One lesson to emerge from the 2014 election cycle? Despite all their vaunted mastery of online politics, digital experts on both sides of the aisle are finding themselves deluged by all the data available to them, struggling to make use of it all during the heat of a campaign.
Almost overnight, it would seem, Facebook has become the Internet’s nagging mother -- reminding you to vote, send that check to the Red Cross, and eat five full servings of fruits and vegetables a day. The social network has lately grown active in policing the civic duties of its users -- an undertaking with potentially significant consequences, given that its users number north of 1.35 billion. It’s just not entirely clear if that’s the company’s place.
Like other major technology companies, Dropbox employed mostly white and Asian men. It was working to attract more women and minorities, but the departure of key women had exposed the company to sharp criticism.
Job interview questions about a zombie apocalypse, and conference rooms named the "Bromance Chamber" and "The Breakup Room" didn't help the company's reputation for being a boy's club. Which is why Dropbox's 31-year-old CEO, Drew Houston, resolved to hack the culture of his own company much the way, seven years ago, he hacked a better way to transport files. Even with 1,000 employees, Dropbox is still young and agile enough to make profound changes to how it recruits and treats employees, Houston said.
Company executives consulted leading experts in diversity including Joan Williams from the Clayman Institute. They also spoke with prominent women in tech who are passionate about the issue, notably Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Megan Smith, the former Google executive who is now the chief technology officer of the United States. In less than 10 months, Dropbox doubled the percentage of women working in engineering, product and design and tripled the percentage of women in design, said Dropbox general counsel Ramsey Homsany, who also oversees public policy and people operations. Today diversity is part of everyday business at Dropbox, from all-hands meetings to hackathons, executives say.
Every time you use Google or Apple mobile location services, you’re not just telling the services where you are. You’re also shouting many of the places you’ve been to anyone who happens to be listening around you -- at least if you follow Google’s and Apple’s advice and turn on Wi-Fi for improved accuracy.
Wi-Fi is everywhere. And because of its ubiquity, Wi-Fi access points have become the navigational beacons of the 21st century, allowing location-based services on mobile devices to know exactly where you are. But thanks to the way Wi-Fi protocols work, mapping using Wi-Fi is a two-way street -- just as your phone listens for information about networks around it to help you find your way, it is shouting out the name of every network it remembers you connecting to as long as it remains unconnected.
Government officials are trying to expand their authority to hack into and locate computers by changing an arcane federal rule governing how judges can approve search warrants.
The Justice Department has petitioned a judicial advisory committee to amend a rule that specifies under what conditions magistrate judges can grant the government search warrants. The provision, known as Rule 41 of the federal rules of criminal procedure, typically allows judges to issue search warrants only within their judicial district. But the government has asked to alter this restriction to allow judges to approve electronic surveillance to find and search a computer's contents regardless of its physical location, even if the device is suspected of being abroad. Law-enforcement investigators are seeking the additional powers to better track and investigate criminals who use technology to conceal their identity and location, a practice that has become more common and sophisticated in recent years.
Public Knowledge and other public advocacy groups sent letters to all 100 senators urging them to either fix provisions harmful to consumers in the Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act (STAVRA) or refrain from passing the bill at all.
Each letter explains that language removing current Federal Communications Commission rules around set-top boxes will harm competition in the video device market, and potentially hurt future innovation in video devices and systems. The Senate Commerce Committee approved STAVRA's harmful provision, but several senators have objected to the bill's language and delayed its passing. Public Knowledge supports these objections and encourages all senators to demand the language be changed. Public Knowledge also opposes hiding the anti-consumer provision in important spending legislation needed to fund the U.S. government. Multiple public interest advocacy groups joined Public Knowledge’s letter, including Common Cause, Consumer Action, Consumers Union, Free Press Action Fund and the Parents Television Council.
Spotlight Stories are brief, interactive entertainments -- “immersive shorts” is the preferred term -- originally conceived by the Advanced Technology and Projects team at Motorola, during the company’s brief life as a Google subsidiary. The ATAP unit did not go to Lenovo when the Chinese PC maker bought Motorola last year, but was shifted to Google’s Android division. ATAP has many projects in the works including a 3-D sensing system called Tango and a modular phone development kit called Ara. But Spotlight Stories reach beyond the geeky advances into something that uses advanced tech to reframe storytelling itself. They are the embodiment of the vision that Steve Jobs always espoused about the nexus of art and technology.
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Bureau issued a curious public notice reminding licensees in the Paging and Radiotelephone Services of various rules in Part 22 that they’re supposed to be complying with. Following the reminder, the notice veered sharply, creating a new docket that could open the door for increased use of channels historically allotted for use by paging and radiotelephone services.
The Bureau is requesting comments on how to promote “more intensive” use of this Part 22 spectrum by its licensees. In particular, the Bureau hopes that, by increasing “technical or operational flexibility”, it might encourage Part 22 licensees to deploy “innovative technologies” and/or narrowband equipment, or use offset frequencies if they hold adjacent channel blocks.
Countries participating in the 2014 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-14) in Busan, South Korea -- 171 of them including the US -- have unanimously committed to a Connect 2020 Agenda, a strategic plan for an "interconnected world," setting targets to be achieved by 2020.
It is described as an effort to create an "information society, empowered by the interconnected world, where telecommunication/ICT enables and accelerates socially, economically and environmentally sustainable growth and development for everyone” based on what it calls the four pillars: growth, inclusiveness, sustainability, and innovation and partnerships and is meant to encompass government, the private sector, academia and civil society groups. Those include that, worldwide, 55% of households should have access to the Internet, 60% should be using the Internet, and 40% of broadband should be "more affordable."
Broadband is a critical element in ensuring that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) innovation is enabled around the world; it is the platform on which ICTs are developed and built, bringing benefits to governments, businesses and individuals. Thus, a cohesive multi-stakeholder approach is required to achieve the fourth pillar of the Connect 2020 framework, ‘Innovation and Partnership – lead, improve and adapt to the changing ICT environment’.
We must cultivate innovation using all of the resources available in the multi-stakeholder sector to ensure that we develop a vibrant ICT field that benefits everyone who participated within it. This includes young people; it is estimated that 42.5% of the global population is under the age of 25, making it vital to encourage youth to get actively involved in the development of ICTs to ensure the future growth and success of the sector.
[Johnson is ITU Deputy Secretary General]
© 1994-2025 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.
