1. Monthly archive
  2. July 2017

July 2017

Delivering Better Services to the US People

[Commentary] I am excited to embark on the most rewarding work of my career at The United States Digital Service. The USDS is a startup at The White House, using design and technology to deliver better services to the American people. My first project will be helping to untangle, simplify and successfully deliver an improved user experience for veterans on Vets.gov.

“The Vets.gov team is creating a single place for veterans to discover, apply for, track, and manage their benefits online. We are designing with users every step of the way, collaborating with dedicated civil servants, and building the most heavily used and needed services first. As functionality expands and traffic grows, we aim to deliver the best digital experience possible to those who have served our country."

[Randall Weidburg previously worked at Groupon]

Sen Franken Joins the Millions of Americans Who are Fighting Loudly to Preserve Net Neutrality

Sen Al Franken (D-MN) joined the millions of Americans who have weighed in with the Federal Communications Commission to protect network neutrality, the long-standing principle that what you read, see, or watch on the internet shouldn't be favored, blocked, or slowed down based on where that content comes from.

"Allowing giant corporations to pick and choose the content available to everyday Americans would threaten the basic principles of our democracy,"wrote Sen Franken in his public comment to the FCC. "While the FCC's vote to implement strong net neutrality rules was an important victory for American consumers and business, it also demonstrated the overwhelming power of grassroots activism and civic participation. In 2014, millions of Americans from across the political spectrum organized to ensure that their voices were heard, and-in the process-they redefined civic engagement in our country. But that kind of participation requires an open internet. Because of net neutrality, people from across the nation can connect with each other, share their ideas on the internet, and organize a community effort."

AT&T, Comcast and others sketch their support for lenient — or voluntary — net neutrality rules

The Trump administration’s attempt to scrap and replace network neutrality rules could open the door for internet providers like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon to charge some companies for faster delivery of their web content or services. It’s not their stated goal, but these so-called online “fast lanes” can’t be completely outlawed under the more lenient approaches to net neutrality advocated by broadband providers at the Federal Communications Commission. Some telecom companies even questioned whether the FCC should play the primary role in enforcing net neutrality at all.

One of the proposals: Telecom giants asked the FCC to consider relying on a different part of federal telecom law to safeguard the open internet. That might sound simple enough, but the portion of law they cite could open the legal door for ISPs to start charging companies like Google or Netflix for faster delivery of their content, a practice known as paid prioritization. They argue that fears of online fast and slow lanes are “baseless,” in the words of AT&T, which further explained that a full-on ban against paid prioritization actually makes it hard for them “to support autonomous cars, remote surgery, and a growing array of other unusually latency-sensitive applications.” Comcast similarly raised self-driving cars in its comment to the FCC.

Former Clinton and Romney campaign chiefs join forces to fight election hacking

The former managers of Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns are leading a new initiative called “Defending Digital Democracy” in the hopes of preventing a repeat of Russia’s 2016 election interference. Robby Mook, Clinton’s 2016 campaign chief, and Matt Rhoades, who managed the 2012 run of GOP nominee Romney, are heading up the project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in one of the first major efforts outside government to grapple with 21st century hacking and propaganda operations — and ways to deter them.

“The Russian influence campaign was one of the most significant national security events in the last decade, and it’s a near-certainty that all the other bad guys saw that and will try to do something similar in the United States in 2018 and 2020,” said Eric Rosenbach, co-director of the Belfer Center, which launches the initiative July 18. The bipartisan project aims to develop ways to share key threat information with political campaigns and state and local election offices; create “playbooks” for election officials to improve cybersecurity; and forge strategies for the United States to deter adversaries from engaging in hacks and information operations, among other things.

'Chicago Sun-Times' Sold For $1

Coy, cagy media folks often resort to vagueness when they don’t want to talk about money, e.g., “six figures,” “seven figures” and so on. However, the system breaks down with deals for distressed media properties, as “one figure” doesn’t really leave much room for the imagination. Still, that is the price range for the recent sale of Chicago Sun-Times by publisher Wrapports, LLC. It was acquired by an investment group led by Chicago alderman Edwin Eisendrath for the grand sum of $1. (The newsstand price for a single copy of the newspaper.) That's according to a report published by the newspaper, citing an unnamed source familiar with the deal.

The deal also includes the Chicago Reader and the weekly’s syndicated “Straight Dope” column. Both are being absorbed into Answers Media, a multimedia production company simultaneously acquired by Eisendrath. In fairness, that’s not the only financial commitment made by the buyers. As in a number of similar deals in recent years, the investment group, which includes several labor unions, agreed to assume an unspecified amount of debt. It also agreed to pony up $11.2 million in operating funds to demonstrate their intention to keep the newspaper a going concern. The symbolic price tag is reminiscent of a number of other deals over the last decade.

The effects of M&As within the mobile ecosystem on the rival's shareholder value: The case of Google and Apple

As a result of the speed of information and communications technology convergence, the concept of the business ecosystem has been adopted for understanding the business value chain. Within the business ecosystem, keystones play a central role. Currently, Google and Apple are the keystones of the mobile ecosystem, and they have been quite active in acquiring firms over the past years. This study empirically examines the effects of these two firms’ mergers and acquisitions (M&As), especially the different effects on the acquirer and the rival depending on the type of target firm. After the target firms are classified according to the businesses of the acquiring firm that each target firm is related to, the study examines the effects of different types of M&As on the values of the acquirer, the rival, or both. The results provide a basis for understanding the complex relationship between two keystones within the mobile business ecosystem.

Sinclair executive defends company from 'biased' media in internal memo

An executive at local broadcast TV giant Sinclair defended the company and lashed out against what he called "biased" news organizations that have "an agenda to destroy our reputation" in an internal memo. The memo, written by Sinclair's Vice President of News Scott Livingston and sent to Sinclair station news directors, said he wants to “dispel some of the myths” being reported about the organization. In the memo, Livingston lists out several storylines that have emerged around the Maryland-based television company and provides what he said are facts proving them false. They range from reports about their “must run” segments to morale at their Washington station WJLA. HBO late night host John Oliver also made Sinclair and its "must run" segments the focus of a 19 minute segment earlier in July.

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