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  2. January 2016

January 2016

Setback for online sales tax effort

Lawmakers and industry groups who support online sales tax legislation are hopeful that they can get it passed despite a setback in Congress.

Advocates for the sales tax measure had wanted to link it to a ban on taxing Internet access. But lawmakers did not take that step, instead crafting a conference report for a customs bill that would extend the ban on Internet access taxes indefinitely — but do nothing on the sales tax issue. Supporters of online sales tax legislation want the Senate to strip the access tax language from the conference report, but the effort appears to face an uphill climb.

Conference reports generally cannot be changed on the floor. A senator could raise a point of order that the Internet access taxes ban is not germane, which, if successful, would send the report back to the House without the moratorium. A point of order can be waived with 60 votes.

Smartphone users shift from talking to tapping

More than a quarter of smartphone users in developed markets will not typically use the devices for traditional voice calls this year, according to research showing that the handsets are increasingly being used for data use only.

Deloitte, the professional services company, found that people are turning to internet-based messaging, social media, video and voice services to rather than making calls over a mobile voice network. About 22 per cent of smartphone users said that they had already stopped using their phones to make traditional phone calls in any given week in 2015, a rise from 11 per cent in 2012. Deloitte said this showed the rapid migration of people to so-called “over the top” internet services rather than using the voice minutes assigned by their mobile provider. It predicted that this number would rise to 26 per cent this year. The age group with the largest proportion of so-called data exclusive packages was 18-24 year olds, with almost a third in developed countries not making phone calls on a weekly basis.

In Age of Google, Librarians Get Shelved [updated]

[Commentary] The next time you visit a public library and see an older person at the information desk, someone near retirement age, take a good look. You may be seeing the last of a dying breed, the professional librarian.

Years ago, a librarian was someone who held a master’s degree in library science (MLS) issued by a graduate program accredited by the American Library Association. The Internet changed all that. The library user who used to rely on a librarian for help can now Google his question and find more data in a few seconds than a librarian was able to locate in hours of research. Many people who work as librarians no longer hold an MLS degree. Public libraries have created a new position called “library associate”—college graduates who do the same work as librarians but receive lower salaries than their MLS counterparts. The erosion of the MLS degree has been mirrored by the disappearance of library schools from American universities.

The role for librarians and public libraries is shrinking. But I imagine that in another hundred years, we will still be here, in one form or another.

[Barker is a librarian]

The WSJ published responses to Barker's op-ed; see Librarians’ Role Changes as Information Does

Silicon Valley appears open to helping US spy agencies after terrorism summit

Technology giants appeared to be open to helping the US government combat Islamic State during an extraordinary closed-door summit that brought together America’s most senior counter-terrorism officials with some of Silicon Valley’s most powerful executives.

The remarkable rendezvous between Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and others and a delegation from the White House revealed a willingness on the part of tech firms to work with the government, and indicated that the Obama administration appears to have concluded it can’t combat terrorists online on its own. Top officials – including National Security Agency director Michael Rogers, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and FBI director James Comey – appeared to want to know how they could launch a social media campaign to discredit Isis, a person familiar with the conversation said.

The Los Angeles Times reported the creation of a task force to help prevent extremist groups from using social media to radicalize and mobilize recruits. It will be led by the departments of Homeland Security and Justice but will include staff from the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center and other federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. In addition, the State Department will establish a unit called the Global Engagement Center to work with allies to deter terrorists from carrying out attacks overseas. The initiative will require a level of cooperation that historically has not existed between the White House and Silicon Valley, which have long been at odds over government surveillance.

Candidates agree: News media have done them wrong

The vast field of presidential candidates doesn’t agree on much else, but on this there is broad consensus: The news media has done them wrong.

Democrat or Republican, front-runner or also-ran, almost every candidate has had something critical to say about the media during this campaign. In particular, Donald Trump, whose candidacy owes much to his pervasive news coverage, has repeatedly bitten the hands that have fed him. Beating on the press is as old as Spiro Agnew’s political career, so there’s nothing new about candidates dishing out an occasional head slap to the media. What’s new in this cycle is the number and kind of attacks — complaints about biased coverage, about hostile coverage, about inaccurate or superficial coverage. Or just not enough coverage. Everyone seems to be playing.

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