December 2013

Where’s all this spectrum going to come from?

[Commentary] Predictably, spectrum was a hot topic at the Phoenix Center’s excellent policy symposium.

Blair Levin, the architect of the National Broadband Plan, was one of the speakers, and the Plan’s forecast for 500 MHz of new spectrum was reiterated by the speakers on the spectrum panel.

The issue has changed quite a lot since the Broadband Plan was written. Subsequent developments highlight the need for spectrum for non-Internet uses such as Medical Body Area Networks, car safety and navigation, and drones. Government is making small steps to reduce its spectrum footprint, but there’s no question that demand is growing much faster than supply and will continue to grow at the speed of imagination. So part of the problem is that we have three models of spectrum allocation (licensed, unlicensed, and dynamic), one of which is dysfunctional in the current state of technology. What would it take to make White Spaces and other dynamic spectrum allocation systems work? That’s the $64 billion question, but there’s a theoretical answer: technical systems that allow multiple transmissions at the same time, place, direction, and frequency without detectable interference.

Mergers: Commission clears acquisition of Nokia's mobile device business by Microsoft

The European Commission, the European Union’s antitrust authority, has cleared the proposed acquisition of most of Nokia Corporation's devices and services business by Microsoft, which mainly produces and sells smartphones and feature phones.

The Commission concluded that the transaction would not raise any competition concerns, in particular because there are only modest overlaps between the parties' activities and the links between Microsoft's mobile operating systems, mobile applications and enterprise mail server software with Nokia's smart mobile devices are unlikely to lead to competitors being shut out from the market. In 2012, almost 700 million smartphones and 162 million tablets were sold worldwide. The Commission assessed the effects of the acquisition on competition in the field of smart mobile devices (including smartphones and tablets). The Commission found that the overlap of the two companies' activities in this area is minimal and several strong rivals, such as Samsung and Apple will continue to compete with the merged entity. The EC’s approval follows a few days after a similar endorsement by the US Department of Justice, and sets the stage for the deal to be completed by early 2014.

Same Sh*t, Different Screen: The Disruption Myth and Digital TV

[Commentary] Silicon Valley loves nothing more than a little disruption, and the disrupt du jour is in the TV industry. The meme? That digital is driving a revolution in television comparable to the one that upended the music industry a little over a decade ago. I don’t agree. I think that today’s TV is a lot like it was a decade ago. Digital hasn’t changed the TV industry all that much.

While Netflix and Hulu, the new kids on the content block, have created original programming such as “House of Cards” and “Battleground,” the new shows look less like indie productions and more like mainstream broadcast series. And, although many had predicted that most mobile Web viewing would be of less-traditional programming like user-generated and short-form content, the fact is that long-form content comprises the majority of views, and is on the upswing. Mobile long-form video viewing increased 29 percent year over year, growing from 41 percent of total time viewing in Q1 2012 to 53 percent in Q1 2013, and more than half of the video viewed on tablets in the first half of 2013 was premium long-form content. Where are the tectonic shifts in the TV industry’s business model? The truth is, digital hasn’t created a surge of independent producers -- the economics of creating an award-winning program are just too daunting. As in the past, the vast majority of pay TV is still offered as a bundle -- consumers pay a flat rate for a “package” that may include some programs they don’t want. And though we continue to hear consumer groups say that cord-cutting will save viewers gobs of money, the truth is that a la carte TV programming would be more expensive than most pay TV. The one place where digital has driven big change for TV is in the screens people are using. A growing number of viewers are turning to connected devices -- smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, PCs, Roku and gaming consoles -- to watch their favorite programming.

[Jay Fulcher is CEO of Ooyala, a cross-device video analytics and monetization solutions company]

Senate to hold hearing on FCC auction

The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on the upcoming spectrum auction on Dec 10.

The Federal Communications Commission plans to buy back the licenses of TV broadcasters for auction to cellphone service providers. The additional spectrum will help the wireless providers meet the skyrocketing demand for mobile data, and the auction revenue will help the government pay for a nationwide wireless network for first responders and to reduce the national debt. Building the public safety network, a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission Report, is a top priority for Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).

ITU achieves major breakthrough in audio standards

The International Telecommunications Union has announced a draft Recommendation for next-generation ‘immersive’ and ‘personalized’ audio systems for television and radio.

A number of new techniques have been developed that will heighten the experience and bring it to a new level, while allowing the audience to personalize their experience. Now, Study Group 6 has developed a system for the next-generation ‘immersive’ and ‘personalized’ audio system, which will allow TV audiences to be ‘‘enveloped’ in the sound as it traces the source of the audio track both laterally and vertically across the screen. Deciding which technique the ITU-R should specify has been one of the hottest subjects of the audio world for many years. In the new approach, the audio landscape that surrounds the viewer is delivered either by supplying more channels of audio that can be ‘rendered’ for use by any additional loudspeakers that may be present, or by delivering audio elements that are ‘dynamically rendered’ into the existing speakers.

British news staff may face terrorism charges over Snowden leaks

British police are examining whether Guardian newspaper staff should be investigated for terrorism offenses over their handling of data leaked by Edward Snowden, Britain's senior counter-terrorism officer said.

The disclosure came after Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, summoned to give evidence at a parliamentary inquiry, was accused by lawmakers of helping terrorists by making top secret information public and sharing it with other news organizations. The Guardian was among several newspapers which published leaks from US spy agency contractor Snowden about mass surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain's eavesdropping agency GCHQ. Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick, who heads London's Specialist Operations unit, told lawmakers the police were looking to see whether any offenses had been committed, following the brief detention in August of a man carrying data on behalf of a Guardian journalist.

13 modern challenges today’s school tech leaders face

A recent forum held for chief technology officers (CTOs) covered a wide range of 21st-century challenges, including one few saw coming: If the technology works “too” well, are tech leaders still valued? During the forum held by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), CoSN brought together district-level technology directors to talk about “building a ‘Tech Department Dream Team,’ through a combination of panel presentation and table discussions.” Attendees explored the evolving roles and the expanded skill set of today’s CTO. In the context of what skills are needed and how roles change, many CTOs began by listing the now-common challenges faced in schools and districts across the country.

Challenges identified by forum panelists and participants include [in no particular order]:

Equity: Due to BYOD policies and solutions, student-owned technology has raised new worries about the digital divide.
Bandwidth and Infrastructure
Funding
Community Support
Scale: Growing community populations, as well as scaling up effectively from small pilot programs to full-fledged deployments, require massive infrastructure changes, as well as more professional development (PD).
Changing Mindsets: One of the newer, yet most “persistent” challenges faced by technology leaders, is how to keep the focus on learning rather than the device or the network.
PD: As mindsets change, so does the definition of what makes effective PD, the report notes.
Training and Support for Technology Specialists
High-Stakes Testing: With testing moving online, there is fear that valuable technology resources will be diverted from instruction to assessment, and that the new Common Core State Standards assessments might now work well on district-owned or BYOD devices, said forum attendees.
Fractured Leadership: Several participants cited “lack of vision” from district leaders and many discussed “fragmentation and isolation” as issues for concern.
Technical Challenges: A rapid increase in student- and teacher-owned mobile devices on the school networks and the evolving system requirements of online assessments add new complications, said attendees.
Security
Perceived Value: “Ironically,” says the report, “if technology leaders do a good job, the technology becomes increasingly seamless and invisible, which can cause it to be overlooked as a necessary expenditure.”

UK tries to apply media bans to Facebook and Twitter users: is that a good idea?

The British government, responding to a flood of chatter about court cases on social media, is publishing new guidelines to warn people that there can be trouble if they post restricted information on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The rules, described on the UK Attorney General’s website, purport to “help prevent social media users from committing a contempt of court,” and are an attempt to extend traditional media publication bans to the public at large. UK courts, meanwhile, are also beginning to apply the country’s notorious libel laws to the social media sphere.

Inside China’s Version of Silicon Valley

On the outside, China's answer to Silicon Valley doesn't look the part: It's a crowded mass of electronics malls, fast-food joints and office buildings in northwest Beijing, bisected by congested highways. But in these nondescript offices China is nurturing a growing class of tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, whose promising startups are challenging the long-held idea that China's Internet companies merely copy the products of the West.

Beijing's Zhongguancun district relies instead on a new kind of mimcry -- of Silicon Valley's culture itself. The new generation of entrepreneurs "isn't copying US products," said Zhang Rui, chief executive of Spring Rain Software Co., which runs a popular mobile app providing health advice from doctors. "They're studying the style, personality, management and funding of Silicon Valley." Today the emphasis is on entrepreneurs with new ideas. Incubators and coffee shops provide space, power and Internet connections. Sympathetic local officials offer subsidies and help in dealing with China's notorious bureaucracy.

Libraries fear NSA is targeting their records

The nation’s libraries are backing legislation that would curb the powers of the National Security Agency. Revelations about NSA surveillance have created a “climate of concern” for libraries, which are seeking to defend the freedom to read and research away from the government’s prying eyes. “You need to have some freedom to learn about what you think is important without worrying about whether it ends up in some FBI file,” said Alan Inouye, director of the Office for Information Technology Policy at the American Library Association (ALA).

Government snooping of libraries has a long history. Under the Patriot Act, for example, the FBI has the power to compel libraries to hand over user data. But the activities of the NSA seem to go far beyond traditional police work, reflecting an “almost ravenous hunger” for collecting information, according to Lynne Bradley, director of the ALA’s Office of Government Relations. That’s especially troubling to the ALA, as “libraries are all about metadata,” Inouye said. The records that libraries keep -- when a user logs on to a library computer, what websites they visit, when books are borrowed and returned -- seem to fit the mold of what the NSA is seeking.

Benton

Search