April 2013

Big Data’s Usability Problem

[Commentary]

As a society, we’re hugely reliant on data management platforms for our most critical information.
Our core data platforms often aren’t set up to handle human error, from basic coding flaws to spelling mistakes.
The wealth of data in our data tools can mask that human error. Consider: The Reinhart-Rogoff study examined “new data on forty-four countries spanning about two hundred years” with “over 3,700 annual observations covering a wide range of political systems, institutions, exchange rate arrangements, and historic circumstances.”
In such a wide sea of data, a few lines of code can be very easy to overlook, even if they have strong ramifications for analysis. There are lots of things to take away from these three points, but I’ll just focus on one: The promise of Big Data is that it can make every day processes — from critical analyses to mundane tasks — work smarter through data intelligence. Ultimately, all that data management translates into an economy and society that lets machines handle the minutiae as humans think through the larger picture.

[Wise is CEO of Mediaocean]

How college students can maintain online privacy

In the face of increasing worry over security, students should be aware of tools that can help protect their privacy, as well as keeping track of companies that may misuse personal information.

Facebook escalates lobbying spending

Facebook spent more than $2.4 million on lobbying during the first quarter of 2013, a nearly four-fold increase over the company’s influence spending last year, public records show.

That figure puts Facebook on track to beat its previous record for lobbying spending. The company spent just $650,000 on lobbying during the first three months of 2012. In its disclosure form, Facebook said it lobbied on a range of key tech issues, including immigration reform, patent reform, online privacy and taxes. The company also said it lobbied on cybersecurity, including the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) that passed the House last week despite a veto threat from the White House. The company has publicly stepped up its push for comprehensive immigration reform this year as both the Senate and House work on legislative proposals intended to fix the country's immigration system.

Senate Tees Up 'Do Not Track' Oversight

The Majority staff memo for the Senate Commerce Committee hearing on an online "do not track" (DNT) regime makes it clear that the hearing will address government oversight of voluntary initiatives, as well as a bill from Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) mandating such a regime.

In March, Chairman Rockefeller reintroduced legislation that would require companies who collect personal information online to get the affirmative permission of the person whose information is being collected. Violators could be fined up to $15 million. He said last week in announcing the oversight hearing that industry needs to do more, a point also made by new Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. According to the memo for the April 24 hearing, the issues it plans to address include online behavioral advertising self-regulatory principles, the online ad industry's icon-based DNT opt-out offerings, browser-based DNT options, the ongoing development of a worldwide DNT standard from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Obama Administration's Privacy Bill of Rights, which suggested that DNT was one way to provide consumers with control over their information.

5G doesn’t exist yet. Let’s stop abusing the term

5G is still just the merest twinkle in the mobile industry’s eye, yet the blogosphere is now using the term to describe T-Mobile’s forthcoming network. Just as with 4G, we’re conflating technology with marketing, and we need to stop.

Cox Goes National With Connect2Compete Initiative

Following a string of launches last year, Cox Communications has gone national with the rollout of a discounted Internet product that’s linked to the cable industry-backed Connect2Compete initiative.

The Connect2Compete program targets low-income families with children that qualify for the National Free School Lunch program. Cox is offering its Starter Internet service to eligible families for $9.95 per month for two years, including free installation and modem rental fees. The program also offers access to low-cost computers and free digital literacy training to families. Connect2Compete is the cable operator-backed public-private partnership for broadband deployment and adoption to low-income households who are not currently broadband subs. C2C was launched by the Federal Communications Commission last November, expanding on Comcast's Internet Essentials model. Comcast's program, now in its second year and a voluntary commitment tied to its acquisition of NBC Universal, has signed up more than 100,000 families so far. C2C, meanwhile, has a three-year goal of raising $20 million to help provide computers, access and training.

Twitter's hacking problem

Twitter has a hacking problem — and the White House is only the latest casualty. An attack April 23 targeting the Twitter account for The Associated Press — where hackers suggested a fake bombing injured the president — threatens a company that previously has been slapped by federal regulators for inadequate privacy and security practices.

The breach is a serious issue for Twitter, which no longer can label itself a basic communications service. To many, the furious, constant stream of 140-character bursts is where millions of users around the world read and share the news — and updates made surreptitiously by hackers on trusted accounts can rattle markets and more. The latest incident came when the AP's Twitter account dispatched a false update to its nearly 2 million followers: “Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.” The AP quickly corrected the tweet to its wire subscribers and promised additional information, and the White House itself confirmed the president was safe.

Cable Operators Will Consolidate To Grab Commercial Customers: Moody’s

Over the next five years or so the cable industry “will consolidate to around 3-4 dominant cable operators, which will have sizeable footprints,” Moody’s Investors Service SVP Neil Begley said.

The big guys will start to snap up smaller operators, and swap systems, because it will help them compete with phone companies to attract business customers. “Business services, primarily including voice and data, will be the largest single growth driver for cable over the next decade as residential services growth stagnates,” Begley says. Commercial customers soon will spend about $80 billion per year for voice, video, and Internet, and cable operators just collected $7.5 billion from them last year. But cable has a problem because operators’ systems “are like a jigsaw puzzle of efficiency customized to serve the residential customer” but are “inefficient or insufficient to serve multi-location commercial customers compared to most telecom competitors.” The problem is especially acute for mid-sized companies including Cox, Charter, and Cequel Communications, forcing them to choose to be either buyers or sellers.

Senate Communications Subcommittee Postpones Wireless Hearing

The Senate Communications Subcommittee has postponed a planned April 25 oversight hearing on wireless communications. The committee did not give a reason for the delay or provide a new date for the hearing.

Comcast: Unlicensed Spectrum Now Top Route to Web Access

Comcast exec Tom Nagle plans to tell the Senate Communications Subcommittee that the Federal Communications Commission needs to loosen restrictions on use of the 5 GHz band if Wi-Fi is going to meet the growing Internet access needs of increasingly mobile customers. That includes during emergencies like the Boston Marathon bombing, when Comcast opened up its Wi-Fi access points when cellular service got bogged down.

The company's strategy for providing Wi-Fi data services, Nagel indicates, is to continue to ramp up the use of unlicensed spectrum hot spots, including those of other providers. He says that the most popular method of accessing the Web is now via unlicensed technologies, which he also points out in his testimony can sometimes be critical sources of connectivity in times of crisis.

Benton

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