May 18, 2012 (Comcast Turns the Broadband Meter On)

INTERNET/BROADBAND

COMCAST USAGE-BASED BILLING
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Kafka]
Comcast is overhauling its rules which limit the amount of data its broadband subscribers can use. In short, Comcast is moving from a flat cap to usage-based billing. It is scrapping its 250-gigabytes a month cap and trying a couple different plans in its place. One version will introduce a 300-gig cap and offer additional tiers of service, with bigger caps, along with the ability to buy more chunks of data. Another version also uses a 300-gig cap and the ability to buy incremental blocks of data as needed. Comcast, which has more than 18 million high-speed data customers, says it will experiment with the two plans in some of its territories. It also says that in markets where it’s not trying the new plans, it will scrap its data cap entirely until it settles on a new plan. The move comes as Comcast has taken heat about the way it treats data on some of its proprietary video services, in particular the Xfinity app for Microsoft’s Xbox console.
benton.org/node/123529 | Wall Street Journal | Comcast press release | Washington Post | AP | The Hill | ars technica - I | ars technica - II | National Journal | GigaOm | Los Angeles Times | CNNMoney
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REACTION TO COMCAST ANNOUNCEMENT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Here’s reaction to the Comcast broadband usage announcement. Free Press didn't seem to find an upside to the Comcast announcement, although the company's new baseline, at least in a couple of testbeds, is 300GB, up from 250GB, with the 250 cap no longer enforced until Comcast figures out the best way forward for all its 18 million-plus ISP customers. Public Knowledge was a little more optimistic, though Legal Director Harold Feld also saw it as raising the cap, not removing it. "Comcast recognized the need to increase the cap on data 'usage' that the company set in 2008," he said, "and to experiment with additional flexibility for customers. As Time Warner Cable's recent decision to offer a capped plan as a discounted alternative shows, more flexible pricing plans can benefit consumers where they offer opportunities for savings without compromising quality or an open internet. We await further details of Comcast's plan so that subscribers can fully assess how these changes will impact their user experience." But Feld also said unanswered were the questions of how such caps are set, and why, and said Congress and the FCC should be investigating. Netflix, one of the online video competitors feeling thwarted, appeared somewhat encouraged but underwhelmed. "Increasing the data cap is a small step in the right direction," Netflix spokesman Joris Evers told GigaOm, "but unfortunately Comcast continues to treat its own Internet delivered video differently under the cap than other Internet delivered video. We continue to stand by the principle that ISPs should treat all providers of video services equally."
benton.org/node/123528 | Broadcasting&Cable | GigaOm
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LEVEL 3 ON COMCAST PRIORITIZATION
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Level 3, the backbone Internet provider and content delivery network, wants people to know that Comcast is still likely prioritizing its traffic over others’. The issue is an important one even with the new cap, because if Comcast is prioritizing its own traffic, it is violating the terms of its merger with NBC-Universal. Andrew Dugan, SVP of Network Engineering & Architecture, and Nasser El-Aawar, principal network architect, use a service called Wireshark to test out claims that Comcast is prioritizing its Xfinity on demand traffic that users access via the Xbox. Much like Bryan Berg, who kicked off this kerfuffle with a post on Comcast labeling packets and then accusing it of prioritizing packets, the Level 3 engineers detailed their tests and provided graphs showing that Netflix traffic was degraded on the network when it was congested while the Xfinity traffic going over the Xbox was unaffected.
benton.org/node/123526 | GigaOm
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NEW QUESTIONS AROUND VERIZON DEAL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Andrew Feinberg]
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), chairman of the Senate antitrust panel, is raising fresh questions about Verizon’s proposal to buy spectrum from cable providers following the company’s decision to stop offering DSL Internet as a stand-alone service. In a letter sent to Verizon General Counsel Randal Milch, Chairman Kohl said he is concerned about "the potential harm to both competition and consumers that could result" from the decision to only offer DSL in a bundle with other products. Chairman Kohl questioned whether the decision undermines Verizon’s promise that the companies plan to purchase spectrum from cable companies won’t limit consumer choice. Chairman Kohl noted that Verizon didn't announce the discontinuance of standalone DSL until after a hearing his subcommittee held and said the move contradicts Verizon's testimony at that hearing. Chairman Kohl closed the letter with a series of questions, asking when Verizon decided to discontinue stand-alone DSL, whether it had anything to do with the spectrum deal, what Verizon's savings will be from discontinuing stand-alone DSL and the reason for the "price differential" between bundled and stand-alone DSL. He said he expects a response from Verizon within three weeks.
DirecTV sent a letter "expanding on its concerns" about associated commercial marketing agreements between Verizon and the cable operators. DirecTV complains that it was working with Verizon on a next-generation fixed wireless broadband product that they would jointly market with DirecTV's video bundle, a project that was abandoned, DirecTV says, after Verizon entered into the agreements with cable operators to jointly market wireless and video services. It argues that dropping DSL broadband service "continues the pattern of abandoning initiatives that would compete with cable."
benton.org/node/123525 | Hill, The | Broadcasting&Cable | National Journal | CNNMoney
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FACEBOOK CHANGES OUR ONLINE LIVES
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: EB Boyd]
Is Facebook worth the $100 billion or so its pending IPO suggests it is? Who the good gracious knows. But one thing we can all be certain about is how the social network has radically changed people's behavior and expectations online in the eight short years since it was a nary more than a twinkle in the eye of its baby-faced founder(s). Those changes have had the monumental impact of facilitating the formation of entirely new industries and dramatically shifting the way brands market themselves online. There are things we do online today, that we take so much for granted that we forget that some of them didn't exist even as recently as two years ago. And others were so radical they inspired outright rebellions when they were first introduced. And yet all of these things are not only commonplace today, they are the presumed paradigms. To operate any differently would seem downright odd.
benton.org/node/123515 | Fast Company
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BROADBAND ADOPTION PILOT PROGRAM
[SOURCE: CommLawBlog, AUTHOR: Christine Goepp]
In moving broadband way up on the list of life’s essentials, the Federal Communications Commission may be getting ahead of many consumers. Affordability is undoubtedly one factor in broadband adoption, but there may also be a number of people who just don’t think it’s that important, or not worth the hassle, or too much of a privacy risk, or any number of other concerns. To change their minds, the FCC has decided to use a ploy familiar to the criminal element: it’s going to test how much free or discounted Internet Joe Consumer needs to get hooked on broadband. As with any pusher, the FCC’s apparent hope is that eventually the consumer will become addicted and willing to cough up the full price. Accordingly, in February, the Commission announced (in its overhaul of the USF Lifeline program) that it would be setting up a Pilot Program “to test how the Lifeline program could be structured to promote the adoption and retention of broadband services by low-income households”. And now, with a public notice released April 30, 2012, the Wireline Competition Bureau has followed up on that plan. The Bureau is making $25 million available to eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) to carry out “field experiments” on customers. The experiments will test various factors in encouraging broadband adoption: primarily what discount dollar amount would be most effective, whether it should be a single discount or monthly (and if monthly, how long it should last), and how speed, usage limits, and consumer outreach might affect adoption. Applications to participate in the Pilot Program are due on or before July 2, 2012.
benton.org/node/123457 | CommLawBlog
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UTILITIES AND CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Mark Clayton]
With America now trying to thwart a cyberattack on its natural gas industry, it is helpful to recall the hectic days after 9/11, when industry scientists raced to shield from potential terrorist cyberattacks hundreds of thousands of vulnerable devices that control vital valves and switches on America's gas pipelines, water plants, and power grid. It was a race that seemed winnable. After five years of intense effort, a 35-member team of industrial-control-system wizards from the gas, water, and electric utilities industries had created a powerful new encryption system to shield substations, pipeline compressors, and other key infrastructure from cyberattack. But just weeks before it was to be finalized in 2006, the funding plug was pulled on the encryption system, called AGA-12, by the American Gas Association and its partners at the electric power and water utility industries, some who worked on the project recall. To this day, the cancelation of the project has called into question whether US utilities will, on their own, invest in measures necessary to protect their networks.
benton.org/node/123544 | Christian Science Monitor, The
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

SPECTRUM DEALS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
T-Mobile, Cricket, CIVS, Savary Island A, and Savary Island B, (collectively, the “Applicants”) have filed a series of applications seeking approval to assign Personal Communications Service and Advanced Wireless Service licenses to effect proposed spectrum exchanges. T-Mobile, Cricket, and CIVS will receive entire and/or partitioned licenses pursuant to the proposed assignments; these Applicants, along with Savary Island A and Savary Island B, also will be assigning entire and/or partitioned licenses as a result of the proposed spectrum exchanges. The Applicants state that the proposed assignments constitute license exchanges that will rationalize the spectrum to allow the Applicants to utilize spectrum more efficiently. The Applicants also state that a significant portion of the spectrum proposed to be assigned will occur as exchanges of spectrum within the same market and that these intra-market exchanges will allow efficiency benefits associated with larger blocks of contiguous spectrum and/or alignment of spectrum held in adjacent markets. The Applicants also assert that as a result of the proposed transactions, T-Mobile and Cricket will increase their presence in certain markets in which they already operate.
benton.org/node/123520 | Federal Communications Commission
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UNLICENSED OPERATION IN TV BROADCAST BAND
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
This document addresses five petitions for reconsideration of the Federal Communications Commission’s decisions in the Second Memorandum Opinion and Order (‘‘Second MO&O’’) in this proceeding and modifies the FCC’s rules in certain respects. In particular, the FCC is increasing the maximum height above average terrain (HAAT) for sites where fixed devices may operate; modifying the adjacent channel emission limits to specify fixed rather than relative levels; and slightly increasing the maximum permissible power spectral density (PSD) for each category of TV bands device. These changes will result in decreased operating costs for fixed TVBDs and allow them to provide greater coverage, thus increasing the availability of wireless broadband services in rural and underserved areas without increasing the risk of interference to incumbent services. The FCC is also revising and amending several of its rules to better effectuate the FCC’s earlier decisions in this docket and to remove ambiguities.
Effective June 18, 2012.
benton.org/node/123477 | Federal Communications Commission
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WIRELESS ISP ASSOCIATION
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Representatives from a group representing more than 700 small wireless broadband providers are making their first pilgrimage to Washington to lobby policy makers to ensure the firms continue to have access to unlicensed spectrum. About 20 members of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association are meeting with officials from the Federal Communications Commission and White House as well as key lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The group represents small firms that generally use unlicensed spectrum to provide wireless broadband service to a few hundred or several thousand customers in rural communities and small towns that are not served by a cable company or another wired broadband provider. Among the group's top priorities is to ensure that the FCC gives priority to unlicensed uses as it begins work on crafting rules implementing the spectrum legislation approved by Congress in February as part of a payroll-tax cut package. The legislation gave the FCC the flexibility to use some of the spectrum it may recapture as a result of the law for unlicensed uses. In particular, WISPA members said they will be watching the FCC closely to ensure that as it implements a new type of auction aimed at persuading broadcasters to give up some of their spectrum, it will continue to allow for unlicensed uses between television channels.
benton.org/node/123471 | National Journal
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TEXTING WHILE DRIVING
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Jim Sollisch]
[Commentary] Ohio is the latest state to propose a ban on texting while driving. The bill is awaiting the governor’s signature. Media outlets in the state report there was a heated debate on the Senate floor. Really? Who could possibly be opposed to a ban on texting while driving? Even AT&T and Verizon don’t object. It’s hard to see the downside. Unless, of course, you’re a liberty-loving, anti-government type. Then there’s a downside to any legislation except legislation that repeals already-existing legislation. I found another argument against banning texting while driving. This one, based on a few studies and a bit of counter-intuition, is far more interesting. The argument goes like this: People are so addicted to their phones that a ban won’t stop most people from texting while driving. Instead they’ll put the phones deeper in their laps to avoid detection and the result will be an increase in accidents. As crazy as it sounds, there is some statistical support for this.
benton.org/node/123541 | Christian Science Monitor, The
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OWNERSHIP

BERKSHIRE BUYS MORE PAPERS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Billionaire Warren Buffett's company is making another foray into newspapers, agreeing to buy 63 newspapers from Media General for $142 million. Berkshire Hathaway is also extending a loan to Media General and taking a 19.9 percent stake in the company, which will still own 18 TV stations and some websites. Media General said the deal includes all of its newspapers except the Tampa Tribune of Florida and smaller newspapers in that market. It's in talks to sell those newspapers to other buyers. Berkshire Hathaway is buying the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia, the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina and the Morning News of Florence (SC) among others.
benton.org/node/123455 | Associated Press
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WHY IS BUFFETT BUYING NEWSPAPERS?
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Jeff John Roberts]
[Commentary] Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway acquired his hometown newspaper in January and just snapped up dozens more in a $142 million deal. This is supposed to be the fastest declining industry in America. What is Warren Buffett up to? Here’s how he explains it: “In towns and cities where there is a strong sense of community, there is no more important institution than the local paper. The many locales served by the newspapers we are acquiring fall firmly in this mold and we are delighted they have found a permanent home with Berkshire Hathaway.” But media analyst Ken Doctor calls it “a three corner pool shot that accomplishes several things at once.” Doctor notes that the deal includes an enormous loan and credit line to the newspapers’ former owner, Media General, in which Berkshire Hathaway will earn 10.5 percent. Buffett’s company also obtained stock warrants that will likely pay out handsomely as Media General works on becoming a full-time broadcasting company. But what of the newspapers themselves? Doctor says that Buffett got them for a steal, noting that they sold on average for about $2 million a pop — or the price of an expensive home in each of the towns where they’re printed. “In these communities, the local paper is the sole source of everyday news — from high school sports, local events or obituaries,” says Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of the Wall Street Journal and founder of digital subscription service, Press+. This lack of competition has not only meant a slower decline in their print operations, but also a longer time period to make the transition to digital. While some metropolitan papers have rushed in a panic from one ill-advised paywall strategy to another in an effort to stay alive, smaller papers have had the luxury of a wait-and-see approach. In the meantime, digital subscription strategies have become more refined.
benton.org/node/123518 | paidContent.org
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FACEBOOK IPO GETS ATTENTION IN DC
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
Facebook’s initial public offering is the buzz of the technology community, but it’s not going unnoticed in Washington. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) said that the social network’s public stock offering is a prime example of why Congress needs to close loopholes in corporate taxes. “Facebook’s IPO tomorrow will certainly make history in one way — the corporation's $16 billion stock option tax deduction will be the biggest Mack truck ever driven through the stock option loophole,” he said on the Senate floor. The group Citizens for Tax Justice said that the tax law allows corporations to issue options to employees to buy company stock in the future for its original issuing price. If the stock goes up in value by the time employees exercise the option, the company can deduct the difference for tax purposes. Facebook’s filings say that the deduction, which could reach about $16 billion, will result in a net operating loss that could entitle the company to a refund on corporate taxes it paid in the past two years. According to the filing, that refund could “be up to $500 million and payable to us” during the first six months of 2013.
benton.org/node/123514 | Washington Post
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EX-PATRIOT ACT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Bob Casey (D-PA) announced plans to introduce a bill to respond to Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin decision to renounce his US citizenship and become a resident of Singapore. The move drew criticism as reports pointed out that the move would save Saverin — who owns a part of Facebook — millions of dollars in taxes after the company goes public. Saverin has denied that he is moving for tax purposes, and has said that his decision was based solely on his business investments. Casey’s office said the bill is called the “Ex-PATRIOT” Act, which stands for the “Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy” Act. Under the proposal, “any expatriate with either a net worth of $2 million or an average income tax liability of at least $148,000 over the last five years will be presumed to have renounced their citizenship for tax avoidance purposes,” according to a release from Schumer’s office, and they would pay 30 percent capital gains tax — the same rate as people pay in the US. If an expatriate can prove he or she has a legitimate reason for renouncing U.S. citizenship, no penalties will apply. The bill would tax any prospective gains an expatriate who has renounced his or her citizenship in the past ten years who did so for purposes of tax avoidance.
benton.org/node/123484 | Washington Post | The Hill | ABC News
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FACEBOOK PRIVACY VS PROFITS
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Michelle Quinn, Tony Romm]
If Facebook wants to make its IPO a success, it’s going to have to find new ways to make money by using the personal information posted by its 900 million users. And the biggest threat to that business model is Washington. The Facebook IPO is expected to generate as much as $16 billion when the company starts trading on the NASDAQ exchange Friday. Investors are betting the social network can tap its treasure trove of user data — their personal information, photos and postings — to become the next big Internet moneymaker. This is hardly the first time Facebook has faced accusations by critics that it’s invading the privacy of its users. But after Friday, that's no longer simply a philosophical question. In truth, pressing against the boundaries of confidentiality, in the eyes of many analysts, is the only way the most lavish expectations of Facebook's value have any economic logic. But the harder Facebook pushes the boundaries of personal privacy to maximize its warehouse of user data, the more it tempts members of Congress, federal agencies and consumer advocates to try to thwart the practice.
benton.org/node/123464 | Politico
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SILICON VALLEY AND HOLLYWOOD
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Dominic Basulto]
The roadshow for the upcoming Facebook IPO, together with the heightened public scrutiny into Facebook's inner workings, has opened our eyes to the ways the Internet business as we know it looks a lot like the entertainment industry. As much as we want to think that companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google are somehow part of a new Internet zeitgeist, the fact is that they rely on advertising dollars for their profitability, just like any other media or entertainment property. The moguls with hoodies are now concerned about everything their entertainment colleagues are worried about: making their advertisers happy, cranking out blockbuster hits, and achieving scale and distribution. Is it possible that, already, Silicon Valley and Hollywood are just different sides of the same coin?
benton.org/node/123511 | Washington Post
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CONTENT

MEETING ON INTERNET RISKS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Sharon Otterman]
Citi Field, home of the Mets, is sold out for Sunday evening — but not for a baseball game. More than 40,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews plan to pack the stadium to hear about what the event’s organizers call the dangers of the Internet and how to use it in a religiously responsible way. Tickets for the gathering have been so sought after that organizers announced that they had also rented the nearby 20,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium, home to the United States Open, for an overflow crowd. Speakers at the rally in Queens will not seek to ban the Internet, but rather to raise awareness about how, unmonitored, it poses a grave risk to the community, said Eytan Kobre, a spokesman for the organizers. The risk, he said, comes not only from pornography, but also from social media and the addictive pull of the Internet, which can limit human interaction, reading and study.
benton.org/node/123537 | New York Times
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PRIVACY

TWITTER’S DO NOT TRACK OPTION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Bilton]
It’s no secret that Facebook is worth about $100 billion because it collected personal data about its users. A lot of data. Although Twitter tracks its users too — albeit in a much less aggressive way — the company has decided to take a different route. It announced that it is joining Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox Web browser, and giving its users the ability to opt-out of being tracked in any way through Twitter. Twitter is doing this by enabling the Do Not Track feature in the Firefox browser that enables people to opt-out of cookies that collect personal information and any third-party cookies, including those used for advertising. The Do Not Track functionality will only work if a Web site agrees to acknowledge it.
benton.org/node/123491 | New York Times
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GEOLOCATION PRIVACY AND SURVEILLANCE ACT
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Andrew Feinberg]
Law enforcement and civil libertarians clashed Thursday over a GOP-backed bill to limit how law enforcement can track individuals using their mobile phones. The Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act, sponsored by Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), would require law enforcement officials to obtain a warrant based on probable cause before tracking individuals using geolocation data from their mobile phones. But at a hearing of the House Judiciary subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association President John Ramsey complained that the bill was “overly broad” and would hinder law enforcement.
Ramsey said requiring warrants for tracking could be the start of a slippery slope. “What is the next step?” he asked. “Are we going to do away with grand jury subpoenas and move to the issuance of search warrants for companies to disclose corporate and financial records? Who are we protecting with this legislation,” he asked, “the innocent or the criminals?”
benton.org/node/123480 | Hill, The
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TELECOM

AT&T APPLICATION
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
On May 7, 2012, AT&T Services filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of its affiliate, AT&T Southeast to discontinue a certain domestic telecommunications service throughout AT&T Southeast’s service territory in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. AT&T’s application will be deemed to be granted automatically on the 60th day after the release date of this public notice, unless the Commission notifies AT&T that the grant will not be automatically effective. In the application, AT&T indicates that AT&T Southeast plans to discontinue offering MSNS to new customers in the Service Areas on or after July 15, 2012, subject to FCC approval. In addition, AT&T submits that AT&T Southeast plans to no longer allow existing customers to order new services or make changes to their existing service arrangements effective July 15, 2012, and that it currently plans to completely discontinue existing service arrangements on or about April 1, 2014.
benton.org/node/123473 | Federal Communications Commission
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RADIO

NPR ADVERTISING DOWNTURN
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi]
National Public Radio’s new chief executive is signaling that there may be some static ahead for the radio and digital news organization. Halfway through its fiscal year — and six months into Gary Knell’s tenure as chief executive — Washington-based NPR has seen a sharp downturn in corporate “underwriting,” or advertising revenue. The falloff has led to projections of an annual operating deficit and internal discussions about staff and program cuts. Another problem area: The strong audience growth that NPR’s news and entertainment programs experienced over the past decade appears to have flattened, a potentially worrisome development because more stations are carrying NPR’s programs. The increasingly bearish climate poses a challenge for Knell.
benton.org/node/123483 | Washington Post
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LABOR

SILICON VALLEY AND THE HUMANITIES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Vivek Wadhwa]
[Commentary] Quit your technology job. Get a PhD in the humanities. That’s the way to get ahead in the technology sector. That, at least, is what philosopher Damon Horowitz told a crowd of attendees at the BiblioTech Conference at Stanford University in 2011. Horowitz is also a serial entrepreneur who co-founded a company, Aardvark, which sold to Google for $50 million. He is presently the In-House Philosopher / Director of Engineering at Google. Wait, you say, that’s insane. At a time when record numbers of people, among them those with high-level degrees, are receiving public assistance, what kind of fool would get a degree in a subject with no clear job prospects beyond higher education or teaching? In Silicon Valley, engineers are honor students and everyone else is taking remedial math. Venture Capitalists often express disdain for startup CEOs who are not engineers. Silicon Valley parents send their kids to college expecting them to major in a science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) discipline. The theory goes as follows: STEM degree holders will get higher pay upon graduation and get a leg up in the career sprint. The trouble is that theory is wrong.
benton.org/node/123482 | Washington Post
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JOURNALISM

JOURNALISM EDUCATION REFORM
[SOURCE: Knight Foundation, AUTHOR: Eric Newton]
Newton, senior adviser to the President at Knight Foundation, gave the keynote address at a national conference of journalism educators, “Journalism Education in the Digital Age,” at Middle Tennessee State University. Here’s an excerpt:
Radical change requires radical reform. The digital age is turning journalism and communication upside down and inside out. It should be doing the same to journalism and communication education. You tell me: Is it? Has your program turned upside down and inside out? In my opinion it should, if you want to ride the four transformational trends demonstrated by Carnegie-Knight schools, and all top tier schools. To be relevant in the future, here’s what universities should do:
Expand their role as community content providers. University hospitals save lives. University law clinics take cases to the Supreme Court. University news labs can reveal truths that help us right wrongs. Based on the teaching hospital model, they can provide the news people need to run their communities and their lives.
Innovate. No longer must you be the caboose on the train of American media. You can be an engine of change. You can create both new uses of software and new software itself. Anyone can create the future of news and information. Anyone includes us.
Teach open, collaborative methods. No longer must students be lone wolf reporters or cogs in a company wheel. In small, integrated teams of designers, entrepreneurs, programmers and journalists, students learned to rapidly prototype news projects and ideas.
Connect to the whole university. This can mean team-teaching a science journalism class with actual scientists. Or creating centers with engineers or entrepreneurs. Or diving so deeply into topic expertise our colleagues at Harvard call it, as they did for Carnegie-Knight, “knowledge journalism.”
benton.org/node/123461 | Knight Foundation
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LOBBYING

FACEBOOK LOBBYING
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz]
Facebook is ramping up its government influence operation in Washington (DC) to catch up with more established rivals and in anticipation that its privacy practices will face heavy scrutiny for years to come. Facebook's lobbying tab reached $650,000 in the first quarter, federal records show, putting it on a path to more than double the $1.35 million it spent last year. The company's political action committee also is sprinkling $2,500 checks among congressional leaders of both parties as well as the chairmen of committees connected to technology issues. Facebook’s spending falls short of the $5 million Google spent lobbying in the first quarter or Microsoft $1.8 million. Still, like 28-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook has shown maturity beyond its years in the nation's capital, building an operation that resembles much older companies.
benton.org/node/123547 | Wall Street Journal
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COMPANY NEWS

FACEBOOK RAISES $16 BILLION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Evelyn Rusli, Peter Eavis]
As investors raced to buy shares, Facebook, the sprawling social network, raised $16 billion on May 17, in an initial public offering that valued Facebook at $104 billion. While the I.P.O. shares, 421 million of them, are being sold at $38 each, the feverish anticipation of their debut could drive them higher on May 18 when the stock starts trading about 11 a.m. Newly public technology stocks — particularly ones that have captured investors’ attention like Facebook — often achieve double-digit gains in a one-day pop. Investors who buy Facebook shares are taking a stake in a unique and potentially valuable business. But they are also exposing themselves to the risks posed by a relatively young company operating in uncharted territory.
benton.org/node/123550 | New York Times
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FACEBOOK VS APPLE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Wingfield]
Relations between Facebook and Apple are a bit like those between the United States and China. The two companies, great powers in their own right, are neither friends, nor outright hostile toward each other. When I asked someone who has known the principals at Facebook for years about how Apple and Facebook view each other, he e-mailed me back a litany of somewhat contradictory emotions, using expressions like “mutual respect,” “cold and distrustful,” “not friends” and wanting to “find a way to work together.” First, there are the obvious reasons that Apple and Facebook do not hate each other. It would be difficult to find two companies of their stature in the tech industry that compete less. Facebook does not make computers, an operating system, a tablet and, at least for now, a mobile phone. Apple does have a social network, Ping, but it is a narrowly focused service aimed at people who want to share their musical tastes on iTunes. No one at Apple would argue with a straight face that it’s meant to challenge Facebook, and Ping seems largely to have been forgotten by the company and the public.
benton.org/node/123512 | New York Times
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FACEBOOK AND MICROSOFT VS GOOGLE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Wingfield]
When a young tech company with outsized ambitions goes public, somewhere an older tech company dies a little on the inside. So it was eight years ago with Microsoft, then the biggest, baddest technology company in the world, when Google sold shares to the public. The I.P.O. filled Google’s gas tanks, fueling a series of business battles in the years to come with Microsoft (search, applications, mobile), many of which have not gone in Microsoft’s favor. As Facebook inches toward an I.P.O., it’s Google’s turn to feel the sting of a younger competitor passing a key milestone that will fill its war chest and, if history repeats itself, lead to a new wave of battles over the Internet. Google has already moved forcefully into Facebook’s home turf of social networking with Google Plus.
benton.org/node/123490 | New York Times
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FACEBOOK IS TOUGH TO QUIT
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: David Sarno]
Slowing growth. A weak platform for mobile advertising. Privacy legislation that could hamstring profits. With all the negative headlines, including General Motors Co.'s decision this week to pull its Facebook ads, why is there such a frenzy to buy shares when the company begins trading May 18? The answer can be found partly in the experience of people such as DeAnna Stephens of Charlotte (NC). The 36-year-old video producer quit using Facebook in December, deciding she was frittering away too much time reading about what her friends were eating for lunch. Then she realized that she had lost touch with 900 people. "I couldn't believe how out of the loop I was on things in life," Stephens said. Tired of being the last to hear about new jobs, new boyfriends and new babies, she signed up again "simply to be back on the radar." Wall Street analysts and others have an array of concerns about Facebook's ability to churn the kind of profit necessary to justify its initial market value of more than $100 billion. But the consensus is that, with no competitors of its size and nearly 1 billion captive users, Facebook will somehow find a way.
benton.org/node/123546 | Los Angeles Times
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AT&T EYES LOWER SUBSIDIES
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Sinead Carew]
AT&T is hoping to help its margins by lowering smartphone subsidies and the company also aims to boost revenue with a new offering that would allow consumers to share their data allowance between tablets and smartphones. Now that growth is slowing for U.S. contract customer operators, including No. 2 U.S. mobile operator AT&T and its rivals Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp are looking for new avenues for expansion, while they try to control costs. Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc. AT&T has already said it would keep 2012 smartphone sales limited to 2011 levels to cut down on upgrade costs. Like its rivals, AT&T shoulders some of the cost of smartphones to offer discounts to customers who sign on for two years. Ralph de la Vega, the head of the company's mobile business, also suggested he would push to reduce subsidies for the phones it does sell. He declined to give a specific estimate for subsidy levels.
benton.org/node/123508 | Reuters | Fierce
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SPRINT SITTING OUT MERGERS FOR NOW
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Greg Bensinger]
For Sprint Nextel, now isn’t the time for a merger. “Clearly, the time is not ideal based upon where our shares are currently trading,” said Chief Executive Dan Hesse. Still, Hesse said he thought regulators would be willing to consider wireless industry mergers, despite blocking the $39 billion tie-up last year of AT&T and T-Mobile USA. In February, Sprint nearly approved a deal to buy pay-as-you-go rival MetroPCS Communications, and last year it considered buying Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile, according to people familiar with those discussions. Like its competitors, Sprint is seeking access to more of the wireless airwaves, or spectrum, that fuel customer and revenue growth. The carrier is focused on its ongoing $5 billion network upgrade project, Hesse said. Ideally, Sprint would concentrate on the project through next year, then “let’s talk about consolidation in 2014 when we have this behind us,” he said, noting that he hoped the carrier’s stock price would improve relative to its competitors.
benton.org/node/123488 | Wall Street Journal
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VERIZON DATA PLANS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Greg Bensinger]
Verizon Wireless, after saying it would seek to phase out unlimited data for millions of its customers, said there was one surefire way for subscribers to keep their all-you-can-eat plans: Pay full price for their smartphones. The carrier said that third-generation customers upgrading to the high-speed mobile broadband network known as 4G LTE would soon be required to drop their $30-a-month unlimited data plans, likely forcing them to pay more to stream video, music and download photos. Verizon said the change would coincide with the introduction of plans that allow people to use multiple mobile devices on one of several capped-data plans it will unveil this summer. A Verizon Wireless spokeswoman said customers willing to pay full price for a smartphone—allowing the carrier to avoid the costly subsidies usually associated with a two-year contract—could keep their unlimited data plans when upgrading to the speedier network.
benton.org/node/123542 | Wall Street Journal
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FCC AGENDA

FCC AGENDA
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission will hold an Open Meeting on Thursday, May 24, 2012. The FCC will consider:
A Notice of Inquiry examining the role of deployable aerial communications architecture (DACA) in facilitating emergency response by rapidly restoring communications capabilities in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophic event.
A Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to establish service rules and an allocation for Medical Body Area Networks and seek comment on the selection of an MBAN coordinator.
A Report and Order that will provide EA-based 800 MHz licensees with the flexibility to better utilize spectrum to transition networks from legacy 2G technologies to advanced wireless technologies.
benton.org/node/123475 | Federal Communications Commission
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WIRELESS MEDICAL BODY AREA NETWORKS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Genachowski joined GE Healthcare and Philips Healthcare at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington (DC) to announce that the FCC will consider new rules to allow greater use of spectrum for Medical Body Area Network (MBAN) devices, spurring innovation and development of new wireless health technologies. These new rules would make the United States the first country in the world to allocate spectrum for MBAN devices. Greater access to spectrum can revolutionize the health care industry, reducing the cost, and increasing the effectiveness of patient monitoring.
Next week at its open meeting, the FCC will consider adopting new rules permitting more intensive use of spectrum for wireless medical devices, making the U.S. the first country in the world to dedicate spectrum for Medical Body Area Networks in hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices. MBAN technology consists of small, low-powered sensors on the body that capture clinical information, such as temperature and respiratory function. These sensors free patients from the set of wires that would otherwise anchor them to their hospital bed. As patients recover, the technology allows them to move about the health care facility, while still being monitored for any health issues that might develop. MBANs consist of two paired devices—one that is worn on the body (sensor) and another that is located either on the body or in close proximity to it (hub).
benton.org/node/123479 | Federal Communications Commission | Chairman Genachowski
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POLICYMAKERS

HOWARD SCHMIDT RETIRING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ellen Nakashima]
The White House’s cybersecurity coordinator said that he is stepping down at the end of this month after a 2.5-year tenure in which the Administration has increased its focus on cyber issues but struggled to reach agreement with lawmakers on the best way to protect the nation’s key computer networks from attack. Howard Schmidt, who oversaw the creation of the White House’s first legislative proposal on cybersecurity, said he is retiring to spend more time with his family and to pursue teaching in the cyber field. Schmidt leaves at a time when the administration still has much work to do to ensure the protection of the computer systems of companies that provide electricity and other critical services. He will be succeeded by Michael Daniel, chief of the White House budget office’s intelligence branch. Daniel has worked at the Office of Management and Budget for 17 years, the past 10 handling cybersecurity issues.
benton.org/node/123487 | Washington Post | The Hill | National Journal
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LAWRENCE STRICKLING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Newspaper ads displayed on a wall in Lawrence Strickling’s office herald a technological revolution that will create a smaller, more interconnected world. Though the slogans might sound like the beginning of the Internet era, the ads actually date to the turn of the 20th century, after the adoption of the telephone. Strickling said the ads serve as a reminder that the challenges facing his agency, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), haven’t changed that much since the era of Alexander Graham Bell. NTIA, an agency within the Commerce Department, was founded more than 30 years ago to advise the president on telecommunication issues and to manage how the federal government uses the airwaves. But as the Internet has become a central feature of daily life and an engine of global commerce, NTIA has stepped forward as one of the primary federal agencies for setting online policy. One of the policy issues on NTIA’s agenda is privacy protection. The agency is leading discussions between Web companies and consumer groups about how best to safeguard people’s information online.
benton.org/node/123540 | Hill, The
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SHIMKUS VS STOCKING
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Erica Martinson]
Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) interrupted a House markup to criticize a Congressional Budget Office economist as a “liberal” based on photos and “likes” from his Facebook page. Rep Shimkus says CBO’s Andrew Stocking publicly parades his liberal leanings on the social network, which has photos of Stocking holding Barack Obama signs at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Rep Shimkus also noted that Stocking “likes” Barack Obama and several environmental and liberal organizations, including Defenders of Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, MoveOn.org and Emily’s List. Stocking is the lead author of a recent report that said that domestic oil drilling does not protect United States consumers from rising gasoline prices or global supply disruptions.
benton.org/node/123538 | Politico
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MEDIA ACCESS PROJECT EXISTS
[SOURCE: CommLawBlog, AUTHOR: Harry Cole]
[Commentary] Media Access Project (MAP), a long-time player in the soap opera that is communications law, has left the show. As of May 1, MAP suspended operations “after evaluating the difficult funding environment facing MAP and other progressive public interest groups.”
Founded in 1973, MAP assumed a variety of roles over the course of its 39-year history. To some it was a tough litigator, a thoughtful advocate, and a mouthpiece for a wide range of interests that might not otherwise have had a mouthpiece. To others, it was a self-promoting buttinsky given to advancing positions of questionable (if any) validity. A seemingly constant presence in the mainstream press, it could be a total pain in the tail to those with whom it disagreed. Many – maybe even most – “industry” representatives may have disagreed with many – maybe even most – of MAP’s positions and tactics. But MAP, apparently indefatigable and unquestionably resourceful, made its voice heard, for better or for worse.
MAP prevailed in a number of important cases before the Commission and the courts and succeeded in swaying legislative policy. But MAP’s more lasting impact will likely be the fact that it spawned, directly and indirectly, a new generation of like-minded organizations that will carry on MAP’s work into the 21st Century. The ongoing work of those organizations will be MAP’s true legacy.
benton.org/node/123451 | CommLawBlog
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

IRAN THREATENS GOOGLE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Zahra Hosseinian]
Iran's Foreign Ministry threatened to take legal action against Google for dropping the name Persian Gulf from its Google Maps and leaving the waterway between Iran and Arab states nameless, state television reported. "One of the seditionist acts taken as part of the soft war against the Iranian nation has been Google's shameless act to drop the name 'Persian Gulf' which is ... against historical documents," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying. "We have put on our agenda to make an official complaint against Google," he said, according to state television.
benton.org/node/123505 | Reuters
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May 18, 2012 (Comcast Turns the Broadband Meter On)