June 2016

The Charleston (WV) Urban Renewal Authority received an overview of how a $5-million fiber-optic loop project headed by Alpha Technology could be a game changer in attracting new business to downtown. The Putnam County-based technology service company plans to break ground by the end of June on a 30-mile underground fiber-optic loop through downtown Charleston, Kanawha City and South Charleston. The loop will connect back to the company’s global data center at the West Virginia Regional Technology Park in South Charleston. Alpha representatives Charlie Dennie, director of special projects and Nina Shell, director of sales, answered questions posed by board members and explained how the project’s cloud technology eliminates an extra step for new businesses looking to open shop in the city’s central business district.

“One of the advantages to the cloud model is that technology becomes more of an operational expense, rather than capital,” Shell said. “As businesses are looking to invest downtown, that takes out a big piece of the investment, to not have to lay a lot of that infrastructure.” Dennie said the project would especially appeal to data-heavy businesses that require large bandwidth requirements, such as insurance claims processing firms, banking institutions and health care companies. Virtual information could then be stored at the data center over the cloud. Board member and City Councilman Jack Harrison noted the need for faster broadband speeds in the Civic Center.

AT&T’s use of anonymous and aggregate set-top box information is entirely consistent with the statute. Our disclosures tell our customers exactly how we use that data and provide tools for customers to opt out. Frankly, this complaint is bogus, and seems mainly designed to distract the public from the overwhelming bipartisan opposition to the Federal Communications Commission’s controversial set-top box plan. That plan itself will erode existing consumer privacy protections, not to mention its many other harms. Because the plan’s few remaining supporters have no answer to that charge, they’ve decided to invent a false privacy claim. This smacks of desperation, and it also carries the whiff of hypocrisy. It’s further proof, if any is needed, that the plan’s supporters have lost the public policy debate on this issue.

Google image searches for "three black teenagers" and "three white teenagers" get very different results, raising troubling questions about how racial bias in society and the media is reflected online.

Kabir Alli, an 18-year-old graduating senior from Clover Hill High School in Midlothian (VA) posted a video clip on Twitter of a Google image search for "three black teenagers" which turned up an array of police mugshots. He and friends then searched for "three white teenagers," and found groups of smiling young people. "I had actually heard about this search from one of my friends and just wanted to see everything for myself. I didn't think it would actually be true," Alli said. "When I saw the results I was nothing short of shocked." The Twitter post has been retweeted nearly 65,000 times since June 7, and Twitter users are using the hashtag #threeblackteenagers to discuss the implications of the video. The conversation about online racism comes as people express anger that the photo of Brock Turner, convicted in the Stanford University sexual assault case, was from high school yearbook, not his police mugshot. "I understand it's all just an algorithm based on most visited pages but Google should be able to have more control over something like that," Alli said.