Look for a special PM version of Headlines on June 19 – we will NOT be publishing Tuesday morning.
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2012
The Looming Spectrum Crunch: How Will it Affect Consumer Wireless Services? http://benton.org/calendar/2012-06-18/
INTERNET/BROADBAND
What is America’s cyberwar policy? - editorial
Ethics of secret cyberattack on Iran needs full debate - editorial
Getting Seniors Online – Challenges and Opportunities
Getting Seniors Online
Accelerating Broadband Deployment - analysis
The UN's Internet Power Grab - editorial
ITU Sets Broadband Targets in Advance of G20 Summit
Network neutrality could be a victim under an ITU Internet takeover
Verizon Raises Prices On Faster FiOs Quantum Web Service
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
FCC asks about cell phone safety
T-Mobile smartphones are data beasts, eating up 760 MB a month [links to web]
Communal Clearwire? Meet Karma. [links to web]
Verizon: A surge in data -- and costs - editorial
See also: Verizon Raises Prices On Faster FiOs Quantum Web Service
Apple and Google Go Head to Head Over Mobile Maps [links to web]
App Developers Who Are Too Young to Drive [links to web]
CONTENT
Google's Censorship Juggle
Cable TV's antitrust issue
Royalties From Digital Radio Start to Add Up [links to web]
Search results may deliver tainted links [links to web]
New Online Partnership Aims for Cheaper Political Ads [links to web]
PRIVACY
Putting the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights into Practice - press release
Facebook to pay $10 million to settle suit
Online Tracking Ramps Up [links to web]
TELEVISION
Stations Should Embrace TV for the Blind - editorial
Why Broadcasters Didn't Tune in More Dollars at the TV Upfront - analysis
Netflix analyzes a lot of data about your viewing habits
The Season of Broadcast Disconnect [links to web]
Networks look to clean up with nighttime soaps [links to web]
CHILDREN AND MEDIA
TV networks try to connect with young, tech-savvy multitaskers [links to web]
Are your kids at risk on social media? [links to web]
Verifying Ages Online Is a Daunting Task, Even for Experts [links to web]
App Developers Who Are Too Young to Drive [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
SEC Pressed Facebook For Details On Mobile Revenue Before IPO [links to web]
Newspaper Work, With Warren Buffett as Boss [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
FCC Commissioner Pai Announces New Staff - press release
Sharon Gillett, FCC Wireline Competition Bureau Chief to Step Down - press release
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Mergers of European Mobile Carriers Expected to Grow
Vodafone Wins Backing For C&W Bid After Orbis Drops Opposition [links to web]
Coverage of Scandal Dents Credibility of Pakistani TV News
An E-Reader Revolution for Africa?
INTERNET/BROADBAND
CYBERWAR POLICY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Editorial board]
[Commentary] Much has been learned about how Stuxnet functioned since it was first discovered more than two years ago by computer security experts. But the recent disclosure that Stuxnet was approved by both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama as a covert operation aimed at Iran sheds new light on a nascent U.S. offensive cyberweapons program that has largely existed in the shadows. Instead of forcing cyberweapons into deeper secrecy, the disclosure should prompt a more open and thorough policy debate about 21st-century threats and how they will be countered with American power. The world is awash in hacking, espionage, theft and disruption. Nations are struggling to defend their networks, but also building offensive cyberprograms designed to function as free-standing weapons or as adjuncts to conventional kinetic warfare. Stuxnet demonstrated that these weapons can be deployed to attack, although they also can be hard to deter and could invite retaliation that is nearly impossible to trace. President Obama said in his strategy document last year that the digital world “is a place where the norms of responsible, just, and peaceful conduct among states and peoples have begun to take hold.” Perhaps, but the digital universe is also spawning warriors, including those of the United States. An open debate would go a long way toward preparing the American people for what is certain to be decades of commitment and uncertainty in this new domain.
benton.org/node/126026 | Washington Post
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ETHICS OF CYBERATTACK
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The United States has been has been waging a secret war on Iran since the beginning of President Barack Obama's presidency. At least, it is war by the definition of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who told ABC News only three weeks ago that a major cyberattack on U.S. electrical or other infrastructure would be considered an act of war on a par with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. How would this be different from the technological attacks Obama has launched to debilitate and destroy Iran's nuclear facilities? And if they do constitute war, at what point do Congress and the American people get to weigh in? Congress should conduct a full hearing on the ethics of cyberattacks and drone attacks against nations and suspected terrorists. Feinstein should lead the charge to establish rules of engagement for this rapidly emerging field of technological warfare. Wars against sovereign nations must not be conducted in secret. They need to be debated and authorized by Congress in full public view. But war by technological attacks on a nation's infrastructure is new, and it raises different issues from, say, a secret order to send troops to invade a country. It's hard to imagine a modern president trying that. But if technological attacks truly are acts of war, as Panetta argues -- and who wouldn't agree that the U.S. should swiftly retaliate against a foreign power that crippled our power plants? -- then shouldn't more than one person be making the call?
benton.org/node/126055 | San Jose Mercury News
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GETTING SENIORS ONLINE – CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Cecilia Garcia]
Last month the Benton Foundation and Connected Living co-hosted a day-long examination of the challenges related to broadband adoption by low-income elderly consumers. Getting Seniors Online highlighted the work of several projects targeting low-income seniors funded by the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), administered by the National Telecommunications & Information Agency (NTIA) at the U.S. Department of Commerce. We also looked at one non-BTOP funded project in Miami which serves a multicultural community. There is a sense of urgency among BTOP grantees, as federal stimulus funding is coming to an end. Sustaining the work and applying “lessons learned” will help to continue the momentum created by these federal investments. The low-income elderly are among our most vulnerable populations and least likely to enjoy the benefits of online communications. The latest data from the Pew Research Center indicates that more than 50 percent of people over the age of 65 are now online. Statistics, however, do not always paint a complete picture.
Here’s a sampling of what we learned during our convening:
Barriers to adoption for the elderly include anxiety. Projects reported that many seniors fear that they’ll break the computer or otherwise do something wrong.
The elderly experience greater socio-economic disparities than other age groups.
Effective approaches consider age tiers, rather than lumping seniors into a “65 years+” category.
Isolation – contrary to popular opinion, use of computers and the Internet by the elderly helps fight off isolation, rather than increase it.
Trust issues: public libraries are cited as trusted places for seniors, even in rural area. Danger in budget cuts
It is critical to include the elderly in planning successful program: “Do with, not for.”
Seniors make great peer coaches – something to consider for the proposed Digital Literacy Corps.
http://benton.org/node/125994
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GETTING SENIORS ONLINE
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: ]
Americans are living longer and becoming increasingly dependent on a constantly-changing telecommunications environment for health care services, access to public and private services, and staying in touch with family and friends. One of our greatest challenges as a nation is ensuring that low-income seniors become actively engaged in navigating the 21st Century telecommunications infrastructure – the Internet. The Benton Foundation and Connected Living hosted a conference on May 22, 2012, bringing together evaluators, practitioners and policymakers to exchange ideas and offer best practices, and explore how to continue working on this issue in a post-federal stimulus era. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provided funding for partnerships and projects that focused on bringing unserved and underserved communities online through the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).
benton.org/node/126013 | Benton Foundation
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ACCELERATING BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] This week, the White House announced the latest federal actions to lower broadband deployment costs across the Nation. Part of these efforts include the launch of the US Ignite Partnership between Federal agencies along with partners from industry, the non-profit sector, and local communities to accelerate the development of applications that can take advantage of ultra-high-speed, programmable broadband to bring innovative new products and services to the American people.
http://benton.org/node/125943
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UN’S POWER GRAB
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] It's easy to understand why countries like Russia, China and Iran would want to rewire the Internet, cutting off access to their citizens and undermining the idea of a World Wide Web. What's more surprising is that U.S. diplomats are letting authoritarian regimes hijack an obscure U.N. agency to undermine how the Internet works, including for Americans. Someone leaked the 212-page planning document being used by governments to prepare for the December conference. George Mason University researcher Eli Dourado summarized: "These proposals show that many ITU member states want to use international agreements to regulate the Internet by crowding out bottom-up institutions, imposing charges for international communication, and controlling the content that consumers can access online." The broadest proposal in the draft materials is an initiative by China to give countries authority over "the information and communication infrastructure within their state" and require that online companies "operating in their territory" use the Internet "in a rational way"—in short, to legitimize full government control. The Internet Society, which represents the engineers around the world who keep the Internet functioning, says this proposal "would require member states to take on a very active and inappropriate role in patrolling" the Internet. Several proposals would give the UN power to regulate online content for the first time, under the guise of protecting against computer malware or spam. Another proposal would give the U.N. authority over allocating Internet addresses.
benton.org/node/126060 | Wall Street Journal
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ITU BROADBAND TARGETS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In advance of the G20 financial summit in Mexico, The International Telecommunications Union's Broadband Commission for Digital Development has set universal broadband targets for developed and developing countries. The G20, which represents some of the world's top economies, was advised by the commission to treat broadband as they would other essential utilities, like water, roads and electricity, by "mak[ing] the necessary investments to enable their citizens to participate in and benefit from the digital economy and global innovation -- or risk exclusion." The commission's broadband targets are that, by 2015:
All countries should have a national broadband plan or strategy or include broadband in their Universal Access/Service Definitions.
Entry-level broadband services should be made affordable in developing countries through adequate regulation and market forces (amounting to less than 5% of average monthly income).
Forty percent of households in developing countries should have Internet access.
Internet user penetration should reach 60% worldwide, 50% in developing countries and 15% in LDCs (least developed countries).
"We therefore ask the G20 leaders to consider the vital contribution that broadband and broadband-enabled applications and services can make to global and sustainable social and economic development and recognize broadband as a key enabling framework," said the commission.
benton.org/node/126010 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY AND THE ITU
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Network neutrality, the idea that an Internet service provider can’t discriminate against the traffic traveling over its network, is an enshrined legal right in some areas and a hotly contested regulatory fight in others. But according to a post over at TechDirt it may become moot if the International Telecommunications Union succeeds in its plans to dictate terms that will affect how traffic flows on the Internet. Earlier this month some of the proposed rules associated with the UN’s plans surfaced on a blog and since then other leaks have given us a sense of what’s on the negotiating table at the UN. The one seeking to gut network neutrality is submitted by ETNO — the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association. Now, this proposal may never make it to the final ITU version of the rules and the ITU itself may never get the authority it wants in terms of being able to dictate how packets travel on the Internet, but it is worth understanding what regulators are considering in this fairly secret process. Glyn Moody at TechDirt has read those documents and clips the relevant segments to argue that these proposals would effectively make network neutrality illegal.
benton.org/node/126008 | GigaOm | TechDirt
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VERIZON RAISES PRICES
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Scott Moritz]
Verizon Communications is raising prices as it doubles Internet speeds with FiOS Quantum, a new offer debuting the company’s fastest Web service to date. Verizon, the second-largest U.S. phone company, is emphasizing faster speeds as part of its new FiOS broadband Internet, television and phone service bundles as it seeks an edge against cable providers. The higher-speed offerings also come with higher prices aimed at users with multiple Internet devices and more bandwidth-hogging applications. Verizon, based in New York, says that beginning on June 18 customers can pick from five speeds starting at 15 megabits per second, which remains the same price at $99 a month for triple play, and topping out at 300 megabits per second for an Internet-only service for $204.99 with a two-year contract, according to a statement.
benton.org/node/126052 | Bloomberg
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
CELL PHONE SAFETY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
For the first time in 15 years, the Federal Communications Commission took steps to reexamine safety standards for cell phones amid growing concerns about the health risks associated with radiation from mobile devices. At question is whether limits the FCC puts on radio frequency emission for cellular devices are outdated and do not take into account the use of new mobile technology and the amount of time users spend on devices. The debate has drawn huge protest from the $170 billion wireless industry, which has lobbied the FCC and local governments against new standards and proposals for greater disclosure of health warnings. The FCC’s action was preliminary, with the five commissioners presented with a draft proposal to take up a review of its safety guidelines. The FCC will vote at an undetermined future date on whether to pursue an official investigation into the topic. The agency downplayed the significance of the action and said it believes current standards are safe.
benton.org/node/126025 | Washington Post | Reuters
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VERIZON DATA AND COSTS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Verizon Wireless, the country's leading provider of mobile phone service, announced plans this week for a double-digit increase in the entry-level price for using a smartphone. The company defended the move, saying it should help subscribers with multiple wireless devices — for example, a family with several smartphones and a tablet computer. But the heart of the plan is higher charges for using Verizon's network to transmit data, which is what customers have increasingly been doing since the advent of Apple's iPhone. The announcement was a worrisome reminder that a handful of companies stand as potential gatekeepers to one of the most vibrant sectors of the US economy. The question for regulators is whether the entire industry follows Verizon's lead, creating a pricing structure that slams the brakes on growth and innovation in wireless technology by making consumers think twice about their data usage. Verizon can and should experiment with new offers as it tries to adapt to evolving demand, but so should its competitors. (One, AT&T, is coming up with its own shared-data plans.) For now, at least, consumers who don't like Verizon's new plans can choose from among several alternatives. Meanwhile, the onus is on Washington to make the airwaves available for a vigorously competitive wireless broadband market so that consumers, not carriers, control the pace of the mobile revolution.
benton.org/node/126053 | Los Angeles Times
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CONTENT
CENSORSHIP JUGGLE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Paul Sonne]
Google received more than 1,000 requests from governments around the world in the second half of last year to take down items such as YouTube videos and search listings, and it complied with them more than half the time. Google is publishing the data June 18 in its Global Transparency Report, a biannual study the search giant started in 2010. The report makes public the number, location and type of content-removal requests Google receives from various governments. The company said it received 461 court orders demanding the removal of 6,989 items in the second half. Google consented to 68% of those requests. The company received 546 informal requests, such as phone calls from police officials, requesting the removal of 4,925 items. It complied with 43% of them. In total, Google received 1,007 requests and complied with roughly 54% of them. The statistics don't include countries such as China and Iran that block Google content directly without submitting removal requests to the company.
benton.org/node/126058 | Wall Street Journal | Google | WSJ – US
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CABLE ANTITRUST
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Rapid technological advances have helped cable TV operators become the country's leading providers of broadband Internet connections. Yet "cable modem" service poses an existential threat to the pay-TV business that has been cable's bread and butter since its inception. Low-cost online movie and television services from the likes of Netflix and Hulu are slowly drawing customers away from cable's ever-more-expensive bundles of channels. So when leading cable TV operators started penalizing customers who downloaded unusually large amounts of data — a practice that seemed to target the heaviest users of online video services such as Netflix — it raised a troubling question: Are the penalties a legitimate effort to reduce congestion and offer a better online experience for most cable modem customers, or just a pretext to hamper cable's online rivals? That's the backdrop for a new inquiry launched by antitrust enforcers at the Justice Department. Cable operators have the right to compete aggressively, but not to use their power in the broadband market to compete unfairly for video customers. We welcome the Justice Department's efforts to determine whether the cable companies' practices are just aggressive or unduly discriminatory.
benton.org/node/126057 | Los Angeles Times
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PRIVACY
CONSUMER PRIVACY BILL OF RIGHTS
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Lawrence Strickling]
Providing transparency in how consumer data is handled by mobile applications – this is the first topic for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s for the privacy multistakeholder process. On July 12, NTIA will convene the first meeting for stakeholders to begin developing a code of conduct that applies the Transparency principle in the Consumer Bill of Rights to mobile apps. The NTIA proposed this as an initial topic because it is a privacy challenge that affects many consumers yet is discrete enough to be addressed in a reasonable period of time. Many of you agreed. The NTIA expects the stakeholder experience in developing a code of conduct on this topic will inform future efforts to develop codes that address other privacy issues. When codes of conduct are developed and implemented, consumers will have clearer protections and businesses will have greater certainty. And maintaining consumer trust in the Internet will help ensure that it remains an engine for American innovation and economic growth.
benton.org/node/126020 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration | meeting announcement | The Hill | National Journal
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FACEBOOK SETTLES SUIT
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Dan Levine, Sarah McBride]
Facebook has agreed to pay $10 million to charity to settle a lawsuit that accused the site of violating users' rights to control the use of their own names, photographs and likenesses. The lawsuit, brought by five Facebook members, alleged the social networking site violated California law by publicizing users' "likes" of certain advertisers on its "Sponsored Stories" feature without paying them or giving them a way to opt out. A "Sponsored Story" is an advertisement that appears on a member's Facebook page and generally consists of another friend's name, profile picture and an assertion that the person "likes" the advertiser. The settlement was reached last month.
benton.org/node/126002 | Reuters
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TELEVISION
TV AND THE BLIND
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] Now that Congress has mandated that stations provide audio descriptions for blind and sight-impaired viewers, broadcasters should stop fighting it. I get it. Nobody likes to be told what to do by the government. But this is an instance where broadcasters are being told to do something that they ought to have been doing anyway. So accept it and, in the great spirit and tradition of broadcasting, make the most of it.
benton.org/node/126018 | TVNewsCheck
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UPFRONT RESULTS
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Brian Steinberg]
Something funny happened on the way to this year's upfront. Advertisers who were expected to demonstrate their love for TV by again committing to spend even more money there wound up distracted by a competing concern: a shaky economy. The gyrating stock market and disappointing employment figures gave TV's biggest sponsors an urge to keep their money in their pockets, where they knew it would be safe, rather than agreeing to use it on TV-network ad time -- at least for now. Yes, it's true, advertisers committed a staggering amount of wampum to this year's upfront, that annual process through which the big TV networks try to sell the bulk of their ad inventory for the upcoming season. And they agreed to increases in ad rates. But they didn't let their overall dollar commitments surpass those agreed to last year. This year, the five English-speaking broadcast networks won a total of between $8.8 billion and $9.3 billion, depending on whose fuzzy math you use. And while that sounds like a lot, it's about the same amount secured last year by the Big Four-And-A-Half (The CW is too small a revenue generator to make a Big Five). More telling, perhaps, the amounts secured this year fall short -- once again -- of the $9.5 billion attracted by six networks (CW had yet to form from the ashes of WB and UPN) in 2004, re-energizing that old debate, the one about whether marketers will maintain their devotion to the TV set when new technology creates such a dizzying array of new media venues to examine.
benton.org/node/126017 | AdAge
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NETFLIX DATA
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Derrick Harris]
Netflix’s algorithms for recommending movies to customers might not be perfect, but it isn’t for lack of trying. The company is capturing and analyzing an incredible amount of data to try and figure out what you want to watch next. Here’s a taste of what Netflix is collecting, and how much:
More than 25 million users
About 30 million plays per day (and it tracks every time you rewind, fast forward and pause a movie)
More than 2 billion hours of streaming video watched during the last three months of 2011 alone
About 4 million ratings per day
About 3 million searches per day
Geo-location data
Device information
Time of day and week (it now can verify that users watch more TV shows during the week and more movies during the weekend)
Metadata from third parties such as Nielsen
Social media data from Facebook and Twitter
However, Netflix’s most-interesting use of data might be its attempts to actually analyze what’s going on in movies themselves.
benton.org/node/126006 | GigaOm
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POLICYMAKERS
FCC COMMISSIONER AJIT V. PAI ANNOUNCES NEW STAFF
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission member Ajit V. Pai announced the appointment of Nicholas Degani as his Legal Advisor focusing on wireline issues. Degani comes to Commissioner Pai’s office from a detail to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Commerce, where he served as counsel under Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR). His portfolio included communications issues and agencies, with a focus on the Universal Service Fund, intercarrier compensation, privacy, cybersecurity, agency jurisdiction and spending, and the administrative process. Before his detail, Degani served as an Attorney Advisor in the Wireline Competition Bureau’s Telecommunications Access Policy Division, where he worked on issues related to the Universal Service Fund’s low-income and schools and libraries programs, as well as contributions and eligible-telecommunications-carrier issues. Degani has also worked in the Commission’s Office of General Counsel and the Wireline Competition Bureau’s Competition Policy Division, where he worked on pole attachment issues, transaction review, broadband policy, and numbering issues related to Internet-based Telecommunications Relay Services. Degani entered the Commission through the Attorney Honors Program in 2007.
Earlier in his career, Degani served as a law clerk for Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and magna cum laude from Yale University, where he studied Electrical Engineering/Computer Science and History.
benton.org/node/126023 | Federal Communications Commission
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GILLETT LEAVING FCC
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Sharon Gillett will be departing the Federal Communications Commission and leaving her role as Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau to return to the Boston area. Julie Veach, currently Deputy General Counsel in the Office of General Counsel, will serve as Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau, effective June 30.
Veach currently serves as Deputy General Counsel for administrative and general law issues. Prior to joining the Office of General Counsel in 2009, she served as Deputy Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau, where she led many of the Bureau's efforts involving broadband, competition, and data gathering and analysis. Ms. Veach also held a variety of other positions in the Wireline Competition Bureau. Before joining the FCC in 2001, Ms. Veach was an associate with the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, and she clerked for the Hon. Michael S. Kanne of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She graduated magna cum laude from the Indiana University School of Law and holds a B.A. from Purdue University.
benton.org/node/126022 | Federal Communications Commission | The Hill
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
EUROPEAN MERGERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Kevin O’Brien]
European mobile telephone operators are primed to enter a long-awaited phase of consolidation. As growth slows, and as the need to cut costs and pay out millions for new, faster networks grows, longtime rivals are joining forces in markets across Europe to reap the benefits of economies of scale. “You are going to see this happen more and more,” said John Delaney, an analyst in London at the International Data Corporation. “Fundamentally, there are too many network operators. Revenues are declining in the core services of voice and text, and the rise in data revenue is not making up for the shortfall.” European policy makers are supportive. Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for telecommunications, said that consolidation would help the Continent’s industry maintain its competitive position with rivals in the United States and Asia, where greater consolidation has allowed for faster adoption of new technologies. “Having a few pan-European operators that are strong in the cross-border market would not necessarily be bad for competition,” Commissioner Kroes said.
benton.org/node/126041 | New York Times
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PAKISTANI TV
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Declan Walsh]
Not long ago, judges and journalists were clearly on the same team in Pakistan, reveling in a shared crusade to expose the corrupt, hold the powerful to account and reshape the dynamics of a fragile democracy. Now, following a cascade of explosive scandals, they are at each other’s throats. For a week, the country has been gripped by a drumroll of revelations: lurid corruption accusations against the family of the populist chief justice; dramatic television appearances by his billionaire accuser; angry judges threatening legal action against a major television station; and a leaked video exposing sham journalism at its worst. The drama is still unfolding. But few doubt that it has already wounded the integrity of the buccaneering Supreme Court chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who faces sharp criticism of his judgment that could threaten his job. And it has raised pressing questions for the burgeoning television news channels, which have acquired great influence in Pakistani public life but now face accusations of becoming an entrenched part of what is wrong with the country.
benton.org/node/126038 | New York Times
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E-READER REVOLUTION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Geoffrey Fowler, Nicholas Bariyo]
A vision of "one Kindle per child" for developing countries faces considerable challenges, including the cost of e-readers and making sure that kids actually learn better on the devices than with old-fashioned books. Africa is littered with well-intentioned technology programs that fail because devices don't get used, fall into the wrong hands or just can't find enough power to run. An ongoing project called One Laptop Per Child, which started in 2005 with the goal of creating Internet-connected laptops for educating kids in the developing world, spent $30 million to make its own laptop with a long battery life. The group has sold more than two million laptops, today priced at $185 each, but it has run into competition from commercial computer makers as well as criticism of its mission amid the basic needs of people in the Third World. It is now working on developing a laptop with a tabletlike touch screen. Early results at Worldreader are promising, says Mr. Risher, 46, a former Amazon executive who has raised about $1.5 million for his two-year-old program from foundations, individual donors like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, publishers and Amazon itself. It has distributed 1,100 Kindles and 180,000 e-books to kids and teachers in Ghana, Kenya and Uganda.
benton.org/node/126036 | Wall Street Journal
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