BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY FEBRUARY 12, 2009 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR DARWIN (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/11/AR200902...) and PRESIDENT LINCOLN http://www.sj-r.com/bicentennial)
THE ECONOMY
House, Senate Negotiators Reach Agreement on Stimulus
Broadband Program Oversight Questioned
Copps Welcomes Broadband Stimulus Legislation
IT, Network Neutrality Groups Praise Stimulus Plan
Effort To Increase Broadband Access Spurs Debate
Why Spend $350 Million to Map Broadband?
Put Broadband money into local networks
Schools lose in Senate stimulus 'compromise'
DIGITAL TELEVISION
President Obama Signs DTV Delay Act
FCC Looking at TV Stations that Still Plan Feb 17 Switch to DTV
FCC Rejects 25% of TV Stations' Early DTV-Switch Applications
MEDIA OWNERSHIP
FCC clears Time Warner Cable spinoff
Copps Takes Initial Steps Toward Boosting Minority Ownership
Sirius Talks To Liberty To Fend Off Ergen Effort
Facing the Music of a Heavy Debt
JOURNALISM
As Mainstream Media Decline, Niche and Foreign Outlets Grow
Boucher, Pence Try Again For Passage Of A Federal Shield Law
TV is Primary Source Of Economic News
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Rating President Obama's Media Campaign
Congressman's Twittering raises security concerns
Thousands of Congressional Reports Now Available Online
"Show Us the Data" Project Launches
POLICYMAKERS
Getting to Know FCC Hopeful Clyburn
WIRELESS
Mobile connections surpass 4 billion mark worldwide
Cell Phones Have Reached Saturation Point
QUICKLY -- WGA strike: One year later; Content, Once King, Becomes A Pauper; US and Russian satellites collide; Inmate Internet access debated; Twitter? It's What You Make It; Videogames seen good for children; Congress tackles e-waste in the House and nationally
Recent Comments:
Are people in IL spending too much on phone bills? by Kodjo
Responding to Obama's broadband push by msh317
THE ECONOMY
HOUSE, SENATE NEGOTIATORS REACH AGREEMENT ON STIMULUS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: William Branigin, Paul Kane, Shailagh Murray]
House and Senate negotiators reached agreement Wednesday on a stimulus plan with a cost of about $789 billion after scaling down the versions passed by both houses. "The middle ground we've reached creates more jobs than the original Senate bill and spends less than the original House bill," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). However, House and Senate leaders had not resolved every detail as of late Wednesday afternoon, and they delayed the start of a final conference committee meeting to work out differences on school construction funding, a major source of contention throughout negotiations. The House and White House favor a hefty investment, but the bill outlined this afternoon includes no specific spending on school infrastructure. A broader state aid account was expanded last night to provide funding for school renovations, but House negotiators apparently were unsatisfied. In a late afternoon statement, Obama hailed the agreement. "It's also a plan that will provide immediate tax relief to families and businesses, while investing in priorities like health care, education, energy, and infrastructure that will grow our economy once more," he said. "I'm grateful to the House Democrats for starting this process, and for members in the House and Senate for moving it along with the urgency that this moment demands." Congressional Republicans immediately denounced the agreement unveiled by Sen Reid and other senators, reiterating complaints that the package is too expensive and will not create jobs as much as it increases the size and reach of the federal government.
http://benton.org/node/21987
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BROADBAND PROGRAM OVERSIGHT QUESTIONED
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Congress has targeted more than $6 billion to wire rural America with Internet service as part of the nearly $790 billion stimulus plan. But the bill would place much of those funds in an Agriculture Department program that has been criticized for its past management of grants, raising concerns among some public interest groups. Under a deal House and Senate leaders negotiated yesterday, about $1.5 billion would fall under the oversight of the USDA's Rural Utilities Service, a program launched in 2002 to connect farming towns to high-speed, or broadband Internet. Some public advocacy groups are critical, citing a September 2005 report on an investigation by the USDA's inspector general that found that $236 million, or more than one-quarter, of the program's loans under review "was either not used as intended, not used at all, or did not provide the expected return of service." The Secretary of Agriculture and some congressional supporters say the program has been changed to address the problems. Critics of the rural utilities service fund said the president's goal could be derailed by lax oversight at the USDA. They argue that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the tech-policy making arm of the White House, has expertise in administering large grants and is better suited to deal with wireless, fiber optics and cable modem service. "Putting broadband funds into the RUS is just a bad idea. You don't see the Federal Communications Commission putting dairy farms near telephone lines. It's just bad policy," said Ben Scott, policy director of public interest group Free Press. The bulk of the funds, $4.3 billion, would be administered by the NTIA, and Scott said all broadband funds should be consolidated under once agency.
http://benton.org/node/22001
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COPPS' SEEKS TO REVITALIZE TRANSPARENCY AND COOPERATION AT FCC, WELCOMES BROADBAND STIMULUS LEGISLATION
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Andrew Feinberg]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Copps said he welcomes Congress' investment in broadband deployment, and emphasizing his plans to encourage more growth in high-speed networks. He said that the FCC is "trying to hit the ground running" to collect better data on broadband availability. The agency will have no problem coming up with definitions of unserved and underserved areas within the 45 day period imposed by the bill. Regardless of who is in charge of administering the stimulus bill's grant programs, Chairman Copps stressed that the FCC is ready to do its part to foster inter-agency cooperation to ensure the public's dollars are well spent. [more at the URL below]
http://benton.org/node/21998
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IT, NET NEUTRALITY GROUPS PRAISE STIMULUS PLAN
[SOURCE: internetnews.com, AUTHOR: Kenneth Corbin]
Industry groups and advocacy organizations are heartened by the Senate's passage of the economic stimulus package, and appear hopeful that key IT provisions will remain intact as negotiators work swiftly to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill in conference. The movement on the bill drew praise from the of government relations for the Computer and Communications Industry Association and the Business Software Alliance, an industry group representing major software and hardware firms like Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and Apple. For the public interest groups that have been calling for the government to take steps to enforce Net neutrality, or the idea that networks should be open and transmit data in a non-discriminatory fashion, the House and Senate bills are also a welcome step forward. The House version of the bill would require ISPs to attach an open-access condition to their networks. While it leaves it up to the Federal Communications Commission to define the term "open access," the provision could require carriers to allow rival firms to run competing networks on their infrastructure. The Senate bill does not mention open access, but it contains a stipulation that "non-discrimination and network interconnection obligations" be attached as contractual requirements for any firms taking grant money.
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EFFORT TO INCREASE BROADBAND ACCESS SPURS DEBATE
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Martin Kaste]
Is laying more broadband lines to small towns such as Republic really a good way to stimulate the ailing economy? The idea certainly has its cheerleaders. But it's hard to say if broadband contributes to growth or just correlates with it. John Horrigan of the Pew Internet and American Life Project says there is no reliable national map of where broadband is available. The telecom companies, he says, guard that kind of information closely. It also may be a leap to assume that "if you build it, they will come." According to a Pew survey, only 14 percent of Americans still using dial-up Internet say it's because they can't get broadband where they live. Other factors are more important, such as the price of broadband and the fact that some people just don't want it. Let the wire go where the demand is," says Jim Harper, the technology expert at the Cato Institute. Harper says the government shouldn't be pushing broadband into areas that aren't willing or able to pay for it. In the case of sparsely populated rural areas, he says, the government subsidies might actually get in the way of innovation. "The best thing that could happen in broadband is for there to be additional sources of broadband," Harper says. "Right now, we have cable and DSL as the two big ones. We need some wireless; we need some other platforms. "But those companies are very small — they don't exist yet, in Washington terms — so they aren't going to receive those subsidies," he says.
http://benton.org/node/21986
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WHY SPEND $350 MILLION TO MAP BROADBAND?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Saul Hansell]
The stimulus bill includes 350 million for making a "nationwide inventory map of existing broadband service capability and availability in the United States." This map, members of Congress say, will be helpful in making sure that the $7 billion in proposed grants to bring high speed Internet service to rural areas are handed out where they are most needed. Several states have tried to create maps of Internet service and found it to be a technical challenge. Why not publish information that will let companies offer Americans better deals on Internet service than the ones they have now? And for that matter, if the government has a reason to collect a list of all the services available, why shouldn't it let consumers look up that information to help them shop around? Now, however, there seems to be a bigger issue than the trade-offs between the rights of consumers to get better deals and the rights of businesses to keep their operations secret. The federal government is about to spend a great deal of money to subsidize broadband construction and a good deal more to make a map of where that money should go. Congress, as well as the regulators who will carry out the new law, should look carefully to see if the reluctance of the cable and phone companies to provide customer data will slow down these efforts or make them more expensive.
http://benton.org/node/21985
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PUT MONEY INTO LOCAL NETWORKS
[SOURCE: News & Observer, AUTHOR: Wally Bowen]
[Commentary] Directing money to non-local carriers whose business models do not work in underserved areas is a risky investment for the companies and for taxpayers. Fortunately, local networks have sprung up all over the nation. Empowering local networks, via the stimulus bill and long-term policy, makes sense for job-creation and economic growth, as well as national security. The Internet grew out of the Pentagon's need for a decentralized communications network -- Arpanet -- capable of withstanding a nuclear strike on key cities. Funding local networks protects rural communities from the weaknesses of non-local networks, empowers local self-reliance, creates more competition and makes for a more secure Internet overall. This is smart broadband policy, and it's long overdue.
http://benton.org/node/21984
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SCHOOLS LOSE IN SENATE STIMULUS 'COMPROMISE'
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: ]
Despite $1 billion in ed-tech funding and increases in college Pell Grants, education took a major hit when the U.S. Senate cut all $20 billion in proposed funding for school modernization from its version of the economic stimulus bill, which passed in that chamber on Feb. 10. The $20 billion appeared, and passed, in the House's version of the bill late last month. What once had reached a $937 billion figure was whittled down to $838 billion in the final Senate version of the bill as a result of negotiations by moderate Republican and Democratic senators. Many of the reductions came from proposed education spending, although education advocacy groups say schools and colleges still would get a huge boost in funding. The $80 billion in the Senate bill is $21 billion more than the Department of Education's FY2008 discretionary budget of $59 billion. Educational technology is slated to receive $1 billion, unchanged from the original Senate proposal--a number that ed-tech advocacy groups say is encouraging, though they'd like to see the school modernization funding restored in the final version of the bill. The Senate's Feb. 10 vote sends the bill to a conference committee, setting up a final showdown among lawmakers as they work to find common ground on the stimulus package.
http://benton.org/node/21983
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DIGITAL TELEVISION
PRESIDENT OBAMA SIGNS DTV DELAY ACT
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
President Barack Obama has signed the bill extending the DTV date from Feb. 17 to June 12. "During these challenging economic times, the needs of American consumers are a top priority of my administration," the president said Wednesday. "This law, which was crafted in a bipartisan way and passed overwhelmingly in the House and Senate, ensures that our citizens will have more time to prepare for the conversion. "Millions of Americans, including those in our most vulnerable communities, would have been left in the dark if the conversion had gone on as planned, and this solution is an important step forward as we work to get the nation ready for digital TV. My administration will continue to work with leaders in Congress, broadcasters, consumer groups and the telecommunications industry to improve the information and assistance available to our citizens in advance of June 12."
http://benton.org/node/21982
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FCC TO SCRUTINIZE STATIONS WANTING EARLY DTV SWITCH
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Kim Dixon]
The Federal Communications Commission is scrutinizing bids by hundreds of TV stations that want to broadcast in all digital next week, to prevent millions of households from losing television access. The Commission was caught off guard by the steep number of stations that want to transition early, even after lawmakers delayed a mandatory nationwide switch to "DTV" by months. In markets that are vulnerable and left with few to no local broadcasting options, the requests may be denied, FCC Chairman Michael Copps said Wednesday. "We are six days from the most demanding consumer technology transition in the history of broadcasting," Chairman Copps said. The FCC released breakdowns of stations that asked to pull the plug on analog service Feb. 17. There are 19 markets (5.1 million TV households) where all four of the major network affiliates want to go on that date and, in 17 of those, where all the stations in the market want to switch. There are an additional 15 markets (2.3 million TV households) where not all four, but many, want to go Feb. 17. The commission has not released a list of those markets, but they are some of the markets the FCC is giving special attention to as it decides which stations can go ahead and switch and which ones will have to continue in analog in the public interest. Chairman Copps reiterated that the FCC would get back to stations with an answer as soon as it could. "All I can say is as soon as possible," Copps said, pointing out that the commission was working with ridiculous deadlines. He said that everyone had to understand that. "We're down to a matter of days getting the word out to all the stations and getting information in and feedback and guidance out. It is a very trying challenge and we are trying to do that as quickly as possible," he said. Copps aide Rick Chessen said that the number of stations in vulnerable markets where the FCC could prohibit them from pulling the plug could be anywhere from low double-digits to triple digits. Chessen said that all the stations in under 20 markets have asked to go on Feb. 17. Chairman Copps said that decision will be based on a number of factors, including how many people in the market are on the DTV-to-analog converter box coupon waiting list, whether all the stations in a market want to go, or whether any analog newscast would remain.
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FCC REJECTS 25% OF TV STATIONS' EARLY DTV-SWITCH APPLICATIONS
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
The Federal Communications Commission late Wednesday rejected, at least temporarily, a quarter of the requests from the 491 TV stations that had asked to switch to digital-only signals on Feb. 17. The FCC had warned it might reject switches that weren't in the public interest. In Wednesday night's action the commission expressed concern about markets where all the major network affiliates were switching early. That would potentially leave viewers who were unprepared for the digital switchover without any source for local TV news or emergency messages. The agency, however, suggested it could let many of the same stations go ahead with switch if at least one major local station would continue to broadcast an analog signal. Other factors considered would be as assessment of whether the analog station had news and public affairs programming and if stations would set up "walk in" centers to help local residents apply for coupons and set up converter boxes that would let analog TVs receive digital signals. The stations were asked to agree to the conditions by Friday if they wanted to go ahead. The FCC determined which applications for an early switch would be rejected by identifying markets in which all stations would be terminating analog service on Feb. 17. Then the agency spotlighted the markets in which affiliates of all four of the major networks, ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC, would be terminating analog service. Alternatively, the agency looked at markets that do not have affiliates of all four networks to determine if all of the major networks broadcasting in those markets would be terminating their analog service on Feb. 17th. Other factors that went into the FCC's analysis included the size of the market, and how critical it is in a market to have major networks and affiliates delivering local news and public affairs information.
http://benton.org/node/21999
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
FCC CLEARS TIME WARNER CABLE SPINOFF
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Kim Dixon]
The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday approved the spinoff by Time Warner of its cable unit Time Warner Cable with no major conditions, the last major hurdle to the deal. The FCC said the transaction "is likely to benefit the public interest." Time Warner is seeking to spin off 84 percent of its cable unit, the second largest U.S. cable company after Comcast Corp, in response to Wall Street demands that it refocus as a pure media content company to boost its stock price. Company officials expect the split to be completed by March 31. The agency declined to add conditions requested by some groups. Such conditions include that Time Warner resolve carriage disputes pending at the agency, and that it cease its pay-per-view adult programing. "The transaction will lessen the extent to which TWC is vertically integrated with program providers and will eliminate the vertical integration of Time Warner by separating it from TWC," the FCC said in its order. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said he was pleased with the decision: "This is yet another transaction that indicates that the media marketplace continues to deconsolidate, a trend that has been evident in recent years."
http://benton.org/node/21980
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COPPS TAKES INITIAL STEPS TOWARD BOOSTING MINORITY OWNERSHIP
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Copps said it is time to do something about boosting minority ownership in broadcasting and he has put in motion the process to provide legal justification and factual underpinnings for doing so. "The Chairman is absolutely right," said Minority Media & Telecommunications Council Executive Director David Honig. Minority ownership policies are sustainable if the necessary research is done thoroughly and objectively. The commission undertook that work in 2000, dropped the ball, and now we're glad to see that Copps has picked it up." MMTC has long advocated for greater minority participation, as well as greater FCC enforcement of civil rights.
http://benton.org/node/21979
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SIRIUS TALKS TO LIBERTY TO FEND ERGEN EFFORT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Matthew Karnitschnig]
Sirius XM Radio Inc. is seeking an investment from Liberty Media Corp., people familiar with the matter say, in a last-ditch effort to fend off an unsolicited takeover approach from satellite entrepreneur Charles Ergen. The talks set the stage for a battle between the leading U.S. satellite-television providers -- Liberty-controlled DirectTV Group Inc. and Mr. Ergen's Dish Network Corp. -- for control of the country's sole satellite-radio operator. Liberty, which is controlled by billionaire John Malone, emerged as a potential "white knight" for Sirius after Mr. Ergen made an unsolicited offer late last year to take control of the radio operator. Though the talks between Sirius and Liberty are advanced, a deal remains far from certain. It wasn't clear how much Liberty would be willing to invest in Sirius and whether it would end up with control. Mr. Malone is known as a careful negotiator and is unlikely to cut a deal in haste. Sirius doesn't have much time.
http://benton.org/node/21997
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FACING THE MUSIC OF HEAVY DEBT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Rob Cox, Lauren Silva Laughlin, Rob Cyran]
Just this week, Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest radio station owner, tapped a last-resort credit line. Clear Channel is a viable businesses suffering from a surfeit of debt. Investors and creditors are now paying the piper. Their stories provide the overture to the restructuring opera just beginning in corporate America. Take Clear Channel (Please!). The private equity firms Bain Capital and THL Partners paid top dollar to win shareholder approval for their $27.5 billion buyout of the company in mid-2007. The price was later renegotiated, but clearly not by enough. Clear Channel had over $19 billion of borrowings at the end of its most recent quarter. This week it tapped the remaining $1.6 billion of a credit facility, sending its more senior loans to trade at just 45 cents on the dollar. Radio advertising is linked to the economic cycle. But Clear Channel's troubles have been intensified in this recession by the onset of competitors like satellite radio and the iPod. Local radio advertising fell a staggering 21 percent in November from the same month a year earlier, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau's most recent figures. National advertising was down 25 percent. If Clear Channel had a more forgiving capital structure, it would be better able to tough it out. The company made nearly $500 million in the third quarter, reflecting a nearly 30 percent operating margin. The trouble is that interest payments swallowed $312 million of that. As the downturn worsens, Clear Channel edges closer to breaching its debt covenants.
http://benton.org/node/21996
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JOURNALISM
AS MAINSTREAM MEDIA DECLINE, NICHE AND FOREIGN OUTLETS GROW
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Tyler Marshall]
The corps of journalists covering Washington D.C. at the dawn of the Obama Administration is not so much smaller as it is dramatically transformed. And that transformation will markedly alter what Americans know and not know about the new government, as well as who will know it and who will not. As the mainstream media have shrunk, a new sector of niche media has grown in its place, offering more specialized and detailed information than the general media to smaller, elite audiences, often built around narrowly targeted financial, lobbying and political interests. Some of these niche outlets are financed by an economic model of high-priced subscriptions, others by image advertising from big companies like defense contractors, oil companies, and mobile phone alliances trying to influence policy makers. In addition, the contingent of foreign reporters in Washington has grown to nearly ten times the size it was a generation ago. And the picture they are sending abroad of the country is a far different one than the world received when the information came mainly via American based wire services and cable news.
http://benton.org/node/21978
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BOUCHER, PENCE TRY AGAIN FOR PASSAGE OF A FEDERAL SHIELD LAW
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Reps Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Mike Pence (R-IN) will try again to get Congress to pass a federal shield law. They have introduced the Free Flow Of Information Act of 2009. The 2008 version of the bill of the same name passed overwhelmingly in the House (382 to 21), before getting bottled up in the Senate after the administration put on a full court press against it. The administration had threatened to veto the bill and then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey said "10 angels swearing on Bibles" in support of the bill would not change his view that it has major flaws. There are 37 co-sponsors of the bill, which protects journalists and their sources from government overreach, with carve outs for national security, and proprietary business and medical information.
http://benton.org/node/21977
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STUDY: TV KEY SOURCE OF ECONOMIC NEWS
[SOURCE: National Center for Business Journalism, AUTHOR: ]
Television is cited as the primary source of news about the economy by more Americans than daily newspapers, the Internet and radio combined. In addition, more than half of those who primarily receive their economic news from television rate the coverage as good. Those are the results of a nationwide research report based on 450 in-depth interviews with heads of households commissioned by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism and conducted by the Behavior Research Center. Forty-eight percent of respondents said they rely primarily on television for their economic news, while 21 percent cited newspapers, 16 percent the Internet, 8 percent radio and 7 percent "other." Of those who specified television, 56 percent said the coverage was good, 6 percent said excellent, 30 percent only fair, 5 percent poor and 3 percent "not sure."
http://benton.org/node/21974
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
RATING PRESIDENT OBAMA'S MEDIA CAMPAIGN
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Marisa Guthrie]
President Obama's mini media blitz in support of the stimulus package "seemed to invigorate him and give him some compelling 'real people' to talk about," wrote ABC News' senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper. "It helped firm up his narrative that the capital doesn't understand what's really going on out there, however contrived a narrative that may be." Monday night's press conference--which was watched by nearly 50 million people across several broadcast and cable news networks--also illustrated the notoriously BlackBerry-addicted president's embrace of new media when he took a question from Sam Stein, a correspondent for liberal Website The Huffington Post, while neglecting some traditional news sources.
http://benton.org/node/21976
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CONGRESSMAN'S TWITTERING RAISES SECURITY CONCERNS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Anne Flaherty]
Rep Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee, landed in hot water this week after using his Twitter page to update the public on his precise whereabouts while traveling through Iraq and Afghanistan. The revelation prompted the Pentagon to review its policy, which regards such information as sensitive, and lit up the liberal blogosphere with accusations of hypocrisy. Rep Hoekstra says he did nothing wrong. He pointed to announcements by other high-ranking officials, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which list the countries they plan to visit.
http://benton.org/node/21993
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THOUSANDS OF CONGRESSIONAL REPORTS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Krebs]
Open government groups scored a small but potentially decisive victory this week in a long-running battle to win publication of thousands of secret reports that Congress uses to fashion new laws. Each year, with the help of more than $100 million in funding from Congress, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) produces thousands of reports on legislative policy issues ranging from farm subsidies to weapons sales. While the reports are neither copyrighted nor classified, their release has been solely at the discretion of lawmakers. But on Monday, Wikileaks.org, an online clearinghouse for leaked documents, published thousands of previously unreleased CRS reports. At the same time, the group says it is on track to receive a steady stream of new reports, which it plans to feed to open government groups and directly to consumers via its Web site.
http://benton.org/node/21968
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"SHOW US THE DATA" PROJECT LAUNCHES
[SOURCE: Center for Democracy & Technology, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Center for Democracy & Technology and OpenTheGovernment.org today announced the launch of Show Us The Data: The Most Wanted Federal Government Documents, a project aimed at identifying vital government information and encouraging the federal government to put it within easy reach of the public. This project will lead to a report, recommending documents and data that the federal government should make easier to find and use. The project's launch follows up on a directive from President Obama to federal agencies to proactively make information available to the public. The goal is to identify the documents and databases the public most wants to be made publicly available in usable formats. The items can be information known or thought to be in the federal government's possession, or information that the federal government should be collecting or generating.
http://benton.org/node/21967
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POLICYMAKERS
Getting to Know FCC Hopeful Clyburn
GETTING TO KNOW FCC HOPEFUL CLYBURN
[SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: Kim McAvoy]
Apparently, Mignon Clyburn, a member of the Public Service Commission of South Carolina, will be tapped to serve on the Federal Communications Commission. She could replace Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, whose FCC term expired last year, but who may continue serving at the FCC until the end of this year or until a replacement is appointed. Clyburn has been on the SC PSC for eleven years and is the daughter of one of the most powerful men on Capitol Hill, Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. In South Carolina, the PSC has jurisdiction over telecommunications, investor-owned electric and natural gas companies, privately-owned water and sewer companies as well as some transportation systems (passenger carriers, household goods movers and hazardous waste for disposal carriers). The state's General Assembly elects PSC commissioners to four-year terms. Clyburn was first elected in 1998; her current term ends June 30, 2010. Clyburn chaired the PSC from 2002 until 2004. She also ran The Coastal Times -- a small, weekly African-American newspaper in Charleston -- from 1984 when she graduated from the University of South Carolina with a BS in banking, finance and economics to when she was first elected to the PSC in 1998.
http://benton.org/node/21975
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WIRELESS
MOBILE CONNECTIONS SURPASS 4 BILLION MARK WORLDWIDE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Niclas Mika]
The number of connections on mobile phone networks has crossed the 4 billion mark worldwide, industry association GSMA said on Wednesday, forecasting further growth to 6 billion by 2013. The number of connections does not translate directly into the number of users, however, because in many mature markets, one user may have two mobile phones, or a phone and a mobile data device, which would both count as two connections. In Western Europe, about a fifth of connections are estimated to be due to one user having more than one device, a figure that probably applies to many developed markets, a GSMA spokesman said. In developing countries, by contrast, phones are often shared.
http://benton.org/node/21969
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CELL PHONES HAVE REACHED SATURATION POINT
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Aaron Baar]
With cell phones having reached a saturation point in the US market, declining consumer spending and a lack of must-have new features could add up to the industry's worst year ever. "People have been replacing their old phones steadily for the past few years, but as the economy goes down, they're not spending as much," said Allen Nogee, a principal analyst at In-Stat. Moreover, he says, the cell phone industry may have reached its apex when it comes to adding new features, which had been a prime selling strategy for cell phone makers and service providers.
http://benton.org/node/21973
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QUICKLY
WGA STRIKE: ONE YEAR LATER
[SOURCE: Variety, AUTHOR: Cynthia Littleton]
One year later, the evidence is clear: The WGA strike crippled the film and TV biz at a time when the industry was already caught in the buzzsaw of a radically changing marketplace for Hollywood's wares. The strike by the Writers Guild of America that spanned Nov. 5, 2007-Feb. 12, 2008, sent the congloms on a cost-cutting binge that is as much an opportunistic drive to downsize the cost structure of production as it is a necessary effort to help offset shrinking profit margins. As the industry still grapples with the upshot of SAG's long-running contract drama, the collateral damage of the WGA walkout is coming into sharper focus.
http://benton.org/node/21972
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CONTENT, ONCE KING, BECOMES PAUPER
[SOURCE: Time, AUTHOR: Douglas McIntyre]
Up until very recently, perhaps as recently as six months ago, the prevailing wisdom among analysts who covered the media industry was that "content is king." It is an inexact way of looking at what editors, photographers, actors, producers, and reporters create. But content is rapidly being devalued. The first people to press that case are accountants. They have insisted that companies write-down tens of billions of dollars in assets. Part of the problem with content value is tied directly to the recession. Accountants should take it easy when they lean on that too hard. The best assets bounce back when the economy recovers. But, by forcing companies to write-down their content assets so extremely they are saying that the firms can never go home again. Their TV shows, movies, magazines, and newspapers will never recover all of their value. No one knows to what extent content will be "re-valued" as the economy improves.
http://benton.org/node/21971
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US AND RUSSIAN SATELLITES COLLIDE
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Bill Harwood]
In an unprecedented space collision, a commercial Iridium communications satellite and a defunct Russian satellite ran into each other Tuesday above northern Siberia, creating a cloud of wreckage. [see more at the URL below]
http://benton.org/node/21970
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INMATE INTERNET ACCESS DEBATED
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Cathy Bussewitz]
A plan debated Tuesday by Nevada lawmakers would allow some state prison inmates — who lost the use of personal typewriters starting in 2007 — limited access to the Internet. [see more at the URL below]
http://benton.org/node/21995
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TWITTER? IT'S WHAT YOU MAKE IT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Pogue]
[Commentary] There's nothing quite like Twitter. [see more at the URL below]http://benton.org/node/21994
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VIDEOGAMES SEEN GOOD FOR CHILDREN
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Sarah Luehrs]
Please do not show this article to my son... Videogames can be good for children, encouraging creativity and cooperation, a European Union report concluded Wednesday which ran counter to the violent reputation of some titles. [see more at the URL below]
http://benton.org/node/21992
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CONGRESS TACKLES E-WASTE IN THE HOUSE AND NATIONALLY
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Stephanie Condon]
If Congress can't figure out what to do with its old computers, members of the House of Representatives rationalized Wednesday, it's unlikely anyone else can. [see more at the URL below]
http://benton.org/node/21991
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