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  2. December 2014

December 2014

Making social media research more reliable and reproducible

For researchers interested in studying human behavior, the explosion of social media data provides incredible opportunities. The result has been an explosion of research using this data, which was only brought to the attention of many users by Facebook’s infamous study on emotional words, in which researchers manipulated the emotions of unsuspecting users. “Powerful computational resources combined with the availability of massive social media data sets has given rise to a growing body of work that [measures] population structure and human behavior at unprecedented scale,” write researchers Juergen Pfeffer and Derek Ruths in a recent Science paper that discusses the shortcomings of social media research methods. However, despite the potential of these data sets to provide insights into human behavior, “mounting evidence suggests that many of the forecasts and analyses being produced misrepresent the real world,” Pfeffer and Ruths caution. The use of this data is rife with problems, many of which have already been addressed by other disciplines and are not insurmountable, but which must be dealt with to improve accuracy in the field.

Problems include:

  • Data being obtained from skewed populations
  • The lack of unrestricted access to data
  • Privacy constraints which prevent researchers from retaining their data sets
  • User data being effectively self-reported
  • Publication bias

The Public Computer Center at the College of Menominee Nations, Wisconsin

While Native American Heritage Month is celebrated just once a year in November, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has been serving America’s Tribal Nations effectively for many years through its grant programs. One such grant of $3.4 million was made in 2010 to the College of Menominee Nations (the College) through the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

This Public Computer Center (PCC) project included the construction of a new 10,000 square foot campus Technology Center and upgrades of broadband capacity to serve the more than 5,000 members of the Menominee Tribe, who live in one of Wisconsin’s more rural and economically disadvantaged areas. According to Ron Jurgens, Institutional Research Director for the college, the new facility continues to draw people from the reservation and neighboring counties to use the technology, pursue their educational goals, and take advantage of 100 megabit Internet service. In fact, the center is so popular that the county board voted to relocate the public library on the college campus.

Not So Fast

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler plans to add as much as $1.5 billion to their phone bills. That’s OK, says the FCC, since it’s for a good cause: speed and education. The money would go toward increasing the funds in the E-rate subsidy and it’s undeniably a laudatory end-result -- getting faster broadband to low-income schools and libraries. But it illustrates the somewhat less preferable point that to get value, one must pay for it. How much value boosting the budget will create is a matter of dispute, but the point is the Chairman recognizes that offering more and better broadband is worth paying a little extra for. Let’s just put this on the schedule as a reminder when the “high cable bill” mantra surfaces. As Chairman Wheeler knows, having headed the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and CTIA: The Wireless Association, building out a network is not cheap, and recovering that investment takes years, particularly if you are rate-regulated.

Three Steps to Help Protect Your Personal Information on Cyber Monday

"Cyber Monday", the first Monday following Thanksgiving, is the most active online shopping day of the year in the US. With that in mind, we want to encourage you to shop online securely today by following three tips that come from Stop Think Connect -- a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and industry.1) Avoid Suspicious Links 2) Check for https:// 3) Know Your Wi-Fi

Reminder: You’re Not Watching Sports Without Cable TV

US sports fans are pretty much required to get pay TV. In large part because ESPN, the country’s most powerful cable channel, has locked up the rights to the biggest sports leagues and events -- or at least a portion of them -- usually for a decade or more.

Those rights are very expensive, of course. Nathanson figures ESPN will pay $3.8 billion for those games this year, and $5.1 billion by 2017. And the TV networks that don’t have those rights -- like Viacom -- like to argue that these expenses will eventually weaken ESPN, as consumers who don’t value sports will cut the cord or won’t sign up for it in the first place. Pay-TV operators, meanwhile, are paying ESPN $6 for every subscriber each month, whether or not they watch (or want) the channel, according to research firm SNL Kagan. That cost is expected to reach more than $8 by 2018.

December 1, 2014 (Congress and the FCC)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2014

This week’s events http://benton.org/calendar/2014-11-30--P1W


POLICYMAKERS
   Congress and the FCC: An Uneasy Relationship - analysis

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   AT&T’s good cop, bad cop routine with the FCC
   In 2014, the Internet added an entire United States to its user base
   Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Wi-Fi Plan Draws Critics
   Five options for feds on network neutrality - analysis
   Net Neutrality: How Did House Reps. Vote on the FCC's 2011 Net Neutrality Rule?
   Shades of complexity dominate the debate over ‘net neutrality’ - Steven Pearlstein analysis [links to web]
   Three Lessons from the History of Digital Television for Broadband Policy Development - Stuart Brotman op-ed [links to web]
   Halfway to Wrecking Internet Freedom - L Gordon Crovitz editorial

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   A Blockbuster Wireless Auction - New York Times editorial
   Mobile broadband modems lose their appeal with consumers [links to web]
   AARP, Intel design a tablet for the ‘technology-shy’ [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   Department of Justice Requires Divestiture in Order for Nexstar to Proceed With Its Acquisition of Communications Corporation of America - press release [links to web]

SECURITY/PRIVACY
   Case Suggests How Government May Get Around Phone Encryption

CONTENT
   Two Music Publishers Suing Cox Over Piracy

LABOR
   Top male engineers at Google make nearly 20% more than their female peers

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   Democrats and Republicans Attempt Twitter End-Run Around Campaign Finance Laws - Campaign Legal Center op-ed [links to web]
   How Facebook plans to become one of the most powerful tools in politics [links to web]

ADVERTISING
   AT&T told to stop calling U-verse the “Fastest Internet for the price” [links to web]

TELEVISION
   TV seems to know what you want to see; algorithms at work
   Washington Appeals Court: Retransmission Contracts Covered By PRA [links to web]

COMPANY NEWS
   Dish Network’s presence on the mobile sidelines is growing - analysis [links to web]
   Twitter to Start Tracking Which Apps Its Users Have Downloaded [links to web]
   Federal contractor turned entrepreneur creates public safety app for smartphones [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   EU Parliament Passes Measure to Break Up Google in Symbolic Vote
   Europe has good reasons to fear Google - Vlad Savov analysis [links to web]
   Europe should focus on spurring European tech growth - Michael Mandel op-ed [links to web]
   EU panel calls for global ‘right to be forgotten’
   Social media terms and conditions are way too complex, say UK MPs [links to web]
   YouTube stars face authenticity test in UK [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   President Obama signs E-Label Act [links to web]
   Google overtakes Apple in the US classroom [links to web]

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POLICYMAKERS

CONGRESS AND THE FCC: AN UNEASY RELATIONSHIP
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Andrew Jay Schwartzman]
[Commentary] President Barack Obama’s recent statement urging Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to “reclassify” broadband Internet services has exposed many people to something they haven’t had reason to think about: the FCC is an independent agency, not truly part of the Executive Branch. Actually, the FCC is in some ways more nearly akin to an arm of the Congress, and exercises quasi-legislative powers when it adopts rules implementing the Communications Act. The relationship between the FCC and the Executive Branch is a worthy topic to explore, but in light of the recent Republican takeover of the Senate, this post will address the relationship between the FCC and Congress. Apart from the power to legislate, Congress has several means of influencing actions of the FCC. Because Congress has several means of directly influencing FCC action, members of the FCC pay heed to the frequent letters from members of Congress calling for action on a particular item or advocating a particular result. Pressure from influential members from the leadership or from senior members of the Commerce Committees can often shape the details of FCC action.
http://benton.org/blog/congress-and-fcc-uneasy-relationship
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

AT&T AND THE FCC
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
When AT&T said it was halting a plan to give 100 cities ultra-fast Internet, it apparently didn't really mean that. The telecom giant was threatening to pull its investments in new fiber optic cables if it didn't get more "certainty" from Washington about how Internet service providers would be regulated under net neutrality, the idea that broadband companies shouldn't be allowed to speed up or slow down certain Web sites over others. AT&T's chief executive, Randall Stephenson, told investors this month that "we can't go out and just invest that kind of money" without knowing what rules the government might apply. But after the warning raised eyebrows at the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T is now saying that it "still plans to complete" the rollout after all, underscoring the delicate balance the company has to strike with federal officials if it wants them to approve its $49 billion merger with DirecTV. AT&T has argued that its merger with DirecTV, if approved, would help consumers by expanding video choices and promoting competition with the cable industry. Let the deal go through, and everybody benefits, the company says. Separately, however, AT&T is making a more ominous argument: If regulators don't craft industry-friendly net neutrality rules, AT&T (and everyone else who's an ISP) will have no choice but to hurt consumers by slowing down the pace of their network upgrades. If you pass aggressive regulations, the consequences are on you. Stephenson's comments this month seemed to offer a taste of that.
benton.org/headlines/atts-good-cop-bad-cop-routine-fcc | Washington Post | Recode | The Hill
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INTERNATIONAL INTERNET GROWTH
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Nancy Scola]
In 2013, the Internet grew a great deal, adding a number of new users equivalent to about the population of the United States. The caveat: even that growing global online population tends to look a lot like that of the United States -- relatively well-off, generally educated, and fairly young. According to this year's edition of the "Measuring the Information Society" report from the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union, by the end of 2014, the Internet will be used by 3 billion people around the world. That's an increase of 300 million people since last year, and it means we're quickly approaching the point where half of the world's population will be online. Less encouraging for fans of the Internet, though, is that usage is not distributed evenly yet.
benton.org/headlines/2014-internet-added-entire-united-states-its-user-base | Washington Post
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WI-FI PLAN DRAWS CRITICS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Mike Vilensky]
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to bring public Internet access to the five boroughs is raising concerns among cybersecurity experts and elected officials. The initiative would build one of the world’s largest municipal Wi-Fi networks -- an experiment that could backfire, analysts said, if hackers access massive troves of personal data. “If [city officials] are not extraordinarily careful, they’re opening up Pandora’s box,” said Timothy P. Ryan, managing director of cyber-investigations at Kroll, a risk-management firm. The initiative will replace the city’s pay phones with some 10,000 so-called Link machines, Wi-Fi hubs with phone capabilities, streaming advertisements and cellular-phone chargers. The project will cost about $200 million, officials said, with a consortium of companies involved in the project sharing the ad revenue with the city. No taxpayer money will be used for construction, officials said.
benton.org/headlines/mayor-bill-de-blasios-wi-fi-plan-draws-critics | Wall Street Journal
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FIVE NET NEUTRALITY OPTIONS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Julian Hattem]
Here are five options the Federal Communications Commission could take on network neutrality:
The so-called “Title II” approach that President Barack Obama endorsed would have the FCC reclassify broadband Internet as a “telecommunications” service instead of an “information” service, which would allow it to draw from stronger rules under Title II of the Communications Act.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s proposal to regulate Internet service providers under legal authority that allows the agency to promote the deployment of broadband.
Chairman Wheeler was reportedly close to settling on some type of hybrid approach that used a mix of legal authorities to regulate the Web.
Instead of having the FCC write new rules, GOP lawmakers and the two Republican commissioners sitting on the FCC have said Wheeler should wait for Congress to act.
Include wireless Internet service in new net neutrality rules.
benton.org/headlines/five-options-feds-network-neutrality | Hill, The
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NET NEUTRALITY VOTING
[SOURCE: MapLight, AUTHOR: ]
In 2010, the Federal Communications Commission issued a rule designed to enshrine network neutrality as the law of the land, prohibiting fixed-line internet service providers from blocking or discriminating against traffic to lawful content on the web. In April 2011, the House of Representatives passed a resolution of disapproval against the FCC's net neutrality rule. This 2011 FCC rule was thrown out in 2014 by the D.C. Circuit as a result of the Verizon v. Federal Communication Commission case. How did members of the House of Representatives vote on the 2011 resolution opposing net neutrality?
benton.org/headlines/net-neutrality-how-did-house-reps-vote-fccs-2011-net-neutrality-rule | MapLight | map
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WRECKING INTERNET FREEDOM
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] We’re at the midpoint between the Obama Administration’s March 2014 announcement that it would end US protection of the open Internet and September 2015, when the change is supposed to happen. During this time, there has been no progress finding an alternative for protecting the Internet from authoritarian governments. That’s no surprise -- except to Obama Administration officials who apparently never considered how hard it would be to replace US stewardship. The Obama Administration is so uncomfortable with American exceptionalism that it violated the cardinal rule of good government: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Under U.S. protection, the Internet became the wonder of the modern world. The US should retain stewardship over the Internet and postpone any fixing of the Internet until there is a problem to fix.
benton.org/headlines/halfway-wrecking-internet-freedom | Wall Street Journal
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   A Blockbuster Wireless Auction - New York Times editorial

BLOCKBUSTER WIRELESS AUCTION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The eye-popping bids in the current auction of wireless frequencies by the Federal Communications Commission are a testament to soaring demand for mobile Internet service. The superheated bidding provides fresh evidence that the telecommunications industry is thriving despite protests by executives at companies like Verizon and AT&T that they are being stymied by regulation. Wireless frequencies are becoming more valuable and why the government should make sure spectrum is used efficiently.
benton.org/headlines/blockbuster-wireless-auction | New York Times
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

PHONE ENCRYPTION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Danny Yadron]
The Justice Department is turning to a 225-year-old law to tackle a very modern problem: password-protected cellphones. Prosecutors persuaded a federal magistrate in Manhattan to order an unnamed phone maker to provide “reasonable technical assistance” to unlock a password-protected phone that could contain evidence in a credit-card-fraud case, according to court filings. The court had approved a search warrant for the phone three weeks earlier. The phone maker, its operating system and why the government has not been able to unlock it remain under seal. The little-noticed case could offer hints for the government’s strategy to counter new encryption features from Apple and Google, say privacy advocates and people familiar with such cases say. “It’s part of what I think is going to be the next biggest fight that we see on surveillance as everyone starts to implement encryption,” said Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society. Pointing to the phrase “technical assistance” in the order, she asked, “Does this mean you have to do something to your product to make it surveillance friendly?”
benton.org/headlines/case-suggests-how-government-may-get-around-phone-encryption | Wall Street Journal
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CONTENT

MUSIC PUBLISHERS SUING COX
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ashby Jones]
Two music publishers are taking aim at a new target in the battle against illegal song downloading: the cable industry. BMG Rights Management LLC and Round Hill Music LP sued cable giant Cox Communications, claiming that Cox, which provides Internet service to millions, is deliberately turning a blind eye to illegal downloading by its subscribers. Such behavior violates federal copyright law, claim BMG and Round Hill, each of which controls the publishing rights to a number of well-known artists. BMG, owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann SE, controls rights to songs by David Bowie, Johnny Cash and Lenny Kravitz, among others.
benton.org/headlines/two-music-publishers-suing-cox-over-piracy | Wall Street Journal
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LABOR

TECH SALARIES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
Many tech companies readily admit that their workforces aren't as diverse as they could be -- and that they're trying hard to fix the imbalance. To date, company demographics that skew heavily toward whites and men have received most of the attention. But as I've written before, there also exists a substantial gap in gender pay in Silicon Valley. The wage gap largely mirrors the national average; according to the American Association of University Women, female workers in the computer science field make 77 percent what their male peers do one year out of college. By comparison, Census data suggest that women make 78 percent of what men do, generally. But we're starting to get a better idea of specific differences between men and women's salaries at different tech companies. A recent survey of median salaries by Glassdoor suggests that at many Silicon Valley firms, men make thousands of dollars more than women every year. At Google, for instance, a male senior software engineer makes 19 percent more than his female counterpart. The numbers are heavily conditional on experience and the number of reports from either sex. There are big discrepancies between men and women in terms of years worked, even within the same job. The male senior software engineer at Google has, on average, nearly a decade of experience compared to just 7.6 years for women with the same title. Experience is likely one factor that helps drive up male wages relative to women.
benton.org/headlines/top-male-engineers-google-make-nearly-20-more-their-female-peers | Washington Post
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TELEVISION

TV KNOWS US
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Scott Collins]
Your TV knows what you watch. More than that, it knows how you watch. When you pause a program, your TV is taking notes. When you rewind or fast-forward, the machine jots that down too. But here's maybe the scariest part of all: Your TV knows what you want, maybe even before you do. This is where technology has led us. The algorithms that spit out online recommendations for television series, movies and more are taking artificial intelligence to a new level. Top providers such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon -- which tens of millions of Americans get either through set-top boxes such as Roku or via personal computers -- employ large engineering teams dedicated to cracking the code of what users want and guiding them to it. Nothing less than the future of the entertainment business is at stake, as the industry continues its landmark shift from broadcasting to time-shifting and niche programming.
benton.org/headlines/tv-seems-know-what-you-want-see-algorithms-work | Los Angeles Times
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

EU VOTES TO BREAK UP GOOGLE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: James Kanter]
Europe’s resentment of the American technology giant Google reached a new noise level as the European Parliament passed a nonbinding vote to break up the company. Although merely symbolic -- the resolution carries no legal weight -- the move came the day after a separate European body sought to further expand citizens’ “right to be forgotten” privacy protections against Google. Both moves are also playing out against the backdrop of a long-running investigation by the European authorities of Google, on which the European Union’s new antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, is still getting up to speed. A breakup of Google in Europe will almost certainly not happen, legal experts say. And whether any of the various policy moves afoot will ever significantly curtail the company’s business operations across the region is still too soon to gauge. But taken together, the level of policy-making activity being devoted to the company signifies the growing antipathy to American technological dominance in the European Union even as its citizens grow ever more reliant on its gadgetry and conveniences.
benton.org/headlines/eu-parliament-passes-measure-break-google-symbolic-vote | New York Times
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GLOBAL RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Julian Hattem]
A European Union privacy panel wants Google to expand the “right to be forgotten” to the rest of the globe. A panel of privacy regulators called for the search engine to give Web users the power to have Google take down links to embarrassing or outdated content throughout the world. The new guidelines are not binding, but they nonetheless increase pressure on Google and are sure to meet heavy opposition from transparency advocates. “Under EU law, everyone has a right to data protection,” the panel said.
benton.org/headlines/eu-panel-calls-global-right-be-forgotten | Hill, The | GigaOm
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A Blockbuster Wireless Auction

[Commentary] The eye-popping bids in the current auction of wireless frequencies by the Federal Communications Commission are a testament to soaring demand for mobile Internet service. The superheated bidding provides fresh evidence that the telecommunications industry is thriving despite protests by executives at companies like Verizon and AT&T that they are being stymied by regulation. Wireless frequencies are becoming more valuable and why the government should make sure spectrum is used efficiently.

Halfway to Wrecking Internet Freedom

[Commentary] We’re at the midpoint between the Obama Administration’s March 2014 announcement that it would end US protection of the open Internet and September 2015, when the change is supposed to happen. During this time, there has been no progress finding an alternative for protecting the Internet from authoritarian governments. That’s no surprise -- except to Obama Administration officials who apparently never considered how hard it would be to replace US stewardship. The Obama Administration is so uncomfortable with American exceptionalism that it violated the cardinal rule of good government: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Under U.S. protection, the Internet became the wonder of the modern world. The US should retain stewardship over the Internet and postpone any fixing of the Internet until there is a problem to fix.

Google overtakes Apple in the US classroom

Apple has lost its longstanding lead over Google in US schools, with Chromebook laptop computers overtaking iPads for the first time as the most popular new device for education authorities purchasing in bulk for students.

Federal contractor turned entrepreneur creates public safety app for smartphones

John South has created a Reston-based company called Patrocinium Systems and has built a smartphone app called ArcAngel that provides its users with public safety information and services.

ArcAngel is available in basic and premium versions. The former costs $4.99 per month and pushes alerts to users who may be in danger because of extreme weather, a shooting, an explosion or other public safety incident. The premium option runs $19.99 per month and includes the ability to call on the company’s staff, many of whom have military or other tactical experience, if a user finds themselves in need of help. The app is not an alternative to 9-1-1 or local law enforcement, South insists, but can be used in less dire situations.

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