September 2010

The Progress and Freedom Foundation announced Thursday that it has shut down, citing declining financial support as the key factor.

The free-market think tank has focused in recent years on digital media issues, pushing in particular for fewer regulations on the Internet and digital technologies.

"The organization had been through some tumultuous times recently with five presidents in five years and steadily declining support during that period. Thus, the decision was made to close the doors," PFF President Adam Thierer said in a post on the Technology Liberation Front blog.

PFF was founded in 1993 with a mission "to study the digital revolution and its implications for public policy while advocating a philosophy of limited government, free markets, property rights, and individual sovereignty," according to Thierer

Many of the supporters listed on PFF's website are among the nation's top tech and telecom companies including AT&T, Comcast, Google, Intel, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Verizon and Yahoo. PFF often took the side of many of the firms in opposing, for example, the FTC's antitrust lawsuit against Intel and by opposing efforts to impose network neutrality regulations.

Hewlett-Packard announced Thursday that it is donating $5 million over 10 years to the Newseum to fund an interactive exhibit focused on how technology has affected and changed news gathering.

The new gallery at the Washington-based museum focused on the news industry is set to open in 2012. It will explore how technology has affected how information is reported, distributed and accessed.

"Technology is changing the face of news," HP Vice President Philip McKinney, chief technology officer for HP's personal systems group, said during a news conference to announce the gift. He and others noted how social media and blogs are changing how information is disseminated today and that the exhibit will change with time to reflect future technologies used to help spread information.

McKinney and other HP officials said the company would be using some of the new technologies developed by researchers at HP's labs as part of the new exhibit.

Senate Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., is working on legislation aimed at giving consumers more control over whether their activities will be tracked on the Internet.

The measure could include creation of a "do-not-track" list, allowing consumers to opt-out of having their Web activities tracked for advertising purposes, although Pryor said in an interview that he is still figuring out "how it would really work."

"The goal one way or the other is to allow the consumer more control over how much tracking of him or her" they want to allow, he said Wednesday.

Such a list would be similar to the current Do Not Call registry that allows consumers to opt-out of receiving most unwanted telemarketing calls. Pryor said he is still drafting the measure and talking with stakeholders about it. He also said he still hasn't decided whether it would be part of a broader privacy bill or a stand-alone measure.

"I just think Americans ought to have a choice on how much their ... Internet behavior is tracked," he said, adding that some consumers may have no problem being tracked and prefer having ads that are focused on the consumer's preferences targeted at them.

Pryor added that the bill will likely be introduced in the next Congress and not be ready for action in the lame-duck congressional session set for mid-November after the midterm elections.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz has voiced support for the creation of a do-not-track list as have some privacy advocates.

Industry officials, however, say such a list would be difficult to implement and that there are tools available to consumers today that give them some control over tracking technologies.

"There are a lot of tools that are native to your browser that are already there for consumers to manage," Yahoo Vice President and Head of Privacy Anne Toth said during an appearance earlier this month on C-Span's "The Communicators" program. "I think it's a matter of making them accessible and explaining their usage to consumers that makes them simpler to use."

A senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee Thursday urged the FCC to move forward on a proposal to reclassify aspects of broadband as a telecommunications service.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., made the comments following an announcement Wednesday by House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., that efforts to move compromise legislation through the House had stalled after Republicans refused to sign onto the effort that would have barred the FCC from reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service under the title II of the Communications Act. A draft of the bill leaked earlier in the week also would have applied nondiscrimination principles to wireline broadband but not wireless and directed the FCC to deal with enforcement on a case-by-case basis, rather than through rulemaking.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski proposed reclassification after the commission's authority over broadband was put in doubt in the wake of an April federal appeals court decision. Reclassifying broadband would allow the agency to move forward with its open Internet proceeding aimed at barring broadband providers from discriminating against Internet content. Dorgan along with other net neutrality proponents are calling on the FCC to move forward with Genachowski's reclassification proposal.

"While I appreciate all the work that has been done in the House on net neutrality, I continue to believe that the best way to preserve the free and open Internet is for the FCC to act now to reclassify broadband under Title II," Dorgan said in a statement. "All of us who believe in an Internet without gatekeepers or tollbooths should be calling on Chairman Genachowski to reclassify broadband in a manner that re-imposes the nondiscrimination rules on the large Internet providers."

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., introduced legislation Thursday to help limit the unexpected charges cell phone customers receive when they exceed, unwittingly, their monthly limits.

Under the Cell Phone Bill Shock Act of 2010, cell phone companies would be required to notify customers by email or text message - at no additional cost - when they have used 80 percent of their monthly limits under their current plan.

"Many Americans have been hit hard by 'bill shock' and I am pleased to introduce legislation that provides additional consumer protections," said Udall, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee. "The texting and Internet capabilities that make today's cell phones more useful than ever should be applied to help customers avoid bill shock."

The legislation would also require wireless phone companies to obtain customer consent before charging for services that are not covered by their regular monthly service plan.

One-in-six adult cell phone users have experienced "bill shock," according to an FCC study cited by Udall. In roughly a quarter of the cases, the bill increased by more than $100.

Udall's legislation appears to be working in tandem with the FCC whom will address the issue during the commission's October meeting.

UPDATE: 2:05 pm

CTIA Wireless responded with the following comment:

"While we appreciate the spirit with which the legislation is offered, we are concerned that this bill has the potential to cause customer confusion and frustration. We know those outcomes are not Senator Udall's objective. We look forward to talking with the Senator about the many plans and tools that our carriers currently offer their customers so that those who want to monitor their usage are able to do so."

The Senate passed legislation Wednesday aimed at reducing the loudness of television advertisements.

The bill (S. 2847), passed by voice vote, would require the FCC to enact rules implementing standards adopted by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, a television industry standards setting group, that would limit the volume of television ads.

Supporters note that excessively loud TV commercials are among the top complaints the FCC receives on a quarterly basis.

"Every American has likely experienced the frustration of abrasively loud television commercials," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., the bill's sponsor said in a statement. "While this may be an effective way for ads to grab attention, it also adds unnecessary stress to the daily lives of many Americans. Last night's action in the Senate will help end this annoying practice."

The House passed a similar bill, authored by Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., in December. Supporters are hoping the House will pass the Senate version during a lame duck session in mid-November.

"I'm grateful to Senators Whitehouse and [John] Rockefeller for shepherding the CALM Act through the Senate and I look forward, both as a sponsor of the bill and as a consumer, to finally passing it into law," Eshoo said in a statement.

After a $5.8 billion investment, six out of nine Defense information technology systems critical to the department's ability to achieve a financial audit are two to 12 years behind schedule. In addition, the systems collectively have experienced cost overruns of at least $6.9 billion, according to a review by the Government Accountability Office.

Asif Khan, director of financial management and assurance at GAO, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday only one of 10 enterprise resource planning systems essential to transforming business operations at Defense has been completed, Nextgov.com reported.

The ERP systems are intended to replace more than 500 legacy systems that now cost hundreds of millions of dollars to operate annually, according to GAO. The successful implementation is essential to the department's ability to meet statutory requirements for financial management and auditing.

Congress required Defense, which is responsible for more than half the federal government's discretionary spending, to achieve an independent audit by 2017, a goal the department is not likely to meet. To date, no military service has been audited, although the Marine Corps is undergoing an audit.

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security, said it is critical the department be ready for an audit by 2017.

"Not only will an audit help the Department of Defense ensure that billions of tax dollars are being spent properly, but it will help make certain that our troops have the equipment they need when and where they need it," he said.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., noted, "If this were a corporation in America, the shareholders would have fired management long ago." Click here, to read more.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has drafted a substitute amendment aimed at addressing some of the concerns raised by technology and public interest groups about legislation targeting online piracy and counterfeiting.

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, sponsored by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would give the Justice Department new authority to file a civil action against a domain name linked to a website trafficking in illegal copyrighted content or counterfeit goods. The court could order a registrar, a firm that sells Internet domain name registrations to the public, to revoke the domain name linked to the site with the infringing content or counterfeit goods.

The bill also would give the Justice Department power to target foreign websites by requiring U.S.-based third parties, such as Internet service providers or payment processors, to stop doing business with these foreign targets.

Among the key changes to the bill the amendment would make include deleting a provision authorizing the Justice Department to publish a list of domain names linked to websites engaged in infringing activities without first seeking a court order. In addition, the amendment clarifies that an ISP would not be required to modify its network or facilities to comply with an order or "take steps with respect to domain name lookups performed by others," according to a summary of the proposed amendment. ISPs and payment processors would be required to act as "expeditiously as reasonable," according to the amendment.

The amendment also would provide advertising networks, ISPs, payment processors, registrars, and registries, the firms that operate the database of top-level domains, with more protection from legal liability for actions they take under the law.

Several public interest and technology industry groups sent a letter this week to Leahy and Judiciary ranking member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., voicing concerns with several provisions, including that the bill would set a bad precedent that other countries might seek to replicate for more controversial reasons and that it would allow the Justice Department to "to blacklist websites in a manner subject to little process and limited judicial review."

With much remorse, key House Democratic lawmakers announced that efforts to advance a net neutrality bill have stalled in light of GOP resistance.

"With great regret, I must report that Ranking Member [Joe Barton, R-Texas] has informed me that support for this legislation will not be forthcoming at this time," House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said. "This legislative initiative was predicated on going forward only if we had full bipartisan support in our Committee."

House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., echoed that sentiment.

"I am disappointed that we were unable to introduce the Open Internet Act of 2010 on a bipartisan basis," Boucher said. "The measure would have been a significant step forward for the Internet community."

Waxman's statement came shortly after Barton expressed opposition to the planned bill saying that among Republicans there is a "widespread view that there is not sufficient time" to ensure the measure "will keep the Internet open without chilling innovation and job creation."

Waxman's bill sought to codify some principles that would protect the openness of the Internet.

A draft bill leaked to the media on Monday revealed a framework that would apply nondiscrimination principles to wireline broadband but not wireless and direct the FCC to deal with enforcement on a case-by-case basis, rather than through rulemaking. Under the draft, the commission would be prohibited from reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service under title II of the Communications Act, which would apply a more stringent regulatory regime.

"It is not appropriate to give the FCC authority to regulate the Internet," Barton said. "If Congress wants to prevent the FCC from reclassifying internet service under Title II, it should go ahead and do so without qualification."

Industry considers regulation of broadband under Title II "the nuclear option" and many lawmakers oppose it.

Waxman, on other hand, said "the FCC should move forward under Title II" if members' efforts fail to find bipartisan consensus.

Both Waxman and Boucher made it clear they will continue to push this bill during a lame-duck session.

"I remain willing to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to enact it into law later this year," Boucher said. "Cooler heads may prevail after the election," Waxman added.

But chances of the net neutrality legislation clearing Congress this year remain decidedly slim.

"I think it will be almost impossible to get anything done on that." Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told Tech Daily Dose on Wednsday.

When asked if he is willing to shepherd a net neutrality bill through a lame duck Senate session, Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said "oh wow" and declined to comment further on the issue.

The consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge, a stakeholder engaged with the crafting of the bill, thanked Waxman for his efforts and urged the FCC to act.

"We can wait no longer," Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, said in a statement. "We expect those members of Congress who argued that it was Congress' duty to set telecommunications policy to recognize the authority of the FCC in the absence of legislation."

The Consumer Federation of America put out statement lamenting inaction on Waxman's bill saying it "would have created an important safety net to prevent the broadband Internet access landscape from being Balkanized by anti-competitive pay walls and discriminatory technology barriers that block or degrade communications."

Without a bill, though, CFA also urged the FCC to act on regulating the Internet to protect public interest.

Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Wednesday that he believes it will be "almost impossible" to move a network neutrality bill through congress this year.

"I am 100 percent for net neutrality. I know [House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry] Waxman is fighting hard," he said following the Senate's weekly luncheons. "I think it will be almost impossible to get anything done on that."

Waxman, D-Calif., and Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., have been working on legislation that could supplant a proposal by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to reclassify some aspects of broadband as a telecommunications service, a plan staunchly opposed by broadband providers.

A draft of the bill, obtained earlier this week by Tech Daily Dose, would apply nondiscrimination principles to wireline broadband but not wireless and direct the FCC to deal with enforcement on a case-by-case basis, rather than through rulemaking. The draft would bar the FCC from reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service.

With the prospects of Congress passing a measure slim at this point, Rockefeller added that the FCC might need to act on its own. He said he still favors Genachowski's reclassification proposal. Rockefeller said he has been talking with Genachowski but wouldn't say whether he has pressed him to move forward with reclassification.

Rockefeller added that despite concern from some public interest groups, he believes Genachowski is "solid on net neutrality."

When asked if he is willing to shepherd a net neutrality bill through a lame duck Senate session if the House manages to pass a bill, Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said "oh wow" and declined to comment further on the issue.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said Wednesday that his agency hopes to release a report by the end of the year that would detail proposals for helping journalism survive but said one idea that is unlikely to be included is a call for taxing electronic devices to subsidize newspapers and other media platforms.

At an event sponsored by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, Leibowitz and other speakers at the event discussed the importance of journalism to an informed and democratic society.

Among the ideas the commission is considering proposing is allowing new news organizations or blogs to apply for loans from the Small Business Administration and promoting transparency and access to government records, Leibowitz said.

Leibowitz dismissed the idea of providing news organizations with an antitrust exemption, saying "I'm not sure that would be a good policy."

He added that "government shouldn't be picking winners and losers and [any proposal] should be platform neutral."

Leibowitz's remarks at the Newseum were interrupted by a fire alarm, which prompted him to quip as the crowd got up to file out that "the enemies of journalism are making us leave here." When the crowd returned, he finished his stand-up comic moment by joking that the alarm was not caused by "the enemies of journalism," but by a boiler problem.

The pending net neutrality bill should not be on the floor this week or part of the continuing resolution measure, House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns told Tech Daily Dose on Wednesday.

The continuing resolution at hand would fund the federal government through Dec. 3 at FY10 levels for most programs. It must clear Congress before Thursday, the end of the fiscal year.

Stearns, R-Fla., complimented the leaders of the net neutrality legislative effort, House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman, Rick Boucher, D-Va., for potentially stopping the FCC from reclassifying broadband under title II of the Communications Act, a more stringent regulatory regime.

According to draft legislation leaked to the media, the bill would prohibit the FCC from enacting such a change in classification.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said Wednesday the commission is in the process of finishing its draft privacy guidelines and is aiming to release the report by late October or early November.

The privacy report will include recommendations that stem from a series of privacy roundtables the commission held in late 2009 and earlier this year.

During a break while he gave remarks at a future of journalism event Wednesday, Leibowitz said the report is being circulated among the agency's commissioners. He said he wants his fellow commissioners to have enough time to "do more than just eyeball the report."

FTC Consumer Protection Bureau Director David Vladeck said last month that the guidelines are aimed at giving "clear and meaningful ways" for consumers to have more control and choice over information collected about them online.

One idea that Leibowitz has floated in recent months is the idea of a "do-not-track" list similar to the FTC's Do-Not-Call Registry that allows consumers to opt out of receiving most telemarketing calls. A do-not-track list would allow consumers to opt out of having their actions tracked while on the Internet for advertising purposes. Such a proposal, however, would have to be mandated by Congress.

Leibowitz would not say Wednesday whether the privacy report would include a call for the creation of a do-not-track list.

Privacy legislation aiming to protect consumers online will be introduced early next Congress House Commerce and Energy Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher said on Wednesday.

"We want to make sure that electronic commerce is enhanced by giving to consumers' privacy protections that they don't have today," Boucher, D-Va., said.

The measure, currently in draft form, seeks to inform consumers about what personal information is collected by websites, how it is used, and empower Internet users to control that information.

To that end, the proposed bill will encourage websites to adopt the following policies: make a user's preference profile available to him or her; allow the user to modify their profile; and allow the user, with one click, to opt-out of having most of their information collected.

Some information, such as the type of a web browser an Internet user has, is needed by websites in order for them to function.

One of the goals of the planned bill is to stop websites from selling consumer information to third parties without the consumer's knowledge about it.

"If you go on line to buy tee shirts, you don't necessarily expect that company to sell your information to a car dealership," Amy Levine, an aide to Boucher, said.

Boucher introduced the draft last May with ranking member of the Subcommittee Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. The lawmakers are in talks with Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., who chairs the Subcommittee with jurisdiction over consumer protection issues to advance the measure.

Boucher's remarks came at forum sponsored by the Safe Internet Alliance on Capitol Hill.

Late Tuesday night, the House cleared the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act aimed at providing those with disabilities greater access to new technologies.

The bill would modernize disability accessibility requirements in the Communications Act, updating existing mandates as TV and phone services connect via the Internet and use new digital and broadband technologies. The Senate passed the bill in early August. President Obama is expected to sign the bill.

"The Internet and other communications technologies are vital tools in today's world, helping students learn and families stay in touch, and allowing businesses to reach national and even global customers," Senate Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., the bill's sponsor, said in a statement. "This legislation will help ensure that all Americans are able to fully utilize online devices, regardless of disability."

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association and other industry groups applauded its passage.

"Lead sponsors Rep. Ed Markey and Sen. Mark Pryor deserve enormous credit for spearheading this important legislation that will significantly improve accessibility of communications services and equipment for Americans with disabilities," NCTA president Kyle McSlarrow said. "Our industry will work closely with the Federal Communications Commission to implement rules that will aid millions of Americans with disabilities in enjoying cable programming and services."

A former FCC official who played a critical role in the development of the commission's national broadband plan released a report Wednesday that argues that the federal government should establish a $10 billion fund over 10 years to help ensure all Americans have access to affordable broadband service.

In the paper, Blair Levin, the former executive director of the FCC's broadband initiative, noted that "current government programs to assure communication networks are available to all Americans will neither ensure that such networks are available nor encourage adoption." Levin wrote the paper for the Aspen Institute, where he now works as a communications and society fellow, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Levin also recommends that the funding needed to bring broadband to those who don't currently have it could be obtained by repurposing funding in the Universal Service Fund, which has been used to subsidize telecommunications service in high-cost or rural areas. In the broadband plan, the FCC called for expanding the fund to include support for broadband.

Levin noted that once funds are identified they should be distributed through a "transparent, market-based approach; that funds be provided only to areas where, without such funding, there is no private sector case to provide broadband; and that funds are provided to one provider per area. The criteria should be company and technology agnostic, and the recipients should be accountable for achieving universal broadband access in the relevant geographic areas."

He notes that ultimately it might be too expensive to extend broadband service to the last .2 percent of the population, but adds that such households could be served by satellite broadband service.

To help promote adoption of broadband, Levin calls for expanding and revamping the Lifeline and Link Up programs from subsidizing voice services to making broadband affordable to low-income individuals, another proposal also included in the national broadband plan.

A group of public interest and industry groups wrote Senate Judiciary Committee leaders this week voicing concerns with legislation introduced earlier this month aimed at curbing online piracy and counterfeiting and calling for a hearing to better evaluate the measure.

In the letter Monday to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the groups argued that while they support the bill's goals, the measure raises "numerous legal, political, and technical issues."

"If left unresolved, these issues could harm consumers, educational institutions,
innovative technologies, economic growth and global Internet freedom," according to the letter Monday signed by such groups as the American Library Association, Center for Democracy and Technology, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, the Consumer Electronics Association, the NetCoalition, and Public Knowledge.

The bill would give the Justice Department new authority to file a civil action against a domain name linked to a website trafficking in illegal copyrighted content or counterfeit goods. The court could order a registrar, a firm that sells Internet domain name registrations to the public, to revoke the domain name linked to the site with the infringing content or counterfeit goods. The bill also would give the Justice Department power to target foreign websites by requiring U.S.-based third parties to stop doing business with these foreign targets. This might include requiring a U.S.-based Internet service provider to block access to such sites or requiring a U.S. payment processor to block payments to the site.

The groups echoed the concerns detailed by the CDT in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. They include that the bill would set a bad precedent that other countries might seek to replicate for more controversial reasons and that it would allow the Justice Department to "to blacklist websites in a manner subject to little process and limited judicial review."

The bill, introduced by Leahy, was listed on the Judiciary Committee's agenda for a Thursday markup. That session could get postponed, however, if the Senate adjourns Wednesday.

The groups that signed the letter called on the committee to hold a hearing on the bill before taking action on it, saying it "raises a host of global entanglements and serious questions that need to be evaluated thoroughly and carefully."

Noting the growing threat of online piracy, the Recording Industry Association of America said in a statement Tuesday, that, "The answer from these self-styled public interest groups can't always be 'no.' Congressional and administration leaders have made it clear that doing nothing is no longer an option. If these groups have a better idea than the meaningful, bipartisan approach like the one put forward by Chairman Leahy, we welcome their ideas on how to insure that the Internet is a civilized medium instead of a lawless one where foreign sites that put Americans at risk are allowed to flourish."

With precious little time left in the 111th Congress, House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman's efforts to advance a net neutrality bill may be more of a messaging tool than anything else, observers say.

"A lot of legislation is introduced not because of its likelihood of enactment, but to send a message that will ricochet around the Hill and agencies," said Andrew Lipman, head of the telecommunications, media and technology group at the law firm Bingham.

Against steep odds, Waxman, D-Calif., has been leading an effort to shepherd a measure through Congress that would codify some principles to protect the openness of the Internet.

A draft bill leaked to Tech Daily Dose on Monday revealed a framework that would apply nondiscrimination principles to wireline broadband but not wireless and direct the FCC to deal with enforcement on a case-by-case basis, rather than through rulemaking. Under the draft, the commission would be prohibited from reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service under title II of the Communications Act, which would apply a more stringent regulatory regime.

With players from all sides of the issue agreeing that it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to move a net neutrality bill through the Senate, some say it calls into question Waxman's motives.

"The Waxman endgame is to have the FCC's back here and to set forward a minimalist approach that the [commission] can move forward on," one source familiar with the situation said. Providing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski a "graceful exit" to the broadband regulation conundrum is a priority for the California Democrat, a handful of insiders say.

Industry and Congress have put enormous pressure on the chairman to abandon his proposal to reclassify broadband while consumer advocates will settle for nothing less. Moreover, his efforts to broker a compromise between the telecom industry and public interest groups collapsed over the summer when Verizon and Google offered their own plan that proved unpalatable to the fiercest advocates of net neutrality.

The European Commission Tuesday announced it would be investing more than $1 billion in 2011 in information and communications technology research aimed at boosting Europe's competitiveness.

The commission, the European Union's regulatory arm, said the funding (780 million Euros) would go toward research focused on the Internet, robotics, smart and embedded systems, photonics, energy efficiency technologies and health. The effort is part of a commission goal of increasing information and communications technology research and development funding by 20 percent every year until at least 2013.

Among the areas targeted for funding include $162 million (120 million Euros) for research and development into networking, digital media and service infrastructure for the future Internet. Such research "is crucial if Europe is to stay ahead of the challenges that its increasingly digital society will face in the next decade," the commission said in a statement.

Neelie Kroes, the commission's vice president for the digital agenda, said the call for research proposals issued Tuesday "must be accompanied by substantial additional investments by the beneficiaries themselves. This research will help Europe's industry to strengthen its competitiveness."

While it appears unlikely that the Senate Judiciary Committee will act on the legislation this week, the Center for Democracy Technology voiced strong concerns Tuesday with a bill aimed at cracking down on foreign websites that offer illegal copyrighted content or counterfeit goods, saying it could hamper free speech on the Internet and force Internet intermediaries to become the gatekeepers of the Web.

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, introduced earlier this month by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is on the Senate Judiciary Committee's agenda for its markup Thursday but the session could get postponed if the Senate decides to adjourn on Wednesday. The committee may take up the measure if Congress returns after November's midterm elections for a lame-duck session, a Leahy spokeswoman said.

Either way, CDT officials raised several alarms about the bill. The bill would give the Justice Department new authority to file a civil action against a domain name linked to a Web site trafficking in illegal copyrighted content or counterfeit goods asking a court to order the registrar, a firm that sells Internet domain name registrations to the public, that registered the domain name to shut it down. The measure also would give the Justice Department power to target foreign registrars or websites by requiring U.S.-based third parties to stop doing business with these foreign targets. This might include requiring a U.S.-based Internet service provider to block access to such sites or requiring a U.S. payment processor to block payments to the site.

"The Justice Department is currently limited in the remedies available to prevent websites dedicated to offering infringing content. These websites are often based overseas yet target American consumers," Leahy said when he introduced his bill earlier this month. He said his measure would "give the Department of Justice an expedited process for cracking down on these rogue websites, regardless of whether the website's owner is located inside or outside of the United States."

CDT official said the bill raises First Amendment concerns by calling for the seizure of domain names, which would lead to the shut down of some websites that might also include legal content. In addition, they note that in allowing the U.S. government to dictate which websites should be taken down, it would set a bad precedent for other governments who might target websites for reasons some might find objectionable.

The Department of Homeland Security kicked off its third large-scale cybersecurity drill on Tuesday to test government's and industry's ability to respond to hackers hijacking Web content and stealing personal identities with the goal of grabbing sensitive information and crippling federal and commercial operations, Nextgov.com reported.

The primary goal of Cyber Storm III, which will run through Friday, is to test procedures the Obama administration outlined for how agencies and companies should work together during cyber attacks. The White House established the roles and responsibilities for public and private sector managers in its classified National Cyber Incident Response Plan.

The exercise includes participants from seven Cabinet-level agencies, including the Commerce, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, Transportation and Treasury departments, as well as other members of the intelligence and law enforcement community. Eleven state governments and 60 companies also will be participating, along with representatives from the information technology, communications, chemical, electrical and transportation sectors.

Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute will act as DHS secretary for the exercise, which will test how news of incidents feed up and down the chain of command. Howard Schmidt, the White House cyber coordinator, will represent himself.

"So much of the cybersecurity space is about collaboration across the entire community" of public and private sector organizations, said Bobbie Stempfley, director of the national cybersecurity division at DHS, during a media briefing on Sept. 24. "Every once in a while you have to kick the tires." Click here, to read more.

The FCC will not have rulemaking authority under a network neutrality bill that key House Democrats plan to introduce soon, according to a recent draft obtained by Tech Daily Dose.

Instead, the commission will deal with enforcement on a case-by-case basis. Broadband providers who violate the law will face a maximum penalty of $2 million by the FCC, under the bill.

The absence of the rulemaking authority, along with other provisions of the bill, is consistent with information reported by Tech Daily Dose last week.

The bill is a last-minute effort by House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman to shepherd net neutrality legislation through the lower chamber before recess. Waxman hopes to advance the measure through the Senate during the lame-duck session after the November elections, according to an industry source.

Under the proposed legislation, the FCC would be prohibited from reclassifying broadband under Title II of the Communications Act, a change FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has proposed in order to allow the government to impose rules designed to preserve the Internet's openness. Although he has sought to protect broadband from more onerous regulatory requirements under Title II, such as price regulation, the industry regards the reclassification approach as the "nuclear option."

To ensure net neutrality, the House bill would stipulate that wireline providers may not block lawful Internet traffic and or "unjustly or unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful traffic over a consumer's wireline broadband Internet access service."

Notably, the nondiscrimination language does not apply to wireless providers. The legislation would prohibit wireless providers from blocking lawful websites, but leaves open their ability to block applications and peer-to-peer activity.

The draft bill also sets a Dec. 31, 2011 deadline for the FCC to deliver to the House and Senate commerce committees a report regarding additional authority needed by the commission to implement its national broadband plan and ensure the further protection of consumers with respect to their Internet use.

The draft includes a sunset provision calling for the enacted measure to expire at the end of the 2012 calendar year.

All of the rules regarding Internet traffic are subject to "reasonable network management," the draft bill says.

"This bill represents a giant retreat by some of those who claim to support net neutrality and sends the wrong signal to the FCC who will ultimately deal with this issue," said a source familiar with the situation.

The media offers competing visions about the impact of technology on society according to a new study released by Pew on Monday.

The main message about technology, the study shows, is that it makes life more productive--but that idea is followed closely by the notion that the Internet is not secure.

Conducted from June 2009 to June 2010, the report aimed to examine how the media reports on technology when it reaches the top of the American news agenda. Pew researchers analyzed 437 tech-related stories that appeared in the lead sections of 52 different news outlets.

The study found that technology seldom makes it to the lead sections of main stream media outlets. Tech articles made it to the front of the news less than 1.6 percent of the time ranking 20th out of 26 subject areas identified by Pew.

While the positive theme about technology outpaced the negative one, by a narrow margin, the single biggest storyline of the year involved the hazardous practice of texting while driving. Pew found that "Nearly one-in-ten technology stories were about this subject, more than five times the coverage of either the U.S. plan for broadband access or net neutrality."

The study also found that Apple generated the most media coverage of tech companies, slightly ahead of Google, and that the most popular topic of tech stories reviewed (18 percent) concerned social changes and cultural trends.

Comcast and General Electric announced Sunday that Steve Burke will become chief executive officer of NBC Universal upon the completion of the company's $30 billion merger with Comcast. The matter is currently under review by the FCC and the Justice Department.

If the merger is approved, Burke will succeed current NBCU president and CEO, Jeff Zucker. Zucker plans to stay in his current position until the close of the transaction.

Burke, 52, is a former Walt Disney Co. executive who joined Comcast in 1998. His father, Dan Burke, was one of the principle architects of the Capital Cities television station group that purchased ABC and later sold the company to Disney.

"Steve is one of the most well-respected executives in the industry, and I am confident that he will lead NBCU forward to a new era of growth" said Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast.

The pending merger of the two media giants has been subject to extensive criticism by public interest groups and industry saying it will hamper competition and result in higher prices for consumers. Comcast refutes these claims.

Monday
The Information and Innovation Technology Foundation holds a noon event on the future of online privacy. Speakers include Fernando Laguarda, vice president of Time Warner Cable; Tim Sparapini, director of public policy at Facebook; and Mark Eichorn, assistant director at the Federal Trade Commission.

Tuesday
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration will hold a 9:00 am workshop on the importance of the adoption and deployment of Internet Protocol version six (IPv6) addresses for industry, the U.S. Government, and the Internet economy. Speakers include Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and NTIA Deputy Assistant Secretary Anna Gomez

The Center for Democracy & Technology will host a 10:00 am press briefing to discuss the enormous impact the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act will have on Internet free speech, governance, and global Internet freedom. At the briefing CDT also will release a memo detailing its concerns with the bill.

Wednesday
The Aspen Institute will host a 10:00 am forum to unveil a new policy paper by Blair Levin detailing a plan for deploying broadband to 99 percent of the population in 10 years without additional funding. Speakers include FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski (via video); Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission; and Rey Ramsey, president and CEO of TechNet.

Thursday
The House Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation will hold a 10:00 am hearing on "Standards for Health IT: Meaningful Use and Beyond."

Friday
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation will hold a 10:00 am event on paid prioritization. Speakers include Hank Hultquist, vice president of federal regulatory issues at AT&T and your Tech Daily Dose blogger, Eliza Krigman.

Delays persist in finalizing standards that would make the radios that first responders use interoperable, a problem that frustrates government officials struggling to find communication solutions in the vendor community, NextGov reported.

Public safety professionals are developing an open suite of standards, called Project 25 or P25, for manufacturing interoperable two-way wireless communications products. But development of the standards continues, making compliance impossible, according to witnesses who testified before the House Technology and Innovation Subcommittee on Thursday.

"The standard is actually a suite of standards that has hundreds of subelements," said Tom Sorley, deputy director of radio communications technology for Houston. "Most people who are writing specifications to buy a new system do not know enough about the P25 suite of standards to even properly document their requirements. They fail to specify individual elements that must be compliant, and the result is systems are sold as P25-complaint when many parts of the system that could be standards-based remain proprietary."

Sorley is leading Houston's efforts to deploy one of the largest P25 radio systems nationwide. He spent months canvassing vendors to encourage response to a request for proposals. But because of a lack of interoperability, only two manufacturers were qualified to submit bids. "It was a little disheartening," Sorley said. "[A lack of standards] has a big impact on competition."

Read more here.

Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy and Linda Woolley with the Digital Marketing Association have very different views on how far Congress should go to protect consumer privacy online.

But during a taped appearance this week on C-Span's "The Communicators" program, they did agree on a few things about the debate --- key among them being that information about Web users has become a commodity.

"Consumers have to understand personal data is a commodity," said Woolley, the DMA's executive vice president of government affairs.

Appearing on the program after Woolley, Chester agreed that information about consumers' Web surfing habits is "the new currency. ... Data is power."

That data, collected while consumers surf the Web, is used to help advertisers and marketers target ads at Internet users based on their interests.

Chester and Woolley also agree that draft privacy legislation proposed by two key House lawmakers aimed at setting basic rules is flawed.

Woolley argued that the draft bill from Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and the panel's ranking Republican Cliff Stearns of Florida, could have a "dramatic effect" on direct marketers and endanger the advertising-based model that drives much of the free content on the Web.

The draft bill would require websites to provide more information about what they are collecting and allow consumers to opt out of having personally identifiable information collected about them. It would require consumers to opt-in to having personally identifiable information shared with third parties except for advertising networks that allow consumers to edit or opt-out of the profiles of their surfing habits.

Woolley said her industry is taking steps on their own to address consumer concerns about privacy, adding that the "last thing we want to do is make our customers angry." In the coming weeks, her group will be unveiling a new online self-regulatory program featuring an icon that will appear on third-party websites providing consumers with information and choices about advertising directed at them.

Chester and other privacy advocates, however, say the Boucher-Stearns draft does not go nearly far enough, saying the "notice and consent" model embraced by the bill does little to actually protect consumer privacy online. He also dismissed Woolley's claims that the bill could jeopardize the current advertising-supported content model of the Web.

"The idea that the Internet is going to go bankrupt if we protect privacy is absurd," Chester argued.

Both sides, however, will have plenty of time to continue the debate. Boucher and Stearns said Thursday that the issue will have to wait until next year when they hope to hold hearings and a markup on their legislation.

Senate Commerce ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison said Thursday she would support a direct allocation of communications spectrum, in lieu of an auction, to build a nationwide public safety network, CongressDaily reported.

Her announcement gave a significant boost to legislation introduced by Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., in July that would give public safety officials a valuable band of spectrum known as the D-block.

The FCC has instead proposed an auction of the airwaves to a commercial bidder, with auction proceeds dedicated to help pay for the creation of a public safety network. A network has been long sought by first responders since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks exposed the inability of emergency agencies to communicate with each other.

"Nine years after September 11, we should be ashamed that [first responders] lack a nationwide, interoperable wireless broadband communications system," Rockefeller said at a committee hearing on his bill.

Hutchison's expressed support for allocation of the D-block was balanced by an interest in exploring the viability of a commercial partnership. She asked witnesses at the hearing if a pre-emptive clause giving first-responders priority over a commercial network would be sufficient to meet their needs.

Public safety officials testifying said it would fall short.

Read more here (subscription required)

The House cleared a bill Thursday that includes a measure that would eliminate cell phones from a list of items that are taxed as employer-provided fringe benefits.

The cell phone legislation would repeal a little-enforced provision in tax law that requires that personal use of employer-provided cell phones and similar devices be taxed like other fringe benefits such as use of a company car. The measure, which was passed last week by the Senate, was attached to a small business lending bill (H.R. 5297), which President Obama is expected to sign.

"The president, his administration and Congress clearly understand that employer-provided devices are essential for employees because they offer convenience and improve productivity," Steve Largent, president and CEO of the wireless industry group CTIA, said in a statement. "It is an arcane rule to require all personal usage to be considered a taxable benefit."

Despite growing pressure to take action on protecting the Internet's openness, the FCC will not address the issue during their October meeting, a tentative agenda released by the commission on Thursday revealed.

Instead of tackling the hotly debated matter of broadband regulation, the FCC will take up "Bill Shock," proposed rules requiring mobile carriers to better inform consumers so they aren't surprised by unexpected charges.

The lack of action on net neutrality is sure to frustrate public interest groups such as Free Press and Public Knowledge as well the progressive organizations MoveOn.org and DailyKos. These groups have been lobbying the FCC to follow through on the commission's proposal to reclassify broadband under a more stringent regulatory regime.

Backers of net neutrality want lawmakers and the FCC to prohibit broadband providers from discriminating against Internet content or applications.

"Despite having the votes on the FCC to pass strong net neutrality rules, [FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski] has avoided taking the necessary action to do so," Joan McArter of DailyKos wrote in an email. "There's no good excuse for his dithering." In partnership with CREDO, DailyKos is circulating a petition urging Genachowski to act.

The creation of a Mobility Fund to support current and next-generation mobile services and rules related to video navigation devices will also be addressed in the commission's October meeting.

The biggest challenge facing the nascent U.S. Cyber Command is growing and training its operational force to defend Defense Department networks from attack, the command's top officer said Thursday.

During a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Army Gen. Keith Alexander said Cyber Command is hoping to train around 1,000 troops annually over the next several years for the high-tech mission, CongressDaily reported.

Alexander called the 1,000-personnel goal per year an "initial benchmark."

"We're not there yet, but that's what we're working on," he said after the hearing, adding that he ultimately wants an equal contribution from each of the military services.

U.S. Cyber Command began initial operations in May, barely 11 months after its formation was ordered by Defense Secretary Gates. As a subcommand of the U.S. Strategic Command, USCYBERCOM's mission is to defend U.S. defense information networks and, according to a command fact sheet, conduct "full-spectrum military cyberspace operations" in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries." To read, more click here. (Subscription required).

If the GOP takes control of the House, Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said Thursday that he will seek the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the 112th Congress if the panel's current top Republican, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, does not want the job.

During a taped interview on C-Span's "The Communicators" program, Stearns said he would not challenge Barton for the job, calling the Texan a "good friend" who has done a good job as the ranking member of the full committee.

Stearns is currently the ranking member on the committee's Communications, Technology and the Internet Subcommittee and is in line to become chairman of that panel if Republicans win control of the House, as some political observers have predicted, in the November midterm elections.

The FCC approved an order Thursday that would enable wireless broadband devices to use vacant spaces between broadcast channels enabling the deployment of "super Wi-Fi" and other technologies.

On a 5-0 vote, the FCC took final action to approve the use of "white spaces" for wireless broadband applications, which could include much faster and more robust Wi-Fi service and enabling smart grid technologies.

"This new unlicensed spectrum will be a powerful platform for innovation. And as we've seen time and again, when we unleash American ingenuity, great things happen," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said.

The order approved by the FCC eliminated a requirement that devices that check-in with a geo-location database also include sensing technology to ensure they will not interfere with television stations and other licensed spectrum holders.

The FCC also appears to have rejected a request by broadcasters that devices check-in several times a day with the geo-location database. A coalition of technology and Internet firms and public interest groups voiced concern that such a requirement could overload the system and hamper effective use of white space spectrum.

"We're glad to see that the FCC appears to have rejected calls to enact burdensome and unnecessary constraints that would have made it more difficult to deploy useful technologies on these airwaves," Google Washington Telecom and Media Counsel Rick Whitt said in a blog post. "Instead, the commission has put forward common-sense rules that will help encourage innovation, while fully safeguarding incumbent signals from interference."

Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., also praised the white-spaces order, saying it "is a critical step towards a robust wireless future that will benefit all Americans."

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who also sits on the Commerce Committee, said the order would help bring broadband access to those who continue to lack access to it. "The 'white spaces' spectrum provides an opportunity to reach these Americans and further bridge the 'digital divide' that unfortunately continues to exist today," she said in a statement

The National Association of Broadcasters, which filed a lawsuit in 2009 to block the white spaces order, offered a muted response to the FCC's action. "NAB's overriding goal in this proceeding has been to ensure America's continued interference-free access to high quality news, entertainment and sports provided by free and local television stations," NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton said in a statement. "We look forward to reviewing the details of today's ruling."

Wharton said Wednesday that the NAB would proceed with its lawsuit, which has been on hold pending the FCC's action.

Regardless of which party controls the House in the next Congress, privacy and possibly a rewrite of the 1996 telecommunications act may be on the agenda of the committee with prime jurisdiction over both issues, two key House lawmakers said Thursday.

During a taped segment of C-Span's "The Communicators" program, House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said they plan to push forward on comprehensive online privacy legislation regardless of which party wins control of the House following the November elections.

Boucher and Stearns released a draft bill in May and have been seeking input on the measure since then from key stakeholders. "We've accumulated a lot of information," Stearns said.

Both Boucher and Stearns said the work they have been doing this Congress should allow them to proceed to hearings and a markup in the 112th Congress. Boucher added that "it's a bipartisan issue" and that Stearns has been involved with the measure from the start. Stearns indicated he would press forward on privacy legislation if he is chairman of the subcommittee in the next Congress.

Boucher noted that he is still aiming to merge his measure with a similar bill introduced by Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., whose panel shares jurisdiction over the issue with Boucher's subcommittee.

Boucher also said that he is not sure if he will introduce the bill this year, but said "we've gotten the issue well tee'd up" for action next year.

When asked about criticism from business groups that it goes too far and claims from privacy advocates that it doesn't do enough, Boucher said he believes this shows that the measure has found the right middle ground on the issue. He noted it will provide the first set of comprehensive online privacy guarantees, while also ensuring that it will not interfere with the ability of online firms to provide advertising that helps support free content on the Internet.

"We don't want to interrupt this successful business model," he added.

Both lawmakers also voiced interest in seeking a rewrite of the 1996 telecommunications act, saying it has become outdated amid today's rapidly changing technology sector. "It's obsolete," Stearns said.

Boucher added that the FCC's sector-by-sector approach to telecom regulation needs to be overhauled to be more "functional" so that the agency is better able to deal with today's communications landscape where firms are offering multiple telecom services including voice, data and video.

With Republicans poised to make gains in both chambers of Congress, President Obama's campaign promise to preserve the Internet's openness should face a more hostile reception after the midterm elections CongressDaily reported.

If Republicans take control of the House, Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., is likely to become chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Internet and telecommunications issues, sources on and off Capitol Hill said.

Upton opposes government regulation of the Internet as favored by advocates of net neutrality and has called FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's plan to reclassify broadband under a more stringent regulatory regime a "blind power grab."

Backers of net neutrality have been urging lawmakers and the FCC to prohibit broadband providers from discriminating against Internet content or applications.

With respect to seniority, Upton falls behind current Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton, but Barton has been chairman or ranking member for three terms and would need a waiver from the GOP to become the party's leader on the committee in the next Congress.

If Upton takes the helm, Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., would likely assume control of the Communications Subcommittee -- a move one Republican aide said is "Stearns' top priority."

Stearns, who as the panel's current ranking member has been an outspoken critic of government regulation of the Internet, went so far as to introduce a bill aimed at prohibiting the FCC from subjecting broadband to a heavier government hand.

Read more here (subscription required)

The latest version of the House net neutrality bill will take away the FCC's rulemaking authority on the issue a source familiar with the matter told Tech Daily Dose.

Without rulemaking authority on the possible legislation, the commission's ability to enforce compliance is substantially weakened.

The bill would also prohibit the commission from reclassifying broadband under title II of the Communications Act, a more stringent regulatory regime, until the measure sunsets in two years. Other provisions of the proposal include a non-discrimination principle for wired networks and for wireless devices, no blocking of websites and competing voice applications.

Under that scenario, wireless providers could block peer-to-peer activity and other applications.

Ostensibly, House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is shopping around final language of the bill today. Waxman, according to an industry source, hopes to pass a net neutrality bill out of the House before recess and advance it through the Senate during a lame-duck session.

No FCC rulemaking authority on the bill "is a huge victory for the carriers," the source said. "I'm stunned the Waxman team is going along with it...If I had to measure this, it's probably slightly worse than the Verizon-Google deal."

Last month Verizon and Google unveiled a regulatory framework of suggested principles for Internet service providers to abide by. Staunch advocates of net neutrality rejected the proposal saying it left too many loopholes that would undermine the openness of the Internet.

UPDATE: Thursday, 2:10 pm

House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va.,said "there's a deal" depending on who you talk to, adding that not everyone is in agreement.

During an appearance on C-Span's "The Communicators" prorgam today, Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., was more optimistic. "I say this is a pretty good agreement." The proposed bill would say, "Instead of the FCC trying to create jurisdiction, we in Congress would give it to them" in a limited way. "I'm encouraged," he added. "I look forward to trying to pass this bill."

Vice President Joe Biden gave a shout out to Facebook Wednesday evening for the company's efforts to stop violence against women.

Biden mentioned Facebook for their work on educating teens about the issue. His remarks came at a at a reception in honor of the 16th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act hosted a the Naval Observatory.

As part of Facebook's work on safety issues, the social media giant will partner with the National Network to End Domestic Violence to raise awareness about the problem. Information about domestic abuse will be featured on the company's Safety Center.

This is one component of Facebook's broader effort to create a "trusted environment" for its 500 million users. On Tuesday, Sept. 28, Facebook live will host filmmaker Michealene C. Risley who made a documentary chronicling the abuses of girls in Zimbabwe.

Public safety officials will make another push Thursday to persuade lawmakers to reallocate a disputed chunk of spectrum for a public safety national interoperable broadband network instead of auctioning off the spectrum to commercial bidders as the FCC has proposed.

Public safety officials oppose the FCC's proposal, included in the national broadband plan, to build a national broadband network for public safety using 10 megahertz of spectrum from the FCC along with additional spectrum public safety officials already control. The proposal follows a failed effort in 2008 by the FCC to auction off the D-block of spectrum to a commercial bidder willing to enter into a public-private partnership with first responders. In the broadband plan, the FCC has called for auctioning off the D-block of spectrum to a commercial bidder and using the auction proceeds to help fund the creation of the public safety network.

Public safety officials oppose this proposal because they say 10 megahertz is not enough spectrum and have called on Congress to pass legislation reallocating the D-block for the public safety network. They say the quality of the D-block spectrum is better suited for their needs.

Public safety officials led by a coalition known as the Public Safety Alliance will make another push on Capitol Hill Thursday for D-block legislation. In addition to a holding a news conference outside the Capitol, a handful of public safety officials from around the country will be testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee in support of a bill offered by Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va. His bill would re-allocate the D-Block of spectrum to public safety officials and direct the FCC to establish standards that allow public safety officials, when not using the network, to lease capacity on a secondary, but preemptible basis, to commercial users or others.

The FCC issued a white paper this summer that claimed that its proposal, which also calls for giving emergency first responders priority access to roam on commercial networks during emergencies, is sufficient to meet public safety needs.

In his prepared testimony for Thursday's Commerce hearing, Ken Zdunek, a spectrum and technology consultant hired by wireless provider T-Mobile to do a study on the feasibility of the FCC's proposal, endorsed the FCC's claims included in its white paper.

Verizon said Wednesday that it has hired a former senior official with the group that manages the Internet's address system to handle global Internet issues.

Theresa Swinehart will serve as Verizon's new executive director of global Internet policy.

She most recently worked as vice president of global and strategic partnerships at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the nonprofit group picked in 1998 by the U.S. government to take over management of the Internet's domain name system. Prior to joining ICANN, Swinehart worked as director of global e-commerce for MCI/WorldCom.

She will report to Jacquelynn Ruff, Verizon's vice president of international public policy and regulatory affairs. In a statement, Ruff praised Swinehart's "deep expertise on Internet issues and experience working with policymakers and experts around the world."

The European Commission is moving ahead with efforts to promote the rollout of fast and "ultra-fast" broadband across Europe with a set of proposals aimed at spurring private investment and competition in "next-generation access networks."

The commission, the European Union's regulatory arm, approved three proposals Monday aimed at helping the EU meet its goal of ensuring its citizens have access to basic broadband by 2013 and "ultra-fast" broadband by 2020.

The proposals include approval of a commission recommendation that requires EU member state telecom regulators to adhere to a common approach related to access to high-speed fiber networks that aims to encourage investment while safeguarding competition. For example the commission recommends that before considering price regulation, telecom regulators consider the investment risks and low rate of return such investments may currently receive. In addition, regulators also are urged to select "access remedies" that encourage market entry and infrastructure based-competition and "light touch" regulation in competitive markets.

The second proposal calls on the European Parliament and European Council, which is made up of representatives from EU members states, to establish a five-year program aimed at promoting more efficient management of spectrum and ensuring there is enough spectrum available for wireless broadband by 2013.

The commission also adopted a broadband communication outlining a consistent approach EU member states should take to meet the EU broadband goals. The communications provides "guidance on how to cut investment costs and indicates how public authorities may support broadband investment, including making better use [of] EU funds." In addition, the proposal notes that the commission will be developing with the European Investment Bank broadband financing proposals.

"These measures will help to ensure that Europeans get the first-class Internet they expect and deserve, so that they can access the content and services they want," Neelie Kroes, the commission's vice president for the digital agenda, said in a statement.

While nearly a quarter of European households get broadband, only 1 percent have high-speed fiber connections to their homes, compared with 15 percent of South Koreans and 12 percent of Japanese, the commission noted.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee grappled today over the best path forward toward modernizing the Electronics Communications Privacy Act, CongressDaily reported.

"No one would quibble with the notion that ECPA is outdated," Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said at a hearing, but, he added, "The question of how best to update this law has no simple answer."

Enacted in 1986, the law aims to provide citizens the same privacy protections online that they are legally afforded offline. The committee hearing today was its first to explore the law in the 111th Congress.

The incredible growth of the Internet, cloud computing and the volume of electronic messages entrusted to third parties are some of the wholesale changes in digital space that require the law to be updated, Commerce Department general counsel Cameron Kerry told the committee.

Read more here (subscription required)

A group of tech companies and public interest groups Wednesday urged the FCC to craft a rule that will allow users to take full advantage of unused spectrum between broadcast channels for new wireless broadband technologies.

The FCC is set to adopt a final ruling Thursday allowing for the use of spectrum "white spaces" for wireless broadband technologies. Representatives from the Wireless Innovation Alliance said they are pushing the FCC not to impose onerous rules on the use of the spectrum that would make it too difficult to take full advantage of white spaces.

Among the potential rules that the alliance and others say they do not expect the FCC to impose would be spectrum sensing requirements that the alliance said would increase the cost and complexity of technologies aimed at utilizing white space spectrum. Other issues of concern to the alliance include what type of protections will be offered for wireless microphones.

"The technical details really do matter," Google Senior Policy Director Rick Whitt said during an alliance conference call.

The various iterations of net neutrality bills circulating in the House this week have all been "disasters" one source involved in the process told Tech Daily Dose.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., offered another version of the bill Tuesday evening but it is also a "non-starter," the source said. "I don't expect this to go anywhere other than being a humongous waste of time."

The unfavorable review is bad news for House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D- Calif.'s last minute effort to shepherd a net neutrality bill through Congress during the 111th session. With precious little time before recess, it's hard to see how the bill could advance if it is not introduced this week.

According to an industry source, Waxman hopes to pass a net neutrality bill out of the House before recess and move it through the Senate during a lame duck session. Chances are increasingly slim.

Talks about a possible bill may have broken down and in the least, face an uphill climb, a report from Stifel Nicolaus released Tuesday afternoon indicated.

"The Internet's openness must be protected, and we expect that all champions of Net Neutrality will work tirelessly until the FCC implements rules that promote innovation and protect all consumers by prohibiting discrimination on all wired and wireless networks," said S. Derek Turner, research director of Free Press, expressing commitment to their cause. President Obama and leading members of Congress have all clearly stated that allowing ISPs to pick winners and losers online is unacceptable, and consumers everywhere are looking to the FCC and Congress to enact real and lasting Net Neutrality protections."

The wireless industry group CTIA is urging the Obama administration to provide the National Telecommunications Information Administration with more resources so it can work to identify additional spectrum for the growing demand for mobile broadband.

In a letter Tuesday to President Obama, CTIA President Steve Largent called on the administration to push Congress to provide the NTIA with the funding it needs to identify additional spectrum to help meet the FCC's goal set in its national broadband plan of freeing up 500 megahertz of spectrum for mobile broadband over the next decade. Largent also urged the administration in its fiscal year 2012 budget plan to propose adequate funding for the NTIA to do this job.

Obama issued a presidential memorandum in June affirming his administration's commitment to meeting the FCC's 500 megahertz goal. One of the more controversial proposals outlined by the FCC for finding more spectrum includes urging broadcasters to voluntarily relinquish some of their spectrum.

"With your leadership, the spectrum allocation goals outlined in the FCC's national broadband plan can become a reality that benefits consumers, improves federal communications capabilities, creates jobs, boosts the economy, and achieves all of these objectives in a fiscally responsible manner," wrote Largent, a former GOP House member from Oklahoma.

"An important first step in that effort is ensuring NTIA has the resources it needs in order to accomplish the spectrum planning and management activities that will be critical to realization of the spectrum vision articulated in the national broadband plan."

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Tuesday announced several initiatives aimed at bringing more advanced broadband technologies to schools and libraries.

Genachowski announced the initiatives at a conference on digital learning in Silicon Valley. The FCC will be voting on an order Thursday at its monthly meeting that includes changes to the E-rate program, which provides subsidies to schools and libraries to connect to the Internet.

The changes include allowing E-rate participants to use funds from the program to connect to the Internet in the "most cost-effective way possible," which could include using unused fiber lines already in place and existing state, regional and local broadband networks.

The FCC notes that while 97 percent of U.S. schools and "nearly all" public libraries have basic Internet access, 78 percent of E-rate fund recipients say they need faster connections.

The FCC also has proposed allowing schools the option of providing the public with Internet access at schools after students go home and will launch a pilot program to support off-campus wireless Internet connectivity for mobile learning devices.

Two lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee urged the FCC Tuesday to ensure that smart electrical grid technologies can utilize unused spectrum between broadcast television channels known as "white spaces."

The FCC is set to vote Thursday on a final rule allowing for the use of white spaces for "unlicensed broadband wireless devices."

In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., urged him to "ensure a variety of technologies, including smart grid applications, are able to utilize this spectrum to advance our nation's clean energy needs."

They note that advances in technology can allow consumers to monitor their energy use in real time. Electrical utilities also could benefit from having access to white spaces, they added.

"Utilities will be able to better manage outages, reduce peak demand and gain more control over the decisions concerning resources," Eshoo and Matsui wrote, adding that it also could eventually allow for automatic meter reading and consumer alerts on energy outages.

Broadcasters, however, have voiced concern with the white space proposal and have been pressing for changes that would ensure there is no interference with broadcast channels.

The Transportation Department is holding a day-long distracted driving summit Tuesday in Washington during which Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the agency will implement a new rule that would ban commercial truck drivers from texting while transporting hazardous materials.

Two rules LaHood announced at a similar summit last year have now become law. The rules ban commercial bus and truck drivers from texting on the job and restrict train operators from using wireless devices while driving.

LaHood has made stamping out texting while driving and other forms of distracted driving one of his signature initiatives. In a blog post Tuesday, he noted 5,500 people were killed in distraction-related crashes last year, while 450,000 others were injured.

"The research presented today will confirm what I've been saying over and over for the past 12 months: You cannot text or talk on the phone while driving safely. You just can't do it," LaHood said in the blog post.

The department also announced nearly 1,600 U.S. companies and organizations, covering 10.5 million workers, have signed on to a program aimed at persuading private firms and groups to implement policies that discourage distracted driving. Another 550 organizations have agreed to adopt distracted driving policies in the next year that cover 1.5 million additional U.S. workers, the department said in a news release.

Negotiators on an international trade agreement aimed at curbing piracy and counterfeiting of copyrighted works and products will meet beginning Thursday for the 11th round of talks in Tokyo.

Among the items on the agenda for talks on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement include discussions of civil, criminal and border provisions, digital issues, international cooperation and enforcement practices. The negotiators also will discuss ACTA's definitions, general obligations, and initial provisions as well as "institutional arrangement and final provisions," according to the agenda released by the Japanese Embassy in Washington.

While the agenda also includes discussion of "transparency," the negotiations have been criticized as being too secretive. The negotiators have released few details of the draft agreement. In addition, critics worry that the agreement will include intellectual property protections in U.S. law without provisions aimed at protecting the rights of users.

The latest round is unlikely to quell such criticisms, particularly after the talks appear to have been move up by a few days, according to Sean Flynn, associate director of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University's Washington College of Law.

"It is hard to conclude other than that the negotiators of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, with the Obama Administration in the lead, do not want meaningful civil society input into the negotiation of the agreement," Flynn wrote in a blog post Tuesday.

The Japanese government announced there would be a meeting with civil society groups on Friday. Flynn noted that negotiators have been holding such meetings at some of the recent rounds. He added, however, that they are "getting less and less substantive and this one appears designed to ensure that no [nongovernmental organizations] show up." The meeting was just announced this week, giving at least U.S.-based groups little time to fly to Japan, Flynn said.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not have an immediate comment. USTR, however, has said in the past that international trade agreements require confidentiality sometimes "to enable officials of participating governments to engage in frank exchanges of views, positions, and specific negotiating proposals, and thereby facilitate agreement on complex issues."

Here is a roundup of some key personnel changes that took place in the tech and telecom space recently:

Verizon Communications tapped Lowell McAdam to become president and chief operating officer. Previously, McAdam served as CEO of Verizon wireless. He will report directly to Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg. More at WaPo

Dave Grimaldi will serve as chief of staff and media legal advisor to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. Grimaldi succeeds acting chief of staff Angela Kronenberg who will continue as wireline legal advisor to Clyburn. Grimaldi comes to the FCC from the office of House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C.; commissioner Clyburn is the daughter of the Democratic House leader.

Danielle Kriz, former Commerce Department cybersecurity policy analyst, has joined the Information Technology Industry Council as director of global cybysecurity policy. At ITI, Kriz will lead the creation and implementation of the organization's cybersecurity policy agenda. More at Hillicon Valley.

Key Senate lawmakers will introduce legislation Monday afternoon aiming to curb the growth of online piracy and counterfeiting.

"Each year, online piracy and the sale of counterfeit goods cost American businesses billions of dollars, and result in hundreds of thousands of lost jobs," said Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a co-sponsor of the bill. "The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act will protect the investment American companies make in developing brands and creating content and will protect the jobs associated with those investments."

The bill gives teeth to the Justice Department for enforcement by expediting the process for cracking down on websites that are dedicated to making infringing goods and services available. Under the bill, the Justice Department can file an in rem civil action against a domain name on Internet sites dedicated to infringing activities.

The in rem authority is modeled after provisions of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. In rem specifies an action against a thing, property, or right, rather than a person.

"This legislation is critical to our continued fight against online piracy and counterfeiting," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a member of the Judiciary Committee and a co-sponsor of the legislation.

The entertainment industry and the Chamber of Commerce, who have been fighting for stronger intellectual property laws, applauded the introduction of the bill.

"Senator Leahy and the bill's cosponsors should be commended for introducing this important legislation to address the growing scourge of counterfeiting and piracy over the Internet," said David Hirschmann, president and CEO of the Chamber's unit on IP protection.

President of the Motion Pictures Association of America Bob Pisano thanked lawmakers for combating "efforts to steal the lifeblood of one of our nation's most important industries."

Members of the Judiciary Committee cosponsoring the measure include Sens. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., Arlen Specter, D-Pa., Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

As part of the administration's effort to reform Federal IT and reign in spending, the Justice Department has terminated its Litigation Case Management System, U.S. CIO Vivek Kundra announced Monday.

The end of the Litigation Case Management System is one of a handful of changes made by executive agencies to save money and boost efficiency that Kundra highlighted during remarks given to the Federal CIO Council this morning. Kundra has been leading an initiative to curb costs on IT by shining a light on wasteful spending and subsequently, enacting reform.

The Justice Department program was one of 26 high-priority IT projects under review by the administration in light of red flags such as run-away costs or being behind schedule. Cancellation of the program is expected to save the government $193 million.

"We are now seeing the fruits of a focus on execution," Kundra said.

Through the Small Business Administration's decision to scale back its Loan Management and Accounting System and the Environmental Protection Agency's cuts to its troubled financial management system modernization project, roughly $200 million will be saved, Kundra noted.

Another $423 million will be spared due to the Department of Veterans Affairs' decision to cancel its Financial and Logistics Integrated Technology Enterprise Program system. Through changes to financial systems alone, the government expects cost reductions in the neighborhood of $750 million.

The Interior Department has turned around a system to share security, law enforcement and emergency management information, Kundra also announced.

"Our actions to date are the initial steps in making the Federal government work better for the American people and send a clear message that we are no longer willing to throw good money after bad money," Kundra told the CIO Council.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee may introduce net neutrality legislation sometime this week sources told Tech Daily Dose.

The proposed legislation would give the FCC authority for two years to enforce its four open Internet principles, the Washington Post reported. Still, controversial issues not addressed in the bill, such as non-discrimination language and wireless providers, could prevent the bill from moving forward.

Under the four open Internet principles, as summarized by the FCC, "network operators can't prevent users from accessing the lawful Internet content, applications, and services of their choice, nor can they prohibit users from attaching non-harmful devices to the network."

But without addressing the area of non-discrimination, a fifth principle embraced by the FCC, the thorny net neutrality issue of paid prioritization, remains unsolved. Whether network operators should be able to charge content providers to fast-track their material over the net has pit Internet service providers against public interest groups such as Free Press and Public Knowledge.

According to one industry observer, the House is hoping to clear the legislation before it breaks for recess and advance a bill through the Senate during a lame duck session. How the bill fares will be determined, in part, by the reaction of public interest groups, one source familiar with the situation said.

Other stakeholders say the deal is more fluid. Another industry observer described the bill as a "band-aid" and "nothing that will put the issue to bed."

Stay tuned as news about the bill develops.

Monday:
T-Mobile will host a 9:30 am breakfast briefing to make the case for why America needs the D block auction. Featured speakers include former Motorola CTO Dennis Roberson.

Google hosts a 2:00 pm discussion on "10 Things You Don't Know About Online Advertising"

Tuesday:
The FCC will hold a 2:00 pm meeting of the Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age.

Wednesday:
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a 10:00 am hearing on the "Electronic Communications Privacy Act: Promoting Security and Protecting Privacy in the Digital Age"

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China will hold a 2:15 pm hearing on intellectual property enforcement and new developments in counterfeiting, piracy and forced technology transfer.

Thursday:
The FCC will host its monthly open meeting at 10:30 am. The commission is likely to approve new rules that will make a portion of idle airwaves, known as white space, available for commercial use to build out Wi-Fi networks.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Technology Committee will hold a 10:00 am hearing on the need for a nationwide public safety network.

The House Armed Services Committee will hold a 10:00 am hearing on organizing for Cyberspace operations.

The Brookings Institution will host a day-long forum on regional innovation clusters. Speakers include John Fernandez, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development and Betsy Biemann, president of the Maine Technology Institute.

With his signature regulatory proposals falling like dominos, Julius Genachowski, the FCC's crusty chairman, held a secret pizza dinner Tuesday with a select group of journalists in an apparent effort to repair his reputation and stem a tide of mushrooming problems.

Top aides to Genachowski -- Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus, Senior Counselor Josh Gottheimer, Chief Counsel and Senior Legal Advisor Rick Kaplan and agency spokeswoman Jen Howard -- gave reporters plenty to chew on.

As word leaked out about the off-the-record gathering, they were mum about who cooked up the idea and whether it was part of a new charm offensive aimed at burnishing the image of the agency, which was raked over the coals this summer during a protracted battle over broadband policy.

In an e-mail, Howard said the event was "the first in a series of informal chats with those who are on the FCC reporting beat." Officials declined to answer other questions about the event.

The dinner featured cheese pizza, Heineken beer and both red and white wine. A few journalists who attended said they didn't find the gathering particularly useful and that in typical form, the notoriously scripted Genachowski did not reveal anything substantive. While there were attempts to pepper the regulators with questions, one source panned the dinner as more akin to a "schmooze" than a news briefing.

Genachowski, who has repeatedly claimed to run an open and transparent FCC, appears to have a penchant for shadowy meetings. In July 2009, shortly after taking the helm at the agency, he held an off-the-record "meet and greet" with reporters who were advised beforehand that he wouldn't be taking tough questions.

Over the summer, the agency drew criticism for a series of clandestine sessions with telecommunications industry lobbyists that it originally insisted were not subject to its public disclosure rules. After an outcry from critics, the agency reversed itself by declaring those rules would apply after all.

Maryland will receive upwards of $115 million stimulus dollars to extend broadband into rural and underserved communities Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., announced on Friday.

"Broadband is the information superhighway we need to bring the jobs of tomorrow to Maryland," Mikulski said. "It is absolutely critical to Maryland's economic future, because it creates jobs, fosters business growth and sparks innovation."

Maryland won the funding through the Commerce Department's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. The grants are expected to generate a total of 1600 jobs that will help provide Maryland high-speed access to areas that of the state that currently have little or no Internet connectivity.

One firm will use the funds to create a new network that connects the state from Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore, reaching 2 million homes and 443,000 businesses.

"Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for broadband in Maryland," said Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley. "Thanks to our federal partners, Maryland will be able to provide critical access to affordable and abundant broadband for underserved areas throughout our State.

Mikulski and O'Malley were joined by fellow Democratic Maryland lawmakers Sen. Ben Cardin and Reps. Elijah Cummings and John Sarbanes in Baltimore to make the announcement.

While its executives were not at the hearing, Internet giant Google found itself on the hot seat Thursday at a session convened by a House Judiciary panel that was examining competition in the evolving digital marketplace, CongressDaily reported.

While the hearing touched on a broad range of issues related to whether antitrust regulators are equipped to deal with emerging digital technologies, there was much discussion over whether there should be greater antitrust scrutiny of Google.

Google's acquisition of such firms as the Internet ad provider DoubleClick and more recently mobile ad provider AdMob have been examined by antitrust regulators, who ultimately approved both deals.

The Justice Department is now examining Google's proposed acquisition of the travel search provider ITA Software.

While saying it wasn't an "anti-Google remark," Judiciary Chairman John Conyers voiced concern that the online and mobile advertising market, of which Google is the dominant player, "is too concentrated and is even getting more so as we speak."

Read more here (subscription required)

The Obama administration announced Thursday the launch of a new organization, Change the Equation, which aims to make significant improvements in science, technology, engineering, and math education.

Founded by astronaut Sally Ride, former Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, and Eastman Kodak CEO Antonio Perez, the new group has $5 million from major philanthropies for its first year of operations.

The inspiration for the new initiative, the White House says, is a response by the business community to the President's "call to action" at the National Academy of Sciences in spring 2009 for all Americans to support elevating STEM education as a national priority.

"I applaud Change the Equation for lending their resources, expertise, and their enthusiasm to the task of strengthening America's leadership in the 21st century by improving [STEM education]," Obama said in a statement.

Change the Equation will focus on improving STEM teaching, student appreciation, and achieving a sustained commitment for its advancement.

CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, whose company has been speaking out in support of STEM education recently, lauded the new initiative. "I had great classes and teachers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Everyone should," he said.

As a companion measure, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology issued a new report Thursday outlining policy proposals for improving STEM education.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called the PCAST report a "valuable resource," the department will use as they "join efforts with the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies, educators, the business community, non-profits and philanthropies, to provide better support for STEM education to schools, classrooms, teachers and students."

A bill that would overhaul a fund that subsidizes the cost of telecommunications in rural and low-income areas received support from major industry stakeholders at a House hearing today, although GOP lawmakers remain concerned about its cost, CongressDaily reported.

Walter McCormick, president and CEO of USTelecom, told the House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee that his company endorsed the legislation. "By addressing intercarrier compensation as well as universal service, the bill takes a comprehensive approach to addressing the financial fundamentals that will help spur private investment in broadband facilities," he said.

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association, Verizon, and Qwest Corporation also expressed support for the bill.

"To say this bill is a product of compromise is the understatement of the year," said Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. "We've worked for years to reach a delicate balance here where we have buy-in from industry and the committee."

Read more here (subscription required)

A House Judiciary panel Thursday grappled with how antitrust law should be applied to new and evolving digital industries in a way that promotes competition without stifling innovation.

Most lawmakers on the Courts and Competition Policy Subcommittee argued that antitrust officials have a place in ensuring competition among technology companies but questioned witnesses about how to find the right balance. Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., argued that antitrust law needs to evolve to fit the digital world where "vertical acquisitions are even more worrisome than before."

FTC Competition Bureau Director Richard Feinstein said he believes the nation's antitrust laws are "flexible enough to meet the challenges" of evolving high-tech industries.

Geoffrey Manne, executive director of the International Center for Law and Economics at Lewis and Clark Law School, cautioned against aggressive antitrust enforcement of emerging industries particularly those related to the Internet and other digital technologies "where ignorance about market structure, competition, technology and consumer demand is legion."

Mark Cooper, research director at the Consumer Federation of America, dismissed such a claim, saying "the notion that antitrust regulators can't identify anti-competitive practices [in the digital marketplace] is bunk."

Critics of Comcast's merger with NBC Universal are calling on leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees to hold final hearings on the deal to allow those who have raised new concerns as part of the regulatory review process to discuss those issues before lawmakers.

The Coalition for Competition in Media said several concerns have emerged about the merger as part of the FCC's comment process, which the group notes has generated more than 33,000 filings -- "94 percent in opposition to the merger."

"The recent emergence of new opposition and the new, in-depth analysis that they have brought forward adds multiple new dimensions to the discussion," the coalition said in letters Thursday to House and Senate Commerce committee leaders. The coalition includes a broad range of groups and companies such as the public interest group Free Press, financial news provider Bloomberg, the National Coalition of African American Owned Media, and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association.

Opponents of the merger say it will harm competition and consumers by potentially leading to higher prices and fewer choices for programming.

"The emergence of these opponents - many of whom will be forced to compete directly against a more powerful, vertically-integrated Comcast in the distribution, programming and online marketplaces - combined with the intellectual rigor of their arguments and analyses, demonstrates the enormous threat that this merger poses to consumers and competition," they added. "As many of these entities did not participate in prior hearings, and much of their analysis had not yet been performed, there is a great deal of new material that would inform the committee's oversight role."

Despite the strong opposition from the coalition, the Comcast-NBCU merger is supported by key lawmakers including House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and the governors of California, New York and Pennsylvania. A group of members of Congress from New York wrote the FCC last month urging prompt approval of the merger, saying critics have had ample time to comment on their concerns.

UPDATED: In a statement, Comcast Vice President Sena Fitzmaurice urged lawmakers to reject calls for another hearing, saying there have already been an "unprecedented" number of congressional hearings in addition to a lengthy comment period at the FCC.

"Most of these opponents have opposed the transaction since the day it was announced over nine months ago and are only seeking to further delay the review process," she said. "Congress, the FCC and [Justice Department] should reject the delaying tactics of this group driven by a few special business interests, and the review process should continue without interruption."

Both the Senate and House Commerce committees have held hearings on the merger, including a Chicago field hearing in July by the House Energy and Commerce Communications subcommittee.

The popular online classified site Craigslist pushed back against criticism Wednesday over its "adult services" section at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on child sex trafficking, CongressDaily reported.

"We have never been a friendly place for criminal activity," said Elizabeth McDougall, counsel to Craigslist on online safety, security and abuse. McDougall and her colleague, William Powell, director of customer service and law enforcement relations at Craigslist, said the company has taken robust measures to combat this problem.

"Craigslist has been one of the bright spots in the fight against human trafficking," Powell said. The company has a long history of collaboration with law enforcement and responsiveness on this issue, he added.

Criticism against Craigslist gained national momentum in August when a group of attorneys general wrote to the company, urging it to close the adult services section of their U.S. site on grounds it helps promote sex trafficking. On Sept. 3, Craigslist responded by closing down the adult services category on its U.S. site. But that category is available on the company's international sites.

Powell told lawmakers there is no intention to reinstate the adult services category on the U.S. site. It remains unclear whether the adult services will be taken down on the sites of other countries.

Read more here (subscription required)

Board members of the Telecommunications Industry Association gathered in Washington early Thursday morning to discuss their policy agenda and one of their top priorities will be persuading policymakers to develop an alternative to an FCC proposal that would reclassify some aspects of broadband as a telecommunications service.

Reclassification of broadband is "not a good solution for our industry and for our future" TIA President Grant Seiffert said. "We're hopeful that Congress can come up with a very direct targeted solution in the next couple of weeks."

TIA Chairman Shawn Osborne, president of the tech company Ulticom, said reclassification "could hinder supplier investment, innovation, and then ultimately jobs in our country."

Last spring, after a court ruling cast doubt on the FCC's regulatory authority over broadband providers, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski proposed reclassifying broadband under title II of the Communications Act, a more stringent regulatory regime currently applied to traditional telecom firms. While Genachowski's "third way" proposal calls for exempting broadband from some provisions of title II such as price controls, broadband providers and other telecom industry firms remains uniformly opposed.

They say they are hopeful Congress will develop an alternative to reclassification that would still provide the FCC with the regulatory authority it needs.

During their stay in Washington, TIA board members are meeting with a host of big Washington players in the telecom arena. They include Genachowski, House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., Senate Commerce Chairman John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Ensign, R-Nev., and as well as Phil Weiser, senior advisor to the director for Technology and Innovation at the National Economic Council senior.

TIA represents telecom suppliers and vendors including Apple, Tyco Electronics, Qualcomm and others.

The White House Office of Management and Budget Wednesday announced changes to troubled financial system modernization projects at some agencies that will result in the loss of millions of dollars for those projects.

The OMB announced in June that it had halted federal financial system modernizations involving about 30 projects to shrink the scope and timetable of these projects, which were found to be behind schedule and over budget.

In a blog post, acting OMB Director Jeffrey Zients said the Environmental Protection Agency, Housing and Urban Development Department and Small Business Administration have completed reviews of their affected projects and are "moving forward with plans to reset the scope of and improve their financial system projects, resulting in reduced costs and a greater focus on critical business needs."

He said the budgets of the projects, along with a canceled financial systems project announced by the Veterans Administration, will be cut by a total of $750 million.

"These results are just the beginning," Zients said. "Agencies are taking the lessons learned from the financial systems reform effort and applying them across their portfolio of [information technology] projects, and we are using the best practices to inform our work on fundamental reform of IT procurement and management practices across all agencies."

The changes at HUD, for example, will include focusing on one single core financial system instead of implementing three separate upgrades to its financial systems as originally planned, a shift that could save $44 million, HUD said in a statement.

"Our strategic shift is a sign of the tough economic times," HUD Chief Financial Officer Doug Criscitello said in a statement. "We have been working on the HUD Integrated Financial Management Improvement Project (HIFMIP) for several years and have determined that more [a] focused approach to our financial systems modernization will still get us where we need to be while ensuring that we are not overspending."

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Federal Financial Management Subcommittee, praised the OMB's move to cut funding for the troubled projects but said more work needs to be done to rein in other IT projects that have gone off track.

"This should have happened a long time ago," Carper said in a statement. "For years my colleagues and I urged the previous administration to hold agencies and contractors accountable for the skyrocketing costs and extended time lines on these failing investments. For far too long we threw good money after bad and I want to commend this White House for not sweeping these kinds of difficult management problems under the rug for someone else to deal with."

A bipartisan group of 25 senators urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Wednesday to bring legislation that would overhaul the U.S. patent system to the Senate floor for a vote.

With the legislation stalled for months, the senators led by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, R-Vt., and ranking member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., called on Reid in a letter to bring a compromise version of a patent overhaul bill the Judiciary Committee passed last year to the floor "as soon as possible." They note that the compromise measure, which would be offered as a manager's amendment on the Senate floor, enjoys broad support and would help spur economic activity.

"Strengthening our patent system and spurring innovation and investment is an action we should take now to stimulate our economy," the senators wrote. They added that, "Patent reform is bipartisan legislation, supported by the [Obama] administration, that will improve the economy and create jobs without adding to the deficit."

Leahy and Sessions unveiled a compromise version of the patent bill in March aimed at bringing some senators and stakeholders on board. Among those who have signed on in support of the compromise include major labor groups, biotech groups and the pharmaceutical industry's trade group as well as some tech firms such as IBM and Microsoft.

However, the changes prompted a key coalition of big tech companies that backed the measure when it came out of committee to withdraw their support. The Coalition for Patent Fairness, which includes such firms as Apple, Google, Intel and Oracle, says some of the changes included in the compromise are worse than the status quo.

Key members of the House Judiciary Committee who have been sympathetic to the coalition's concerns had been trying to negotiate changes to the compromise Senate measure but the effort has yet to yield an agreement.

A House Judiciary subcommittee approved legislation Wednesday that would place a five-year moratorium on any new state or local taxes and fees on wireless services.

Current local, state and federal taxes on wireless devices total on average more than 15 percent compared with 7 percent for most other taxable goods and services, according to Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., the bill's sponsor. However, the bill, approved by voice vote by the Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee, would not affect current state or local taxes on cell phones or other wireless devices.

"By curtailing further increases on wireless taxes and fees, we hope to encourage additional consumer driven development in wireless technology," Lofgren said when the bill was introduced last year. "The Cell Tax Fairness Act does not take away any existing revenue for state or local governments, it simply calls for a period of tax stabilization."

The bill was hailed by the wireless industry who urged House leaders to move the bill quickly to the floor before Congress adjourns in a few weeks.

"By providing a 'timeout' on new discriminatory and unfair taxes this year, Congress can protect wireless customers from new burdens that make broadband connections less affordable and stifle high-tech innovation and growth," Peter Davidson, Verizon's senior vice president of federal government relations, said in a statement.

National Journal reporter David Hatch writes in Wednesday's CongressDaily that as the nation approaches the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, debate continues to rage over the design of a cutting-edge communications network for first responders that's urgently needed before the next tragedy.

That fateful day exposed dangerous lapses in the ability of first responders to communicate across agencies and jurisdictions in a crisis -- glitches that have not been fully corrected nearly a decade later.

"The inability to communicate was a critical element at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Somerset County, Pennsylvania crash sites, where multiple agencies and multiple jurisdictions responded," the 9/11 Commission warned in its report -- six years ago.

"Nine years after the terror attacks of 9/11, the safety of our first responders continues to be jeopardized by a fragmented allocation of communications spectrum," House Homeland Security ranking member Peter King emphasized in a statement to CongressDaily.

The New York Republican has introduced legislation with 68 co-sponsors that would set aside an additional 10 megahertz of spectrum known as the "D-block" for the planned network, doubling its capacity. "By allocating the D-block spectrum for public safety we will make sure that police, firefighters and other emergency workers have the most advanced voice, video and data technology," he pledged.

But rancor over spectrum allocation is set to intensify next week when Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller plans to hold a Sept. 23 hearing on a companion bill that also would divert this additional spectrum to first responders. To read more, click here. (Subscription required)

The Senate Commerce Committee plans to announce a Sept. 23 hearing on legislation sponsored by Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller that would provide first responders with an additional 10 megahertz of spectrum to construct a nationwide emergency communications network, government and industry sources said.

The frequencies - known as the D-block - are adjacent to 10 MHz that public safety groups already control. But moving the bill in the next few weeks would require the backing of key members, including Senate Commerce ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

"Senator Hutchison has not taken a position on the Rockefeller bill or the allocation of spectrum to public safety," a spokesman said. "She has instructed staff to examine both sides of the issue in anticipation of an eventual hearing on this issue." The network, considered long overdue, has been the focus of wrangling in Washington for years.

For more information on the debate over the D-block, and a last-minute effort by T-Mobile and other carriers to resurrect plans by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to auction the frequencies, read the latest edition of Wired in Washington.

The European Union this week launched a new project aimed at giving European researchers more computing power to help tackle a broad range of complex issues from the environment to energy to health.

The European Grid Infrastructure project, announced Tuesday, will give EU researchers "sustainable and continuous" access to more than 200,000 desktop computers in more than 30 European countries, according to statement from the European Commission, the EU's regulatory arm.

The commission said the project will give researchers as much computer power as they might have using super computers by using desktop computers that on average stand idle for up to 85 percent of the time. The EU is contributing $32.5 million (25 million Euros) over four years toward the project.

"European researchers' access to greater computing power will help them to tackle major research challenges in areas such as climate change and healthcare," Neelie Kroes, the commission's vice president for the digital agenda, said. "The European Grid Infrastructure will help strengthen Europe's hand in research and give our scientists the support they need, [while] saving energy and cutting costs."

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., shed light Tuesday on some of the issues holding up his public safety communication and spectrum legislation, saying there is widespread conceptual agreement but no signs yet that the details will be resolved soon.

Warner said he thought his bill would be "low-hanging fruit" given that no one disagreed with the premise of improving public safety communications or finding out how much spectrum is unused.

"It's a heck of a lot easier to get Democrats and Republicans to agree than to get mobile engineers to agree on which kind of standards and equipment they ought to use," said Warner, explaining one reason for the continuing inability of public safety agencies to communicate with one another. "That's one thing I knew before coming to Congress."

Warner, who co-founded the cellphone company Nextel before joining the Senate and landing a seat on the Senate Commerce Committee, appeared at forum convened by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, where he is an honorary co-chairman.

His measure, introduced in early August, would improve interoperability of public safety networks by directing the Commerce Department to conduct a competition for the development of modern devices that would "support mission-critical broadband voice and data communications of public safety personnel."

More support from the White House, Warner said, is needed to advance his spectrum inventory bill. To read more, click here. (Subscription required)

A day before a Craigslist official is scheduled to testify at a House hearing, a group of anti-sex trafficking experts sent a letter Tuesday to company executives imploring them to shut down the site's erotic ads sections worldwide.

The letter is the latest salvo in a campaign waged against Craigslist aimed at forcing the online classifieds site to eliminate ads that critics say help promote sex trafficking. The effort gained national momentum in late August when a group of state attorneys general urged Craigslist to close the adult services section on its U.S. site. During July, two girls wrote Craigslist with the same message, saying they had been forced into sex trafficking because of an ad posted on the site.

In response, Craigslist earlier this month shut down the U.S. adult services section, but anti-sex trafficking groups say the site hasn't gone far enough and must eliminate similar ads at its foreign sites as well.

"More than 250 Craigslist sites exist around the world that still feature 'Erotic' sections where trafficked children and women are being sold for sex," according to the letter signed by 100 representatives from such groups as the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, the Rebecca Project for Human Rights and the Salvation Army. "That you have not made the same improvements globally across your site reveals a disingenuous and inconsistent response on your part."

On Wednesday, William Powell, director of customer service and law enforcement relations for Craigslist, will testify at a hearing on domestic sex trafficking before the Judiciary Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee.

The Senate is poised this week to pass a measure included in a small business lending bill that would eliminate a provision requiring employees to pay taxes on personal use of employer-provided cell phones and similar devices.

The small business bill cleared a major legislative hurdle Tuesday after the Senate voted to end debate on the measure. It includes legislation offered by Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., that would repeal a little-enforced provision in tax law that requires that personal use of employer-provided cell phones and similar devices be taxed like other fringe benefits such as use of a company car.

"You can't do business in the modern economy without a cell phone so it's crazy to tax them like some executive perk," Kerry said in a statement. "This law was long in need of modernization and I'm glad we've done right by businesses and abolished this silly and outdated law."

The Senate could vote on passage of the small business bill as soon as Thursday.

A special congressional committee focused on human rights and the rule of law in China will examine next week the problem of intellectual property piracy and counterfeiting in China.

The Sept. 22 hearing before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China will focus on China's enforcement of U.S. IP rights and its efforts to implement "indigenous innovation" policies aimed at forcing foreign companies to transfer their technology to Chinese partners in order to gain access to China.

Among the issues expected to be discussed at the hearing include "trends in counterfeiting, piracy, and the enforcement of intellectual property rights in China; how China is pressuring foreign companies, including U.S. firms, to transfer advanced technology to China; and the impact on American jobs and businesses," the commission said in a news release.

Witnesses will include representatives from the AFL-CIO, American Chamber of Commerce in the People's Republic of China, and the Motion Picture Association of America.

A group representing small and rural telecommunications carriers argues that some of the proposed changes included in legislation to overhaul the Universal Service Fund could hinder their ability to operate in some areas or invest in broadband infrastructure.

In testimony expected to be given at a House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee hearing Thursday, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association CEO Shirley Bloomfield voiced concern with two provisions in the legislation that would overhaul the fund, which provides support for telecommunications service in high-cost and rural areas. They include a provision that would reduce or eliminate "high-cost" support in areas deemed to be competitive and proposed changes to inter-carrier compensation, the charges carriers pay to other carriers to originate, transport, and terminate telecommunications traffic.

The bill, introduced in July by Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., would require the FCC to implement a mechanism for reducing or eliminating high-cost support to incumbent carriers in areas where at least 75 percent of households can receive voice and high-speed broadband service from a competitive provider that does not receive USF support. Other major provisions in the bill include expanding the USF to include support for broadband service.

In her prepared testimony, Bloomfield argued that the proposed limits on high-cost subsidies could lead "to a dramatic loss of the support needed to continue operating and meet obligations to serve customers in high-cost areas." She added that many of the details of the proposal such as how a firm could lose or re-obtain USF support are left to the FCC to develop, uncertainty that she said could hinder investment in broadband networks in the near term.

The National Association of Broadcasters is trying to build the case that the public supports requiring manufactures to include radio receivers in mobile phones, a claim the wireless industry has labeled as "ridiculous."

The NAB Tuesday released the results of a survey it commissioned that it says shows strong public support for including radio receivers in mobile phones.

The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive for NAB, found that 76 percent of respondents said they would consider paying a one-time fee of 30 cents to access local FM radio stations through a receiver chip built into their mobile phones. The poll, conducted online Aug. 31-Sept. 2 of 2,587 U.S. adults, also found that 73 percent of those surveyed said that it is somewhat or very important for them to be able to access local radio stations on their mobile phones during emergencies.

NAB has been pushing to include FM-receivers in cell phones as part of a possible deal with the music industry over its push for broadcasters to pay performers and record companies royalties for playing their music on AM and FM radio stations.

The wireless industry, which argues that a FM-receiver mandate would hamper innovation, disputed the poll's findings. "Contrary to NAB's self-interested assertions, a majority of consumers do not want that capability, and the notion that they want to pay more for a functionality they do not want is ridiculous," Jot Carpenter, vice president of government affairs for the wireless industry group CTIA, said in a statement.

NAB Executive Vice President of Communications Dennis Wharton claimed in a statement that the wireless industry opposes adding FM receivers to cell phones because they want users to pay for applications that offer similar services

A high-tech industry group Tuesday touted figures it says shows technology companies added 30,200 U.S. jobs in the first six months of 2010, saying that while the industry was among the last to lose jobs at the start of the recession, it's among the first to begin adding jobs.

The Tech America Foundation report, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, focused on four sectors: tech manufacturing, communications services, software services, and engineering and tech services, which added the most jobs with 29,700. Software services added the second most jobs with 14,200, followed by tech manufacturing at 9,100. Those gains, however, were offset by the 22,800 job losses in the communications services sector, which includes Internet and telecom companies.

"As one of the last industries to feel the effects of the recession, the technology industry is now appears to be slowly turning the corner with the rest of the economy," TechAmerica President and CEO Phil Bond said in a statement. "We have weathered the storm better than most. From its position embedded in every other industry, technology remains the best hope for driving robust recovery across the economy."

While the industry is now adding jobs, it still has a ways to go to get back to where it was before the recession hit. As of June, 5.78 million U.S. workers were employed in tech fields, compared to 5.99 million in January 2009, according to Josh James, TechAmerica Foundation's vice president for research and industry analysis.

The tech industry has come under some criticism for moving some jobs offshore. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has used the issue in her bid for re-election against her Republican opponent, Carly Fiorina. Boxer claims Fiorina moved thousands of U.S. jobs to other countries during her tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

In a New York Times op-ed on Monday, Ron Hira, a public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, said that even high-skilled technology jobs are being sent offshore. "Many major American firms are offshoring innovation and very advanced research and development to low-cost countries," Hira wrote.

Federal watchdogs have found that current government-wide contracting policies give vendors inappropriate access to sensitive government data, and they recommend the White House instruct agencies to require vendors to sign nondisclosure agreements, Nextgov.com reported.

Nearly half the federal contracts the Government Accountability Office reviewed did not protect "all relevant types of sensitive information that contractors may have had access to through the program offices they support. In the absence of such safeguards, there is higher risk of unauthorized disclosure or misuse of sensitive information by contractors," according to a GAO report released last week.

Sensitive refers to material that, if exposed, would compromise personal and medical privacy, national security, law enforcement, proprietary commercial rights or agency operations.

Auditors cited recent high-profile incidents in which contract employees at the State Department broke into the passport records of three 2008 presidential candidates and another involving one contract employee who stole the names, Social Security numbers and birthdates of government employees at the Transportation Security Administration in Boston. The study spanned nearly a year and a half, from May 2009 to September 2010.

GAO officials advised the White House to include nondisclosure agreements in pending changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulations, government-wide procedures for procuring services and supplies. Nondisclosure agreements typically set forth restrictions on releasing confidential information to third parties. To read more, click here.

The group that manages the Internet's domain name system announced Monday that Akram Atallah will assume the position of chief operating officer as of September 20th.

Rod Beckstrom, president and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, called Akram a "perfect fit."

The incoming COO will bring ICANN an "amazing understanding of the online and high tech worlds," in addition to "an intuitive grasp of our unique role in the Internet ecosystem," Beckstrom added.

Most recently, Atallah served as CEO of CoreObjects Software, and prior to that position, he spent 12 years at Conexant Systems, Inc., a high-tech company based in California. Highly educated, Attallah holds three degrees from the University of Colorado including a masters of business administration and a masters of science in electrical engineering.

"This is a chance for me to serve in a leadership role for an organization that is at the very heart of the most important communication and information system man has ever created," Atallah said.

Founded in 1998, ICANN is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to ensure a stable and secure global Internet. The group is scheduled to meet with White House officials later this month regarding illegal online pharmacies.

A key house lawmaker called on the country to prioritize improvements in science and technology education in the name of competitiveness.

"As a nation, we are the frog in the boiling water, our competitiveness is slipping away," Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., said. "We know what to do, let's start doing it." Gordon's remarks came at a forum held at the Brookings Institution on Monday about science and technology education.

Gordon, who successfully led the House to pass a reauthorization of the COMPETES Act this past spring, urged audience members to push the Senate to do the same. The measure would fund a host of research programs and bolster science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.

Right now, when it comes to STEM education, "we're not getting a lot of bang for our buck." Part of the problem, Gordon says, is lack of coordination, something the reauthorization of COMPETES will address.

Eric Lander, co-chair of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST), also spoke at the event and gave a preview of recommendations the council will make in a forthcoming report on k-12 STEM education.

The first key conclusion of the report, Lander said, is that STEM education must be designed to both prepare and inspire. The two-pronged strategy will undergird all of the recommendations that the report will deliver.

Rewarding the best teachers, funding the creation of technology-enabled platforms designed for education and building STEM capacity at federal agencies, are among the suggestions that will be fleshed out in the pending PCAST report.

Other high-profile science and technology professionals featured at the event include Susan Hockfield, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Robert Birgeneau, chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley.

Public safety agencies lack the ability to communicate with each other and with callers to the emergency 911 system, NextGov reported.

R. David Paulison, former administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said during the past 50 years the nation has created a communications system that makes interoperability between public safety agencies impossible. Paulison was member of a panel discussing national preparedness at the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in McLean, Va.

In the past, parts of the communications spectrum have been given to public safety agencies piecemeal. As a result, during an emergency such as a natural disaster or terrorist attack they have an almost zero chance to communicate, he said.

"They as might as well have brought a brick with them," said Paulison, who founded the Public Safety Alliance. During the recovery effort after the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, he said he used handwritten notes to communicate with first responders from other agencies working on the other side of the rubble.

In addition, the nation's emergency telephone system is inadequate, said Brian Fontes, chief executive of the National Emergency Number Association, which studies 911 policy, technology, operations and education issues. The network relies solely on voice, "the dinosaur of communication," he said. "911 is the forgotten stepchild to the emergency world. When you dial 911, you are hitting a brick wall. It's as if you are running through molasses."

Read more here

It's all but certain that technology and telecommunications legislation will not clear Congress before the midterm elections.

"There is a lot of interest in several issues like spectrum and USF [Universal Service Fund] reform, but the relative priority of telecom is still way below areas like ...

Continue reading (subscription required).

The top cybersecurity educator at the National Institute of Standards and Technology is helping a public-private consortium to open a research institute that would retrain NASA contractors who will be laid off from the shuttle program as early as next month, NextGov reports.

Nearly 9,000 employees representing a total income of $600 million could be displaced by the termination of the space shuttle program next year, particularly along the space coast, a 72-mile-long area in east-central Florida where the Kennedy Space Center is located. United Space Alliance expects to layoff on Oct. 1 between 800 and 1,000 employees in its Florida-based shuttle workforce, company officials announced in July. Layoffs already have begun elsewhere in the country, and more are expected as the shuttle is retired in 2011, NASA spokesman Michael Curie said on Friday. But NASA is not reducing its workforce.

The Obama administration has committed $40 million to help the unemployed in Florida transfer their skills to other fields, including information technology and national security. On Sept. 1, the Commerce Department began a competition for $35 million in grants to fund projects that align the talents of affected workers with the economic needs of the region. One example of an initiative that might qualify for funding is the Global Institute for Cybersecurity and Research headquartered near the Kennedy Space Center, said Ernest McDuffie, lead for NIST's National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education.

"They're going to take this workforce that's getting ready to be laid off, fired, and retrain them to keep them employed," McDuffie said. "They really need to have something up and running within three to six months."

Quickly cultivating new cybersecurity specialists also is critical for the government. Current shortages of qualified information assurance staff have weakened agencies' defenses against cyberattacks, according to federal officials. The CIA has estimated that about 1,000 security experts in the nation possess the skills to safeguard cyberspace, but the country needs about 30,000.

Read more here.

Here is an early look at some of the technology and telecom-related events happening in Washington next week:

Monday:
The FCC, in conjunction with the National Assn. of Regulatory Commissioners and the National Assn. of State Utility Consumer Advocates, will hold a 12:30 pm Hill briefing to promote awareness about two telephone assistance programs, the Lifeline and Link-Up Programs.

Speakers include Joel Gurin, chief of the FCC's Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau; and Irene Flannery, an official the commission's Wireless Competition Bureau.

Tuesday:
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation will host an 8:30 am discussion on emerging mobile broadband and its new business models. Speakers include Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

CONNECT, a non-profit focused on growing innovation, will host two Hill briefings on technology and innovation in the action and sports industry. The House briefing will take place at 10: 00 am and the Senate at 2:00 pm. The event features NBA Hall of Famer Bill Walton.

Wednesday:
The Future of Privacy Forum will host an 8:30 am event to discuss a new journal, "Privacy Papers for Policy Makers," which examines the state of privacy issues. Speakers include David Vladeck, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC and Brendon Lynch, chief privacy officer at Microsoft.

The New America Foundation will host a 3:30 pm discussion on "The Internet and Innovation: Why Network Architecture Matters." Speakers include Sascha Meinrath, director of NAF's Open Technology Initiative; Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge; and S. Derek Turner, research director of Free Press.

Thursday:
The Telecommunications Industry Association will host an 8:00 am breakfast for media. TIA board members will participate in a breakfast panel discussion moderated by TelecomTV's Guy Daniels.

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet will host a 10:00 am hearing on Universal Service Reform Act of 2010.

The House Judiciary Committee will host a 10:00 am hearing on competition in the evolving digital marketplace.

In partnership with Girls in Tech, Facebook will host a Developer Garage Hackathon on Saturday at the company's California headquarters.

The 24-hour event will "allow developers to code throughout the night and come up with new ideas and concepts." Interested parties can catch a glimpse inside the Hackathon at a "Women in Tech" influencers' panel hosted by Facebook Live at 5 pm EDT on Saturday.

Panelists include Jocelyn Godein, director of engineering at Facebook; Sandy Jen, founder of Meebo, a web platform that integrates social networks into one interface; Jennifer Pahlka, founder of Code for America, an organization that connects city government with web 2.0 talent; and Catherine Herdlick, a game producer at Electronic Arts.

The announcement about the event came through a letter the social networking giant sent to Congress on Thursday emphasizing the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. The letter marks Facebook's first formal stance on the importance of strong investments in STEM to bolster US competitiveness.

Congress has yet to reauthorize the America COMPETES Act, a measure that would fund a host of science and technology research programs. The House passed the measure with bipartisan support last spring despite some resistance from the GOP. The bill now awaits action from the Senate.

Top U.S. officials, including FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, met with a Chinese delegation in Washington on Tuesday for the fourth round of the US-China Information and Communication Technology Consultations.

Leader of the American contingent, Ambassador Philip Verveer, U.S. coordinator for communications and information policy, spoke with Tech Daily Dose and shared details about the meeting.

Discussions during the day-long session centered on net neutrality, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and the affirmation of commitments, Verveer said. Genachowski spoke extensively about the commission's national broadband plan and the core principles of an open Internet.

Despite the fact that China is widely criticized for censoring communication on the Internet, Verveer described the atmosphere as "very cordial." "These kinds of sessions are intended to be exchanges of view that advance mutual understanding," he added.

However, the U.S. took the opportunity to make their conventional points about Internet freedom and stressed the need for further discussion in upcoming meetings.

"The Chinese agree with us on some of the cyber security issues," Verveer said, citing one of the positive outcomes of the meeting. Cybersecurity is one of the issues that will be addressed in the next International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference, which will be held in Mexico this October. The conference is the top policy-making body of the ITU.

Other topics addressed during the meeting include spectrum management, China's forthcoming telecommunications law and emerging innovations such as cloud computing.

China's Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Xi Guohua, led the Chinese delegation.

The chairman of a key House Judiciary subcommittee Thursday praised Apple's announcement that it is easing some restrictions on developers of applications for some Apple products such as the iPhone and iPad.

"Today's announcement is a great first step in ensuring that the mobile device market remains vibrant and competitive," Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., chairman of the Courts and Competition Policy Subcommittee, said in a statement.

He said his subcommittee is set to hold a hearing next week on competition in the digital marketplace. Among the issues the panel planned to examine was whether Apple "was intentionally making it difficult for developers to create applications across a variety of operating systems, thus trying to choke off competition from Android phones and Blackberry devices, among others," Johnson added.

In a press release, Apple said it was "relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need."

Some of the nation's largest business groups expressed hope Thursday that stakeholders involved in the debate over network neutrality can come to an agreement with the FCC that would provide broadband users and others soon with certainty about the rules of the road without imposing regulations that might stifle innovation, CongressDaily reported.

But they acknowledged that Congress ultimately may need to pass legislation to resolve the issue.

Officials with the National Association of Manufacturers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Telecommunications Industry Association said broadband users and companies that make telecommunications equipment need some closure and certainty in the debate over network neutrality.

"We're hoping to get some closure and certainty in the marketplace," TIA Vice President for Government Affairs Danielle Coffey said during a conference call. To read more, click here. (Subscription required)

The National Governors Association is turning up the pressure on Congress to pass legislation that would re-allocate a controversial chunk of spectrum to public safety officials for the creation of a nationwide interoperable broadband communications network instead of auctioning it off to commercial bidders as the FCC has proposed.

In a letter Thursday to House and Senate leaders, Govs. Martin O'Malley, D-Md., and Jan Brewer, R-Ariz., urged Congress to pass legislation offered by Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va. that would re-allocate the D-Block of spectrum to public safety officials, but also would direct the FCC to establish standards that allow public safety officials, when not using the network, to lease capacity on a secondary, but preemptible basis, to commercial users or others.

The FCC's national broadband plan called for building a nationwide wireless broadband network for public safety using 10 megahertz of spectrum already under the control of emergency responders. The proposal follows a failed effort in 2008 by the commission to auction the D-block of spectrum, which is adjacent to the 10 megahertz, to a commercial bidder willing to enter into a public-private partnership with first responders. In the broadband plan, the FCC has called for auctioning off the D-block of spectrum to a commercial bidder for wireless broadband use and using the auction proceeds to help fund the creation of the public safety network.

The governors and some public safety officials say the FCC plan does not adequately address their needs because it does not provide them with adequate spectrum.

"Without sufficient dedicated spectrum, our first responders will face increasingly complex and costly challenges as they seek to ensure they can communicate with each other and the public when necessary," O'Malley and Brewer, the co-chairmen of the NGA's Special Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety, wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Ned., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

To address concerns about the growing need for spectrum for wireless broadband, Rockefeller's bill also would provide the FCC with "incentive auction authority" allowing the FCC to offer current spectrum holders a share of auction proceeds if they relinquish some spectrum.

But some FCC officials and lawmakers say even if the D-block is re-allocated to public safety officials, they still wouldn't have enough spectrum during emergencies. The FCC has called for requiring that public safety officials have priority access to roam on commercial networks during emergencies. In addition, these critics also note that public safety officials also would be left with an even bigger challenge to building a public safety network: finding the funding to pay for it.

Online privacy legislation pending before Congress tops an Internet industry group's list of legislative proposals that it says could hamper the growth of e-commerce and the Internet.

The draft privacy bill offered by House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and a similar bill from Energy and Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., are among the 10 federal and state legislative proposals on NetChoice's latest list of its "i-AWFUL" laws. NetChoice is made up of Internet firms such as AOL, eBay and Yahoo as well as industry groups including the Internet Alliance and the Electronic Retailing Association.

In a conference call Thursday, NetChoice Executive Director Steve DelBianco said by conflating personally sensitive information such as financial or medical data with marketing data collected about Internet users for the purpose of targeted ads, the Boucher and Rush measures would "constrain one of the few growth industries," online advertising. Among the provisions the group finds particularly onerous include one in Rush's bill that would provide users with a private right of action, language in Boucher's draft that would require consumer consent before a company could send follow-up e-mails to consumers and legislation in the measures giving the FTC rulemaking authority.

"If the bills move forward, they will make [Internet] advertising more expensive," DelBianco said.

However, even Boucher has acknowledged that it is unlikely Congress will act on his privacy legislation this year. He said he plans to try to merge his draft measure with Rush's bill. In addition, privacy groups argue that Boucher's bill, in particular, is too weak and would do little to change the status quo.

Other proposals on the NetChoice list of "awful" laws include legislation offered by Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., that would allow states to force online and catalog merchants to collect sales taxes from customers in states where the merchants do not have a physical presence. The bill would close a loophole from a 1992 Supreme Court decision that said retailers are not required to collect sales taxes from customers in states where they do not have a physical presence.

The Delahunt bill would allow states who joined a multi-state compact known as the Streamlined Sales Tax initiative aimed at simplifying state tax rates and rules to mandate that online and catalog retailers collect sales taxes from remote sales. Delahunt and other supporters say the current situation gives online retailers an unfair advantage over brick-and-mortar stores who currently collect sales taxes and costs states billions of dollars in lost sales taxes.

A majority of the members of the European Parliament have signed a declaration calling on the European Commission to make public all the documents related to the ongoing negotiations over an anti-counterfeiting and piracy trade agreement.

The parliament and public interest groups have been vocal in urging greater transparency in the talks over the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. As of Thursday, a majority of European Parliament members had signed on to the declaration. A declaration supported by more than half of the total members of Parliament is viewed as the body's official position, according to a Parliament news release.

"The declaration argues that the agreement should not impose harmonization of [European Union] copyright, patent or trademark law nor weaken fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and the right to privacy," the release said.

The European Parliament passed a resolution in March urging greater transparency in the ACTA negotiations and opposing proposals that could lead to the loss of Internet access for serial intellectual property infringers.

ACTA negotiators did release a draft in April but did not make another one public after the most recent round of talks last month in Washington. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has said while it supports a transparent process, it must keep some details of the proposed agreement private in order to allow the negotiating parties to engage in a frank exchange of views.

ACTA seeks greater international cooperation in combating counterfeiting and piracy of intellectual property. The next round of talks is scheduled to start later this month in Tokyo, according to the parliament.

Some critics argue that the draft agreement aims to export U.S. IP rules without some of the protections for users and innovators included in U.S. law.

"ACTA would hurt the economy in countries which don't have a balanced intellectual property rights system in place," Erika Mann a former European Parliament member who now works as a vice president in the Brussels office of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, said in a statement. "A future Google would have a hard time starting up in a country without a balanced copyright system."

House and Senate negotiators have agreed on a provision in a bill that will require federal agencies to post spending data on the Internet using uniform formats, a move that will make it easier for regulators and the public to analyze contracts and recovery funding, according to a draft reviewed by Nextgov.com.

The measure could gain full congressional approval before lawmakers break for the November elections, some House aides said recently. House and Senate staff currently are reconciling differences between each chamber's versions of the 2009 Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act (S. 303), which will bolster Grants.gov, an online gateway that allows Americans to apply for federal aid.

One compromise measure will require agencies to adhere to data standards created by the National Institute of Standards and Technology when publishing spending information such as documents associated with entitlement programs, federal contracts and loans.

The House included a similar measure in its bill, which passed in December 2009, but the legislation the Senate approved in March 2009 does not address reporting standards. The House's proposal allows agencies to pick their own standards rather than waiting for NIST to issue guidance.

The aim of the formatting rule is to boost not only consistency in spending reports, but also transparency. The most widely used format in the financial industry, eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), allows computer users to easily compare figures and check for proper accounting because its entry fields are the same in every report. Such standards now are requisite for corporate financial statements submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. To read more, click here.

During a speech given in Cleveland, Ohio on Wednesday, President Obama proposed an expansion of the research and development tax credit as a key part of an economic package aiming to provide further relief to the nation's troubled economy.

"I'm proposing a more generous, permanent extension of the tax credit that goes to companies for all the research and innovation they do right here in America," Obama said.

Established in 1981, the R&D tax credit, which has been extended 13 times, is a boon for the technology sector. Obama now proposes making it a permanent feature of the American tax code, increasing it by roughly 20 percent, and simplifying the way businesses can qualify for it.

To offset the cost, the administration suggests closing tax loopholes that incentivize investment in overseas jobs. In contrast, the R&D credit requires research and experimentation to be performed in the United States.

In the span of a decade, the expanded credit would dedicate roughly $100 billion over the next 10 years to leverage additional R&D investment. According to a fact sheet distributed by the White House, the proposal will "keep the U.S. economy at the cutting edge of the 21st century technologies," and expand "high-tech jobs."

Unsurprisingly, the announcement came as welcome news to the technology sector.

"This will better enable the U.S. compete globally and make it clear that the United States has finally gotten off the sidelines in the fight for global economic competitiveness," Rob Atkinson, president of the Information, Technology and Innovation Foundation, said in a statement.

Dean Garfield, head of the Information Technology Industry Council, also applauded the move. "We commend President Obama for focusing on a proven and bi-partisan economic solution, and look forward to working with the administration and members of Congress to ensure that any final bill advances, rather than hinders, innovation, job creation, and our global competiveness."

ITI estimates that the new tax credit will create 160,000 jobs and generate $17 billion in additional tax revenue.

TechAmerica, a leading technology industry coalition, also sent out a statement lauding the president's announcement.

Despite the industry enthusiasm, challenges remain to enacting the proposal. The current session of Congress wanes and much of lawmakers' attention is being absorbed by the mid-term elections.

Microsoft's Dan Reed, corporate vice president of technology, strategy and policy, is scheduled to speak in the nation's capital on Wednesday about spectrum policy. Spectrum, a finite resource, is needed to power the tremendous growth of mobile devices and for the infrastructure of the information economy. Reed spoke with Tech Daily Dose early Wednesday morning and gave a preview of his remarks to be delivered at the Gov 2.0 Summit held at the Grand Hyatt Washington. Edited excerpts from the interview follow:

TDD: What commercial stake does Microsoft have in spectrum?

DR: We care for a variety of reasons. It matters in our smartphone business, access to service, digital inclusion issues and what it means for cloud computing.

TDD: What's the best path toward meeting the growing demand for spectrum?

DR: A mixture of better regulatory and technological approaches to the use of licensed and unlicensed spectrum. One of the issues we care about passionately is resolution of the white space issue.

TDD: Are auctions the appropriate mechanism to bring more spectrum to market?

DR: It's certainly one of the mechanisms, but what I'm going to talk about today are more nimble policy mechanisms. The reason that spectrum is allocated the way it is dates back half a century for radio usage. We can't go back and overturn what's happened. The practical challenge is the following: most spectrum, most places, most of the time, is unused, yet there is incredible pressure on certain sections of spectrum.

Part of the solution will be more efficient use of spectrum through cognitive radio technologies. For instance, if a device, through a rapid set of decision making, is able to query a database about what spectrum is available there and identify the rules governing its use, and can then use that spectrum, we can make much better use of available resources. In cognitive radio technology, the rights of incumbent spectrum license owners can be respected.

TDD: What's important for people to understand about this issue?

DR: The rate of change in technology and expectations is running headlong into our historical decision making processes for allocating spectrum. We will have to find a middle ground. It's not just about getting more cool applications for your smartphone, it's about making changes that will be critical to the future our nation's infrastructure.

Cigital, a software security firm, named Peter Esparrago as the company's new president on Tuesday.

"Peter has many years of high level leadership experience with a proven track record of success," said John Wyatt, CEO of Cigital. "His addition to the Cigital team will help move us forward with the right kind of planning and execution to continue to lead Cigital to the next level."

In his new appointment, Esparrago will be responsible for growing the company's business and leading the expansion into the healthcare industry.

Esparrago brings 25 years of experience as a global technology executive to his new role. Previous to Cigital, Esparrago served as president of Mycroft, an identity & access management consulting and managed security services company. He has also held senior posts in a number of other companies including Accenture and Ariel Research.

Established in 1992, Cigital is based outside of Washington, DC with regional offices in Europe and India.

There has been some personnel changes at AT&T's lobbying shop here in Washington with the departure of the company's chief privacy officer.

AT&T Senior Vice President for Federal regulatory Robert Quinn will take on Dorothy Attwood's post as chief privacy officer. In addition, Senior Vice President for Wireless and International External Affairs Len Cali will add Attwood's duties as global public policy to his portfolio of responsibilities, the company announced. Both Cali and Quinn will report to AT&T Senior Executive Vice President of External and Legislative Affairs Jim Cicconi.

Attwood is joining the Walt Disney Company as the vice president of global public policy, Broadcast and Cable reported.

"I'm pleased to have two very capable and experienced executives to assume Dorothy's work in both the privacy and public policy arenas," Cicconi said in a statement

Top technology officials announced the launch of challenge.gov, a new site for public and private collaboration on problem solving, at a government technology conference on Tuesday.

"Challenge.gov marks a dramatic departure from business as usual," said Aneesh Chopra, Chief Technology Officer of the Obama Administration.

Orchestrated by the General Services Administration, the new site will allow government agencies to post challenges for citizens of all stripes to tackle. Members of the public interested in participating could win as much as $5 million if they come up with fuel efficient vehicles that exceed 100 miles per gallon in the "Progressive Automotive X" challenge. Backed by the Department of Energy in partnership with Progressive and the X Prize Foundation, the automotive challenge is one of 35 challenges posed by more than 15 agencies already up on the website.

$12,000 in prizes is available to people interested in submitting healthy recipes for school lunches as an extension of the First Lady's Let's Move campaign. Under the "Green Flight Challenge," a team could win $1.5 million for building a full-scale aircraft that can fly 200 miles in less than two hours using the energy equivalent of less than one gallon of gasoline per occupant.

The new site is part of the administration's broader initiative to use prizes and challenges to spur innovation.

The announcement came during a panel about closing the technology gap between the public and private sector featuring Chopra and Vivek Kundra, the administration's Chief Information Officer.

According to Kundra, the government will "close the technology gap by introducing Darwinian pressure in government IT." The ultimate goal, Kundra says, "is to make sure that the dollars we're spending on government technology produce the dividends that the American people expect."

Increasing the amount of available spectrum is a top priority, Chopra said. A potential shortage of spectrum "keeps us up at night," he added.

Spectrum is the medium through which mobile devices, such as smartphones, tap into broadband.

Both tech officials also emphasized the importance of cloud computing in the future of government IT.

Four anti-sex trafficking groups Tuesday praised Craigslist.org for shutting down its adult services ads in the United States but urged the online classifieds ad provider to eliminate similar ads offered on its foreign websites.

After coming under fire from the groups and 18 state attorneys general who claim the company's adult ads help promote prostitution, Craigslist this weekend abruptly shut down its adult services ads section on its U.S. website and replaced it with the words "censored."

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told Tech Daily Dose late last month that the company wanted to work with the state attorneys general to address their concerns, saying that failing to do so "would encourage the notion that government censorship can address complex societal challenges that will be met only through thoughtful, sustained investment in our communities."

In a statement, Courtney's House, the FAIR Fund, the Polaris Project and the Rebecca Project for Human Rights said Craigslist's decision to shut down its adult services ads in the United States "sends a clear signal to sexual predators that it will not stand for them using the site to sexually enslave children and young women."

They added despite making a "good first step in the U.S., there are still more than 250 other Craigslist 'erotic' pages around the world where children and young women are still being sold for sex through Craigslist. Craigslist is a global company, and it has a global responsibility. It should immediately shut down the 'erotic' services sections across the globe."

The groups also said they hoped Craigslist's decision to shut down the U.S adult services ads wasn't "simply a PR move" ahead of a tentative House Judiciary Committee hearing next week on sex trafficking on the Web.

A Craigslist spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Tuesday announced several new features that have been added to the commission's website that he said would help "unlock the agency's data."

At a government technology conference, Genachowski said the changes to the FCC website include making FCC data available in an open searchable database. A completely redesigned FCC website will launch before the end of the year.

The additions to the FCC's website come in the form of application programming interfaces, which enable communication between independent databases, and will be available under the developer section of the commission's beta site, reboot.fcc.gov.

FCC Managing Director Steven VanRoekel, who fleshed out some details about the new applications, asked technology professionals attending the conference to help "jolt [the FCC] out of the government Web 1.0 norm."

Some of the new applications include License View, which will provide information on FCC spectrum licenses, and Consumer Broadband Test, which delivers data on Internet speeds across the country.

Communication, participation, and data are the three pillars upon which the FCC is approaching reform of the commission, Genachowski said. The FCC currently participates in more than 12 social networking sites and roughly 650,000 people have interacted with the commission online in the past year.

"Blog comments are now officially a part of the public record at the FCC," Genachowski said in touting the FCC's commitment to public outreach.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed a lawsuit Tuesday to block the U.S. government from conducting searches of electronic devices at U.S. borders.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. district court in New York against the Department of Homeland Security, claims the policy, which allows customs officials to search, detain and copy computers, mobile phones, cameras and other electronic devices of both U.S. and non-U.S. citizens violates the First and Fourth amendments.

The case was filed on behalf of Pascal Abidor, 26 year-old U.S.-French dual citizen and Islamic studies doctorate student whose laptop was detained for 11 days and searched after he was taken off an Amtrak train in upstate New York. The other plaintiffs in the case include the defense lawyers association, which is also working as a counsel on the case and whose president elect had her laptop detained and searched, and the National Press Photographers Association, a member of which had his laptop searched in 2007 without reason, according to the lawsuit.

"Unchecked government fishing expeditions into the constitutionally protected materials on an innocent traveler's laptop or cell phone interfere with the ability of many Americans to do their jobs and do nothing to make us safer," Melissa Goodman, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project, said in a statement. "Americans do not surrender their privacy and free speech rights when they travel abroad."

In a blog post, the ACLU said it does not oppose all searches of electronic devices, "but only that border agents should have some suspicion that the search will turn up evidence of wrongdoing before looking through all the private information that people have stored in their devices."

According to records obtained by the ACLU through the Freedom of Information Act, more than 6,500 people, including nearly 3,000 U.S. citizens, had their electronic devices searched at U.S. borders between Oct. 1, 2008 and June 2, 2010.

In 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld the right of U.S. officials to search the laptops of travelers entering the United States.

"While we cannot comment on pending litigation, searches of laptops and other electronic media during secondary inspection are a targeted tool that [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] uses in limited circumstances to ensure that dangerous people and unlawful goods do not enter our country," DHS spokesman Matthew Chandler said in an e-mail response. "The department has been transparent about these searches - the policies themselves, as well as a privacy impact assessment of the policies, are available on DHS.gov."

After years of helping to craft technology and telecom polices, former FCC official and Capitol Hill veteran Colin Crowell will soon find himself assisting companies, nonprofits and others as they work to navigate those issues.

Crowell opened the doors this week on his own consulting firm, Crowell Strategies LLC, that will focus on tech and telecom issues.

"I like the intersection where cutting edge innovation intersects with public policy," he said in an interview, mentioning such issues as online privacy, competition policy, consumer protection online, wireless broadband and green technology.

While green tech is not an issue he's been known for, Crowell said it holds a personal interest for him and is something he worked on in helping to develop the FCC's national broadband plan. The plan calls for using broadband technology in the development of a smart electrical grid and in helping to launch "smart" homes and buildings that can help residents better monitor their energy use.

Crowell has spent his career in government, most of it working on tech and telecom issues. Before joining FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's team in 2009 as a senior adviser, Crowell spent more than 20 years as a staffer for Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce. As Markey's top telecom and tech staffer, Crowell worked on some of the key tech and telecom issues to come before Congress including the 1996 telecommunications act.

Crowell said he had several offers to work for others after leaving the FCC in June. "In the end, I decided I would like the flexibility of starting my own gig and the excitement of starting a business as an entrepreneur," he said.

An annual report card on secrecy in the federal government indicates the Obama administration has taken promising steps toward becoming the most open White House ever, while still criticizing the new president for spending billions of dollars creating and securing classified material, Nextgov.com reports.

"The elections of 2008 were viewed by many as a referendum on the secrecy and unaccountability of the Bush administration, and the country elected a president who has promised the most open, transparent and accountable federal executive branch in history. The record to date is mixed, but some indicators are trending in the right direction," said Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition of watchdog associations that posted the report on Tuesday.

OpenTheGovernment.org began measuring executive branch secrecy in 2003, the year the United States invaded Iraq. The first report card, released in 2004, found then-President Bush's policies generated the largest jump in the production and protection of classified documents in at least a decade. The most recent study is not a full assessment of the Obama administration's work, since it also includes the last three months of the Bush administration.

President Obama established a declassification center within the National Archives and Records Administration to coordinate interagency efforts aimed at expediting the process of declassifying information, according to Tuesday's report card. The center is developing an information technology system to track classified records from the time they are accessioned by the Archives to when they are publicly released, according to department officials. To read more, click here.

Google revealed Friday that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is conducting an antitrust probe of the Internet firm, focusing on whether the company manipulates its search results.

The probe appears similar to one launched by the European Union, which is investigating similar claims made by Google competitors, including the British price comparison site Foundem, which filed a complaint with the EU against Google earlier this year. According to Google Deputy General Counsel Don Harrison, Abbott has asked for information about Foundem as well as SourceTool, a business-to-business search engine owned by TradeComet, and price comparison site myTriggers, which claims its business has suffered because Google reduced its ad quality ratings, Harrison said in a blog post.

Google defended its search results saying they are based on providing the most relevant and useful search results and ads for users. "Given that not every Web site can be at the top of the results, or even appear on the first page of our results, it's unsurprising that some less relevant, lower quality Web sites will be unhappy with their ranking," Harrison added.

He also alleged that Microsoft may have a connection to the companies that have complained that Google has engaged in anti-competitive practices. A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment on the allegation but in the past the company has denied any link to other firms' complaints againt Google.

"We're looking forward to working cooperatively with the Texas Attorney General's office, and we strongly believe our business practices reflect our commitment to build great products for the benefit of users everywhere," Harrison said.

Google said Friday that it is "simplifying and updating" its privacy policies to make them more understandable for users.

The Internet giant said while most of its products and services are covered by Google's main privacy policy, some fall under supplemental invididual privacy policies. The company said it would delete 12 product-specific privacy policies.

"These changes are also in line with the way information is used between certain products--for example, since contacts are shared between services like Gmail, Talk, Calendar and Docs, it makes sense for those services to be governed by one privacy policy as well," Google Associate General Counsel Mike Yang said in a blog post.

Yang said the company also is cutting down on redundant provisions in its main Google privacy policy and rewriting others that are too legalistic "so people can understand them more easily."

Google's privacy practices made headlines Thursday after Consumer Watchdog, a frequent and vocal critic of the company, announced it had placed an animated ad in New York's Times Square promoting a video that mocks Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the company on the issue of privacy.

Broadcasters have been working to mitigate an expected final decision by the FCC at a meeting later this month on a proposal to allow unused parts of television spectrum known as white spaces to be used for wireless broadband and other advanced Wi-Fi technologies.

The FCC announced Thursday that it would vote on taking final action on the white spaces proposal at its Sept. 23 meeting. The National Association of Broadcasters and the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV), a group that focuses on engineering and technical issues related to television, have been urging the FCC to ensure the proposal will not lead to intereference with broadcast television. In 2009, NAB and MSTV filed a lawsuit, which is still pending, to block the FCC's whitespaces proposal.

While the NAB declined to comment on the FCC's decision to act on the white spaces issue at its next meeting, NAB and MSTV urged the commission in letters last month not to eliminate "spectrum sensing protections" as requested by some device manufacturers.

"We urge the commission to adhere to its decision that spectrum sensing is a necessary companion to the geolocation/database requirement," lawyers for the groups wrote in an Aug. 12 filing with the FCC. "The two together are essential to achieving the commission's stated goal of avoiding harmful interference to the public's television service."

The FCC's decision to take final action on the white space issue was praised by Microsoft and others. "If the FCC adopts the right policy framework interesting user experiences can emerge," Microsoft Regulatory Affairs Counsel Paula Boyd wrote in a blog post early Friday. "TV white spaces can facilitate the emerging 'Internet of Things' in which devices in the home and office share data more seamlessly."

Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld said the FCC's move was an important step in helping to meet the growing demand for wireless broadband and in promoting what he and others describe as "Wi-Fi on steroids."

"The FCC's decision will also unleash millions of dollars in investment that will create new jobs and help American maintain its technology edge in wireless," Feld added in a statement.

The Customs and Border Patrol bureau failed to properly set computer controls that allow only authorized users to view financial data, and to certify networks complied with security standards, according to an audit released earlier this week by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general.

A number of problems the inspector general found in 2008 still were not fixed in fiscal 2009, according to the audit, which analyzed CBP's financial systems and was conducted by the accounting firm KPMG, Nextgov.com reported.

"Although we noted improvement, CBP still faces challenges related to the merging of numerous IT functions, controls, processes and organizational resource shortages," the report stated.

Specifically, administrators didn't regularly review changes to employees' access rights or enforce stringent password requirements. Also, systems were not configured to refuse a user to log on after failing a predetermined number of times, and the bureau didn't disable accounts after 45 days of inactivity, as required by department policy. CBP officials also failed to restrict what employees could access on the network to the least number of files required to perform their duties. To read more, click here.

A FCC report released Thursday examining Internet access subscriptions found that less than half of U.S. subscribers currently get broadband service that meets or exceeds speed targets set by the commission in its national broadband plan.

The broadband plan released in March set the "universal availability target" at 4 megabits per second downstream and 1 megabits per second upstream. But the Internet subscription report found that only 44 percent of the 71 million fixed Internet connections to households met this target as of June 2009.

The report found that the number of mobile wireless subscribers with Internet access plans increased by 40 percent during the first six months of 2009 to 35 million.

While mobile Internet access appears to be soaring, fixed broadband subscriptions grew at a much slower rate of 3 percent, to 41 million, for cable broadband and 1 percent for DSL, to 31 million, according to the report. Satellite Internet connections grew at a faster rate of 6 percent but still only number 1 million subscribers.

While encouraging the two sides to continue to engage in constructive talks on the issue, Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., Thursday renewed his call for the FCC to use the authority it currently has to ensure the openness of the Internet.

"I remain open to and am actively working on a legislative solution to ensure that law reflects the growing consensus that the open Internet must be preserved and promoted, but I also believe that the FCC has the authority, ability, and responsibility to use its regulatory authority under existing law to preserve Internet freedom with or without a new law," Kerry said in a statement.

His comments come one day after the FCC issued a public notice Wednesday seeking additional comment on its open Internet proceeding. The notice asks for comment on whether open Internet rules should apply to mobile broadband and "specialized" services. Last month, Verizon and Google released a proposed legislative framework that calls for exempting both services from open Internet rules, which would bar network providers from discriminating against or prioritizing Internet content or applications, while applying such rules only to wireline broadband.

Kerry along with other key congressional Democrats and public interest groups have urged the FCC to move to strengthen its authority over broadband providers by reclassifying some aspects of broadband as a telecommunication service - a move that would allow the agency to move forward on open Internet rules. The commission's authority over broadband providers was put in doubt after an April federal appeals court ruling. The FCC took the first step in June toward reclassifying broadband.

If Kerry was looking for further FCC action in the near term on the issue he'll have to wait. The FCC did not include the reclassification issue on the agenda for its next meeting on Sept 23.

Instead, the commission will act on such matters as allowing unlicensed wireless devices to use unused parts of television spectrum known as white spaces and updating the E-rate program that provides subsidies for Internet access in schools and libraries.

New cybersecurity mandates are certain to drive tech spending for the next several years. What's less certain is the kind of products and services federal agencies will be buying, as well as which agencies will be doing the buying, Nextgov.com reports.

In April, the Office of Management and Budget directed agencies to start monitoring continuously and automatically the status of their security controls in the fall. And Congress is pushing to update the oft-maligned 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act to eliminate its burdensome reporting, require real-time monitoring and build security into all technology acquisitions.

"At the end of the day, compliance with cybersecurity goals and initiatives will represent a multibillion-dollar opportunity for the contractor community," says Rishi Sood, a vice president at research firm Gartner Inc.

Estimates on how much the government spends on cybersecurity range from roughly $2 billion to $8 billion a year, depending on how one defines cybersecurity and its range of applications. Some analysts predict costs could grow 5 percent to 8 percent annually during the next several years.

Security concerns are affecting just about every federal information technology initiative from social networking to cloud computing, in which users subscribe to products and services on demand and online from a third party. To read more, click here.

Consumer Watchdog has launched a rather unique effort in its bid to highlight its concerns over Google's privacy policies and to push Congress to allow consumers to opt out of having their Web activities tracked by online firms.

The group has launched a 540-square-foot animated ad, which is running twice an hour in New York's Times Square, promoting a cartoon video that mocks Google's privacy practices by showing the firm's CEO Eric Schmidt offering free ice cream to children while he secretly collects information about them. The public interest group has been a loud and frequent critic of Google, launching a Web site focused on the Internet giant called Inside Google.

In the cartoon video, Schmidt is seen driving around in a Google ice cream truck and tells a group of children who run up to get the free ice cream he is offering that, "I already know your favorite flavors. Hold still while we collect some of your secrets. And if there is anything you don't want anyone to know, well you shouldn't be doing it in the first place," the cartoonish Schmidt says with a sinister laugh refrencing a famous quote from the real Google CEO. "Remember kids you can't believe everything your parents say about privacy," as he goes on to tell each child what their parents have been doing on the Web.

The video ends with a voice telling viewers to call Congress and urge lawmakers to establish a "do not track" list. Consumer advocates have promoted the idea of such a list, which would be similar to the FTC's Do-Not-Call Registry aimed at stopping unwanted telemarketing calls, to allow Internet users to block firms from tracking their Web activities. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz has said the agency is considering proposing such a list, but it would have to be mandated by Congress.

Schmidt raised eyebrows for comments he made to the Wall Street Journal last month when he suggested that children may want to change their names when they grow up to escape the mistakes of their youth that will have been recorded on social networking sites. He also predicted that Google one day will know so much about its users that they will want the firm "to tell them what they should be doing next."

Google has argued that it allows consumers to protect their privacy by giving them more control over their information with such products as Google Dashboard, which provides users with a control panel for the information they store with their Google accounts, and its ad preferences manager that allows users to edit the categories used to target Internet ads at them or to opt-out of receiving such ads.

Whether the Internet is truly a democratic forum was called into question this week in a dispute about Internet traffic management between AT&T and the consumer advocacy group Free Press, National Journal.com reported.

The feud boiled down to what it means to have "paid prioritization," a phenomenon viewed as anathema by advocates of Internet openness, and to what extent preferential treatment of content already takes place. The issue is at the very heart of a broader debate about what regulatory steps are necessary, if any, to ensure the Internet remains an engine of economic growth and a platform of equal value to people across the socioeconomic spectrum.

AT&T, in a letter filed with the Federal Communications Commission on Monday, argued that paid prioritization of Internet traffic, contrary to claims made by Free Press, is already a common practice of Web management and consistent with protocols set by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Largely unknown to people outside the technology field, IETF is a professional organization composed of engineers that develop standards for the Internet; for over two decades, it has played an integral role in the management of the Internet.

The current chair of the IETF, Russ Housley, disagrees with AT&T's assessment.

"AT&T's characterization is misleading," Housley said. "IETF prioritization technology is geared toward letting network users indicate how they want network providers to handle their traffic, and there is no implication in the IETF about payment based on any prioritization."

read more here

Nextgov.com reports that most congressional Web sites lack input from constituents, are not created with the visitor in mind and are at most a second priority in politicians' offices, according to a report the Brookings Institution recently released.

"The extent to which legislators fail to better exploit these technologies reflects a failure of our democratic institutions themselves," said the study's authors, Kevin Esterling, an associate professor at the University of California at Riverside; David Lazer, an associate professor at Northeastern University; and Michael Neblo, an assistant professor at Ohio State University.

The researchers interviewed 99 congressional staffers who had responsibility for their office's Web site in 2006. The researchers also ranked all House and Senate sites for nearly 100 points of operational criteria, including tracking issue information, constituency services and use of technology such as blogs. The criteria were developed in collaboration with the Congressional Management Foundation, a nonpartisan advocacy group that works to make Congress more effective.

Although much of the research was conducted nearly four years ago, Esterling said the results are still valid and the sites "don't change that much." Congressional staff in 2006 did not think it was worthwhile to communicate with each other, an attitude that continues today, he added. While the sites have improved, they still are not as well-designed, user friendly or interactive as Web sites operated by some news organizations and e-commerce, Esterling said.

"Congressional Web sites lag the ones you find elsewhere," he said. To read more, click here.

A survey released Thursday found that U.S. adults are following teens in embracing text messaging, with 72 percent of adults saying they have sent or received text messages compared with 65 percent in a September 2009 survey. Adults, however, still have a ways to go to catch up to the 87 percent of teens who reported using their mobile phones for texting.

In addition, the May 2010 survey from the Pew Internet and American Life Project also found teens far outpace adults in the number of text messages they send in a day, the survey found. Teens send on average 50 texts a day compared with 10 for adults.

"Texting among adults has reached the mainstream and the charge is being lead by African-Americans, Hispanics and young adults," said Pew Senior Research Specialist Amanda Lenhart, who authored the report. "Of course, none of these adult groups hold a candle to teens when it comes to texting, who swamp adults in messages sent per day by a factor of five."

Blacks and Hispanics tend to send more text messages, sending an average of 10 text messages a day compared with five for whites, the survey found.

Overall, the survey found that cell phone ownership is becoming ubiquitous with 82 percent of U.S. adults reporting they now own a mobile phone or smart phone, up from 65 percent in a November 2004 survey. Blacks and English-speaking Hispanics have even higher rates of mobile phone ownership, 87 percent compared with 80 percent for whites, according to the survey.

"Cell phones have moved beyond fashionable accessory and into the realm of life necessity - just as many adults have a cell phone as have a computer," according to the report on the survey's findings.

The survey was conducted April 29-May 30 and was based on telephone interviews with 2,252 adults.

In response to the FCC's announcement to seek further comment on net neutrality issues, key lawmakers pushed their agenda on Internet regulation.

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski should put his plans to reclassify broadband "on the shelf indefinitely," said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., the ranking member on the Commerce Committee's Communications Subcommittee. Ensign affirmed his commitment to working with colleagues, the FCC, and industry, to "establish light-touch policies that will protect consumers, will foster innovation and investment and will safeguard the open Internet."

Ensign staunchly opposes Genachowski's proposal to reclassify parts of broadband under Title II of the Communications Act, a more stringent regulatory regime. The FCC unveiled the proposal last spring after a court case cast into doubt the commission's authority to regulate on Internet-related matters. Genachowski says he would exempt broadband from the more onerous provisions of Title II such as price controls characterizing his plan as "the third way."

"The two issues on which the FCC is seeking additional public comment - managed services and mobile broadband - are vital elements for ensuring a free and open Internet," Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said. "I continue to believe that discriminatory fast lanes or tiers that slow down certain content would dim the future of the Internet to the detriment of consumers, competition, job creation and the free-flow of ideas."

Markey, a co-author of net-neutrality legislation, called on the FCC to proceed with the third way reclassification if Congress fails to legislate clarification on the FCC's authority this month.

Verizon, which put out a joint plan with Google to serve as a starting point for Internet regulation legislation, also called on the Hill to act. "It remains clear that whatever action the FCC takes will be clouded by legal uncertainty until the Congress enacts legislation that spells out the authority of the FCC and establishes a broadband policy," said Tom Tauke, head of Verizon's public affairs.

The White House has called a meeting for later this month with the group that manages the Internet's domain name system to discuss ways to crack down on illegal online pharmacies.

The meeting with officials from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will take place Sept. 29 with White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel and other White House and agency officials, a spokeswoman for the White House Office of Management and Budget confirmed. An ICANN spokesman said he didn't know which ICANN official would be attending the White House meeting yet.

The White House also invited ICANN-accredited registrars, firms that sell domain name registrations to the public, and registries, the companies and groups that operate the databases of each domain name such as .org or .com, to attend the meeting.

ICANN has been criticized for not doing enough to crack down on registrars who provide domain name registrations to Web sites that sell fake or stolen drugs without a prescription.

The Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement issued by Espinel earlier this year calls for cracking down on illegal online pharmacies and directed an interagency committee on the counterfeiting of pharmaceutical drugs and medical products to study how best to tackle the problem.

LegitScript, an Internet pharmacy verification service, issued a report in May detailing which Internet registrars had sold registrations to illegal online pharmacies. LegitScript President John Horton has noted that ICANN's registrar accreditation agreement bars domain names from being used for illegal activities. Registrars must be accredited by ICANN before they can sell domain name registration services to the public.

Saying the issue has been studied long enough, public interest groups Wednesday called on the FCC to proceed with action on network neutrality rules that would bar broadband providers from discriminating against or prioritizing Internet content.

The groups made the call in response to the public notice issued Wednesday by the commission related to its open Internet proceeding. It has called for additional public comment on whether open Internet rules should be applied to wireless broadband and "specialized" services. It comes less than a month after Google and Verizon released a proposal that called for exempting such services from net neutrality rules, while applying them to wireline broadband.

"The FCC continues to kick the can down the road and prolong this process, but the longer the FCC ponders the politics of net neutrality, the longer consumers are left unprotected," Free Press Research Director S. Derek Turner said. "It is time for the FCC to stop writing notices and start making clear rules of the road."

Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said the public notice should not stop the commission from moving forward on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's "third way" proposal aimed at solidifying the FCC's authority over broadband providers by reclassifying some aspects of broadband as a telecommunications service. That proposal would allow the FCC to proceed on its open Internet rules. The commission's authority over broadband providers was put in doubt in April after a federal appeals court ruled the FCC went too far when it tried to enforce network neutrality principles against Comcast.

"Nothing in this public notice prevents the FCC from taking prompt action on its 'Third Way' proceeding, which would make certain all Americans have affordable access to broadband, and to make sure it can deal with public safety and other crucial issues that are broader than the narrow issues on which the Commission seeks comment," Sohn said in a statement.

The FCC issued its formal public notice Wednesday on whether open Internet rules should apply to mobile broadband and specialized services.

The notice was released less than a month after Google and Verizon released their proposed policy framework aimed at finding middle ground on the network neutrality debate. Their proposal called for barring wireline broadband providers from discriminating against or prioritizing lawful Internet content, applications or services. However, the framework called for exempting fast-growing wireless Internet services from all the principles except for transparency and allowing for specialized services to be fast-tracked over the Internet.

The notice seeks comment on whether network neutrality protections "may be weakened" if broadband providers offer specialized services that are substantially similar to but do not technically meet the definition of broadband Internet access service; whether broadband providers would stop investing in broadband Internet access services to provide more specialized services; and whether they would engage in "anti-competitive conduct with respect to specialized services" if network neutrality provisions do not apply to these services.

"These concerns, particularly the second and third, may be exacerbated by worries that due to limited choice among broadband Internet access service providers, consumers may not be able to effectively exercise their preferences for broadband Internet access service (or content, applications, or services available through broadband Internet access service) over specialized services," according to the notice. The commission outlined six policy approaches that could address these concerns including defining broadband Internet access service "clearly and perhaps broadly" and prohibiting providers from advertising specialized services as a substitute for broadband access services.

On Wireless broadband, the notice seeks comment on "how, to what extent, and when openness principles should apply to mobile wireless platforms, with a particular emphasis on furthering innovation, private investment, competition, and freedom of expression." It notes that new pricing plans from such providers as AT&T and Leap Wireless that are based on data usage "may reduce mobile broadband providers' incentives to employ more restrictive network management practices that could run afoul of open Internet principles," the notice said.

Comments must be filed within 30 days of the notice's publication in the Federal Register with reply comments due 55 days after that date.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Wednesday that the FCC would seek public comment on two controversial provisions included in a proposed policy framework crafted by Google and Verizon and opposed by many supporters of network neutrality rules.

In a statement, Genachowski said the FCC's Wireline and Wireless bureaus would be seeking comment on issues related to "specialized" services and mobile broadband as part of the commission's efforts to "construct an enforceable framework to preserve Internet freedom and openness."

In August, Google and Verizon released a proposal aimed at providing consensus on the thorny issue of network neutrality. It called for barring wireline broadband providers from discriminating against or prioritizing lawful Internet content, applications or services. However, the framework called for exempting fast-growing mobile broadband services from all the principles except for transparency and allowing for "differentiated services" to be fast-tracked over the Internet. Some examples the two firms gave for what these differentiated services might look like include health care monitoring, advanced educational services, or new entertainment and gaming options.

"Recent events have highlighted questions on how open Internet rules should apply to 'specialized' services and to mobile broadband -- what framework will guarantee Internet freedom and openness, and maximize private investment and innovation," Genachowski said. "As we've seen, the issues are complex, and the details matter. Even a proposal that accepts enforceable rules can be flawed in its specifics and risk undermining the fundamental goal of preserving the open Internet."

The FCC statement added that the commission would be releasing a formal public notice later Wednesday. It will likely be met with strong criticism from public interest groups and some Internet firms that favor an earlier Genachowski proposal aimed at solidifying the FCC's authority over broadband providers by reclassifying some aspects of broadband as a telecommunications service. That proposal would have allowed the FCC to proceed on a proposal to impose rules that would bar broadband providers from discriminating against or prioritizing Internet content.

Some vendor groups have asked the Obama administration to let contractors sit in on closed-door meetings that decide the fate of dozens of information technology projects that are worth a combined $30 billion, Nextgov.com reported.

The Office of Management and Budget on Aug. 23 put industry and federal project managers on notice that the administration will kill IT projects identified as high risk if chief information officers and OMB see no value in continuing them. As part of a shakeup in the management of IT projects, which are notoriously inadequate and off target by millions -- sometimes billions -- of dollars, OMB spent two weeks meeting with agency chief information officers to compile a list of 26 mission-critical systems that have hit road bumps. Some, including a project to automate retirement payments for federal employees, have been shelved temporarily.

Now they are under heightened review as OMB and agencies prepare the fiscal 2012 budget, with an eye toward scaling back or scrapping projects that do not make sense to maintain. The goal is to save projects by reprogramming them from top to bottom or, as a last resort, rebidding them. The budget will be released in February 2011.

Washington industry groups acknowledge the IT acquisition system needs retooling and they are making recommendations to administration officials on how they can revamp federal procurement rules. For starters, when federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra holds meetings -- or TechStat sessions -- with agency CIOs to discuss how to fix a project, he also should have independent sessions with the projects' contractors, trade association TechAmerica said.

"If a project ended up on the risk list, then he should plan to have TechStat Sessions with not only the government team but the industry team too," said Trey Hodgkins, vice president for national security and procurement policy for TechAmerica.

The industry group had a chance to relay some of its suggestions to Kundra on Aug. 20, three days before he released the list of risky projects.

TechAmerica has taken a hard-line stance that OMB should not impose blanket
suspensions of IT project categories. On June 28, the White House halted all financial management systems, even those that were performing well, to reduce each system's specifications as a way of accelerating rollouts. To read more, click here.