March 2008

In Monday's CongressDaily PM edition: Maryland Democrat Donna Edwards [pictured above, left] took a hard line today against communications giants such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon Communications potentially blocking or degrading competing content carried over their broadband networks. "I want to be able to decide for myself whether something [offered online] is useful or appropriate [even] if that means everything under the sun has to come my way for me to sort through it," she told the Freedom to Connect conference. Read the story here. Also pictured: Micah Sifry and Alec Ross.

Former Technology Daily assistant editor Theresa Poulson, who is now with nationaljournal.com, took part in a unique conversation about women and the high-tech industry on Monday. Here is her generous dispatch, written exclusively for Tech Daily Dose.
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Online media pioneer Arianna Huffington gave fellow tech-savvy females advice Monday on how to grow their social capital, or, as she put it, on "expanding your own tribe," at the Women Who Tech telesummit -- a series of phone and Web panel discussions aimed at bringing together women using technology in the non-profit and political worlds.

When launching The Huffington Post, she said she reached out to 500 friends, asking them to be the first bloggers at the news and commentary site. The online publishing product grew from there and has expanded to include 1,800 contributors.

Huffington said she was able to build a vast social network organically throughout her life by doing work that she is passionate about. "The heart of it is your original drive to make your life more purposeful: The key is to find joy in your purpose," she said.

She also noted that relationships with networking contacts are personal as well as professional, and that the time shared cooking quiche in the kitchen of MoveOn.org cofounder and fellow panelist Joan Blades works in tandem with their professional relationship.

Panelists took part in some female bonding, commiserating over the barriers women face in the workplace. "In the world of technology, there is this much lower representation of women and that's something that we'll hopefully be able to shift dramatically," said Blades, who is also a cofounder of Momsrising.org, a group that advocates a more "family-friendly America."

Internet visionary and law professor Susan Crawford had a simple message for attendees of an annual assembly of grassroots Internet enthusiasts on Monday: "Life is short. We might as well tackle some big questions while we're here." She told the Freedom to Connect summit in Silver Spring, Md. that "ideals have to be joined to will" because "an ideal by itself doesn't change the world."

That belief is evidenced by Crawford's creation of One Web Day, an Earth Day-inspired occasion observed yearly on Sept. 22 since 2006 with the purpose of globalizing "a constituency who cares about the future of the Internet," she said. During her speech, Crawford called for Web users to become "a countervailing force" that can change the Internet for the better.

The FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection will host a half-day roundtable discussion on phishing education on Tuesday. The examination of the practice of sending fraudulent e-mails or setting up fake Web sites to lure recipients into providing personal or financial information comes, appropriately enough, on April Fool's Day.

The event will provide an opportunity for experts from business, government, the tech sector, the advocacy community, academia, and the media to discuss new strategies for increasing awareness of the issue. The forum will begin with a guided discussion on the problem and current efforts to fight phishing attacks and educate consumers.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, introduced a bill recently to curb the practice by making phishing a deceptive practice under the FTC Act. The legislation is co-sponsored by Senate Commerce ranking member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. Get more information about the event here.

Everyone seems to have March Madness -- even CNBC, which is encouraging viewers to take part in Wall Street's answer to the annual college basketball frenzy. The network has lined up 64 companies, four sectors, and one champion. Winners are selected each night through April 7th at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET by the "Fast Money" traders.

According to CNBC's site:

Hewlett-Packard rolled over 16 seed Western Digital. Then, in a hard fought chip conference battle, 9-seed Intel, squeaked by LCD giant Corning. Microsoft, appeared to be oblivious to taunting from the sidelines by Yahoo's Jerry Yang and they beat IBM. Larry Ellison's Oracle squad sailed by Comcast.

While EMC -- with its mysterious virtualization offense -- won a hard fought one over Verizon. 3 seed Apple stole from Research In Motion's playbook and won as the iPhone maker started to gain business customers. And John Chambers out-coached Michael Dell with Cisco beating Dell.

Meanwhile in live tournament play, AT&T made mincemeat out of Google* with the traders ruling in favor of telephone’s buildout over Google’s online ad sales.

*The producers of Fast Money advanced Google to the next round of competition anyway. Read more here. (Thanks for the tip on this, MB)

FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras, who is leaving her post this spring to join consumer products giant Procter & Gamble, issued the agency's 2008 report that describes competition and consumer protection missions and accomplishments. She unveiled the report at an American Bar Association antitrust meeting in Washington.

In the past year, the FTC has "rooted out economic 'villains' by actively pursuing the latest generation of fraudsters working to deceive the public… and those that mock the competitive marketplace by engaging in anticompetitive conduct that raises the specter of increased prices or decreased consumer choice," the report states.

The document highlights the Commission's work in the technology area against spyware and adware programs that are installed on consumers' computers without their knowledge or consent. It also mentions the major crackdown on federal Do Not Call list violators, including six settlements against telemarketers. Read the full report here.

Verizon Chief Technology Officer Richard Lynch told the Tech Policy Summit on Thursday that his firm's philosophy on handling copyright issues reflects his belief that "we are not the enforcers of the Internet." "Our job is to deliver the bit streams that our customers either ask for or send," he said. His comments came as Comcast and BitTorrent ended a feud over whether the cable giant blocked customers from sharing content.

Despite reported attempts at filtering for pirated content by other broadband providers, Lynch said he was unsure whether Verizon could technically accomplish that even if he wanted to. He noted that his firm is collaborating with child safety advocates to blacklist Web sites that provide illegal child pornography. "That, we wholeheartedly believe, we can help out with," he said.

(Photo Credit: Andrew Feinberg/CapitolValley.net)

Legislation that would drastically alter the U.S. patent system has at least a 50 percent chance of passing in this Congress, Patent and Trademark Office Director Jon Dudas predicted Wednesday at the Tech Policy Summit. He told CongressDaily he is “much more optimistic because a very real conversation has begun.” The Commerce Department spoke out against some elements of the bill in a February letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, but “it is [the] will of the Bush administration to get this through,” he said. Read the full story in Thursday's CongressDaily PM edition.

On Wednesday evening over a glass of wine on the patio of Chateau Marmont, I got to know Loopt, a Silicon Valley startup whose social mapping tool allows friends to find one another using their GPS-equipped cellphones.

Loopt, which was founded by a Stanford University computer science major, is currently available on Boost Mobile and Sprint Nextel. Brian Knapp, the firm's vice president, said the application provides a novel answer to two popular questions: (1) "Where are you?" (2) "What are you doing?" The product, as described in its tagline, wants to be "your social compass."

Rachelle Chong, a former FCC commissioner who is now on the California Public Utilities Commission is part of the Loopt community. Chong, a self-described technology junkie, seemed intrigued by the tracking tool. Knapp, who is also the firm's chief privacy officer, prefers to call the offering "location sharing."

I’m a Sprint customer and Knapp sent me an invitation to try out the service as well. I'm not sure yet whether I'll opt-in. My location patterns would look something like this: "Office -> Capitol Hill -> Office -> Capitol Hill -> Office -> Capitol Hill -> Office." Not very interesting.

I would love to get members of Congress in on the game. That would be a lot easier than stalking them in hallways and in between hearings.

Viviane Reding said "digital conversion is here, it is real and it is a powerful driver of change." For the tech user, that means the availability of more services through devices that can be universal without "making all things alike." For regulators, the change "is about removing technological barriers, opening up technological platforms, and creating a larger space for innovation." "Convergence is to ICT (information and communication technologies) what globalization is to trade," she said. Policymakers need to be open and flexible while continuing to ensure that laws impacting converging sectors "compliment each other worldwide and provide legal certainty," Reding said.

(Photo Credit: Andrew Feinberg/CapitolValley.net)

I had the pleasure of capping off the first day of the Tech Policy Summit in Los Angeles on Wednesday by conducting a "fireside chat" with Rep. Howard Berman, the California Democrat who heads the House Judiciary's Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee. While the conversation lacked an actual hearth and blaze, I think we generated plenty of heat with the topics covered.

Berman answered questions about patent reform; so-called "orphan works" copyright legislation; efforts to enhance U.S. intellectual property enforcement; a legislative proposal to eliminate an exemption granted to AM and FM radio stations, which allows them to broadcast music without paying royalties; and a range of other issues that have kept him busy in the 110th Congress.

Since I was conducting the Q&A, I wasn't able to take notes on Berman's remarks. But, Andrew Feinberg at CapitolValley.net did a great job live-blogging the event. Here's his post.

Tech Policy Summit attendees had a full afternoon -- and plenty of opportunities to discuss hot-button topics in technology policy. Try as I might, I couldn't make it to everything I wanted to (because I still haven't found a way to clone myself and I'm operating on three hours of sleep).

Thank goodness there was plenty of caffeine and sugar sitting around to prolong the buzzzzzz.

Here's a quick rundown (*according to the most recent agenda):

(Photo Credit: Andrew Feinberg/CapitolValley.net)

Hewlett-Packard Labs Director Prith Banerjee (pictured above, far right) speaking at the Tech Policy Summit on Wednesday called on the federal government to advance an "innovation stimulus package" to help the nation stay competitive in the global marketplace. Read the full story in CongressDaily's PM edition.

Patent and Trademark Office Director Jon Dudas made a hard sell on Wednesday for his agency's accelerated examination program during a keynote at the Tech Policy Summit in Los Angeles. While the United States moves patent applications quicker than most other nations, the PTO still has a massive backlog and the recently launched initiative can help, he said.

Dudas said the program promises a 12-month final decision on patentability if applicants abide by a number of guidelines. To qualify, they must file electronically; conduct a search of "prior art" and submit all prior art that is close to their invention; include only 20 claims; and agree to an interview with an examiner, among other prerequisites.

"In every case we've been able to do that exam within one year," Dudas said. In one instance, there was approval within 17 days for a technology that would have otherwise taken more than 20 months, he said. The percentage of applications approved through the program is almost double that of the traditional route. That's because applicants have their ducks in a row when the examiner sits down to review the materials, he said.

(Photo Credit: Andrew Feinberg/CapitolValley.net)

The rollout of wireless technology leader Qualcomm's new broadcast endeavor known as MediaFLO is "going slower than we would have liked," the company's CEO Paul Jacobs told the Tech Policy Summit in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The mechanism streams TV content to cellular phones and other handheld devices.

Verizon Wireless is the only provider currently selling equipment and signing up subscribers for MediaFLO but AT&T has indicated it will launch the service soon, he said. Jacobs reasoned that Verizon hasn’t yet executed an advertising blitz because "they're waiting for us to build out our network completely." The February 2009 deadline for the digital TV transition will help Qualcomm launch the service nationwide, he said.

MediaFLO, which offers nine channels, is available in 50 markets. Major networks like CBS, FOX and NBC have signed on to provide content as have ESPN, Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon. "From the content-side, it's been great. This is a new opportunity to reach people more frequently throughout the day," Jacobs said. "It's not just TV, it's TV you can have with you all the time."

Richard Branson is a damned genius. That's why I consciously bypassed conveniently located Reagan-National Airport to fly to Los Angeles on Tuesday evening via Virgin America from Dulles International Airport, which is quite a haul from downtown D.C. I was tired of crisscrossing the country on the big, boring airlines and needed something fresh and new -- and boy, did Branson deliver.

From the time I boarded the plane, I knew I was in for a treat. The "mood lighting" blanketed the cabin in a pinkish-purplish hue and I made my way to my surprisingly comfortable coach seat (It's worth noting that the first class recliners are equipped with a massage feature). The safety video was kitschy and the on-board announcements were casual and friendly.

Now, comes the good part (and the part that makes this blog post a bit relevant for Tech Daily Dose) -- the in-flight technology smorgasbord. Everything a passenger needs for a 5+ hour flight from Washington to California is contained in a nifty little seatback touch-screen monitor/remote control. The system is known as Red, it's still in beta version and it totally rocked my world.

Watch: There are new release movies, music videos, live television, on-demand premium TV and multi-lingual TV offerings. Plus, as an extra special treat for techies: videos from popular blog BoingBoing. I watched "Across the Universe" for $7 because I missed it in theaters. Oh and there's a program guide that lets you set reminders for upcoming TV shows and Google Maps to let you know where you are in the sky.

Listen: The music player boasts an impressive track listing from a variety of genres and artists -- and passengers can create their own playlists that can be revived on future flights. Radio stations include rock, alternative, hip-hop, jazz and many others. If you're a fan of Cantonese or Mandarin pop music, they've got that too.

The American Antitrust Institute on Tuesday slammed the Justice Department's approval of Sirius Satellite Radio's proposed merger with rival XM. The group had urged the agency to conclude that the pairing violates a section of the Clayton Act that requires courts to predict when the effect of a merger "may be substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly."

Justice stated that the merger will not be stopped "because the evidence did not show that the merger would enable the parties to profitably increase prices to satellite radio customers." In doing so, the agency created a higher standard -- replacing "may" with "would" - and focusing only on the effect on prices, AAI said. Other antitrust considerations like diversity, choice, and innovation were "either ignored or shortchanged."

The decision also suggested that Justice officials used a lower standard for alleged efficiencies, accepting them if they "could benefit consumers." "The DOJ should enforce the law that Congress wrote, not the law they prefer," AAI President Bert Foer said.

When it came to market definition, Justice used a broad brush, including a variety of sources of audio entertainment. AAI believed the market should have been more narrowly defined as satellite broadcast radio because it has "many special qualities that set it apart" from other platforms.

As the matter proceeds to the FCC, the antitrust group said it would be "perfectly acceptable" for the Commission to reach a different conclusion from Justice given the different standards and concerns of the agencies.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute complained Tuesday that a new anti-Al Gore advertisement produced by the think tank has been "censored" by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which claimed copyright infringement over seven seconds of footage in the YouTube video.

The snippet was taken from a documentary that the association itself posted on YouTube and a takedown notice led to the ad being yanked off the popular video-sharing site over the weekend. CEI has since put the ad, which addresses the importance of affordable energy, on its own Web site.

The CEI spot aired in a dozen cities in the last two weeks. It comes just before Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection is expected to launch a major ad blitz for his global warming proposals. "Electric co-ops receive massive government subsidies, and the association’s move appears motivated by global warming politics," CEI argued.

CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman said NRECA's copyright claim is without merit. "Our use of this miniscule amount of material – from a film which NRECA itself posted on YouTube and distributes freely – meets every criterion of 'fair use.'" No word yet from NRECA on the copyright controversy.

The FCC is expected to consider the pending merger between Sirius Satellite Radio and rival XM -- and approve it with conditions by May 1 or soon thereafter, Medley Global Advisors said in an e-mail update Tuesday. The Justice Department OK'd the pairing on Monday after more than a year-long review.

While FCC Chairman Kevin Martin may try to circulate an order seeking approval of the transaction in the weeks ahead, analysts said Congress and all five FCC commissioners maintain drastically different views on merger approval orders and the broader issue of media consolidation.

Martin's two Republican colleagues -- Deborah Taylor Tate and Robert McDowell -- are "likely to insist that no conditions be placed" on the deal but one exception may involve a condition supported by one or both to extend the FCC's indecency rules to the merged entity to ensure that edgy content is kept in check, Medley said.

The FCC's two Democrats -- Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps -- "may be inclined to support meaningful behavioral safeguards to reduce the potential for anticompetitive harms to occur given concerns raised by some ratepayer groups," analysts added. "It will be no easy task to strike this balancing act."

Possible conditions, according to the analysts, include:
- The a la carte/tiered programming package option
- Price caps (for three to five years)
- Spectrum spin-offs to noncommercial and minority programmers
- Mandatory device interoperability
- Prohibition on sole-source contracts on devices

Sen. Byron Dorgan is among Capitol Hill's most outspoken critics of media consolidation so when the Justice Department blessed the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and rival XM on Monday, he didn’t hold back. The North Dakota Democrat issued a statement expressing his disappointment with "this administration's blatant disregard for the public interest" in the media ownership realm.

"There seems to be no limit to the mergers this administration will approve. These two companies were issued licenses a decade ago to provide competing national satellite radio service. Their license approval included a clause that prohibits them from merging into one company," Dorgan said. "Now the Justice Department has decided the contract they signed can’t stand in the way of consolidation. That doesn’t make any sense to me."

Update: More reaction from Capitol Hill -- Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., said he was pleased that DOJ determined the merger does not pose significant competition concerns. He believes the new company will bring numerous benefits to consumers, including the elimination of duplicative programming, which will free up spectrum.

Boucher also lauded the companies' intention to offer multiple post-merger subscription packages. "This unprecedented approach will provide subscribers with more choices and lower prices and will pave the way for a form of content acquisition based on the individual programming preferences of listeners," he said.

Kara Swisher has an interesting blog post over at All Things Digital that points out that "the Blue states are taking back ground from the Red ones -- at least in cyberspace." In February, for the first time ever, Arianna Huffington's liberal political news and commentary site, the Huffington Post, reportedly surpassed conservative/populist Matt Drudge's Drudge Report.

She cited recent traffic data reports from both comScore and Nielsen Online. Nielsen, for example, said Huffington's traffic has more than tripled since February 2007 when it had about 1.1 million unique visitors. Last month, that number grew to 3.7 million. The same month, Drudge's site had 3.4 million (it had 2.75 million a year ago). Read the full post here.

Here's my amateurish attempt at a reasoned [illustrated] analysis of the impact of the Justice Department's approval of the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and rival XM. I'm quite sure that highly paid telecom analysts could articulate this better. Meanwhile, I bet the the folks at Sirius and XM are clinking their martini glasses right about now.

CongressDaily TechCentral Breaking News:

The Justice Department on Monday afternoon cleared Sirius Satellite Radio's estimated $14 billion merger with rival XM, finding that the proposed pairing is not likely to substantially lessen competition or harm consumers. The ruling, which was more than a year in the making, divided members of Congress as well as competition and consumer watchdogs.

A number of lawmakers, including Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl, D-Wis., expressed opposition to the merger. Justice's antitrust division said evidence did not show that the merger would let the parties hike subscription prices, partly because the two do not compete in important segments of the market. Justice also cited the widespread availability of alternative services like Internet radio and iPods.

SIRIUS and XM each obtained stockholder approval in November 2007 and the deal is still subject to FCC approval. More details will be available on TechCentral shortly.

Update: The full story is available here with input from Justice Department antitrust division chief Thomas Barnett; Sen. Kohl and Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio; the National Association of Broadcasters; analysts and others.

I'm off to Los Angeles on Tuesday for the second annual Tech Policy Summit, which takes place Wednesday and Thursday at the Renaissance Hollywood hotel. I'll be conducting an on-stage Q&A with Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., and covering a variety of keynotes and panel discussions.

The relatively small gathering, which was held in Silicon Valley last year, is a great place for learning and networking with industry insiders. The theme for the 2008 summit is "Markets in Transition: Collaborating to Drive Technology Innovation and Adoption," which guarantees plenty of dialogue about U.S. competitiveness and high-tech convergence.

Scheduled speakers include Berman, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, Patent and Trademark Office Director Jon Dudas, BitTorrent President Ashwin Navin, Craigslist.org founder Craig Newmark, Hewlett-Packard Senior Vice President Prith Banerjee and many others.

Look for conference coverage in CongressDaily's PM edition, CongressDaily's TechCentral and on the Tech Daily Dose blog later this week.

Oxford University Internet scholar Jonathan Zittrain was in Washington on Thursday to speak at Google's D.C. office (alongside Stanford Law School's Lawrence Lessig who was in town to launch his ChangeCongress movement). I was supposed to attend but had a last-minute conflict.

Zittrain's talk was based around his new book, "The Future of the Internet -- And How To Stop It." His thesis, summed up nicely by the Washington Post's Mike Musgrove, is that "the prevalence of spam and malware may be setting the Web on a path to a kind of appliance-driven lockdown."

Zittrain argues "the threat of faulty code and spyware, among other problems, means that the world is starting to turn to closed systems -- like TiVos, Xboxes and iPhones -- that can't as easily be modified by users or gifted programmers," Musgrove wrote on the Post IT blog.

Andrew Feinberg at CapitolValley.net also wrote about the book, which is sitting on my nightstand begging to be read right after I finish "Patent Failure," a timely tome by James Bessen and Michael Meurer.

A sad note to start the week -- First Amendment crusader Marv Johnson died late last week after a long battle with complications from diabetes. He joined the American Civil Liberties Union in 2000 after serving as executive director of the ACLU of Wyoming and became known to many who follow censorship and free expressions issues.

One of Johnson’s final legislative accomplishments was leading a bipartisan group to defeat provisions of a lobbying reform bill that he believed would have prevented Americans from expressing their views to members of Congress. Johnson was also the author of two reports on the dangers of domestic spying by federal law enforcement.

Before his ACLU career, Johnson worked as an attorney in private practice and served in the Air Force as a judge advocate general. He is survived by his life partner Billie Ruth Edwards, who is also a civil liberties activist.

From CongressDaily's PM edition on Wednesday:

Stanford Law Professor Takes Aim At Political Corruption

Intellectual property innovator Lawrence Lessig will unveil his campaign Thursday to combat the influence of money in American politics. The Stanford Law School professor's ChangeCongress project aims to mobilize candidates, citizens and lawmakers to help curb what he views is a political corruption pandemic.

Lessig late last month considered running for the seat of the late Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., and making government transparency a tenet of the campaign. But he decided his chances for winning were slim and he could better advance his agenda through a bipartisan effort outside Congress.

"Rather than tar the movement with one pretty substantial defeat right away, I'm pursuing it in another way," he told CongressDaily on the eve of his speech at the National Press Club. [Read the full story here]

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., is demonstrating his "mad mash-up skills" (again) with an online map that highlights students in his state who are spending spring break volunteering in the U.S. and abroad. Previous Google Maps projects traced his Iraq trip and showcased Nebraska tourist destinations.

Nursing and physician assistants in training at Union College, for example, will be spending 12 days in Nicaragua providing village healthcare. Students from Creighton University will be traveling to New Orleans to help rebuild homes there, Google's Galen Panger wrote on the company's policy blog.

"This is another great example of how maps can be an effective communications tool for politicians and other public officials -- both to communicate with citizens and, as in this case, to recognize them for the example they set for others," he said. "Maybe a Senate Maps Mashup Caucus isn't far behind?"

From Jim Romenesko at Poynter Online:

----------------------------------------------------
Memo to Orlando Sentinel employees
----------------------------------------------------
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 10:56 AM
To: OSC DL All Employees
Subject: Orlando Sentinel Digital Edition Launching March 31

On Monday, March 31, the Orlando Sentinel will launch a new digital edition of the newspaper via a new business partner, Pressmart. As a result, the paper will no longer be available in physical form at the Orlando Sentinel offices. On March 31, employees will receive an automated e-mail with a link access the newspaper. This link will also be permanently posted on the home page of SentineLink ...

... The decision to begin offering a digital edition was made in an effort to cut costs while expanding our digital product selection to our customers. In addition, there are significant financial benefits to the Sentinel, including increased ABC-audited circulation, lowered printing and distribution costs, and reduced future archival costs.

Read the full memo here.

The SCOTUS Blog reminded me that I failed to mention the fate of one high-tech case during Monday's Supreme Court coverage. Justices will not hear Microsoft v. Novell. At issue is whether a company is barred from filing a lawsuit claiming antitrust violations in a market if it does not take part in that market, either as a consumer or as a competitor.

The appeal was an attempt by Microsoft "to head off a nearly four-year-old triple damages lawsuit against it by Novell, claiming that Microsoft harmed rival software programs for office applications such as word-processing and spreadsheet display, by its actions in the market for computer operating systems — a market in which Novell did not participate," according to the blog. Chief Justice John Roberts did not take part in the order in the case.

There's a special story posted on CongressDaily's TechCentral written by my colleague Shane Harris at National Journal magazine. In it, he conducts an exit interview of sorts with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. After weathering congressional criticism, Gulf Coast hurricanes, and a failed bid for immigration reform, Chertoff remains upbeat about DHS, the shape in which he leaves it, and the future of border security.

In Harris's interview, Chertoff warned about national complacency toward terrorism, praised his department's efforts to prepare for the upcoming transition, and questioned whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be taking on reconstruction efforts. Click here to read the Q&A.

Mediabistro's TVNewser and Engadget report that PBS interviewer Charlie Rose suffered a black eye and wore a bandage on his brow on his Monday night show after tripping on a 59th Street pothole in Manhattan.

He had to choose between protecting his newly purchased MacBook Air or his face -- he chose the former. According to his producers, "The Macbook Air is fine, he showed us the blood stains on it this morning." [That's Engadget's doctored photo above.]

Speaking of MacBook Air, I'm addicted to "New Soul," the whimsical ditty by Yael Naim featured on the computer's TV ad. First Feist and now this? Apple is quite the new music trend-spotter.

Voting ends Wednesday for YouTube's 2007 Video Awards. Congress is out of town, so go watch a bunch of clips and vote on 'em. What else do you have going on? In the politics category, the nominees are:

Stop the Clash of Civilizations (AvaazOrg)
Congressman Ron Paul Visits My Dorm Room (EmergencyCheese)
"I Got a Crush...On Obama" By Obama Girl (Barelypolitical)
Students: A Challenge For You (Davisfleetwood)
HuckChuckFacts (Explorehuckabee)

Winners get "bragging rights, a trophy, and a special invitation, along with VIP treatment, at an event later this year," according to YouTube.

Online advertiser ValueClick will fork over a record $2.9 million to settle FTC charges that its product claims and e-mails were deceptive and violated federal law. The agency also charged that ValueClick and its subsidiaries, Hi-Speed Media and E-Babylon failed to secure consumers’ sensitive financial information, despite their claims to do so, officials said Monday.

The settlement, filed by the Justice Department on behalf of the FTC, requires ValueClick to clearly and conspicuously disclose the costs and obligations consumers must incur to receive the products it touts as “free” and bars future violations of the CAN-SPAM Act. The settlement also bars deceptive claims about the security of the consumer information collected at its e-commerce Web sites.

This is the FTC’s third case targeting the use of deceptive promises of free merchandise by Internet-based “lead generation” operations, and the commission’s 18th case challenging data security practices by a company handling sensitive consumer information. Read more here.

An article I wrote in CongressDaily on March 11 previewing a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Federal Financial Management Subcommittee hearing about the Federal Information Security Management Act struck a nerve over at the National Institute of Standards and Technology -- big time.

In the story, Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a nonprofit cybersecurity research group, blamed NIST for some of FISMA's failings. He said NIST's guidelines are too broad and he claimed that "the people at NIST, if they ever ran IT systems, it's been decades."

Since the piece was written on a tight deadline, I was unable to reach out to get a reaction from NIST at the time, so Ron Ross, leader of NIST's FISMA implementation project offered up some thoughts on Monday (per my suggestion). So, here goes...

The Digital Freedom campaign, a group that supports "fair use" of copyrighted content, responded Monday to recent remarks made by Motion Picture Association of America chief Dan Glickman regarding his opposition to net neutrality legislation. Read more about his speech last week at CongressDaily's TechCentral.

At the ShoWest summit in Las Vegas, Glickman railed against government regulation of the Internet, claiming it would impede studios' ability to respond to their consumers in an innovative ways. Digital Freedom spokeswoman Maura Corbett said it was shocking "that a group that regularly pleads for government regulation of technology could suddenly develop total amnesia."

"We suspect the big studios are rolling the Trojan Horse of 'copyright enforcement' to Congress to protect their business models from openness offered by the Internet," she said. "Given MPAA’s aversion [to] government regulation, we eagerly look forward to them standing down on broadcast flag legislation, the analog hole bill, and other initiatives to restrict consumers and limit new technologies.” Ouch!

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a copyright infringement case involving footage that circulated on the Internet of an Ohio television anchorwoman taking part in a wet t-shirt contest while on vacation with her husband in Key West, Fla.

The case involved Catherine Bosley, who previously served as a morning and noontime anchor on Youngstown's WKBN-TV. She resigned from the station after a wave of negative publicity and is now an anchor/reporter for WOIO-TV in Cleveland. In the lawsuit, Bosley accused staff at WFMJ, her former station's rival, of copying and distributing copyrighted works (the racy video).

A 2007 federal appeals court ruling in the case described the proceedings as "extensive and rancorous." Read that opinion here. Speaking of topics that get the FCC fired up, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving the commission's policy on "fleeting expletives." Check CongressDaily's PM edition for details.

Technology Daily staff writer Michael Martinez? He recently landed a plum job at WAMU (88.5 FM), the National Public Radio affiliate in Washington, D.C. Martinez is a producer for The Kojo Nnamdi Show, a two-hour daily broadcast that covers news, political issues and social trends.

Martinez, a University of North Carolina graduate, is a great addition to the Kojo team -- particularly because of the program's "Tech Tuesday" segment that explores hot-button high-tech issues. It's a favorite of mine and I've been on as a guest to talk about data security and net neutrality -- issues that have garnered considerable congressional interest in recent years.

Congrats, Michael. The patent reform debate is heating up. I'll have my people call your people. Updates on the whereabouts of other TD alums can be found here, here and here.

An international competition to inspire viable, super-efficient vehicles that could help curb the United States dependence on foreign oil and stem the effects of climate change will kick off this week at the New York Auto Show. The Senate passed a resolution supporting the project last Thursday and the House did the same in February.

The winning entrant of the Automotive X Prize must produce a commercially viable vehicle that gets at least 100 miles per gallon fuel efficiency over a series of road trials meant to simulate real world driving conditions. The public unveiling of the multi-million dollar prize purse and title sponsor will take place on Thursday.

"The dual passage of both the House and Senate resolutions demonstrates that our elected officials understand the real issues consumers are facing today and that real solutions will require the American spirit of free enterprise," Automotive X Prize Executive Director Don Foley said. "This high-profile competition is igniting ideas and concepts across the globe to help solve the challenge of energy security and climate change."

More than 1,000 educators from school districts across the country convened in Washington, D.C., last week for the Consortium for School Networking's annual conference. Attendees explored the role technology plays in providing U.S. students with the skills necessary for success in the 21st century.

"Every year the conference provides a forum for educators and thought leaders to trade anecdotes, share best practices, and come together in a truly collaborative fashion with one main purpose - to discuss how to strategically use technology to improve K-12 learning," CoSN Board Chair Sheryl Abshire said in a press release.

Conference topics ranged from "21st Century Learning: Embedding New Skills and Assessments" to "Unleashing the Transformational Power of One-to-One Computing in K-12." Other sessions examined trends in education technology like the influence of MySpace.com and advancing teaching and learning through Internet2.

CoSN also honored leaders in education during an awards ceremony. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., was among the winners. She received a nod for "Outstanding Achievement Award for Excellence in Public Service."

The Chinese government has blocked Internet users in the country from accessing video-sharing site YouTube after clips of a recent government crackdown on Tibetan protesters challenging Chinese rule were posted on the site. The U.K. Guardian and local feeds of broadcasters including BBC and CNN were also censored, according to media reports.

CNN Beijing bureau chief Jaime FlorCruz wrote on the In The Field blog that amid the blackout, modern technology created a loophole for disseminating news: "Our intrepid researchers found one Chinese Web log, a local version of Twitter, which collected and disseminated reports from citizen reporters who sent them in by SMS and Internet."

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Sunday issued a statement on his Web site deploring the use of violence by both protesters and the government. He said the region is facing "cultural genocide."

The high-priced call girl who effectively ended New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's political career this week happens to be an aspiring musician and a song featured on her MySpace.com page is getting quite a bit of radio airplay.

Several stations, including the Big Apple's "K-Rock" and Z-100, downloaded Ashley Alexandria Dupre's song "What We Want" and featured it as part of their pop music line up. Eric Johnson of New Jersey's WSJO told Radio-Info.com that "it's not a bad mid-tempo pop song. We’ll spike it in and let the listeners decide."

News of Dupre's ditty is particularly interesting given Spitzer's high-profile crusade against radio "payola." When he was the state's attorney general, his office served subpoenas against record labels in a probe into the illegal compensation of radio stations for playing certain songs.

A tipster tells Tech Daily Dose that Spitzer "can now claim that his anti-payola efforts at getting new artists on the air were successful." "Apparently Spitzer thinks pay-for-play wasn't so bad after all," the snarky source added.

On Fridays at 5:45 a.m. when the roads are clear, the dance party begins on Local 12's Good Morning Cincinnati with Bob Herzog and Jen Dalton. The Roger Rabbit, The Sprinkler, The Lawnmower, The Shopping Cart – sheer TV brilliance. CyberJournalist.net says "this might just be the future of local news." Click here to see another video of Bob dancing with himself (thanks to TV studio technology).

Liberal grassroots group MoveOn.org launched an interesting new contest on Thursday. It's a user-generated "Obama In 30 Seconds" TV ad competition and the winner gets $20,000 worth of video and editing equipment and MoveOn will air the ad nationally. The organization announced its support of White House hopeful Barack Obama last month.

Here's the gist, according to MoveOn's Adam Green: Anyone can design a 30-second spot about Obama between now and April 1 and the public will vote on finalists online. A panel of judges will pick a winner. The motley crew of judges ranges from movie stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to Internet guru Larry Lessig and blogger Markos Moulitsas.

The 411:
Contest page, with details and a cool kick-off video
Thursday's e-mail to members nationwide
Press release including celebrity quotes

From the Reuters DealZone blog:

Sirius Satellite Radio CEO Mel Karmazin said Wednesday he hoped U.S. regulators would rule by the end of March on the satellite radio company’s proposed merger with rival XM. Speaking at the Bear Stearns 21st Annual Media Conference, Karmazin said he “took heart” about recent comments by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who indicated that his agency aimed to rule on the deal by the end of March.

Shares of the satellite radio companies immediately jumped on hopes the deal could actually close soon. XM Chairman Gary Parsons was less specific than Karmazin when he spoke at the Bear Stearns conference. He merely said he was confident the regulatory review was moving forward “in a timely manner.”

Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Google and the Family Online Safety Institute will host an afternoon discussion March 20 featuring Oxford University Web policy expert Jonathan Zittrain. He will preview his new book, "The Future of the Internet - And How To Stop It."

Stanford University law professor Larry Lessig will furnish a response. In February, Lessig flirted with a run for the seat of the late Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., who passed away earlier this year. The special Democratic primary is April 8 and Lessig said he did not think he could win the election with six weeks of campaigning.

The invitation-only event will take place at Google's new Washington, DC headquarters at 1101 New York Ave., NW.

Watching the guerilla tactics of Hollywood paparazzi, as depicted on TMZ.com's star-stalking TV series, must have paid off. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday and after an hour-long stakeout, I nabbed a few precious moments of his time.

This excerpt from CongressDaily's AM edition is what you get when you hurl yourself into an elevator with the software pioneer (and second wealthiest man on the planet) and his visibly annoyed posse.

After addressing a closed-door Democratic Caucus lunch, Gates told CongressDaily that one of his companies' legislative priorities this year -- overhauling U.S. patent laws -- was "probably too complicated for a hallway conversation." The House passed a patent bill in September and a Senate version awaits floor action. Microsoft is part of the Coalition for Patent Fairness, which has been leading the charge to change the laws. When asked how much Capitol Hill had changed since Gates himself was a congressional page, he said: "A lot less than you think."

Gates was slated to speak to the Northern Virginia Technology Council on Thursday morning. Also, if you want to see excerpts of the House Science and Technology Hearing where Gates testified, click here.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates appeared before the House Science and Technology Committee on Wednesday and it proved to be a wildly popular event. In addition to the long line for the public and assigned seats for credentialed reporters, the hearing attracted two former members of the committee -- Bob Walker and Sherwood Boehlert.

Walker, a Republican who served Pennsylvania for 20 years, now runs a successful lobbying shop. Bohelert, who chaired the panel in the 109th Congress, retired last year. They both sat in the front row.

While much of the discussion was about serious issues like education, immigration and U.S. competitiveness, there were a few moments of levity. At one point, Chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., listed some similarities and differences between himself and the software pioneer.

"You're a billionaire and I'm not. I'm a college graduate and you're not," he mused, but both have young daughters growing up in a tech-driven world. Gates said he envies kids' ability to learn online because "when I was growing up, the best you could do was read the World Book and that was alphabetical and not very enticing."

Read more about the hearing in CongressDaily.

Momentum seems to be building for a bill that would amend the Social Security Act to require physician utilization of the Medicare electronic prescription drug program, according to Paul Redifer, a lobbyist for Cisco Systems. Redifer writes on the Cisco High Tech Policy Blog that the bill "stands a good chance of passing as part of Medicare legislation to be considered later this year."

The U.S. healthcare industry has been one of the last to benefit from the increased efficiencies brought by the adoption of information technology tools, he wrote. Despite abundant evidence that technology could help lower costs and improve outcomes, providers have been slow to adopt.

The Congressional Budget Office found that the Medicare Electronic Medication and Safety Protection Act would provide some incentive (on the federal side, anyway) by saving the government $3 billion. Read Redifer's entire post here.

As the net neutrality antics played out on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Motion Picture Association of America chief Dan Glickman was making news of his own at an entertainment industry conference in Las Vegas. His speech at the ShoWest summit railed against net neutrality efforts, marking the first time he has spoken out on the issue on behalf of major movie studios.

"Government regulation of the Internet would impede our ability to respond to our customers in innovative ways, and it would impair the ability of broadband providers to address the serious and rampant piracy problems occurring over their networks," Glickman said. Read CongressDaily's story here and MPAA's press release here.

The Patent Troll Tracker, whose identity only recently came to light as Cisco Systems IP Director Rick Frenkel, is now facing a lawsuit. The frequently cited compiler of patent stats, who remained anonymous for some time, is being sued for defamation by a pair of Texas patent lawyers who appeared in the blog, according to the Prior Art blog.

Peter Zura's 271 Blog got this statement from Cisco: "The parties have mutually agreed to make no comment on the lawsuit in question at this time. That said, we would like to underscore that the comments made in the employee's personal blog represented his own opinions and several of his comments are not consistent with Cisco's views."

FYI: It looks like Frenkel's blog is now accessible to invited readers only.

One quick addition to my earlier post about this afternoon's network neutrality hearing: There was a humorous exchange between House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Damian Kulash, the lead vocalist for OK Go. Kulash explained the overwhelming response to a contest his band held for fans to recreate an expertly choreographed dance video they released on YouTube.

Conyers: A number of people up here think that we can do that too. Would you be willing to accept a Judiciary Committee video?
Kulash: It would have to be submitted by the same means as everyone else. [Audience laughter]

That's when I conjured up a mental picture of Conyers and fellow antitrust task force members (maybe Steve Chabot, Sheila Jackson-Lee and Ric Keller) doing the dance to "A Million Ways." Watch the video here.

Internet billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's worlds are colliding (see "Seinfeld" reference here). The avid Web writer posed an interesting question on his personal blog on Monday: "Should bloggers be allowed in the Mavs locker room?"

"Conceptually it's not a big deal. A blogger, a beat writer, columnists. The medium they use to deliver their content should be irrelevant. No question about it," he writes. "But then there is the question of real world constraints." The area where media conducts interviews after a big game is pretty cramped as it is -- without bloggers in the mix.

Read the rest of his commentary here. It's probably something that sports teams -- major and minor -- have had to wrestle with as the new media writers and traditional scribes compete for space and time.

Damian Kulash, the lead vocalist and guitarist for OK Go, is slated to testify on Tuesday afternoon before the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust and competition task force. In honor of his Hill visit, I couldn't help posting the viral video of "Here It Goes Again." Enjoy.

Update: "You're not my usual crowd," Kulash told Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., at the start of the hearing.

The effectiveness of a 6-year-old law intended to improve data security across the federal government will be questioned at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Federal Financial Management Subcommittee hearing Wednesday afternoon. The event comes on the heels of an annual report to Congress by OMB that showed progress by some agencies. Read the full story at Congress Daily's TechCentral.

"Agencies still cannot say whether their information systems containing millions of American's personal data are secure," said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., who chairs the panel. "While it is good news that agencies are being more responsible in reporting more incidents, a recent dramatic increase in security incidents demonstrates a troubling reality that our information networks are not as secure as we may think."

Karen Evans, OMB's e-government guru, and officials from GAO, the State and Veterans Affairs departments, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will testify.

I just remembered an interesting bit of information -- Nine Inch Nails' latest album, "Ghosts I-IV," has been released under a Creative Commons [attribution non-commercial share alike] license. I heard the news from dinner companions at last week's Radio and Television News Directors Foundation gala but filed it away in my brain and it just rattled loose.

NIN's Web site says "an exciting partnership and experience regarding this release will be announced soon." According to the band: "This music arrived unexpectedly as the result of an experiment… The end result is a wildly varied body of music that we’re able to present to the world in ways the confines of a major record label would never have allowed."

Stupid Spitzer
Huffington Post/Bill Press

Here's one thing I'll never understand: Why do such smart men do such dumb things? Or maybe we should ask: Why don't smart men use their brain instead of some other part of their anatomy? It's a bipartisan malady. Mark Foley and Larry Craig. Gary Hart and Bill Clinton. And now, Eliot Spitzer - caught by a federal sting operation in the middle of a high-class prostitution ring.

Just. Keep. It. In. Your. Pants!
Fire Dog Lake

… As a resident of New York and someone who voted for Mr. Spitzer, I have a question for him: what the HELL were you thinking? You were the Attorney General, for crissakes, the self-righteous bulldog who chased down white collar criminals and prosecuted them. Successfully. You made yourself a whole lot of enemies on Wall Street who would kick up their well-polished heels if you were publicly scandalized. You won the Governor's mansion running on your record at the AG's office. Oh, did I mention the enemies you made on Wall Street?

Republicans Try, Unsuccessfully, To Hits Dems Over Spitzer
Crooks and Liars

Given the humiliating difficulties facing the National Republican Congressional Committee, I guess it’s not too surprising the gang would try to connect Democratic House candidates to Eliot Spitzer’s scandal, but this is just weak.

Left And Right Agree: Eliot Spitzer Must Go
Michelle Malkin

A survey of this morning’s lead editorials in the NY press shows a bipartisan consensus: Eliot Spitzer has to go. Both left and right bristled at Spitzer’s brief, arrogant, remorseless, and dishonest statement yesterday apologizing for his “private matter”–a very public matter of alleged law-breaking, breach of electoral trust, and political self-destruction.

Murdoch Won't battle Microsoft for Yahoo
San Jose Mercury News

One of Yahoo's potential white knights in its struggle to avoid being taken over by Microsoft just put his charger back in the stable. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch told a Bear Stearns conference in Palm Beach, Fla., today that he's not going to battle the Redmond software giant for Yahoo.

"It would be fun to beat Microsoft," he said. But "we're not going to get into a fight with Microsoft. They've got a lot more money than us." Murdoch's News Corp. has been touted as a possible savior of Yahoo and there were reports of discussions between the two companies. Apparently they went nowhere.

Read the full story

Comcast CFO Says Our High-Definition Service Is 'Great'
Dow Jones Newswires

Comcast Corp. Chief Financial Officer Michael Angelakis said Monday the company's high-definition offering is a "great service," but acknowledged that rival DirecTV, a satellite provider, has done a "better job" of marketing its HD channels.

Angelakis, speaking during a discussion at the annual Bear Stearns Media Conference in Palm Beach, Fla., said although Comcast is capable of adding more than 150 HD channels to its lineup, "not every HD channel deserves to be in HD, and there are lots of HD channels that aren't watched very much."

Read the full story

The celebrity gossip gurus at TMZ.com report that Research in Motion, the company that manufactures BlackBerry (a must-have for many congressional staffers and reporters), has teamed up with Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am's Web site, Dipdive.com, to run a series of pro-Barack Obama videos.

While RIM hasn't officially endorsed Barack, Will.i.am is an ardent supporter of the Democratic White House wannabe. "The Dipdive Web site has so much Obama content, it might as well be run by his camp!," TMZ says. "Hillary's people better call Apple and get on the iPhone train!"

Just in case you're a lot closer to Austin, Texas than, say, Capitol Hill, you should know that the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival is taking place as I type. The conference, part of the larger SXSW music extravaganza, is a leading event for emerging technologies and it's one high-tech pow-wow that I've never been able to attend.

Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg keynoted on Sunday; Frank Warren, founder of the PostSecret Project (an online collection of 200,000 personal, decorated anonymous postcards) was slated to speak Monday; and videogame designer Jane McGonigal takes the stage Tuesday. A lengthy list of panel sessions can be found here.

Capitol Valley (and oodles of other bloggers) are in Texas for the event. Read some coverage here and here. The 11th Annual SXSW Web Award Winners have also been announced. Congrats to the winners.

This isn’t about tech policy nor is it particularly relevant to Washington, but it's news about my favorite band, so you'll have to just humor me. The Silicon Alley Insider reports that R.E.M. will debut their latest album on the social music discovery site and popular Facebook application iLike.

The album, "Accelerate," will launch March 24 on iLike but Warner Music Group won't sell the album until April. The Insider says that's significant because while plenty of artists have previewed work via various broadcast outlets (like XM and Sirius), a social network won out in this case. That could signal a significant shift in how music labels view promotions.

Meanwhile, I have go sign up for iLike and mark my calendar for March 24.

An alliance of technology firms and public interest groups committed to curbing the computer "spyware" epidemic released for public comment on Monday a document aimed at helping software users and reviewers understand the complexities of products that promise to rid PCs of the malicious code.

Various kinds of testing are often difficult to distinguish from one another and the Anti-Spyware Coalition encourages testers and reviewers to define the goals and methodologies of their testing. This is ASC's sixth published working report and the comment period ends April 4.

Information on how to post a comment is available on the ASC Web site. Once the comment period ends, ASC members will release a report on the comments and incorporate them into the group's final document.

Big news from The New York Times:

ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation. The wiretap recording, made during an investigation of a prostitution ring called Emperors Club VIP, captured a man identified as Client 9 on a telephone call confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a room.

The person briefed on the case identified Mr. Spitzer as Client 9. The governor learned that he had been implicated in the prostitution probe when a federal official contacted his staff last Friday, according to the person briefed on the case. The governor informed his top aides Sunday night and this morning of his involvement. He canceled his public events today and scheduled an announcement for this afternoon after inquiries from the Times. Read more.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline, a system for reporting sexual exploitation of children, will celebrate 10 years of operation this week. The program has processed more than 570,000 reports of sex crimes against children over the past decade.

The tipline is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by personnel in NCMEC's Exploited Child Division who analyze and develop the leads, which are then referred to law enforcement for investigation and prosecution.

"In the first 10 months of operation, the CyberTipline received a total of 4,500 reports," NCMEC President Ernie Allen said in a press release. "For the 12 months during 2007, that number exploded to 105,000." The increase in the number of reports of child pornography and online sexual solicitation of children is alarming, he added.

In addition to the reports received by the general public, the tipline also gets leads from U.S. based electronic service providers and each report may involve several dozen or even hundreds of images, NCMEC said. To date, ESPs have reported more than five million images.

The Vatican has updated its list of mortal sins, those grave sins for which believers will go to hell if they have not confessed and received forgiveness. The list, published in the Vatican newspaper, now includes pollution, drug-dealing, social injustice, and genetic/stem cell experiments.

News/satire site 236.com has a few more tech-related ones to add:

Mortal (deadly) sins:
Updating your blog too much
Using capital letters in personal email correspondence
iPhone worship

Venial (minor) sins:
Not updating your blog enough
Using "Wikipedia" or "YouTube" as a verb

Still not sure:
Buying stuff from J. Crew online, wearing it once, then returning it
Talking on cell phones in restaurants

Read the full list here.

New campaign 2008 inspired words, courtesy of the Political Addictionary...

Billary (noun): The concept of a two-for-one political candidate.

Campaignigans (noun): The shenanigans politicians pull against their opponents during the campaign season.

Conservotive (noun): Republican praying for a viable right wing candidate.

Debhate (noun): A political forum for two candidates to publicly display their mutual disgust of each other.

Politisyllabic (adjective): The multilingual ability of all politician to speak out of both sides of their mouth at once.

Fundracing (verb): When candidates rush from event to event trying to capitalize on recent primary showings or poll figures.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's blog-savvy daughter, Meghan, posted an entertaining video on her Web site over the weekend that shows how much fun the campaign trail can be. In it, she talks about a BBQ the McCain clan hosted for supporters and reporters at their Sedona ranch. There's footage of my friend Holly Bailey of Newsweek taking a ride on a tire swing and The Politico's Jonathan Martin helping the Arizona senator grill ribs. Watch the McCainBloggette video above.

Former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh had some harsh words for the proposed merger of XM Satellite Radio and its rival Sirius in a Washington Times op-ed on Monday. In it, he wrote that "a failure in leadership at the Justice Department will expose this merger to a free-for-all at the FCC to create a regulated monopoly."

The deal "cries out for decisive action by the Justice Department under the Clayton Act, because it will completely eliminate competition in satellite radio," the Reagan administration's top lawyer said. "Current and future subscribers will be subject to whims of a monopoly, which will impose additional costs on consumers," he warned.

Why does the agency continue to deliberate? "The prolonged delay can be explained, at least in part, by the vast number of transactions piling up for department review as Wall Street hastily moves toward further industry consolidations before a change in guard following the presidential election," Thornburgh explained.

Former FCC Chairman Richard Wiley received an award -- and some ribbing -- at Thursday night's Radio and Television News Directors Foundation dinner. He was honored for his contributions to the field of communications, particularly his role in launching the digital television transition.

Newspaper Association of America President John Sturm, who served as Wiley's adviser at the commission and presented the award, said it is "much more fun to be his client than his lawyer." Wiley, who is now the top attorney in Wiley Rein's communications division, "still thinks he's chairman" of the FCC, Sturm joked.

A videotaped tribute included testimonials from admirers, including current Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, and showed a placard on Wiley's desk bearing the workaholic's motto: "Thank God It's Monday." Associated Press CEO Tom Curley, NBC-Universal Vice President of Diversity Paula Madison and CBS legend Bob Schieffer were also honored.

"Get on the phone and say you support the Protect America Act - the right people will be listening."

The creative minds behind SaveNetRadio.org, a grassroots group formed to fight against recently instituted increases in fees paid to the music industry by Internet radio services, came close to winning a prestigious PR Week award on Thursday night but was beat out by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

A team from Qorvis Communications, who created the campaign last spring for the Digital Music Association, was among several entries in the "crisis or issues management campaign of the year" category. The winners were announced at a ceremony at Tavern on the Green in Manhattan.

SaveNetRadio rallied online radio listeners, artists and independent labels and in a matter of weeks, began working to reach target audiences through online recruitment and branding. The campaign used a combination of traditional and new earned media and Internet social networks.

During a three month period beginning in April 2007, the coalition recruited over 2,000 webcasters, 6,000 artists and over 100,000 "listener activists." More than a million people used SaveNetRadio's Web site to correspond with their congressional representatives. That spurred the introduction of the Internet Radio Equality Act, which garnered 140 cosponsors.

Oooo I nearly forgot to blog about my former editor Danny Glover's harsh remarks at Wednesday's Politics Online conference about congressional reluctance to embrace new technology platforms. His comments came at a session called "Open Source Government: Can Peer Production Create Better Public Policy?"

Glover, who now runs the Media Research Center's Eyeblast.tv (an online video site with a conservative twist), said only a handful of the 535 members of Congress are engaged online, he said. They're "behind the curve" with respect to blogs, podcasts and video, Glover said. "They are still very much in the early adopter phase," he said. "Everyone else is in the Web 2.0 phase. Congress is maybe Web 0.5."

Johanna Shelton, who recently joined Google after a decade on Capitol Hill, had a rosier view. She said lawmakers are becoming more tech-savvy and their Web sites are improving. "Members intuitively understand that they need to use new technologies to get their message out," she said.

House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Howard Berman, D-Calif., may have his sights set on the Foreign Affairs Committee chairmanship in the 111th Congress, but he told reporters he still has an ambitious IP agenda for the rest of this session.

His panel took action on an IP enforcement bill on Thursday (See CongressDaily's PM edition) and soon he will turn to legislation that addresses "orphan works" -- content whose owners cannot be easily identified. A bill that would eliminate a longstanding exemption granted to AM and FM radio stations, which allows them to broadcast music without paying royalties, is also on his radar screen.

Shameless plug: Those issues (and many more) will surely crop up when I conduct a "fireside chat" with Berman at the Tech Policy Summit in Hollywood later this month. For more details on the conference, click here.

A former FBI agent Michael German, who now works for the American Civil Liberties Union, slammed the intelligence agency on Wednesday for ignoring laws and internal guidelines pertaining to the use of national security letters -- administrative subpoenas that allow agents to grab phone, computer and bank records in suspected terrorism cases without warrants.

FBI Director Robert Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that the Justice Department will soon release an audit from 2006 that highlights some problems, many of which predate reforms. He also pledged "continued vigilance in this area." Read CongressDaily's coverage here.

"When it comes to NSLs, there are laws and there are internal guidelines – the FBI ignored both,” said ACLU National Security Policy Counsel Michael German. New guidelines have been introduced, but an IG report from last year "makes clear that internal guidelines are meaningless to the FBI."

Instituting judicial oversight would guarantee that someone would be looking over the shoulder of agents using a tool as invasive as an NSL, German said. Lawmakers also have the power to narrow the scope of the statute and they should use it – especially when the data collected is being stored and not destroyed, he said.

Investor Warren Buffett is the richest man on the planet, Forbes magazine announced on Wednesday. His estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from a year ago, puts him ahead of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who was the richest for 13 straight years. Maybe he'll have to start moonlighting somewhere to make ends meet.

Gates, who will testify about U.S. innovation and competitiveness on Capitol Hill next week, is now worth $58 billion and is ranked third in the world. He is up $2 billion from a year ago.Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helú is the world's second-richest man, with an estimated net worth of $60 billion.

According to the magazine, this was a record-breaking year for young billionaires, with Forbes finding 50 under the age of 40, 25 of whom are new to the list. Sixty-eight percent of these under-age-40 tycoons built their own 10-figure fortunes, including Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Read more about this year's wealthiest by clicking here.

Cable news network CNN has expanded its iReport offering to include a standalone Web site (iReport.com). The new beta site is aimed at delivering "uncensored, user-powered news." "CNN built the tools, you take it from there," the front page boasts.

All the stories are user-generated and instant (CNN does not vet or verify their authenticity or accuracy before they post). Content with the "On CNN" stamp have been vetted and used in CNN news coverage.

Since the Web site's launch two weeks ago, the iReport has collected 1,200 contributors. A few examples: One user uploaded photos she took of Kosovo's declaration of independence; another snapped images from a memorial for students slain in a shooting at Southern Illinois University; and another wrote a story about autism in a virtual world.

The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation will host its annual First Amendment Awards on Thursday night at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C. Former FCC Chairman Richard Wiley will get a special award recognizing his contributions to the field of communications.

Associated Press CEO Tom Curley will receive the First Amendment Leadership Award; NBC-Universal Vice President of Diversity Paula Madison will get the First Amendment Service Award; and CBS legend Bob Schieffer will receive the Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award. He'll also perform with his band, Honky Tonk Confidential.

The Computing Research Policy Blog reports that an effort is under way to influence the National Science Foundation's FY09 funding early this appropriations season. Reps. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., Rush Holt, D-N.J., Bob Inglis, R-S.C., and Brian Baird, D-Wash., have put together a letter to the House Appropriations Committee leaders to push for full funding of NSF's $7.3 billion budget request.

That's a 13.6 percent boost and they're looking for more of their colleagues to co-sign. The Computing Research Association has joined with many others in the science advocacy community in alerting members to encourage their lawmakers to sign on. Read more about the initiative here.

In related news, I had a story in Wednesday's CongressDaily AM edition about a related campaign. Holt and Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., the co-chairs of the Congressional Research Caucus, joined scientists, engineers and graduate students to rally for additional funding of major science agencies.

National Public Radio has always been a pioneer -- in its programming, fundraising and now in its choice for a location to build its new high-tech global headquarters. Executives from the media outlet joined Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty on Wednesday to announce that it has acquired 1111 North Capitol St., NE.

NPR has been located in D.C. since its founding in 1970 and has been based in the city’s Penn Quarter/Chinatown neighborhood since 1992. The acquisition will relocate NPR's 600 Washington-based staff to the new business improvement district known as NoMa (North of Massachusetts Avenue). Incidentally, the cutesy name doesn't make the neighborhood less scary (for now, anyway).

Until recently, the area has been a no-man's land but Fenty has been working diligently to reinvigorate that corridor of the city. The façade and portions of the current four-story North Capitol Street property will be retained and be integrated with a new 10-story office tower.

Occupancy is planned for 2012. HQ will include a 60,000 square foot space for NPR News' broadcast and multimedia operations and a public space for live shows and events. NPR CEO Ken Stern said the new facility "will be the physical manifestation of our broader thinking about NPR for the future."

I don’t know about you, but I'm going stir-crazy waiting for federal regulators to act on the year-old merger proposal for XM Satellite Radio and rival Sirius. The Justice Department is expected to act soon, analysts say, and the FCC will follow suit.

For months, merger-watchers have been inclined to believe that the combination, albeit delayed, would get the government's blessing but now at least one analyst isn't as hopeful. The merger "now appear less likely," Pacific Crest analyst Erik Olbeter said in a research note.

"Prospects for the merger have become increasingly cloudy," he said, noting that the waiting game suggests Justice and the FCC are having trouble justifying the deal. Olbeter says he hears both agencies "are inclined to approve the merger" but that "an argument for the deal that does not set a significant, far-reaching precedent appears elusive."

(Hat-tip to Baron's TechTrader for pointing out Olbeter's note)

The guys over at the Capitol Valley blog must have been seriously caffeinated Tuesday because they churned out a ton of content from the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet's summit (On several occasions author Andrew Feinberg was snapping photos like a paparazzo who had just witnessed Britney's emergence from the psych ward).

The blog has a flood of commentary, interviews, audio files and pictures so it's worth a look if you weren’t able to make it to the Politics Online event. Several highlights: Yahoo debuts its new political ad platform; the questioning of Facebook's Adam Conner; and a moment with Internet visionary Tim Wu.

The recently launched blog covers (according to its 'about us' page) "technology and politics and whatever else the editors think will make you laugh, cry, or think during the work day."

Here is CongressDaily's coverage of the conference:
Panelists Say Internet Political Impact Only Likely To Grow
Report: Relatively Small Amount Spent On Web Campaigns

Pajamas Media CEO Roger Simon has some interesting ideas up his sleeve as his four-year-old blog aggregation service tries to capture online audiences in an increasingly crowded market. The mystery author-screenwriter-blogger gave me a sneak preview on Tuesday at the annual Politics Online conference in Washington.

His company's weekly political show, which airs Thursday evenings on XM Satellite Radio's POTUS '08 channel will soon be carried on YouTube thanks to a recently inked partnership deal with the content-sharing site. The video version of the program will feature interviews with players from the leading presidential camps plus an assortment of news and notes from the campaign trail, he said.

"We think the media company of the future is multidimensional," said Simon, who views his firm as the modern-day version of the Associated Press. Pajamas Media now has correspondents in 50 countries "and we don’t care whether they're bloggers or not." Those resources have helped Simon scoop traditional news outlets -- like when Benazir Bhutto was killed and he happened to have a scribe on the ground in Islamabad.

Pajamas Media is "definitely growing in page views on the main site and with our affiliates" and revenue is up as Simon pushes forward with syndication plans. The future, however, is uncertain (which is not uncommon in the turbulent online media space). "We're here for the next few years -- beyond that I don’t know," he told me.

Planning for this year's Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet conference, taking place Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington, was truly community-driven -- perhaps to reflect the growing importance of people-power, both on- and offline.

This is the first Politics Online summit that was peer-produced, with many conference sessions created and voted on by the public, organizers said. It's also the first time that winners of the IPDI's Golden Dot Awards, which recognize excellence in online campaigning, were decided by the public (more than 3,000 ballots were cast).

The conference facility itself is also very people-friendly with a reasonably fast wireless connection, a Yahoo-sponsored smoothie bar and a Google-sponsored lounge offering candy to sugar fiends and granola for the healthier set.

Here's some interesting news from across the pond. Seven out of 10 consumers polled in the U.K. who currently access unauthorized content on the Internet say they would stop if they received a cease-and-desist letter from their Web provider. Some of the most likely to be dissuaded are teenagers (78 percent for males; 75 percent for females), according to a new digital media survey by media lawyers at Wiggin.

The report's findings show that people are concerned about stories of prosecution and many say they would stop pirating if they felt there was a greater chance of being caught. That said, the same ratio of respondents said they believe it is unlikely that they will ever be caught downloading. For male teenagers fear of being caught is even less effective, analysts said.

Other highlights in the whopping 249-page paper:

▪ Consumers want social networks to become major content distribution platforms and Web communities are an essential place to be for brands.
▪ Social networks are reconfiguring work and leisure patterns and traditional media is being sacrificed.
▪ In an increasingly digital world, traditional media is still the most emotionally engaging.
▪ Interest in on-demand content is strong, but consumers have a strong preference for it to be free.
▪ Video streaming sites are impacting the amount of scheduled TV watched.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation will urge a federal judge in Phoenix on Wednesday to block the Recording Industry Association of America's lawsuit against two Arizona residents for having music files in a "shared" folder on their computer.

The RIAA is seeking thousands of dollars in damages from the defendants, Pamela and Jeffery Howell, EFF says. But rather than proving the Howells distributed the files, the RIAA claims only that they had songs in a shared folder for file-sharing software Kazaa (without proof that anyone other than their own investigators downloaded songs from them).

"This amounts to suing someone for attempted copyright infringement -- something the Copyright Act simply does not allow," EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann said. "It's not enough to say the law could have been broken. The RIAA must prove it actually was broken."

House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee Chairwoman Jane Harman, D-Calif., weighed in on the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board in an interview with me on Monday. I wrote about it in CongressDaily's PM edition but I couldn't fit in everything she had to say.

Harman said the board, which is now inactive, has been "a colossal disappointment" and the Bush administration allowed it to be "sub-optimal since day one." The panel, whose members' terms expired Jan. 30, never met its potential. "It should be a strong group that respects the Constitution," she said.

Three out of five nominees have been announced to serve on a re-commissioned board and they will eventually have to be confirmed by the Senate. But Harman isn’t hopeful that it will happen fast. "Many of the administration's nominees are languishing for all kinds of posts," she pointed out.

What kind of people should serve on the panel? She cited two members from the original board as examples -- former Solicitor General and "card carrying conservative Republican" Theodore Olson and Lanny Davis, a special counsel to former President Clinton. "There are a lot of people willing to serve on a board like this. An aggressive effort to find them would yield more," she said.

Movie star Jack Nicholson has mashed up some of his most famous film roles for a YouTube video that endorses White House hopeful Hillary Clinton (see above). The spot has been viewed more than 1.5 million times. "There is nothing on this earth sexier, believe me gentlemen, than a woman you have to salute in the morning," Nicholson says in a clip from 1992's "A Few Good Men."

After almost a decade, leaders of the California-based group that administers the Internet-addressing system believe that change will do them good. That change, they say, is transitioning the coordination of technical functions of the Web to the private sector -- and some believe that loosening the reins of government is going to be a chore.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush issued a statement last week that the United States "has been and remains a staunch advocate for an Internet that is based on values of freedom, enterprise and crucially coordination -- not control." His comments were read at a National Telecommunications and Information Administration summit on the topic.

Read CongressDaily's "Issue Of The Week" here.

Click over to CongressDaily's TechCentral for a look at the week ahead, plus plenty of other stories to keep you in the know.

This Week's Highlights:

The Benton Foundation and the Public Airwaves Coalition are sponsoring a discussion Monday entitled “Public Interest Obligations in the 21st Century: Where Do We Go From Here?"

The session, which takes place at noon at the National Press Club, is billed as a look at the new broadcast disclosure rules and the issues raised in the FCC’s “localism” proceeding. Among the featured guests are the two Democrats on the FCC, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps – who were in the minority when the FCC’s GOP majority voted in December to relax media ownership rules.

Adelstein will also be on hand when key telecom and technology players gather for the annual conference of the Institute for Politics Democracy & the Internet this Tuesday and Wednesday.

Other scheduled speakers former White House Internet director David Almacy; National Telecommunications and Information Administration senior adviser Eric Werner; former Rep. Rick White, R-Wash., and Columbia University Internet expert Tim Wu.

And new media experts from the presidential campaigns of former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani are also slated to speak.

Discussion topics at the two-day session – to be held at the Renaissance Washington Hotel -- range from the impact of increased U.S. broadband penetration to the power of technology to change politics and government.

MySpace.com co-founder Tom Anderson, the first one to "friend" anyone who creates an account on the popular social networking platform, sent a mass message to users late Sunday updating everyone on changes to the site's in privacy policy and terms of use.

Here's what landed in my inbox:

From: Tom
Date: Mar 2, 2008 11:57 PM
Subject: Updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Don't worry everyone received this message from me, and this doesn't mean we are charging. MySpace is still free!