January 2013

Hollywood's latest star: Silicon Valley

Hollywood’s relationship with Silicon Valley has gone from devout adversary to grudging admirer. Blame it on the narrative.

Technology and its icons have transfixed American culture and transformed cinematic production. As a bout of recent films indicates, a field that has been connected with oversized nerds and luckless date nights has become a nuanced world to question and explore. “It’s changing our lives,” said Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster and consulting professor at Stanford University. “That’s a hell of a good story and catnip for Hollywood.”

GOP digital divide may take years to bridge

Republicans are running a 1.0 digital ground game operation in a 3.0 world — and they know it.

At their recent leadership retreat, Chairman Reince Priebus and others sounded the bell for closing the vast technological divide that made all the difference for Democrats in getting out the vote last fall in numbers that stunned the pundit class. “Let’s host Skype-based training sessions and Google hangouts on campaign strategy, fundraising, door-to-door advocacy, and digital tools,” Priebus urged at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting in Charlotte (NC). “We need to give the next generation of organizers access to the brightest experts.” He went on: “And in the digital space, we don’t want just to keep up. We want to seize the lead.” That’s easier said than done, and insiders aren’t heartened that the most specific he got was references to well-worn online video conferencing tools. Simply put, the Democratic National Committee has nearly a decade’s jump — and counting — thanks to innovative software for gathering detailed voter information that includes input from Democratic campaigns at every level of the ballot.

As Developing World Goes Mobile, Can Apple Make The Sale?

With the majority of adults in the U.S. and Europe walking around with smartphones in their pockets, the idea of having a high-powered computer at your beck and call may seem like old news. But globally, the smartphone revolution is just beginning.

The next billion people who get online are likely to do so with a mobile device. And while the global democratization of computing power is just around the corner, this trend has left Apple — the company that more or less created the modern smartphone — in an awkward spot. That mobile revolution won't be happening just in China but also in Brazil, Russia and India, says Chris Jones, a global market analyst at Canalys. And while those are the four obvious — and biggest — emerging markets, Jones also points to places like Indonesia, Southeast Asia, the rest of Latin America and Africa. In the next few years, hundreds of millions of people in these countries will be getting smartphones and getting online for the first time. "So there's an enormous opportunity there in the emerging markets," Jones says. The social implications for all that smartphone use are going to be enormous. And while that seems like a great business proposition for Apple, this opportunity is actually pretty complicated for the tech giant.

Kagan Analyst: Sports Costs Not Only Reason for Burgeoning Bills

SNL Kagan analyst Derek Baine argued that sports costs are not the only reason for rising cable bills. Baine predicts that by 2018, retransmission payments cable operators pay to carry local TV stations will have ballooned to almost $5 per sub per month, or about what they pay now for ESPN, the poster-channel for escalating sports rights costs. The average cost of a sports channel over the last decade has increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR)of 3.5%, he says, compared to 2.9% for all channels. CAGR is actually smaller than the average over the past five years, however, due to the launch of lower-priced channels like the NHL Network.

Facebook’s privacy payout: how you’ll get $10, $5 — or nothing

If you’re on Facebook, you likely received a mysterious email late on Friday that says you might get some money in a lawsuit. The email is the real deal — Facebook is indeed paying out and you could get up to $10 (maybe). So how do you collect? Here’s a plain English guide to what that e-mail means.

White House Drops First Names From We The People Petitions

The White House has abbreviated citizen signatures on its We the People petition website. The signatures, which used to include a signer’s first name and last initial, now just include first and last initials.

The signature blocks also include the signer’s location and the date of the signature. The change affected both signatures on active petitions and on historic petitions that have already received a White House response. There was no public announcement of the change and the White House declined to comment about it on the record. The change will likely reduce the amount of monitoring and oversight White House staffers must perform on petitions.

Twitter Transparency Report v2

Twitter released its second Twitter Transparency Report (#TTR) and introduced more granular details regarding information requests from the United States, expanding the scope of the removal requests and copyright notices sections, and adding Twitter site accessibility data from partners at Herdict. Twitter believes it is vital for Internet services to be transparent about government requests for user information and government requests to withhold content from the Internet; these growing inquiries can have a serious chilling effect on free expression – and real privacy implications.

Beta Testing the Final Transition to IP Broadband

AT&T filed comments reaffirming its request to have the Federal Communications Commission conduct geographic trials to oversee the final transition away from the legacy plain old telephone service (POTS) infrastructure that has served this country for more than 100 years.

I say the “final transition” because the reality is that the vast majority of consumers have already made this transition. As US Telecom ably documented in its Switched Voice Non-Dominance Petition, the number of consumers who connect to the POTS infrastructure and the use of that infrastructure have plummeted in the last decade. Consumer access lines and minutes of use (MOUs) are down +70% from peak totals as more and more consumers switch to VoIP alternatives (offered by companies who have physical networks as well as over-the-top virtual network service providers), wireless services and other forms of digital communications.

Copyright holders threaten to retaliate against Antigua over piracy

A lawyer for a group on intellectual property rights warned that the tiny island nation of Antigua could face retaliation for ignoring U.S. copyrights.

"If Antigua moves forward, we will work to ensure that its eligibility to participate in any U.S. trade assistance or benefit is withdrawn," said Michael Schlesinger, a lawyer for the International Intellectual Property Alliance. The World Trade Organization approved Antigua's request on Monday to set up a website to sell materials that infringe on U.S. copyrights without paying the copyright holders. Schlesinger argued that the WTO ruling does not free Antigua from its other international obligations to respect intellectual property rights. "Countries have international obligations aside and apart from their WTO obligations," Schlesinger said, arguing that Antigua is prohibited by the World Intellectual Property Organization form setting up a piracy website. The International Intellectual Property Alliance represents seven trade associations, including the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America and the Business Software Alliance.

Protecting online freedom as the Internet turns 30

[Commentary] As the Internet enters its middle years, we users can no longer take it for granted. It’s more than a cloud. It’s people, technology and physical infrastructure. As with any infrastructure, the Internet needs protection and maintenance to survive; otherwise the wires and signals that send digital communications will cease to function. The online community also needs protections — to prevent our ideas from being blocked, our identities from being hijacked and our wallets from being picked.

“Internet freedom” refers to every user’s right to connect openly with anyone and speak freely. Those who don’t think this right is under threat in America need only look at Verizon’s 2012 claim that the First Amendment gives it the authority to edit the Internet, entitled to pick and choose what content travels across its wires and what content does not. The concentration of gatekeeper power has very real, and very negative, consequences. Americans pay far more for far less than people in developed countries whose policymakers have promoted competition instead of profits. It’s time our leaders in Washington, D.C., did the same. Internet users are only now beginning to get organized to ensure that power over the network stays in our hands. It’s a movement that touches almost every aspect of modern life. If more people get involved in the fight to protect this open network, we can transform the lives of many for the better.

[Karr is senior director of strategy for Free Press]

Benton

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