November 2013

Helping Low-Income Seniors Build A Social Web Online

The Internet is often considered the realm of the young. But in the US, people over 65 are one of the fastest-growing groups to go online and social media usage among seniors has soared.

A program in Washington, D.C., is designed to bring more seniors online, especially those who are socially isolated. The Connecting to Community training program is sponsored by the AARP Foundation in partnership with the nonprofit Older Adults Technology Services, Comcast and the D.C. social services organization Family Matters of Greater Washington. It puts the latest digital tools in the hands of low-income, older Americans to help them combat loneliness and develop social connections through social media and other online offerings. The program's pilot run just finished in Washington, D.C., and while the free iPad tablets the students received were brand new, some of the people using them were born decades before Bill Gates or Steve Jobs were out of diapers.

Mobility Fund Phase I Support for 218 Winning Bids Ready to be Authorized

The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Wireline Competition Bureau are ready to authorize Mobility Fund Phase I support for the Auction 901 winning bids. To be authorized to receive the Support, the winning bidder is required to submit for each of its specified winning bids an acceptable irrevocable stand-by letter of credit (LOC) and Bankruptcy Code opinion letter from its legal counsel by the applicable deadline – 6:00 p.m. ET on December 10, 2013.

Tracking System Prepares New York to Evacuate Patients in Emergencies

Just more than one year after Hurricane Sandy's waters flooded the northeast, cutting power and forcing more than 7,000 patients and residents at hospitals and nursing homes to evacuate, New York state demonstrated that it can now track those vulnerable citizens during the next big storm. A demo in mid-November 2013 at a Manhattan hospital used the state's Evacuation of Facilities in Disasters System (e-FINDS), which the New York State Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) devised over the summer.

Using pre-printed wristbands with bar codes and identifying numbers, handheld scanners, a mobile app and optional paper tracking, the system tracks patients and residents in real time across facilities. The Web-based tracking system was spurred by a recommendation from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's NYS Ready and Respond Commissions and was a priority of the Department of Health, according to John Norton, Health Cluster CIO for ITS. During an evacuation, health facilities will have enough pre-printed e-FINDS bracelets for all patients and residents. They will be fitted with the smudge-proof bands and scanned into the state's existing Health Commerce System using a computer and USB-connected scanner or mobile app. Users will then enter patients' basic information and where they are headed.

USA Today, News Tribune Won't Publish White House Photos

USA Today and the Tacoma News Tribune are refusing to publish White House handout photos in protest of restrictions on press access. The decision comes after 38 news outlets protested White House limits that often prevent journalists from taking photos of President Obama in a letter. Reporters raised the issue again in a recent press briefing, arguing that independent photographers play a different role from White House photographers. The clash between the media and the Administration over the issue has continued to escalate.

Akamai: U.S. Broadband Connectivity Plateau?

US broadband connectivity rates showed virtually no change between the first and second quarter of 2013, according to the latest Akamai State of the Internet Report.

The average US broadband connection speed was 8.7 Mbps in the second quarter, Akamai said. That’s virtually unchanged from first quarter when the average speed was 8.6 Mbps. The percentage of US broadband users connecting at speeds above 10 Mbps also was virtually unchanged, measuring 24% compared with 25% in first quarter, when it saw a 14% jump from the previous quarter. Akamai also found relatively small changes when it looked at the data on a state-by-state basis. The District of Columbia had the highest average connection speed in second quarter. But its average connection rate of 11.4 Mbps was lower than that of the top state from first quarter. In first quarter, Vermont had the highest average connection rate, which measured 12.7 Mbps.

Amazon Workers in Germany Strike

Nearly a thousand Amazon employees participated in strikes at two of the company’s German sites. The union said about 600 workers at Amazon's Bad Hersfeld site and another 400 at its Leipzig facility took part in the strikes.

The union threatened further action as the year's busiest shopping season begins. "It lies completely in Amazon's hands whether more strikes will take place in the upcoming Christmas season," said union representative Mechthild Middeke. The workers were striking because of wages and benefits. Amazon employs about 9,000 people at its nine German logistics centers, with Bad Hersfeld the largest site with more than 3,000 employees. Amazon has been a target of repeated strikes in Germany, its second-largest market after the US. The union wants the company to adopt industrywide wage agreements for employees, rather than using its own pay scale. "The moment Amazon agrees to talks we'll be sitting at the table instead of standing in the door," said Middeke. "Employees need an appropriate and reliable wage determined by collective agreement rather than by the employer alone." Among the benefits a collective wage agreement would bring is a Christmas bonus or "13th-month salary," a traditional component of wage agreements in Germany.

How will we know the Obamacare site is fixed?

With the Administration's deadline to fix the Obamacare website coming up soon, one question is bound to weigh heavily on the debate over the system: How well does it have to operate to be considered "fixed"?

The truth is, the system is getting stronger as it recovers from its disastrous launch, but experts say it still has a long way to go. The problems that continue to plague it could continue the torrent of criticism, making it tougher for the Administration to rehabilitate the image of its signature law. "There won't be a success until the website is working," said Bob Laszewski, a health care consultant who works closely with insurers. Nov. 30 will mark the Administration's self-imposed deadline to have HealthCare.gov working, as well as the end of the second full month of enrollment. And expectations for both of those milestones are modest.

No End in Sight for Retransmission Fee Increases, Projected to Reach $7.6 Billion

Don’t expect a slowdown in rising retransmission fees for local broadcast TV signals. US TV station owners can expect much more revenue from the practice in the coming years, according to the latest forecast from SNL Kagan.

Increases in per-month subscription fees and industry consolidation will fuel growth in TV station owners’ industry retransmission fees, which will rise from $3.3 billion this year to $7.6 billion in 2019, SNL Kagan predicts. Combined with other content fee hikes, retrans fees are helping fuel increases in subscription TV rates. Service providers are increasingly adding line items to subscriber bills to cover rising retransmission fees. Both AT&T and Comcast, among others, have now instituted “broadcast TV fee” line items on some subscriber bills. “The environment has improved for TV station owners,” said SNL Kagan. The market research company revised its previous year forecast of $6.05 billion in industry retrans fees for 2018 to $7.15 billion, highlighting that TV station owners “have increasingly obtained rates they believe are closer to the value they bring to multichannel video services.”

Unhappy about Airborne Cell Phones? Don't Call the FCC.

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission confirmed that, yes, it will formally propose removing its ban on in-flight cell-phone use. In-flight serenity is not among its responsibilities. When it comes to air travel, the FCC’s job is to keep the airwaves working. Period.

The impact of that work on peace and quiet in the aircraft is simply not their problem. Those concerned about someone jabbering at length in the next seat should be talking not to the FCC, but to the Federal Aviation Administration and the airlines, although the FAA may not be able to help, either. Its primary missions are air safety and efficiency. Unless the flight attendants can persuade the FAA that cell phones present a safety hazard (as from passengers coming to blows in the aisles), the FAA may likewise disclaim jurisdiction.

Hearing new voices

Sue Schardt is the executive director of the Association of Independents in Radio and mastermind behind Localore, a $2 million, 12-month initiative to support 10 independent producers to partner with local public media stations.

“From a money standpoint,” Schardt says, “public radio is a subsidized economy, so it’s a closed economy.” That has its benefits, but it also has its inefficiencies. One of those is the way the subsidy trickles down: Fully 75 percent of the $445 million Congressional appropriation to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting goes toward television. Of the quarter left for radio, Congressional legislation requires that most of be spent on program licenses. In practice, local stations spend the vast majority of their funding (from CPB or elsewhere) on licensing national shows, like All Things Considered or Morning Edition. Localore, on the other hand, presents stories, voices, and perspectives that don’t always make it onto the NPR airwaves. One big lesson of the project, Schardt says, is the importance of bringing in local investors. “That fires up local networks, and the radio station becomes a hub for churches, small businesses, libraries, and bars,” she says. “Localore [and] these networks, within local communities, had a shared value proposition, which totally redefines what the radio station is. It becomes a leader, in some ways, of urban rebirth or revitalization.”

Benton

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