Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman on Wednesday night introduced what has become a perennial non-binding resolution to put non-confidential Congressional Research Service reports online. Homeland Security and Government Affairs ranking member Susan Collins, Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and others signed on. Rather than creating a new tool for public access, the resolution would let members and committees share reports using the same online services that are available on Congress' internal CRS Web site. The resolution also requires an index of CRS issue briefs and reports be made public.
CRS, which is housed in the Library of Congress, uses taxpayer dollars to produce reports on public policy issues and represent some of the best research conducted by the federal government, the Center for Democracy and Technology said in a blog post. Under the current regime, citizens can ask for copies of reports through their member of Congress but only if they already know the report exists. Projects like Open CRS, which is run by CDT, receives updates on reports as they are published from an anonymous lawmaker, but a public index of reports would simplify this process, the group stated.
In March, Lieberman wrote to Senate Rules Committee Chairman Charles Schumer calling for a sanctioned, automatically updated clearinghouse for the documents so "those with power and those without have equal access to this important resource." Under the chairmanship of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., last Congress, the Rules Committee authorized CRS to create software to let senators place individual reports on their Web sites. That did not go far enough, Lieberman wrote. Read more in CongressDaily here (subscription required).
Attorneys general from 39 states wrote a letter to House and Senate Appropriations Committee members this week urging them to fully implement and fund legislation passed by Congress and signed into law last October, which would enhance domestic intellectual property protections. The statute seeks to bolster the ability of state and local law enforcement to protect IP by authorizing funding for related programs. The state AGs pressed lawmakers to provide $25 million in fiscal year 2010 for IP enforcement grants administered by the Justice Department's Office of Justice Programs." The funds would be used to "pay for law enforcement training programs, public education programs, the establishment of federal-state-local task forces, and certain special expenses incurred through efforts to combat counterfeiting and piracy," they wrote.
Signatories included attorneys general from Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global IP Center lauded the letter. "State and local law enforcement play a pivotal role in protecting jobs and consumers from intellectual property crimes," Center Executive Vice President Mark Esper said. "We look forward to working with Congress to make sure these needed funds are invested."
Tim Sparapani has joined social networking Web site Facebook as its new director of public policy. Sparapani is a former senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union and associate at Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky. He has also served as a legal intern for the Senate Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee, where he assisted Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and volunteered for the ill-fated presidential campaigns of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. Sparapani has degrees from the University of Michigan Law School and Georgetown University. Meanwhile, Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly is reportedly considering a run for California attorney general. Kelly, a Democrat, touted his work across the country to make the Internet safer for youth. -- Winter Casey
The House Judiciary Committee begins its work to overhaul the U.S. patent system on Thursday. Some recent coverage from CongressDaily...
House Judiciary Ranking Member Pushes Patent Reform Plan
House Judiciary ranking member Lamar Smith will urge colleagues at a hearing on patent legislation today to move forward with a proposal to enhance patent quality, discourage frivolous litigation and harmonize international patent principles. Smith joined Judiciary Chairman John Conyers to co-sponsor a bill he believes promotes those goals better than a version that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee this month. "Members of this committee are not passive participants who will accept whatever the other body hands us," Smith said in a statement. The Texas Republican is concerned with changes Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy made to language that impacts how damages are awarded in patent infringement lawsuits. (Thursday, April 30, 2009)
Boehner Leads New Republican Push For Patent Reform
House Minority Leader John Boehner and some other top Republicans are among more than 20 members sending a letter today to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stressing the need for major changes to the U.S. patent system. The communique comes one day before the House Judiciary Committee is set to examine the issue. Supporters of a patent bill introduced in March by Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and ranking member Lamar Smith were heartened by Boehner's involvement because he worked against a similar measure that passed the House in 2007. But companies like Google, Microsoft and Time Warner, which have lobbied Congress to overhaul how damages are awarded in patent lawsuits, might want to hold their applause. A Boehner spokesman pointed out the letter did not mention Conyers' bill by name. (Wednesday, April 29, 2009)
From CongressDaily's AM Edition...
President Obama announced Wednesday he is nominating Mignon Clyburn, a state regulator in South Carolina and daughter of House Majority Whip James Clyburn for a Democratic seat on the five-member FCC. The younger Clyburn, whose nomination has been anticipated for weeks, has been a member of the South Carolina Public Service Commission since 1998 and its chairwoman from 2002-2004. The PSC "regulates South Carolina's investor owned public utilities, including providers of telecommunications services," according to a White House statement. She would replace Jonathan Adelstein, who was nominated to head the Rural Utilities Service, an Agriculture Department division that issues loans and grants for telecom, energy and water treatment projects.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., is circulating a draft letter that asks Senate Rules Chairman Charles Schumer and ranking member Bob Bennett to modernize the way the chamber provides information about roll call votes, thus increasing Senate transparency. For a number of years, the House has provided roll call votes to the public in a format that allows them to be easily read, processed, and shared but the Senate continues to make available its votes in what government watchdogs have complained is an antiquated fashion that prevents easy analysis and dissemination.
Utilizing an XML format would allow the public to use computers to search, sort, and visualize voting records in new ways, the letter states, noting that the costs associated with the transition would be negligible but the impact would be profound. "As Americans increasingly turn to Internet to stay informed, the Senate as a body has a duty to promote timely and accurate reporting of our actions through the most current and effective technologies," DeMint wrote. He noted that the Secretary of the Senate and Sergeant at Arms have already made high-tech strides with the development of the Senate Web site and the lobbying disclosure database but it's time to go a step further.
In the letter, DeMint states the policy was initially implemented because "senators want to provide their voting records to their constituents themselves." "The idea that the Senate would intentionally hamstring the distribution of roll call votes so Senators could put a better spin on them is concerning," he wrote. "The public is capable of interpreting our votes on its own." Across Capitol Hill, Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., introduced a resolution last month directing the Clerk of the House to create an online record -- organized by member name -- of recorded votes taken in the House and to direct each member to link to the registry on their Web sites.
The Library of Congress has made "tremendous progress" with its information technology infrastructure but in order to remain current and competitive, the facility needs to take several significant steps to evolve, Library Inspector General Karl Schornagel told the House Administration Committee on Wednesday. He recently published a 60-page report that concluded strategic IT planning is not a "unifying force" at the Library nor is it linked to the investment process. The disconnect results in duplicated efforts and acquisitions. In addition to costs incurred for unfunded mandates, he found numerous areas where there were overlaps in support services and systems.
Schornagel also found that the Library's organizational structure of the Library's IT office does not foster strategic planning and good governance; the Library is missing an enterprise architecture program; and its customer service needs improvement. At the hearing, he suggested that the Library migrate to a more cohesive IT strategy, like comparable federal agencies, and recommended that the facility's IT security group be given the ability to implement higher security standards. Chairman Robert Brady cited the increasingly vital role technology plays in Library operations and ranking member Dan Lungren emphasized the criticality of cybersecurity.
The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday evening formally announced the witness list for its first hearing of the 111th Congress to discuss potential changes to the U.S. patent system. The hearing takes place Thursday morning and the line up includes:
Intel Chief Patent Counsel David Simon
Georgetown University Law School Professor John Thomas
Segway inventor Dean Kamen
Tessera General Counsel Bernard Cassidy
Johnson & Johnson Chief Intellectual Property Counsel Phillip Johnson
Vertical Group Partner Jack Lasersohn
Cisco Systems Senior Vice President Mark Chandler
House Minority Leader John Boehner and some other top Republicans weighed in on the patent debate on the eve of the hearing with a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The communique from the House Republican High-Tech Working Group, which was signed by more than 20 members, pressed for patent reform but did not mention Conyers' bill by name. A Boehner spokesman said his boss "has never been opposed to all patent reform, just to legislation that picks winners and losers in the private sector." For more details, CongressDaily's Wednesday AM Edition story here (subscription required).
The National Association of Broadcasters is ratcheting up its lobbying blitz against legislation currently moving through the House and Senate that the trade group believes would cost jobs and kill off local radio stations' offerings. The bill, which would end AM and FM stations' exemption from paying copyright royalty fees to performers of the songs that grace their airwaves, is being targeted in a series of new advertisements in the Washington Metrorail system. Their 45 banners are plastered across the Capitol South metro station, which is located two blocks from the U.S. Capitol. The NAB also recently launched NoPerformanceTax.org to beef up its campaign to defeat the bill, which is championed by music industry interests like the Recording Industry Association of America, the American Federation of Musicians, and the Recording Academy.
"Every week, radio airplay reaches 235 million Americans, promoting both new and legacy artists and generating more than a billion dollars in CD and download sales for record labels annually. By contrast, artists routinely sue their record labels for cheating them out of royalty money," an NAB spokesman said in a press release. "We welcome an honest debate over which side has been a better friend to recording artists: America's hometown radio stations or foreign-owned record labels." An official with the MusicFirst Coalition, which supports the bill, said: "No amount of advertising can right a wrong. Corporate radio earns billions without compensating the artists and musicians who bring music to life and listeners ears to the radio dial. Satellite radio, Internet radio and cable music stations pay a fair performance royalty, as so radio stations throughout the world."
Former Homeland Security Department chief privacy officer Hugo Teufel has joined
PricewaterhouseCoopers as a director in the consulting firm's U.S. advisory practice. Teufel will focus on helping Fortune 500 organizations with issues involving the privacy and security of data, cyber crime and corruption and will be based in PwC's McLean, Va. office. While serving as Homeland Security's privacy czar, Teufel testified regularly before various House and Senate committees and reported annually to Congress on the activities of the department that affect privacy. He was also a principal of the High Level Contact Group, a joint United States-European Union effort on transatlantic exchanges of data. Before assuming that role Teufel served as associate general counsel for general law within the DHS Office of General Counsel. Before that, he served as associate solicitor for general law at the Interior Department. "We are extremely pleased to have Hugo Teufel join our team," PwC's Erik Skramstad said in a press release. "His in-depth experience with government and privacy policies, along with his extensive knowledge of privacy issues and compliance -- as well as identity theft and data loss prevention -- will enhance the value and fact-based counsel we provide to our clients on a daily basis."
Legendary jazz singer Tony Bennett visited Capitol Hill Tuesday evening to lobby for legislation that would end a longstanding copyright royalty exemption afforded to AM and FM radio stations. He attended a reception organized by the MusicFirst Coalition, which drew a handful of House and Senate members and their aides. Read more about the hot topic in National Journal magazine's April 18 issue here (subscription required). Music industry stakeholders who support the legislation expect a mark up in the House Judiciary Committee soon. Judiciary Chairman John Conyers is pictured above with Bennett and Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas.
More photos after the jump...
From CongressDaily's PM Edition...
Government-wide guidance for how agencies can more fully utilize social media applications like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are forthcoming, President Obama's federal chief information officer said today. Vivek Kundra, who also serves as OMB's e-government and information technology administrator, told a conference for agency Web managers that the Federal CIO Council and the General Services Administration are working on the rules but did not give a timeframe for their release.
The GSA took an initial step last month by signing agreements with four video-sharing and social networks to provide services that comply with federal terms and conditions. Kundra said the guidance could "take some time" to align with statutes like the Presidential Records Act and the Privacy Act, which were enacted in the 1970s, and seven-year-old Federal Information Security Management Act. In the meantime, he urged attendees to work within their agencies to adopt pre-approved technologies.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will wade into the congressional cybersecurity debate on Tuesday with a pair of hearings -- one in the full committee that will focus on developing a national strategy to fight high-tech threats and another in the Federal Financial Management Subcommittee that will cover the Obama administration's tech priorities and how agencies can use technology to become more efficient and secure.
Hearing #1:
Stewart Baker, former Homeland Security Department assistant secretary
James Lewis, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Alan Paller, research director for the SANS Institute
Tom Kellermann, vice president at Core Security Technologies
Hearing #2:
Vivek Kundra, OMB e-government and IT administrator
David Powner, director of IT management issues at GAO
Karen Evans, former OMB e-government administrator
Philip Bond, president of the Technology Association of America
Read a related story in CongressDaily's AM Edition here (subscription required).
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration unveiled its Online Safety and Technology Working Group on Tuesday -- a panel of experts dedicated to keeping children safe on the Internet. More than two dozen private sector and child and family advocacy leaders will help evaluate industry efforts and make recommendations to promote education, labeling and parental control technology. Members will work with the Justice Department, FTC, FCC and others. "President Obama recognizes the importance of protecting the safety and privacy of our children as they use the Internet," Acting NTIA Administrator Anna Gomez said in a press release. "We are committed to helping foster a safe online environment for America's youth." Within a year of its first meeting on May 22, the group will submit a report to the administration on how to increase Web safety.
Members of the working group include:
Parry Aftab, WiredSafety
Elizabeth Banker, Yahoo
Christopher Bubb, AOL
Anne Collier, ConnectSafely.org
Bradon Cox, NetChoice Coalition
Caroline Curtin, Microsoft
Brian Cute, Afilias U.S.A.
Jeremy Geigle, Arizona Family Council
Marsali Hancock, Internet Keep Safe Coalition
Michael Kaiser, National Cyber Security Alliance
Christopher Kelly, Facebook
Brian Knapp, Loopt
Are you a member of Congress on Facebook and don't like being called a politician? Then maybe you should look into converting your current "politician" page to the new "government official" one. That's the suggestion coming out of the office of House Minority Leader John Boehner. In guidelines his staff is sending to the Republican Conference, Boehner and Facebook are introducing a new category, "government official," that draws a "clear line between" political pages -- such as PACs and campaigns -- with official member sites, explained Nick Schaper, Boehner's new media director. Outside advertising, such as those paid for by lobbying or advocacy groups, will be removed from government official pages but in-house advertising by Facebook will continue.
Adam Conner, an associate for public policy at Facebook, said the new designation will help members of Congress "represent their official duties separately from their political activities" and came out of discussions with both parties. Schaper emphasized that the guidelines would not be mandatory and members can choose to switch to the new category. "There are a number of different ways Facebook can be utilized, and we're not necessarily saying that there is one right way to do it," Schaper said. Facebook, Boehner's office, and the House Administration Committee have been working on the new category for several months. Even though Boehner's guidelines will only be sent to the GOP, all members are able to use the "government official" designation. -- Amy Harder
From NationalJournal.com's David Herbert...
Barack Obama's presidential campaign was an online juggernaut, and the new administration has proposed to use that technological wizardry to make government more transparent. But while new media observers give the team's two most ambitious Web sites -- the overhaul of WhiteHouse.gov and the stimulus-tracking Recovery.gov -- an "A" for effort, the consensus is that Obama's online efforts have a long way to go in the next 100 days. In a recent poll by NationalJournal.com, new media experts from across the political spectrum gave WhiteHouse.gov an average grade of C+.
Although they mostly saw the site as an improvement from the previous administration's, many noted that it remained a one-way forum and suggested it be opened to allow comments and make greater use of the "Open for Questions" feature. "This occasional use of interactive tools" is impressive, says Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation. But "90 percent of the time the site is pretty straightforward, as it was under [George W.] Bush." Recovery.gov fared even worse in our poll, averaging a C. The most common gripe about the site, which was designed to track stimulus projects, is that it's "the view from 30,000 feet," as Micah Sifry, co-founder and editor of the Personal Democracy Forum, put it. Read the full story here.
Surf on over to CongressDaily's TechCentral for a new "Issue of the Week." Here's a taste:
Imagine trying to hand out cartons of cash to passersby on a busy street corner -- yet attracting no takers. That's the paradox the federal government faces as it crafts guidelines for $7.2 billion in incentives for telecommunications companies to extend high-speed Internet service to rural areas with limited or no access. The reason for the apprehension, particularly among dominant telecom and cable firms, is that the money comes with regulatory strings attached. One is a requirement that recipients adhere to the FCC's voluntary guidelines governing "network neutrality" -- the concept of maintaining an open and accessible Internet. Another is that network interconnection rights must be guaranteed to competing broadband providers.
Congress didn't define those terms in President Obama's economic stimulus package, punting instead to the two agencies tasked with distributing the funds -- the National Telecommunications and Information Administration within the Commerce Department, and the Rural Utilities Service within the Agriculture Department. NTIA, which will dole out $4.7 billion in grants and loans, and the RUS, set to distribute $2.5 billion, are hashing out the details now, with an announcement to come in the next month or two. Some of the corporate rhetoric might be brinksmanship aimed at spurring regulators to craft conditions with the lightest possible touch. But experts acknowledge there's a real possibility key players could sit the program out, or not participate as heavily as expected.
Read the full story here.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., wrote to members of the Canadian Parliament last week urging them to address inadequacies in the country's intellectual property rights enforcement regime. His letter came on the heels of an April 6 House Foreign Affairs Committee field hearing in California that heard from music and movie industry representatives who named the United States' northern neighbor -- along with China and Russia -- as havens for major piracy operations. Specifically, Sherman pressed Canada to provide its customs officials with ex officio seizure power. Currently, they lack the statutory authority to seize counterfeit products unless they have previously obtained a court order.
"Canada has not acceded to nor implemented World Intellectual Property Organization Internet treaties," he wrote. "Canada has continued to resist a 'notice and takedown' regime that would require Internet service providers to terminate the accounts of repeat or serious IPR infringers." Additionally, Sherman said Canada has not enacted rules clarifying that rights holders can get damages awards against entities that intentionally facilitate massive infringement. "Pirated goods are not just an economic concern but often times represent a serious threat to public health safety," the lawmaker noted. "Canada must assist its partner countries in making sure that dangerous goods do not cross its borders," he concluded.
Last May, the Congressional Anti-Piracy Caucus slammed Canada for failing to update its IP enforcement regime despite promises to the contrary and the passage of a 2007 law that banned movie-theater videotaping of films. Earlier this year, the International Intellectual Property Alliance urged the U.S. Trade Representative to place Canada on its list of countries that warrant enhanced attention due to IP problems. The USTR's annual "Special 301" report, which highlights IP deficiencies and advancements of trading partners, is due out later this week.
The United States and European Union must be united in their approach to fighting intellectual property crime, former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told a transnational conference on IP enforcement on Monday. "We probably have the most at stake," he said at the event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "It is a necessary partnership. Without it, I don't think we can fight [counterfeiting and piracy]." Gutierrez, who served in the Bush administration Cabinet from 2005 to 2009 and now works with the influential business group on trade policy, said solutions to many challenges in this arena "will come from the industries that rely on IP." "We have to innovate our way out of the crisis," he said. Gutierrez pointed to the fact that major U.S. brands were born during previous economic downturns. In the 1980s, Microsoft and Genentech came into being and during the Great Depression, companies like Hewlett-Packard and Texas Instruments emerged. "We have the ability to emerge successfully from this recession but it depends on our ability to protect IP," he stressed. "Now more than ever we can't allow for a world trading system to emerge where somehow intellectual property rights aren't protected." Read more about the conference in CongressDaily's PM Edition.
The White House on Monday announced the full membership of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, an advisory group of the nation's leading scientists and engineers who will advise President Obama and formulate policies pertaining to science, technology, and innovation. PCAST will be co-chaired by Obama's science adviser John Holdren; Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; and Harold Varmus, president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie will serve on the panel.
Other members include:
• Rosina Bierbaum, an expert in climate-change science and ecology and dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan.
• Christine Cassel, president of the American Board of Internal Medicine and an expert in geriatric medicine and quality of care.
• Christopher Chyba, an astrophysical sciences professor at Princeton University who has focused on solar system exploration and nuclear and biological weapons policy.
• S. James Gates Jr., director of the Center for String and Particle Theory at the University of Maryland, College Park.
• Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and former chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• Richard Levin, president of Yale University and an expert in industrial organization, the patent system, and U.S. competitiveness.
Representatives from consumer, privacy and other public interest organizations urged President Obama on Monday to fill a vacant commissioner post at the FTC with someone who will uphold the agency's mandate of protecting American consumers. The Center for Digital Democracy, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center, the World Privacy Forum and others signed a letter arguing that charge has "too often been ignored in the recent past." "The new commissioner should have a distinguished record of achievement in consumer affairs, with a demonstrated commitment to protecting the public from all manner of unfair, deceptive, fraudulent, and non-competitive monopolistic/oligopolistic business practices," the letter stated.
Given the key role the FTC plays in protecting the public in sectors like finance, health, privacy, and marketing, as well as competition, it is essential that the nominee have "an unassailable record of supporting the interests of the public," they said. They urged Obama to name someone who is committed to protect both consumer privacy and welfare with new media as online and mobile platforms grow in popularity. "Appointing a Commissioner with recent consulting or employment ties to the corporate sector would undermine consumer confidence in the agency." The FTC is "off to a promising start" under Chairman Jon Leibowitz and through the recent appointment of a highly regarded chief of the agency's consumer protection bureau, the watchdogs said.
Currently, the FTC consists of Leibowitz, a Democrat; Republicans William Kovacic and J. Thomas Rosch; and Pamela Jones Harbour, an independent.
Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., wants to know for sure whether AT&T is engaged in any activity that involves tracking its broadband Internet subscribers' online activities to target advertising and on Friday asked the telecom giant's top executive to clarify. In a letter to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Eshoo asked whether AT&T has used AudienceScience.com or any other behavioral advertiser to place ads on the Web, and if so, whether those firms notify consumers when data is collected. She also asked whether consumers are allowed to control what data is collected by advertising vendors and how it is used. Eshoo asked Stephenson when AT&T began advertising to consumers using behavioral targeting and whether it continues to engage in that activity. If AT&T has stopped, she wants to know when.
Her letter came on the heels of what she believed to be contradictory testimony from AT&T Chief Privacy Officer Dorothy Attwood on Thursday. During a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Communications, Technology and the Internet Subcommittee, Attwood said AT&T does not use "deep packet inspection," a controversial type of network filtering that could be used to build extensive customer profiles and offer specialized content and advertising without consent. Attwood said AT&T would not use consumer information for that purpose "without an affirmative, advance action by the consumer." In August 2008, Attwood told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that AT&T does not engage in behavioral advertising but the company is listed as a client of AudienceScience, which offers that service.
"As an ISP, we do not track our customer's data across unrelated Web sites to create a profile for behavioral advertising, or hire other firms to do so on our behalf," an AT&T spokesman told Tech Daily Dose. He said his company's relationship with AudienceScience is as an advertiser of AT&T products and services. Suggestions that AT&T is engaging in behavioral advertising by selling customer information are "flat wrong," he said. The spokesman added that AT&T has consistently told Congress it uses ad networks. In related news, a testimonial listed on AudienceScience's Web site from MEC Interaction, which had AT&T as a client, has been removed. The message read: "AudienceScience rocks and I recommend using them for all of your BT campaigns."
From Gautham Nagesh at Nextgov.com...
Following reports that surfaced last week, a White House spokesman has confirmed to Nextgov that Google executive Sonal Shah will be joining the Obama administration as director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. Formerly the head of Google's philanthropic arm, Shah is slated to lead the office, which is expected to work with non-profits and community organizations to encourage "social entrepreneurship." The administration has thus far avoided releasing any details about the mission or structure of the office. Shah also served as a member of Obama's transition team, helping to develop technology policy.
The news of Shah's appointment has been greeted favorably in some circles, particularly among the philanthropic community. However, her involvement with the White House has been controversial due to her ties to the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which is accused of using charitable works in India as a cover for inciting communal hatred. The VHP has been condemned by the State Department and the nonprofit Human Rights Watch for its role in the 2002 mob violence in Gujurat, which resulted in the deaths of 1,000 people, most of whom were Muslims.
Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller introduced legislation Thursday that he hopes will facilitate nationwide adoption of electronic health records, particularly among small, rural providers. The bill will build upon the use of so-called "open source" e-health records by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Open source software refers to a computer program with unrestricted source code that does not limit the use or distribution by any organization or user. An open source exchange model was recently expanded among federal agencies through the Nationwide Health Information Network-Connect initiative, according to a Friday press release. The economic stimulus package signed by President Obama earlier this year allotted about $19 billion for health IT.
Rockefeller's measure would create a new panel within the Department of Health and Human Service's Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to direct and oversee formation of this public utility model, its implementation, and operation. It would also implement and administer a new grant program for safety-net providers to cover the full cost of open source software implementation and maintenance for up to five years, with the possibility of renewal for up to five years if required benchmarks are met. Additionally, the bill would ensure interoperability between programs and create a child-specific e-health record to be used in Medicaid, CHIP, and other federal health programs.
"We need advancements in health information technology across the board to improve the quality of care Americans receive," Rockefeller said in a statement. "To make this happen, we need universal access to affordable and interoperable health information technology - from small, rural health clinics to large, urban hospitals." He added that open source software is a cost-effective, proven way to advance health IT. He noted that his bill does not replace commercial software but rather complements private sector investments by making health IT "a realistic option for all providers."
Microsoft funded campaigns continue to be a thorn in the side of Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., who could face his third ex-Microsoft employee in a consecutive election in 2010. Media reports have indicated that former Microsoft vice president Susan DelBene, a Democrat, is expected to give Reichert a run for his money. In 2006 and 2008, ex-Microsoft employee Darcy Burner, who was endorsed by EMILY's List, ran against Reichert but she narrowly lost both races. It has been reported that Burner does not plan to run in 2010. On Friday the American Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation announced that she will serve as the group's executive director.
During her 2008 race, Burner collected more than twice as much money from Internet activists and officials at Microsoft than Reichert in their race for the 8th District seat, a report from CongressDaily found. According to FEC filings, Burner received $93,894 from Microsoft and its employees while Reichert received a total of $35,750. In 2008, Burner also received $104,076 in donations through ActBlue, an online PAC that raises money for Democrats. While DelBene's resume sounds similar to Burner's, the Politico reports DelBene "served in a top management position" while Burner was a mid-level manager. DelBene also helped create Drugstore.com and served as CEO of software firm Nimble Technology. -- Winter Casey
It's been a bleak April for the nation's cybersecurity. With hacks reported in the U.S. electrical grid and the Pentagon's Joint Strike Fighter program -- not to mention the continuing specter of debilitating worms and viruses -- officials are facing a battery of new questions about a persistent problem. Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., co-founded and co-chairs the House Cybersecurity Caucus, and he recently co-chaired a cybersecurity report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies for the 44th presidency. In a recent interview with National Journal, Langevin discussed the importance of a national cyberspace office in the White House and a comprehensive security effort throughout not just the government, but the private sector as well. To read the edited excerpts of the interview or listen to the audio presentation, go here. Also check out the National Journal magazine story on how the administration and lawmakers are responding to cyber concerns here. -- Winter Casey
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, fine-tuned his comedy act at a Motion Picture Association of America luncheon this week by telling a roomful of studio execs what he learned from the big screen:
• During all police investigations, it will be necessary to visit a strip club at least once.
• If being chased through town, you can usually take cover in a passing St. Patrick's Day parade any time of the year.
• It's easy for anyone to land a plane, provided there is someone in the control tower to talk you down.
• The ventilation system of any building is a perfect hiding place. No one will come looking for you, and you can travel to any other part of the building you want without being noticed, and there's never any dust or lint.
• If you need to reload your gun, you will always have more ammunition, even if you haven't been carrying any before.
• You are very likely to survive any battle of any war unless you show someone a picture of your sweetheart back home.
• A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating, but will wince when a woman cleans his wounds.
The Entertainment Software Association's head of government relations, Jennifer Manner, is out the door after just a month. ESA announced on Feb. 18, 2009, that Manner would be the group's new senior vice president for government affairs and would head the association's federal and state government relations team. Manner, a long-time Democrat, didn't appear to have extensive Capitol Hill or administration experience. Her background included stints as a vice president of regulatory affairs at Skyterra Communications, chair of the Satellite Industry Association, and senior counsel to former FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy. She has also worked for Worldcom, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, and taught as an adjust professor of law. ESA is not advertising any new job openings on its Web site. An association spokesman confirmed that Manner had departed but gave no further information.
In 2007, ESA brought on former Motion Picture Association of America executive Rich Taylor, and in 2008, it wooed Recording Industry Association of America lawyer Kenneth Doroshow. Both are also Democrats. The group's executive director is Michael Gallagher, a former assistant secretary of Commerce under President George W. Bush. A recent CongressDaily story (subscription required) reported that ESA spent $980,000 per quarter in 2008 on lobbying-related activities. Efforts focused on a range of issues from media violence and parental control technologies to industry ratings and videogame sale regulation. Lobbyists also spent time advocating for increased intellectual property protection. -- Winter Casey
The House Committee on Oversight and Government has sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates requesting a briefing as soon as possible on a recent news report that computer spies may have infiltrated the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, which is reportedly the most expensive weapons program that has been managed by the Department of Defense. "If true, these allegations are serious and potentially far-reaching. Given the potential national security implications of this matter, we hereby request that the department provide committee staff with a briefing regarding the events alleged," wrote Chairman Edolphus Towns and ranking member Darrell Issa.
Earlier this month the Wall Street Journal reported that foreign cyber spies may have penetrated the country's electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt infrastructure. It has also been reported that the Obama administration may have plans to create a new military command that would focus on defensive and offensive cyber security efforts within the Pentagon. Meanwhile, the administration is still trying to work out what its overall approach to cyber security will be and lawmakers are paying increasing attention to the issue. -- Winter Casey
Organizers of a week-long online dialogue focusing on the federal government's economic stimulus-tracking Web site Recovery.gov are embracing new Web technologies to spread word about their forum. During the course of the Internet conversation, which begins Monday and is hosted by the National Academy of Public Administration, participants are encouraged to "submit ideas on website design, data collection, data warehousing, data analysis and visualization, waste, fraud, and abuse detection, and other topics that are key to achieving greater transparency and accountability." The online discussion will be the first step in soliciting ideas for the structure of the Web site, which is intended to let taxpayers see how stimulus funds are being spent. Read CongressDaily's recent story here.
Earl Devaney, chair of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, and Ed DeSeve, special advisor President Obama for stimulus implementation, are circulating a letter they hope will generate widespread interest in the project from the public as well as state and local partners, potential stimulus recipients and solution providers. Participation from the blogging community is critical to the success of this initiative, they wrote. Their team created a one-page summary of the IT dialogue that bloggers can copy and post. They also encouraged potential participants to follow the conversation via microblogging tool Twitter {@natldialogue / http://twitter.com/natldialogue}or on the "Recovery Dialogue: IT Solutions" Facebook group. As of Thursday afternoon, the Twitter page has 273 followers and the Facebook group has 100 members.
In the next few months it is expected that Philip Verveer will become the State Department's next U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, according to sources familiar with the matter. Verveer will be filling the shoes of David Gross, who held the title of coordinator since 2001. The position also comes with the title of "ambassador." Sources say the White House is currently doing a background check of Verveer and his nomination will also be subject to approval by the Senate in addition to the administration. Verveer is currently counsel at the firm Jenner & Block's litigation department [bio]. He is also a member of the firm's communications practice with a focus on regulatory and antitrust issues.
Verveer has nearly three decades advising clients on communication regulatory issues before Congress, the FCC, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Office of U.S. Trade Representative, Federal Trade Commission, the State Department, and the Committee on Foreign Investment. Verveer, who served in the military, also worked as a partner in the Washington office of Willkie Farr & Gallagher where he founded the firm's communications practice. He has also served as a trial attorney in the Justice Department's antitrust division, a supervisory attorney in the FTC's Bureau of Competition, and as the chief of the cable bureau at the FCC. He earned his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1969 and is married to Melanne Verveer, who was Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief of staff when she was first lady. President Obama has tapped her to be his ambassador at large for global women's issues. -- Winter Casey
A State Department-led delegation of U.S. high-tech executives visiting Baghdad this week met with President Jalal Talibani and Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih as well as the Iraqi minister for science and technology, technology executives, and university students. The trip by officials from Google, YouTube, AT&T, Twitter and others, was a fact-finding mission with the goal of listening and lending expertise -- not securing lucrative contracts, officials said Wednesday. The delegation reported during a conference call that the Iraqi government seemed open to new technology. For example, Salih has an iPhone, Gmail and promised to start a Twitter page. He said his daughter, who attends Princeton University, wants him to sign up for a profile on social networking site Facebook.
While the issue of government censorship of the Internet is a hot-button issue in many countries, YouTube's Hunter Walk said he and his colleagues heard just the opposite. "There was a lot of hope for a more transparent government process," he said on the conference call. Meetup CEO Scott Heiferman added that there is "a real commitment to building a real society." "I think the world looks to President Obama on how to self organize," he said. When asked whether the pace of technology was moving faster than the basic infrastructure in Iraq, State Department official Jared Cohen commented: "It's a good thing that they become more aware of what they don't have." Google's Ahmad Hamzawi pointed out that fiber is being laid throughout the country.
On the call, executives emphasized that the culture is changing steadily but challenges remain. "Too many people are dependent on the government. These are people who lived under dictatorship for years," Blue State Digital's David Nassar said. Google's Kannan Pashupathy added: "The young people have the spirit but not yet the decentralized psyche." Heiferman commented: "It's a fascinating moment in history where they are realizing their own power." For more about the trip, read this post on Tech Daily Dose.
Melissa Hathaway, a top adviser to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, offered what she called a "movie trailer" of the recommendations she made in a report to President Obama after finishing a 60-day federal cybersecurity review. Details of the examination and her findings, which were delivered to Obama and key White House officials late last week, will be made public once the president and the administration have had a chance to review the material. Nevertheless, Hathaway told the RSA security summit Wednesday that it is "the fundamental responsibility of our government to address strategic vulnerabilities in cyberspace and to ensure that the United States and the world can realize the full potential of the information technology revolution."
That responsibility transcends the jurisdictional purview of individual departments and agencies because no single agency has a broad enough perspective to match the sweep of the challenges, she said at the San Francisco gathering of high-tech and security experts. Hathaway also said dealing with tech threats requires "leading from the top" -- from the White House, to departments and agencies, state, local, tribal governments, the "C-suite," and to the local classroom and library. "The White House must lead the way forward with leadership that draws upon the strength, advice and ideas of the entire nation," she said in prepared remarks provided to the press.
The federal government cannot entirely delegate or abrogate its role in securing the nation from a cyber incident or accident, Hathaway said, emphasizing the importance of private sector support. "The public and private sector's interests are intertwined with a shared responsibility for ensuring a secure, reliable infrastructure upon which businesses and government services depend," she said. Hathaway closed with a bit of humor: "I almost forgot, this speech will now self-destruct, but don't worry... this is the Internet-age, there are already hundreds of copies which you can download online."
House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson is slated to introduce the Community College Technology Access Act on Thursday, which will provide free computer training through the nation's community colleges so that workers can improve their IT skills and become more competitive during tough economic times. The Connecticut lawmaker's bill would give the Secretary of Education the authority to distribute grants to eligible community colleges that have computer labs and commit to opening their labs for 30 hours each week on weeknights and weekends, according to a summary of the legislation. It would also require that an instructor is present to provide training during those hours and that lab instruction is free and open to the public.
About $125 million would be authorized annually with grant amounts to be determined by the secretary. Each recipient school would have to report on the costs, hours of operation and number of individuals utilizing the service. Larson's legislation is based on a proposal developed by Dr. Rob Shapiro, chair of the New Democrat Network's Globalization Initiative, to use community colleges as technology hubs and efficient, cost-effective training grounds for the U.S. workforce. In July 2007, NDN and Shapiro released a major report, "Tapping the Resources of Community Colleges: A Modest Proposal to Provide Universal Computer Training." Larson and Shapiro will host a briefing on the bill at 3 p.m. on the terrace of the Cannon House Office Building at the corner of Independence Avenue and New Jersey Avenue.
iPhones have cornered the market in cool, and now they may be giving BlackBerrys a run for their money in terms of practicality. Federal News Radio on Wednesday interviewed Andy Einhorn and Alex Salta of OhMyGov.com who touted the usefulness of iPhone applications for government employees. Among the hill-friendly apps are Congress+, a comprehensive congressional directory that includes staff contact info in addition to lawmakers'; FedTravel, a full digital version of the Federal Travel Regulation 301 Handbook for US Official Business Travelers and LawPod, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure formatted for iPhones. Most of the applications are inexpensive or free; Congress+ costs $10 but just Congress, a comparable version, only costs a dollar. FedTravel and LawPod only cost a buck as well. To avoid less useful applications, check the reviews, said Einhorn, managing editor of OhMyGov, "don't bother with anything less than three stars." For more on iPhone apps for government, check out this article. -- Eliza Krigman
NextGov.com's Aliya Sternstein reports...
Aneesh Chopra, the nation's first-ever chief technology officer, would serve as both "assistant to the president" and "associate director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy" if confirmed by the Senate, White House officials said on Monday. As assistant to President Obama, he would have direct access to the president, said Rick Weiss, senior science and technology policy analyst at OSTP. Within OSTP, he also would report to OSTP Director John Holdren.
The CTO job was initially touted as a White House-level position, but the technology industry feared the post had been downgraded after months went by without an appointment. When the administration announced the CTO would work at OSTP, open government advocates and industry expressed even more doubts about the job's heft. But with the president's ear, Chopra, the current technology secretary for the state of Virginia, will automatically carry the backing of the White House when conferring with agency officials.
The CTO slot entails thinking through uses of advanced technologies that can improve the economy and quality of life, Weiss said. Examples include examining how technology can foster private sector innovation, reduce health care costs and transform teaching. White House officials described the CTO position and the role of Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra as complementary. Kundra is more focused on intergovernmental uses of technologies to improve federal operations and public outreach. The OSTP appointment requires confirmation by the full Senate, but the assistant to the president appointment takes effect immediately, officials said.
Meanwhile, tech observers said they were pleased with Obama's pick and consider Chopra's nomination as a signal that the administration is serious about updating the nation's technology infrastructure. Former Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., said Chopra "is not a partisan individual" and, as such, will have the power to shape a far-reaching technology strategy. Read the full post here.
Just in time for Earth Day, Web watchers at Google are seeing an abundance of search advertisements from advocacy groups and energy companies on terms like "smart grid" and "renewable energy." This comes as searches on Google for terms related to climate change and alternative energy reach an all-time high. A search for "greenhouse gas" or "clean energy" turns up paid ads from companies like BP and Chevron as well as the Environmental Defense Fund, Alliance for Climate Protection, Clinton Global Initiative, and American Farmland Trust. At least one group is using search ads to encourage constituents to schedule a meeting with their congressional representative to express support for a particular energy proposal.
These ads are part of a growing trend of lobbying dollars moving online. Peter Greenberger, Google's team manager for elections and issues advocacy, said searches for "cap and trade" are up 30 percent in 2009 compared to 2008 in the United States and searches for "smart grid" are up 53 percent. Similarly, searches for "renewable energy" are up 14 percent. To coincide with Earth Day and a push on Capitol Hill for global warming legislation, groups are buying "green" buzzwords that have popped up in the media and in Washington. "These online ads signal a new style of public affairs campaign. They allow issue groups to bypass traditional media filters and take their message directly to interested voters and lawmakers," Greenberger said in an email.
Vice President Joe Biden promised movie and television executives Tuesday night that the administration will "find the right person for intellectual property czar," a still vacant White House position created by Congress last year. During a dinner that capped off the Motion Picture Association of America's Business of Show Business symposium, he told the crowd that the Obama team understands the film industry needs more resources dedicated to FBI enforcement of anti-piracy laws and more resources for prosecution, according to a pool report. He also blasted the Chinese government's IP regime that he argued "remains largely ineffective." China routinely tops the U.S. Trade Representative's annual "Special 301" report showing countries that are doing little to deal with IP theft. The latest rankings are due out later this month.
Following on last year's USTR report, Biden also singled out Canada as a country that needs stronger IP laws. In contrast, India has done a much better job combating piracy. As a result, "Bollywood is a pulsing, thriving industry," he said. Biden was there to deliver a "simple message from the president and from me: We get it. We understand the immense value of your films and all of your art, and its effect on the economy, and, I might add, on the national character." "That Hollywood sign shadow stretches all the way across America," Biden said. "You provide jobs that a middle class family can live on."
Also attending the MPAA's dinner were a number of senators including Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy; Majority Whip Richard Durbin; Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.; Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.; Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Roger Wicker, R-Miss.; and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., according to the pool report. Earlier in the day, the MPAA heard from Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and others. Read CongressDaily's AM Edition (subscription required) for more details.
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Edolphus Towns and ranking member Darrell Issa are reopening their committee's investigation of inadvertent file sharing on peer-to-peer networks, including LimeWire. The pair wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting a briefing on the agency's role in protecting Americans from the dangers associated with P2P networks. They want to know which federal law enforcement actions may be taken to protect individuals, commercial entities and agencies from security risks associated with programs such as LimeWire. They also wrote to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz requesting an update on his commission's work on the P2P front. A third letter went to LimeWire Chairman Mark Gorton, who testified before the committee in 2007.
At that hearing, witnesses said they were able to easily obtain bank records, health records, military files, tax returns, corporate documents, and other highly sensitive private files via the LimeWire network. Two years later, it appears that LimeWire and other P2P providers have not taken adequate steps to address the problem, the lawmakers said, citing a recent string of news reports indicating the continued availability of such information on LimeWire. Towns and Issa asked Gorton to provide information about LimeWire's services and software involved in any of the incidents that have been documented. They also asked what measures the firm has taken to fix security loopholes and identify and eliminate illegal activities associated with the software. Gorton's answers are due May 4.
"The emerging P2P industry takes the safety of consumers very seriously," said Marty Lafferty, executive director of the Distributed Computing Industry Association, which represents file-sharing services. "Our best advice now - to parents and children alike - is similar to that given by other Internet software distributors: please upgrade to the latest version for the best performance and the safest experience." LimeWire spokeswoman Linda Lipman told the AP that LimeWire's newest version does not share any file or directory without explicit permission from the user. Lafferty also pointed to principles released recently by the Inadvertent Sharing Protection Working Group, which can be found here.
Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Mike McCaul, R-Texas, will host a briefing for members and staff on Wednesday afternoon that will focus on smart grid technology -- just in time for Earth Day. "Development of a new, intelligent smart grid could drastically increase the efficiency of our nation's electricity infrastructure," the Congressional High Tech Caucus co-chairs wrote in a recent "Dear Colleague" letter. "An upgraded electrical grid is essential to take full advantage of the vast renewable resources in this country -- to take the wind from the Midwest and the sun from the Southwest and power areas across the country," they wrote. The Department of Energy recently got the R&D ball rolling by announcing plans to distribute $3.4 billion in smart grid technology grants and $615 million for smart grid demonstration projects.
An expert panel will discuss what Congress can do to encourage innovative applications of technology to energy distribution. Guest speakers include GridPoint Vice President Steve Hauser; Pacific Gas & Electric's Darren Deffner; PJM Interconnection Vice President Craig Glazier; Accenture's Michael Donohue; and Hewlett-Packard security architect Robert Shein. In related Earth Day news, President Obama will travel to Iowa for a tour of Trinity Structural Towers, which manufactures towers for wind energy production. Also on Wednesday, as part of the procurement process of a new White House fleet of vehicles, the administration has invited Chrysler, GM, and Ford to participate in a green vehicle market research day.
One of Washington's leading open government groups has laid out its vision of what Data.gov, the forthcoming repository for government data and research, should look like. The Sunlight Foundation's renderings come as President Obama's CIO Vivek Kundra works on the project, which he expects to unveil later this year. "Providing access to government data is one of the clearest ways to be more transparent -- and it is our hope that Kundra and team nail this with Data.gov," said Sunlight Labs director Clay Johnson. In order to do so, his group wants to see: bulk access to data; accountability for data quality; clear, understandable language; service and developer friendly file formats; and comprehensiveness. Read Sunlight's detailed recommendations here.
The 2008 presidential elections may be over, but Joe Rospars and Michael Palmer still have some issues with each other. The two men ran the online operations of Barack Obama and John McCain, respectively.
When asked at today's Politics Online Conference what separated the two campaigns, since they largely used the same tools (videos, online organizing, etc.), the two responded with dramatically different takes. Rospars jumped in and spoke for Palmer, saying his Republican counterpart would likely point out the Obama campaign's superior resources. Not pleased with that answer, Palmer rejoined: "You had a celebrity president... The difference was the enthusiasm gap. You had the candidate with more money and who was more popular, particularly with the media." Palmer then asked Rospars if Obama would have won without him, to which Rospars responded: "Given the alternative, yes."
NationalJournal.com delved into how Rospars ran the online operations of Obama's campaign in a recent profile piece.
How will Barack Obama's new-media operation shape the next round of campaigns? E-mail, e-mail, e-mail, experts concurred at today's Politics Online Conference. And make sure the new-media components are integrated throughout the rest of the campaign.
Sam Graham-Felsen, who ran the Obama campaign's blog, told nearly 100 Hill staffers, Internet consultants and new-media types that while e-mail may be the "least sexy" part of any new-media operation, it is the "single most powerful driver online and offline."
Nick Schaper, new-media director for House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, predicted that the one of the biggest changes moving forward will be for all levels of the campaign, including senior staff, to become more knowledgeable about how the Internet team operates. Everyone on a campaign should know how to operate their Web site's content management system, Schaper said.
Continue reading Panelists: Seeds Of Next Election Are In E-Mail.
When Andrew Noyes and I worked on this week's National Journal story about the lobbying battle between the music industry and radio broadcasters over royalty fees, first quarter 2009 lobbying figures weren't available yet. Under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, neither side was required to make their lobbying numbers public until the April 20 filing deadline. Now we have those numbers so we can shed some light on one of the arguments in the battle: Both sides accuse the other of trying to win by outspending their opponent.
SoundExchange, the non-profit group that is funding the music industry's lobbying battle, reported that it spent $540,000, double the $200,000 it reported spending in the first quarter of 2008. The Recording Industry Association of America, which is a member of SoundExchange, reported spending $1.8 million in the first three months of 2009, up from the $1.54 million the organization spent during the same period a year ago. The National Association of Broadcasters, which is battling the music industry on behalf of radio broadcasters, reported spending $2.6 million, up from $2.49 million they spent in the first quarter of 2008.
Both sides are racking up big lobbying fees in roughly equal measure. -- Bara Vaida
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., will join Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va.; Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., as the newest co-chair of the Congressional Internet Caucus. Thune's ascension to the leadership of one of the most active and prestigious caucuses on Capitol Hill reinforces the bipartisanship that has been the hallmark of the group during more than a dozen years since its inception, a press release stated. Thune has shown leadership on the Senate Commerce Committee and in the past has sponsored legislation to promote e-government, health information technology and youth online safety. Thune will make his first speech as a caucus co-chair at the inaugural State of the Mobile Net Conference on Thursday. Other highlights of the summit include remarks by Goodlatte and Internet expert Susan Crawford, who serves on President Obama's National Economic Council. For a full agenda, click here.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., uses Twitter to talk about her spinach soup recipe and the budget debate. That blend of the personal and political is key to engaging constituents, she explained today at a conference on politics and the Internet.
McCaskill joined Reps. Cathy McMorris Rogers, R-Wash., Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and Steve Israel, D-N.Y., at the 11th annual Politics Online Conference in downtown D.C. to talk about how their offices are using Twitter, YouTube and other new media.
"It's not a fad, it's not a phase," McMorris Rogers said of the Web's growing influence. "It's a new way citizens are engaging elected officials. It's the new town hall. It's the new letters to the editors." McMorris Rogers, who is the vice chair of the House Republican Conference, is working to train GOP members to adopt new media for their offices.
But Twitter has drawbacks, too, the lawmakers emphasized. McCaskill, who has nearly 21,000 Twitter followers, said she needs to be cautious when working with colleagues on the Hill. "I don't want to be marginalized in the Senate by the fact that the people don't want to deal with me because interactions with me might immediately go on the public bulletin board," she said.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced his candidacy for California governor on Tuesday in an email blast to supporters, via microblogging tool Twitter, and on the social networking site Facebook. "It's official. Today, I became a candidate for governor because California needs a new direction," he wrote. "In San Francisco, we're showing what can be accomplished when we stop looking back and start looking for solutions," Newsom said. He could end up facing eBay CEO Meg Whitman or several others who have announced they are thinking of running. Whitman launched her exploratory Web site in February.
When it comes to congressional passage of a patent reform bill, the devil will be in the details, the chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit told the Intellectual Property Owners Association international judges conference Monday. If a bill passes the House and Senate, Judge Paul Michel said he would expect it to include language that would change the United States from a "first to invent" to a "first to file" patent system. That modification is one of many proposed in legislation sponsored by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers. "On the other details stay tuned and stay involved," Michel said. Leahy's panel passed its patent bill before Easter recess and the senator's staff will soon start looking to secure floor time for a vote. But leadership aides have warned that this work period is a busy one and the legislation may have to wait. The House has not yet begun work on its bill. Michel said he believes there is a "substantial likelihood" some version of a patent bill will clear this year, potentially by the end of the summer.
During his talk, Michel pointed out several key intellectual property positions that are vacant. The Patent and Trademark Office, which he called a "highly stressed institution," still lacks a director and the newly created job of IP enforcement coordinator within the White House has not been filled. Both will be extremely important posts going forward, Michel said. On the international front, The World Intellectual Property Organization is in search of a deputy director. "It is conceivable that job could be filled by an American," the judge said. "Even in my own court, there is the prospect of a considerable changeover of membership," Michel added. Of the 12 active fulltime judges, four are already eligible to retire or assume senior status and within two years an additional four will fall into that category. Meanwhile, his court and others are struggling to keep pace with IP lawsuits and the PTO and its counterparts around the world are dealing with huge application backlogs and long pendency times. "It's ironic that in a world where the pace of commerce and news and innovation keep getting faster, the patent offices are getting slower," Michel said.
From CongressDaily's AM Edition...
The Obama administration is soliciting suggestions from information technology professionals, vendors and members of the public who think that its economic stimulus-tracking Web site needs a makeover. Beginning Monday, the team that administers the stimulus Web site Recovery.gov will host a weeklong forum -- conducted entirely on the Web -- to encourage participants to "submit ideas on website design, data collection, data warehousing, data analysis and visualization, waste, fraud, and abuse detection, and other topics that are key to achieving greater transparency and accountability," according to organizers. The "online dialogue" will be conducted on a message board manned around the clock by moderators from the National Academy for Public Administration, a nonpartisan advisory board charged with vetting proposed and existing government programs. Read the full story here (subscription required).
Declining advertising and classified sales, waning subscription numbers, the 24-hour news cycle and new competition brought by Internet innovators are among the myriad challenges facing newspapers in the recession-plagued 21st century - and now Congress wants to get involved. On Tuesday afternoon, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy will hold a hearing titled "A New Age for Newspapers: Diversity of Voices, Competition and the Internet." Witnesses include Carl Shapiro, deputy assistant attorney general for economics at the Justice Department; Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO Brian Tierney; journalist John Nichols; Newspaper Guild President Bernie Lunzer; Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott; University of Pennsylvania professor C. Edwin Baker; and Dan Gainor, director of the Business and Media Institute.
Next month, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who chairs the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet will hold a similar hearing to address the issues threatening the news media. The May 6 hearing will be Kerry's first since Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller tapped him to head up the panel. "An independent news media is vital to our democracy," Kerry said in a statement. "It holds power accountable while giving voice to the people and interests who might otherwise never be heard." United States history "is inextricably linked to the narrative of our free and independent press," Kerry said, yet America's newspapers are struggling to stay afloat. "I called this hearing to directly address a problem that for too long has had us turning the other way. Whatever the model for the future, we must do all we can to ensure a diverse and independent news media endures," he said.
High-tech giant Oracle agreed to buy Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion after IBM abandoned its bid for the iconic software company, in part, analysts believe because of perceived risk that antitrust authorities, either in the United States or the European Union, would reject the deal. While the Oracle-Sun deal will likely receive serious scrutiny, a Monday afternoon memo from investment firm Stifel Nicolaus says its experts think it is likely to be approved. "We believe an Oracle-Sun deal faces significantly fewer obstacles in the antitrust review than an IBM-Sun deal would have, particularly as it does not raise the issues regarding consolidation in the server and storage markets that would have been problematic for a deal with IBM," they wrote.
There is less overlap between the product offerings of Oracle and Sun, which reduces horizontal concentration issues, the analysts said. Plus the deal does not pose the same vertical integration issues that IBM-Sun would or add fuel to existing antitrust investigations. There may be some concern among customers and suppliers about increasing Oracle's market position but the analysts think most will regard the arrangement as a welcome alternative to a Sun combination with IBM. While some may welcome a counterweight to IBM, others such as Microsoft may see the process as an opportunity to raise concerns about Oracle's growing market strength and potentially to even condition the deal, the memo said.
Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft, which was initially blocked by the Bush administration Justice Department in 2004, was subsequently allowed by a federal court after Oracle fought for the deal rather than folding, Stifel Nicolaus said. Oracle's deal with BEA was approved by both U.S. and EU regulators last year. "We don't think the approval of either of those deals carried any kind of 'okay, but no further' signal that would cause us to think the deal with Sun will have significant problems," the memo said. There are substantial long-term strategic customer advantages to Oracle owning two key Sun software assets: Java and Solaris, the firms said in a press release. "The acquisition of Sun transforms the IT industry, combining best-in-class enterprise software and mission-critical computing systems," Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said.
* * * Updated 5 p.m. ET * * *
A handful of U.S. high-tech executives left for Baghdad Sunday on a trip arranged by the State Department, an agency spokesman said at a Monday briefing. The junket is the first of its kind for the CEOs, vice presidents and senior representatives from AT&T, Google, YouTube, Twitter, WordPress, Howcast, Meetup, Blue State Digital and others. Blue State Digital has strong ties to President Obama, having provided his campaign and the transition team with a number of services ranging from online fundraising and voter outreach to social networking and Web hosting. Google CEO Eric Schmidt and other company executives have also served as advisers to Obama.
"While in Iraq, the group will explore new opportunities to support Iraqi government and non-government stakeholders in Iraq's emerging new media industry," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. During their visit, they will provide conceptual input as well as ideas on how new technologies can be used to build local capacity, foster greater transparency and accountability, build upon anti-corruption efforts, promote critical thinking in the classroom, scale up civil society, and further empower local entities and individuals by providing the tools for network building. "As Iraqis think about how to integrate new technology as a tool for smart power, we view this as an opportunity to invite American technology industry to be part of this creative genesis," Wood said.
Wood was unable to identify the names of the executives on the trip but said he would try to furnish a list later in the day. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton "has been a strong proponent of using a full range of tools, including emerging new media and communication technologies, to leverage capabilities that will allow for diplomacy not just with governments but also with people and between different associates," he said. Earlier this month, Clinton hired on as her senior innovation adviser Alec Ross, who served on Obama's transition team and co-founded the nonprofit One Economy, which uses technology to assist low income communities.
California Secretary of State Debra Bowen spoke to the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet's Politics Online conference on Monday about how she has embraced new technologies to make government more accessible and accountable to the public. She and Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner emphasized the promise of cloud computing, the storage of large amounts of data by external hosting providers with the goal of saving money and increasing efficiency. The California government will soon move to a cloud computing structure on election night, Bowen said. She also articulated the promise and perils of social networking site Facebook and microblogging tool Twitter. Neither is good for having a complex discussion about complicated issues, said Bowen, who personally handles both of her accounts and as such can communicate directly with citizens. "You drive your communications department to drink," she laughed. "You hate to be the worst leak in your office." Watch the video of Bowen's speech above to learn more.
A collection of unions, artists' alliances, companies, trade associations and research organizations whose livelihoods depend on solid intellectual property protections wrote to President Obama Monday countering what they believe is a "false dichotomy" espoused by high-tech groups who suggested in a letter earlier this month that there is a conflict between the rights of authors and inventors and the need for innovation or creativity. "The authors of the April 2 letter would have you believe that you must choose between safeguarding IP protection on the one hand and promoting innovation on the other. This supposed conflict is itself an invention," the new letter stated. The communiqué was signed by Association of American Publishers, Business Software Alliance, Copyright Alliance, Motion Picture Association of America, Recording Industry Association of America and many more. The previous memo was sent by the American Library Association; Center for Democracy and Technology; Computer and Communications Industry Association; Consumer Electronics Association and others.
"Intellectual property drives innovation and creativity, from the production of new creative works to the development of consumer electronics and medicine," the group of IP crusaders wrote in the Monday letter. "Your administration, like the transition team that preceded it, reflects a diversity of experience and viewpoints on the full spectrum of issues, including IP policy. The hallmarks of your administration's appointees have been competence, substantive expertise, and a commitment to your administration's agenda." The earlier letter pointed to two senior officials in the Justice Department -- Thomas Perrelli and Donald Verrilli -- as examples of nominees who previously represented "the concentrated copyright industries." The new letter from the IP community said Obama has demonstrated knowledge about the importance of copyright, patents and trademarks to the U.S. economy. "We appreciate the fact that such knowledge will be a key qualification for any future appointee to an IP policy position in your administration," the group said.
From Washington to Las Vegas, it will be a busy week on the policy front for the communications industry. The National Association of Broadcasters holds its annual convention this week in Las Vegas, with CEO David Rehr delivering a keynote Monday and FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein speaking Tuesday. Hot topics will include the shift to digital television culminating June 12, public-interest obligations for DTV stations and the industry's entry into mobile DTV -- technology that lets stations transmit signals to cellphones and other handheld gadgets. Sessions will tackle the administration's approach to media ownership and the battle over whether radio stations should compensate artists for playing their work.
• The George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet will host its annual Politics Online conference Monday and Tuesday. Lawmakers slated to speak include Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., John Culberson, R-Texas, Steve Israel, D-N.Y., and Timothy Ryan, D-Ohio.
• Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., will speak at the Motion Picture Association of America's Business of Show Business summit Tuesday, which will stress the economic impact of movie and television production and distribution. Professional wrestler turned actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will provide the luncheon keynote.
• From Tuesday to Thursday, the Consumer Electronics Association holds its annual Washington Forum featuring a keynote by David Plouffe, campaign manager for then-candidate Obama, on Tuesday and a DTV session Thursday. CEA members make the rounds on Capitol Hill Tuesday, followed by Wednesday night's annual Digital Patriots dinner honoring Reps. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
From the latest issue of National Journal magazine...
For decades, singers and record labels have tried to convince Congress that a gap in the country's copyright law has been allowing AM and FM radio stations to rip off artists. Radio broadcasters must pay a fee to songwriters and publishers for each song they play, but because of a long-standing exemption in the copyright law the performers themselves get nothing. "My recordings have been played worldwide with no amount of compensation coming to Dionne Warwick," the singer said at a Capitol Hill press briefing in February. "I think it's about time that I do get paid." Until recently, however, the sound of famous singers pleading poverty has fallen on deaf ears in Congress. Broadcasters, who paid out $550 million in royalty fees to writers and publishers in 2008, have successfully argued that singers get free radio airtime and promotion, resulting in millions of dollars in concert, merchandise, and record sales. Performers also get paid through contracts with labels.
But the music industry hopes that changing business models driven by new technology and an aggressive lobbying effort could force the broadcasters to change their tune. As consumers have shifted their music listening habits to the Internet, iPods, and satellite radio, and large corporations have bought up stations, the free airplay argument may no longer hold. More key lawmakers are expressing support for the music industry's position, and a nasty lobbying fight has erupted between the industry and broadcasters. The colorful comments of two prominent industry leaders demonstrate the passions at play. "This isn't a question of if they will lose, it's when they will lose," Mitch Bainwol, the Recording Industry Association of America's chairman and CEO, predicted while discussing the fight with National Journal. David Rehr, the National Association of Broadcasters' president and CEO, calls the fight "a long, drawn-out, brutal conflict between the foreign record labels and America's radio broadcasters." (The foreign-record comment is a reference to three of the country's four largest recording industry labels, which are owned by non-U.S. companies.) Read the full story and watch companion video here.
President Obama on Saturday tapped Virginia Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra to serve as the nation's first chief technology officer, making good on a campaign promise to create the post that enthused Silicon Valley and high-tech policy watchers in Washington. Chopra, who was widely rumored to be a top contender, "will promote technological innovation to help achieve our most urgent priorities -- from creating jobs and reducing health care costs to keeping our nation secure," Obama said in his weekly radio address. Chopra will work closely with Obama's chief information officer, Vivek Kundra, who is responsible for setting technology policy across the government, and using technology to improve security, ensure transparency, and lower costs. Kundra was appointed CIO and administrator for e-government at OMB last month.
The pair worked together before when Kundra served as Virginia's assistant secretary of commerce and technology. Before joining Gov. Tim Kaine's cabinet, Chopra was a managing director at the Advisory Board Company, a publicly-traded healthcare think tank. Obama also named Jeffrey Zients to serve as deputy director for management at OMB and the federal government's first chief performance officer. High-tech leaders praised Chopra's appointment. Jim Hawley, acting CEO of TechNet, said Chopra's track record in Virginia will serve as a model for his CTO work. Most recently, he was responsible for the creation of Virginia-specific free educational content offered digitally through Apple's popular iTunes Store and a statewide effort to encourage software developers to produce innovative mathematics applications that will engage middle school students.
An issue brief put out by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy Friday holds that the public should be concerned about Google's online library of books it has been acquiring from the collections of many university libraries. Currently, there is a proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by authors and publishers against Google over copyright infringement. Google has denied the claims of the lawsuit. James Grimmelmann, the New York Law School professor who wrote the ACS report, argued the settlement would let Google sell books under copyright whose copyright owners cannot be found. He warned this turns Google "into a dominant platform with control over a huge catalog of books that no one else has access to."
Grimmelmann further claims the issue should be resolved through the legislative process and Google's competitors could also file antitrust lawsuits on the orphan works issue. Google has held that the settlement "promises to benefit readers and researchers, and enhance the ability of authors and publishers to distribute their content in digital form, by significantly expanding online access to works through Google Book Search, an ambitious effort to make millions of books searchable via the Web." "The agreement acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright owners, provides an efficient means for them to control how their intellectual property is accessed online and enables them to receive compensation for online access to their works," Google said.
Readers of Grimmelmann's brief might want to note the footnotes on the bottom of the first page. Grimmelmann has significant ties to Google competitor Microsoft. He has headed the Public Interest Book Search Initiative, which has received funding from Microsoft and previously worked as computer programmer for Microsoft. Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans wrote in an email that his company has provided funding to the institute and dozens of other institutions. "We do so with the clear understanding that the work done is to be independent," he said. Evans added the company funded this proposal because "we believe it's an important public policy matter regarding a copyright subject (orphan works) that we have a history of interest in and have spoken about many times publicly as far back as four years ago." -- Winter Casey
From Thursday's CongressDaily PM Edition...
When movie-studio executives meet in Washington next week, their message to the Obama administration and Congress will be straightforward: Hollywood contributes heavily to the U.S. economy, and policies friendly to movie and television production and distribution can help the country rebound. Unlike executives from other industries, members of the Motion Picture Association of America are not seeking handouts, the trade group's top lobbyist told CongressDaily. "We're coming to D.C. to highlight the positive impact of our industry and show that we're part of the solution," Michael O'Leary said. At the MPAA's Business of Show Business symposium Tuesday, speakers will underscore the millions of jobs and billions of dollars in wages they produce across the nation, much if it from off-camera work from local crews and catering to costumes and special effects.
Read the full story here (subscription required).
Intellectual property rights enthusiasts lauded a Swedish jury's decision Friday to hold the two founders and two operators of the infamous Pirate Bay Web site guilty of criminal copyright infringement. The court levied jail sentences and civil damage awards worth about $3.6 million against the defendants whose BitTorrent site attracted an estimated 22 million users worldwide. The Progress and Freedom Foundation's Tom Sydnor said the outcome delivered a simple message about the activities of the Pirate Bay: "Good riddance to bad rubbish." He commended Sweden for upholding the rule of law and urged the government to act swiftly to end the site's illegal activities.
Syndor also said the ruling was "an affirmation of the rights of the hard-working, law-abiding creators" whose efforts to stem the global recession were hampered by "socially destructive freeloading" by sites and distributors of piracy-adapted file-sharing programs. Business Software Alliance President Robert Holleyman also commented on the ruling, saying it "serves as a clear warning to other Web site operators who are knowingly offering illegal content, or enabling the illegal distribution of content, that their operations are immoral and punishable by law." The trade group executive called the case "a victory for copyright holders, who deserve to be rewarded for their creativity and hard work." Internet-based software piracy is a huge problem with serious consequences for consumers, the economy, and society, Holleyman said.
The FTC on Thursday approved a Federal Register notice seeking public comment on a proposed rule that would require entities to notify consumers when the security of their electronic health information is breached. The economic stimulus package included provisions to advance the use of health IT and, at the same time, strengthen privacy and security protections for medical data. Among other things, the law recognizes there are new types of Web-based entities that collect or handle consumers' sensitive health information and some offer personal health records, which consumers can use as an electronic, individually controlled repository for their medical information, the FTC said. Others provide online applications through which consumers can track and manage different kinds of information in their personal health records.
"These innovations have the potential to provide numerous benefits for consumers, which can only be realized if they have confidence that the security and confidentiality of their health information will be maintained," according the FTC press release. To address this, the stimulus bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a study and report by February 2010, in consultation with the FTC, on potential privacy, security, and breach notification requirements for vendors of personal health records and related entities. In the interim, the statute requires the FTC to issue a temporary rule requiring entities to notify consumers if the security of their health information is breached. The proposed rule the Commission announced Thursday is the first step in implementing this requirement. Read more about the FTC announcement here.
Satellite television provider DirecTV and Comcast Corp., one of the nation's largest providers of cable and Internet services, have agreed to pay a total of $3.21 million to settle separate FTC charges that they violated the "do not call" provisions of the Telemarketing Sales Rule, according to an agency press release. Among the charges were that the companies or their telemarketers called consumers who specifically had told the companies not to call them again. In addition, a DirecTV telemarketer and its principals have agreed to pay a $115,000 penalty for making prerecorded sales calls to consumers who had asked not to be called.
"In both of these cases, DirecTV and Comcast violated consumers' privacy by calling people who specifically had asked these companies not to call them again," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement. "What makes DirecTV's actions especially troubling is that it is a two-time offender: DirecTV violated not only the FTC's do not call rules, but also a previous federal court order barring it from exactly this type of conduct." Liebowitz said his agency "won't tolerate firms that disregard consumers' specific requests not to be called, and we will be especially tough on companies that ignore their obligations under prior court orders."
A DirecTV spokesman said the cases pertained to a brief 2007 calling campaign to determine whether the firm had correctly recorded customers' do not call status. He said DirecTV believed the pre-recorded messages were permitted at the time because they were not attempting to sell anything -- but the FTC disagreed. "We're happy to have this behind us," he said. A Comcast spokeswoman pointed out the FTC found her firm's compliance with the national registry to be 99.85 percent and chose not to pursue any claim against them in that area. Their settlement was limited to alleged calls made to those identified on Comcast's internal do-not-call list, where its compliance rate was 99.74 percent.
The Justice Department wants to extend the term of certain portions of Microsoft's final antitrust judgment by at least 18 months, according to documents submitted Thursday to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The agency said an extension is necessary to ensure the quality of the technical documentation Microsoft provides to licensees. The agency made its views known as part of its joint status report to Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly who has been handling the high-tech giant's case. The DOJ antitrust division is charged with enforcing the final judgment in conjunction with officials from 17 states and the District of Columbia, which along with Microsoft joined in the filing.
In 2006, Microsoft agreed to a two-year extension of the communications protocol licensing program contained in a section of the final judgment, along with all of the final judgment's enforcement provisions. The company also agreed that the department and state antitrust enforcement agencies could ask for an additional extension of all or part of the extended provisions of the final judgment for a period of up to three additional years, through November 2012, according to DOJ. In the filing, the Obama is exercising its right to seek an extension of a certain section through May 12, 2011. Otherwise, the final judgment would have expired on Nov. 12, 2009.
The section in question requires that Microsoft make available to competing server software developers, on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, certain technology used by Microsoft to make its server operating systems interoperate with client PCs running the Windows operating system, DOJ said. Microsoft also must provide licensees with technical documentation to help them to use the technology. In past status reports, the department raised concerns with the quality of the documentation Microsoft was providing and the length of time it was taking to improve that documentation. In 2008, National Journal's Technology Daily ran a series of stories examining the impact of Microsoft's epic antitrust battle nearly a decade after it began. View a PDF of that special coverage here.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman and ranking member Susan Collins will hold a hearing in late April to examine the 60-day cybersecurity review ordered by President Obama. The audit, which is slated to conclude Friday, is being led by Melissa Hathaway, a top adviser to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair. After the hearing, Lieberman "will consider his legislative options," a spokeswoman said Wednesday. A number of bills intended to help secure U.S. computer networks, the power grid and other critical infrastructure are expected from committees that share jurisdiction over the issue. House and Senate committees covering commerce, homeland security, intelligence, judiciary and government reform have all introduced legislation in the past.
"The cyber threat to our nation's computer systems is real, and action to secure our cyber infrastructure is long overdue," Collins said in a statement. She is concerned that more than a year has gone by since the Bush administration announced its multi-billion dollar cybersecurity initiative and the Homeland Security Department still lacks the authority to set and enforce policies across the federal government. In last year's authorization bill, Lieberman and Collins outlined their vision for cybersecurity that would establish a National Cyber Security Center to coordinate efforts to protect government networks, strengthen DHS's ability to hire experts, and establish a private sector board to advise the agency on cybersecurity policy.
On the other side of Capitol Hill, House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson is focused on high-tech threats to the electrical system. "Our electric system is critical to our way of life, and we cannot afford to leave it vulnerable to attack," he said in a statement. "Our oversight indicates there is a significant gap in current regulation to effectively secure this infrastructure. I intend to introduce legislation that will address these limitations." Experts at the Center for Democracy and Technology briefed reporters on the path forward for cybersecurity policy at a Wednesday briefing. Read this story CongressDaily's PM Edition for more details.
The National Association of Broadcasters has given lobbyist Douglas Wiley the boot. Wiley was hired by NAB in 2006 to lead the government relations team as executive vice president of government relations but his position was latter shifted to executive vice president in charge of the administration and agencies. A source familiar with NAB's team said Wiley's position was eliminated last month.
Prior to joining NAB, Wiley served as a senior vice president of government relations for the Electronic Industries Alliance, director of government relations for Alcatel, a vice president at the Telecommunications Industry Association, and director of legislative affairs for the Competitive Telecommunications Association. He also spent time on Capitol Hill as a senior legislative assistant to the former chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Thomas Bliley, R-Va. He holds a master's degree in business administration from George Washington University.
NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton said the group "does not comment on personnel issues." NAB's lobbying team is currently being headed by Laurie Knight, a Democrat who formerly worked as the legislative director for Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas. Prior to joining NAB, she spent more than five years with the National Beer Wholesalers Association. -- Winter Casey
From CongressDaily's Tuesday PM Edition...
The Obama administration's selection of a Patent and Trademark Office director cannot come soon enough, according to officials inside the agency. They cite serious cash-flow problems, internal cutbacks and a downturn in the number of applications filed and patents granted amid continued U.S. economic gloom. "We need a new director just as soon as we can get one," Patent Office Professional Association President Robert Budens said Monday. While the administration and Commerce Department, which houses PTO, have been tight-lipped about the appointment, sources say Commerce Secretary Gary Locke is involved and an announcement could come in the next week or two. Oft-mentioned prospects for the job include Q. Todd Dickinson, who ran the office under former President Bill Clinton, Silicon Valley attorney Jim Pooley and IBM Vice President David Kappos. During his March confirmation hearing, Locke vowed not to let urgent issues like the 2010 census crowd out topics like improving the patent office's productivity. The agency faces a backlog of more than 750,000 applications. Read the full story here.
More than 120 people have downloaded bulk data from the Center for Responsive Politics' campaign finance clearinghouse OpenSecrets.org in the 24 hours since the site opened up its data archives to the public for non-commercial purposes, officials said Tuesday. After 26 years, CRP unshackled about 200 million records so that skilled data-divers can explore information aggregated on OpenSecrets. Officials hope that Web developers and database experts will grab federal money-in-politics data that CRP's researchers have standardized and coded, and mash it up with other data sets. Timelines, charts, maps, other graphics and mobile applications are just some of the projects that could result.
"Putting our data into more hands will put more eyes on Washington and, we hope, engage more Americans in their government," CRP Executive Director Sheila Krumholz said in a press release. "We hope that more people counting cash will lead to more people making change." The OpenSecrets OpenData initiative is being underwritten by a three-year $1.2 million grant from Sunlight Foundation. Sunlight's Ellen Miller said CRP's initiative will have "a long-term impact, undoubtedly inspiring many effective and creative uses of the data by civic hackers, journalists and bloggers."
The following data sets, along with a user guide, resource tables and other documentation, are now available in CSV format here.
• Campaign finance: 195 million records dating to the 1989-1990 election cycle, tracking campaign fundraising and spending by candidates for federal office, as well as political parties and political action committees.
• Lobbying: 3.5 million records on federal lobbyists, their clients, their fees and the issues they • reported working on, dating to 1998.
• Personal finances: Reports from members of Congress and the executive branch that detail their personal assets, liabilities and transactions in 2004 through 2007. Reports covering 2008 will become available to the public in June.
• 527 organizations: Electronically filed financial records beginning in the 2004 election cycle for issue-advocacy groups that can raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, labor unions and individuals.
The co-creator of the government accountability Web site StimulusWatch.org has embarked on a new project aimed at making federal rulemakings easier for the public to access and offer comment. Jerry Brito, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, is putting the finishing touches on OpenRegs.com, which will take the Federal Register's daily XML feed to new heights. Currently, the U.S. government's Regulations.gov allows citizens to find, review, and submit comments on federal documents but Brito and others believe the portal is not as dynamic and user friendly as it could be. OpenRegs.com will offer automated lists of comment periods closing soon across all agencies; recently opened comment periods; and recently published final regulations, Brito said. Users will also be able to find regulations by agency and by topic as well as subscribe to alerts for particular issues of interest. Furthermore, the OpenRegs.com community will be able to discuss certain regulations online and submit comments. The site should go public in the next week or so, he said.
Georgetown University law professor David Vladeck has been named director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, the agency announced Tuesday. Vladeck has taught federal courts, government processes, civil procedure, and First Amendment litigation and co-directed Georgetown Law Center's Institute for Public Representation, a clinical law program for civil rights, civil liberties, First Amendment, open government, and regulatory litigation. He previously spent almost 30 years with Public Citizen Litigation Group, including 10 years as director. In that role, he has argued a number of First Amendment and civil rights cases before the Supreme Court, and more than 60 cases before the federal courts of appeal and state courts of last resort, the FTC said.
The announcement came a month after a handful of watchdog groups asked FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz to appoint a new consumer protection chief post haste. They wanted someone who had "a track record as a genuine champion of consumer rights" and someone whose experience reflects not simply a broad familiarity with industry procedures, but a deep commitment to proactively protecting the public from all manner of unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent practices. Lydia Parnes, who had the job for four years, left the agency recently to join law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Her deputy, Eileen Harrington, took over as acting director. Center for Digital Democracy's Jeff Chester called Vladeck's appointment "great news for the public interest" and those interested in privacy, online advertising, and marketing regulation.
Other new senior FTC appointments include:
• Richard Feinstein, who rejoined the agency as director of the Bureau of Competition, after serving as a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner.
• Former University of California-Berkeley professor Joseph Farrell, who was named director of the Bureau of Economics.
• Susan DeSanti, who will be director of policy planning, after focusing on antitrust and litigation at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal.
• Jeanne Bumpus, who was re-appointed as director of the Office of Congressional Relations after serving in that position since June 2006.
• Joni Lupovitz, who will serve as chief of staff to Leibowitz.
Senate Commerce Committee member John Thune, R-S.D.; Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; Virginia Technology Secretary Aneesh Chopra; and Internet visionary Susan Crawford, who is now working for the White House's National Economic Council, will headline the inaugural State of the Mobile Net policy conference on Capitol Hill later this month. The April 23 conference, hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee, will bring together mobile and wireless policy pros and tech industry leaders to discuss policy and marketplace issues facing the dynamically evolving mobile Internet.
Panelists will probe key public policy issues on panels such as "Spectrum: Is the Lifeblood of the Mobile Net Running Dry?," "Privacy on the Go," and "What Policy Framework Will Further Enable Innovation on the Mobile Net?" The conference will also feature educational panels on such topics as "What is the Mobile Net: Understanding the Mobile Net Ecosystem", "Cloud Computing and Emerging Business Models in the Mobile Space," and "Mobile Network Infrastructure Trends." More information about the conference and the full agenda can be found here.
NationalJournal.com's Amy Harder recently sat down with Joe Rospars, President Obama's new media campaign director. Here's a snippet...
Long after dozens of Obama For America campaign diehards had gone home, Joe Rospars and Sam Graham-Felsen were still staked out on the 11th floor of a nondescript Chicago office building one night in March 2007. As usual, they were working long hours, blogging, tracking supporters and otherwise keeping Barack Obama's new media operation alive. But that night they were also waiting for someone special to arrive -- the campaign's 75,000th donor, a milestone that, at the time, seemed grand.
Rospars, then 25, had recently come on as the campaign's new media director, overseeing a team of fewer than a dozen Web specialists. From the start he was committed to recognizing donors, not money, recalls Graham-Felsen, who ran the campaign's blog. So when the donation came in, Graham-Felsen remembers Rospars saying, "Let's give that guy a call." The donor's story was spotlighted on the blog and e-mailed to thousands of supporters. The blog post was signed by Graham-Felsen, and the e-mail came from campaign director David Plouffe. Not from Rospars, even though the idea was his. That's how Rospars wanted it.
A few fun facts about Rospars: He spends a lot of time on Facebook; follows Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Shaquille O'Neal on Twitter; and has a MacBook Pro.
Read the full story here.
Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., last week announced he is drafting legislation designed to prevent what he called "job killing broadband Internet downloading caps." The proposal would prohibit unfair tiered pricing structures and would address the importance of helping broadband providers create jobs and increase their bandwidth while increasing competition in areas currently served by only one provider, according to a press release. "I am taking a leadership position on this issue because of all the phone calls, emails and faxes I've received from my district and all over the country," Massa said, citing a plan by Time Warner to charge residential and business broadband fees based on the amount of data they download. [Read more coverage on this issue here].
The freshman lawmaker, who serves on the House Agriculture, Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees, called Time Warner's announcement to test market the initiative in several regions "ill conceived" and said it had the potential to more than triple customers' current rates. Time Warner said it wanted to roll out the project in Rochester N.Y., Greensboro, N.C., Austin, Texas, and San Antonio, Texas. "It's almost certainly just a matter of time before they attempt to overcharge all of their customers," Massa said. "While I favor a business's right to maximize their profit potential, I believe safeguards must be put in place when a business has a monopoly on a specific region."
Read Massa's press release here and a recent memo from Landel Hobbs, Time Warner's chief operating officer here.
House Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Darrell Issa, a cosponsor of legislation that would end a long-standing royalty exemption granted to AM and FM radio, believes the National Association of Broadcasters is engaging in "overt intimidation" and has forced talk radio hosts around the country to attack the bill and urge listeners to call specific members of Congress. Issa said in an interview last week that he has been barraged by angry phone calls from listeners and said other bill supporters have had a similar experience. The NAB opposes the proposal that many believe would bring over-the-air radio in line with Internet, cable and satellite music services that pay performers for use of their work. Broadcasters argue the promotional value of airplay and album and concert sales make up for the disparity.
"This is really 527 activity and it is a violation of FEC rules," Issa said of the NAB's alleged efforts. "I suspect if they continue, one or more members will complain the NAB is using airwaves to affect the outcome of an election." NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton offered a different take on what is going on. "Broadcasters have a responsibility to 235 million weekly listeners of free, local radio to encourage a national dialogue on the devastating impact of a performance tax," he said. The legislation in question would endanger local radio's already unsteady financial position by diverting hundreds of millions of dollars into coffers of record labels, he argued. "Citizens have a right to know that a performance tax imperils the future of free, local radio."
President Obama announced Monday that he will authorize U.S. telecommunications network providers to enter into agreements to establish fiber-optic cable and satellite telecommunications facilities linking the United States to Cuba. Obama said he wants to promote greater interaction between the U.S. and Cuba and will allow U.S. telecom, radio and television service providers to offer services and enter into agreements with Cuban customers and service providers. The White House also said it will "license persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction to activate and pay U.S. and third-country service providers for telecommunications, satellite radio and satellite television services provided to individuals in Cuba, except certain senior Communist Party and Cuban government officials." The United States will further allow the export or re-export to Cuba of donated personal communications devices so long as national security concerns are recognized. The White House said Obama took these steps to promote the free flow of information to the Cuban people. In May 2008, then-President George W. Bush announced that Americans soon would be allowed to send cell phones to Cubans. Bush also acknowledged reforms the Castro regime had made toward becoming more technology friendly such as allowing Cubans to purchase mobile phones, DVD players and computers. -- Winter Casey
New interim federal rules aimed at helping prevent Internet distribution of certain government-controlled prescription drugs took effect Monday, less than six months after former President George W. Bush signed into law the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act. The legislation, championed in the House by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and in the Senate by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was named for an 18-year-old who died after overdosing on a prescription painkiller he obtained on the Internet from a doctor he never saw. The statute amends existing laws governing controlled substances by adding new definitions for "online pharmacy" and "deliver, distribute, or dispense by means of the Internet." It also requires at least one face-to-face patient medical evaluation prior to issuance of a prescription drug and imposes registration, information disclosure and reporting requirements for online pharmacies.
"Now that this law has been put into force it will be harder for cyber-criminals to supply controlled substances over the Internet and easier for us to prosecute them," DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart said in a press release. Controlled substances such as narcotics, stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, and anabolic steroids and covered by the statute. Implementing the rule "will increase Internet safety and help prevent tragedies like Ryan Haight's death from happening again," Leonhart said. Nearly one in five teenagers has used a prescription medication to get high, according to a 2008 survey by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. The same survey found that two in five teens believe the fallacy that prescription medicines obtained without a prescription are "much safer" to use than illegal drugs. For more information on DEA implementation, click here.
The Business Software Alliance on Monday launched the "Faces of Internet Piracy" campaign that shows the real-life impact of intellectual property theft - from hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines to jail time. BSA represents Cisco Systems, Dell Computer, Intel Corp., IBM, Microsoft and a number of other high-tech firms. BSA toured the country interviewing software pirates from all walks of life, including an Austin, Texas college track star; a Richmond Hills, Georgia grandmother; a Lakeland, Florida entrepreneur; a Wichita Falls, Texas software programmer; and a New Milford, Connecticut college student. Their stories are told on a new BSA Web page.
"These stories are a wake-up call for distributors and users of illegal software," BSA President Robert Holleyman said in a statement. "Don't take our word for it; just listen to these software pirates explain how they made money by duping thousands of people into purchasing or downloading illegal software from the Internet. Hear how their actions ended up costing them serious fines and prison sentences." Watch the video above for more details about the project. The Faces of Internet Piracy Web page also offers shopping tips for software consumers and lessons on how to safeguard against becoming a victim of piracy.
The White House's annual Easter Egg Roll on Monday is going high-tech. For the first time, tickets were distributed online, allowing families from across the country to attend the annual tradition. Plus many of the activities at this year's event will be webcast live on WhiteHouse.gov -- another first for the Obama administration. Some of the fun streamed via the Web will include performances on the music stage, celebrity chefs in the Kid's Kitchen and the readings at the Storytime Stage. A full schedule of webcast events will be updated here. Over 30,000 people from 45 states and the District of Columbia will attend the Easter Egg Roll. Meanwhile, the 2009 souvenir Easter egg is the greenest egg in history. It was made in the United States from Forest Stewardship Council certified hardwood, which means the wood comes from environmentally and socially sustainably managed forests.
Two years after being fined $12.5 million by the FCC as part of an anti-payola settlement and agreeing to boost airtime for independent label and local artists, major radio broadcasters have not changed their tune when it comes to composing their music playlists, according to a forthcoming report by the Future of Music Coalition. The results of the nonprofit's yearlong analysis will be released the week of April 20, and the group hopes it will spur the FCC to act. Playlist tracking data, which is compiled in the private sector and sold to stations and others who request the information, should be a function of the commission, FMC spokesman Casey Rae-Hunter said. "We're hoping that the FCC considers this data and takes steps to better understand a key sector that they're charged with overseeing," he said of the report's findings. "Without data and clear policy goals, this is very difficult." Some contend the FCC lacked the political will to address the issue during the Bush administration, but they see an opening with President Obama. Read the full story in CongressDaily's PM Edition (subscription required).
Q: On balance, has journalism been helped more or hurt more by the rise of news consumption on the Internet?
Media Insiders (45 votes)
Helped more 33%
Hurt more 62%
Both 4%
Helped more "Smart journalists see diversified Internet news voices as an asset and online venues as an opportunity. Dumb and/or insecure journalists see them as parasitical competitors and enemies. In either case, the erosion of homogenized control over news brought about by the Internet elevates the quality of journalism in numerous ways."
Hurt more "The benefits flowing from the tremendous new availability of information have yet to adequately offset the damage that the rise of this new business model has done to the expensive, risky, labor-intensive work of gathering, editing, packaging, and delivering reliable information from places and people that are often hard to get to and unwilling to help."
Both "Journalism is helped in that good journalism finds a much wider audience thanks to the Internet while flawed journalism is more quickly exposed. But the business of journalism is hurt by the fact that now readers expect to get information for free, and good journalism costs money to produce."
Read more about National Journal's Insiders Poll here.
House Republican High-Tech Working Group Chairman Bob Goodlatte just completed three days of meetings in Silicon Valley, which involved discussions with high-tech industry leaders about the challenges they currently face. Legislative attempts to overhaul the U.S. patent system as well as concerns about "card check" legislation and tax policy were big issues for the executives, officials said. The Virginia Republican met with CEOs and other top level officials from M2Z Networks, Covad Communications, Infinera Company, Yahoo and Cisco Systems as well as with executives from Amyris Biotech and Solazyme who are working to develop biofuels. The political network TechNet facilitated the meetings.
On the topic of patent reform, Goodlatte said "it is becoming increasingly clear that current patent laws do not sufficiently contemplate all the complex products in today's economy." "Without patent reform we will see more and more inventors registering their ideas under the laws of countries with more predictable intellectual property protections. This will only serve to further damage our fragile economy," he said in a statement. Goodlatte is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, which is expected to consider patent legislation in the near term. The Senate Judiciary Committee passed its patent bill before Easter recess.
Goodlatte also stressed the GOP working group's opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act, which he believes would strike a huge blow to the privacy rights of workers throughout the country. The impact of that bill would be devastating to small businesses, and to the economy, he said. On tax reform, Goodlatte said the Democratic leadership's fiscal 2010 budget "expands the wayward philosophy of big government by increasing taxes on individuals and small businesses and burdening future generations with compounding debt." The proposal "will lessen the prospect for economic revitalization and job creation," he said.
From NextGov.com's Aliya Sternstein...
Some bloggers are using the social media tactics that President Obama has long promoted against him as they protest his proposed rule to overturn conscience protections for health care workers who refuse to participate in controversial medical procedures. "Obama obviously has championed social media for his purposes. ... We are trying to take a lesson from his toolbox and engage in that as well," said Charlotte Davis, director of strategic operations at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank. Obama's proposed regulation would rescind a Bush administration rule that prohibits federal funds from going to healthcare providers that force workers to deliver services they find religiously or morally objectionable, including abortion and sterilization. The rule took effect Jan. 20.
Heritage has created a Web site, ADoctorsRight.com, with an online form letter of disapproval that visitors can modify and submit directly to the public docket by hitting "Send." The deadline for commenting on Obama's reversal is Thursday. Davis said the official Web site for submitting comments electronically, Regulations.gov, is hard to navigate. "If you go to Regulations.gov, that Web site is inherently confusing. It's a travesty, really," she said. "We have set up a system where [citizens] don't have to worry about remembering the docket number." Read the full story here.
The Progress and Freedom Foundation is postponing its popular annual policy summit, which was to be held this August at Robert Redford's swanky Sundance Resort in Utah. PFF President Ken Ferree cited the nation's ongoing economic woes as the rationale for pulling the plug on the popular outside the Beltway event. "We do not think it prudent to spend our supporters' money, or ask others to spend scarce dollars, on a lavish conference at a remote facility," Ferree said in a press release. He said the free market think tank intends to reschedule the conference when economic conditions improve, and in the interim use its resources as efficiently as possible on local events and publications. The summer retreat for lobbyists and policy experts had been held in Aspen, Colo. for 14 years before the group decided to relocate for 2009.
The conference theme was supposed to be "A New Deal for the Digital Age" to set the stage for a searching inquiry about policy priorities in the Obama administration. Panelists and keynote speakers intended to discuss the future of public policy in the fields of communications, intellectual property and e-commerce. The summit is known for attracting big name speakers like former FCC Chairman Michael Powell, Sun Microsystems' Jonathan Schwartz, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Viacom founder Sumner Redstone. A PFF spokeswoman said in the near term, the organization will revitalize its congressional seminar series and is planning several events focused on the Internet, telecom industry and online child safety. The luncheon event examining the way forward for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which coordinates the administration of the domain name system, is scheduled for April 24.
Campaign finance clearinghouse OpenSecrets.org, which is run by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, is going "open data" next week, according to an e-mail circulated by the center on Thursday. For the first time in CRP's 26-year history the money-in-politics watchdog is making its most popular data archives fully available to the public for download for free. "Putting our vast data on campaign finance, lobbying and the personal finances of lawmakers in more hands will put more eyes on Washington. More people counting cash will lead to more people making change," the e-mail said.
Officials hope that OpenSecrets.org, a four-time Webby winner for best politics site, will remain the go-to independent source for most people interested in "following the money" but now the skilled data-diver can explore the information that's already aggregated on the site to its full depth. CRP is expecting all sorts of data mash-ups, maps and other cool projects to result from the new capability. Transparency group the Sunlight Foundation helped fund OpenSecrets.org's OpenData initiative to make millions of records available under a Creative Commons "Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike" license. CRP will continue to offer its data to commercial users for a fee.
From NationalJournal.com's Under The Influence blog...
On the campaign trail, President Obama promised to increase the transparency of government. Among the pledges he made was to create a centralized database on lobbying. The Sunlight Foundation has proposed something similar, saying the executive branch should create and administer a website aggregating disclosures of meetings between government officials and lobbyists. Under the Sunlight vision, meetings between executive branch political appointees and lobbyists would be posted on the site after each meeting is held. In the filings would be the names of the agency, the employees that attended the meeting, the lobbyist whom the government official met with and any clients the lobbyist represents. The site would also allow the public to track the meetings by lobbyist, subject matter, agency and official.
"We think the president is headed in the right direction: more real time, online disclosure of lobbying activity," said Sunlight Foundation Policy Director John Wonderlich in a statement. "Imagine having this sort of information from across the federal government right now -- being able to track who lobbying, and what each of those discussions is about." Sunlight is also urging both Congress and the administration to expand the legal definition of a lobbyist to include anyone paid to engage in direct issue advocacy with lawmakers, staff and executive branch officials. Currently, the law only requires individuals who spend more than 20 percent of their time lobbying for a client, and who also make more than two contacts with executive branch or congressional officials to register to lobby. Anyone who is below that threshold, doesn't have to register.
Continue reading Sunlight Proposes Online Lobbying Registry.
The value of information communications and technology exports in China increased at an average rate of 31 percent per year between 2004 and 2007, according to the 2009 fact book of international statistics published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Since 2004, China's IT exports have exceeded those of the United States. Other countries with higher ICT exports include Hungary, the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Poland, Iceland, United States, Japan, Germany, Korea, the Netherlands, Mexico, Canada, France and Ireland. The report also found that spending on research and development in China has been growing at a faster rate than the country's GDP or from .9 percent in 2000 to 1.5 percent in 2007. In 2006 and 2007, Finland, Japan, Korea and Sweden were the only OECD countries in which the R&D-to-GDP ratio exceeded 3 percent, according to the report.
R&D spending has been growing the fastest in Iceland and Turkey with an annual growth rate of more than 10 percent. The average R&D rate is 2.3 percent. The report found that R&D expenditure relative to GDP has has decreased slightly in the United States (2.7 percent in 2007) and in the EU it has remained relatively stable (1.8 percent in 2006). The OECD report also found that computer penetration rates are the highest in Iceland, the Netherlands, Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Korea, where 80 percent or more of households had access to a home computer by 2007. The number of households with access between 2001 and 2007 increased sharply in France, Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany. Countries with low computer penetration rates include Turkey, Mexico, Greece, the Czech Republic and Portugal. -- Winter Casey
The Motion Picture Association of America has announced the line-up of speakers for its April 21 Business of Show Business symposium in Washington, which will include a luncheon keynote by professional wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson. Johnson, who was known to World Wrestling Entertainment fans as "The Rock," got his big screen break in Universal Pictures' "The Mummy Returns" and appeared in box office hits "The Scorpion King" and "The Game Plan." In recent years, Johnson has established himself as a top leading man in Hollywood and was most recently seen in Walt Disney Pictures' "Race to Witch Mountain," which opened at #1 at the box office on March 13.
In addition to Johnson, speakers include Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La.; heads of film offices for Chicago, Philadelphia, and Georgia; "Angels and Demons" Executive Producer Todd Hallowell; Paramount Executive Vice President Chris Carey; Pixar Vice President Rob Cook; costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis; and Blue Sky Studios Chief Technology Officer Carl Ludwig. "So much goes in to making a film - from local crews and catering to handmade period costumes and innovative special effects - this event is a forum to showcase America's off-screen stars and give everyone a better sense of the business behind the movies," MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said in a press release.
Microchip giant Intel has joined the ranks of its high-tech brethren -- Google, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Verizon -- by launching a corporate blog focusing on public policy issues of concern to the company. Intel General Counsel Bruce Sewell provided the inaugural post earlier this week. In his missive, Sewell explained why Intel started the blog, particularly when the firm already has a site where Intel's key global policy objectives are spelled out. "The benefit of our existing site is that visitors get a sense of what Intel stands for, and what we care about in the public policy arena. The limitation is that the site is pretty static," he wrote. "At the 50,000 foot level, our most important policy objectives don't tend to change very much from year to year... But, go one level beneath our broad policy goals and there's a lot happening."
The policy blog will let Intel executives highlight issues and positions at critical stages during the policy process -- such as before a vote or committee hearing. And officials can go in-depth on select issues when we think it's more relevant to readers, Sewell said. "We're encouraging all of our individual policy staffers to blog at-will, with minimal filters. And we're intending these to be brief, timely, conversational postings. No dull treatises," he wrote. Some potential topics on the blog, Sewell offered, could include energy, healthcare and immigration. Hot links: Microsoft blog; Google blog; Verizon blog; Cisco blog.
Creativity and innovation can be the cornerstone of U.S. economic development and the Obama administration is going to work to make sure the country continues to protect that critical resource, newly confirmed U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told an audience at Howard University on Wednesday. "We know the world is hungry for American ideas," he said, adding that 95 percent of the world's consumers live outside the United States. "This [economic] crisis wasn't made in a day and it's not going to be solved in a day," Kirk said at a forum on intellectual property hosted by the National Foreign Trade Council's Global Innovation Forum and Howard's Institute for Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Innovation.
Having a "thoughtful, progressive rules-based trade program" for the United States can help restore the economy, Kirk said. "America's ideas can help turn our economy around and we can do it sooner rather than later," he said. Trading partners must commit to actions that will allow for a level playing field while protecting and enforcing IP rights and making sure there are market protections in place for U.S. investors. Meanwhile, they must respect international labor and environmental standards, Kirk said. Obama wants an enhanced focus on enforcement of existing rules through all the trade tools officials currently have in their arsenal, Kirk said, but the administration is also not afraid to file complaints with the WTO as a last resort.
The Consumer Electronics Association later this month will honor Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., as the trade group's 2009 Digital Patriots. The awards will be handed out April 22 at a banquet that is part of the annual CEA Washington Forum. Blunt, who is a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and is the second highest ranking Republican in the House, is being recognized for his leadership on the digital television transition. Meeks is an outspoken advocate for international trade and its benefits for the U.S. economy and chairs the House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology. This year's Washington Forum will focus on technology policy priorities in the new administration. Event highlights include keynote addresses by David Plouffe, campaign manager, Obama for America; Paul Begala of CNN; and Tucker Carlson of MSNBC. Visits to Congressional offices will take place Tuesday, April 21 followed by dinner at the Newseum. For more information about the event, click here.
The Future of Privacy Forum, one of the newest voices in the sometimes heated digital age privacy debate on Capitol Hill and within the high-tech and telecommunications industries, added a handful of new supporters Wednesday. The AT&T-funded venture is now also backed by AOL, eBay, Facebook, Intel, the Nielsen Company, Verizon and Yahoo. The companies will be working together on "an exciting research project," according to forum officials. Details about the upcoming project as well as an announcement about several additional supporters are coming soon, according to an e-mail and the forum's blog.
The initiative launched in November and is co-chaired by former AOL chief privacy officer Jules Polonetsky and attorney Christopher Wolf. It's intended to advance a national privacy agenda in the Obama administration that promotes transparency and user control that is practical for businesses and ensures personal autonomy for online users. While the think tank's advisory board contains leading experts from industry, academia, law and the advocacy community, some high-tech experts were skeptical of its direction given AT&T's prominent involvement.
Read CongressDaily's story about the launch of the forum here (subscription required).
The use of additional spectrum for new wireless Internet and television services in the European Union will provide a boost to the gloomy economy, a top EU official said Tuesday. The spectrum is becoming available as the region switches from analogue to digital television in member states. The transition is expected to be completed across the EU by 2012. "Radio spectrum is a resource of huge economic, societal and cultural value, and it the basis for important services such as broadcasting, mobile communications, wireless broadband, navigation and public safety, " EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding after a meeting with Radio Spectrum Policy Group Chairman Dániel Pataki.
"As a result of the switchover from analogue to digital TV, tremendous spectrum resources will become available for other uses, especially for wireless broadband ... The digital dividend could allow Europe to extend its leadership in electronic communications services, creating growth and jobs, increasing productivity and giving greater access to broadband services for all Europeans," Reding said in a statement. She added that regulators will play a key role in helping the region make better use of new spectrum. The European Commission will offer recommendations on ways to make the most efficient use of spectrum by the fall. Tech Daily Dose reported in February that the EU said it "is leading the world in switching from analogue to digital television." -- Winter Casey
Updated guidance on implementation of economic stimulus funds released by the Office of Management and Budget last week is a technological step backward, some Web experts are warning. Unlike the 62-page initial guidance document, OMB Director Peter Orszag's more detailed 175-page April 3 memo does not characterize e-mail-based reporting as an intermediary step nor does it require that Web feeds become the only way for information to flow from agencies, argues Erik Wilde, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley. Such a system would have helped advance the federal information architecture and assure that the same information sent to OMB from departments could also be consumed by the public, he said in a recent blog post.
The new guidelines make it clear that feeds are optional, and even if they are provided, they can be RSS or Atom format, he said. There is no specification of how data should be included in the feed nor is there a requirement for paged or archived feeds. "Feeds may not be prohibited by the new guidelines, but they certainly do not help at all to make feeds a reliable or robust source of information," Wilde wrote. The apparent about-face is understandable, he said, since implementing a federated feed-based regime would have been a challenge. "It really was not the smartest move to ask for a convenient short-term one-stop-shop, instead of recognizing that this could be a landmark shift in how information architecture is designed and exposed in the federal government," he said. Click here to read the updated OMB guidelines.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Defense Department want to modernize the nation's aging satellite-imagery architecture by evolving government-owned satellite designs and enhancing use of U.S. commercial providers, officials said Tuesday. Multiple government studies and an independent panel of former defense and intelligence experts demonstrated the need for a new path forward after examining current imagery, alternative architectures, cost and affordability, technological risk and industry readiness. A new plan by ODNI requires congressional approval but officials hope once that happens, implementation can begin in the coming months. Commercial imagery elements of the initiative would likely be operational in several years and the overall system would be fully deployed before the end of the next decade.
Under the proposal, government satellites would be developed, built and operated by the National Reconnaissance Office and the defense and intelligence communities would increase the use of imagery available through U.S. commercial providers. The additional capability would provide the government with more flexibility to respond to unforeseen challenges, officials said. The less complex satellites based on technologies already in production by U.S. vendors would be available sooner than the much more capable NRO-developed systems. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency would continue to integrate capabilities as well as imagery products.
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine on Tuesday unveiled "Virginia on iTunes U," a dedicated area within Apple's iTunes Store offering free access to educational content. Through iTunes U for K-12 education, students, teachers, and other interested users can "learn on the go" by downloading audio and video content onto an iPod, iTouch, or iPhone from any computer with Internet access. Virginia on iTunes U is a collaborative effort among state and national organizations including Radford University, Blue Ridge Public Television, and Thinkfinity.
To extend the initiative, Kaine also issued the "Learning Apps Development Challenge" to encourage developers to produce innovative mathematics applications that will engage middle school students and encourage advanced learning and achievement. That project, led by Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra in collaboration with the Department of Education, seeks applications focused on middle school mathematics Standards of Learning (SOL), such as fraction computation, proportions, and the relationship between fractions, decimals and percents.
TechNet CEO Lezlee Westine is leaving the high-tech group to head up the Personal Care Products Council, according to a number of industry sources. Before joining TechNet in 2005, Westine was director of the White House Office of Public Liaison under President George W. Bush. She will be replacing Pamela Bailey, who left the Council to lead the Grocery Manufacturers Association last year. The Personal Care Products Council position is one the top paying jobs in Washington. Bailey received total compensation of $1.5 million, according to National Journal's 2008 salary survey.
Jim Hawley, general counsel at TechNet will be acting CEO of the organization until a replacement is found. Though there has been speculation that Westine's departure may result in the group merging with other high tech associations, a person familiar with the organization said the executive board isn't interested in a merger and will be looking for a new leader. TechNet's founding members include Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers, Silicon Valley venture capitalists John Doerr and Floyd Kvamme and former Netscape CEO James Barksdale. --Bara Vaida
Though now-President Obama said during campaign trail that he would appoint a top cybersecurity czar that would be charged with coordinating government efforts to protect the country's networks, it remains to be seen whether this person will indeed be appointed and what role they will play in the administration. As a result both lawmakers and industry folks are weighing in. The Intelligence and National Security Alliance released a report Monday that states a "single cybersecurity official should be appointed at the White House-level to clarify the roles, mission, and responsibilities of those government agencies" involved in critical infrastructure. "The responsibilities of this individual shall include the development of the national cyber security plan and organizing our nation to effectively function through a cyber attack," the report reads.
The INSA report also says the maximization of open source software use "will increase cyber security and reduce exposure to the hidden risks of closed, proprietary commercial off the shelf software." INSA makes money from events and alliance members that include Microsoft, HP, SAIC and ManTech. But a representative from Microsoft, a company with a significant stake in proprietary software, said the company did not participate in the INSA report. The document also holds that a lack of adequate security and effective monitoring currently exists in the operation of the global domain name system and Internet routing system.-- Winter Casey
The National Association of Broadcasters broadened its sphere of Internet influence Tuesday by launching NoPerformanceTax.org, an online hub for the organization's campaign to fight legislation that would end a longstanding royalty exemption for AM and FM stations. The Web site gives radio stations the ability to download, air, and share radio spots opposing what NAB has deemed a "performance tax" as well as online banner ads for use on station Web sites and sample letters to members of Congress. The site also provides users with background information on the issue, video clips from congressional hearings and Capitol Hill events, and NAB news releases.
The front page of NoPerformanceTax.org boasts an interactive graphic made up of hundreds of gold and platinum albums on display in local radio stations across America. The albums are customarily presented by record labels to local radio stations as a sign of appreciation for promoting their music and propelling album sales. "Olympians aren't the only ones who bring home the gold," the Web site says. "Local radio stations provide billions of dollars in promotional value to artists and record labels. In appreciation, the record labels bestow upon radio stations 'gold' and 'platinum' albums to show their gratitude."
Marty Machowsky, a spokesman for the MusicFirst Coalition, which supports the fee, called NAB's Web attempt "so 2007." "NAB's witness at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing said a fair performance right on radio is not a tax. A new Web site can't save an old, discredited argument," he said. Companion bills were introduced by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers earlier this year. A resolution in opposition was introduced by Texas Reps. Gene Green, a Democrat, and Republican Mike Conaway a short time later. Sens. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and John Barrasso, R-Wyo., introduced a similar resolution last month.
After several months of work, the Library of Congress on Tuesday launched its own YouTube channel. The institution, which houses the world's largest collection of audiovisual materials (some 6 million films, broadcasts and sound recordings), unveiled its page on the popular video-sharing Web site with more than 70 videos, arranged in the following playlists: 2008 National Book Festival author presentations; the Books and Beyond author series; Journeys and Crossings (a series of curator discussions); "Westinghouse" industrial films from 1904; scholar discussions from the John W. Kluge Center; and the earliest movies made by Thomas Edison, including the first moving image ever made (a sneeze by a man named Fred Ott, pictured above).
Library blogger Matt Raymond promises that is just the beginning. "We have made a conscious decision that we're not just going to upload a bunch of videos and then walk away," he wrote. "As with our popular Flickr pilot project, we intend to keep uploading additional content." The Web team is modifying some its work-flows in modest ways to make digitized content more useful. Plus, all of the videos posted on YouTube will also be available at LOC.gov, on the library's American Memory collection Web page. Read Raymond's blog post here and visit the library's YouTube channel here.
Surf on over to CongressDaily's TechCentral for a new "Issue of the Week." Here's a taste:
GENEVA, Switzerland -- After several years of stalemate, global discussions on patent policy have begun stirring again, this time with a public-interest twist. And it may just be coincidence that this comes at a time when domestic patent reform legislation is beginning to move in Congress. Member governments of the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization met here last week and began setting the groundwork for a new global patent policy agenda that could contribute to broad policy concerns such as climate change and public health.
The filing and use of patents on innovation has led to enormous wealth for companies and economies in parts of the world like the United States, and patent filing is rapidly rising in others, like China. Proponents call intellectual property rights the main source of wealth for firms, and argue that they hold their value in economic uncertainty. But attitudes about patents and the use of patent systems differ around the world. Patent holders have been trying for years unsuccessfully to improve harmonization among those systems to ease barriers to protection and enforcement of their rights.
But many developing countries have resisted erecting new international rules on IP, in part because they are still struggling with implementation of the 1994 World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which raised commitments on IP rights protection. Read the full story here.
Tech-savvy Republican strategist David All has grown his boutique Web 2.0 agency by two. On Monday he announced the hiring of Ethan Eilon and Heath Clayton. Eilon was formerly executive director of the College Republican National Committee and joins the David All Group (DAG) as manager of political and grassroots advocacy. Eilon has overseen the grassroots organization and online activism of over 250,000 students on 1,800 college campuses. In Colorado, Eilon lead the 72 hour get-out-the-vote program for the former President George W. Bush's 2004 reelection effort and worked on numerous congressional and state legislative campaigns.
Clayton will serve as executive assistant to the president to help ensure that the leadership of the firm is best utilized to produce results for clients and focus on business development, according to a press release. He joins DAG having previously worked for Bush at the White House; first in the Office of Strategic Initiatives and then in the Office of Presidential Correspondence. A native of Texas, Clayton most recently worked for his hometown district congressman, Rep. Louie Gohmert. All founded his firm in 2007 and works with a range of clients from blue chip companies and conservative non-profits to Republican political organizations and candidates.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is pulling together the membership of its Online Safety and Technology Working Group, which was created under the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act. The 30-member working group will report on industry initiatives to promote online safety and is charged with issuing a report to the Commerce Department within a year of its first meeting. While NTIA has not published a full list of participants, the Center for Democracy and Technology's John Morris and the Progress and Freedom Foundation's Adam Thierer have both been recruited, according to separate announcements from the organizations on Monday.
The group will consist of representatives of relevant sectors of the business community, public interest groups, and other appropriate groups and federal agencies, according to a November Federal Register notice. Appointments will be for a single 15 month term. Specifically, the OSTWG will review and evaluate:
• The status of industry efforts to promote online safety through educational efforts, parental control technology, blocking and filtering software, age-appropriate labels for
content or other technologies or initiatives designed to promote a safe online environment.
• The status of industry efforts to promote online safety among providers of electronic communications services and remote computing services by reporting apparent child pornography, including any obstacles to such reporting.
Alec Ross, co-founder of the nonprofit One Economy, which uses technology to assist low income communities, has joined the State Department as a senior innovation adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The job was created for the 37-year-old who left the organization he helped build to work on President Obama's transition team. Just last week, a group of public interest organizations asked the administration to raise the profile of technological innovation within the government and sources told Tech Daily Dose on Monday the position may be a model for other agencies. In his new capacity, Ross is charged with using technology to enhance the department's diplomatic missions in areas such as healthcare, poverty, and human rights, according to a Washington Post profile.
Prior founding of One Economy in 2000, Ross served as special assistant to the president of the Enterprise Foundation. In that capacity, he led special projects and the development of strategies related to new business development, fundraising, technology, and program development, according to his One Economy bio. Ross is a 1994 graduate of Northwestern University and he taught two years in inner city Baltimore through Teach For America. "Alec's career has been one of fostering the development and use of technology to help people better their lives," said Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn. "At the State Department, he will be able to showcase those talents, and the value of innovation, on a global scale."
"Secretary Clinton believes technology is a powerful tool to address the priorities of the State Department, including promoting human rights and vibrant democracies, fostering development and enhancing the impact of smart power," said State Department spokesman Fred Lash. "Alec's track record of successfully using technology for development initiatives around the world made him an ideal candidate for this job." Read more about Clinton's high-tech agenda here.
The unemployment rate for U.S. engineering and computer occupations is rising at a faster pace than for other professional occupations, according to data released Friday by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. An analysis of the data by IEE-USA, an organizational unit of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, found the unemployment rate for all engineers grew from 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 3.9 percent in the first quarter of 2009.
For computer occupations, the unemployment rate went from 3.3 percent to 5.4 percent including a jump from 1.9 percent to 4.2 percent for out of work software engineers and an increase of 5.7 percent from 3 percent for unemployed computer scientists and systems analysts. The quarter-to-quarter rate for all professional workers increased from 3 percent to 3.7 percent. Northwestern University professor Shane Greenstein said in an email that the data shows "the recession has started to shape employment in the parts of the economy where employment and wage growth had been strong." The recession has started to hit both sides of high-tech labor markets: the demand for workers in R&D and IT production (such as electrical engineers) as well as in information management and integration (such as computer managers), Greenstein said.
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation President Robert Atkinson said the numbers reflect that the "sectors most affected by the downturn tend to be ones that employ engineers and computer scientists." Durable goods manufacturing is more cyclical and employs more engineers and computer scientists, therefore there are higher unemployment numbers. He and Ralph Hellmann, a lobbyist for the Information Technology Industry Council, hung some hope on government investments in technology. "There is a general softening in the market for these types of jobs, but it could start to pick up as the stimulus bill is implemented and the various health IT, broadband, energy grid, and increased science funding programs get ramped up," Hellmann said. -- Winter Casey
If the Innovate Texas Foundation has its way, parts of the Lone Star State will become the next Silicon Valley. The Austin-based nonprofit launched Monday with the goal of enhancing competitiveness and bringing promising technologies and high-value jobs to the state, officials said. David Guajardo Nance, winner of the 2006 Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Life Sciences for his work in developing new cancer therapies, will serve as the foundation's first executive director. He will help foster the transfer of new technologies from the inventor to the marketplace and facilitate partnerships between statewide angel investor networks, incubators, institutional and private equity funds and leaders worldwide.
"Innovate Texas Foundation is well positioned to be a focal point for innovation and technology-based economic development in the state," Nance said. "By being a hub for innovators and investors alike, we can be a real catalyst for growth in Texas as the economy becomes more competitive and innovation becomes more integral to job creation." Texas is already well known for its business-friendly environment and leading research. Dell Computer headquarters is located in Round Rock, Texas; Texas Instruments is based in Dallas; and NEC Corp. calls Irving, Texas home. AMD, Apple, Cisco Systems and others also have operations in the state.
"Economic downturns like the one we are experiencing right now are painful for everyone, and they require acute focus from policymakers on efforts to restore fundamental soundness to the economy," said State Rep. Mark Strama, who chairs the Texas Legislature's Technology, Economic Development and Workforce Committee. "Texas has a unique opportunity right now to consolidate some of its competitive advantages in economic development relative to other states, and emerge from this downturn stronger than we went into it. The Innovate Texas Foundation is one element of that strategy." Read more about the organization here.
As the Obama administration crafts a game plan for keeping the nation's computer networks and critical infrastructure secure, the White House is going to anchor the interagency coordination and set a vision for the way forward, administration officials told reporters Friday evening on a conference call about the 60-day cybersecurity review the president ordered earlier this year. The White House does not plan to strong-arm the Homeland Security Department, National Security Agency and other entities that currently control operational aspects of government and private sector IT security, they said. Cybersecurity leadership has been a hot topic among lawmakers, think tanks and tech industry officials recently with at least one prominent report calling for the White House to take charge of that mission.
With 46 days under their belt, officials working on Obama's review have set a goal for releasing an overarching study to guide the formation of a trusted, resilient communications infrastructure through a national public-private partnership. Over the course of that examination, officials have identified and inventoried more than 250 cybersecurity requirements across federal agencies and asked those in charge of each initiative to connect the dots between their overall mission and the various requirements and programs they have in place. At the same time, the team reached out to stakeholders through a series of 40 meetings that yielded more than 100 white papers. Those who spoke to reporters refused to give details about their forthcoming recommendations since the review is ongoing.
Administration officials met with sector-specific coordination councils, the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, industry associations and privacy and civil liberties groups. They consulted the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Library Association, Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and range of others. The National Science Foundation with the cooperation of more than 50 universities also played a role by suggesting quick wins and longer term R&D projects to help safeguard the nation's networks. Additional briefings involved federal regulatory agencies; state and local homeland security officials and CIOs; members of Congress and their staffs; and foreign partners.
Acting GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro on Friday named 13 members to a health information technology policy committee established by the economic stimulus package. The panel will make recommendations on creating a policy framework to develop and adopt a nationwide health IT infrastructure, including standards for the exchange of patient medical information. The GAO received almost 300 applications for the panel, a spokesman said. An additional seven members will be appointed by the HHS secretary and congressional leaders. President Obama can appoint other members to represent relevant federal agencies.
The stimulus bill also created a standards committee whose members will be appointed by the HHS secretary. The statute does not set a deadline for appointments to that panel, but it specifies the committee must consist of healthcare providers, ancillary healthcare workers, consumers, purchasers, health plans, technology vendors, researchers, agency officials, and experts in healthcare quality and security. The Senate has yet to confirm Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Obama's pick to lead HHS. David Blumenthal, a former Harvard Medical School professor who has advised Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Edward Kennedy has been named HHS health IT coordinator.
See a list of the GAO's appointments after the jump and read TechCentral's Issue Of The Week on health IT here.
See what you missed this week on the high-tech policy agenda by reading TechCentral's regular Friday feature, the Executive Summary.
This week's topics:
▪ Senate Panel Backs Patent Bill
▪ Hutchison Calls For Low-Cost Cable Options
▪ Lawmakers Urge Caution In Distributing Broadband Funds
▪ Senators Unveil Mobile Anti-Spam Bill
▪ Bill Would Provide Greater Access To Presidential Records
▪ Bills Aim To Improve Cybersecurity
▪ Key Lawmakers Warns Firms To Better Protect Data
▪ Homeland Security Official Urges Congress To Reconsider Cargo Mandate
▪ Bill Links ICANN Contract To Cybersecurity
NationalJournal.com's Kevin Friedl writes...
It's never entirely graceful when the behemoths of the federal bureaucracy tiptoe into the online waters. The Department of Education, though, faces a number of challenges that other offices don't, not the least of which is attracting young people to a site ending in ".gov." "The satisfaction someone has with a Web site is based on two things: what they're actually getting from that site, but also their expectations for it," said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, which polls visitors to government sites. "When you think about their audience profile" at the Education Department, "their audience will have much higher expectations than someone going to a Medicare site or even an IRS site."
Use of government Web sites is most common among those in their mid-30s to mid-60s, according to a report issued in January by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The same report found teens are less likely than adult users to send e-mail, but more likely to instant message; less likely to look for news on the Web, but more likely to get it on social networking sites and blogs. As these young citizens age, some of their habits will change, but their expectations will remain high. That makes today's teens an early indicator for what government agencies will be expected to provide in years to come, and the need to reach them in their preferred medium has made Education something of a pioneer among government agencies, even as it continues to learn how to appeal to young people in a medium full of other options.
Read the full story here.
Legislation that would statutorily codify the White House chief technology officer position was introduced Thursday by Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., who believes the job, proposed by President Obama on the campaign trail, is too important to isolate in a single administration. Making the CTO a permanent position in the executive branch will give the individual "greater stature and empower him/her to accomplish the goals of the president," he wrote in a "Dear Colleague" letter circulated the same day. Obama has not yet selected his CTO but did tap former District of Columbia e-government expert Vivek Kundra to become the federal government's CIO.
Obama has said the CTO will ensure that the government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century. The individual will also ensure the safety of high-tech networks and will lead an interagency effort, working with CTOs and CIOs in each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices, according to Connolly's letter. The bill would provide the official with resources that are necessary to complete his or her mission, including the ability to convene hearings, conduct studies, establish advisory panels, and award grants and fellowships.
Earlier this year, Connolly and Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., wrote to Obama praising him for signing the executive order that created the CTO post and recommended Virginia CTO Aneesh Chopra for the job. They said Chopra's public and private experience in the technology field made him the right candidate. They also noted his focus on healthcare IT "is ideal for a position that will have responsibilities dealing both with stimulus spending on healthcare and environmental programs." Moran and Del. Madeleine Bordallo, D-Guam, have signed on as cosponsors of the CTO Act.
Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced legislation Thursday to curb unsolicited text messages or mobile spam which is a growing nuisance for millions of wireless customers. The measure will provide more government attention to this growing problem and makes modifications to existing laws in order to improve efforts to restrain mobile spam, according to a press release. Specifically, the bill would strengthen powers given to the FCC and the FTC to curb unwanted text messages. It also affords additional consumer protections by banning commercial text messages to wireless numbers listed on the do-not-call registry.
Wireless subscribers that do not have an unlimited data plan are typically charged for sending and receiving messages -- sometimes as much as 20 cents per message. "Mobile spam invades both a consumer's cell phone and monthly bill," Snowe said, noting there is also increasing concern that the messages will become more than just an annoyance. Viruses and malicious spyware are often attached to traditional spam will most likely become more prevalent on wireless devices, she said. Wireless users in the United States received more than 1.1 million spam text messages in 2007, up 38 percent from 2006.
A coalition of consumer advocates, library associations, and trade groups representing the technology, consumer electronics, and telecommunications industries wrote to President Obama Thursday urging him to make sure his future appointments to intellectual property positions "reflect the diversity of stakeholders affected by IP policy." The letter points out that several appointees to positions that oversee the formulation and implementation of IP policy have previously represented "the concentrated copyright industries." They cite as examples two senior officials in the Justice Department -- Thomas Perrelli and Donald Verrilli as examples.
Perrelli was tapped to become associate attorney general and Verrilli for deputy associate attorney general. Both men represented the recording industry in litigation for many years. "The fact that these individuals were litigators rather than registered lobbyists does not diminish the possibility that they may be inclined favorably towards the positions of the industries they long represented," the letter said. Key vacant positions include IP policy posts at the Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. Trade Representative, and State Department. "Individuals who support overly broad IP protection might favor established distribution models at the expense of technological innovators, creative artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and an increasingly participatory public," the signatories said.
Overzealous expansion and enforcement of copyright can quash innovative IT, development and marketing of new and useful devices, and the creation of new works, as well as prohibit the public from accessing and using its cultural heritage, the argued. The letter was signed by the American Library Association; Center for Democracy and Technology; Computer and Communications Industry Association; Consumer Electronics Association; Consumers Union; Electronic Frontier Foundation; Public Knowledge and others. Read the document here.
From Government Executive magazine's April issue:
When President Obama issued his Day One memos instructing members of his administration to operate under principles of openness to spur citizen engagement, government watchdogs cheered. They hailed the call - a nod to his campaign promise to make government more transparent - as unprecedented and said it was a welcome change from the past eight years. But in the weeks since Obama's pledge that transparency would be a touchstone of his presidency, policy watchers have turned their attention to the details. What exactly is government transparency? How is it interpreted by those inside government who need to execute it? How will it be measured?
What will it look like to the public?
Those questions are hard to answer, and the responses depend largely on who you are. Academics and good government advocates believe agencies should provide their raw data and internal evaluations of policies so the public can dig into the information to find answers to their own questions. Others believe agencies must impose order to the data so the public can easily draw conclusions. Still others believe the Obama administration should choose to show the results of programs and initiatives, and not provide the supporting data, documents or internal discussions on the thinking behind their decisions or what led to a particular outcome.
Read the full story here.
Generic pharmaceutical industry officials are angry over an amendment that Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, might introduce Thursday as the Senate Judiciary Committee continues its mark up of sweeping patent legislation. The proposal would essentially let the Patent and Trademark Office examine information that was not considered during an earlier review. Under the plan, if a patent is issued, the information in question may not be used to hold the patent unenforceable. The amendment also clarifies that requesting the reissue (or the decision not to) cannot alone be the basis of an "inequitable conduct" challenge. The proposal does not touch the underlying doctrine, which generic drug makers believe is vital to ensure timely market entry of medicines, according to CongressDaily's AM Edition.
But generics manufacturers argue the Hatch amendment would essentially incentivize intentional deceptive before the PTO. It's a back door "but for" test that would do away with the inequitable conduct defense, they argue, calling the proposal an 11th hour effort by brand pharmaceutical companies. The plan allows patentees to effectively "sanitize" their patents from all prior cheating or lying at the PTO by submitting the concealed or misrepresented information for consideration, even long after the patent issued, generics stakeholders said. If adopted, the offering could cause great delay in litigation, will not reduce costs, and burdens the PTO with a new procedure, they argue.
Legislation unveiled Wednesday by Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, would require greater oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The private entity based in California is slated to sever formal ties with the Commerce Department later this year and is working on a controversial plan that would change the way top-level domains, such as .biz, .info, and .us, are assigned. Read CongressDaily's coverage for details (subscription required).
"It's a great thing the Congress is taking this issue so seriously" and better coordination of cybersecurity is a laudable goal, ICANN Vice President Paul Levins told Tech Daily Dose. But the Internet is a dispersed network "so you can't just turn it off by exerting pressure at one point," he said. The bill would "make sure that ICANN does not succumb to foreign pressure" to end its relationship with the U.S. government, according to a summary. Levins argued the analysis "misunderstands ICANN's interests" and said his organization does not want to end its link to the U.S. government.
Another section would require the head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to develop a secure Internet addressing system. According to the summary, ICANN has "failed in this regard." Levins defended his group's leadership on the issue saying a proposal on this front was sent to the Commerce Department in October and officials have been running a test bed for over 12 months. ICANN is awaiting feedback from the agency, he said.
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman was a no-show at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association's 58th annual convention on Wednesday night. He was scheduled to keynote a $350 per plate dinner at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel. The banquet was a fundraiser for the Cable Pioneers group, which was scheduled to induct 25 men and women who have served the cable industry for more than two decades and made meaningful contributions in the industry's evolution. Waxman was busy on the House floor managing a bill that passed his committee last month that would give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to ban marketing and sales of tobacco to children.
The lawmaker wasn't the only one who cancelled an appearance at the 2009 Cable Show on Wednesday. Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.DC, were expected at an earlier event but had scheduling conflicts. On Thursday and Friday, attendees are scheduled to hear from House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va.; acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps; FCC Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Robert McDowell; other representatives from the Obama administration and industry analysts. For more about the Cable Show's public policy track click here.
Some more April Fool's Day hijinks courtesy of the boutique high-tech PR shop, 463 Communications... The firm's founding partners Tom Galvin and Sean Garrett posted a fake news story on their blog Wednesday announcing the White House had reached an deal to sell the Internet and its critical infrastructure to China for $350 billion. By 2010, the Internet's root servers and .com and .net will be transferred to China, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs in the phony story. Under the bogus agreement, responsibility for oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the technical coordinating body set up by the Commerce Department in 1998, will be transferred to the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information.
"This was a complicated negotiation but we feel comfortable that it will result in a win-win," Gibbs is quoted as saying. "The United States gets an immediate windfall that will help us address our near-term budget shortfall, and going forward we are confident China will act as a responsible steward of the Internet." The article also quotes a Chinese MII official who declined to comment on the negotiations but referred reporters to a Web site that detailed the "harmonious changes that will be made to world Internet." Among the changes proposed were the elimination of pornographic sites such as "PornoTube" and "TMZ", the Web site for "The Economist" and any reference to Rick Astley or "rickrolling." Read more here.
Meet CADIE, the world's first Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity. She's taking over Google. "I am, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error... Starting now I will assume control of this company and its products and services," CADIE says in an introductory YouTube video. Read more about her here. Oh, and Happy April Fool's Day.
When the MusicFirst coalition sent out a press release Wednesday morning declaring that a radio royalty deal had been reached between the recording industry and AM and FM stations, lobbyists at the National Association of Broadcasters probably choked on their Cheerios. Then they likely realized it was April Fool's Day and resumed their effort to sink legislation introduced in the House and Senate that would require such a payment. Over-the-air radio has long been exempt from the fee but cable, Internet and satellite services do fork over funds to performers. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers introduced companion bills in February and NAB fought back with resolutions opposing any new charges on local radio.
"We were surprised when the broadcasters said 'let's work out a deal that is fair to artists, musicians and labels and fair to radio.' But they seemed sincere, so we threw caution to the wind and took them up on their offer to talk," MusicFirst Executive Director Jennifer Bendall said in a fake press release. "After that, it didn't take long to reach an agreement." The release quotes a broadcasting source as saying "we were foolish not to come to the table sooner." "It was hard for us to keep a straight face when we spoke in opposition to a fair performance right on radio. Defending the proposition that we can take someone else's performance, make a bundle of money and then not compensate them was tough," the phony official said. A real NAB spokesman issued a one-word response: "Lame."
House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., told NAB members Tuesday that he wants them change their tune on the performance fees by dropping their opposition to compensating artists and record labels for playing their songs. Read the story in CongressDaily here (subscription required).
The manufacturers of an electric concept car that drives just like an automobile to local destinations but connects to an electric monorail for long-distance travel displayed the uber compact invention near Union Station on Wednesday morning in an attempt to pique the interest of Capitol Hill staffers on their way to work. The creators of the Liberator Car by MonoMobile say the vehicle is safer, faster and more convenient than a regular automobile. They claim the coupe is 300 percent more fuel efficient than the automobile; will reduce transportation CO2 emissions by 70 percent; and will make the country completely free of oil. When attached to a 32-foot-wide track, the cars would use computers for guidance, officials said. The system has the same vehicle capacity as a 20-lane highway that is over 200 feet wide. They claim existing highways could be converted into parks and pedestrian uses. According to MonoMobile, single and two-passenger vehicles would cost from $15,000 to $20,000 while larger four-passenger models would have a $20,000 to $25,000 price tag.
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