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July 2015

Will 'Girly' Tech Attract More Girls to Computer Programming?

Hoping to get more girls interested in coding and computer science, a New York City-based startup is giving a high-tech makeover to a traditionally feminine fashion accessory. Meet Jewelbots, the programmable friendship bracelet for teens and tweens. "There are a lot of tools out there for coding, but many are not as appealing to girls as they are to boys," said Sara Chipps, Jewelbots' founder and CEO. "Our goal was to find something that would inspire girls' creativity in such a way that they would be motivated to learn to code."

July 16, 2015 (Marlene Sanders)

Marlene Sanders, Pathbreaking TV Journalist

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2015

FCC Open Meeting Today: https://www.benton.org/calendar/2015-07-16

President Barack Obama will become the first sitting President to visit a federal prison today. When thinking about prison reform, don’t forget the communications component -- The Legal Underpinnings Of The Prison Phone Call Debate by Andrew Jay Schwartzman https://www.benton.org/node/194708

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   President Obama and HUD Sec Castro Announce Initiative to Extend High Speed Broadband Access for Students in HUD-Assisted Housing - HUD press release
   ConnectHome: Coming Together to Ensure Digital Opportunity for All Americans - White House Fact Sheet
   Poverty, more than geography, determines who gets online in America

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   FCC postpones two incentive auction items from July agenda
   Statement of FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai on the Decision to Delay Consideration of the Incentive Auction Procedures Order - press release [links to web]
   Reps Upton and Walden Call on FCC to Postpone Vote on Rules for Incentive Auction [links to web]
   Airwaves auction may shrink -- not increase -- wireless competition - analysis [links to web]
   MetroPCS introduces Mexico Unlimited plan [links to web]
   EU Opens Antitrust Investigations Into Qualcomm [links to web]

BROADCASTING/TELEVISION
   Mediacom-Media General retransmission dispute stokes policy debate [links to web]
   South Florida TV stations announce merger [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   Why Netflix is getting behind a huge cable merger
   Entercom Required to Divest Three Denver Radio Stations As Part Of Lincoln Acqusition - DOJ press release [links to web]

CONTENT
   The Web We Have to Save - Medium op-ed

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
   Remarks of FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Rear Adm. David Simpson at NARUC Panel on E911 Governance - speech [links to web]

SECURITY
   House Appropriations Committee Dents Budget for Cyber Tool That Scoped Out OPM Breaches [links to web]
   Cybersecurity warnings: Will we ignore all of this? - AEI op-ed [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   DOJ official: FOIA pilot program is aware of some journalists’ exclusivity concerns [links to web]
   Why newsrooms should train their communities in verification, news literacy, and eyewitness media - Medium op-ed [links to web]
   Bill O'Reilly Compares 'Salon' To White Supremacist Site [links to web]

ADVERTISING
   Google's mobilegeddon moves hitting marketers, sites [links to web]
   Digital Ad Report: Google Hitting Plateau on Search, Feeling Heat From Facebook [links to web]

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   Clinton campaign rebuilds from a digital meltdown [links to web]

LOBBYING
   Former majority leader lobbying for online gambling opponents [links to web]

COMPANY NEWS
   Google Fiber Expands in Austin [links to web]\
   MetroPCS introduces Mexico Unlimited plan [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   EU Opens Antitrust Investigations Into Qualcomm [links to web]

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

PRESIDENT OBAMA AND HUD SEC CASTRO ANNOUNCE INITIATIVE TO EXTEND BROADBAND ACCESS FOR STUDENTS IN HUD-ASSISTED HOUSING
[SOURCE: US Department of Housing and Urban Development, AUTHOR: Press release]
Building on the Obama Administration’s goal to expand high speed broadband to all Americans, President Barack Obama and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro announced ConnectHome, an initiative to extend affordable broadband access to families living in HUD-assisted housing. Through ConnectHome, Internet Service Providers, non-profits and the private sector will offer broadband access, technical training, digital literacy programs, and devices for residents in assisted housing units in 28 communities across the nation. HUD’s ConnectHome initiative strives to ensure that students can access the same level of high-speed Internet at home that they possess in their classrooms. The President and HUD Secretary Julián Castro announced that HUD has selected the following twenty-seven cities and one tribal nation to participate in ConnectHome: Albany (GA); Atlanta (GA); Baltimore (MD); Baton Rouge (LA); Boston (MA); Camden (NJ); Choctaw Nation (OK); Cleveland (OH); Denver (CO); Durham (NC); Fresno (CA); Kansas City (MO); Little Rock (AR); Los Angeles (CA); Macon (GA); Memphis (TN); Meriden (CT); Nashville (TN); New Orleans (LA); New York (NY); Newark (NJ); Philadelphia (PA); Rockford (IL); San Antonio (TX); Seattle (WA); Springfield (MA); Tampa (FL); and Washington (DC). HUD selected these communities through a competitive process that took into account local commitment to expanding broadband opportunities; presence of place-based programs; and other factors to ensure all are well-positioned to deliver on ConnectHome. The announcement marks a major step in providing communities across the nation tools to improve digital opportunity for HUD-assisted housing residents. ConnectHome establishes a platform for collaboration between local governments, members of private industry, nonprofit organizations, and other interested entities to produce locally-tailored solutions for narrowing the digital divide.
benton.org/headlines/president-obama-and-hud-sec-castro-announce-initiative-extend-high-speed-broadband-access | US Department of Housing and Urban Development | Washington Post | cnet | FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel Statement | ALA press release | Google | NY Times | PK
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FACT SHEET ON CONNECTHOME
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Press release]
ConnectHome is the next step in President Barack Obama’s continued efforts to expand high speed broadband to all Americans and builds on his ConnectED initiative that is on track to connect 99 percent of K-12 students to high-speed Internet in their classrooms and libraries over the next five years. ConnectHome will help ensure that these students still have access to high-speed Internet once they are home. Specifically, ConnectHome is:
Building regional partnerships: The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is collaborating with EveryoneOn and US Ignite who worked with private- and public-sector leaders to build local partnerships and gather commitments that will increase access to the Internet for low-income Americans.
Twenty-eight communities strong: The President and HUD Secretary Julián Castro announced that HUD has selected twenty-seven cities and one tribal nation to participate in ConnectHome.
Helping deliver affordable connectivity: Eight nationwide Internet Service Providers have announced they are partnering with mayors, public housing authorities, non-profit groups, and for-profit entities to bridge the gap in digital access for students living in assisted housing units.
Making Internet access more valuable: Skills training is essential to effectively taking advantage of all the Internet offers.
Ensuring HUD assisted housing integrates broadband: The Department of Housing and Urban Development is also taking major steps to provide communities across the nation tools to improve digital opportunity for its residents.
benton.org/headlines/connecthome-coming-together-ensure-digital-opportunity-all-americans | White House, The | Fast Company
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POVERTY, MORE THAN GEOGRAPHY, DETERMINES WHO GETS ONLINE IN AMERICA
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Josh Dzieza, Frank Bi]
Internet adoption in the United States has increased significantly in the last few years, but the map of who gets online still falls along divisions of geography and income. In an attempt to get a better picture of these disparities, the White House Council of Economic Advisers has released a new report on the so-called digital divide. The report uses data from the Census’ 2013 American Community Survey and the National Broadband Map. Segmenting the country into regions with 100,000 residents, the report found that in the most affluent sectors, 80 to 90 percent of households have Internet at home. In the regions with the lowest median income, only about 50 percent do. The map gives a more detailed look at the inequalities of Internet use, and income is one of the strongest determining factors. Many rural areas have high adoption rates while poorer urban neighborhoods have low ones. A 90-year-old in the top income quartile is more likely to have an Internet connection than a person of any age in the bottom quartile. Geography plays a role too, and at first glance, the national map seems to paint a picture of rural and urban division. Densely populated regions have higher rates of Internet adoption, while large swaths of the rural South and Southwest lag behind. However, the Great Plains and sparsely populated parts of Montana and and North Dakota also have high rates of adoption, and for such a dispersed country, the US does respectably: Norway and Switzerland are the only two members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development with both higher rates of Internet use and a larger share of their population in rural areas, according to the report.
benton.org/headlines/poverty-more-geography-determines-who-gets-online-america | Verge, The
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

FCC POSTPONES TWO INCENTIVE AUCTION ITEMS FROM JULY AGENDA
[SOURCE: Katy on the Hill, AUTHOR: Kathryn Bachman]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler decided to pull two of three items from the agenda of the FCC July meeting on various broadcast incentive auction procedures and rules. Chairman Wheeler pulled the auction procedures item and the item on mobile spectrum holdings addressing how much spectrum will be set aside for bidding by smaller wireless carriers. Remaining on the agenda is the item addressing how auction discounts would be given to small and minority-owned companies, an item precipitated by Dish’s relationship to two small wireless bidders in the AWS-3 auction. There was plenty of reason to believe Chairman Wheeler might pull the first item after House commerce leaders and broadcasters complained that the FCC departed from standard procedures when it released last-minute data on July 10 and extended the sunshine period for presentations on the item until 7 p.m. before the meeting. But no one was expecting Chairman Wheeler to pull the second item, which would determine how much spectrum should be set aside for bidding by smaller wireless carriers, a cause celebre for T-Mobile, which led the cry for the FCC to increase the reserve from 30 MHz to 40 MHz. Both items will be taken up three weeks later at the FCC’s August 6 meeting.
   FCC postpones two incentive auction items from July agenda

benton.org/headlines/cc-postpones-two-incentive-auction-items-july-agenda | Katy on the Hill | FCC press release
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OWNERSHIP

WHY NETFLIX IS GETTING BEHIND A HUGE CABLE MERGER
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
Charter just attracted a really important ally in its attempt to purchase Time Warner Cable, making it that much more likely that federal regulators will approve the $55 billion mega-deal. Netflix is endorsing the Charter-TWC acquisition after meeting with the cable company to discuss how it will preserve competition online. In a regulatory filing, Netflix says the Charter deal could offer "substantial public interest benefit" -- if it follows through on a new promise. What does that promise look like, and what has Netflix singing Charter's praises after it so strenuously opposed Comcast's bid for TWC? Well, Charter is offering not to charge Netflix and other content companies any fees in exchange for accepting their traffic and carrying it to end users like you and me. You may remember that this issue, known as "interconnection," caused a big dispute between Netflix and Internet providers such as Comcast. When a surge of Netflix video began arriving at those companies' doorsteps, they argued that Netflix should cover the cost of expanding the pipes to let that data in. Netflix strongly opposed the practice but wound up signing commercial deals with those companies anyway. And Netflix was among the Comcast-TWC merger's biggest critics. Now Charter is saying it won't do what Comcast did. Although Charter doesn't currently charge companies fees for interconnection, the key here is that Charter is promising not to do so going forward. If the overall merger is approved, Charter says, it'll abide by the condition until the end of 2018.
benton.org/headlines/why-netflix-getting-behind-huge-cable-merger | Washington Post
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CONTENT

THE WEB WE HAVE TO SAVE
[SOURCE: Medium, AUTHOR: Hossein Derakhshan]
[Commentary] Seven months ago, I sat down at the small table in the kitchen of my 1960s apartment, nestled on the top floor of a building in a vibrant central neighbourhood of Tehran, and I did something I had done thousands of times previously. I opened my laptop and posted to my new blog. This, though, was the first time in six years. And it nearly broke my heart. A few weeks earlier, I’d been abruptly pardoned and freed from Evin prison in northern Tehran. I had been expecting to spend most of my life in those cells: In November 2008, I’d been sentenced to nearly 20 years in jail, mostly for things I’d written on my blog. In the past, the web was powerful and serious enough to land me in jail. Today it feels like little more than entertainment. So much that even Iran doesn’t take some  --  Instagram, for instance  -- serious enough to block. I miss when people took time to be exposed to different opinions, and bothered to read more than a paragraph or 140 characters. I miss the days when I could write something on my own blog, publish on my own domain, without taking an equal time to promote it on numerous social networks; when nobody cared about likes and reshares. That’s the web I remember before jail. That’s the web we have to save.
[Hossein Derakhshan is an Iranian-Canadian blogger who was imprisoned in Tehran from November 2008 to November 2014]
benton.org/headlines/web-we-have-save | Medium
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Marlene Sanders, Pathbreaking TV Journalist

Marlene Sanders, one of the first women to break into television journalism, where she compiled a stellar résumé as a reporter in the field and an Emmy-winning writer and producer of documentaries, died at a hospice in Manhattan. She was 84.

In television newsrooms populated almost entirely by men, Sanders made remarkable inroads. In 1964, viewers beheld the rare — in fact, unprecedented — sight of a woman behind the anchor desk of a network news program when she substituted for Ron Cochran, who was sidelined with a throat ailment, on the evening news on ABC. She later took over for Sam Donaldson as the anchor of ABC’s weekend news for three months in 1971. She became one of the first network newswomen to report from the field in Vietnam, in 1966, and one of the first women to rise to the upper reaches of management when ABC made her vice president and director of documentaries in 1976.

Clinton campaign rebuilds from a digital meltdown

Hillary Rodham Clinton wound down her political operation in 2008 with 2.5 million email addresses in her campaign database. Seven years later, when campaign officials turned on the lights in April, they were stunned to find fewer than 100,000 still worked.

Campaign aides learned the bad news in much the same way a reunion organizer trying to reconnect with old friends might, albeit on a much larger scale: an in-box clogged with bounce-back messages on the day Clinton announced her campaign and sent messages to supporters. The huge attrition of valuable data is not unique to Clinton -- a typical email list will lose 1 in 5 subscribers each year, said Jordan Cohen, chief marketing officer for Fluent, which specializes in email list acquisition. But it created one of the first big challenges for the campaign’s growing digital team and sparked a response that illustrates the high priority campaigns now place on acquiring digital data.

EU Opens Antitrust Investigations Into Qualcomm

The European Commission announced two antitrust investigations on July 16 into the chip maker Qualcomm, the latest in a number of recent competition inquiries that have targeted United States technology giants.

Europe’s antitrust officials said they would investigate whether Qualcomm, one of the world’s largest chip makers, abused its dominant market position in the region by offering financial incentives to potential customers if they bought equipment solely from the American company. European authorities will also examine whether Qualcomm unfairly set prices below its manufacturing costs to force competitors from the market. The company’s chips are used in smartphones and other mobile devices, which are increasingly central to how people access online services.

FCC postpones two incentive auction items from July agenda

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler decided to pull two of three items from the agenda of the FCC July meeting on various broadcast incentive auction procedures and rules. Chairman Wheeler pulled the auction procedures item and the item on mobile spectrum holdings addressing how much spectrum will be set aside for bidding by smaller wireless carriers. Remaining on the agenda is the item addressing how auction discounts would be given to small and minority-owned companies, an item precipitated by Dish’s relationship to two small wireless bidders in the AWS-3 auction.

here was plenty of reason to believe Chairman Wheeler might pull the first item after House commerce leaders and broadcasters complained that the FCC departed from standard procedures when it released last-minute data on July 10 and extended the sunshine period for presentations on the item until 7 p.m. before the meeting. But no one was expecting Chairman Wheeler to pull the second item, which would determine how much spectrum should be set aside for bidding by smaller wireless carriers, a cause celebre for T-Mobile, which led the cry for the FCC to increase the reserve from 30 MHz to 40 MHz. Both items will be taken up three weeks later at the FCC’s August 6 meeting.

Statement of FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai on the Decision to Delay Consideration of the Incentive Auction Procedures Order

In early June, wireless carriers and broadcasters asked the Federal Communications Commission to disclose data regarding the results of six staff simulations of the initial clearing target optimization procedure proposed by the FCC in December in connection with the upcoming incentive auction. Instead of releasing this data promptly and giving stakeholders a meaningful opportunity to comment on the implications of the staff simulations, the FCC's leadership did nothing for over a month. Then, on the evening of July 10, just three business days before the FCC was scheduled to vote on the procedures for the incentive auction, the staff released some of the data, and the Chairman's Office unilaterally waived the Sunshine period prohibition so that parties could comment on it until the night before the FCC meeting.

To say the least, there were numerous problems with this approach. I am therefore pleased that the incentive auction procedures item has been pulled from the agenda for the FCC meeting and thank the leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose intervention was critical to reaching this result.

Mediacom-Media General retransmission dispute stokes policy debate

When the retransmission consent issue heats up in Washington, there is almost always a political poster child. This time, it’s the fee dispute between Media General and Mediacom Communications, that resulted in a blackout July 14 of TV stations in 14 markets. The standoff comes just as the Federal Communications Commission prepares to open up a Congressionally mandated proceeding to review what negotiating in “good faith” means. Of course, both companies are quick to blame the other for bad faith negotiations, giving both sides of the dispute, something to leverage with policymakers.

The National Association of Broadcasters warned the FCC that pay TV companies were going to manufacture disputes to win over policymakers that the retrans regime needs to be changed. Mediacom charged Media General with using nasty tactics to wring “double the money” out of Mediacom, by pulling its stations right before the MLB All-Star game on Fox, blacking out the game on three stations in Norfolk (VA); Topeka (KA), and Terre Haute (ID). “Media General and its predecessor companies…are known for their cutthroat practices and anti-consumer behavior,” Mediacom wrote on July 15 in a letter to its customers. “Since 2008, they have blacked out their stations over 75 times.” Media General shot back that Mediacom had no intention of reaching a deal before the contract expired. “Instead of looking out for the best interest of their subscribers, they have created this dispute to draw more attention to their legislative agenda,” said Richard Levine, head of distribution for Media General, echoing the NAB’s argument to the FCC.

South Florida TV stations announce merger

Two South Florida TV stations, Miami’s WPBT and WXEL in Boynton Beach, have agreed to merge into a new entity, South Florida PBS. The stations jointly announced the agreement on July 15. “This agreement presents a unique opportunity to accomplish something truly profound for South Florida,” said James Patterson, vice chair of WXEL’s board of trustees. “The combination of resources and talent at WXEL, WPBT2 and PBS, makes possible a new level of community involvement and leadership that will encourage young people to read and learn and expose them to cultural programming that will enrich their lives.” The two stations announced in June 2014 that they would embark on discussions about a merger. CPB contributed $150,000 to support planning behind the effort.

Google's mobilegeddon moves hitting marketers, sites

The differential between what Google's advertisers pay for search ads and what they get has swelled to levels that may be unsustainable courtesy of the company's move to tweak results to favor more mobile-friendly Web sites, according to Adobe data. Adobe's second quarter Digital Advertising & Social Intelligence Report, which is based on anonymous and aggregated Adobe Marketing Cloud data, shows ad rate increases from "mobilegeddon," the move to prioritize mobile-friendly sites, as well as evidence that the search giant's ad cash cow is slowing. For marketers, there's a 25 percent gap between what they pay for clicks vs. what they get. "Parity or click through rates are growing faster than cost per clicks," said Gaffney. "We're not even close right now. To see the gap widening is troubling." Advertisers, however, did pay more for mobile Google search ads as cost per click went up 16 percent from a year ago. Click through traffic was down 9 percent from a year ago.

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