June 2015

James H. Billington to Retire as Librarian of Congress Effective Jan. 1, 2016

James H. Billington, the 13th Librarian of Congress and renowned scholar of Russia, announced that he will retire from the position of Librarian effective January 1, 2016. In a video announcement shared with all Library staff, Billington said, "Leading this great institution alongside all of you for nearly three decades has been the honor and joy of my 42 years of public service in Washington, DC."

Billington informed President Barack Obama and called congressional leadership to share his plans. The vacancy will be filled by presidential nomination, with confirmation by the US Senate. Billington enabled the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution to become one of the most innovative -- largely by raising for the Library an unprecedented one-half billion dollars worth of donations from the private sector. Billington was sworn in on Sept. 14, 1987, and is recognized for having brought the world’s largest library into the digital age.

Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
12:00 PM to 4:00 PM (EDT)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/completing-the-ip-transition-confronting-te...

Completing the transition of today’s analog telephone network to the all-IP infrastructure of the Internet will reap tremendous consumer benefits in enhanced services. A successful transition will dramatically improve operating efficiency, contributing to economic growth for decades.

So far, however, too little attention has been paid to either the underlying technical challenges or new consumer value. Getting over the finish line requires policymakers and stakeholders to understand better the remaining engineering hurdles inherent in the on-going process, as well as the benefits that be fully realized only with full implementation.

Please join the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy and the Security and Software Engineering Research Center for lunch and robust discussion with technologists, consumer and public safety leaders, and policy leaders on technical challenges and solutions and the value proposition for consumers.

This event will feature a keynote address by Henning Schulzrinne, Professor, Columbia University and former Chief Technologist, Federal Communications Commission followed by two moderated panel discussions.

Follow the Conversation Online: #GTownPolicy

Read more about Completing the IP Transition: Confronting Technical Challenges and Maximizing Consumer Benefits

DOTCOM Act Breezes Through House Communications Subcommittee

In only a few minutes and with applause all around, the House Communications Subcommittee favorably, and unanimously reported out a new version of the DOTCOM Act, a bill that provides a framework for congressional oversight of the transition of the Internet domain naming function from US oversight to a multistakeholder model. The act had drawn hefty criticism from Democratic Representatives since its introduction in 2014, but the two sides worked out a compromise that preserved Congress' oversight role without unduly delaying the hand-off.

In May, in a hearing on the bill and the handoff, Ranking Member Anna Eshoo (D-CA) said it would unnecessarily delay the handover and send the wrong signal about government control to other countries. She was sounding a different note in her opening statement at the June 10 markup, calling a vote for the revised DOTCOM Act "a vote to carry on the extraordinary success story that is the Internet, ensuring that billions of people around the world will continue to benefit from everything it has to offer."

Appropriations Bill Would Block Net Neutrality Rules

A DC federal appeals court has yet to rule on staying the Federal Communications Commission's Title II reclassification of Internet service providers, but Congressional Republicans were trying to implement a legislative stay in a bill that would also cut the FCC's budget substantially, force publication of FCC drafts and prevent any new network neutrality rules from leading to rate regulation.

The just-released Financial Services Bill out of the House Appropriations Committee gives the FCC $315 million, a cut of $25 million from FY 2015 and a whopping $73 million below its request for 2016. But none of that money can be used to implement the FCC's new network neutrality rules until the court challenge is resolved. That is according to a summary of the bill released by the committee. The legislation prohibits the FCC from implementing net neutrality until certain court cases are resolved, requires newly proposed regulations to be made publicly available for 21 days before the Commission votes on them, and prohibits the FCC from regulating rates for either wireline or wireless Internet service.

AT&T, Cogent Strike Interconnection Deal

AT&T says it has reached a long-term interconnection agreement with Cogent for their respective IP networks. AT&T is trying to get its proposed merger with DirecTV through the Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department. Interconnection has been an issue the FCC has been particularly concerned with and the subject of talks between AT&T and FCC about potential deal conditions. Cogent has been pushing the FCC to make sure that preventing congestion and interconnection points is a condition on the deal. “Both Cogent and AT&T’s customers will benefit from this agreement for years to come,” said Dave Schaeffer, chief executive officer for Cogent. “We are putting customer needs at the forefront by enabling an expanded, secure and resilient interconnection environment.”

Is Muni Broadband Feasible in Seattle? Not Likely, Report Finds

Half a billion dollars -- that’s about what it would take to build a municipal fiber network in Seattle (WA), and the other numbers aren’t very encouraging, either. The city announced on June 9 the findings of a broadband study conducted by CTC Technology & Energy -- findings that mean that where broadband is concerned, the city will look elsewhere, for now, said Chief Technology Officer Michael Mattmiller. The survey, which the city paid $180,000 to have completed, found that in addition to a $480 million to $665 million price tag for a fiber to the premises (FTTP) broadband buildout, the project’s fiscal sustainability would require a citywide take rate exceeding 40 percent at a monthly service fee of $75 -- an unlikely scenario given that even the nation’s most successful municipal providers, like Chattanooga (TN)’s EPB, achieve a broadband take rate of less than 35 percent.

The city’s broadband goal remains to provide the public with “equal, affordable and competitive broadband that approaches a gigabit standard,” Mattmiller said, but the findings of this report show that building a municipal network would put the city’s general fund at risk. “It presents too much risk to the city," he added, "but that said, we’re going to continue looking for other models and other state and federal funding opportunities, which could cause us to reconsider."

CBO Scores E-Warranty Act of 2015

The E-Warranty Act of 2015 (S 1359) would allow manufactures of consumer products to make written warranty information available on the Internet and remain in compliance with the law. Under current law, manufacturers of consumer products must provide written warranty information to consumers at the place where those goods are purchased.

The bill would require the Federal Trade Commission to revise rules to reflect the new notification standards. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that implementing the rulemaking requirement in S 1359 would not have a significant effect on discretionary costs. Enacting S 1359 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.

Why Ed Tech Is Not Transforming How Teachers Teach

Public schools now provide at least one computer for every five students. They spend more than $3 billion per year on digital content. And nearly three-fourths of high school students now say they regularly use a smartphone or tablet in the classroom. But a mountain of evidence indicates that teachers have been painfully slow to transform the ways they teach, despite that massive influx of new technology into their classrooms. The student-centered, hands-on, personalized instruction envisioned by ed-tech proponents remains the exception to the rule.

FCC Announces Incentive Auction Eligible Facilities and Filing Deadline

The Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau announces each station facility eligible for protection in the repacking process and for relinquishment in the reverse auction (i.e., "eligible facility"). Additionally, the FCC announces that any licensee with a station listed in the Appendix must file an FCC Form 2100, Schedule 381 ("Pre-Auction Technical Certification Form"), through which it will verify and certify to the accuracy of the authorization and underlying Database Technical Information for each eligible facility by July 9, 2015.

Harry Cole with the CommLawBlog wrote, "To date, for many of us the spectrum auction has tended to be more imagined than concrete. Sure, we’ve read a lot about it and we know it’ll almost certainly have a major impact on all of us. But we haven’t yet been required to do anything (other than, maybe, prepare some rulemaking comments or attend an FCC webinar or meeting). But that has now changed, dramatically, with the release of the Eligibility Public Notice and the accompanying list of TV stations eligible for (a) protection in the post-auction repack and (b) relinquishment in the auction....From here on in, we'll all be sailing in largely uncharted waters."

Internet gatekeeping policies and the test of time

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler's concern is that broadband Internet gatekeepers will act against consumer interests. This has led him to conclude that there are only two policy options available. "We can have a cop on the beat to enforce common sense rules of the road that ensure Internet openness for consumers and innovators...[or] we can have the people who operate the networks making the rules for the Internet and leave decisions about blocking, throttling, and prioritizing traffic to them." This regulatory philosophy now represents the majority view at the FCC.

Everything that has transpired in the intervening years from the AOL-Time Warner situation has demonstrated that the FCC's gatekeeper approach was too draconian in that case. The Commission itself recognized the error of its ways by rescinding certain restrictions, but only following a number of years and a series of detailed regulatory proceedings. The lesson for today's FCC is that there may be other viable choices than a strict regulatory regime premised on the assumed power of "gatekeepers." When envisioning the Open Internet, the FCC needs to be open to consider that Internet service provider gatekeepers may not require detailed regulations when technology and marketplace developments are likely to supersede them in a reasonable amount of time. This is an alternative choice that Chairman Wheeler and his colleagues should be thinking about out loud, too.

Benton

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