September 2015

Why US professors worry about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Silicon Valley

More than 100 academics from major American universities have issued a scathing critique of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his visit to Silicon Valley (CA) and warned US technology executives against supporting his Digital India initiative. A letter sent to leaders of Silicon Valley tech companies said Prime Minister Modi’s initiative -- which seeks to expand Internet access and develop online tools to improve government performance -- lacks adequate privacy protections and could impinge on Indians’ rights. But the letter goes further by accusing Prime Minister Modi’s conservative government of authoritarian practices, including harassing critics, clamping down on advocacy groups, meddling with academic institutions and denying foreign scholars entry into India for conferences.

“We urge those who lead Silicon Valley technology enterprises to be mindful of not violating their own codes of corporate responsibility when conducting business with a government which has, on several occasions already, demonstrated its disregard for human rights and civil liberties, as well as the autonomy of educational and cultural institutions,” the letter said.

Kim Kardashian's FDA run-in shows the challenge of policing drug ads in the Instagram age

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian just offered an unlikely lesson about the challenges of medical regulation in the social media era. Her Aug 31 corrective is a lot more nuanced than the original instagram post, with warnings about hyperemesis gravidarum, as well as new side effect and safety information. Hopefully, Kardashian learned the lesson that peddling a drug on social media isn't like talking up the best lip gloss. The stakes are life and death.

But other similarly misleading claims on social media may go unnoticed or untouched. This is not only because the Food and Drug Administration is overwhelmed with the volume of health claims on the Internet, according to Thomas Abrams, the FDA's director of the Office of Prescription Drug Promotion, but also because the agency only has authority to respond to claims that are made by companies or people who are acting on behalf of a company. In this case, Kardashian had become a paid spokesperson for the drug's maker, Duchesnay, which is the only reason the FDA could go after her -- another way not everyone is a Kardashian.

Wikipedia editors just banned 381 accounts over a huge fraud and extortion scandal

Editors of Wikipedia’s English-language site announced that they had discovered and banned 381 user accounts for “undisclosed paid advocacy.” The bans are the result of an investigation that “began in early July.” Editors called the investigation “Orangemoody,” after the name of the first sockpuppet account that was discovered (Sockpuppets, secondary accounts used by users who falsely claim not to be affiliated with the people or organizations whose Wikipedia entries they’re editing, among other things, are banned by the site’s terms of service.)

The editors announced the bans on the online encyclopedia’s Administrators noticeboard. According to a post by “Risker,” one of of the editors involved with the Orangemoody investigation, the perpetrators also carried out an extortion scheme. The 381 accounts identified in the investigation had edited articles beginning in April and ending in early August, according to Risker, although evidence suggests their editing scheme had gone on for much longer.

Hulu Pact Could Get Epix What It Wants Most: Comcast Carriage

Securing a new deal with Hulu could better position Epix for an even bigger pact with Comcast, according to analysts. The premium cable net is available in nearly 50 million homes but lacks distribution with the biggest pay-TV provider in the US, as well as with the biggest satcaster, DirecTV. But what may have kept Comcast disinclined to do a deal with Epix was that its previous partner since 2010, Netflix, was large enough to represent a competitive threat.

“It seems very plausible that moving away from Netflix will better enable Epix to secure new traditional premium cable distribution, especially with Comcast,” wrote Matthew Harrigan of Wunderlich Securities. “Moving away from Netflix makes Epix more appealing to larger traditional distributors who are not carrying it.” Benjamin Mogil of Stifel Research sounded a similar sentiment. “While the Hulu and Amazon licenses do theoretically present the same philosophical obstacle for Comcast, the much smaller scale/scope of both of those services, coupled with the fact that Hulu is inside the Comcast camp/tent, lead to a greater possibility that Comcast will add the service,” he wrote.

Lack of Leadership, or Distractions?

[Commentary] There are many ways, each with some cost to some players, to slow the inevitable decline of the multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) “ecosystem” -- which has been immensely profitable, particularly for industry leadership. Some technological erosion is inevitable. After all, the industry itself flourished because of technological innovation. For the past few years, though, there has been insufficient effort to stem the erosion.

Following are several suggestions, ranging from practical to impractical, free to expensive. With subscribers selling for $5,000 to $6,000 a pop, it’s an investment in “retention.” Perhaps technological -- and social -- change is rapidly eroding the previously secure ecosystem. Fifty years ago, Marshall McLuhan taught that “distribution determined content.” Lazy thinkers believed the quasi-monopoly made “content king.” The day of reckoning has arrived. But, it seems, the traditional “leadership” has given up without a real fight.

[Edward Bleier is the retired president of Warner Bros. Domestic Pay TV, Cable & Network Features]

AT&T Maps Out GigaPower Progress

Taking a page from the Google Fiber playbook, AT&T has introduced a map that charts the deployment progress of its fiber-based GigaPower platform, highlighting cities that have the 1-Gig service today, have rollouts underway or are being “explored” for potential future launches. “Potential customers, city officials, gig seekers or anyone planning a move can use the new interactive map at att.com/gigapowermap to keep up on our progress as we add new cities,” Joey Schultz, AT&T’s vice president of home solutions, digital experience, explained.

He said GigaPower is now rolled out to parts of 15 markets, with plans to extend access to cities such as Jacksonville (FL), St. Louis (MO) and San Antonio (TX). AT&T, which recently completed its acquisition of DirecTV, plans to extend the reach of GigaPower to 14 million residential and commercial locations.

Winston-Salem to connect departments with fiber optic links

Even as AT&T installs a GigaPower network in Winston-Salem (NC), the city itself is getting ready to link departments together with its own stand-alone fiber optic network. The Winston-Salem City Council approved spending $826,522 to buy networking equipment that will allow the city to tap into its fiber optic connections when they are completed later in 2015. The city approved entering into a contract with NWN Corporation to provide the switches, routers and other equipment needed to link city computers to fiber optic cables being installed by the NC Department of Transportation. “The city will save a significant amount of money with this fiber,” said Dennis Newman, the chief officer of the city’s information systems department. “We hope to have the network operational by the end of the calendar year.”

Kentucky Wired broadband Internet project announced in Hazard

Reliable high speed Internet is coming to Eastern Kentucky and folks are excited about it. It has the potential to create jobs, improve access to health care, and enhance education for our students. Hundreds of people packed the First Federal Center to celebrate the launch of the Kentucky Wired I-Way broadband network.

Gov Steve Beshear (D-KY) and Rep Hal Rogers (R-KY) spearheaded the project as part of the Shaping Our Appalachian Region Initiative. Gov Beshear said, “You're going to see a region transformed from a place where people are crying for jobs to a place where employers won't be able to find enough people to fill those jobs.” Rep Rogers says, “It will be costly. It will be challenging. But our children deserve access to the best educational opportunities. Our seniors deserve access to better healthcare monitoring.” The broadband network will cover about 3,400 miles across the state and make communication faster than ever before. The cost of the project is estimated at around 324 million dollars.

Senior citizens’ use of computers and mobile phones might shave 10 years off their mental age

A new study, published in the journal Intelligence, found that the use of computers and mobile phones could partly explain why senior citizens today appears to be four to eight years younger, cognitively speaking, than a similar population less than a decade ago. The positive effect stands up even after controlling for factors such as education, gender, and health.

To arrive at this conclusion, Valeria Bordone of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and her colleagues used data collected by cohorts in England and Germany of those over the age of 50. Some 2,000 people were tested in 2006 and another 3,000 were tested in 2012. Bordone warns that currently her results shown only a correlation -- greater use of technology is associated with better mental abilities. Yet, she believes technology use could explain the correlation because it creates rewarding, complex challenges that help boost cognitive skills.

Benton

Search