August 2008

Fox News Channel's impressive set-up outside of Xcel Energy Center

Several stories of interest in Convention Daily:

Back-To-Back Conventions Have Crews Wired

As exhausted Democrats rest up from last week's festivities and Republicans prepare to throw their quadrennial grand old party, weary media are wrestling with the hassles, expense, and physical challenges of relocating operations from Denver to the Twin Cities with no break between the two parties' conventions.

Many information-technology staffers are on week two of a three-week convention road trip because they had to be in Denver long before the reporters, editors, and photographers to install the computer networks, fiber-optic cables, phone lines, and other technology the media depend on to do their job.

Read the full story here.

Bloggers Plan To Blanket GOP Convention

Move over, Bill Kristol. The 2008 Republican National Convention will be a showcase for a new crop of young political analysts who made their reputations not on ink and paper but in the blogosphere. GOP insiders will be toggling for their news and gossip on the Internet, checking in frequently with blogs like Erick Erickson's RedState and Ed Morrissey's Hot Air.

This year, the two major political parties issued credentials for far more political bloggers not affiliated with traditional media outlets than they did in 2004. Four years ago, Republicans credentialed about a dozen bloggers, and Democrats registered a little over 30. In 2008, Republicans expect to host as many as 200 bloggers in Minneapolis-St. Paul; the Democrats credentialed 120 bloggers at their convention in Denver last week. The GOP is treating bloggers the same as traditional journalists, even providing them with a large office space equipped with Internet and telephone access.

Read the full story here.

The Republican National Convention officially unveiled its spiffy new Web site for convention week on Friday, which includes several features aimed at giving journalists and other Internet users unprecedented access to convention news and information. The site includes a media portal (http://portal.gopconvention2008.com), where daily and hourly schedules, press releases, media advisories, speech text, speaker bios, pictures, video and RSS feeds will be posted.

The convention site will also feature six live streaming video channels that will provide footage from within the Xcel Energy Center, including the backstage area and Radio Row, officials said in a press release. In addition, the site will feature state pages where people can connect with other GOPers from their state; links to social networking sites; and the Grand Ol’ Blog, the official convention blog.

Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic posted a quick round-up of reactions to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Denver on Thursday night. His less-than-surprising summary: "Most on the right were disappointed while many on the left were elated."

Ezra Klein: "This has been the most aggressive speech of the week. And the most substantive I've seen Obama give. It's not a thematic address: It's not about hope or values or the universality of the American experience of the illusory obstacles that divide us. It's concrete. It's about the failure of the Republican Party, and the promises of the Democratic Party.

Linda Chavez: "One of the biggest problems the Dems have is that the world is always seen through a glass darkly. Obama’s greatest acheivement in his 2004 speech was to make the country feel good about itself. But this speech is all about the pain. And it’s very short on specifics on how he’ll cure it."

Read the full post here.

Right-leaning video-sharing Web site Eyeblast.tv has posted a rundown of the copious television and Internet advertisements that presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain's campaign has churned out in the past month. As one might imagine, the clips take the Democrats' nominee, Barack Obama, to task on all sorts of issues, and the author, Danny Glover, argues they "have hit their mark dead center."

Take a stroll down memory lane -- from the July 21 "Pump" ad, which asks who is to blame for higher gas prices, to the July 30 "Celeb," which calls Obama “the biggest celebrity in the world” and compares him with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. There's also the flurry of ads that came as the Democratic National Convention ran its course like the Aug. 22 "Joe Biden On Barack Obama," which resurrected criticism of the Illinois Democrat, and Aug. 26 "Tiny," which takes a jab at Obama's thoughts on the threat Iran poses to the United States and Israel.

The latest Internet video was released Wednesday. Dubbed “Remote Control,” it shows scenes of dangers in the world as leading Democrats criticize Obama’s foreign policy views and as Obama professes himself to be “a believer in knowing what you’re doing.” Read the full blog post here.

Bloggers were expected to gather Thursday night at Trios Enoteca, a wine bar in the heart of Denver's historic lower downtown (LoDo), to swap stories about the past couple of days spent in the Mile High City and get tanked. Registration for the event closed a while back and the organizers -- a political blogger and a mommy blogger -- were expecting a big crowd. "We don't discriminate. Tell your friends, bring your grannie if you must," they wrote.

One of the event's sponsors, You2Gov, is running a contest for the best 30-second homemade TV political ad in the country for either Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain, with a $1,000 reward in every category. All submissions must be in the form of a YouTube video link and the deadline is Sept. 30. Winners will be announced Oct. 16.
(Photo Credit: NewsHour via Flickr)

Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has famously refused money from lobbyists and PACs and after he became the party's pick, the Democratic National Committee did the same. But the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee still accept money from those sources, Web activist Lawrence Lessig pointed out Thursday on his blog.

To that end, Change Congress -- a grassroots group he founded earlier this year -- has launched an effort to get Democrats to be consistent. Lessig argues that the DSCC and DCCC should follow Obama's lead and swear off lobbyists and PAC money -- or at the very least, both should promise to do so if the Republicans do. He has started an online petition addressed to Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who chairs the DSCC.

An interesting story in Convention Nightly:

A Select Few Bloggers Make It To The Floor

While many members of the press have had to ration passes to enter Denver's Pepsi Center during this week's Democratic National Convention, the red carpet has been rolled out for a select few.

These elites have joined their state delegations on the floor and used high-speed Internet hookups reserved for their laptops. They have filed reports from a special location in the Pepsi Center that is close to the action. And they have obtained backstage podium passes for exclusive interviews with powerful lawmakers leaving the main stage.

Are they network television anchors? Nationally known journalists? Try bloggers. The Democratic National Committee has gone to great lengths to accommodate the roughly 500 bloggers it has credentialed for the
2008 gathering. While most are domestic, some traveled from as far as Argentina, Guam, Puerto Rico and Spain.

Read the full story here.

The Republican National Convention posted this video on YouTube on Thursday to show the extent of the build-out of Xcel Energy Center. Thank goodness for time-lapse technology: 18 months of planning and weeks of on-site work by hundreds of people illustrated in just over two minutes.

The Denver offshoot of online classifieds hub craigslist.org was filled with ads this week offering to buy or sell tickets to the final night of proceedings at the Democratic National Convention where Sen. Barack Obama will accept his party's presidential nomination. Here are a few examples of ads from those eager to make a quick buck or witness history on Thursday evening at Invesco Field:

▪ Obama ticket for sell (one) - $500
▪ Trade: Obama ticket at Invesco....Professional Massage Therapy - $500
▪ Trade Rage Against the Machine Ticket for Obama Speech Ticket

But convention organizers addressed the ticket scalping issue on the Frequently Asked Questions section of its Web site:

Q: What are you going to do about people who try to sell their tickets on eBay or Craigslist?
A: We will have a very strong tracking program for Community Credentials. Each credential will have a bar code and will need to be activated by the credential recipient in order to gain access. Any credentials that are advertised for sale online will be immediately deactivated.
(Photo Credit: ravedelay via Flickr)

The Republican National Convention has set up shop blocks away from the humble headquarters of software development firm CodeWeavers, Inc., so to commemorate the occasion the company is offering its product for free to every American -- if President Bush meets any of five goals in the final months of his term.

CodeWeavers CEO Jeremy White, whose software lets Mac and Linux users run Windows programs, pledged to make available its $39.95 program for free if Bush: reduces gas prices to $2.79 per gallon; reduces the average price of milk to $3.50; creates at least one net job in the U.S. this calendar year; returns the median home price in the Twin Cities to $233,000; or brings Osama bin Laden to justice.

The campaign was the brainchild of White and his staff of 10 "open source software fanatics jacked up on peanuts, Red Bull and ingenuity," according to a press release. White has posted a video explanation of his Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge online here. He has also extended an invitation to Bush and his staff to have lunch with him when they visit St. Paul.

As a parent and small business owner, White said he is serious about his challenge -- even thoughgiving away his product could put him out of business. "With elections approaching, the nation's business languishes. Yet, our country is at war, and facing a faltering economy, rising oil prices and myriad other challenges," he said. "It is imperative we don't waste the remaining months."

The Colorado Bar Association's intellectual property section and the University of Colorado Silicon Flatirons planned to host a luncheon on Thursday in Denver where representatives from the campaigns of Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., would speak about their candidates' positions on IP and technology policy issues. According to the event notice, this is the first time that either campaign has agreed to publicly discuss topics such as patent reform, piracy, counterfeiting and judicial appointments.

Officials slated to speak on behalf of the McCain campaign were Ed Reines, a senior partner at Weil Gotshal, president of the Federal Circuit Bar Association and a member of McCain's Justice Advisory Committee, and Ray Gifford, a partner at Kamlet, Shepherd & Reichert and former president of the Progress and Freedom Foundation. Duke Law School professor Arti Rai and University of Virginia law professor Christopher Sprigman were scheduled to go to bat for Obama.

National Journal's IT advance team is on the ground in St. Paul, Minn. and reports that Ethernet lines, power, phones, printers, tables and "more comfortable appearing chairs" are set up on-site in our workspace at the Republican National Convention. They also noted in an e-mail to staff that, unlike in Denver, journalists can look forward to indoor bathrooms. Well, that's a relief. The convention runs Sept. 1-4 at the Xcel Energy Center.

Gossip blog Gawker.com reports that Bloomberg accidentally published its lengthy obituary of Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday. Major news organizations routinely write, maintain and update obits of celebrities and once in a while there's a slip-up. The financial newswire quickly retracted the story about the high-tech titan (who successfully beat pancreatic cancer earlier this decade) but Gawker published the death notice. Read the whole kit and kaboodle here.

Interestingly, Bloomberg's internal notes for reporters included a list of people to call for comment if Jobs, who is still very much alive, kicks the bucket. Among them were Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak; Jon Rubinstein, former head of Apple's iPod division; and Heidi Roizen, a venture capitalist who once dated Jobs. Former Vice President Al Gore, California Attorney General Jerry Brown and Oracle's Larry Ellison were also on the list. (Photo Credit: Danny Novo via Flickr)

(Photo Credit: Steve Rhodes via Flickr)

By now, I've mentioned Google's elaborate "retreat" for fatigued attendees at the Democratic National Convention several times, but here's something funny I haven’t mentioned -- a little typo in the high-tech firm's relaxation room. The photo above shows a small piece of masking tape hiding a label above one of the handheld device chargers. What's the cover up? Click here to find out. Hint: Steve Jobs would not be pleased.

A handful of education and education technology associations launched a print and radio public service announcement campaign on Wednesday themed "One Giant Leap for Kids" that asks the presidential candidates to make K-12 student access to ed-tech and modern learning environments a top national priority. The PSAs will be sent to campaigns of of Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., along with five questions about each candidate's vision for the future of the modern classroom.

The PSAs will also be placed in a number of education and education technology trade publications. The campaign, which includes an online petition in support of making 21st century education a public policy priority, was developed by the Consortium for School Networking, the International Society for Technology in Education, the National Education Association and the State Educational Technology Directors Association.

"The future competitiveness of the United States is inextricably linked to the investments we make today to improve education, enhance learning and provide our students with the skills and knowledge that will afford them the opportunity to succeed among the best and brightest competitors in the world," CoSN's Keith Krueger said. "The presidential candidates have an opportunity to develop solid education platforms focused on achieving this goal." Read more about the PSA here.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt will be one of the star attractions on stage Thursday at "The Big Tent," a gathering place for new media journalists, bloggers and nonprofit leaders at the Democratic National Convention. Schmidt will chat one-on-one with MSNBC pundit Rachel Maddow about the World Wide Web's role in politics and in the next presidential administration. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., visited Schmidt's turf (Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.) on Nov. 14, 2007 to deliver his innovation agenda and take questions from the high-tech giant's employees.

Watch that video here:

From Convention Nightly:

Little-Noticed Qwest Moves Into The Spotlight At Conventions

If you didn't know Qwest Communications has a 14-state service territory spanning east to west from Iowa to Oregon and north to south from Montana to Arizona, you're not alone: The Denver-based telecommunications carrier, the smallest of the three remaining Baby Bells, has long maintained a low profile in policy circles.

The company refused to participate in the government's warrantless electronic surveillance program over concerns about the legal implications -- distinguishing it from AT&T and Verizon, which successfully lobbied for immunity from lawsuits while never confirming participation.

Read the full story here.

"As the Democrats and Republicans gather at their national conventions, it is time to really think about a comprehensive national technology policy for the Internet age," TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld wrote this week in a plea for the creation of a Digital Bill of Rights. Such a document would spell out "what freedoms and rights consumers can expect from Internet service providers, content companies, device manufacturers, and the government itself," he wrote.

Both presidential candidates have already outlined their technology platforms but nobody in either party has pulled together a focused set of principles that can truly guide both lawmakers and policymakers, Schonfeld said. "It’s a tall order, but it is important to have a consistent policy governing everything from Internet Protocol regulations to intellectual property on the Web," he added.

Key components of Schonfeld's Digital Bill of Rights include:
▪The Right to Use and Reuse Content
▪The Right To Control Digital Property On Your Own Device
▪The Right To The Free Flow Of Information
▪The Right To (Some) Privacy
▪The Right to Control Your Digital Identity

Read more details here.

Here's the latest in an occasional look at what members of Congress are telling their constituents via Twitter. Today we see what Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is up to at the Democratic National Convention.

Recent Twitter posts:

After a great night in the Pepsi Center, I am exited to start my day at the Families USA/SEIU Health Care Forum. about 1 hour ago from web
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Just spoke to a great crowd at the Emily's List Gala! about 17 hours ago from web
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If you didn't catch my video update from Day 1 of the convention - watch here: http://blog.hillaryclinton.... about 18 hours ago from web
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It was great to meet with so many fellow New Yorkers and also my friends at the Hispanic Caucus as well. 02:38 PM August 25, 2008 from web
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I am excited to have arrived in Denver! My first stop is the New York delgation breakfast. Check back to www.hillaryclinton.com for updates! 10:22 AM August 25, 2008 from web

Read earlier HillTweet Blues entries here.

(Photo Credit: trevorstone via Flickr)

The controversy over the Bush administration's electronic eavesdropping initiative, which played out on Capitol Hill for many months, is also a theme for some protesters at the Democratic National Convention.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., told a crowd in Denver on Tuesday that it is crucial for Congress to pass legislation to update the U.S. patent system next year -- even if the measure is a scaled back version of the broad, controversial language that was in play during the 110th Congress. The House passed its patent bill but a companion stalled in the Senate.

Lofgren, who represents the Bay Area and is a key member of the House Judiciary Committee, said a new effort should begin with "things we know we can agree on." A proposal that would curb judicial "venue-shopping" for favorable courts is critical as is language to address patent abuses, she said. "How do you legally set a framework that prevents abuses and allows for a vigorous system that protects intellectual property?" Lofgren asked aloud. "It's not easy to come up with solutions."

Qualcomm general counsel Don Rosenberg urged lawmakers to proceed with caution. He said patent reform is necessary but the U.S. regime is already "the gold standard in the world" and that leadership role must be protected. Some proposals might negatively impact innovation, he said. The focus of changes should be on the Patent and Trademark Office, not necessarily sweeping changes to how cases are litigated, Rosenberg said.

More patent talk is expected Thursday at a luncheon on the topic sponsored by the Silicon Flatirons at the University of Colorado, officials said.

An interesting story from Convention Daily:

Even In Denver, Bloggers Keep Independent Streak

When the Democrats welcomed hundreds of bloggers to Denver, they may not have known what they were in for. Even the most carefully vetted bloggers, it seems, are still capable of biting the hand that feeds them press credentials.

Before the convention had even begun, bloggers invited by the party to cover the event from inside the Pepsi Center were demanding greater access to the floor and overwhelming the DNCC staff with requests. Some bloggers used their initial posts in Denver to complain about security hassles, the credentialing process, and the lack of wireless Internet access, much to the annoyance of Democratic staffers.

Of course, the great majority of the blogs' initial coverage was positive. These are, after all, Democratic partisans. Many see their role as sharing the excitement of the convention experience with audiences back home by posting pictures, video, and regular updates without necessarily editorializing.

Read the full story here.

For eight years "technology has really been a dead zone in the White House," venture capitalist Julius Genachowski said at a Tuesday gathering of high-tech thought leaders in Denver. The Rock Creek Ventures founder, who serves as Sen. Barack Obama's technology adviser, said the problem has not just been the lack of a government-wide chief technology officer, "but an absence of those who woke up every day and thought about issues and were available for people… who had ideas and concerns."

"There's a lot to do to course correct from where we are," Genachowski said. The CTO proposal from the Obama camp is "a dramatic way to signal that the next administration would be one that takes tech seriously," he said. Additionally, he argued that science leadership has been lacking under President Bush. "This has been an administration that has treated science as anything other than science," Genachowski said.

Getting federal agencies to embrace change is not easy but one step is to "swear off big government and talk about efficient government," Verizon Senior Vice President Kathryn Brown told a technology forum in Denver on Tuesday. "The big change is to become customer-friendly," she explained. "If we start to turn around what government is supposed to do, to serve the people, we start with a mindset about what it is we have to get done."

Generally speaking, that attitude does not exist in Washington, Brown said on a panel comprised of several tech experts. Many agencies have "very good people who are thinking they're doing their best" but they are frustrated with inefficiencies, she said. "Budgets have to change, people have to change [and] expertise has to be added to the process." She said "new thinking" is needed in government and used the nationwide transition to digital television as an example.

Policymakers monitoring the February shift, who are wondering how, when and if consumers are receiving their converter boxes, could learn a thing or two from the airline industry, Brown said. Airlines have successfully devised a system for passengers to print and submit their tickets, she reasoned, so why couldn’t a similar tactic work for redeeming converter box coupons? "This isn’t something that can't be done, it's something that isn’t thought about," she said.

Wonkette.com founding editor Ana Marie Cox, and Huffington Post bloggers Glynnis MacNicol and Rachel Sklar made a video in bed in Denver and posted it on YouTube. How did I not see this earlier in the day? Apologies.

Sen. John (Jay) Rockefeller on Tuesday called for a change to politics as usual in Washington -- "change that unleashes the power of technology [and] change that uses technology to foster democratic discourse." The West Virginia Democrat's remarks came during a high-tech forum in Denver at which he praised Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for being "open to the promise of the Internet" and interested in doing "whatever it takes to lay broadband lines throughout America."

Rockefeller, a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized the Bush administration for touting "broadband goals without novel tactics" and said it has been "an extremely unsettling eight years." Rockefeller said he has watched as the country has "gone from leader to laggard in the world broadband ranks." "We can do better; we obviously have to do better. I'm embarrassed that we're not doing better," he told a crowd.

Four years ago, President Bush set the nationwide goal of universal broadband deployment by 2007 but that aim has not been realized. Making sure all communities have access to high-speed Internet is hard work and isn’t simple, Rockefeller acknowledged. But sound broadband policy is "the critical foundation for achieving all of our other noble goals," he argued. "This is not just overdue political or economic responsibility. To me, it's a moral responsibility," he added.

An interesting story from Convention Nightly:

Google Hits Are Plentiful In Denver

Search the streets of Denver this week for Google and you'll turn up plenty of hits; the Internet heavyweight is making a big splash here at the Democratic National Convention as part of a wider effort to ratchet up its political profile.

Google is an official sponsor of the convention -- powering the search function on the party's convention Web site, and enabling speakers, delegates and other supporters of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, to instantly upload videos to its YouTube Web site.

The company also has set up Google and YouTube booths within the Pepsi Center -- but its involvement doesn't stop there.

Read the full story here.

Last week, the forthcoming Democratic National Convention and momentum leading up to the vice president selection drove the second highest share of visits to each of the Web sites of the presidential candidates in the past year, Web analytics firm Hitwise said Tuesday. The only week with a higher share of visits surrounded Super Tuesday primaries, the firm's blog said.

The market share of visits to BarackObama.com jumped 53 percent and 46 percent to JohnMcCain.com from the previous week, Hitwise said. Among the top 350 search terms that drove traffic to BarackObama.com, 28 percent were related to the VP selection. Searches that broadly included Obama's name commanded the largest share of the search terms at 33 percent.

If Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., becomes the next president, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., believes key appointments for high-tech sector prosperity will be within the Securities and Exchange Commission. "There have been a lot of problems there," she told a technology forum in Denver on Tuesday.

A perceived failure to appropriately regulate markets has led to serious economic challenges, she said, noting that the next administration must provide relief for start-up companies and young innovators. Lofgren, who chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and serves on the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, also indicated that legislative changes to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may be needed "when it comes to research-heavy start-ups."

Making permanent the federal research and development tax credit is another step in the right direction, Lofgren said. She said she hopes that when Congress returns for a short session in September, members will put forward a bipartisan legislative package that includes that provision. "The federal government too often through our policies puts our thumb on the scale on what's going to be allowed to be developed," she added.

Google "voting booths" offering a new tool that lets voters search for polling places by typing in an address. Functionality is only available for seven states so far but officials say the company is trying to acquire data for the rest.

Follow the link for more pics...

Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt blasted presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain at a Tuesday forum in Denver, saying it is "a gross understatement" to state that the Arizona senator "doesn’t get it" when it comes to crafting technology policies that will help advance U.S. innovation. Hundt, who led the FCC for most of the President Bill Clinton's first term, said McCain is "actually is committed to goals in government that are pernicious."

One recent example, Hundt argued, was McCain's sponsorship of legislation that would have gutted the recently completed auction of frequencies on the 700-MHz band by handing over the spectrum to one private entity. Six weeks ago, McCain said he still believes in that concept, Hundt said. McCain's plan would amount to "a $30 billion dollar giveaway" to a single corporate interest, the former FCC chief noted.

McCain, who chaired the Senate Commerce Committee for six years, told a National Sheriff's Association conference earlier this summer that a nationwide, interoperable public safety network is long overdue. His bill would have "provided for more than twice the capacity that the FCC has currently set aside for public safety," McCain said. "Special interests in Washington want the FCC to auction off more of that spectrum than I do."

Julius Genachowski, technology adviser for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, keynoted a technology roundtable Tuesday at the Denver Performing Arts Center. He was joined by House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass.; FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein; former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt; and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.

Following Genachowski's remarks, a panel discussed the question: "How can the Internet and technological changes transform the way the federal government operates?" A second session addressed the question of what strategies the federal government can use to promote technological development and innovation. A third panel evaluated how to best enable U.S. consumers to reap the benefits and opportunities of the Internet age.

Industry heavyweights slated to participate included Google Senior Director of Global Public Policy Andrew McLaughlin, Verizon Senior Vice President Kathryn Brown, First Data Corp. Senior Vice President Joe Samuel, Qualcomm General Counsel Don Rosenberg, Oracle President Charles Phillips, Symantec CEO John Thompson, AT&T Senior Vice President Dorothy Attwood, Microsoft Managing Director Jack Krumholtz and others. Look for more detailed coverage on nationaljournal.com.

The American Electronics Association released the latest in a series of competitiveness reports on Tuesday. Some highlights:

▪ In 2007, only 39 percent of fourth graders and 31 percent of eighth graders tested at or above proficient, according to the Department of Education.
▪ From 1996 to 2005, the number of fourth graders testing at or above proficient increased by only one percentage point and over the same period, science proficiency of eighth graders did not improve.
▪ Massachusetts ranked first in the nation in both fourth and eighth grade math proficiency in 2007.
▪ North Dakota ranked first in the nation for eighth grade science in 2005, the most recent data available.

The findings show math and science proficiency among both groups remains unacceptably low, AeA said. "These skills need to be developed at the K-12 level or students will lack the foundation to pursue math, science, and engineering degrees in college," AeA research director Josh James said. "In a world that is increasingly being driven by technology, these skills are going to continue to be in high demand regardless of the field of study."

(Photo Credit: ScriptingNews via Flickr)

Clarification: This is not the blogger lounge (nor is this) -- it's actually a general press filing area for "unassigned media." (Hat tip, David Hatch)

The total number of breaches in on the Identity Theft Resource Center’s 2008 breach list surpassed the final total of 446 reported in 2007, more than four months before the end of 2008, officials said Monday. As of Aug. 22, the number of confirmed data breaches in 2008 stands at 449 but the actual number of breaches is most likely higher due to under-reporting.

ITRC recognizes that 449 breaches in less than a year is a small number when compared to the total number of business, governmental, health, banking and educational entities that have databases. However, for the individuals whose information has been exposed, 449 data exposure events are still too many, the watchdog group said.

The center's founder Linda Foley attributes part of the growth to the ability to access state attorney general notification lists which contain breaches that were not reported via media or other sources. Meanwhile, the number of attacks, in addition to publicly disclosed breaches, continues to escalate as criminal networks mushroom, Gartner analyst Avivah Litan said.

In the last few weeks, the U.S. Secret Service announced the investigation of a cybercrime group that may have hacked tens of thousands of credit and debit card accounts from Louisiana and Mississippi restaurants this year. Also, on Aug. 5, the Justice Department announced the indictments of 11 defendants who tapped networks of several major companies.

Two interesting reports from Convention Daily:

Bloggers Set Up Shop In Half-Million-Dollar Tent
Treated by the traditional press as a novelty during the 2004 conventions, bloggers are big-time now -- and they've got the digs to prove it. The Big Tent, a two-story, 8,000-square-foot temporary structure located in Denver's LoDo neighborhood, opened its doors Sunday amid a crush of reporters, organizers, volunteers, and, of course, bloggers. The Tent is the home away from home for hundreds of new media types covering the convention. Read the full story here.

Tech Titans Pour Big Bucks Into Convention
For all of the focus on small, independent blogs and online grassroots organizing, the Internet era has another, wealthier side. Tech long ago became big business, and this week the 500-pound gorillas of Silicon Valley are in Denver to network, promote their brands and generally make their presence felt. Read the full story here.

Global nonprofit One Economy launched 247Townhall’s “If I Were President” campaign on Monday -- an online effort that captures the aspirations of young people across the county, sharing their vision for the next four years. The contest is aimed at inspiring young people to engage with each other and identify solutions to problems in their communities.

The campaign is partnering with the Marguerite Casey Foundation and musicians, personalities, and intellectual leaders from all political stripes -- including Mos Def, Martin Luther, and Kimiko Joy -- to promote greater civic engagement and leadership among underserved young people. In the run-up to the election, the group is gathering and distributing user-generated videos about national and local issues, all prompted by the phrase “If I were president…”

Through Oct. 8, participants may register, create and submit their videos on 247 Townhall. The winners who produce the top 10 most popular videos will be awarded prizes including video cameras to continue their Web outreach.

(Photo Credit: Dan Patterson via Flickr)

President Bush announced the recipients of the nation's highest honor for science and technology on Monday, naming the recipients of the 2007 National Medal of Science and the 2007 National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

The science medal recognizes individuals for pioneering scientific research in a range of fields, including physical, biological, mathematical, social, behavioral, and engineering sciences. The technology award is given to individuals, teams, and/or companies/divisions for the development and commercialization of cutting edge innovations.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez joined Bush in congratulating the winners. “Their contributions to our society have impacted all of our lives and they serve as both an inspiration and as role models for future generations of American innovators,” Gutierrez said. Bush will present the medals at a White House ceremony next month.

Follow the jump to see a list of the winners...

The Consumer Electronics Association brought their “America Wins with Trade” campaign to the Democratic National Convention on Monday with the arrival of the high-tech group's tour bus and a press conference featuring Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. CEA kicked off the effort earlier this summer in response to a challenge by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others to help educate Americans on the benefits of trade to U.S. businesses and workers.

The organization also released national polling data on Monday showing 62 percent of Democrats report they benefit from free trade. Nearly 70 percent said it was a “good thing” that trade and global manufacturing have reduced the costs of consumer electronics sold in the United States. The Zogby poll of 3,440 people, conducted earlier this year, included over 1,200 Democrats. Read more about the CEA campaign here.

The recording industry-led effort to end a long-standing exemption granted to AM and FM radio stations that allows them to air music without paying certain royalties has played out for many months in Washington and is now getting some exposure in Denver. The musicFirst coalition will bring Art Alexakis of the Grammy-nominated band Everclear to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday to lend his voice to their campaign.

Alexakis, whose band is known for hits like "Santa Monica" and "I Will Buy You a New Life," will discuss the performance rights legislation currently moving through the House and Senate and the importance of what the music business believes is a fair performance right on radio. The National Association of Broadcasters has fought the effort on Capitol Hill, saying the measure amounts to a tax on local radio.

Internet giant Google offers momentary rest and relaxation at the Democratic National Convention this week. (Photo Credit: leh4 via Flickr)

The American Civil Liberties Union will urge a federal appeals court on Wednesday to uphold a decision striking down the so-called "national security letter" provision of the Patriot Act. The provision gives the FBI the authority to issue letters demanding private information about people within the United States and to place the recipients of the letters under indefinite gag orders. The issue has also been repeatedly scrutinized on Capitol Hill in the 110th Congress.

The ACLU and New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in April 2004 on behalf of an Internet Service Provider that received an NSL. Because the FBI imposed a gag order, the suit was filed under seal and the ACLU is banned from disclosing its client’s identity. The ACLU initially challenged both the FBI’s power to demand records without judicial oversight and its power to impose gag orders on NSL recipients.

In September 2004, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero struck down the statute. The government appealed the ruling but Congress amended the NSL provision before a decision was issued. The ACLU brought a new challenge to the amended version, and in September 2007, Marrero again found the statute unconstitutional. The government appealed that ruling and the parties will now face off before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City.

Convention Daily reports from the Democratic National Convention that some diners at the Ritz Carlton in Denver on Sunday started to chant "No spying!" when former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina entered the room to eat. Fiorina is a major booster for presumptive Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.

According to her 2006 memoir titled "Tough Chocies," Fiorina ordered the first of a series of leak investigations into contacts by HP board members with journalists. She was forced out of the company's top spot a year before news of the spying broke. The fallout led to congressional hearings and the departure of several HP executives. Read more convention buzz here. (Photo Credit: DFarber via Flickr)

"The Big Tent," a forum at the Democratic National Convention hosted by progressive blog Daily Kos, Progress Now and the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, will be home to some interesting technology related conversations this week. Here are a few highlights. For details, click here.

Monday, Aug. 25

Your Tube & the Power of Video Citizen Journalism. Discussion about the power of YouTube, who is doing some of the best video citizen journalism on the web right now, and how you can do it too. Noel Hidalgo, deported Olympic citizen journalist, Epic Fu and others.

Tapping the Creative Community: The Power of Voter Generated Media. Move over mainstream media, it's the voter's turn. From music, videos, paintings, blogs and more, voters are exercising their freedom of speech with a big dash of creatively in this election cycle in ways we've never seen. Hidalgo, Fred Graver and Yosi Sargent.

Tuesday, Aug. 26

Blogging as a Business: Free Tricks to Gain Traffic and Revenue. Share ideas about increasing your traffic and implementing adwords strategies, to using tools to building online networks or mining data on critical government transparency. Google's Peter Greenberger.

Symposium on Media and Democracy. Thoughts on media reform, Q&A. Scheduled to appear: FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein and Common Cause CEO Bob Edgar.

From Sunday's Convention Daily

Aaron Myers will be a busy man this week. As director of online communications for the Democratic National Convention Committee, he and his staff of 25 are in charge of running the convention's Web site, demconvention.com, broadcasting Web video of each day's proceedings, and welcoming the hundreds of bloggers reporting from the Pepsi Center. "First and foremost, it's my job to make sure as many people as possible can see the convention online," Myers tells Convention Daily's Kevin Friedl.

NJ: According to the DNCC, this will be the "most technologically savvy" convention ever. Why is it so important to have a wired convention?

Myers: It shows the Democratic Party to be at the front of using the technology to really communicate the message. In a lot of cases, we see technology as a solution to policy problems. Look at all the talk that's going on about how technology can help us [on issues such as] the environment, automobiles, oil, all these things.

Read the full story here.

Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" -- the most powerful name in fake news -- rolled in to Denver for the Democratic National Convention and my colleague David Hatch snapped a photo of the mobile operations center.

CNN serves up political fare across the street from the Pepsi Center.

www.obamabiden.com
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www.obamabiden2008.com
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www.mccainromney2008.com
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Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph Biden, who will hit the campaign trail as presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's running mate this weekend, introduced a bill before August recess designed to create an International Clean Technology Deployment Fund. The fund would be help developing countries tackle climate change and promote the global deployment of U.S. clean energy technology.

“The developing world’s demand for energy and cheap fossil fuels will continue to rise,” Biden said in a press release. "Our choice is simple – we can ignore the energy needs of developing countries as they grow, or we can join together to help them put in place an infrastructure that promotes cleaner energy and a cleaner economy.” Foreign Relations ranking member Richard Lugar and Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., cosponsored the bill.

Energy demand worldwide will increase by 55 percent by 2030 and nearly 80 percent of the surge will stem from developing countries, the International Energy Agency has reported. Earlier this year, President Bush’s budget called for funding to support U.S. participation in a clean technology fund to be housed at the World Bank. Read Biden's July 16 press release here.

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., the newly named running mate for presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is a long-time player in national politics and currently serves as Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman. He previously led the Senate Judiciary Committee and remains active in that sphere. One of his most notable tech-related efforts in the 110th Congress has been his sponsorship of a bill authorizing a funding boost for more than 50 Justice Department-funded Internet Crimes Against Children task forces.

The legislation was part of an omnibus package of several bills Majority Leader Harry Reid wanted to bring to a vote before August recess. The most recent version of the bill would authorize about $300 million for the DOJ effort over five years and would establish a national strategy for child exploitation prevention -- a change from the initial bill that would have created a special counsel for child exploitation within Justice. A similar measure by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., passed the House. Read CongressDaily's most recent coverage of the issue here.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama made wireless history shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday when his campaign announced via text message to supporters that Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., would be Obama’s pick for vice president. This marked the first time that a presidential campaign has used SMS to unveil a running mate.

Traffic on Sprint's short code for the Obama campaign rose 255 percent (see graph) following the announcement, the company said in a press release. Sprint is standing by to help presidential campaign supporters of Republican Sen. John McCain share the news of his running mate when the Arizona senator announces his pick later this month, whether they do so via voice, SMS, e-mail or Nextel Direct Connect, the telecom firm said.

In addition, as previously announced by Sprint, Obama and McCain supporters will benefit from improved network coverage in Denver, site of the Democratic National Convention, and in St. Paul, Minn., the site of the Republican National Convention.

Obama's SMS stunt was not without controversy. Fake text messages spread like wildfire with false claims that Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, former Vice President Al Gore and even Olympian Michael Phelps would be Obama's number two. Read more here.

Update: Some Web denizens have complained they either received the Obama text late or not at all. A Sprint spokesman points out: "One thing to keep in mind is that text messages are not delivered simultaneously by any carrier -- they are sent in a staggered fashion. So not the 'fail' that some have been saying on Twitter."

My colleague David Hatch snapped these photos when he arrived in Denver for the Democratic National Convention. The stage is set (literally) for a monumental political event -- with more bells, whistles and cutting edge technology than one can imagine.

The "Big Tent," a new media center created by local organizations, national blogs, Digg, Google and EcoDrivngUSA will host Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and MoveOn.org Executive Director Eli Pariser at the Democratic National Convention. The 8,000-square foot space will also house work space for bloggers and new media journalists as well as a main stage sponsored by Digg.

Other notables who plan to speak at the Big Tent include Center for American Progress President John Podesta, energy executive T. Boone Pickens, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, the Campaign for America’s Future Roger Hickey and more. For a full schedule, click here.

Hey folks, nationaljournal.com is offering free access to its content during the political conventions over the next two weeks, so check in frequently to get the latest news from Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul. Wanna know who is covering the big events for us? Click here.

The University of Southern California's Morley Winograd offers "Five Ways To Win Young Voters" and surprise, surprise technology takes center stage. Winograd, co-author of Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the Future of American Politics, writes:

Talk to them in their media. Millennials live their lives on social networks like Facebook and YouTube, and are less likely to actually watch television (rather than have it on in the background) than any other generation. The best possible outcome -- get them to follow your campaign on Twitter.

Make sure your walk matches your talk. Make sure everything you ever said or did can withstand public scrutiny, because between Google, Wikis and YouTube, it will all be out there by the time the campaign is over.

Don’t talk at millennials; interact with them. One-way communication is for radio and TV. It’s very old. Two-way, interactive dialogue is how millennials want to engage with candidates. That means your Web site can’t be about money and brochures; it has to be a place where supporters can meet, talk and even disagree with what you have to say.

Read all of Winograd's tips here, at USC's Election 2008 Web site, a resource for journalists covering political campaigns.

The MIT Technology Review has a fascinating article about Mitch Kapor, a high-tech pioneer who founded Lotus and co-founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Now, he serves as an adviser to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. In the article, he makes the case for a national chief technology officer.

An excerpt:

TR: Why does the country need a CTO?
Kapor: The underlying premise is that tech is inextricably intertwined with virtually everything. You can't talk about homeland security or education or energy without it being in large part a conversation about technology. The president will be well served if policy making is done in a more technologically sophisticated way.... The advantage of a CTO is that there can be coördination. There's a ton of work that goes on within different agencies: there needs to be someone to identify the best ways of doing things and some common practices.

Read the full story here.
(Hat tip, 463 Blog)

Theresa Poulson, my colleague at nationaljournal.com, interviewed Copyright Alliance Executive Director Patrick Ross recently about IP laws as a means of improving the economy. Ross told her that it is "imperative that we get a copyright enforcement bill on the president's desk this year."

Meanwhile, the Office of the United States Trade Representative last year announced that the U.S. would initiate talks with some of its trading partners to form an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement -- a legal framework for enforcement of intellectual property laws. Since then, negotiations have been going on behind closed doors, prompting speculation and debate on what may be included.

During a Q&A with Poulson, Ross gave his take on some of the controversial proposed elements of the framework, urged Hill action on intellectual property legislation, and expressed optimism for the next administration. Read the interview here.

The FCC released its opinion and order on Wednesday detailing its Aug. 1 ruling that Comcast’s interference with its customers Web traffic violated the commission’s policies and was not reasonable network management. The documents are available here. CongressDaily's earlier coverage is here.

At the time of the decision, Comcast's Sena Fitzmaurice said her company was "gratified that the commission did not find any conduct by Comcast that justified a fine and that the deadline established in the order is the same self-imposed deadline that we announced four months ago." On the other hand, the cable and Internet giant was disappointed in the commission's divided conclusion "because we believe that our network management choices were reasonable, wholly consistent with industry practices and that we did not block access to Web sites or online applications."

"The FCC acted to protect the rights of Internet users and set the precedent that unreasonable, discriminatory behavior like Comcast’s will not be tolerated," Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said in a Wednesday statement. "We commend the Commission for stepping in to preserve the public interest and addressing the substantial threat posed by Comcast’s conduct to the open character of the Internet."

The National Association of Broadcasters has launched a new series of ads in time for the Democratic and Republican political conventions reminding attendees about the upcoming nationwide transition to digital television. The transition will occur on Feb. 17, 2009, shortly after the new administration takes office.

Signage highlighting the change has been placed in visible areas in the Denver International Airport and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The ads will run in Denver from Aug. 11 to Sept. 10 and in Minneapolis-St. Paul from Aug. 15 to Sept. 14. NAB has spent more than $1 billion to educate and inform Americans on how to prepare for the new TV era.

More than 250 high-level academic, business and government leaders gathered in Oak Ridge, Tenn. on Tuesday to hear from Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., House Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., Rep. Zach Wamp, R -Tenn., and science and industry officials from IBM and National Semiconductor. The event, organized by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, examined the health and direction of the nation's S&T enterprise.

Conference participants reaffirmed the consensus regarding the essential role science and technology plays in America’s global competitiveness and sought to identify actions necessary to advance goals related to the need to prioritize and increase funding for basic research in the physical sciences and the need to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

“Policymakers no longer need convincing of the importance of S&T to America’s long-term economic competitiveness,” OSTP Deputy Director Richard Russell said. “We must now transform this consensus into real progress by securing the investments called for by the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative and establishing momentum for these objectives that will carry into the next administration.”

Internet giant Google on Tuesday unveiled more than $10 million in investments and grants in Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) technology including funding for research on next-generation geothermal resource mapping, EGS information tools, and a policy agenda for geothermal energy. According to a company press release, EGS expands the potential of traditional geothermal energy by orders of magnitude.

Google's EGS partners to date include: AltaRock Energy ($6.25 million), Potter Drilling ($4 million), and the Southern Methodist University Geothermal Laboratory ($489,521 grant). "While the U.S. debates drilling in the ocean for oil, we are focused on drilling for renewable energy -- and lots of it -- right beneath our feet," Google said. Find out more here and here.

The information and communications sectors are experiencing one of the greatest periods of innovation ever as entrepreneurs compete to provide consumers with increased speed, mobility and content over broadband networks, a senior Verizon executive told the Progress and Freedom Foundation's annual summit in Aspen, Colo. on Tuesday. Future breakthroughs will depend upon appropriate public policy and industry standard-setting efforts, Verizon Chief Technology Officer Dick Lynch said.

Lynch urged a "change in mindset on the part of policymakers to acknowledge the realities of the 100-megabit world" and suggested that other industry participants be pragmatic as well. "The public interest can best be served by getting as much broadband in front of as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, and ensuring that investment keeps up with demand," Lynch said. "To a large extent, this is a matter of taking down the barriers to investment and refraining from erecting new ones."

Local media Web sites have the upper hand when it comes to delivering results for advertisers, according to a new report by the Online Publishers Association. The study found that consumers trust advertising on local newspaper, magazine and television sites, and are very likely to take action after viewing ads on these sites.

The results are part of “Local Online Media: From Advertising to Action,” an OPA report looking at consumers who get local information from online city guides, classifieds, magazines, newspapers, portals, television sites, user review sites, or yellow pages. “With strong brands and trusted environments, local media sites deliver concrete results for local advertisers,” OPA President Pam Horan said. The study, which was conducted by JupiterResearch, is available here.

President Bush on Tuesday announced his intention to nominate the Center for Democracy and Technology's James X. Dempsey to serve a five year term on the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent panel within the executive branch that will review the civil liberties impact of anti-terrorism policies and programs, providing advice on policy development and implementation and oversight of government actions relating to terrorism.

In legislation adopted last year, Congress reconstituted the five-member board and made it independent of the White House amid concerns over its autonomy. The board was established in 2004 at the behest of the 9/11 Commission and the posts (two Democrats and three Republicans), which are subject to Senate confirmation, are part-time.

In March, Bush named the Republicans that he wants to serve on the panel: Homeland Security Department civil liberties officer Daniel Sutherland, constitutional law professor Ronald Rotunda and General Electric Chief Security Officer Francis Taylor. The terms of its original members expired in January and the president has not announced the name of the candidate who would fill the remaining Democratic slot.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration Director Meredith Attwell Baker keynoted the Progress and Freedom Foundation's kick-off reception at the think tank's annual summit in Aspen, Colo. on Sunday evening. Her thesis: "Unlocking Innovation - Has the Key Been Misplaced?"
[See the full agenda here.]

Baker, who is accustomed to speaking 24/7 about the digital television transition, promised she would refrain from those talking points and instead focused on the importance of crafting policies that foster innovation and growth while relying on private sector investment and free market competition. That balance is particularly important as the Bush administration "turn[s] over the keys to the next custodians of our nation’s telecom and information policies," she said.

During her talk, she hit on several topics including the ongoing discussion about network management principles and continued calls by some groups for "net neutrality." "I’m just not convinced this is the key that opens the door to innovation, but instead one that deadbolts it locked, shut," she said. Baker also spoke about broadcast localism and a la carte cable pricing.

XM and Sirius satellite radio networks are moving quickly toward consolidating operations in the wake of the FCC's approval of their merger so I thought it would be a good time to take a look behind the curtain. Last week I toured Sirius's Manhattan headquarters, which will serve as home base for the new entity, and here's what I found:

Sirius chief Mel Karmazin's office is curiously accessible to staff, separated only by glass walls. Other executive offices are similarly positioned along the edge of an expansive cubicle farm. Some of the cubes were deserted (the downsizing has already begun and there's more to come).

Howard Stern's compound is isolated from the rest of the Sirius studios and requires an additional key-card swipe to gain access. That's by design so the shock jock's guests (celebrities, porn stars, exotic dancers) and props (don’t make me explain) do not offend folks at The Catholic Channel, Martha Stewart Living and other family friendly stations.

Speaking of the magical Ms. Stewart, guests on her channel are not allowed to cook in-studio due to building code but there's nothing against a little potluck. Covered dishes and plastic utensils lined the countertop of her glass-walled domicile. Another note about dear Martha -- she reportedly brought in her own experts to stencil a perfect studio logo.

PC Magazine has named Tech Daily Dose one of the Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites of 2008. Here's what the widely read high-tech publication said about our little spot on the World Wide Web: "It's a bit nichey for most, but for those interested in the role technology plays in government would be hard-pressed to find a better news outlet than this National Journal-run blog. From piracy to Net neutrality to online campaigning, this site is a fantastic resource for exploring tech policy inside the Beltway." See the rest of the honorees in the technology category here and the entire top 100 list here.

CongressDaily will resume publication the week of Sept. 8 after the congressional recess. In the meantime, keep up to date with the latest news with online updates on nationaljournal.com. Tech Daily Dose will go dark for a week or so and posts may slow to a trickle as staff prepares for the Democratic National Convention held Aug. 25-28 in Denver, Colo., and the Republican National Convention held Sept. 1-4 in Minneapolis-St.Paul, Minn. Rest up, dear readers. The campaign fun has only just begun.

On the eve of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, Internet security firm MessageLabs has discovered targeted malware being distributed in legitimate looking International Olympic Committee e-mails that have been sent to participating nation’s national sporting organizations and athlete representatives. The e-mails contained press release and media information that appears to have been taken from the IOC Web site with the malware hiding inside a PDF file.

The e-mails appear to be coming from Gmail accounts and examples of the subject lines include: Beijing Olympics cancelled, moved to Atlanta; Obama buys 10 million Olympics ad; 2008 Olympic Games will possible not take place; FW: Learn Chinese for the Olympics.

Why does this matter? MessageLabs says broadband adoption in China exceeded the United States earlier this year, with more than 71.6 million subscribers in China. China also has the greatest number of Internet users and the .cn domain name is the most used domain worldwide, the firm said. The .cn domain is also one of the most targeted because it’s cheap to own and sites are harder to close down. With the games slated to begin Friday, this makes Olympic-targeted spam even more attractive to spammers.

High-tech crime-fighting proponent Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., cheered the Justice Department on Wednesday for cracking down on a massive identity theft ring. Mack told Tech Daily Dose that the indictment of individuals who allegedly swiped sensitive consumer data from major U.S. retailers was "a step in the right direction" to prosecuting criminal behavior, but more needs to be done to help consumers protect themselves and their personal information.

The congresswoman sponsored legislation that passed the House, which would provide consumers with tools -- such as an opt-in notice and consent regime -- to clearly inform them on what is being loaded on their computers." She urged the Senate to pass her bill and "give consumers more resources to keep their private information out of the hands of criminals." Others told CongressDaily PM that lawmakers should refocus on data security measures in the 111th Congress. Read that coverage here.

The Patent and Trademark Office alerted the public via Federal Register notice on Thursday to a new applicability date of regulatory provisions dealing with related applications in the so-called "claims and continuations" final rule. The rule, aimed at increasing patent system efficiency, was permanently enjoined by a federal court in April and the decision is now pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The PTO rule change was challenged by GlaxoSmithKline and an independent inventor.

The Federal Register notice alerts stakeholders that, should the injunction be removed, the requirements of the rule that deal with related applications will apply only to applications filed on or after any new future effective date that would be published by the PTO. Previously, those requirements were also to be applied to patent applications that had been filed prior to the effective date. Read more here (if you dare).

Here's the latest in an occasional look at what members of Congress are telling their constituents via Twitter. Today we see what Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., is up to during the August recess. He's a former independent newspaper publisher who serves on the House Education and Labor and Oversight and Government Reform committees.

Recent Twitter posts:

is working in Louisville. about 2 hours ago from web
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is on the francene show (84 WHAS radio) now! about 3 hours ago from txt
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wants everyone to celebrate the anniversary of the "Voting Rights Act" by registering a friend to vote--yarmuthforcongress.com/registration! 08:27 AM August 06, 2008 from web
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is in the District. 09:31 AM August 05, 2008 from web
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will stop by the Russ Parr Morning Show bus in the morning. 09:28 PM August 04, 2008 from txt
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has a Congress on Your Corner at 6:30pm at Louisville Slugger Field; come let the Congressman hear what you think! 04:46 PM August 04, 2008

To: Republican National Committee
From: Democratic National Committee
Re: We'll take your BarackBook and raise you an ExxonMcCain

The DNC launched ExxonMcCain.com Wednesday afternoon as part of the effort to show presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain’'s ties to big oil. The RNC recently launched BarackBook.com to showcase Democratic Sen. Barack Obama'’s alleged "“friends"” -–- a who'’s who of controversial political figures. Tech Daily Dose is pretty pleased that both camps are taking to the Internets to beat the crap out of their opponent. Let the good times roll.

Tuesday's CongressDaily PM Edition included an article about how stakeholders involved in the debate over legislation that would overhaul the U.S. patent system are already strategizing for the 111th Congress. The bill they were bickering over this year fizzled in the Senate and a companion measure passed the House amid objections from by the pharmaceutical industry, small high-tech firms and those whose business models depend on patent licensing.

The story did not include the perspectives of a very vocal (and feisty) contingent -- independent inventors -- and although I wrote about their concerns multiple times over the past year or so, I received a 1,500 word e-mail about it on Wednesday. So, I figured the least I could do was give them some space on Tech Daily Dose. I'm sure their views will spur even more dialogue over this hot topic.

In the e-mail, inventor Stephen Wren argues that "all this talk of a need for patent 'deform' is but a red herring fabricated by a handful of large tech firms as a diversion away from the real issue... that they have no valid defense against charges they are using other parties' technologies without permission." "It’s not about reforming the system. It’s about legalizing theft," he alleges.

He also argues that corporate America's aim is "not to fix the patent system, but to destroy it or pervert it so only they may obtain and defend patents; to make it a sport of kings." Wren goes on to say that some legislators and other parties "have been duped by these slick firms and their well greased lawyers, lobbyists (some disguised as trade or public interest groups), and stealth PR firms."

Read more about the Professional Inventors Alliance here.

The airlines are facing tough times -- charging us for pillows, peanuts and extra luggage -- but Delta announced Tuesday that it would offer broadband wireless Internet access on its full domestic fleet by next summer… assuming anyone can afford to fly by then. The Atlanta, Ga.-based company said it would sell Wi-Fi service to customers traveling throughout the continental United States and is working with Aircell, an airborne communications provider, to install the network on more then 300 aircraft.

The system, known as Gogo, will enable Delta customers traveling with Wi-Fi enabled devices, such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs, to access the Internet, corporate VPNs, corporate and personal e-mail accounts, as well as SMS texting and instant messaging services. Gogo will be available to customers for $9.95 on flights of three hours or less and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours. Read Delta's press release here.

A civil forfeiture complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against two homes located in Florida and South Carolina and about $53 million, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday. According to the complaint, the property constitutes proceeds of a sweeping Web-based wire fraud scheme that several individuals allegedly operated out of a former flower shop located in Quincy, Fla.

Thomas Bowdoin Jr., through his company, AdSurfDaily Inc., which operates on the online at www.adsurfdaily.com, www.asdcashgenerator.com, www.lafuentedinero.com, and www.goldenpandaadbuilder.com (collectively referred to as ASD), operated a Ponzi scheme that he masked as an advertising company.

The government’s complaint alleges that for more than a year, ASD operated a “paid auto-surf program” -- a so-called online advertising program that purportedly generated ad revenue by automatically rotating advertised Web sites into its investors’ Internet browsers. But ASD did not operate as a seller of ad services and there was no legitimate product being sold, the complaint alleges.

Reason #44,321 why the Internet is a magical, magical thing.

Tech Daily Dose is proud to introduce "HillTweet Blues" -- an occasional look at what members of Congress are telling their constituents via Twitter. Our first snapshot: Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., who is reportedly being vetted as a potential running mate for Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. He's a four-term congressman who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee and is chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare.

Recent Twitter posts:

#dontgo 11,000 Have Signed the Petition. www.CallCongressBack.com
9 minutes ago from web
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Read Rep. Cantor's post at Power Line Blog on how the Democrats are playing games with energy. http://tinyurl.com/5vj9z8 08:36 AM July 31, 2008 from web
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'Increased Energy Exploration: It’s Common Sense' Read Eric Cantor's Op/Ed http://tinyurl.com/62u5yg 02:21 PM June 25, 2008 from web

Finally, someone did the legwork and we're so, so grateful. Writer Ari Herzog has compiled an up-to-date list of all the members of Congress and/or their staffs who are using Twitter to correspond with constituents and the world at large. Twitter, he points out on his wiki, was created for Web users to exchange short blasts of information (no more than 140 characters) to answer the age-old question: "What are you doing?"

See his full list (after the jump). I'm sure Herzog will be updating it regularly given recent interest in the platform by those on Capitol Hill...

The World Intellectual Property Organization has released its annual patent report as part of the global continuing effort to "improve statistical information on patent activity covering as many countries as possible across the world and to develop and provide new indicators that are relevant to current policy issues."

Some notable statistics (via Peter Zura's 271 Patent Blog):

• Patent applications filed across the world are estimated to be 1.76 million, representing a 4.9% increase from the previous year. The number of filings worldwide by applicants from China, the Republic of Korea and the United States of America increased by 32.1%, 6.6% and 6.7% respectively.

• Although the number of patent applications filed across the world has increased at a steady pace, the rate of increase is less than the rate of increase observed for other economic indicators such as GDP and trade.

• Approximately 727,000 patents were granted across the world. Similar to patent filings, patent grants are concentrated in a small number of countries. Applicants from Japan, the United States of America, the Republic of Korea and Germany received 73% of total patent grants worldwide. Between 2000 and 2006, the number of patents granted to applicants from China and the Republic of Korea grew by 26.5% and 23.2% a year, respectively.

• Approximately 6.1 million patents were in force in 2006. The largest number of patents in force were in the United States of America (1.8 million in 2006). However, the majority of patents in force were owned by applicants from Japan.

View the full report here.

The Washington Legal Foundation on Friday will wade into a topic that has already sparked a heated congressional debate over antitrust and policy issues, which arise from competitor collaborations such as the recently announced search advertising deal inked between Internet rivals Google and Yahoo.

The Web briefing's speakers are former U.S. assistant attorney general Rick Rule and the former chief of a key merger and collaboration review unit of the Justice Department's antitrust division, Mark Botti. Rule, a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, has represented Microsoft in antitrust matters and that company has argued against the Google-Yahoo deal. Botti is an attorney at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

Executives for Google, Microsoft and Yahoo testified at a Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee hearing last month. Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl, D-Wis., said lawmakers must scrutinize the arrangement, which will give Yahoo access to certain Google advertising tools, to ensure that it does not "reduce Yahoo to nothing more than the latest satellite in the Google orbit." House Energy and Commerce leaders have also expressed concerns with the deal.

For more information on the event, click here.

The Center for Democracy and Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Citizen and a group of 14 law professors filed a joint friend-of-the-court brief arguing that violating an Internet service's “terms of service” agreement isn't a criminal offense under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The brief submitted in United States v. Lori Drew explains the legal theory behind the government's indictment of Drew would effectively criminalize the actions of millions of Web users.

The suburban St. Louis mother allegedly created a false profile on the popular social networking site MySpace, posing as a teenage boy, to engage a 13-year-old neighborhood girl, Megan Meier, in conversation. Drew's conversations with Meier were allegedly cruel and harassing and Meier hanged herself.

“The Justice Department has blundered terribly in this case. By reaching for the same statute used to prosecute computer hackers, this indictment has turned the law into a blunt legal instrument that turns every violation of a site's terms of service into a federal crime,” CDT’s Leslie Harris wrote in an opinion column earlier this year. A case like Drew's would typically be handled under state or local law, but Missouri did not have a criminal statute that would reach her conduct and DOJ jumped in.

In other legal news…

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday reversed a lower court decision that many, including CDT, argued had the potential to chill innovation. The lower court ruling had blocked Cablevision from rolling out a digital video recorder system that stores recorded TV programs on remote servers instead of in set-top devices in customers' homes. The appeals court's ruling found that providing a remote DVR does not constitute direct copyright infringement.

The Congressional Internet Caucus will pair up with the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law to host their second annual State of the Net conference on Wednesday to probe key technology policy issues. The event is a West Coast spin-off of a popular summit staged in Washington each winter.

Headliners include Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.; Mike Honda, D-Calif.; Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., as well as Seton Hall Law School professor Frank Pasquale; Stanford Law School's Lauren Gelman; eBay's Dan Doherty; and the Center for Democracy and Technology's James Dempsey.

Panel topics include: Will Our Reputations and Privacy Survive the Age of Social Networking? Can ISP Immunity Survive the Onslaught of Web 2.0? The Movement of Information from the Crowd to the Cloud. More details can be found here.

Congress is gone for five weeks for its annual summer recess, and much of the rest of Washington is taking a breather -- or preparing to do so -- in advance of the Democratic and Republican national conventions later this month and early next month. But leaders of the tech sector will still be busy this week on both coasts.

High-tech industry leaders head to San Jose for a couple of interconnected conferences. Building Blocks -- sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association and Digital Hollywood -- promotes platform development, including the design, development and distribution of audio, video and mobile electronics. In conjunction with that event, peer-to-peer file sharing executives will gather for the Distributed Computing Industry Association's first Silicon Valley summit.

Meanwhile, back east in the Big Apple, the American Bar Association's annual meeting starts Thursday -- with a number of key technology-related issues on the agenda. Panel topics at the New York gathering include the future of the music industry; changes in voting technology; text and mobile marketing; patent litigation; handling electronic evidence during a trial; and privacy and security in a networked world.

Surf on over to CongressDaily's TechCentral for a new "Issue of the Week." Here's a taste:

When Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill unveiled legislation over the past two years to tighten regulation of the wireless phone industry, carriers largely turned a deaf ear because they knew the bills stood little chance of passage. But if the Democrats hold both chambers in November, as expected - perhaps with significantly enlarged majorities -- and take the White House, regulatory-minded legislators may have a smug message for the wireless industry: Can you hear me now? Consequently, the possibility of a Democratic sweep in November is spurring the wireless industry to urge the Republican-controlled FCC to act this summer to head off potentially onerous regulation come January.

Here's some sad news in the intellectual property community -- noted copyright attorney William Patry is shutting down his popular blog after writing about 800 postings over about four years. He provided readers with two explanations for his decision: (1) The inability or refusal to accept the blog for what it is: a personal blog (2) The current state of copyright law is too depressing.

Patry wrote: "It is profoundly depressing, after 26 years full-time in a field I love, to be a constant voice of dissent. I have tried various ways to leaven this state of affairs with positive postings, much like television news shows that experiment with "happy features" ... But after awhile, this wore thin, because the most important stories are too often ones that involve initiatives that are, in my opinion, seriously harmful to the public interest. I cannot continue to be so negative, so often."

Right-leaning video-sharing site Eyeblast.tv and the bipartisan Porkbusters coalition have teamed up to unveil Porkbusters On Patrol, a new "networked journalism project" with the goal of equipping "an army of citizen reporters with pocket camcorders to produce an ongoing series of on-site video stories about Congress’ pork-barreling ways."

Eyeblast is recruiting stringers, distributing free cameras and paying travel expenses of reporters on assignment in their regions. The Porkbusters coalition will identify pork projects that lend themselves to video reports, and people who want to produce reports are welcome to suggest their own. Videos will be published on Eyeblast, where bloggers and others will be able to grab the code to embed the stories on their sites.

The deadline for video submissions is Aug. 31, with the launch of the series planned for Sept. 8. Organizers want the videos kept short (2-3 minutes), funny and gimmicky. Read more about the campaign here.

My colleague David Hatch wrote in CongressDaily's PM Edition on Friday that the FCC has taken steps to prevent Comcast from impeding online traffic and threatened the company with additional penalties -- including fines -- if it fails to comply with its directives. Comcast was instructed to detail by Dec. 31 how it will end its discriminatory network management practices and to better disclose policies to customers.

Some reax:

"We are gratified that the Commission did not find any conduct by Comcast that justified a fine and that the deadline established in the order is the same self-imposed deadline that we announced four months ago. On the other hand, we are disappointed in the Commission’s divided conclusion because we believe that our network management choices were reasonable, wholly consistent with industry practices and that we did not block access to Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services." -- Comcast's Sena Fitzmaurice

"Without making a judgment on the substance of today’s ruling, it is clear that the Federal Communication Commission is prepared to uphold its broadband principles. Now the entire industry should redouble its efforts to set standards for transparency and ensure that consumers know what they are getting when purchasing access or using applications." -- Verizon's Tom Tauke

"CDT agrees with the ruling's apparent premise that broadband providers should not target specific applications for inferior treatment and should be much more transparent about network management practices. CDT has serious concerns, however, about the potential breadth of the Commission's assertion of authority and the risk that it could open the door to greater FCC regulatory involvement in Internet issues." -- Center for Democracy and Technology

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Pete Hoekstra is the most recent member of Congress to start using Twitter, a service that lets users post short messages on a Web site from their cellular phones or computers. On Friday, the Michigan Republican posted live updates from the House floor as members protested the Democratic majority's decision to adjourn for five weeks without considering energy legislation. Click here for Hoekstra's feed.

Legislation intended to combat identity theft won Senate passage Wednesday night after being folded into a House-passed bill to extend secret service protection to former vice presidents. The cybersecurity legislation, introduced last October by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and ranking member Arlen Specter, passed their chamber in November as a standalone bill but has languished in the House.

Leahy said he hoped the House would act fast to pass the legislation and send it to President Bush for signature. Leahy's proposal has the backing of the Justice Department and Secret Service and has broad support from industry and consumer groups. If enacted it would give victims of ID theft the right to seek restitution for the loss of time and money spent restoring credit and would ensure that criminals who impersonate legitimate businesses to steal sensitive personal data can be prosecuted under federal ID theft laws.

The bill would also lower the financial threshold for prosecuting cyber criminals and eliminate would make it a felony to employ malicious software to damage 10 or more computers regardless of the aggregate amount of damage caused. Business Software Alliance President Robert Holleyman lauded the Senate's action, noting that "for too long, cyber criminals around the world have taken advantage of legal loopholes and an under-resourced law enforcement community to rob consumers of their identities and their financial security."