leaders that has billed itself as a future international financial center is instead becoming the country’s internet censorship capital. Tianjin, whose Communist party secretary Zhang Gaoli is one of the seven men most likely to get a seat on the new politburo standing committee due to be unveiled at the 18th party congress starting on Nov 8, is developing a replica of Manhattan to which it aims to attract global banks. But local government officials explaining a mock-up of Yujiapu, the new district on the site of a former fishing village, last week said they did not know of any foreign bank that had committed to coming. Meanwhile, some of China’s leading internet companies are relocating their censorship operations to Tianjin as they battle soaring labor costs.
benton.org/node/138474 | Financial Times
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APPLE PAID ONLY 1.9 PERCENT INCOME TAX
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Apple paid an income tax rate of only 1.9 percent on its earnings outside the U.S. in its latest fiscal year, a regulatory filing by the company shows. The world’s most valuable company paid $713 million in tax on foreign earnings of $36.8 billion in the fiscal year ended Sept. 29, according to the financial statement filed on Oct. 31. The foreign earnings were up 53 percent from fiscal 2011, when Apple earned $24 billion outside the U.S. and paid income tax of 2.5 percent on it. The tech giant’s foreign tax rate compares with the general U.S. corporate tax rate of 35 percent. Apple may pay some income taxes on its profit to the country in which it sells its products, but it minimizes them by using various accounting moves to shift profits to countries with low tax rates. For example the strategy known as “Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich,” routes profits through Irish and Dutch subsidiaries and then to the Caribbean. Other multinational corporations also use such tax techniques, which are legal.
benton.org/node/138473 | Associated Press
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Daily Digest

Analysis

November 2012

FCC Sources: Chairman Wants Media Ownership Vote at Nov. 30 Meeting

TechAmerica Names New Board Chairman

Muni broadband with a twist

Industry Argues Fate of Unclaimed Connect America Funds

Feds Ordered to Disclose Data About Wiretap Backdoors

Why (almost) everybody loves Pandora

Google and Microsoft go on Wi-Fi offensive in UK

Finland: Plan for universal 100Mbps service by 2015 on track

The real Iranian threat: Cyberattacks

November 5, 2012 (Outages Highlight Worries on Phone Networks)