The Federal Communications Commission has given interested parties until Sept. 26 to comment on whether the FCC should extend additional protections to copies of retransmission consent- and program carriage-related documents it is asking for in connection with its review of the Comcast/Time Warner Cable/Charter and AT&T/DirecTV merger proposals.
FirstNet requests public comment on certain proposed interpretations of its enabling legislation that will inform, among other things, forthcoming requests for proposals, interpretive rules, and network policies. With the benefit of the comments received from this Notice, FirstNet may proceed to implement these or other interpretations with or without further administrative procedure. Submit comments on or before October 24, 2014.
For years, it’s been difficult to tell if text messaging was on its way in or out, but if government use is any indicator, the technology is at the very least here for now.
House lawmakers last week decided after some debate to include text messages among the electronic communications federal employees could be fired for improperly destroying. And some agencies, such as US Citizenship and Immigration Services, are expanding their use of Short Message Service, or SMS, technology to provide better services. Mary Yang, senior marketing strategist for GovDelivery, a messaging platform used by more than half of federal agencies, thinks the technology will follow the path of e-mail.
The modern classroom is packed with digital technology that can record students’ academic performance in real time, as well as keep track of their attendance, assignments and more. All that data isn't just changing the classroom and the job of teachers. It's changing the role of parents, who are being asked to do more to keep up and keep tabs on their kids.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has expanded and reorganized its journalism and media innovation staff to accelerate media innovation and increase the adoption of digital tools by newsrooms.
John S. Bracken was promoted to vice president/media innovation, leading the team that will accelerate the pace of funding of media experimentation. Knight Foundation also promoted Chris Barr to director/media innovation. Barr manages the Knight Prototype Fund, which has become an important part of Knight strategy as it allows for the rapid testing and iteration of ideas. A second vice president, for journalism, will lead the team focused on the adoption of innovative digital tools and techniques in newspaper, TV, radio and Internet newsrooms. The new position will be filled in the next several weeks. Joining Knight Foundation as director/journalism is Shazna Nessa, a former Associated Press deputy managing editor and a recent John S. Knight journalism fellow at Stanford University. Marie Gilot was promoted to journalism program officer.
Brookings Institution
September 25, 2014
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT
http://www.brookings.edu/events/2014/09/25-internet-starting-to-fracture
On September 25, Governance Studies at Brookings will host an event on the challenges facing cross-border data flows in the digital economy. A panel of experts will discuss the possible ramifications on communication, trade, and commerce of a fractioned Internet.
Since its inception, the Internet has thrived as a platform that facilitates open data flows across national boundaries. Commerce and communications grew due to the ability of people in diverse locations to connect and communicate. In recent years, though, a number of challenges have arisen that run the risk of turning the Internet into a “balkanized” platform. This includes protectionist sentiments, interoperability challenges, and cybersecurity threats. The result has been a crisis of confidence in the Internet as a whole. Countries that once enjoyed open cross-border data flows are now skeptical about online information exchange. To avoid surveillance, some nations are now storing data within their own borders to protect their confidential information. How have these developments affected trade and commerce across different nations?
Comcast says Netflix and other companies lining up against its proposed $45 billion union with Time Warner Cable have something in common: attempted “extortion.”
In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, Comcast says the companies made “self-interested requests” of the cable giant, “almost always with an express or at least an implicit offer to support” it’s Time Warner Cable bid if the demands were met. Comcast calls out high-profile opponents of the deal, including Netflix, Discovery Communications, and DISH, for having engaged in such tactics. “The significance of this extortion lies in not just the sheer audacity of the demands, but also the fact that each of the entities making the ‘ask’ has all but conceded that if its individual business interests are met, then it has no concern whatsoever about the state of the industry, supposed market power going forward, or harm to consumers, competitors or new entrants,” the company wrote.
[Commentary] When asked to describe the public benefits of their controversial plan to buy out Time Warner Cable, Comcast executives eagerly point to the expansion of Internet Essentials, Comcast's three-year-old program that provides $10 broadband accounts to families with children who qualify for Federal school lunch subsidies. If the Time Warner deal is allowed, Comcast promises the program will continue to expand its user base of low-income households in its current market areas -- now pegged at about 300,000 -- and expand aggressively in the former Time Warner markets as well. But what many have failed to notice that one of the first effects of the deal, if greenlighted by the FCC, will be to terminate $10 Internet Essentials service for tens of thousands of poor families who are already using it. These families are among the 2.5 million customers whom Comcast is proposing to "spin off" to a newly formed cable Internet corporation called "GreatLand Connections".
[Aug 31]
User-experience designer Samuel Hulick is partnering with a pair of Code for America fellows to encourage the public to do the same for, say, the process of applying for food stamps. It's called CitizenOnboard.
Using the original UserOnboard is like taking a tour through some of the digital sites you know best -- but with an especially design-savvy friend by your side pointing out the kinks. "The user experience," or UX on these sites, "is often tacked on haphazardly," says Hulick, who launched UserOnboard in December 2013 and who is also the author of the recent book "The Elements of User Onboarding." What's he looking for in a good UX, he says, is something non-designers can spot, too. "If you were the Web site, what tone would you take? How would you guide people through your process?"
The pay TV industry’s heavily lobbied retransmission consent reform campaign doesn’t appear likely to result in a major pummeling for broadcasters on Capitol Hill this year, but cable and satellite TV operators may score some gains that could hurt the ability of broadcasters to negotiate future retransmission deals.
The focus of the pay TV efforts to hobble broadcasters has been legislation aimed primarily at extending the ability of satellite TV operators to import distant broadcast signals in certain limited circumstances for five years. The legislation is known as the Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act, or STAVRA, in the Senate and the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act, or STELA, in the House.
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