June 2014

C Spire Promotion Highlights Wireless Priority Service for First Responders

C Spire Wireless’s new promotion for Wireless Priority Service (WPS) calls attention to an important emergency service with which some of us may not have been familiar.

“Wireless Priority Service was developed for carriers to allow first responders . . . during a terrorist attack or disaster to have access to priority calling,” explained Terrell Knight, vice president of government and economic development for C Spire.

Wireless networks typically get very heavy traffic during major emergencies as wireless users attempt to get in touch with friends and family. Sometimes networks become so congested that people are unable to place voice calls. When that occurs, WPS puts emergency responders first in line to place a call whenever capacity is freed up because calls have been completed. WPS doesn’t interrupt calls in progress, Knight explained.

A Call To Action To Build A Fully Accessible Society

[Commentary] The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, one of the committees in the UN human rights treaty bodies system, adopted its General Comment No 2 on the issue of Accessibility.

The General Comment to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) aims to provide guidance to all relevant stakeholders, such as states and international organizations, on how to ensure accessibility for persons with disabilities. Without access to the physical environment, transportation, information and communication, including information and communications technologies (ICTs) and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, persons with disabilities would not have equal opportunities for participation in their respective societies.

Many observers have argued that access to information and communication is a precondition for freedom of opinion and expression and should be included in the Convention. The CRPD is the first human rights treaty of the 21st century to explicitly address the importance of ensuring access to ICTs.

The importance of ICTs lies in its ability to introduce a wide range of new services, transform existing services and create greater demand for access to information and knowledge -- particularly for underserved and excluded populations, such as persons with disabilities. Article 12 of the International Telecommunication Regulations enshrines the right for persons with disabilities to access international telecommunication services. Taking into account other relevant International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recommendations, this Article could serve as a basis to reinforce State Parties’ national legislative frameworks.

The strict application of universal design should ensure full, equal and unrestricted access for all potential consumers, including persons with disabilities, in a way that takes full account of their inherent dignity and diversity. Accessibility of information and communication, including ICTs, should be achieved from the outsetbecause subsequent adaptations to such technologies may increase costs, thus making these services less affordable for persons with disabilities.

It is therefore more economical to incorporate mandatory ICT accessibility features from the earliest stages of design and production.

[Damjan Tatic, PhD, is legal expert, disability activist and a scholar from Belgrade, Serbia]

Pay Attention: Net-Neutrality Rules Could Shake Up Online Advertising

[Commentary] At this point, the topic may make your eyes glaze over. But make no mistake: network neutrality is a big deal for that ad business, and in turn, the ad-supported media ecosystem.

The companies that control the last mile of the Internet -- the likes of Comcast and Time Warner Cable -- would like to be able to charge different prices for the use of their pipes into the home. But while the net neutrality debate has focused on companies that provide entertainment or services on the web -- Google, Facebook and Netflix, for example -- it is also significant for marketers that use those pipes to communicate with their customers, like Unilever and P&G.

As the Federal Communications Commission comes closer to setting actual rules that might establish a multi-tiered system of fast lanes and slow lanes, they should be paying attention. If the FCC does allow Internet Service Providers to give speedier data delivery to companies willing to pay for the privilege, the online ad and publishing industries could look a lot different in the not-so-distant future.

Small publishers and small ad tech firms could fall prey to large firms able to pay for fast-tracking. Digital audiences and ad inventory could be redistributed. Publisher revenue models could shift towards more ad-subsidization or more subscription offerings. It might take a lot longer to load a video ad than the page content around it, or vice versa depending on who pays for better service. And new competition in today's commoditized programmatic ad sector could become reality.

"Pricing will go up for access from a marketing perspective in terms of CPMs," suggested Joe Apprendi, founder and CEO of ad-buying firm Collective and a digital ad industry vet. If a multi-tiered system forces more publishers away from ads to subscriptions, he said, that's also bad for marketers.

Half of Viewers Use Connected Devices While Eyeing Sports TV

When it comes to watching sports on TV these days, it’s increasingly a second-screen and social play, according to a recent study from Sporting News Media.

According to the group’s “US: Know the Fan Report 2014,” nearly half of surveyed sports fans maintain that they use Internet-connected devices while watching games and events on television.

Forty-four percent of these second-screeners like to catch up on what’s happening with other games being played via live text commentary and live scores, while 38% access non-sports related content. Another 21% communicate with friends through a second-screen device about the sports event on TV, compared to 20% watching clips and highlights of other games being played and 14% posting comments to social networking platforms about the game/event they’re engaged with it.

According to Sporting News Media’s fourth study of its kind, 2014 has marked a significant increase in the number of fans following sports via social networking platforms as over one-third of respondents said they consume sports on these platforms. Social networking fans are primarily younger fans, with 65% in the 18-to-34 set.

While mobile consumption of sports content has doubled to 42% from 21% in 2011, 65% of the surveyed sports fans indicated that they still primarily use a computer/laptop to access online sports content. Almost two in five (38%) access content on these devices at least once daily, according to the survey. Sporting News Media’s research found that smartphones are more widely used (34%) than tablets (22%) for the second year running, with the former’s usage growing 10 percentage points since 2013, versus a 3-percentage point advance for the latter.

Akamai signs deal with OpenDNS to make the web faster

Content delivery network Akamai is still attempting to speed up the web and it has teamed up with OpenDNS to add optimized DNS routing to its arsenal of services.

For customers using OpenDNS, content hosted on Akamai’s servers will arrive faster -- as much as four times fast in some cases. So now a user in Austin, Texas who types in the URL for a YouTube video will share part of his IP address as part of the DNS request. That way, the domain name system server can route the request to a Google data center in Dallas, as opposed to one in Ireland.

This can substantially speed up access to content.

FCC Needs to Improve its Internal 911 and IPv6 Compliance

To remain relevant, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must stay on top of current technologies and serve as a model both for industry and other federal agencies. The FCC loses credibility when it seeks to impose rules or standards on the private sector but does not adhere to the same or similar commitments in its own operations. To this end, I suggest that two important areas are ripe for improvement:

Direct access to 911. Our employees and any visitors must dial 9-911 to reach help in an emergency. I asked that the agency look into options for fixing this problem. Since then, we have learned how simple reprogramming our telephone system would be. While the new dialing procedures may require some minor education of staff, this can be done relatively quickly. Also, we should hold ourselves to the same cost-benefit standards that we apply to regulatees.
Transitioning to IPv6. Where is the FCC in its transition? Well, it issued a consumer guide on IPv6 in 2012 to encourage the private sector to quickly move to the new standard. But the agency itself has a ways to go. In fact, only 12% of its linked subdomains are IPv6 operational. For an agency that just proposed rules and questions that aim to micromanage the way the Internet works, this is seems ironic. I am hopeful that as the FCC modernizes its website and IT infrastructure, it will also quickly complete the transition to IPv6.

Lawmakers lay out goals for FCC program to fund Internet in schools

A bipartisan group of lawmakers laid out recommendations for the Federal Communications Commission to modernize its E-Rate program to fund technology in classrooms.

“The funding priorities must reflect the changing nature of the Internet, so that our classrooms and students have access to today’s technology,” a group of 46 lawmakers told the FCC. “America’s school and libraries are in need of a technological update to accelerate next-generation education reforms, support teachers and enhance student learning through universal access to high-speed broadband.”

The lawmakers laid out a list of recommendations for updating the 18-year-old E-Rate program, including focuses on Internet services and Wi-Fi, making sure pricing for Internet access is competitive, increasing transparency and streamlining the application process.

OSTP’s Own Open Government Plan

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released its 2014 Open Government Plan. The OSTP plan highlights three flagship efforts as well as the team’s ongoing work to embed the open government principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration into its activities.

OSTP’s 2014 flagship efforts include:

Access to Scientific Collections: OSTP is leading agencies in developing policies that will improve the management of and access to scientific collections that agencies own or support. Agency policies will help make scientific collections and information about scientific collections more transparent and accessible in the coming years.
We the Geeks: We the Geeks Google+ Hangouts feature informal conversations with experts to highlight the future of science, technology, and innovation in the United States. Participants can join the conversation on Twitter and ask the presenters questions.
“All Hands on Deck” on STEM Education: In support of President Barack Obama’s commitment to an “all-hands-on-deck approach, OSTP is bringing together government, industry, non-profits, philanthropy, and others to expand science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education engagement and awareness through events like the annual White House Science Fair and the upcoming White House Maker Faire.

Newsgathering, sharing agreements evolve

The latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Survey continues to show that the TV news business isn't limited to TV anymore, but the numbers also show a stabilization in the outside reach of a TV newsroom.

The percentage of stations involved with other media slid about two and a half points from 2013 to 75.9%. Still a very high number. The group least likely to be involved with others: the smallest stations in the biggest markets -- which came in around the 66 percentage mark -- and Fox affiliates, which came in around 57%.

Generally, the bigger the newsroom, the more likely to have the station supplying news to other places. Fox affiliates were more likely to be involved with cable channels but less likely to be involved with another TV station in the local market or a radio station. Stations in the Northeast were noticeably more likely to be involved with another local TV station, a cable channel and TV in another market than stations elsewhere.

Out of stations supplying news to other media, a majority of stations have a cooperative arrangement with another medium.

[Papper is Professor Emeritus, Hofstra University]

Supreme Court shoots down two more rules put in place by top patent court

The US Supreme Court issued rulings in two of the five patent cases it heard this term. In both cases, the high court unanimously struck down rules created by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the nation's top patent court.

The two rulings continue a pattern that has developed over the past several years, in which the Supreme Court has overturned key Federal Circuit rulings, finding them too favorable to patent-holders and too harsh on parties accused of infringement. All four of the companies involved in the legal opinion are competitors with real products -- none represent the much-debated "patent trolls," that is, companies with no business beyond patent lawsuits. Yet, the issue of patent trolls looms large in the background of these opinions.

Both decisions will make life easier for Internet and other tech companies frequently accused of infringement.

In the case of Limelight Networks v. Akamai Technologies, trolls were happy to use the Federal Circuit-approved theory about "induced infringement" to sue tech companies. They argued that even when a defendant didn't complete all steps of a patent itself, it encouraged its customers to do so. In the case of Nautilus v. Biosig Instruments, the Supreme Court has made it easier to throw out patents on the grounds that they're "indefinite." The ruling widens another path of attack that can be used against vague patents.

Benton

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