|
|  |
|
Broadband
Techies, Lawmakers Ponder Promise Of Web Video
by Andrew Noyes
Billionaire dot-com veteran Mark Cuban told lawmakers Thursday that the Internet has matured in recent years, but unless there is significant investment, further technological and economic advancements will be hampered.
There is "plenty of bandwidth and upside for the backbone of the Internet," he said at a House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee hearing. But online video in particular is "only as good as its weakest link" and "right now, with limited exceptions, those links are pretty weak."
Cuban, who is chairman of the high-definition television cable network HDNet, said the vast majority of high-speed Internet users in the United States connect through coaxial cable or copper wiring. Those pipes are limited in their capacity, and by the networks to which they can be attached and the distances over which they can deliver bits, he said.
Network neutrality, the concept of mandating equal treatment of Internet content, is an example of how constrained bandwidth creates conflict between consumer and broadband provider interests, Cuban said. "The issue goes away completely if bandwidth constraints go away," he said at the fifth in a series of hearings examining digital innovation.
Some argue that Internet video will replace traditional television using peer-to-peer technology, "but that will not happen," Cuban predicted. P2P does not reduce the bandwidth needed to serve video, and it moves the traffic from the Internet backbone to the individual user, he added.
In response to a question from Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, the subcommittee's ranking Republican, Cuban said the Internet cannot currently stream lengthy, high-quality video on a mass scale.
"The costs are declining, but the reality is the amount you can deliver is limited by the last mile," he said. Fiber-to-the-home connections will permit "HD as you know it today," as well as enhanced HD programming down the road, Cuban added.
Panel Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., said that when he chaired his first hearing on HDTV many years ago, the platform was far from ready. "Now we can see a light at the end of the tunnel, or rather, at the end of the tuner," he said.
Sling Media CEO Blake Krikorian, whose device lets users watch their home televisions from anywhere they have Web access, praised a provision of copyright law that also has created a stir on Capitol Hill. "Thank heaven for the notion of fair use that allowed us to create this company from the beginning," he said.
Benjamin Pyne, president of affiliate sales for Disney and ESPN Networks, spoke to the persistent piracy problem online. While there is not a silver-bullet solution, his firm has learned that "bringing products to market on a well-timed, well-priced basis" is crucial, Pyne said.
Disney has been a pioneer in that arena, forging partnerships with Apple Inc.'s iTunes e-music store and streaming extensive video on ABC.com and through other branded media players. "Getting the balance right between convenience and pricing is a challenge facing all of us who create and distribute digital content," Pyne said.
Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., emphasized the importance of "an open Internet" because "we cannot afford to sit on old platforms and old ideas."
YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley agreed, saying that the lack of Web gatekeepers lets consumers create, view and distribute media on his video-sharing site and countless other outlets for online entertainment.
For more on the hearing, visit our blog, Tech Daily Dose.
| |
|
On The Hill
Transparency Fans Discuss Obstacles To Their Ideas
by Aliya Sternstein
The major obstacle hindering a more open, more online-oriented Congress is administrative inertia, according to the organizer of an initiative called the Open House Project -- which issued recommendations to Congress on Tuesday.
Project coordinator John Wonderlich -- a program director at the Sunlight Foundation, which launched the bipartisan venture -- joined other online activists at the Heritage Foundation on Thursday to discuss those recommendations for expanding and modernizing House Internet activity.
Providing meaningful access to legislative operations would accurately reflect the inner workings of Congress for the public -- and not just provide a conduit for muckraking, he contended.
The project contributors, for example, advised that lawmakers themselves be given greater permission to use the Internet's resources. New media strategist David All, who used to work for Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said members of Congress "can't have a viable and real conversation on the Internet where we all are" because of outdated restrictions on members' Web use.
As opposed to suggesting specific rules for Web use and public access to legislative information, the project was designed to start a conversation on the topics with the lawmakers.
Matt Stoller of the liberal blog MyDD said his work focused on giving citizens access to taxpayer-funded research produced by the Congressional Research Service. CRS offers, solely to Congress, non-partisan analyses on often controversial policy issues.
Lawmakers and committees can release the reports at their discretion, and several private companies now sell copies of the reports at premium prices to lobbyists, executives and others. Only select CRS reports released by members are freely available to the public via a Web portal operated by the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Pointing to recent Republican efforts aimed at government transparency, Stoller said, "There is an area of alignment here" between the parties.
He noted that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., spearheaded the launch of THOMAS, the Library of Congress' legislative Internet database. And last year, Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., successfully pushed through legislation that will create a search engine for federal spending data.
Regarding dissent over public CRS reports, Stoller said institutional pushback, not partisanship, is the main adversary. "The significant opposition on the CRS front is from CRS itself," he argued.
| |
|
Security
Witnesses Hit Homeland Security Data-Sharing Systems
by Winter Casey
The U.S. homeland security information-sharing structure was criticized Thursday by witnesses at a House subcommittee -- with the failure to integrate existing communications systems being singled out as a major culprit.
Testimony before the Homeland Security Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment Subcommittee primarily focused on the Regional Information Sharing Systems, known as RISS, and the Homeland Security Information Network, or HSIN. The latter is a computer-based counter-terrorism system designed to connect all 50 states.
"I think we'd be living in a dream world if we believed that the HSIN is anywhere near where it needs to be," declared full committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.
Thompson said HSIN has been found to duplicate other information-sharing systems that can perform the same job for half the cost. He added that it does not integrate well with other systems and said the Homeland Security Department has not "clearly defined the system's purpose."
The department rushed to deploy HSIN following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to David Powner, director of information technology management issues for the Government Accountability Office. Powner said GAO has found that in developing HSIN, the department did not adequately account for key initiatives associated with RISS.
RISS is a national program of regionally oriented services designed to enhance the communication and coordination of federal, state and local agencies in fighting crime. That program has been in operation for about 25 years, well before HSIN was implemented.
Due to problems in integrating HSIN with the previously existing structure, Powner said HSIN "may be duplicating state and local capabilities" while running the risk that "effective information-sharing is not occurring."
Brian Tomblin, an official of the Tennessee Army National Guard's homeland security office, said "the problems and frustrations currently experienced with HSIN are all directly related to a lack of communication and clear guidance between [the U.S. Homeland Security Department] and state partners."
Wayne Parent, deputy director of operations coordination at Homeland Security, responded: "Over the past nine months, numerous improvements and enhancements to HSIN have been made, and I believe it has the potential [to] become the information-sharing and situational awareness tool it was envisioned to be. ... Work needs to continue to ensure there is robust connectively and interoperability with all [Homeland Security Department] partners."
William Harris of the Delaware State Police characterized RISS as the best information-sharing resource available. And Donald Kennedy, executive director of the New England State Police Information Network -- one of the six RISS centers -- noted its attributes in fighting crime.
"The federal government should provide the funding needed to leverage existing information-sharing systems and expand intelligence-sharing by executing interoperability between operating systems at the local, state, regional, federal and tribal levels," he said. "... Users should be able to access all pertinent information from disparate systems with a single sign-on, based on the user's classification level and need to know."
| |
|
Telecom
Iowa Becomes Key Battleground For Phone Rivals
by Michael Martinez
Iowa has become ground zero for an all-out legal war between rural telephone carriers that operate there and some of the nation's largest telecommunications companies.
The most recent shot was fired by Sprint Nextel, which filed a federal lawsuit this week -- accusing the local carriers of abusing the inter-carrier compensation system by which firms pay for traffic across each other's networks, and of charging inflated access rates.
The suit also alleges that local carriers conspired with companies in other states that offer free conferencing and chatting services to "pump" traffic through Iowa and force nationwide carriers to pay artificially high bills.
The issue also has become a sore point for AT&T and Qwest Communications International, which have sued to stop the local carriers from continuing the alleged scheme. According to Sprint Nextel's suit, the company has been billed for "millions of dollars in unlawful charges" that "local carriers have no legal basis to collect."
Under the inter-carrier compensation system, rural companies are compensated for every minute of calls placed to their customers from nationwide networks such as Sprint Nextel. The company's suit claims that 14 rural Iowa carriers have artificially increased their billing by as much as 26,000 percent during the past year.
The lawsuit also targets firms such as FreeConference.com that have purchased numbers in rural areas in Iowa and that have run their businesses through them. Sprint Nextel blames the businesses for a spike in traffic that allows the local carriers to reap benefits of the inflated access rates, even though the calls are not terminated in Iowa.
Sprint Nextel spokesman Travis Sowders said the local carriers are abusing the system in a way that companies such as his could be forced to abandon unlimited long-distance calling services that their customers demand. "The reason we're doing this is because we want to protect our customers," he said.
The local carriers and conferencing services doing business with them are fighting back. FreeConference filed a federal lawsuit in March accusing AT&T of blocking its calls and withholding access fees from the carriers.
Rural carriers also have countered the traffic-pumping claims by launching the Coalition for Carrier Neutrality. The group of 12 rural carriers is pushing the FCC to investigate the alleged call-blocking by the larger firms.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin last week told reporters during a trip to California that he has ordered the nationwide carriers not to block calls to those services. He threatened to take formal action if the call-blocking does not stop.
Sowders said the entire dispute underscores the importance for the FCC to reform inter-carrier compensation, which he complained that the agency has not addressed swiftly in recent years. "It's a small symptom of a larger problem," he said.
| |
|
Executive Branch
Gonzales Sees Less Hostility From House Panel
by Keith Koffler, CongressDaily
With President Bush firmly behind him, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Thursday faced a far smoother ride in his appearance before the House Judiciary Committee than he did three weeks ago before a Senate panel.
He received generally friendly questions from Republicans and provided skeptical Democrats little new information about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, actions that have led to the release of government e-mails and other documents, along with calls for more.
While Senate Judiciary ranking Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania had scathingly appraised Gonzales' performance and another GOP senator called for his resignation, House Judiciary ranking member Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said it is nearly time to "wrap up the U.S. attorneys' controversy."
GOP lawmakers often asked either supportive leading questions or addressed other subjects. Even some Democrats brought up parochial concerns.
Gonzales restated past admissions that the process was handled poorly, but he continued to stand by the decision to fire the prosecutors. He also repeated assertions that he had delegated the task of determining who would be let go to former Justice Department Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson and had acted on what he understood to be the consensus view of senior agency leaders.
Gonzales' appearance coincided with news reports that a ninth U.S. attorney -- Todd Graves, the former U.S. attorney for Kansas City -- was forced out early in 2006. The attorney general said he did not view Graves' ouster as part of the same process that led to firing the others. Gonzales said he had "no reason to believe" that Graves' departure had anything to do with his refusal to back a Justice Department lawsuit about voter fraud.
Gonzales said allegations being investigated by Justice that his former senior aide, Monica Goodling, had used raw political criteria in hiring U.S. attorneys are "very, very serious."
He indicated that while he had learned from the episode, he has not established specific new procedures, saying that U.S. attorneys do not want a formalized review process.
One exception to the rule of GOP friendliness came from Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, a former panel chairman who expressed frustration with the time it is taking Justice to decide whether Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., will be charged with bribery. "The people's confidence in your department has been further eroded, separate and apart from the U.S. attorney controversy, because of the delay in dealing with this matter," Sensenbrenner said.
On another front, Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., asked if it was appropriate that former U.S. Attorney Debra Wong Yang received a $1.5 million signing bonus from a firm defending Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., whom she reportedly was investigating.
Gonzales brushed off the matter as "more of a perception [problem] for the law firm as opposed to the Department of Justice. As far as I know, nothing about that investigation has been impacted or affected in any way by virtue of her going to work in that firm."
| |
|
E-Government
Federal Techies Seek Advice On Internet Transition
by Heather Greenfield
ARLINGTON, Va. -- Federal information technology workers in charge of helping the government transition to the next-generation Internet asked for advice from industry Thursday as they develop a profile of standards to be issued this summer.
Representatives of federal agencies also offered updates on their transition to Internet protocol version 6, or IPv6. The current system, known as IPv4, has 4 billion Internet addresses and is running out of them. IPv6 will have 80,000-quadrillion times the number of IPv4 addresses.
"At the end of the day, this is about an extreme number of addresses that allows us to communicate," said Pete Tseronis, director of network services at the Education Department and co-chairman of the government working group of chief information officers that met here publicly for the first time at the IPv6 conference.
Brad Ryan, the chief technical architect at Juniper Networks, said that one day, every product in Wal-Mart, every book at the Amazon.com online retailer, and every weapon a soldier carries would have its own IPv6 address.
Ryan presented a Juniper-funded survey of 1,067 private-sector, civilian, defense, and state and local government IT executives on the transition to IPv6. Federal agencies are supposed to have a backbone network capable of running on the new protocol by June 30, 2008.
He said that the progress made by agencies having IPv6 plans from 2005 to 2006 was "huge." In 2005, Ryan noted that that government IT workers had listed no reason to change as the top challenge to switching to IPv6, followed by budget and technical issues.
A year later, Ryan said, the biggest challenge for federal agencies was budget, followed by technical issues and no reason to change.
The survey found that 51 percent of defense agencies had submitted budget requests for IPv6 transitions, along with 39 percent of civilian agencies and 43 percent of state and local entities. When it came to actual budgets, 20 percent of defense agencies had money to spend, compared with 18 percent of civilian agencies and 3 percent of state and local governments.
"The point here is IPv6 money is in the pipeline," Ryan said.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is trying to make sure the money goes for equipment that meets certain standards and can work across jurisdictions.
Shelia Frankel, who serves on the working group as a NIST representative, said the group is now taking comments from industry, and the standards issued in July will be suggestions and recommendations for government agencies buying IPv6 products. "We're in the process of deciding whether this profile will have teeth," Frankel said.
She also asked for comments on whether there should be a government testing program to guarantee interoperability and, if so, what form it should take.
John McManus, who works for the Commerce Department and co-chairs the CIO working group, said about 70 percent of government agencies took a wait-and-see approach to IPv6 and are now catching up. He estimates that another 15 percent fell behind in their efforts.
| |
|
Today's Feature:
State Roundup
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson this week offered support to hundreds of Intel employees who may lose their jobs when the computer chip manufacturer scales back operations at a plant in his state later this year.
Every Thursday, read the State Roundup by Michael Martinez.
|
|
|
|
E-briefs
Intellectual Property: Two senators on Thursday introduced a bill to reverse a recent Internet radio royalty hike that some say threatens to bankrupt the industry. The legislation, authored by Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., would vacate the Copyright Royalty Board's March 2 decision. It is similar to a pending House bill, H.R. 2060. The grassroots coalition SaveNetRadio lauded introduction of the Senate measure. Both bills would set the royalty rate at 7.5 percent of revenue, the same amount paid by satellite radio services, and would change the rate-setting standard used in royalty arbitration. Tim Westergren, founder of the Internet radio service Pandora, said lawmakers' support "shows an understanding of the invaluable exposure that Internet radio provides to emerging artists, as well as an acknowledgment of the diverse listening experience it offers to music lovers." The digital-music royalty collector SoundExchange and some in the music industry back the board's ruling.
Intellectual Property: The March 2 decision by the Copyright Royalty Board to more than double the rates that webcasters pay to stream music will have a catastrophic effect on Internet radio, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said in a report released Thursday. After reviewing the board's ruling, the report's author, Daniel Castro, concluded that the rate increase is "unfair and undeserved." The decision also reflects "a fundamentally broken system for determining copyright royalty rates." ITIF's paper describes the current copyright system and problems with the recent ruling, and outlines an alternative to the existing regime that would allow copyright owners to set fair rates for their music. The paper said Congress should grant the same performance copyright to all broadcast technologies; modify the statutory license to allow copyright owners to specific separate rates for each sound recording; and allow copyright owners to assign separate rates to small and non-commercial webcasters.
Crime: A federal grand jury in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday indicted Michael Daly of Danvers, Mass., for defrauding Cisco Systems of computer networking equipment and engaging in money-laundering and wire fraud by selling the products to Cisco resellers. Daly is charged with 24 counts of wire fraud and six counts of money-laundering. If convicted, he could face more than 20 years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines. For four years, Daly allegedly engaged in a scheme in which he repeatedly created fictitious personal and company names and got e-mail accounts for them. He then linked the names and certain Cisco parts with a service plan that provided replacement equipment, according to the Justice Department. When Cisco sent him spare parts, Daly sold them and made tens of thousands of dollars. A previously filed criminal complaint accused him of carrying out the fraud at least 700 times using mail boxes in 39 states.
Intellectual Property: The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday was slated to hear oral arguments in a patent-infringement case involving the online retailer Overstock.com and an alleged "patent troll." The court first heard the case last August after a Utah court dismissed it, citing lack of jurisdiction. A New York federal judge then heard the case and ruled in Overstock's favor. Back on appeal, arguments at the federal circuit were expected to focus on claim construction and other substantial issues raised by Furnace Brook's ownership of a patent on software that facilitates online purchases. After buying the patent at a 2003 bankruptcy auction, the firm sent letters to Overstock, alleging infringement and offering a licensing deal. Letters also were sent to other Web retailers like L.L. Bean and Sharper Image, some of which paid the licensing fees.
Security: The Bush administration on Thursday allocated $445 million in grants for security purposes, AP reports. Most of the money will go toward ports, bus and rail lines, and critical infrastructure. Some funding also will be directed to protect the nation's passenger-rail carrier, Amtrak, bus services like Greyhound and Trailways, and trucking and passenger-ferry services.
E-Government: Federal Aviation Administration chief Marion Blakey on Tuesday endorsed a plan to expand a satellite-based navigation technology system in an effort to aid airports in handling projected increases in air traffic. AP reports that the technology, called area navigation, has been used for more than a year at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and other airports across the country. Blakey said the system has saved the Dallas airport $8.5 million per year, and an Atlanta airport has saved a reported $36 million. Area navigation allows planes to take off simultaneously from parallel runways and fly more direct routes by guiding pilots along a tightly controlled path determined by the plane's computer. The technique replaces the method used for decades, in which the pilot flied from one ground-based navigation point to another.
Health: On the heels of Intel and Wal-Mart doing so, Verizon Communications now will offer employees online, personal health records to share with designated medical providers. The telecommunications firm announced Thursday that it has begun to provide about 40,000 personnel with access to a password-protected Web site containing individual medical and prescription histories. The e-health records, provided by WebMD, work independently of the employees' health plans, meaning that they can access their records even if they retire or leave Verizon. "The healthcare industry has been on the cutting edge of technology on the research and development side but not on the administrative side," Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg said. "This is the first step toward an interoperable system that will seamlessly connect all pieces of the healthcare puzzle -- patients, clinicians, pharmacies, labs, hospitals and others."
|
|
|
President -- John Fox Sullivan, 202-739-8468
Editor in Chief -- Louis Peck, 202-739-8481
Editor -- K. Daniel Glover (bio)
Assistant Editor -- Theresa Poulson
Senior Writers -- David Hatch (bio), Heather Greenfield (bio), Andrew Noyes (bio) and Aliya Sternstein (bio)
Special Correspondent -- Chris Strohm (bio)
Staff Writer -- Michael Martinez
Senior Business Affairs Manager -- Chris Hamby
Business Affairs Associate -- Anne TeBeest
Advertising Sales -- Alex Treadway
National Journal's Technology Daily is published every weekday, except holidays, by National Journal Group Inc., 600 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20037.
| | ©2006 by National Journal Group Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or transmission in any form of this product by any means—from a retrieval service or any other electronic form or from a photocopy—in whole or part without permission is strictly prohibited.
National Journal Group makes no representations or warranties with respect to and is not responsible for the content of World Wide Web sites linked to by this publication but not controlled by National Journal Group.
Please read the details of our Privacy Policy.
Editorial: 202-266-7197
Fax: 202-266-7094
Subscription
Inquiries: 202-266-7264
Customer Service: 202-266-7230 or 1-800-207-8001
|
|
|
|
