December 2008

The Federal Judiciary may be steeped in history, but it is not tied to the past, according to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' year-end report. "We have increased efficiency through the use of information technology, which accounted for 5 percent of the Judiciary's 2004 budget," he wrote. "The courts now routinely use computers to maintain court dockets, manage finances, and administer employee compensation and benefits programs."

The Judiciary has achieved significant savings through more cost-effective approaches in deploying those systems, he wrote. For example, the courts have found they can employ new technology in tandem with improvements in their national data communications network to consolidate local servers and other information technology infrastructure. The Judiciary's consolidation of its jury management program resulted in a savings of $2 million in the first year and an expected annual savings of $4.8 million through 2012, the report stated. A similar consolidation of the probation case management system is projected to save $2.6 million over the same period.

Meanwhile, the Judiciary is currently undertaking a consolidation of technology in its national accounting system, which is expected to achieve savings and cost avoidances totaling $55.4 million through 2012. Those at the Office of Management and Budget or the Congressional Budget Office may not be impressed by these numbers, Roberts added, but the entire Judicial Branch accounts for only 0.2 percent of the nation's budget. "For us, these are real savings," he wrote.

Republicans have been kicking themselves for not thinking of some innovations that Barack Obama's campaign rolled out one after another, but in some cases John McCain's strategists were presented the same ideas and gave them a thumbs-down. One infamous case: text messaging supporters with the announcement of a vice presidential pick. Online GOP strategist Patrick Ruffini writes on TheNextRight.com that he's heard from "numerous" people inside the McCain campaign who say the idea of announcing online or via text message was floated "months before" the Obama camp made its announcement. Senior staff "shot down" the proposal as "undignified."

That's a dangerous mindset, Ruffini warns. "The notion that this is somehow not mainstream enough, that this is somehow not dignified, too cutting edge, too bleeding edge, is just so self-defeating and so illustrative of the problem that I think it must be discussed," Ruffini said in an interview with NationalJournal.com. Former McCain Web staff denied to NationalJournal.com any notion texting was dismissed for being "undignified" but confirmed that it was considered before being disapproved on concerns it would disrupt the rollout of a surprise pick.

The campaign strategy was to "ride the wave of the pop," and "anything that would have mitigated that pop we couldn't do," said the McCain Web staffer. The surprise factor (announcing little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin while the media focused on Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty) successfully drove thousands to JohnMcCain.com, and the campaign raked in $4.5 million in donations from the Web during the 24 hours after the pick, with thousands signing up for campaign e-mails.

The New Year's Ball in Times Square is relying on people power to light the numerals 2-0-0-9 as the clock strikes midnight. Visitors to the Duracell Battery Center in the heart of the Big Apple have had the chance to "put the pedal to the metal" on specially designed "snowmobikes," which capture energy through their spinning wheels when the bikes are pedaled. That power has being stored until it is routed to light the night's most important moment. More than 200 pedal hours are needed to illuminate the sign. Duracell is also offering a "Recharge Rest Stop" that allows pedestrians to plug-in and charge their personal entertainment and digital devices -- including digital cameras, cell phones, BlackBerrys, iPods, MP3 players and gaming devices.

For the first time ever, anyone with access to a Wi-Fi network, an iPod, or Internet connection can enjoy the New Year's Eve party in Times Square, live all night long, thanks to the Times Square Corporation and Web streaming service Mogulus. The event starts at 4 p.m. Wednesday and ends at 12:15 a.m. Thursday. The Web stream will also embedded on this blog so you can watch the ball drop and ring in 2009 right here.

It's wintertime in Washington so why not head to warm, sunny Florida? FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is doing just that as part of the agency's mission to educate consumers about the upcoming nationwide transition to digital television. Martin will head to Miami on Jan. 3 for a town hall meeting at a Best Buy department store on the Feb. 17 switchover. The forecast calls for sunny skies and 76° weather.

The FCC identified target television markets for specific DTV outreach, including all those markets in which more than 100,000 households or at least 15 percent of the households rely solely on over-the-air signals for TV reception. The five FCC commissioners and senior staff are visiting these and other markets in the days leading up to the transition. Martin will also travel to Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and South Bend, Ind. on Jan 5 and Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus, Ohio on Jan. 6.

Meanwhile, organizers of the Consumer Electronics Show (Jan. 8-11) have announced that Martin will return to the high-tech extravaganza in Las Vegas for his last appearance as FCC chairman. He and Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro will have an on-stage chat on Saturday, Jan. 10 about his tenure at the FCC and the challenges likely to confront industry and the Obama administration.

A Chinese court on Wednesday sentenced 11 ringleaders of the world's largest software counterfeiting syndicate to prison sentences ranging from 1.5 to 6.5 years -- the longest sentences handed down in China's history for this type of crime. Those sentenced by the Futian People's Court were arrested in July 2007 following an international investigation led by China's Public Security Bureau and the FBI, and assisted by information provided by Microsoft and hundreds of its customers and partners.

The group manufactured and distributed upwards of $2 billion worth of high-quality counterfeit Microsoft software, the high-tech giant said in a press release. The counterfeit content -- found in 36 countries and on five continents -- contained fake versions of 19 of Microsoft's most popular products and was produced in at least 11 languages. "This case is a testament to the importance of Microsoft's commitment to close collaboration with government bodies and local law enforcement agencies around the world to bring these criminals to justice, wherever they may be," Microsoft anti-piracy chief David Finn said.

Moving forward, Microsoft will continue to work with Chinese authorities to ensure that counterfeit software does not undermine the development of China's knowledge economy, said Fengming Liu, vice president of Microsoft Greater China Region. "This case is also a strong demonstration of the improvement in criminal law legislation and enforcement of intellectual property rights in China," added Zhao Bingzhi, president of the Criminal Law Research Committee of the China Law Society and vice president of the China Group of the International Association of Penal Law.

From NationalJournal.com's Lost in Transition blog:

Barack Obama's followers are ready, willing and able to continue their grassroots support for the president-elect -- and at higher rates than their Republican peers are willing to help the GOP -- according to a study released Tuesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Obama supporters have already been active on the Web: According to the report, 27 percent of wired Obama voters (those who use the Web) have gone online to find news about the transition or used the interactive transition site change.gov.

That these users tend to be younger and more affluent is no surprise. But black voters, who traditionally have less of a presence on the Web, are going online at higher rates: 31 percent of wired black Obama voters are getting involved online, compared to 25 percent of their white counterparts. And according to Quantcast, an Internet audience measurement service, 20 percent of the visitors to change.gov are black, far surpassing Internet averages. Meanwhile, the GOP continues to struggle to draw its faithful online, continuing their comparatively poor online fundraising and netroots support from the 2008 election.

Read the full story here.

Three cheers for PC Magazine, which has honored Tech Daily Dose as one of its 100 favorite blogs. The hat-tip comes on the heels the magazine naming our little spot on the Web one of the Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites of 2008 back in August. All I can think of is Sally Field's memorable 1985 Academy Award speech upon accepting her second Oscar in five years: "The first time I didn't feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!" The difference is we felt it both times. Thanks.

Here's what PC Magazine had to say: "Not all the major technology innovation and news come from the West Coast. The corridors of power in Washington, D.C., have an impact, and that's why this slice of NationalJournal.com's CongressDaily covers the news in regulation, lobbying, and litigation that can change our cyber-lives." We were sandwiched in between listings for TechCrunch and Techdirt. Not bad company if I do say so myself. See the full list here -- and lets keep up the momentum in 2009!

FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, who has served on the panel for three years, took part in her last meeting via teleconference on Tuesday. Tate, one of three Republican commissioners at the agency, came to Washington after serving as director of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority and as head of the State and Local Policy Center at Vanderbilt University. She was nominated by President Bush on Nov. 9, 2005 and was confirmed by the Senate the following month.

During her term, Tate focused on children and families and, among other things, led a charge for broadcasters and advertisers to reduce the amount to which they show and promote unhealthy foods. She was also involved in a host of issues surrounding the universal service fund, which subsidizes telecom and Internet connections for citizens, hospitals, libraries and schools in rural- and low-income areas. Fellow Republican Robert McDowell said Tate should also be proud of her efforts to "lift unnecessary regulations in order to allow market competition to grow and flourish."

A federal panel charged with determining music royalty rates proposed changes Tuesday that would alter reporting requirements for services that pay fees for the use of sound recordings to SoundExchange, an entity that collects and distributes money owed to the music industry. The proposed new rules by the Copyright Royalty Board would require that "reports of use" submitted by certain services contain "full census reporting" of all songs played. Among those affected include Internet radio, satellite radio, digital cable radio and others, according to telecom attorney David Oxenford. The current system only requires reporting for two weeks each quarter.

"Where this change is likely to have the most impact is in connection with the operations of broadcasters who also stream their programs on the Internet," Oxenford said on his Broadcast Law Blog. "Noncommercial broadcasters, such as college radio stations, have repeatedly complained that their small staffs do not have the ability to maintain these electronic records, especially where the stations are volunteer-programmed by DJs who select their own music on the spot," he said. Oxenford represented small webcasters in a controversial recent proceeding on Internet royalties, which got the attention of consumer groups and members of Congress.

Comments on the proposal (which can be viewed here) are due by Jan. 29, 2009.

The U.S. Copyright Office has received 19 proposals for classes of works to be subject to anti-circumvention exemptions within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and is seeking public comment on them, officials said this week. The purpose of the proceeding is to determine whether there are particular technologies or applications as to which users are, or are likely to be, adversely affected in their ability to make non-infringing uses due to anti-piracy (digital rights management) mechanisms.

Some of the proposed classes include:

▪ Subscription based services that offer DRM-protected streaming video where the provider has only made available players for a limited number of platforms, effectively creating an access control that requires a specific operating system version and/or set of hardware to view purchased material.

▪ Motion pictures protected by anti-access measures, such that access to the motion picture content requires use of a certain platform.

▪ Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute lawfully obtained software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications with computer programs on the handset.

▪ Computer programs in the form of firmware that enable wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telephone communication network, when circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network, regardless of commercial motive.

Web-savvy citizens are making some interesting inquiries through the Google-powered "Open for Questions" feature on President-elect Barack Obama's transition site Change.gov. In the Science & Technology category, there have been 21,416 votes on 509 questions from 2,245 people.

Currently in the lead:

"How will the Obama administration encourage the future generations of Americans to become the worlds leading scientists and engineers?"
Dan Fisher, Sacramento, CA

Runners up:

"During the campaign Mr. Obama stated that he would appoint a government Chief Technology Officer. This seemed to me a very good idea; when we will learn more about this and how we can help with this endeavor?"
Arn, Alexandria, Va

"Is there a plan to restore federal government support for stem cell research?"
caryfitz, Palo Alto, CA

"Does the new stimulus package include plans to upgrade our information technology infrastructure and promote research and development? America is beginning to lag behind other countries in technology, and these measures would help our economy."
thaddeusmt, Bozeman, MT

"Industries have cut their research over the last decade despite their PR ads about how much they are doing - they spend more on the ads than on the research. Federal funding for universities is shrinking - what is your plan to bolster research?"
chemprofjoe, Blacksburg, VA

From NationalJournal.com's Lost in Transition blog:

As a new, tech-savvy president prepares to take the reins in Washington, federal IT contractors are positioning themselves to be a part of the action. Microsoft Federal, for instance, has established the temporary post of "chief transition officer" to help the company forge a working relationship with the incoming administration.

Nextgov's Allan Holmes spoke recently with Microsoft's new "CTO," Carolyn Brubaker, about what this new position entails -- and about the potential role of President-elect Obama's yet-to-be-named chief technology officer.

Nextgov: What have you heard about what the role of the chief technology officer might be?

Brubaker: We're not quite sure what that's going to look like now, but from some of the information we are getting it looks like it's going to be an external adviser, someone who's really advising on national technology issues, with the primary goal of citizen outreach and engagement. That's a big objective of President-elect Obama's.

They have an intense group of leaders who are looking at technology. We have received some inquiries, and from what I can tell they're just not only looking at technology, they're looking at reforming the process.

More details are emerging about potential hotspots at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which takes place Jan. 8-11. The latest announcement comes from Intel, which has hired TV personality, model and "Dancing with the Stars" winner Brooke Burke to host the red carpet at the computer chip manufacturer's invitation-only party at LAX Nightclub at Luxor on Jan. 9. Rock group Counting Crows, best known for their hit single "Mr. Jones," will headline the event.

Meanwhile on the CES exhibition floor, Intel will demo PC.com, which is described as "an online destination to explore, learn and ask questions about PC technology and purchasing options -- geared to the consumer who may find the world of personal computers a bit confusing." The Web site went live in July after a four month beta test and it is on target to reach 1.4 million hits during CES, officials said. The site features tech-tastic video clips starring Rob Lowe, Paula Abdul, Tori Spelling and others notables. For more CES celeb news, click here.

The system used for rating movies could be applied to Web sites in an attempt to better police the Internet and protect children from harmful and offensive material, Britain's minister for culture told The Daily Telegraph newspaper. In an interview published Saturday, Andy Burnham said he is prepared to negotiate with President-elect Barack Obama's administration to draw up new international rules for English language sites. Such a proposal would likely enrage online free speech and First Amendment defenders. Previous attempts by Congress and Internet governance groups to cordon off areas of the Web deemed undesirable for kids faced controversy and were ultimately unsuccessful.

"The more we seek international solutions to this stuff -- the UK and the U.S. working together -- the more that an international norm will set an industry norm," the newspaper reports Burnham saying. Internet service providers could also be forced to offer services where the only sites accessible are those deemed suitable for children, the paper stated. "If you look back at the people who created the Internet they talked very deliberately about creating a space that governments couldn't reach," Burnham told The Telegraph. "I think we are having to revisit that stuff seriously now." Obama has defended Internet openness and has argued in favor of "network neutrality" but it remains to be seen how he will approach Web regulation on other fronts.

With the new year fast approaching, here's a look at some high-tech predictions for 2009. Be forewarned, the global economic meltdown is a recurring theme in quite a few doom-and-gloom scenarios -- but I'll frontload the post with intrigue rather than sorrow.

"Now with connective technologies like Facebook Connect, Google FriendConnect, and OpenID, consumers will now be able to see reviews, experiences, and critiques from people they actually know and trust." - Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester Research

"Twitter will continue to achieve legitimacy. But more than any push-channel, Twitter will give customers, advocates and critics unprecedented access to corporate personnel and vice versa." - Scott Monty, Ford Motor Company

"I believe we'll have more focused velvet-rope social networks in 2009 where the tools and the goals match verticals of interest instead of the general commons of Facebook."
- Chris Brogan, New Marketing Labs

"Exclusivity trumps accessibility. Having thousands of friends becomes 'so 2008' and defriending becomes the hot new trend, driven by overwhelming rivers of newsfeeds." - Charlene Li, Altimeter Group

"The mobile industry will see renewed interest and growth in 2009 following the success of the iPhone and developments such as the Gphone resulting in consumers taking 'PC' habits with them on the road." - Netimperative

The economic downturn apparently hasn't dashed everyone's Christmas spirits -- Internet commerce site Amazon.com announced Friday that the 2008 holiday season finished as its best ever, with over 6.3 million items ordered worldwide on the peak day, Dec. 15, which is a record-breaking 72.9 items per second.

Amazon holiday facts (as reported in a company press release):
- From Nov. 15-Dec. 10, sold one copy of Microsoft Office every 2.5 minutes
- The weight of all GPS devices sold since Black Friday equals 151 Mini Coopers
- Sold enough high-performance headphones that everyone attending the last three Super Bowls could grab a set and rock out
- Sold enough coffee to give each resident of Seattle a cup per day for two months
- Sold enough Spalding basketballs to fill three C-130 cargo planes

Amazon bestsellers (Nov. 15- Dec. 19 based on units ordered):
- Electronics: Samsung's 52-inch LCD HDTV; Apple iPod touch 8GB; Acer Aspire One netbook; Nintendo Wii
- DVDs: "Wall-E," "The Dark Knight" for Blu-ray and "The Dark Knight"
- Music: "Fearless," Taylor Swift; "And Winter Came," Enya; "Twilight" soundtrack

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart is trying to cash in on the Apple iPhone 3G frenzy by offering the device beginning Sunday. The retailer will offer the black 8GB model for $197 and the 16GB black or white model for $297 with a new two-year service agreement from AT&T or qualified upgrade, according to a press release. Wal-Mart will also match the price of any local competitor's advertised price.

House Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., on Friday said that at minimum Congress may need to pass additional funding in early January for the digital television transition converter box program to prevent any delay in availability or issuance of coupons to consumers. He voiced his concern upon the release of responses from the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration about the status of their preparations for the Feb. 17, 2009 switch-over.

The expected surge in consumer demand for converter box coupons is occurring and NTIA projects it will have to postpone or possibly deny the issuance of coupons to consumers without additional funding, Markey said in a statement. Moreover, lingering confusion over aspects of the transition and an apparent lack of converter box availability and call center capability pose additional threats to transition's success, he said. Markey noted "the challenges posed by the DTV switch cannot be underestimated."

Read the FCC and NTIA letters and Q&A here. Read more from CongressDaily here.

Privacy concerns continue to plague state-run intelligence "fusion centers" that the Homeland Security Department has set up around the country despite security provisions contained in a law enacted last year to implement recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, according to an agency analysis released this week. The DHS privacy impact assessment says worries persist in the following areas: 1. Justification for fusion centers 2. Ambiguous lines of authority, rules, and oversight 3. Participation of the military and the private sector. 4. Data mining. 5. Excessive secrecy 6. Inaccurate or incomplete information. 7. Mission creep.

The report goes on to state that "no information sharing regime is free from privacy risks" and says its authors examined a number of those risks and the positive steps both DHS participants in the initiative as well as representatives of fusion centers have taken or should take in the future to mitigate them. As the program matures, the DHS Privacy Office anticipates discovering new privacy challenges that need to be addressed and the PIA will be updated whenever necessary, the document said. Additionally, the Privacy Office called for "a regular and ongoing examination of privacy issues within the fusion centers."

The ACLU has been a leading critic of the centers, which have also been the topic of at least one hearing of the House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee in the 110th Congress. The ACLU's top lobbyist Caroline Fredrickson has complained that the centers differ in significant ways and there is no single model or standards by which their data gathering and sharing activities are governed. Lawmakers must have a discussion about guidelines and the private sector's role in the data swapping, she said. "In a multiagency environment when it's unclear which agencies' rules apply, very quickly, no rules apply," added ACLU policy counsel Mike German.

From NextGov.com's Bob Brewin:

A joint report released on Monday strongly urged the Defense Department to fully fund and deploy as soon as possible a $16 billion advanced satellite system that would give the military the ability to transmit larger amounts of surveillance and intelligence information at a much faster rate. The Transformational Communication Satellite system, which the Air Force is building, will transmit images, video and signals intelligence from unmanned aerial vehicles and spy satellites to Army and Marine units on the battlefield and Navy ships.

The Air Force had planned to award the contract for the satellites this month, with Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. competing for the pact. But the award has been delayed because of both Air Force funding issues and the Joint Staff is reexamining the contract's requirements, Chris Isleib, a Pentagon spokesman, said in October. A report released by the Defense Science Board and the Intelligence Science Board warned against further delays, saying the TSAT system is "essential to enhancing military and intelligence operations."

Read the full story here.

Less than a year into the Library of Congress' pilot project to place its photographs on the popular image-sharing Web site Flickr, the photos have drawn more than 10 million views, 7,166 comments and more than 67,000 tags, according to a report from the team overseeing the initiative. Last January, the library uploaded a few thousand images (including "Letter for Santa Claus," shown at right) from its vast collections to see how "crowd-sourcing" might enhance the quality of the information the institution could provide about its historic holdings.

"The popularity and impact of the pilot have been remarkable," said Michelle Springer, project manager for digital initiatives in the Office of Strategic Initiatives. The site is averaging 500,000 views a month, she said, adding that Flickr members have marked 79 percent of the photos as "favorites." The report recommends that the library continue to participate in an area within Flickr called The Commons and explore other Web 2.0 communities.

"Increasing the ability to engage and connect with photos increases the sense of ownership and respect that people feel for these photos," the report states. "Lessons learned from this project provide guideposts to the type of experience that people would like to have with our collections." Since the project began, 16 additional institutions from the United States and other countries have begun sharing their photo archives and inviting the public to contribute information, the library said in a blog post.

The Health IT Now Coalition, which represents more than 175 stakeholders including AstraZeneca, Cisco Systems and Pfizer, joined a growing chorus of groups urging lawmakers to include health information technology language in the economic stimulus package that is expected to be finalized after the 111th Congress gavels into session in January (see recent CongressDaily coverage here). The coalition sent a letter Tuesday to members of the House and Senate. The Divided We Fail campaign, which is backed by the AARP, Service Employees International Union and others, also recently asked members for a bailout that includes "significant support" for health IT.

Providing financial incentives for health IT "would not only stimulate economic growth, but would also promote efficiency, improve health outcomes and dramatically reduce health costs for consumers and taxpayers," Health IT Now wrote. "In this economic recession, states are faced with balanced budget requirements at the same time revenues are down and spending on support programs is increasing," the letter explains. Meanwhile, state programs like Medicaid are in need of funds but they often do not utilize health IT to reduce unnecessary tests and procedures and to prevent fraud or abuse, they argued.

The FCC released a pair of reports Tuesday that show changes in the coverage of the nation's full-power television stations as they prepare to transition from analog to digital broadcasting on Feb. 17, 2009. The commission initiated the side-by-side comparison to identify the changes associated with the switch to digital broadcasting by TV stations and share the information with viewers nationwide. The FCC also announced it would hold an open meeting via conference call on Dec. 30 but did not say what would be on the agenda.

The first report, which provides maps showing the analog and digital coverage areas for each of the 1,749 full-power TV stations in the United States, found that approximately 89 percent of stations (1,553 stations) will experience an overall net gain in the population that can receive their signals. About 11 percent of stations (196 stations) will have an overall net loss in television viewers. The paper includes a separate map showing the predicted coverage areas for every station and shows the areas of gain or loss.

The second report contains maps and other information for the 319 stations where more than two percent of the population covered by their analog service will not be covered by their digital service. The population losses shown on the maps actually overstate the loss as it includes people who currently receive TV service via cable or satellite, the FCC said. Roughly 11 percent (or 196) stations are predicted to experience some existing population coverage loss of two percent or more.

The Consumer Electronics Association is getting in on the Inauguration Day action by hosting an invitation-only daytime party on Jan. 20 in honor of President-elect Barack Obama's swearing in. The high-tech trade group, which will have finished hosting its massive annual expo in Las Vegas earlier in the month, has rented out the 701 Pennsylvania Avenue Restaurant & Bar for a few hours in the afternoon -- not a bad spot to see and be seen on the historic day. LG Electronics will supply (presumably large) televisions for those who wish to watch the festivities inside, rather than braving what could be cold, winter weather outside. Related reading: RIAA, Google, Hollywood & High-Tech parties.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday challenged the legality of requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to use the Homeland Security Department's E-Verify system, a free Web-based tool that uses Social Security Administration files to ensure that employees are legal immigrants or citizens eligible to work in the United States. Joining the Chamber as co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the Associated Builders and Contractors, the Society for Human Resources Management, the American Council on International Personnel, and the HR Policy Association.

The complaint, which was filed in a Maryland federal court, challenges the government's use of an executive order coupled with federal procurement law to make E-Verify mandatory for federal contractors with projects exceeding $100,000 and for sub-contractors with projects exceeding $3,000. The Chamber also challenged expanding E-Verify to require the reauthorization of existing workers. "This massive expansion of E-Verify is not only bad policy, it's unlawful," the National Chamber Litigation Center's Robin Conrad said in a press release. Read more here.

As the tech community eagerly awaits more details on President-elect Barack Obama's proposed chief technology officer post, many have made wish lists of what they would like to see come of the first-of-its-kind job. In a recent interview with NationalJournal.com's Theresa Poulson, Google's vice president and "chief Internet evangelist," Vinton Cerf, who has been rumored to be on the short list for the job, outlined what he might include on the CTO's agenda and how the position could invigorate the economy by creating jobs through investments in infrastructure.

NJ: What challenges do you see for this proposed CTO position?

Cerf: I see a lot of them. I think the ambition level is laudable. Taking President-elect Obama at his word, he's expressed a desire that the U.S. government make better use of information technology. And that message fits very well with another message I understand that he's expressed, which is to invest in American infrastructure. I think that applies equally well to the civilian and private sector -- the consumer sector -- and also to the government itself and its facilities.

Read edited excerpts (and audio clips) from the Q&A here.

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt believes interoperability has to be a component of any health information technology language that is considered for inclusion in a forthcoming economic stimulus package. "Before lawmakers act, they need to think: If stimulus money supports a proliferation of systems that can't exchange information, we will only be replacing paper-based silos of medical information with more expensive, computer-based silos that are barely more useful," he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed published Monday.

"Health IT systems produce value when they are interoperable. When they're not, doctors who invest in electronic health records cannot share information with each other or add lab results to your file or send electronic prescriptions to your pharmacist. They would have to use handwritten prescriptions and paper files in addition to their electronic files," Leavitt wrote. "That's not the way 21st-century health care should work." He added that system standards are needed and that those standards should be vendor-neutral.

Publication Notice: CongressDaily will resume publication Jan. 5, 2009 but breaking news and updates will be posted online as needed. Tech Daily Dose may also be refreshed periodically in between menorah lighting and Christmas caroling.

"Right now, in labs, classrooms and companies across America, our leading minds are hard at work chasing the next big idea, on the cusp of breakthroughs that could revolutionize our lives. But history tells us that they cannot do it alone." Read the entire transcript here. CongressDaily coverage can be found here.

Three individuals were sentenced to prison Friday for their roles in an online copyright infringement scheme involving the sale of counterfeit software worth $2.5 million, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich said in a press release. The case is part of the Justice Department's ongoing initiative to combat the commercial distribution of pirated and counterfeit goods through online auction sites and other Web sites. The defendants: Thomas Rushing of Wichita Falls, Texas; Brian Rue of Denton, Texas; and William Partridge of Royse City, Texas, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks in Austin.

Rushing was sentenced to three years behind bars, threes years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine. In addition to the prison term, Rushing also was ordered to forfeit his 2006 Porsche Cayenne purchased with illegal proceeds and about $40,000 seized from bank accounts. Rue and Partridge were each sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $3,600. Rue was also ordered to forfeit roughly $17,000 seized from a bank account he controlled and Partridge was ordered to forfeit a 46" high-definition TV purchased with illicit funds.

According to court documents, the trio operated Web sites that sold a large volume of downloadable counterfeit software without authorization from copyright owners. The defendants also promoted their illicit scheme by purchasing advertising for their Web sites from major Internet search engines. As part of his ruling, Judge Sparks ordered the forfeiture of the Web site domain names --"valuesoftwaresales.com," "allsoftwaredownload.com," "esoftwarevalue.com" and "priceslashsoftware.com" -- used in the sale of pirated software.

Progressive grassroots group MoveOn.org will focus on four key topics in 2009 -- universal healthcare; economic recovery and job creation; building a green economy and stopping climate change; and ending the war in Iraq. The group asked its members recently what issues they wanted to make a priority in the new year under a new presidential administration and hundreds of thousands responded via the Internet.

"The agenda you set is bold, ambitious -- and it is exactly the change America needs.
Of course, these aren't the only things we'll work on together -- we'll work on other issues as they come up, too," MoveOn said in a letter to supporters. Rounding out the top 10 most requested agenda items were: improving public schools; restoring civil liberties; holding the Bush administration accountable; gay rights/LGBT equality; increasing access to higher education; and reforming campaigns and elections.

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to announce John Holdren, a Harvard physicist, as his science adviser on Saturday. Holdren is a professor of environmental policy at the university and serves as director of the Kennedy School's program on science, technology, and public policy. From 2005 to 2008 he served as president-elect, president, and chair of the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Holdren's work focuses on causes and consequences of global environmental change, analysis of energy technologies and policies, ways to reduce the dangers from nuclear weapons and materials, and the interaction of content and process in science and technology policy, according to his official bio.

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., himself a professional physicist, lauded the nomination. He said he believed Holdren to be "the best person I can imagine for this job," having worked with him for decades on a variety of issues. Obama will also nominate Oregon State University marine biologist Jane Lubchenco as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Those who know Jane Lubchenco know she is a most highly respected research scientist and a long-time leader in bringing science to policymakers and the public," Holt said. "I expect her to be an outstanding leader at the helm of NOAA."

President-elect Barack Obama's pick of former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk for his U.S. Trade Representative slot on Friday was embraced by key intellectual property stakeholders as it was being panned by many in the labor community. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Mark Esper wrote on the business group's blog that Kirk has a solid track record of appreciating the value of America's IP-intensive industries and quoted from a 1998 Dallas Morning News article to make his point.

As mayor of Dallas, Kirk praised a plan to bring more biotechnology companies into the city calling it "an opportunity to develop an entire new economy based upon intellectual property that we already have principally coming from Southwestern Medical Center and our entire medical infrastructure.'" The plan, which developed a long-term vision for the city's future, was aimed at making Dallas a national hub for inventions. Esper noted that the next USTR will face a host of important IP issues and the Chamber is prepared to work with Kirk "in defense of innovation at home and abroad."

Meanwhile, Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Dan Glickman issued a statement congratulating Kirk, saying he "has the leadership skills and experience to forge a successful trade agenda." "Trade and related issues are crucial to the vitality of the film industry and paramount to the recovery of the global economy... We look forward to working with him," Glickman said.

One of the hottest tickets in Washington next month will surely be the Recording Industry Association of America's inauguration after party featuring Grammy Award-winning R&B artist Rihanna. The RIAA announced Friday that the Def Jam recording artist best known for her hits "Umbrella," "Don't Stop the Music" and "Take a Bow," would be headlining their soiree at Ibiza nightclub on Jan. 20. Proceeds from the event will benefit Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger-relief organization.

RIAA Chairman Mitch Bainwol issued a statement saying his trade group was delighted to partner with Feeding America and bring Rihanna to the nation's capital for the invitation-only celebration. "With her unique sound and addictive melodies that have garnered numerous Grammy awards and countless other music accolades, Rihanna is the perfect fit to entertain our inauguration audience as we salute the historic Obama administration," he said. Other special celebrity guests and entertainers will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Recording Industry Association of America will drop its campaign of lawsuits against people allegedly sharing music online illegally, according to the Wall Street Journal. Instead, the trade group for major music labels said it will try to rely on Internet service providers to make a dent in file-sharing through graduated responses. The RIAA said it has arrived at preliminary agreements with ISPs under which it will send an e-mail to the provider when it finds a provider's customers making music available online for others to take, the newspaper reported. The RIAA does, however, plan on continuing with outstanding lawsuits.

RIAA Chairman Mitch Bainwol believes the new strategy will reach more people, which itself is a deterrent. "Part of the issue with infringement is for people to be aware that their actions are not anonymous," he told the newspaper, noting that the marketplace has changed in recent years. Litigation was successful in raising public awareness that file-sharing is illegal, but now he wants to try a strategy he thinks could be more successful. Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn lauded the news but noted RIAA's work with ISPs must ensure "customers are not cut off from their Internet service or have their service altered solely on the basis of a claim by a copyright holder that file-sharing is taking place."

The good-humored analysts at the investment firm Stifel Nicolaus unveiled their Washington Telecom, Media & Tech Insider 2008 Awards on Friday.

Person of the Year: Joe the Plumber
CEO of the Year: Yahoo's Jerry Yang
Mad Men of the Year: The FCC
Company of the Year: Google
Office Party of the Year: Broadcom
Financial Advisors of the Year: Roger Federer and Warren Buffett
Forgettable Prediction(s) of the Year: Any prediction(s) Stifel Nicolaus got wrong

Read the complete (and comical) descriptions of this year's winners here [PDF]

The latest issue of National Journal magazine features an explosive cover story about how the Chinese -- or someone -- hacked into congressional computers in 2006 and what it will take to keep out the next electronic invader. The article by staff writer Shane Harris cites details from a confidential briefing on the investigation into the incident prepared by the House of Representatives' Information Systems Security Office, which monitors the computers of all members, staffers, and committee offices.

The security office determined that eight members' offices were affected; in most of the offices, the virus had invaded only one machine, but in some offices, it hit multiple computers. It also struck seven committee offices, including Commerce; Transportation and Infrastructure; Homeland Security; and Ways and Means; plus the Commission on China, which monitors human rights and laws in China. Most of the committee offices had one or two infected computers. In the International Relations Committee (now the Foreign Affairs Committee) office, however, the virus had compromised 25 computers and one server, according to the article.

Read the full story here and watch a multimedia slideshow companion to the piece here.

A pilot initiative announced Thursday by the foundation run by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife will help public libraries in seven states secure faster Internet connections so more people can access a full range of online applications and opportunities. The foundation awarded $6.9 million in combined grant funding to Connected Nation, a non-profit Internet advocacy group, and the American Library Association to support improved Web access for libraries in Arkansas, California, Kansas, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and Virginia.

"Public libraries across the country have played an integral role in closing the digital divide for millions of Americans, but local governments, communities, and library supporters must do more to ensure libraries can continue to provide fast, reliable Internet service for communities," Gates Foundation deputy director of U.S. libraries Jill Nishi said in a press release. As the economic crisis in the U.S. deepens, visits to public libraries are up across the country, the foundation pointed out. Many libraries are reporting that online services are in high demand, especially for job seekers and those who lack Internet access elsewhere.

If the pilot broadband program yields positive results, the foundation may expand its support to a limited number of additional states. To date, the foundation has invested $325 million in grants and other support to install and sustain computers in libraries and train thousands of library staff in all 50 states and U.S. territories.

The FBI has made great strides in 6-year, $451 million project to replace the agency's paper-based legacy systems for supporting mission-critical intelligence analysis and case management activities but more work needs to be done, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine said in a Friday report. The analysis, which is the fourth in a series of audits examining the program known as Sentinel, raised concerns about the FBI's minimal planning for streamlining its business processes to coincide with implementation of the new system. The project has been the focus of repeated questioning by House and Senate appropriators and members of the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees.

The FBI also needs to make several decisions about the scope and functionality of Sentinel, such as its role in automating the FBI's records management process, Fine's report said. Furthermore, the agency should improve the risk management process it uses to identify, monitor, control, and mitigate risks before they negatively affect Sentinel's cost, schedule, and performance. The current threshold for determining when a risk requires a contingency plan is set so high that very few, if any, risks will require a contingency plan, he wrote. Overall, the audit made 10 recommendations to help the FBI ensure Sentinel's success. The FBI agreed with all of Fine's recommendations.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration Acting Director Meredith Baker called on the Internet's key administrative agency this week to resolve a list of potential problems before making sweeping changes to the way top-level domains, such as .biz, .info, and .us, are assigned. In a Thursday letter to leaders of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, Baker said the organization must carefully consider public comments received on their plan and initiate further consultations, including the creation of a revised guidebook for those wishing to apply for a flurry of new domains -- a process projected to start in 2009.

Baker said ICANN must ensure the introduction of a potentially large number of new domains, including internationalized domains, will not jeopardize the stability and security of the Internet and said the group must prove it has the sufficient capacity to enforce contract compliance with an as-yet-unknown number of new contracting parties. ICANN should also state how it will conduct legal reviews of applications, consider objections from third parties, and ensure that the introduction of new domains complies with domestic and international law, including intellectual property rights statutes.

She also argued that the ICANN board's October 2006 request for an economic study to address a variety of domain name market related questions needs to be completed and the results be considered by the Internet community before new domains are introduced. ICANN's vice president for corporate affairs told CongressDaily recently that the expansion of the domain name universe will be executed with "a large dose of common sense." "There are lots of questions about how this is going to be implemented and we're not pretending that we've got everything locked down and agreed upon," Paul Levins said in an interview. "We want to have a really robust debate about it."

Here's the answer to the question many in high-tech sector might be asking: "Does anyone know what Google has up its sleeve for Inauguration Day?" The Internet giant -- whose top executives have made no attempt to hide their enthusiasm for President-elect Barack Obama -- is partnering with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights to host a Jan. 20 soiree at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium. The event invitation promises a "break from traditional inaugural balls" and a celebration of a "new era of open government."

As part of the invitation-only gala, Google is encouraging attendees to donate to nonprofits like LCCR's education and research arm; the D.C. Central Kitchen, which feeds thousands of needy individuals in the region; the Sunlight Foundation, a transparency watchdog; Green for All, which advocates for environmentally friendly jobs and industry; and One Economy, a group that brings broadband and tech training to low-income people. The company will match all monies received. Read about other tech-related festivities in this post.

Google's chief Internet evangelist Vint Cerf isn't sure exactly what President-elect Barack Obama's proposed chief technology officer position would entail but he recently told NationalJournal.com that a national CTO could do a lot to stoke the country's economic engine. Cerf, an Obama donor who is reported to be on the short list for the first-of-its-kind position, said that the transition team has not approached him.

Regardless of who is offered the CTO gig, he said, "if the job is of the sort that I imagine and hope it might be, I'd certainly want to be supportive of the party in that role." He also said there is great potential for the CTO to create jobs through investments in American infrastructure -- including infrastructure that supports information technology and energy, particularly electrical power grids and tools that manage energy consumption. Fulfilling such a task, however, would be hard, Cerf said.

Read more about Cerf's hopes for the CTO position on Monday in an Insider Interview with NationalJournal.com's Theresa Poulson.

A high-tech trade group representing Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft and others lauded President-elect Barack Obama's potential choice for U.S. Trade Representative -- former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk. The Information Technology Industry Council's vice president for technology and trade John Neuffer said his sector has worked with Kirk before and "knows well his keen intellect and policy smarts." Meanwhile labor groups were less than enthusiastic about the news.

Neuffer said Kirk would be a "great choice" for the job since Texas leads the United States in imports and he said that that Kirk's background as mayor of one of that state's largest cities makes him uniquely qualified to advance the U.S. trade agenda in the coming administration. But labor reportedly was unreceptive to the selection. "We don't see a whole lot of evidence that Ron Kirk is interested in going in a new, substantive direction on trade," one labor official told CongressDaily. Read that story here (subscription required).

The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse welcomed two Wall Street mainstays to its membership ranks this week -- Goldman, Sachs & Co. and New York Life Insurance Company. The additions top off an 80 percent increase in membership in 2008, which the group says is proof that more businesses recognize the need to fight cyber-squatting, phishing, and domain name tasting. CADNA held its strategic planning meeting for 2009 last week where experts in the areas of Internet technology, intellectual property, legislative policy, and international relations met with brand representatives.

Based on conservative projections, the three-year cost to business of registering new domains in the proposed new top-level domains to prevent loophole exploitations and combat significant harm caused by fraudsters could be more than $1.5 billion, CADNA said in a press release. However, challenges facing brand owners go beyond the cost of what the group believes is misguided efforts by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. CADNA cited efforts to pass the Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act in Congress and World Intellectual Property Organization dispute resolution issues as other topics of interest.

House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon joined a growing roster of his Capitol Hill colleagues on Thursday in recommending potential components of the economic stimulus package that lawmakers hope to unveil in January. In a briefing on his panel's agenda for the 111th Congress, he said investments in health information technology could create jobs, save money and save lives. Part of that language would need to include interoperability and security standards, which has been a focus of the committee through its work with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

"Innovation will play a critical role in maintaining our competitiveness," Gordon said, noting that about half of the growth of GDP over the past 50 years is a result developing and adopting new technologies. He also vowed to work with the Obama administration to implement the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E), which would apply the DARPA research model to energy technology development. "ARPA-E will foster innovation that will lead to technological breakthroughs. It is uniquely positioned to be the bridge to the new energy economy," Gordon said.

During the event, he also lauded the newly designated Energy Secretary Steven Chu,who currently serves as director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He said he was "thrilled" that Obama selected an official from the science community, "someone who speaks our language." Chu's nomination is an indication the incoming administration will hold science in the highest regard, Gordon said. Read more about the committee's agenda for the new Congress here.

The Justice Department on Thursday filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Microsemi Corp. alleging that through its acquisition of Semicoa assets, the firm eliminated or reduced competition in the development, manufacture and sale of certain semiconductor devices used in military and space programs essential to U.S. security. The department alleges that as a result of the transaction, prices for these products have increased and there is likely to be lower quality service. The complaint asks that a court require the Irvine, Calif.-based company to undo the transaction by selling off the assets it acquired in July.

Government lawyers argued that the acquisition created a monopoly for small signal transistors used by the Defense Department and reduced from three to two the number of likely competitors for ultrafast recovery rectifier diodes also used by the military. Transistors and diodes are semiconductor devices used to control the flow of electric current. While consolidation in the defense industry in certain circumstances may be beneficial, this transaction was not, Acting Assistant Attorney General Deborah Garza said in a statement.

Washington, D.C. will be abuzz with inauguration-related parties and other events from Jan. 15 through President-elect Barack Obama's Jan. 20 swearing in. Amid all the political and state society soirees, there's at least one high-tech event: the Bytes & Books Inaugural Ball, which will be held on Inauguration Day at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Sponsorships range from $2,500-$25,000.

The event is presented by the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training, a group of leading education and industry organizations whose mission is to promote the role of technology in teaching and learning. Also of interest: MTV and ServiceNation "Be The Change" ball at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center and the Creative Coalition's party at the Harmon Center for the Arts (featuring Elvis Costello, Sting and a horde of celebrities).

NationalJournal.com's Under the Influence blog has posted an 11-page round-up of events that is likely circulating throughout the K Street community. Take a peek here. Heard of other tech-related inaugural events? Let us know!

Energy, health and service were the hot topics for Congress in 2008, according to the Sunlight Foundation's Capitol Words, a site that converts members' statements in the Congressional Record into data. In the past year, the word, "energy" was either spoken on the House and Senate floor or inserted into the record's extended remarks over 50,000 times. "Health" came in second place at 41,000; "service" was third with 37,287. Rounding out the top 10 were "public," "oil," "report," "provide," "security," "country," and "percent."

Sunlight re-launched Capitol Words on Thursday to include expanded capabilities for succinctly displaying what issues lawmakers address on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. To give citizens this at-a-glance view of the inner workings of Congress, the site also provides tag clouds, geographical "heat maps" and charts to show with greater granularity the words most frequently used by Congress as a whole, by state delegation or by lawmaker.

According to the site, the most vocal lawmakers include Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.; Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.; Minority Leader Mitch McConnell; Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. Some of the quietest were Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.; Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.

From Thursday's CongressDaily PM Edition:

High-tech industry officials and privacy watchdogs hope President-elect Barack Obama's pledge to improve government transparency will apply to secret negotiations surrounding an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which the United States and several trading partners have been working on for a year. The proposal was unveiled by Trade Representative Susan Schwab in October 2007, and those involved wanted to finalize the deal before the end of the Bush administration.

For months, groups potentially impacted by the agreement have said too much planning took place behind closed doors. Two organizations filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against USTR, and more than 100 public interest organizations have asked that the draft text of the document be made public. Now they may have to wait. Schwab's chief intellectual property negotiator, Stan McCoy, said recently he was in no rush to wrap up talks, and a meeting of stakeholders in Paris this week ended inconclusively. However, a USTR spokesman said today participants made "steady progress" this week and agreed on the importance of transparency and on holding further discussions.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced Thursday that a "live exercise" of the next-generation of the department's automated process for collecting and sharing security information -- referred to internally and by many in the data security community as "Einstein" -- should be ready within six months. The cyber threat detection and mitigation program is currently operating in its second generation as part of a larger, largely classified Bush administration plan to heighten security of federal computer networks, which was brought to light in January and has been the subject of several congressional hearings. He said Einstein has been deployed within DHS and will be rolled out in other agencies "in short order."

Chertoff, who was speaking to participants of a cyber threat simulation staged by consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, also reflected on the government's systematic strategy for "reducing, if not eliminating" the cyber security problem. He said the danger falls into three categories: (1) Information being stolen, be it sensitive military data, financial material, or diplomatic or business plans. (2) Attacks that flood or topple a network -- like denial-of-service attacks on the domain name system. (3) Corruption or changes to a system that make it unusable and undermine public confidence and trust. Read more about Chertoff's talk in CongressDaily's PM Edition.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday will host a conversation with Patent and Trademark Office attaches from around the world who will share their experiences from their respective regions and provide information about best practices in obtaining, protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights outside the United States. Attachés from Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Switzerland, Thailand, and Russia are among those who will offer insight.

At the event, the Chamber's Global Intellectual Property Center will also release its long-awaited report to President-elect Barack Obama's administration on high-priority changes to the PTO. According to a draft report obtained by CongressDaily recently, the Chamber will urge the agency to overhaul the patent examiner production system; make administrative actions timelier; strengthen the PTO's relationship with the user community; enhance organizational management; and permit applicants to defer examination.

A handful of former PTO chiefs offered their own recommendations for PTO changes last week. Read that story here.

The Business Software Alliance, a trade group representing a number of major high-tech firms, has unveiled its 2008 Cyber Champion awards. The recipients include Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and John Cornyn, R-Texas; as well as House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va. During the 110th Congress, each of the lawmakers played an instrumental role in the passage of legislation to protect intellectual property and fight cyber crime, the BSA said. They were also champions of other pro-growth, pro-innovation measures.

"A strong tech industry is crucial to America's ability to address almost every economic and social challenge, from national security to the economy, healthcare, and the environment," BSA President Robert Holleyman said in a release. "Ensuring that IT will continue delivering solutions for America will require concerted efforts on many fronts, including economic policy, the workforce, innovation, security, trade, and intellectual property." He went on to say that partnerships between government and the private sector are essential to finding solutions to those challenges.

In other BSA news, the group's longtime PR chief has taken a job at FD Dittus Communications. Diane Smiroldo joined the firm last month after serving at BSA for more than 15 years. FD Dittus' Dale Curtis, who worked on the BSA account, has moved in-house to BSA.

Washingtonian magazine's Capital Comment blog reports that public relations firm Qorvis Communications and the law firm Patton Boggs have teamed up to launch a new iPhone application to assist those who will flock to D.C. for President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. Free to download, the app is designed to help out-of-towners find their way around the city. Download the app here.

Some Features:
• Countdown to the inauguration
• Distance you are from the steps of the inauguration
• Metro service and locations
• Zagat Guide
• Parking garage locations
• Free Wi-Fi zones

More inauguration gadgetry? Send us a tip!

A group of music industry interests that lobbied Congress this year to end a longstanding royalty exemption afforded to AM and FM stations sent broadcasters a holiday message Wednesday: "Radio, don't be a Scrooge." MusicFIRST coalition executive director Jennifer Bendall asked radio stations in a press release to "join us in creating a performance right on radio that is fair to artists and musicians." Stakeholders expect the issue to be a prominent one in the House and Senate Judiciary Committees in 2009 -- and if this flare-up is any indication, the gloves are coming off.

Holiday music can be found on nearly every music radio station, and although each artist's version is unique, they all have one thing in common: When their seasonal jingle (or any other performance) is played on AM and FM, the artist is not compensated, the coalition explained. Broadcasters, however, argue that the existing model serves the music industry by promoting artists over their airwaves. Terrestrial radio is the only platform that is exempt from the royalty -- satellite and Internet radio as well as cable TV pay.

Congress should consider taking legislative steps to strengthen procedures that private-sector organizations use to authenticate their customers' identities, the FTC recommended in a Wednesday report on Social Security numbers and identity theft. Currently, the only private-sector entities subject to nationwide authentication standards are financial institutions regulated by the federal banking agencies and the FTC said lawmakers should ponder imposing similar rules to cover other industries that maintain consumer accounts.

"Such standards would require organizations to adopt reasonable procedures for authenticating customers, but also would allow them to adopt a program that is compatible with their size and the nature of their business," the report states. The FTC report also recommended that steps be taken to reduce the unnecessary display and transmission of SSNs, but noted such restrictions must be approached carefully. A number of important functions in the U.S. economy depend on use of and access to SSNs, and the report concluded that overly restrictive attempts to limit the availability could unintentionally curtail those functions.

Various bills were introduced in the House and Senate in the 110th Congress that were intended to address problems associated with SSNs as well as larger ID theft issues. Read more about the FTC report here.

In a move likely to reignite questions in the blogosphere about Apple CEO Steve Jobs' health, the computer company late Tuesday announced that the keynote speech at next month's Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco will be delivered by Philip Schiller, the company's senior product marketing executive. Apple, which has been scaling back on international trade shows in recent years, also said that 2009 would be the last year it would exhibit at Macworld. Wall Street analysts and Apple investors have been abuzz over Jobs' health for some time.

"Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers," the company said in a press release. "The increasing popularity of Apple's retail stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com Web site enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways." In the wake of the news, Oppenheimer & Co. downgraded Apple's stock from "outperform" to "perform."

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) along with Verizon Business will provide toll-free calling on Christmas Eve to a Santa Claus-tracking hotline so children can monitor the jolly old elf's journey around the world. Those in the United States and Canada can call 1-877-HI-NORAD from 4 a.m. Mountain time on Dec. 24 through 3 a.m. Mountain time on Dec. 25 to find out Santa's exact location. More than 1,000 volunteers, military personnel, their families and friends, and NORAD Tracks Santa corporate sponsor team members will man the phone lines all night long, according to a Verizon press release.

The Santa stalking program began with an errant telephone call from a child in 1955 after a newspaper ran a department store advertisement featuring a special Santa "hotline" phone number. Instead of ringing a phone at the store, the phone number was the operations hotline to the Continental Air Defense Command (NORAD's predecessor). In 2007, more than 94,000 calls were answered at the NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center at Peterson Air Force Base, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Children and their parents can also track Santa -- in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Chinese -- through a special NORAD Web site.

House Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., on Wednesday lauded a decision by Yahoo to decrease the amount of time they keep personal information about online searches and consumer Web use to 90 days, after which that information will be effectively anonymized. "Consumers deserve ample privacy protections in the digital era to ensure trust and freedom on the Internet," Markey said in a statement, noting he has been pressing Internet firms for greater voluntary efforts to rollback "massive, systematic gathering of information about individual consumer Web use and the long term retention of such data in a form that can identify the Web habits, interests, searches, and purchases of individual Americans."

By making the change from 13 months to three months, Yahoo set a new standard for such privacy protection against which Google, Microsoft and others will now be compared, Markey said. Earlier this year, Google halved the amount of time it stores personal data to nine months and Microsoft has said it will cut the time to six months if its rivals followed suit. The European Union has recommended that companies keep data no more than six months. Privacy International's Simon Davies told the BBC that he hoped firms would set an industry-wide standard of 30 days. Ari Schwartz of the Center for Democracy and Technology told Reuters that Yahoo's announcement is significant because "they actually have an implementation plan to get this done."

In keeping with President-elect Barack Obama's commitment to changing the way business is done in Washington, the Presidential Inaugural Committee is striving for transparency in the public reporting of donors to the Jan. 20 event. While the committee does not accept money from corporations, political action committees, labor unions and current federally registered lobbyists, it has posted a running list of all donors contributing over $200. Some names of potential interest to the tech and entertainment community:

▪ Lisa Henson, Jim Henson Company [$50,000]
▪ John Keane, CBS/Viacom [$50,000]
▪ Micheal Kiechnick, Working Assets [$50,000]
▪ Harold Snyder, Tera Pharmaceuticals [$50,000]
▪ Steven Van Roekel, Microsoft senior director [$50,000]
▪ John Vechey, Popcap Games co-founder [$50,000]
▪ Henry Laufer, Renaissance Technology [$25,000]
▪ Katherine Kendrick, Dreamworks [$25,000]
▪ Irwin Jacobs, Qualcomm [$25,000]

New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain and Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz will help promote Sharp Electronics, Major League Baseball's official high-definition provider at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month, organizers of the international trade show have announced. Meanwhile, Dr. Mehmet Oz, known for his frequent spots on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," will make an appearance on behalf of Sony Pictures Television and singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder will have his own TechZone sponsored by the Sendero Group and the National Federation of the Blind.

Other notables who plan to attend CES include: CNBC "Money Honey" Maria Bartiromo; the hosts of NBC's "Today Show;" "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams; "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek; and IndyCar driver Sarah Fisher. Not a bad line-up, but in past years, the high-tech extravaganza has attracted even bigger star power. Previous attendees include actors Robin Williams, Kevin Costner, Michael Douglas, and Robert Redford plus a parade of musicians from Macy Gray and Joan Jett to Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and guitarist Dave Navarro.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reaffirmed her intent to increase federal support for research and development during a Monday talk at Princeton University, saying "if you want to know the agenda for this new Congress, remember four words: science, science, science and science." However, she warned there would be competition for government dollars (read: economic stimulus) in 2009 and said supporters of science must become active advocates for R&D funding. "We stand by this as the most important investment that we can make in health and education and energy independence, job creation and the defense of America," she said.

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., a physicist and former Princeton staff member, pointed out the economic importance of research. "We should make a commitment as a nation to research and development," he said. "Science and scientific research are not luxuries to be engaged in in plush times, but rather they are the basis for economic growth, economic prosperity and quality of life." Princeton has a press release with more details here.

Anurag Dikshit, a founder and former executive at PartyGaming, pleaded guilty in a New York federal court Tuesday to illegal Internet gambling and agreed to cooperate with the U.S. law enforcement officials in an investigation of the Gibraltar-based online gaming company. He entered the plea to one count of online gambling in violation of the Wire Act and will forfeit $300 million, the Justice Department said. Dikshit, 37, faces up to two years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.

From about 1997 through October 2006, PartyGaming operated a business that offered casino and poker games, among other games of chance, to customers around the world, including to individuals in the United States. During that time a majority of PartyGaming's users -- accounting for roughly 85 percent of PartyGaming's revenue in 2005 -- were located in the United States. Dikshit developed a proprietary software platform for PartyGaming, directed the firm's IT operations and was a principal shareholder for much of the time period.

A European high-tech trade group has fired a warning shot at the European Commission after hearing the body planned to offer a proposal to charge tariffs on "sophisticated" mobile phones. Handsets with increased functionality -- like GPS and mobile TV -- would face a tax of up to 14 percent, contrary to requirements of the WTO's Information Technology Agreement. The move, which was reportedly widely overseas but not in the United States, comes as a panel prepares to consider a case brought against the EU by Japan, Taiwan and the United States that grew out of the EU's imposition of what critics believe are unfair fees on a range of products like flat-screen monitors and set-top boxes.

"The net effect of these decisions is that European consumers will face rising prices for IT and telecom products, which not only contradicts the purpose of the ITA, but also is in total opposition with current measures to boost consumer purchasing power that feature in many national economic stimulus plans," according to EICTA, a group that represents Alcatel-Lucent, Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Siemens, Sony and other firms. Companies with components based in Europe companies would face a "costly blow to their operations in the EU, at a time when many are struggling to maintain profitability," the group said.

At the time the initial complaint against the EU was filed by U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab in May, House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel and Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Sander Levin, D-Mich., issued a statement saying legislation was needed "to ensure a more assertive approach to the enforcement of our international agreements and trade laws."

As part of the changes in Microsoft's Washington office, Matt Gelman has been promoted to senior director for congressional affairs. Gelman will manage Microsoft's federal policy advocacy efforts before Congress and lead the company's team of lobbyists on Capitol Hill. He previously served as Microsoft's House Democratic lobbyist and took an unpaid leave from Microsoft in early 2007 to serve as a senior adviser to House Majority Whip James Clyburn. In the 1990s, Gelman spent ten years on the House Democratic leadership staff, including eight years as floor assistant to former Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., when he served as Democratic whip.

CongressDaily reported last week that Fred Humphries was named director of federal government affairs, replacing Jack Krumholtz who launched Microsoft's federal government affairs activities in Washington in March 1995. Meanwhile at Microsoft, Ed Ingle will serve as managing director of federal government affairs, overseeing congressional and executive branch engagement and the tech giant's political action committee. -- Winter Casey

From David Herbert at NationalJournal.com's Lost In Transition blog:

If Barack Obama wants to prioritize e-government, he might look to the Commerce Department, which has quietly gained a reputation for being one of the most Web-savvy departments in the federal government. Commerce has long been viewed as a sprawling, almost ungovernable bureaucracy, but over the last few years it has seen significant advances in areas both small (online video) and large (the 2010 census).

"I think the Commerce Department has been aggressive and progressive," said Arnold Jackson, associate director for the 2010 census. Recently, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez pushed the Census Bureau to overcome technological barriers and offer an online form for the 2010 census, Jackson said. While the security software wasn't quite there to make the jump online in time for 2010, offering an Internet-based questionnaire is at "the very top of our agenda" for 2020, he added.

Commerce Secretary-designate Bill Richardson will oversee the 2010 census, and, depending on how long he serves, could be around when planning begins for the 2020 survey. Read the full post here.

A trade group representing Google, Time Warner's behavioral advertising subsidiary Tacoda, and Yahoo on Tuesday unveiled an upgraded self-regulatory code of conduct, which has guided Internet advertising providers since 2001. The updates come on the heels of increased scrutiny by lawmakers, the FTC, and privacy watchdogs. But critics argue the Network Advertising Initiative's updates fail to adequately protect consumers because its member companies still rely on obtuse privacy policies and an antiquated definition of "personally identifiable information."

The revisions neither ensure that financial-related information be classified as "sensitive" nor include strict enough restrictions for targeting Web users based on health concerns, according to the Center for Digital Democracy's Jeff Chester. NAI's update says its members will "continue their commitment to respect appropriate fair information practices" and to preserve a self-regulatory environment. But privacy advocates, who were slated to meet with members of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, said they would press for more government oversight of the industry.

The Center for Democracy and Technology said the Internet advertising industry "took a meaningful step toward protecting consumer privacy" by updating its code of conduct but the effort "falls short on several issues, leaving holes in consumer protection that must be plugged by federal privacy legislation." Like Chester, CDT's staff was disappointed that NAI retained its definition of "opt-out." In eight years, the group had time to develop an easy-to-use and accessible standard that honors consumer choices, the think tank said.

The Identity Theft Resource Center unveiled its predictions for 2009 on Tuesday and real estate and credit card-based scams top the nonprofit's list of potential problems on the horizon. Multiple scams are already circulating on the Internet and through local advertising that attack the equity in a home or which may be used to establish a whole new home loan, the group said. Meanwhile, ID thieves may also take advantage of the tight credit climate by advertising the ability to get credit cards despite a poor credit score or the lack of a Social Security number.

The center warns that job scams are on the rise -- as people seek second sources of income -- and a variety of fake IRS emails have arisen, including tax refund offers, audit information demands and verification of citizenship status. In addition, the center is anticipating an increase in check fraud and sophisticated ways to "mine" personal information, sometimes by organized crime groups. On a positive note, the center predicts increases in the number of state and federal agencies and nonprofits that provide free ID theft victim assistance.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Director Steven Chu -- President-elect Barack Obama's pick for Energy Secretary -- is a "champion of U.S. innovation" and "understands the critical role that technology and innovation play in creating a brighter energy future for America," Semiconductor Industry Association President George Scalise said in a Monday release. Obama announced his intention to nominate the Nobel-winning physicist the same day.

Chu, an alternative energy guru, is a leading advocate of increased public investments in science and technology to achieve long-term energy security, SIA said. The Energy Department funds more physical science and engineering research than any other federal agency. "Technology leadership is a prerequisite to solving America's energy challenges," Scalise said. "SIA supports a robust innovation policy agenda that will increase federal funding for basic research at U.S. universities and national laboratories coupled with an investment climate that rewards private-sector research."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation got creative with it's year-in-review. From government surveillance-related telecom immunity and border laptop searches to "fair use" of copyrighted content and the battle over Internet age-verification, this watchdog group's legal team has had a busy 2008. Watch the animated video above.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, last week released a report documenting what he believes is absurd federal spending by members of Congress in 2008. One tech-related example highlighted in Coburn's paper is the allocation of $2.5 million for a project to build a "high altitude airship" that the Pentagon no longer wants.

Described by Popular Science, the HAA is a blimp-like aircraft intended to float 12 miles above the earth and provide spy surveillance -- a creation of Lockheed Martin, which was awarded a $150 million contract in 2006 by the Missile Defense Agency to produce a fleet of 10. The agency scrapped the project but contractors fought back, according to Coburn's report. The HAA facility in Akron, Ohio, was sold to lawmakers as a "jobs program," which kept it alive for an extra year, the report stated.

Other tech programs highlighted in Coburn's report include: a Ohio program to provide voicemail for the homeless ($15,000); FCC-sponsored NASCAR events to promote the digital TV transition ($350,000); a 3-D space theater in Indiana ($2.4 million); and a California study of American and Chinese videogame habits ($100,000).

During the presidential campaign, President-elect Barack Obama said he would appoint a federal chief technology officer "to ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century," according to a management reform plan he released in September. Just what skills does this CTO need to do this, which includes leading the historically change-averse bureaucracy to embrace new ways of doing business?

Nextgov's Allan Holmes sat down recently with Norm Lorentz, the first -- and only -- federal chief technology officer to find out. He was named CTO at the Office of Management and Budget in January 2002 and worked in that position until September 2003. While CTO, Lorentz worked on the Federal Enterprise Architecture, which provides a common model for buying information technology so agencies can share information.

Read the full Q&A here.

German engineering conglomerate Siemens AG and three of its subsidiaries, which did businesses across the globe, pled guilty Monday to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act -- a law that makes it illegal to bribe a foreign official to get business. More than $800 million in bribes were paid by Siemens and its various entities from 2001 to 2007, the Justice Department said. The firm will pay a $450 million criminal fine to the U.S. government and will retain an independent monitor for four years, officials said.

"These penalties are strong medicine, but they are commensurate with the conduct at issue here, which can only be described as egregious," Acting Assistant Attorney General Matt Friedrich said at a briefing, noting they are necessary to ensure that all companies, domestic and foreign, large and small, have equal access to the globalized markets. According to court documents, Siemens executives used off-the-books slush fund accounts and shell companies to facilitate bribes and made false entries on the company's books.

"Siemens is closing a painful chapter in its history," Siemens' Supervisory Board Chairman Gerhard Cromme said in a release. "Today marks the end of an unprecedented two-year effort to resolve extremely serious matters for the company. Based on robust leadership processes, Siemens has established a sustainable culture of compliance."

Read more details of the DOJ/SEC press conference here.

The White House has released the 2008 Christmas video from Scottish Terrier Barney. This year's webisode is titled, "Barney Cam VII: A Red, White, and Blue Christmas." For more, visit the White House's holiday Web site.

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

As Inauguration Day nears, the high-tech sector is submitting its wish lists to President-elect Barack Obama's transition team through letters, one-pagers, and face-to-face meetings. On the front burner is an array of technology-related government incentives that industry groups want included in the economic stimulus package that lawmakers plan to unveil early next year. Last week, the heads of the American Electronics Association and the Information Technology Association of America, which expect to close a merger deal by the end of 2008, wrote to Obama's advisers and members of Congress urging that technology be included in the stimulus bill. The action comes as telecommunications industry interests are campaigning for billions of federal dollars.

In their letter, AeA President Christopher Hansen and ITAA President Phil Bond said Congress should allow financial assets that U.S. companies have overseas to be repatriated at a reduced rate. "This would have positive economic effects for individual companies and their employees and investors, plus the U.S. economy as a whole," they wrote. They called for targeted accelerated depreciation for investment in IT and broadband Internet access as well as language that would speed the cost-effective deployment of fiber-optic broadband networks. Notice should be given to Internet service providers in a given market of any infrastructure projects so they could piggyback on road, bridge, railway and other transportation projects without having to dig up streets. The result would save taxpayers' money, they said.

Read the full story at CongressDaily's TechCentral (subscription required).

President-elect Barack Obama, his primary season challenger Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona each received a 100 percent on the Information Technology Industry Council's congressional scorecard, which is updated every two years to coincide with the final vote of a session of Congress. The scorecard [available here as a PDF] also serves as an indicator of how well the high-tech sector is doing to increase lawmakers' understanding of the power of the IT industry on the U.S. economy.

Fifty-five other senators also received a perfect score by the trade group that represents major firms like Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, and Microsoft. Some of the lowest ranking senators include: Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., (40 percent); Roger Wicker, R-Miss., (50 percent); James Inhofe, R-Okla.; Jim DeMint, R-S.C., (25 percent); Wayne Barrasso, R-Wyo.; (50 percent); and the late Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., (0 percent). Members were ranked for their votes on a range of tech-related bills, including the American Competes Act, the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act; comprehensive energy legislation; a proposal to extend and expand the research and development tax credit for two years; and the $700 billion financial rescue plan.

ITI also scored all 435 members of the House. For more information about the trade group's rankings from the 106th Congress through the current session, click here.

Google telecom and media counsel Richard Whitt and a watchdog group that favors so-called "network neutrality" legislation fired back at a story in Monday's Wall Street Journal that Whitt argued was "based on a misunderstanding of the way in which the open Internet works." The article alleges that the Internet giant, which has been a leading voice for equal access for all content online providers, has approached major broadband providers with a proposal to create a fast lane for its own content.

In a late night blog post, Whitt said Google "remains strongly committed to the principle of net neutrality." He clarified that Google has offered to "colocate" caching servers within broadband providers' own facilities, which would reduce the provider's bandwidth costs since the same video wouldn't have to be transmitted multiple times. All of the collocation deals with broadband providers are non-exclusive, meaning any other entity could employ similar arrangements, Whitt said, adding that none require or encourage that Google traffic be treated with higher priority than other traffic.

Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver issued a statement saying he was skeptical that Google is "engaged in a nefarious plot to undermine the open Internet." Net neutrality is bigger than Google or any single company, Silver said, expressing optimism that Internet anti-discrimination legislation will resurface in 2009 with the support of President-elect Barack Obama. Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn added "the effort to achieve an open and non-discriminatory Internet is alive and well in Washington."

Congressional offices and organizers of grassroots advocacy campaigns have used technology in ways that have unintentionally hindered democratic dialogue over the past decade, resulting in "misunderstanding, frustration [and] wasted effort," according to a report released today by the Congressional Management Foundation. The 69-page study, which caps off nearly 10 years of research, recommends a new model for interaction rooted in the belief that "all communications to and from congressional offices should be trustworthy, authentic, effective and efficient."

The report comes on the heels of a temporary shutdown of House servers in late September and early October, which resulted from an unprecedented number of constituent e-mails regarding the $700 billion bailout package. The overload of the "Write Your Representative" feature was the most recent demonstration of the urgent need for change in the face of Internet-enabled citizen engagement, the foundation said. At the time, a spokesman for the Chief Administrative Officer said the system had not experienced such demand since the 9/11 Commission report was posted in 2004.

Read the full CongressDaily story here (subscription required).

The New York Times has a curious new campaign to promote its Web site -- a series of videos that offer "candid conversations with some of today's most interesting people about their passions, their lives and NYTimes.com." The clip above features Ben Stein, an economic and political commentator, writer, actor and attorney -- and Trixie the Weimaraner. Other vignettes star fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, actress Bebe Neuwirth, New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck and others.

Stanford University professor and Internet expert Lawrence Lessig, who recently focused his energy on a grassroots campaign to combat the influence of money in American politics, has decided to relocate to Harvard University in June where he will direct the Safra Center -- an initiative that "encourages teaching and research about ethical issues in public and professional life." This will be a homecoming of sorts for Lessig who was the first endowed chair at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society from 1991 to 1997.

Lessig, who also flirted with a run for the seat of the late Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., earlier this year, said he made the difficult decision because of the opportunity to "frame a large-scale project devoted to a large, important and complex problem." He said he will continue to work on the Change Congress project with Democratic strategist Joe Trippi and will explore how to best incorporate Internet policy into his research. Read more about Lessig's move here.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who hit the campaign trail on behalf of President-elect Barack Obama in the weeks leading up to Election Day and now serves on his economic advisory board, appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday to discuss the role technology can play in generating economic growth and job creation. He appeared alongside Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott.

"America is place where innovation drives huge business outcomes," Schmidt said. "We forget in the middle of all this doom and gloom that we have the strongest universities, the most creative people -- people coming [from] all around the world to come here." He went on to say that he believes the money the federal government is going to provide in a forthcoming stimulus package can begin to solve the nation's fundamental energy and transportation problems relatively quickly.

When President-elect Barack Obama takes office Jan. 20, the trailblazing, tech-savvy way his camp communicated with supporters and the public at large will change drastically due to federal regulations like the Presidential Records Act, which puts the commander-in-chief's correspondence in the official record. A former deputy assistant to President Bill Clinton said Friday that shift will be a major challenge for a politician who revolutionized Internet outreach and organizing.

"You have such immense freedom in a campaign -- in both speed and how you can move information -- that gets unbelievably throttled down the day you set foot in a government bureaucracy," said Jeff Eller, who is now president of Public Strategies. Although Clinton served during the Internet's early days, his advisers found their ability to be creative "took far longer to ramp up and scale up" due to long-standing technological and regulatory restrictions, Eller said at an open government discussion hosted by Google. He advised Obama to fight for openness when in office. Read the full story in CongressDaily here (subscription required).

Need some reading material for your holiday vacation? Adam Thierer at the Progress and Freedom Foundation has some suggestions. He recently posted his picks for the most important tech policy book of 2008. Thierer's top 10 include:

The Future of the Internet, and How to Stop It
The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google
Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations
Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob
Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering
Blown to Bits: Your Life Liberty and Happiness After the Digital Explosion
Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy
Patent Failure: How Judges Bureaucrats & Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk
Understanding Privacy

President-elect Barack Obama's transition team is breaking new ground with outreach efforts on Change.gov, particularly with the "Your Seat at the Table" section, under which proceedings of meetings and documents shared between Obama's aides and outside groups are posted online and available for comment. But have these visionaries gotten a bit ahead of themselves? Is the screen grab posted above merely a typo -- or have they built a time machine to move even faster with their transition work?

From Friday's CongressDaily AM Edition:

Reducing the Patent and Trademark Office's growing backlog of applications should be one of the highest priorities for the agency in the Obama administration, several former high-level PTO officials agreed Thursday. An array of proposals for streamlining the office have been floated in legislation introduced in recent sessions of Congress and by intellectual property stakeholders, but Gerald Mossinghoff -- who ran the office under the late President Ronald Reagan -- believes none of them will be successful until the estimated 1.2 million applications are reduced.

The PTO has maintained there is a 700,000-application backlog, which does not include applications that are currently being examined. Mossinghoff, who serves as special counsel at Oblon Spivak, called the problem "horrendous" and criticized PTO Director Jon Dudas of setting annual "soft, stair-step goals" rather than projecting where the agency will stand in four and eight years. "They achieve their goals but don't cut into backlog," he said. Read the full story here (subscription required).

[Cross-posted from NationalJournal.com's Under the Influence Blog]

What happens to government affairs teams when two companies combine? That is yet to be determined in the case of the Washington lobby shops for EDS and Hewlett-Packard after HP's acquisition of EDS closed on Aug. 26. Hewlett-Packard spokeswoman Pamela Bonney said the company is still working through the integration of these government affairs teams -- and the structure of a new team is not finalized -- just as the company is working through the integration of the other parts of EDS.

Asked to respond to rumors that some staff could be leaving, Bonney said, "People are making decisions about the future of their careers. And we are unable to make any further comment on individuals." David Isaacs of HP said in an email that he is "leaving HP before the holidays." Bonney confirmed that the company has made no new hires on its government affairs team in the last two months. -- Winter Casey

From National Journal magazine…

Dale Curtis is no stranger to the D.C. policy world. He not only worked on Capitol Hill and in the White House but also spent time as a journalist. Most recently, Curtis has been immersed in the Washington technology sector. Having spent the past six years with FD Dittus Communications, he is now taking a job with one of that firm's longtime clients, the Business Software Alliance. Curtis worked on the BSA account for the last year and a half and is now moving in-house as vice president of communications.

Curtis, 46, hails from central Missouri and is just one generation removed from full-time farmers. He also lived in Amsterdam, N.Y., which is how he made a connection with his first boss in Washington, then-Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y. He spent five years with Boehlert in the 1980s before taking a position at the White House Council on Environmental Quality under President George H.W. Bush. During that time, Curtis was the editor of the president's annual report to Congress on environmental policy.

[Cross-posted from NationalJournal.com's Lost in Transition Blog]

Craig Newmark, the founder of classifieds giant craigslist, has some advice for President-elect Barack Obama as he searches for a chief technology officer: Find someone who can foster public-private sector partnerships and "crack the whip" to bring about necessary reforms in tech policy. "The government isn't ready in some respects to use these new technologies," Newmark said. "When it comes to computer technology, there are some really smart people who can do something in a month that it would take the government a year to do."

Pushing a national broadband strategy and overhauling the government's information technology infrastructure should be near the top of any tech czar's to-do list, Newmark argued. And, given the array of technological challenges facing the next administration, Newmark recommended the president-elect keep his campaign pledge to elevate the position to a Cabinet-level post. So would Newmark leave craigslist and San Francisco for the Beltway if Obama came calling? Not likely. "I have a job -- it's customer service -- and I'll be doing that for a long time," he said. "Washington is too humid. You can quote me on that." -- David Herbert

Smart broadband networks paired with effective management is the best way to ensure a fair allocation of Internet resources and ensure good performance for all types of applications, according to a new report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. The paper, which comes on the heels of considerable congressional attention to pipeline providers' network management practices, urges continued expansion in Internet capacity but observes “adding more network capacity will not solve network congestion or other network performance challenges, in part because demand has a way of soaking up supply.”

ITIF President Rob Atkinson also made clear in releasing the report that smart networks and management are not alternatives for next-generation broadband infrastructure, which are essential for delivering new and high-bandwidth content. “We must deploy next-generation broadband services, but no amount of raw bandwidth will ever be a substitute for intelligent networks, network management and quality of service technology,” he said in a release. “Progress toward a ubiquitous digital world requires both bigger pipes and better managed pipes.” Atkinson said ITIF's report was prepared in an attempt to "remove some of the emotion from the policy debate over network management."

Read “Managing Broadband Networks: A Policymakers' Guide" here.

Michael Calabrese, vice president and director of the wireless future program at the New America Foundation, acknowledges that he may be one of the candidates being considered for a slot as FCC Commissioner in President-elect Barack Obama's administration. "I've heard I'm on a list of people being considered as an FCC commissioner, but I'm sure at this point it's quite a long list,” Calabrese said in response to an inquiry on the topic. Although he added that as far as he is aware there is no formal process yet underway for FCC appointments. Calabrese has previously served as director of domestic policy programs at the Center for National Policy, as general counsel of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, and as pension and employee benefits counsel at the national AFL-CIO. Calabrese is a graduate of Stanford Business and Law Schools. -- Winter Casey

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has a new position in her office that does not yet have a recognizable acronym on Capitol Hill when the hires of LAs, LDs, COSs, and AAs, are discussed. Collins’s new media director, Lance Dutson, will be charged with oversight of online forums, blogs, increased use of the Web site, Web video initiatives, and user-generated content. "Our use of new media will take many forms, the most obvious of which will be an increase in the use of our Web site as a medium for two-way communication," Dutson said in an email.

"We plan to dramatically increase our use of Web video to keep constituents abreast of what is happening in Washington, and to use the medium to explain both the process and the reasoning behind the legislative work that is done on their behalf," he said. Web video will provide an efficient way for Collins to speak directly to Mainers and provides a venue for her to hear concerns of her constituents, he said. The office will also boost communication through email and RSS distribution and employ micro-targeting, hyper-local blogs and user-generated content.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J. and other Democrats will join Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman on Monday for a roundtable discussion with science and technology leaders about how to strengthen the national commitment to physical sciences and energy research. Other attendees from Capitol Hill include House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson of Connecticut, Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller of California, Energy Independence and Global Warming Select Committee Chairman Edward Markey of Massachusetts, and Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon of Tennessee.

Industry and academic experts invited to engage with members include: Norman Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin; Intel Corporation Chairman Craig Barrett; Association of American Universities President Robert Berdahl; American Chemical Society President Bruce Bursten; Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute; Merck Research Laboratories President Peter Kim and others.

The Family Online Safety Institute, whose members include AT&T, Comcast Corp., Google, Microsoft, Verizon and other high-tech firms urged the Obama administration on Thursday ramp up government efforts to protect children on the Internet. The group proposes naming a national safety officer to serve under the yet-to-be-named national chief information officer within the White House; creating a U.S. Internet safety council; and establishing a federal program to fund a range of online safety research and education projects.

"We need a paradigm shift in what we do, say and teach about online safety," FOSI CEO Stephen Balkam said in a release issued in conjunction with the institute's second annual summit in Washington. "We look to the next administration to provide leadership and support at the highest levels to help make the online world a safer place for children," he said. MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam, who keynoted the conference, said FOSI's call to action "is opportune with new leadership taking charge of the online safety for our nation’s children in a Web 2.0 world."

Read more about FOSI's recommendations here.

463 Communications, which represents a number of high-tech interests in Washington, will host its holiday party Wednesday night and the title and tagline for the soiree reflect the economic times: "Depression 2.0 Party: We’re gonna party like its 1929…" In the spirit of the Great Depression, 463's annual comedic video to be shown at the event is reminiscent of the black-and-white newsreels of the era. Fortunately, unlike during the early part of the prior financial meltdown, booze will be flowing.

Grainy footage in "The March of Progress" pokes fun at several 463 clients including Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the Consumer Electronics Association, Cisco Systems, Google, TechNet, the Tech CEO Council, Skype, and VeriSign. View a sneak peek above (with a slightly embarrassing cameo appearance by yours truly).

The Copyright Alliance's seven-member board of directors met with President-elect Barack Obama's transition team last week to discuss strategies for protecting intellectual property. The alliance is backed by NBC Universal, the Professional Photographers of America, Time Warner, Viacom and other stakeholders in the content community. David Trust, PPA's executive director, was among those at the meeting and said in a press release that he was pleased to have had the opportunity to "express to the new administration our thoughts and concerns about copyright and intellectual property issues."

During the Friday meeting, Trust argued that a major portion of the economy is under siege and that photographers are an important part of that economic mix. PPA's written materials also pointed out the vast network of professional photographers (over 122,000 nationwide) and the impact IP and its domestic and international enforcement play in their livelihoods. "I was most impressed with the genuine interest they displayed for our collective message," Trust said. "This was not just a courtesy meeting -- they listened intently and took pages of notes. It feels like we are doing real good for photography and all creators."

The yet-to-be-named chief technology officer for the federal government -- a position President-elect Barack Obama endorsed during his presidential campaign -- should be charged with developing a comprehensive IT plan that is "flexible, technology neutral, free of prescriptive mandates, aimed at addressing current and future needs, and that would be acceptable if embraced by other governments," Business Software Alliance President Robert Holleyman wrote in a letter to Obama's transition team.

Such a plan should address the information privacy and security needs of citizens by working closely with leaders in academia, research labs, industry and government at all levels, he stated in a letter being sent Wednesday. Holleyman, whose trade group represents Apple, Cisco Systems, Dell Computer, Microsoft, Symantec and other high-tech firms, also said the CTO should consult regularly with "the best and brightest minds" that can look for ways to harness the power of new technologies to improve government.

Obama, in his tech policy platform, said a federal CTO would be assigned “to ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century.” BSA believes the CTO could play a more valuable role by taking a longer-term approach to the nation’s IT need in areas such as health care, environmental protection, education, income inequality, connectivity, and public safety.

The Software and Information Industry Association filed eight new lawsuits against illegal software sellers Tuesday. The new round includes the group's first-ever lawsuits against suppliers on Amazon.com and iOffer.com. The latest actions bring the total number of online auction site lawsuits SIIA has filed this year on behalf of its member companies to 40, officials said in a press release. In addition to the civil cases, SIIA probes have led to the filing of numerous criminal cases by the Justice Department.

“In the current economic climate, when consumer confidence is already low, it is essential that consumers are able to purchase software online knowing that it is legal and will function properly," SIIA IP chief Keith Kupferschmid said. "Illegal sellers tempt consumers with low prices, but the software often doesn’t work and, of course, comes without the full range of customer support offered by manufacturers.” iOffer CEO Ryan Boyce lauded SIIA's efforts, saying the distribution of counterfeit software on any site is "unacceptable."

A merger of the American Electronics Association and the Information Technology Association of America will close by the end of the year, the high-tech trade groups said Tuesday. The organizations' boards have formally approved the pairing, which was announced in September. The group will be called the Technology Association of America and represent approximately 2,000 member companies. ITAA previously acquired the Cyber Security Industry Alliance and the Government Electronics and Information Association.

AeA Chairman Peter Boni, president of Safeguard Scientifics, said in a release that the merger will offer the industry a strong voice on Capitol Hill and extends to the incoming Obama administration "a united partner to foster innovation and address the challenges ahead." ITAA Chairman Hank Steininger, a managing partner at Grant Thorton, also praised the move. Read previous CongressDaily and National Journal coverage here and here.

Some images of Google's new office in Reston, Va. See related blog post here and additional photos after the jump.

Increasing efforts to fight illegal movie theater videotaping as well as Internet and optical disc piracy are key points in a one-pager submitted to President-elect Barack Obama's transition team this week by the Motion Picture Association of America. The trade group, which represents major movie studios, offered the document as part of Change.gov's "Your Seat at the Table" feature, under which proceedings of meetings and documents shared between Obama's aides and outside groups are made available for public comment.

In its briefing document, the MPAA said:

▪ Illicit camcording remains the major source of pirated content and the group worked with the U.S. government to include anti-camcording language in new free trade agreements, including the Korean and Malaysian deals.
▪ Internet piracy is a top priority for MPAA and the group views recent efforts by the governments of France and the United Kingdom t protect online content and facilitate inter-industry cooperation as useful models.
▪ MPAA has identified Canada, China, India, Mexico, Russia and Spain as countries that should receive priority trade policy attention in 2009.

The FBI has identified a new technique used to conduct so-called "vishing" attacks where hackers exploit a known security vulnerability in Asterisk software, the agency said Tuesday in a press release. Asterisk is free and widely used software developed to integrate Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems with voice-over-Internet protocol communications services. The vulnerability can be exploited by cyber criminals to use the system as an auto dialer, generating thousands of vishing telephone calls to consumers within one hour, officials said.

Digium, the original creator and primary developer of Asterisk, released a security advisory in March 2008, which contained the information necessary for users to configure a system, patch the software, or upgrade the software to protect against the threat. If users fall victim to this exploit, their personally identifiable information will be compromised, the FBI said. To prevent further loss of consumers’ data and to reduce the spread of this new technique, businesses using Asterisk must upgrade their software to a version that cannot be compromised, officials said.

Google's presence in the Washington area is growing with the opening of a new 15,000-square foot office in Reston, Va. The Internet giant christened its snazzy downtown D.C. hub, which houses its lobbying shop, last January. The Virginia facility [photos of which are forthcoming] will be managed by Mike Bradshaw and Vint Cerf, who head up the company's Federal Enterprise Sales and Internet Evangelism functions, respectively.

The sales team -- whose portfolio includes the Google Search Appliance, Google Site Search, Google Apps Premier, Google Earth Enterprise, Google Maps for Enterprise and Google SketchUp -- already works with a number of agencies. All 15 cabinet departments use Google technology to power the search on their public Web sites or Intranet. Some agencies that work with Google include the Food and Drug Administration, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, Coast Guard, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and National Park Service.

The Reston office, which hosted an open house for press on Tuesday, is home to 30 Googlers. The conference rooms are named after famous Virginia natives, such as Patsy Cline, Booker T. Washington, and Lewis and Clark. The Ella Fitzgerald room contains a floor-to-ceiling photo of the singer. Employees enjoy a cafeteria for catered lunches, a game room, a massage chair and a "micro-kitchen" for snacks and drinks. Where possible, Google used products made from recycled materials, including furniture, chairs and counter tops.

The telecommunications industry is racing to persuade the incoming Obama administration to add as much as $33 billion in government incentives to an economic stimulus package that could be enacted soon after Inauguration Day, according to Tuesday's CongressDaily AM Edition.

Individually or as members of trade groups, Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, Cisco, Corning, Google, Intel, Verizon and others with a stake in the Internet, along with cable providers, labor unions and watchdogs, are among those seeking incentives. The pot of gold could include tax credits, grants or low-interest loans designed to spur broadband deployment to areas without service or competition, and assist with infrastructure upgrades.

Other stories of interest:

House-Senate Dispute Looms Over Cybersecurity Authority
Two key House lawmakers said Monday that they are prepared to introduce legislation overhauling the U.S. government's cybersecurity efforts -- a move that could put them on a collision course with their Senate counterparts. Read more.

House Panel To Issue Report On Inquiry Into FCC, Martin
The House Energy and Commerce Committee may issue a report as early as today summarizing its year-long investigation into allegations that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and other agency officials overstepped their regulatory authority. Read more.

Over at NationalJournal.com's Lost In Transition blog, Amy Harder writes that the Travel Industry Association has launched a new transition Web site and released a series of briefings on major concerns the group believes Barack Obama should address. The briefings cover issues such as the controversial Visa waiver program, the Transportation Security Administration's screening process and federal highway reauthorization. Nine of TIA's 18 briefings address the Department of Homeland Security, with others devoted to State, Commerce, Transportation, Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The site also offers a repository of information on what other groups, including think tanks and government agencies, have recently done related to travel policy. Geoff Freeman, the TIA's senior vice president of public affairs, hopes the site provides a service for the incoming administration. "Now's not the time when people want to be lobbied, bombarded with stuff they don't need," Freeman said. "The transition team is interested in being informed. These briefing papers and links to other reports take every issue and provide a holistic view." Freeman said his group has been in contact with various transition team members, and he stressed how closely travel is connected to the economy, U.S. image abroad and energy.

On Monday night, Georgetown University's Center for Business and Public Policy hosted a presentation by FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, who will discuss "Communications Policy: Issues and Opportunities Facing the Next Administration." This was a swan song of sorts for Taylor Tate, a Republican whose term on the FCC formally expired last year -- and who must leave the commission prior to when the new Congress is sworn in.

On Tuesday, the Center for Democracy and Technology will release a set of transition documents aimed at helping the Obama administration craft a policy agenda across a range of areas -- including security, free speech, consumer privacy, health information technology, copyright protection, and Internet-related issues. The documents, already in the hands of Obama transition team members, are drawn from CDT's "Internet in Transition" project that was developed during the presidential election cycle.

On Thursday, four former officials of the Patent and Trademark Office will discuss that agency's policies and priorities in the Obama administration at a lunchtime forum hosted by the Computing Technology Industry Association. Speakers include Q. Todd Dickinson, Nicholas Godici, Bruce Lehman, and Gerald Mossinghoff.

As many Consumer Electronics Show veteran attendees are aware, Silicon Valley is not the only industry to call Las Vegas home in early January. The 2009 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo -- the largest event for the adult industry worldwide -- also happens there and it looks like some of that conference's vendors are trying to woo media types from the international tech trade show.

Some snippets (suitable for general audiences) from a Monday email:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
From: Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 6:32 PM
Subject: CES Media Invited to Cover Adult Expo

Digital Playground Media Angles:
--The first fully functional adult iPhone optimized site with more than 200 full length movies.
--Amortizing production costs across multiple delivery mechanisms beyond just DVD including: Internet, IPTV, Set top box, Mobile, Blu-ray Live, VOD.
--H.264 encoding creates a seamless experience across multiple environments so that the brand is customized for the latest BluRay protocols, the next generation of smart phones, the Playstation 3 and other gaming console[s]

The Coalition for Patent Fairness, whose corporate members include Apple, Cisco Systems, Google, Microsoft and Time Warner, has parted ways with its public affairs firm Chlopak Leonard Schechter and Associates after two years. Patent Fairness lobbyists Steve Elmendorf and Mark Isakowitz told CongressDaily last week they are optimistic that a bill their members can support will advance in 2009. It is unclear who will do their flacking in the new year. Read more on that topic here.

The group is a proponent of sweeping changes to the U.S. patent system and championed legislation sponsored in the 110th Congress by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., who chaired the House Judiciary Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property Subcommittee. The Senate bill almost reached the floor in the spring but fizzled after talks with Judiciary ranking member Arlen Specter failed. The House passed its version in 2007.

Update: A source tells us that the coalition has hired Michael Meehan and David DiMartino of BGR Public Relations. Meehan previously served as chief of staff for Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and DiMartino was deputy chief of staff for Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb.

A well known FCC watchdog group is reorganizing with an eye toward adapting to President-elect Barack Obama's administration, a new Congress and the forthcoming departure of one of its senior staffers. Media Access Project CEO Andrew Jay Schwartzman announced the changes Monday in a press release, which also stated that MAP Senior Vice President Harold Feld will leave in early 2009.

Schwartzman, who has been at the helm for more than 30 years, will serve as MAP’s legal and policy director and has asked the group's board to hire a new chief executive to manage operations, planning and development. Feld has been with the public interest group for a decade -- heading up its spectrum and Internet freedom issues -- but recently signed a book contract and intends to focus on his writing.

Among MAP’s major pending cases are a challenge to the FCC’s deregulation of broadcast ownership rules and the defense of an FCC ruling that Comcast for unlawfully blocked customers’ Internet access. “Needless to say, the coming of a new administration enables MAP to go on the offensive for the first time in eight years,” Schwartzman said.

Rep.-elect Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., continues to be involved in the daily operations of her family ranch but she is also an expert on sovereign wealth funds, follows Internet tax issues and is hopping on the new media bandwagon. Below are the emailed responses from Lummis to technology questions posed by National Journal's Winter Casey:

NJ: How do you use tech personally? And how might this influence how you use tech once in office?

Lummis: I am excited about how new media can connect me with my constituents in Wyoming. In addition to standard email and texting, I used Twitter some during the campaign and I hope to find a role for new technologies like Twitter, Qik or Ustream in my office. I admire Rep. John Culberson for his early adoption of new technologies that connect him to his constituents. I hope to learn from Mr. Culberson about how I can employ new technology in ways that can benefits my constituents and further open the lines of communication.

NJ: Do you have any background related to the tech industry?

Lummis: “While I do not have a background in tech I am eager learn about new technologies that can help me connect with constituents and that can help my constituents simplify their lives.”

A subsidiary of L-3 Communications Corp. has paid the U.S. government $4 million to settle allegations that the company submitted false and inflated claims to the Army for hours worked by the firm’s employees on a contract supporting military operations in Iraq, the Justice Department announced Monday. Madison, Miss.-based L-3 Vertex Aerospace has an ongoing contract with the Pentagon to provide helicopter maintenance services at Camp Taji, Iraq.

The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed on behalf of the U.S. government by former L-3 employee Henry Roderigas, who received $720,000 as his share of the recovery in the case. Under the False Claims Act, private citizens can bring suit on behalf of the United States and share in any recovery obtained by the government. U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said the resolution "demonstrates our commitment to protect public funds that support the operations of our armed forces from fraud and abuse." The case was prosecuted as part of a larger National Procurement Fraud Initiative, which began in October 2006.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency will unveil its long-awaited report on Monday on what the incoming administration should do to protect U.S. information networks from cyber attacks. Notably, the commission recommends that a new office in the White House should be responsible for the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, as opposed to the Homeland Security Department. Key members of the panel briefed the House Homeland Security Emerging Threats Subcommittee at a September hearing. Read more in CongressDaily here.

James Lewis, who led the CSIS cybersecurity panel, told lawmakers the agency has lacked focus despite recent efforts to right the ship with its coordination of the multibillion-dollar cybersecurity directive signed by President Bush in January. "Only the White House has the authority" to effectively monitor and manage cyberstrategies across federal agencies, he said. Still, Lewis said after the hearing, "We're better off now than we were a year ago," regarding Homeland Security's handling of cybersecurity. Lewis said he initially wanted to preserve DHS control but commission colleagues, some of whom are former department officials, opposed the status quo.

President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday capped off his weekly address, which largely focused on upgrading roads, schools and energy efficiency, with a pledge to "renew our information superhighway." "It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they’ll get that chance when I’m president," he said in a speech that was posted on video-sharing site YouTube.

"In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the Internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the Internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I’m proposing will help modernize our health care system – and that won’t just save jobs, it will save lives," Obama said. "We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year."

The massive public-works program and the broadband initiative are part of a larger economic recovery plan that Obama said he looked forward to rolling out in the coming weeks but gave no price estimate for the effort. "When Congress reconvenes in January, I look forward to working with them to pass a plan immediately," he said. "We need to act with the urgency this moment demands to save or create at least two and a half million jobs so that the nearly two million Americans who’ve lost them know that they have a future." Watch the entire address here.

Update: Technology blogs and commentators praise Obama's broadband plans -- click here.

When Microsoft managing director Fred Humphries arrives in Washington, D.C. in January to run the high-tech giant's government affairs office, he will be returning to familiar territory, friends and former colleagues said Friday. Before moving to the West Coast, he spent a number of years as a Capitol Hill staffer and at the Democratic National Committee (see earlier blog post here) but his encore performance in the nation's capital will have him positioned on a new team within the political parlor game.

Humphries, according to House Majority Whip James Clyburn's chief of staff Yebbie Watkins, "has forged great relationships with members and staff and probably has one of the best professional networks of anyone I know." Watkins said he is glad that Microsoft picked someone to replace longtime lobbyist Jack Krumholtz who "comes from our ranks" and has a breadth of experience with federal and state governments. "He understands how the Hill works… Fred knows the politics and the policy," said Watkins, who serves with him on the board of the Congressional Black Caucus foundation.

Once Humphries settles in, "he needs to engage with those members and leadership who may be new to him because the Hill has changed a lot" since he left, Watkins said. There's no doubt that the larger Democratic majority in the 111th Congress and a soon-to-be elected Democratic president both bode well for him. "Fred's a strong Democrat and it’s a Democratic city nowadays," Watkins added.

With increased attention to Change.gov, President-elect Barack Obama's transition Web site, we wondered whether Change.org -- a self-described "social entrepreneurship venture" based in San Francisco -- might be benefiting from a surge in traffic either by users mistakenly trying to access the Obama team's site or out of idle curiosity about what content lives at the potentially lucrative domain.

Ben Rattray, CEO of the year-old site, confirmed our hunch via email. His grassroots effort aims to serve as a "central platform informing and empowering movements for social change around the most important issues of our time." While there, individuals can search for a million nonprofits by keyword or topic -- from animals and arts to health and human services. Change.org has a traffic rank of 60,542 from Web analytics firm Alexa. Change.gov has a ranking of 11,884.

According to Alexa's measurements, Change.org has seen a dramatic uptick in visitors recently. The percent of global Internet users who visit this site has increased 62 percent in the past three months (see chart after the jump). Obama's transition team launched Change.gov early last month. And even though Change.org is not affiliated with the new administration, the site has joined the chorus of those calling for Obama to tackle a host of issues. Its "Ideas for Change in America" project, unveiled last week, already has more than 2,000 recommendations from people in all 50 states.

One of the National Association of Broadcasters' top policy experts is stepping down after five years on the job. Marsha MacBride, executive vice president of legal and regulatory affairs, will continue to serve as an adviser to the trade group on issues pending before the FCC and administration, according to an email circulated by NAB President David Rehr. Jane Mago, who joined NAB in 2004 after 26 years at the FCC, will assume the post.

"As you know, Marsha and Jane have been an incredible team leading NAB through many regulatory challenges in the past few years. In their new roles, they will continue to work closely together to advocate on behalf of the broadcast business before the FCC, administration and the courts," Rehr wrote. "As we begin 2009 with a new administration and new FCC leadership on the horizon, NAB’s advocacy efforts will be critically important to the future of broadcasting."

NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton said he was not at liberty to comment on McBride's departure but a broadcast industry source said the trade group "is in good hands with Jane Mago running the legal department." "She is a seasoned professional, a lawyer's lawyer, and a class act," the source said.

The Supreme Court on Monday will hear a case that involves so-called "price-squeeze" claims under Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which makes it unlawful for a company to monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, trade or commerce. Pacific Bell Telephone Co. v. linkLine Communications stems from a 2003 lawsuit by several Internet service providers, including linkLine, against Pacific Bell who complained the AT&T unit unfairly dominated a particular high-speed Internet market by charging them a high wholesale price in relation to the price at which the defendants were providing retail services. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California sided with the ISPs and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the ruling last year. Read more about the case at the SCOTUSWiki here.

Fred Humphries, currently a managing director at Microsoft, has been promoted to the company's top lobby slot. He will replace Jack Krumholtz as managing director of federal government affairs. Since 2000, Humphries has led Microsoft's state government affairs team and overseen the company's policy outreach to governors, mayors and local elected officials. Humphries is currently based at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Wash., but will relocate to Washington in January. Humphries, a Democrat, does have D.C. experience. He served as a senior policy advisor for then Rep. Dick Gephardt from 1992 to 2000 and was also chief of staff for Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop of Georgia. Humphries also served as the southern political director for the Democratic National Committee and as the executive director of public policy for U.S. West Communications in Washington. He also worked on the staff of four presidential campaigns including those of Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson and Doug Wilder.

Stanford University Law School's Law, Science & Technology Program will launch an intellectual property litigation clearinghouse on Monday -- a first-of-its-kind online database that offers comprehensive information about IP feuds in the United States. The publicly available research tool will enable scholars, policymakers, lawyers, judges and reporters to review real-time data about IP disputes that have been filed across the country and analyze the efficacy of the system that regulates patents, copyrights, trademarks, antitrust, and trade secrets.

The clearinghouse will include data summaries, industry indices, and trend analysis together with a full-text search engine, providing detailed and timely information that cannot be found elsewhere in the public domain, officials said. Stanford Law School, along with its partner organizations (Cisco Systems, Oracle, Qualcomm, Intel, SAP and others) which funded the development and provided insight, will release the database in phased modules. The first includes more than 23,000 cases filed in U.S. district courts since 2000. Read more here.

Consulting firm Precursor, which is run by analyst Scott Cleland and bankrolled by major telecom companies, released a study Thursday alleging that Google "is by far the largest user of Internet bandwidth," the company's share of bandwidth usage is rising rapidly, and it's bandwidth use "is orders of magnitude greater than its payment for its cost."

Cleland, a frequent Google critic, estimated the firm used 16.5 percent of all U.S. consumer Internet traffic in 2008, and that share could grow to 25 percent in 2009 and 37 percent in 2010. The driving force is Google’s search bots that "regularly copy every page on the Internet, some as frequently as every few seconds," and the YouTube video sharing site, which streams almost half of all video on the Internet, the paper alleged. Cleland estimated Google’s payment to fund just the U.S. consumer broadband segment to be approximately $344 million in 2008.

Google's Washington telecom counsel Richard Whitt responded to the attack on the company's policy blog, pointing out that Cleland is paid by AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner and his report is "the latest in what one blogger called his 'payola punditry.'" "In his zeal to score points in the net neutrality debate, he made significant methodological and factual errors that undermine his report's conclusions," Whitt said.

Jack Krumholtz -- who opened Microsoft’s Washington lobbying office nearly 14 years ago -- is leaving the company. A Microsoft spokeswoman said Krumholtz is not ready to announce his next career step, and wants to take a couple of months off. Krumholtz, 47, started up the Microsoft federal government affairs office in March 1995, and served as a one-man operation for the first year -- working out of the company’s Chevy Chase, Md., sales office.

To operate closer to Capitol Hill during that period, Krumholtz spent most of his time in his Jeep on conference calls and writing and checking e-mails on the side of the road-- garnering the moniker of "Jack in his Jeep." Since then, Krumholtz has overseen the growth of the Microsoft Washington office from one person to over 20 staffers. Krumholtz led industry efforts on high-skilled immigration reform and H-1B visa issues, along with seeking the passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement and securing export control relief for encryption technologies. He also was involved in negotiations resulting in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Prior to joining Microsoft, the Democrat worked as attorney in private practice after earning his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He told National Journal that he has not ruled out a position in the Obama administration. -- Winter Casey

Greg Garcia, the Homeland Security Department's first assistant secretary for cyber security and communications, will leave his post Friday after more than two years. Garcia, who previously worked for the Information Technology Association of America and replaced acting cyber security chief Donald (Andy) Purdy Jr., who was on loan from Carnegie Mellon University, sent an email to colleagues Thursday expressing his gratitude for having served at the agency. "We have affirmed the urgency of cyber security across the nation and embarked on a comprehensive cyber initiative that will measurably strengthen the security of our nation’s networks against domestic and international threats," Garcia wrote. "I thank and applaud every one of you for your contribution to our ongoing success. It has been my honor and privilege to work with you in service to the nation. Please stay focused on this shared mission, as will I. Your expertise and dedication are making a difference."

On his watch, DHS established the Office of Emergency Communications, which collaborated with stakeholders across the country to develop a national emergency communications plan and 56 state and territory plans for federal, state and local first responders. His team also "enhanced the availability, resiliency and priority service of communications for national security and emergency preparedness needs, and in disaster-stricken areas such as the aftermath of Hurricane Ike this year," Garcia said. Meanwhile, the agency continues to integrate its overall cyber security strategy "to align with the evolving architecture and risk profile of our national information infrastructure."

Malcolm Wiley, a former Secret Service agent of 17 years and a current spokesman in the agency's public affairs department, recently spoke with NationalJournal.com about what law enforcement is doing to prepare for President-elect Barack Obama's historic inauguration. The following portion of the Q&A caught my eye:

NJ: What can you tell us about possible cyber threats to the inauguration?

Wiley: One of the subcommittees that we have is our critical infrastructure group. They're tasked with developing plans that monitor and safeguard all computer systems -- telecommunications systems, electrical systems and other utility services. Not only does that group work to prevent cyber threats, they're also poised to immediately respond to anything with a cyber nexus to the inauguration.

The thing is, in this computer age, all of those systems are cyber-based. So [if], someone, let's say, were to try to affect the electrical grid of the city, that could have effects as far-reaching as airport towers with the ability of the air traffic controllers to be able to communicate with planes in the air if the electrical system were tampered with. That would be an example. If our protectees were in the Capitol, and they were on an elevator, or they were moving about and the lights and the power went out, that could potentially affect us. Read the full interview here.

Microsoft on Thursday announced 63 legal actions in 12 countries against online auctioneers who allegedly orchestrated international marketing schemes and sold counterfeit software to unsuspecting customers. Of the actions, 16 were taken in the United States; 12 in Germany; 12 in France; and seven in the United Kingdom as well as proceedings in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico and New Zealand. Most of the cases involved counterfeit Windows XP software -- a product line that is coming to the end of its sales cycle but genuine XP products are still available through some channels.

In recent months, Microsoft received complaints from victims of a new online auction scheme by auctioneers selling discounted software from a fabricated marketing program dubbed “Blue Edition.” The entirely fictional “Blue Edition” scheme fools unsuspecting consumers into purchasing low-quality counterfeit software burned onto a compact disc, the company said. Certain online auction sites like eBay proactively cooperated with Microsoft in its investigations and none of the latest actions were brought against the sites themselves. The lawsuits were part of Microsoft's Genuine Software Initiative, a program intended to advance antipiracy education within the software ecosystem.

Experts Spell Out Privacy Platform For Next Congress
The Homeland Security Department's first chief privacy officer recommended today that the new Congress consider strengthening the nation's 34-year-old Privacy Act and a 2002 statute on electronic government services to uphold privacy and civil liberties safeguards for national security. Read More

Martin Won't Tackle Biggest Priorities At FCC Meeting
The FCC's final public meeting of 2008 will not include action on FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's three biggest priorities: overhauling a multibillion-dollar federal fund subsidizing telecom services in rural and low-income areas; revamping fees carriers charge to terminate traffic on each other's networks; and issuing revised rules for the auction of communications spectrum designed to enhance the capabilities of emergency responders. Read More

FDA To Post Information On WebMD
FDA warnings and consumer information will appear on the online medical information portal WebMD under a partnership announced today. The agency will provide food-safety warnings, recalls and other alerts in a dedicated, ad-free section of WebMD's Web site, FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach said.
Read More

Tech Coalition Presses Open Internet Agenda
A coalition of consumer and grassroots groups, as well as businesses including Amazon.com, eBay, and Google, urged President-elect Obama's transition team today to ensure that his administration keep the Internet "fast, open and accessible to all Americans."
Read More

Rep.-elect Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado, is blogging his freshman congressional class orientation at Harvard University this week over at ColoradoPols.com (hat tip, Sunlight Foundation blog). So far, he's posted the schedule for the multi-day orientation. On Tuesday, newbies heard from Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., and enjoyed a New England clambake. On Wednesday, they got a briefing from National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell; had a tutorial on the appropriations and budget process; learned about the continuing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; and heard from the father of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, William Gates Sr., who co-chairs the foundation his son started. On Thursday, they will learn about the economic crisis and making an impact as a new member of Congress (with Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.). Friday brings discussions on healthcare policy and an imaginative session called "Standing on the Edge of a New Frontier: The World in 2033" featuring Internet visionary Jonathan Zittrain.

President-elect Barack Obama's transition team is breaking new ground with Change.gov and the online conversations that the site is trying to generate -- but his staff wants to make sure that participants in the discussion are making the most of the opportunity to communicate their views and play by the rules. After reading through thousands of comments posted on the site in recent weeks, officials offered some tips on Wednesday.

1: Know the comment policy -- do's and don'ts of posting
2: Set up an account -- it helps build a sense of community for discussions
3: Rate other comments -- easy to use thumbs up/thumbs down buttons
4: Post a comment -- say something new; respond to someone else
5: Stay on topic -- if it's a discussion on the economy, discuss the economy

Not surprisingly, Web users commented on the post. One wondered how the team plans on moderating the discussions on Change.gov, noting that as commenting grows, "it may go beyond the capabilities of paid staff." Another said that over time, the administration "will figure out how to properly run this discussion." That individual suggested setting up live chats with a transition official and a system where citizen boards are created from the online community.

President-elect Barack Obama’s initial round of cabinet nominees would bring significant changes to state and local government information technology, according to Chris Dixon, an analyst at consulting firm INPUT. Of particular interest to him are the nominees for secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, and Homeland Security, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano. Dixon believes that Daschle’s views on healthcare reform include a government role for health IT that are similar to those of the Bush administration. Health IT was the #2 policy item of the Obama campaign’s healthcare platform, he pointed out.

Under Napolitano, Arizona has been a national leader on state and local intelligence fusion, Dixon said. Meanwhile, Obama pledged to establish a grant program to support "thousands more" state and local level intelligence analysts. INPUT officials are also monitoring the potential impact of nominees on federally-funded social services, particularly with regard to outsourcing of certain business processes. For more transition related commentary, visit INPUT's B2G Exchange blog here.

House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said Wednesday that the Chinese government's "continued assault on civil liberties and political expression proves the fallacy of China's public relations campaign designed to create a façade of an open and tolerant society." Ros-Lehtinen was responding to reports in Hong Kong that authorities are requiring Chinese-made replacements to Microsoft Windows XP operating systems in Internet cafes.

"The Chinese continue to oversee a program of censorship and surveillance designed to completely eradicate any organized political dissent, and remove any discussion about democracy and human rights," Ros-Lehtinen said in a press release. "Chinese citizens are prevented from accessing or disseminating information critical of the regime, and if they somehow learn to operate around the regime’s security walls, they are hunted down and thrown in prison." Government officials there grasp the power of the Internet and are determined to squelch any criticism the moment it appears, she added. China has 253 million Internet users -- the most in the world.

The National Association of Manufacturers, which employs one of the highest paid DC trade association executives, John Engler, who received total compensation of $1.2 million in 2006, has laid off staff just weeks before Christmas, my colleague Bara Vaida at National Journal's "Under The Influence" lobbying blog reported Tuesday. The group has joined hands with the tech sector on a number of issues recently, including advocacy for stronger intellectual property rights for U.S. goods.

NAM is cutting its budget by 10 percent resulting in the elimination of 17 full-time positions. In an email to his board, Engler wrote that the action was "difficult but necessary" and by "acting now to reduce costs, we preserve our ability to provide you, our members, with critical services." "In this time of unprecedented political change and economic turmoil, our manufacturing agenda is essential to our nation's recovery. The NAM remains dedicated to its success," he stated. Read the full email here.

Details of one of Washington's most anticipated holiday parties -- the annual soiree hosted by entertainment industry trade groups -- have been released. The invitation above has been altered so as not to give away the RSVP info and logistical bits but as you can see this year's headliner is Mix Master Mike, a turntable impresario and contributing member of the Beastie Boys. Last year, the celebration featured a performance by hip-hop star Wyclef Jean. The year before that, the Barenaked Ladies.

The party is a fundraiser for Bread For The City and is sponsored by the Recording Industry Association of America, Entertainment Software Association, National Music Publishers' Association, SoundExchange, the Software and Information Industry Association and [oddly enough] the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. What's the Motion Picture Association of America up to this year, you might ask? Chairman Dan Glickman is hosting dinner-and-a-movie for the D.C. press corps next week. The film: Universal Pictures’ “Frost/Nixon.”

Washington, D.C. think tank veteran Scott Wallsten is working on President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team but not on technology or telecommunications policy issues -- his well known areas of expertise. Wallsten is on the agency review team examining the National Credit Union Administration, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, and the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board. Wallsten’s past research has focused on telecom, regulation, competition, and technology policy and he is currently vice president for research and a senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute. He is also a senior fellow at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy, a lecturer in Public Policy at Stanford University, and a special consultant for Economists Incorporated. He holds a PhD in economics from Stanford University. He previously worked for the Progress & Freedom Foundation and was a senior fellow at the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies. -- Winter Casey

Rep.-elect Leonard Lance, R-N.J., has a district full of constituents with a wireless bent. His district includes employees for Verizon and Virgin Mobile’s headquarters. A telecom insider says the district also includes retired AT&T workers and Alcatel-Lucent employees. “As a state legislator, Leonard Lance encouraged competition within the high-tech industry, and specifically in the wireless and telecom sectors. As minority leader in the New Jersey legislature, he was the lead Republican co-sponsor of franchise reform encouraging competition that led to the introduction of FiOS TV to the state's residents,” said Jeffrey Nelson of Verizon Wireless. Nelson said the company’s previous headquarters were in Bedminster, N.J., which is in Lance’s district. The location is “still a major facility for us, with several hundred employees.” The company’s new headquarters is physically not in Lance’s district but is right on the line. Lance is also the old boss of Joseph Farren, spokesman for CTIA - The Wireless Association, when Farren served as deputy executive director of the New Jersey Senate Republican Office. -- Winter Casey

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is unlawfully withholding records that detail the relationship between driver cell phone use and traffic fatalities, Public Citizen claimed late Monday in a lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The nonprofit Center for Auto Safety first requested the documents in March but NHTSA attorneys rejected the request, saying the records were exempt from disclosure.

After a follow-up demand, NHTSA turned over some files but did not release what are believed to be the most important of those requested, claiming the records are “internal briefing documents” not subject to release. Public Citizen's complaint asks the court to order NHTSA to release the records. The analysis stems from a 2003 letter from then-Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta urging governors to take action against hand-held and hands-free cell phones.

The Center for Auto Safety claims the letter was never sent and the study on which it was based was buried. “Driving and talking is as deadly as drinking and driving,” Center executive director Clarence Ditlow said in a statement. “Release of this study will destroy the myth that hands-free cell phones are safe.” To read the complaint, click here. An agency spokeswoman would not comment on the lawsuit.

Will Google soon be joining the recently launched Future of Privacy Forum -- an AT&T-funded initiative intended to advance a national privacy agenda that promotes transparency and user control and is practical for businesses? Probably not… unless Christopher Wolf, a longtime attorney for AT&T and co-chair of the forum rolls back his contempt for the Web firm, which was recently exhibited in a Bangkok Post op-ed.

In Wolf's weekend column ominously titled "Google Is Watching You," the Proskauer Rose partner writes: "There is no doubt that the Internet search giant has helped people around the world access useful information. But what if Google's technology was used to keep track of you -- your whereabouts and your activities and records were kept of where you have been? That would be a little worrisome to say the least. And yet that may well be happening."

Wolf explains that Google, which has gone a long way to bolster its privacy protections, has developed a "geolocation" application for mobile and wireless devices "designed to let restaurants, salons, malls and other businesses and interested parties advertise to you while you are on the move." "This raises a host of concerns about privacy and safeguarding personal information," he writes, noting that the company already scans and stores "mind-boggling" amounts of data about its users.

Free Press, a watchdog group that promotes decentralization in broadcasting, has posted ads in the classified sections of the Washington Post, Washington Times, Politico and The Hill seeking a new leader for the FCC. The tongue-in-cheek "help wanted" ad calls for a chairman who can "take media and technology policy into the 21st century" and states that the applicant "must be willing to hold long and unruly public hearings and enjoy arcane telecom banter… Public interest background strongly preferred. Industry lobbyists need not apply."

The ad goes on to say that "wardrobe malfunctions, NASCAR wreckage and fleeting expletives are discouraged" -- a jab at current FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's crusade against pop star Janet Jackson for flashing a breast during a Super Bowl halftime show; the agency's $355,000 sponsorship of an accident-prone racecar to publicize the digital television transition; and the FCC's war against profanity, indecency and obscenity during live TV and radio broadcasts. Martin poked fun at himself and each topic during the annual Federal Communications Bar Association dinner last month [read CongressDaily's coverage here].

Free Press executive director Josh Silver said by placing the ad his group is doing its part "to make sure that the next head of the FCC is looking out for the public interest." "The person who takes this job will play a major role in transforming the media and shaping the future of the Internet. We need someone whose priorities match the public's demands," he said. The watchdog is asking citizens to rank their top priorities for the next chief of the FCC at www.FreePress.net/wanted.

A coalition of high-tech stakeholders led by Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig, Web browser creator Mozilla, and the Participatory Culture Foundation are urging President-elect Barack Obama's transition team to follow a set of "open transition principles" as they deploy resources to the Internet. The group began discussing the principles last week, just before the Obama team changed the copyright terms on Change.gov from "All Rights Reserved" to a Creative Commons attribution license.

The group welcomed that change, which will allow others to freely share and remix what's posted there provided that reposts are attributed to Change.gov, but in a letter to transition officials suggest two other principles that would assure broader access to resources posted on the Web. (1) No technological barrier so citizens can download transition-related content in a way that makes it simple to share, excerpt, remix, or redistribute. (2) Transition-generated content should not be made publicly available in a way that unfairly benefits one commercial entity over another or commercial entities over noncommercial entities.

"We were all encouraged during the campaign by President-elect Obama’s commitment to open government -- ideals that helped inspire a generation to act. His transition team has now taken an important step to making this commitment real. That step deserves heartfelt praise" the group said. "We offer here these additional principles as a practical way to make tangible the values President-elect Obama has spoken of so powerfully. We believe these values should guide every aspect of his transition, and the new government as well."

From my colleague Winter Casey at NationalJournal.com...

There's little question that the technology community in Washington is excited by what they expect to be the elevated embrace of technology by President-elect Obama's administration. "He gets it," tech insiders say. Insiders say they're looking forward to having a more tech-savvy team in the White House and hope that the administration's use of technology will help usher in an era of greater transparency in government. An Obama reign is expected to channel more federal resources toward technology initiatives and spur pro-tech changes in trade and tax policy. Obama has also said he supports network neutrality "to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet," but it remains to be seen what will happen on this policy front.

Business Software Alliance president Robert Holleyman said that "Obama sees a central role for technology and technology policy" in his administration. Obama seems to "look at tech sector as a unique driver of growth and solutions" and not just as another industry sector, agreed Ralph Hellmann of the Information Technology Industry Council. Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, called Obama "ambitious on the spending side," which could mean "more serious federal resources going behind e-government" initiatives, health IT, broadband and education.

Read the full story here.

A high-tech watchdog group will head to court Tuesday to challenge the constitutionality of a federal law aimed at granting immunity to telecommunications companies participating in illegal domestic surveillance. At the hearing before U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco, the Electronic Frontier Foundation will argue that amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act improperly take away Americans' claims arising out of the First and Fourth Amendments; violates the government's separation of powers; and robs telecom customers of their rights without due process of law.

Signed by President Bush earlier this year, the law allows for the dismissal of the lawsuits over the telecoms' participation in the warrantless surveillance program if the government secretly certifies to the court that the surveillance did not occur, was legal, or was authorized by the president. Attorney General Michael Mukasey filed that classified certification with the court in September and is demanding that the cases be dismissed, according to EFF.

The watchdog group is representing the plaintiffs in Hepting v. AT&T, a class action suit brought on behalf of millions of AT&T customers whose communications and records were given to the National Security Agency. EFF was appointed co-coordinating counsel along with the American Civil Liberties Union for all 46 outstanding lawsuits concerning the government's warrantless wiretapping activities. Also Tuesday, the court will hear arguments on the future of Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. Bush, a case alleging that the government illegally spied on the charity and its lawyers.

On Monday, Walker issued some questions about the constitutionality of the immunity provisions that he wants the parties to address. His questions can be found here.

In what its sponsors are describing as an "unprecedented display of consensus," a coalition of corporate, labor and public advocacy groups Tuesday will release a "call to action" intended to provide the incoming Obama administration with a framework for a national broadband strategy. The session, sponsored by the New America Foundation, includes two panels that feature top officials from AT&T, the Benton Foundation, Google, the Telecommunications Industry Association, and the Communications Workers of America, among other groups.

In the call to action, the groups state that broadband is becoming as important to the United States as railroads, electricity, telephones, and highways were in the last two centuries. It concludes with a commitment of the signatories to continue to work together to address key issues and priorities and to hold an event to present more specific recommendations to Obama, Congress and the American people. See the list of signatories here and read more about the event here.

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There are some interesting tech-related points to ponder (summarized below) in the Government Accountability Office's recently released "Confirmation of Political Appointees: Eliciting Nominees' Views on Management Challenges within Agencies and across the Government" -- a 149-page report for new political appointees facing Senate confirmation.

▪ Based on your experience, please explain the role technology should play in your agency to support mission needs. What measures would you implement to show the effect technology has in meeting these needs?

▪ How would you determine whether your agency has in place the key information management processes and tools required by law, including well-defined enterprise architecture, an investment control process, and computer security plans? What role do you envision you would play in managing or providing oversight over these processes and tools? How would you go about implementing or improving these processes and tools?

President-elect Barack Obama's transition team on Monday released a batch of donors to make good on his pledge to "run the most open and transparent transition in history." As of Nov. 15, $1.17 million had been raised from 1,776 donors, including some high-profile technology and media industry leaders. Donor lists will be released on a monthly basis.

Some names and donation amounts, large and small listed on change.gov:

▪ Eric Schmidt, Google CEO [$5,000]
▪ Vint Cerf, Google chief Internet evangelist [$2,500]
▪ David Fischer, Google vice president/global online sales [$3,000]
▪ Juliette Gimon, Google global economic development [$2,500]
▪ Edgar Bronfman, Warner Music Group CEO [$5,000]
▪ Andrew Lack, Sony Music Entertainment [$5,000]
▪ George Lucas, founder LucasFilm [$5,000]
▪ James Crowe, Level 3 Communications CEO [$5,000]
▪ Fred Eychaner, Newsweb Corp./WPWR-TV [$5,000]
▪ Majid Naderkhani, Excelacom systems integration [$5,000]
▪ Geoffrey Gowan, Google software engineer [$200]
▪ Spencer Kimball, Google computer programmer [$250]
▪ Tim Mansfield, Google software engineer [$250]
▪ Craig Nevill-Manning, Google engineering director [$500]

A coalition of companies that have pressed Congress to regulate rather than ban Internet gambling in the United States said Monday that a segment [view above] on CBS News' "60 Minutes" demonstrated "unambiguously that the existing government prohibition on Internet gambling is a failure and a mistake." "The millions of Americans who continue to gamble online are vulnerable to being defrauded by offshore operators who exploit U.S. prohibition policies, leaving U.S. consumers without legal protections when they make a bet or play poker online," Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative spokesman Jeffrey Sandman said.

Left out of the story, which aired Sunday, were details about legislation introduced last year by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, which would establish an enforcement framework for licensed gambling operators to accept bets from U.S. individuals. "As the coverage reveals, the structure of the Internet allows for greater protections since there is a complete audit trail of all Internet gambling activity and transactions. A companion piece of legislation would ensure the collection of taxes on regulated Internet gambling activities," Sandman said.

New federal rules requiring an automated voice or so-called key-press opt-out for recorded message telemarketing calls took effect Monday. Under the change, any telemarketing call that delivers a prerecorded message must include a quick and easy way to opt-out of receiving future calls. The opt-out must work both for consumers who answer the calls in person and for those whose answering machines or voicemail services receive the calls. The amendment to the National Do-Not-Call Registry was adopted by the FTC in August.

A consumer must be able to opt out at any time while the message is playing by pressing a particular number or speaking a particular word, the FTC said in a press release. Once the consumer has opted out, his or her phone number must be automatically added to the in-house Do Not Call list of the calling seller or fundraiser. Then the call immediately must be disconnected so that the consumer’s line is cleared. If the message is left on an answering service, it must include a toll-free opt-out number that consumers can call at any hour of the day or night when they retrieve the message.

Calls to solicit sales of goods or services and calls placed by telemarketers to solicit charitable donations are covered by the change but political calls, bona fide market survey calls, and calls made in-house by banks or telephone companies are not because the Commission lacks the legal authority to regulate them. In addition, prerecorded healthcare messages covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act are exempt from the new requirement.

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

When President-elect Barack Obama's transition team recently named two respected academics with strong ties to a prominent advocacy group to review changes at the FCC, the announcement appeared designed to signal that the public-interest sector would play a larger role in shaping high-tech policy than under the Bush administration.

Susan Crawford and Kevin Werbach are professors at the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, respectively, who have held mid-level posts at the FCC. Both sit on the advisory board of Public Knowledge, best known for advocating unfettered access to Internet content and less restrictive copyright laws. "We're not going to be a government that's run by corporate lobbyists -- that's the message," said Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of the group.

But with a heavy roster of former top FCC officials and powerful communications executives working on the transition, some are skeptical that academics will choose the next agency chairman. "I find it hard to believe that they would be the persons making the selections," said one telecom industry source, who expects higher level advisers to call the shots.

A former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers suggests that the Obama administration should replace aging federal workers with technology. “Replace some of the 42 percent of federal civilian employees who will retire in the next decade with technology,” holds Michael Boskin, a professor of economics at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, at the end of a New York Times op-ed published Saturday.

Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institute, told National Journal in response that “It certainly will be possible to use technology in the public sector to improve future productivity. The private sector has managed to decrease its labor force and maintain current service through digital technology. New technologies help people achieve more with less time, and that will save a lot of money.”

If better use of technology could enable the government to make due with fewer employees, it seems like the task would be something that would fall under the chief technology officer purview -- a position for which Obama has yet to offer a name. According to Obama’s technology plan, the CTO would “ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century” and work with “chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices.” -- Winter Casey