November 2012

Syria's Digital Proxy War

There is a proxy war going on in Syria, one measured in megabytes rather than in arms. On one side, Iran is providing Bashar al-Assad's regime with the tools of digital dictatorship to locate and bait the Syrian opposition. On the other side, the United States is trying to help the opposition protect itself from such attacks and set up alternate channels of communication. The outcome of this proxy war will affect the lives of many Syrians and the credibility of the State Department's efforts to promote digital freedom internationally.

Hurricane Sandy Boosts Local Online News Brands

"Hyperlocal" news sites that focus their coverage on small towns and city neighborhoods are reporting big traffic surges from Sandy, with local residents keen to find out about their towns' storm preparedness Oct 29 and about property damage and when power would be restored on Oct 30, with much of it driven by search.

Spikes were reported by corporate news brands and individually owned sites alike. AOL-owned Patch, which operates roughly 860 sites across the country but has high penetrations in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, reported its highest-ever traffic day Monday -- page views were up 88% from the previous highest day. The Daily Voice, a competing network with 53 sites in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, said traffic Monday was two times higher than normal. Sheepshead Bites, a four-year-old independent site covering the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn, also reported its highest-ever traffic day Monday on its Facebook page. And eight-year-old independent Baristanet, which covers Montclair, Bloomfield and Glen Ridge, N.J., reported traffic Tuesday was on course to be three times higher than the average 8,000 to 9,000 daily visits, notwithstanding the fact that much of Montclair is without power.

In Sandy’s aftermath, what of the NYC tech sector?

In the days and hours leading up to the arrival of Superstorm Sandy in the New York area, the storm looked like it might end up being the most-photographed, most-tweeted and most-blogged-about natural disaster in history. In fact, so many remarkable photos of Sandy were being shared on Twitter and Instagram that even the major news organizations with a boots-on-the-ground presence in the region were actively encouraging people to send in their photos.

At one point, according to Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom, 10 photos of Hurricane Sandy were being shared every second. That narrative about technology and the power of social media, however, is starting to shift in the aftermath of the storm as millions of people in New York City suddenly confront a life without power and without public transportation. All of those would-be citizen journalists sending out Instagram photos of a darkened New York skyline or tweeting out updates from their neighborhood — they all require power for their digital devices — and that’s something that many people in the New York area no longer have. In lower Manhattan and in neighborhoods stretching up to 34th Street — precisely the area where many of New York’s fledgling start-ups are located — the power has been shut off completely and may not be restored for days.

Romney and Obama Campaigns Leaking Web Site Visitor Data

The presidential campaign sites BarackObama.com and MittRomney.com have recently ratcheted up their use of third-party Web trackers. These are companies, like ad networks and data brokers working on behalf of the campaigns, that collect information about users’ online activities to show political ads to people tailored to their own interests and beliefs. Spokesmen for each campaign have separately said that their own campaign had put safeguards in place to protect that user data. But now a new study by Jonathan Mayer, a graduate student in computer science and law at Stanford University, reports that both sites are leaking information about site visitors to a number of third-party trackers operating on their pages.

Several pages on the Obama site included a user’s personal information in the page title at the top of the page or in the URL address, Mayer said, thereby giving third parties operating on the site the opportunity to collect identifying data. The information flowing to third parties, he said, variously included the username; the proper name under which a person registered; and their street address and ZIP code. On the Romney site, Mayer said, he found that a number of pages included the user’s name in the page title. Many pages also included a unique numerical ID number in the URL, which flowed to third parties, he said.

TV Political Ad Revenue on $2.6 Billion Pace

According to SNL Kagan’s most recent projections, this year’s television station political advertising revenue is expected to increase to $2.6 billion, a 68% increase over the 2008 total of $1.6 billion.

The swing states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, predictably have emerged as the political battleground for 2012 presidential election spending. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign has outspent President Barack Obama in TV and radio advertising in these states, with well over half a billion dollars already spent with local broadcasters. As the election approaches, political revenue projections will be put to the test as the presidential candidates compete in local markets to close the gap on much-needed electoral votes. SNL Kagan estimates that 80% of political revenues were generated in the second half of each of the last three election years, with roughly 60% of the total coming in during the fourth quarter alone. If this holds true this year, the top 10 publicly held TV broadcast affiliate groups will see a 57.5% average increase in political revenue over 2008. Total political revenue for these groups would be $625.3 million, a 41.9% increase from $440.5 million in 2008.

Making Sense of Smartphone Plans

Waiting in line at the DMV or getting a root canal are just a couple of things that sound more pleasant than finding a new smartphone plan. If you’ve ever tried to make sense of all the different carrier plans, you know it can be confusing. Between the individual and shared plans and the different levels of data packages, the experience is maddening enough that you might feel resigned to stick to your current plan. But suffering through horrible service is a far worse alternative. In this week’s column, I outline the smartphone data plans offered by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, along with some of their pros and cons. With so many factors affecting pricing — the number of individuals on a plan, devices and geographic location — it’s hard to pick a “winner,” but this guide should make the decision easier.

Human Rights Campaign calls for investigation of anti-Obama text messages

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a gay-rights group, has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate an onslaught of anti-Obama text messages.

The group said the unsolicited messages were a "blatant" violation of anti-spamming rules, and urged the commission to impose the maximum fine on those responsible. The texts covered a variety of topics, including gay rights, abortion and Medicare, and reached people who had never asked to receive them, including HRC supporters. "Obama supports homosexuality and its radical social agenda. Say No to Obama on Nov 6!" one read, according to HRC. "Stop Obama from forcing gay marriage on the states. Your vote is your voice," read another.

Waking Up in a City Without Newspapers

For a media-saturated, always-connected city, the aftermath of Sandy has in some ways been stranger than the storm. There were no newspapers on newsstands -- if newsstands were open -- across large portions of the city. Like everything else with Sandy, the media disruption was uneven. Bridge and tunnel closures blocked delivery of The New York Times in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, a spokeswoman said. But trucks were able to get through to parts of Queens, Long Island and Brooklyn from the paper's printing plant in College Point, Queens.

Facing Antitrust Scrutiny, Google Execs Still Backing Obama

Few can accuse Google's top executives of holding a grudge. Despite facing a possible antitrust lawsuit from the Obama Administration's Federal Trade Commission, Google's leaders are still backing the president when it comes to donations to his reelection effort.

Leading the way is Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, who served as an adviser to then-Sen. Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and is now a member of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. Schmidt has given $5,000 to the Obama reelection campaign and an additional $30,800 to the Obama Victory Fund, the joint fundraising committee for Obama and the Democratic National Committee, according to Federal Election Commission records. In all, President Barack Obama has received more than $737,000 from Google-related donors -- the president's third biggest contributor, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Microsoft-related contributors are the second biggest donors to Obama, giving more than $761,000, according to the center's data.

To scale, telcos must learn from the ops community

There are as many small base stations out in the world as there are large base stations attached to cell phone towers, according to an Informa Telecoms & Media report. That doubles the number of equipment telcos must monitor and manage to help deliver a crystal clear signal on your cell phone, but it also creates a management nightmare and perhaps, an opportunity.

The report states that between October and November 2012, the number of small cells reached 6.1 million with macrocells worldwide totaling 5.9 million. Most of the small cells at 80 percent are inside people’s homes helping improve the cell signal inside the house. But others are in crowded venues like offices and stadiums where the smaller cells act as a backup and signal booster for larger cell towers nearby. Sprint by the way has deployed a million of those small cells–up from 250,000 in 2011. For operators who now have up to four times as many base stations to manage, the network complexity can be daunting. Sure these small cells boost the quality of the subscriber experience but managing all of those end points comes at a cost. And who will pay it? Some operators charge users for their in-home femtocells, which can frustrate people who believe that the operator should provide quality coverage as part of the basic service.

Benton

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