March 2015

Could offline Internet access bridge the digital divide?

The WiderNet Project is a nonprofit trying to make sure that schools don't need to spend enormous amounts of money just to reach the World Wide Web.

WiderNet, located at the University of North Carolina, believes it has found an answer for communities currently outside of the Internet's reach. Since 2001, the nonprofit has been working on offline solutions to the digital divide. It invented what has been dubbed the “Internet in a box.” The eGranary Digital Library is a disconnected solution to accessing to the Web. The digital library is a central sever that currently holds around 32 million websites, videos, and documents that can be accessed without an Internet connection. WiderNet has partnered with thousands of publishers and institutions to create its archives, which include Wikipedia and Khan Academy, a nonprofit that uploads video lectures to YouTube. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has also worked with the WiderNet, offering its OpenCourseWare and BLOSSOMS programs to the collection.

It’s Really Here: TV for Babies

BabyFirstTV, which is making its way into more US homes after cutting deals with pay-TV distributors including Time Warner Cable, is aiming its programming at children as young as six months.

The channel, owned by closely held BFTV LLC, carries mostly animation programs that focus on rudimentary skills including counting, vocabulary and differentiating shapes and colors. It launched in 2006, but started gaining real momentum only in recent years and now reaches more than 50 million U.S. households, a mark it passed in January. The channel’s viewership figures will become public in the third quarter of this year, when a grace period ends with measurement firm Nielsen. The notion of targeting infants is controversial. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television for children under the age of two, arguing that children learn best by interacting with people. But that may be wishful thinking. A Kaiser Family Foundation study found most babies are watching some television.

Google’s Tricky TV Audition

[Commentary] Google Fiber said it would test a system to deliver local ads to Kansas City subscribers. These would be transmitted digitally and targeted using real-time information on location, viewing history or the type of program being watched. US TV advertising was $63.1 billion in 2014, of which local ads were $20.5 billion, Pivotal Research estimates. That is a prospect worth considering when you are Google’s size. But the Internet giant would face big challenges to breaking in.

The ability to show ads only to a certain segment of the market isn’t new. When it comes to making money on their slice of local ad inventory, pay-TV providers already target based on location. They also use data from advertisers and third-party suppliers on income, interests and purchasing to determine which households should see a given ad. And this isn’t the first time Google has tried to be a middleman for TV ads. But the inability to get wary pay-TV providers to give up enough ad inventory may have played a role in that initiative’s failure.

With Fiber, Google gets its own TV inventory. And while the Kansas City test only uses the targeting factors listed in its announcement, they might evolve over time. Unlike cable firms, whose terms of service reflect strict privacy laws that govern them, Google’s broad online privacy policy also applies to Fiber. All subscribers are required to have a Google account, and all information collected about the use of Fiber, including use of programs and applications, can be tied to that Google account. That may point to Google’s ultimate goal: to get enough of a sample to show advertisers and holders of ad inventory that it can maximize the value of TV ads by targeting individuals not just there but across all platforms and the Web.

Rep Johnson seeks ouster of Commerce Department inspector general

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) -- the ranking Democrat on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee -- called for President Barack Obama to fire Todd Zinser, the Commerce Department’s inspector general, after a congressional probe uncovered a pattern of alleged misconduct, including retaliation against whistleblowers and the hiring of a suspected girlfriend.

In a statement for the Congressional Record, Rep Johnson laid out a long string of evidence suggesting that Zinser created a toxic work environment and engaged in the types of activities he is supposed to guard against. In a brief response to the accusations, Zinser said he asked the Council of Inspectors General for Integrity and Efficiency to review his conduct. He declined to provide specific details about the nature of the analysis. “We cooperated with the review of the US House Science Committee and we will cooperate with the Council of Inspectors General,” he said.

The White House’s first chief data scientist is no stranger to Washington

DJ Patil, who was named the nation’s first chief data scientist l, shares credit for coining the term “data science.” He is the latest Silicon Valley transplant to join the Obama administration, working under former Google executive Megan Smith, the White House’s chief technology officer.

At the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Patil shares a work space with former Twitter executive Alex Macgillivray, a skateboard, and a giant Pokemon stuffed toy. He occasionally rides the skateboard to work, and he calls the executive mansion a place filled with “awesomeness.” He says he misses California weather and his favorite Indian restaurants. But Patil is no stranger to Washington. After graduating from high school in Cupertino, he went on to obtain a doctorate in applied mathematics from the University of Maryland at College Park. He also had a brief stint at the Pentagon in 2004, analyzing social networks to study emerging threats. Since then, Patil has worked at LinkedIn, Skype, PayPal and eBay.

Is US Broadband Working? The Administration Is Working On It

[Commentary] Back in January we reported on a series of speeches by President Barack Obama in the run up to the State of the Union address. In those speeches, the President indicated that the Internet would play a central role in his 2015 policies. This week, the Administration offered an update on its progress since January and outlined the next steps in “promoting investment and rewarding competition.” Although the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality order is still the headliner-grabber, this week we review the Administration’s most recent announcements which include: 1) the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s latest -- and last -- update of the National Broadband Map; 2) reaching the President’s high-speed wireless goal; 3) creation of the Broadband Opportunity Council; 4) ongoing support of community broadband; 5) grants for rural telecommunications infrastructure; and 6) second phase FirstNet funding.

FCC Chairman Wheeler on the Choices in the Network Neutrality Debate

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler returned to Ohio State University – this time focusing his remarks on the FCC’s recent network neutrality order. He said the order “rests on a basic choice -- whether those who build the networks should make the rules by themselves or whether there should be a basic set of rules and a referee on the field to throw the flag if they are violated.”

Addressing many, contradicting objections to the rules, Chairman Wheeler said, “We should conclude that the biggest broadband providers in the land have one objective -- to operate free from control by their customers and free from oversight from government. If they succeed, then, for the first time in America’s communications history, private gatekeepers will have unfettered power to control commerce and free expression.” “The true choice,” he said, “is between protecting the gatekeepers or protecting consumers and insurgents who wish to boost the greatest strength of America’s economy, namely innovation.”

Sen Harry Reid will not seek reelection

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced that he will not seek reelection next year, triggering a race among his lieutenants to replace him. Reid's departure also opens up top swing seat and deprives Republicans of their hopes to take out the Democratic leader. In a video announcing his decision, Sen Reid played down speculation that injuries to his ribs and face -- which have left the 75-year-old wearing bandages and corrective eyewear -- were a factor in his decision. "I have had time to ponder and to think," he said, referring to time off after his injuries. "We’ve got to be more concerned about the country, the Senate, the state of Nevada than us, and as a result of that, I’m not going to run for reelection." He also said he had no worries about being reelected if he ran for a sixth term. Sen Reid has been the Democratic leader since 2005, after his predecessor Sen Tom Daschle (D-SD) was defeated in 2004. When he leaves his position at the end of the current Congress, Sen Reid will have been one of the longest-serving party leaders in the US Senate -- and the third-longest-serving majority leader.
Sen Reid endorsed Sen Charles Schumer (D-NY) to succeed him. Sen Reid predicted that Sen Schumer, the No. 3 Senate Democrat in leadership and a close friend, would win the Democratic leader post without opposition. He said that the other likely contender, Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), would stand down for Sen Schumer. If Schumer rises to minority leader, it would have big implications for the tech industry. The senator has taken on a great number of tech issues in recent years, from arguing for clearer drone regulations to advocating for stricter corporate privacy policies. It's all part of a concerted effort to turn New York into the country's next great tech hub.
President Barack Obama called Sen Reid an “ally” and a “friend” who fought for many of his top agenda items, such as healthcare reform. “As the leader of the Senate Democrats during my time in office, Harry has become not only an ally, but a friend,” President Obama said. “I’m proud of all we have accomplished together, and I know the Senate will not be the same without him.” The President called into a KNPR interview with Reid and said the retiring Senate Democratic leader will be "hard to replace." “Harry is unique and you know’s he’s got that curmudgeonly charm that’s hard to replace," President Obama said. "I'm going to miss him." President Obama said he hoped to “squeeze as much out of these next few years as we can” to push his agenda in Congress. Sen Reid noted their productive relationship. “The records will be written about the eight years of Obama-Reid," he said. [What name are we thinking of? Starts with a P. P… Pelo… ? Help me]
Ezra Klein writes, “Reid…deserves credit for much of the legislative legacy that will be attributed to Obama.” He explains, “In the first two years of Obama's presidency, Reid's job was harder than even Pelosi's. House Democrats had a 17-seat margin through much of this period, meaning Pelosi could give at least a few of her members a pass on any given bill. Reid usually couldn't. He either held his whole caucus together — a caucus that ranged from Nebraska's Ben Nelson, who would face reelection in a state where Obama only won 41 percent of the vote, to Vermont's Bernie Sanders — or Obama's agenda would fall to a Republican filibuster.”

Ellen Pao Loses Silicon Valley Gender Bias Case Against Kleiner Perkins

One of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital firms prevailed over a former partner, Ellen Pao, in a suit alleging gender discrimination in the course of her employment and her ultimate dismissal. A jury of six men and six women rejected Pao’s claims against the firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, in a case that has captivated Silicon Valley and renewed questions about the lack of diversity in the technology industry. Shortly after the verdict was read, however, the judge sent the jury back to deliberate on one of the claims, where jurors had voted 8 to 4 in Kleiner’s favor. Nine jurors have to agree for there to be a decision on a claim. Pao’s suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, claimed that Kleiner did not promote her because of her gender; that it retaliated against her for complaining; that it failed to prevent gender discrimination; and that ultimately it fired her in 2012 for complaining. Her suit asked $16 million in compensatory damages plus punitive damages. Pao is now interim chief of the social media news site Reddit.

Internet infrastructure is vulnerable to attacks that can cause prolonged outages

When vandals sliced a fiber-optic cable in the Arizona desert in February, they did more than time-warp thousands of people back to an era before computers, credit cards or even phones. They exposed a glaring vulnerability in the nation's Internet infrastructure: no backup systems in many places. Because Internet service is largely unregulated by the federal government and the states, decisions about network reliability are left to the service providers. Industry analysts say these companies generally do not build alternative routes, or redundancies, unless they believe it is worthwhile financially. The result: While most major metropolitan areas in the US have backup systems, some smaller cities and many rural areas do not. Despite its own warnings about such vulnerabilities two decades ago, the federal government has taken no steps to require Internet companies to have backup systems, even as it has provided billions of dollars in subsidies to expand broadband Internet into unserved areas.

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