|
|  |
|
Campaigns
Baseball And Pie: All-American Online Fundraising
by Heather Greenfield
It's not exactly baseball and apple pie, but a ballgame and a pecan pie recipe have been offered online in recent weeks by presidential candidates looking for donations. They are among various creative appeals to get potential campaign donors to open their wallets.
Democrat John Edwards offered his mom's pie recipe for any donations of $6.10 or more before his June 10 birthday. Joe Trippi, who handles new media for Edwards and starred as a baker in the video, called the appeal via the YouTube video-sharing site "one of our best fundraisers." It netted $268,713.75 from 10,568 donors.
The campaign of Republican Mitt Romney tried a personal fundraising appeal of its own. Tagg Romney, the oldest of the candidate's five sons, e-mailed an offer to treat a donor to a professional baseball game. Anyone contributing $100 or more by June 12 was qualified to win box seats and sit with Tagg.
Alex Burgos, a spokesman for Romney's campaign, said the winner has been contacted privately and the campaign was "pleased with the high level of interest." There were 30,000 bidders, well above the goal of 24,000 new supporter contacts in 24 hours.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has made a similar offer: He will have dinner with five supporters who give any amount.
Jared Roebuck commented on the different amounts requested by the candidates in a posting at MyDD, saying that the $100 sought by Romney is too high an entry cost, so he expects Obama to have more donors. Roebuck also compared the value of dinner with a candidate versus a ballgame with a candidate's son that it was "Republican's best fundraiser thus far."
Not everyone is looking for money in such appeals. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., only requested e-mail addresses when she asked people to help her pick a campaign theme song in a video that has been watched more than 605,629 times since last month. A humorous follow-up video with excerpts of voters singing has been seen 273,288 times.
Peter Daou, who helps manage new media for Clinton, said people have signed up to get the winning song by e-mail and text message.
"Anything that helps a candidate make a human connection with a potential supporter is going to increase the likelihood of getting a contribution," said Carol Darr, executive director of the Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University. Darr also sees value in just asking for e-mail addresses as that could generate interest and later contributions.
Michael Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute, said the tactics could help attract attention long enough to get people to consider sending even a small donation. He said if someone donates, they typically also will be asked to volunteer for the campaign.
Malbin said gaining a $5 contribution likely will result in more commitment from a supporter because it is a higher barrier than voting on a song, but he would "love to run an experiment" to test the theory.
He said all such tactics won't succeed, and the good thing about the Internet is that it costs little to try -- and the word on what works will spread quickly for others to imitate.
| |
|
E-Government
Federal Funding Jumpstarts 'Wall Street West' In Pa.
by Aliya Sternstein
Ever since the 2001 terrorist attacks, northeastern Pennsylvania has been trying to position itself as a backup to New York City's financial district in case of another disaster or major power outage. Earlier this month, regional officials announced that the effort has reaped its reward: a forthcoming fiber-optic network to connect the area with Wall Street.
The U.S. Labor Department has awarded a $15 million grant to train the region's workforce for prospective job openings at the financial services branches that will soon arrive. The money will come from the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development program, or WIRED. The state of Pennsylvania also will provide funding.
Catherine Bolton, project director for the "Wall Street West" initiative, said the federal grant "came at the right place at the right time."
The $40 million project is a nonprofit partnership among local, regional and statewide economic development agencies; technology investment groups; workforce development organizations; educational institutions; and the private sector.
The goal is get financial institutions like J.P. Morgan Chase to house data centers and back-office operations in northeastern Pennsylvania. Bolton noted that the area is already home to some offices of large New York corporations -- including Bank of America in Lackawanna County; Dun & Bradstreet in Lehigh Valley; and Prudential in Scranton.
Bolton declined to comment on companies that might want to transplant operations to the region. She said the project is still in the engineering phase and more studies must be done. "Once they put a shovel in the ground," the network is expected to go live in18 months, she added.
Chad Paul, CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners, the fiscal agent of Wall Street West, said building the fiber network has been a goal for four years. When the federal government awarded money for training, the state saw the opportunity to leverage the federal investment with state funding for the actual fiber-optic infrastructure, he said.
Ben Franklin is managing the federal and state funding sources to put the enterprise together.
"This idea originated in Pennsylvania," said Emily Stover DeRocco, Labor's assistant secretary for employment and training. The WIRED funding was "the catalyst" for a comprehensive partnership, which started attracting other investments, including additional state money, she said.
She said northeastern Pennsylvania is the first region to try this sort of arrangement under WIRED. The grant program, which began last year in 13 places, assists regional leaders in executing strategic plans to cultivate talent and prepare that talent for the global economy.
Pennsylvania is transitioning from the coal and steel industry to a knowledge-based industry, including financial services.
"The Wall Street West project is northeast Pennsylvania's project," DeRocco said. Labor will have federal oversight responsibility for the WIRED financial contribution and will be a partner throughout the length of the grant, "but our goal is for each of these WIRED regions to be sustainable without federal funding."
| |
|
Broadband
U.S. Broadband Growth Spurs Tech Industry Debate
by Winter Casey
Experts debating the U.S. high-speed Internet climate and how it compares to penetration rates in other parts of the world offered different views on the current state of affairs during a policy debate on Friday.
During the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation event, Rob Atkinson referenced statistics that all point to the United States falling behind in broadband penetration. But Scott Wallsten, a senior fellow and director of communications policy studies at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, focused on perceived inaccuracies in the commonly cited Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development statistics.
Moreover, while Wallsten said there is little evidence of broad market failure in the United States and unprecedented investment in broadband infrastructure, Atkinson countered that heavy investment does not necessarily equal market success.
An OECD report this year listed the United States as 15th worldwide in broadband penetration. While some have called the statistics misleading, others have said they should serve as a wake-up call to the United States.
Wallsten said the OECD data is unreliable and the group's collection of data is inconsistent, no sources are provided for the data, and there is no explanation of the methodology used to determine the rankings. Further, the OECD data ignores colleges and universities or many or most business connections, he said. In the United States, Wallsten would like to see the FCC's practices for collecting broadband data radically overhauled.
But Atkinson, the president of ITIF, said he did not hear anyone complaining about the OECD data before the year 2000 when it portrayed the United States in a good light. There could be some flaws in the data, he acknowledged, but he doesn't think they really have changed over time and the problem is the downward trend for the United States.
Wallsten also said many assumptions are used in broadband discussions, such as that broadband penetration is low and speeds are slow. Some people don't care about having broadband, he said.
On the other hand, Atkinson said the United States is clearly falling behind and needs a national, proactive strategy. The presence of broadband leads to faster economic growth in rural areas, he said, and the country needs policies on both the demand and supply side to increase penetration.
The government also should work to remove barriers such as making the moratorium on taxing Internet access permanent, and it should be more proactive in establishing programs like tax incentives to spur broadband investment.
Atkinson concluded in a paper released at the event that "while it's true that proactive policies and incentives might "distort" the market, it is also true that the innovation and productivity spurred by more and faster broadband is likely to vastly exceed any minor losses from "misallocation" of economic resources."
| |
|
Intellectual Property
California Trademark Measure Irks Copyright Experts
by Michael Martinez
California lawmakers are considering trademark legislation that some copyright experts believe would impose dangerous restrictions on "fair use" of protected content.
The bill, A.B. 1484, would update the state's trademark law. Among other things, the new regime would expand dilution liability for tarnishing trademarks without broadening fair-use protections. Under the proposal, only commercial comparative advertising would be protected.
The state Assembly unanimously passed the proposal last month. It is now being considered by the state Senate Judiciary Committee.
A group of attorneys and copyright experts, including Corynne McSherry of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman, wrote to Senate Judiciary Chairwoman Ellen Corbett earlier this week, urging her to make immediate changes to the bill.
They said that dilution provisions differ significantly from those in a major revision of a federal trademark statute completed last year. According to the bill's critics, it would make little sense to adopt a measure that would not conform easily to federal law.
"Adopting a law that departs so significantly from the new federal statute ... would seem to run directly contrary to that goal," they wrote.
In a telephone interview, McSherry said the dilution provisions could have a profound effect on Internet speech. She said federal lawmakers carefully considered those repercussions during last year's revision. "The folks that drafted [the federal law] got this," she said.
Matt Hale, an aide to bill sponsor and state Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, said his boss and other lawmakers already are working on amendment language to address the concerns expressed by EFF and the others who signed this week's letter. A Senate Judiciary hearing on the bill once scheduled for this month also has been postponed until July.
"We're concerned about it, too," Hale said. "And we're toying with the language. It's going to be a tough issue."
Utah enacted a law earlier this year that effectively prohibits companies from using competitors' trademarks to trigger keyword advertisements online. But Gov. Jon Huntsman already has met with representatives from the Internet search firm Google and others who have raised concerns about its constitutionality.
McSherry said she is glad that lawmakers in California are working to avoid passing a law that also would need to be revisited immediately. But she added that she is concerned that states may not be paying enough attention to efforts to standardize trademark law.
"It's enough work to keep federal law on track and sufficient protecting fair use on the Internet," she said. "When you have states getting into the thick of things and coming up with laws that undermine fair use, things get much more complicated."
| |
|
Intellectual Property
Antiquated Rule On Music Royalties Defies Reform
by Andrew Noyes
Representatives from Internet music services, recording labels, music publishers and songwriters weighed in on the fate of a century-old statute in U.S. copyright law on Friday that has not yet been updated for the digital age.
The Copyright Office-sponsored roundtable on Section 115, which allows licensing without permission from rights holders as long as licensees pay royalties and abide by certain terms and conditions, attracted more than 20 speakers and a roomful of onlookers.
The dialogue built on lengthy negotiations among stakeholders over the past two years. A bill, introduced in the 109th Congress by Texas Republican Lamar Smith, who chaired the House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee, fizzled.
The bill, which became part of a larger copyright package before the session ended, did not come to fruition but Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters said she believes new legislation is "imminent." "There are hard choices to make moving forward," she said.
In the meantime, the office decided to "turn itself toward focusing on the regulatory process to see if there's anything we can do that would address what reproductions are included" under existing law, Peters said.
One of the key questions debated was whether certain downloads, which are time-limited or use-limited, fit within the scope of Section 115. Stakeholders also shared thoughts on how streaming media and internal server copies fit into the equation. Speakers also discussed how to make notice requirements covered under Section 115 more functional.
Much of the conversation dealt with the minutiae of the statute's complex components and their impact on various industries, but several stakeholders summed up their bottom lines in interviews with Technology Daily.
Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association, said stakeholders at the table agree that the Copyright Office "must do everything it can to streamline the process." His group, which represents America Online, Microsoft, RealNetworks and others, is "not sure that they have the latitude they need."
Peters has urged lawmakers to act, bills have been introduced, but none have been successful, Potter said. "Congress needs to fix this problem" regardless of any rulemakings that may come from Peters as a result of the roundtable, he said.
The office must "try to figure out a system that is practical, pragmatic and reflects what is actually happening in the marketplace," said Steven Marks of the Recording Industry Association of America. "Coming up with regulations that will enable those businesses to go forward and get the licenses they need in the most efficient way possible is key."
Public Knowledge Staff Attorney Sherwin Siy said the ultimate goal should be a framework that is "legally and logically consistent that lets consumers get the music they want for a reasonable price." The mechanism by which that occurs must be "reasonably future-proof," he said.
Copyright Office General Counsel Tanya Sandros said a rulemaking notice aimed at updating Section 115 is in the offing once everyone involved has had a chance to comment. "We want to move fairly quickly on this," she said.
| |
|
Labor
'Googling' Job Candidates Raises Potential Legal Issues
by Gene J. Koprowski, for Technology Daily
The increasing practice by employers of "Googling" potential candidates for top jobs before making offers is raising potential legal issues in the United States, according to executive recruiters and labor lawyers.
"Any prospective or current employer who really wants to gain access to your personal information on [Internet social networks like] MySpace, Facebook, Friendster or Xanga can and will," said Nicholas Aretakis, author of the book No More Ramen: The Twentysomething's Real World Survival Guide, and a career coach, based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Social science bolsters the claim. The AfterCollegeSurvey of executive and professional recruiters in November found that nearly 50 percent of employers believe that information about job candidates posted on social-networking sites is fair game when making hiring decisions.
Another 40 percent actively use search engines like Google to gain insight into the character of new hires, and 37 percent of employers said that if they found something untoward about job candidates, they would not offer them jobs.
There are some 25 to 50 million Internet searches every day using proper names of men and women, according to Search Engine Watch.
The trend is troubling to some legal experts for various reasons. One of them is that online postings are not necessarily authored by the people associated with particular screen names.
Mark Neuberger, a partner in the law firm of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney in Tampa, Fla., said that if an employer "Googled" his name, it would find his profile at the online retailer Amazon.com, which includes some "critiques to some rather bizarre and strange music." Neuberger said someone alerted him to the postings a year after they were made in his name.
"I discovered they were made by my teenage son, who I let use my Amazon account to buy some of the strange and bizarre music he regularly listens to," said Neuberger, a labor attorney who has been practicing law for 30 years. "Anyone checking me out would think those were my comments. If you would look at them, I think we can agree they are not the way a partner at a national law firm would normally project themselves."
People choose to make such information is readily accessible on the Internet, said Andria Ryan, a partner in the labor law practice of Fisher & Phillips, but it raises ethical issues for employers.
Using Internet-based information to screen for employment is a potentially "problematic" issue, Neuberger said, because the results of a Google search may reveal sex, race, religion, national origin or other categories for which it is illegal to discriminate.
"Those areas are not normally subject to inquiry at the application stage and are not a proper legal basis for denying employment," Ryan said.
Neuberger said another problem is the unreliability of online content. "Raw information on the Internet is not always accurate," he said.
| |
|
On The Hill
New Bills Touch On Spectrum, Security, Health IT
by Theresa Poulson and Sandra Gonzalez
As lawmakers and other interests focused attention on the forthcoming rules for a spectrum auction, a key senator this week introduced legislation that aims to guarantee local companies an opportunity to bid for the airwaves. The bill was one of several new ones on the technology front.
The spectrum measure, S. 1622, would require that the FCC designate some smaller-area licenses so local and regional companies could compete in the wireless Internet market. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said her measure would help improve wireless services in rural areas.
"I want to be sure we foster an environment where this technology and future wireless technologies can flourish, without leaving rural America behind," she said.
Another new Senate measure, S. 1629, would request an FCC study on the possible interference caused by high-speed Internet transmission over power lines. And a new House bill, H.R. 2725, would require the FCC to adopt regulations to protect services -- such as alarm, security and personal emergency-response systems -- for Internet telephone subscribers.
On the security front, a new House bill, H.R. 2640, would establish grants for states to update databases in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The House passed the legislation by voice vote Wednesday. (See separate brief)
And a Senate measure, S. 1594, aims to improve safety and security for vessels and facilities that ship and receive particularly dangerous chemicals and petrochemicals.
Several measures targeting aviation security also were introduced. One of them, H.R. 2663, would extend a Homeland Security Department requirement for the pre-screening of air passengers to include international flights that fly over the United States.
Another measure, H.R. 2684, would authorize an independent review of the Federal Aviation Administration's safety-related research programs. And a third bill, H.R. 2698, would authorize the agency's civil aviation research and development.
In the health information technology arena, a Senate bill, S. 1606, would establish a joint program on electronic health records between the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments. Another measure, H.R. 2721, would require that veterans be issued compact discs with explanations of their benefits and that the VA update its Web site more frequently.
Two other health measures were filed: H.R. 2716, which would require the use of counterfeit-resistant technologies on medicine packages; and S. 1605, which would preserve Medicare benefits for healthcare providers in rural areas to purchase medical technologies.
Other tech-related bills introduced this week included:
-- H.R. 2722, which calls for a restructuring of the Coast Guard's troubled fleet modernization program. (See separate brief)
-- H.R. 2727, which would extend the current moratorium for small businesses to comply with accounting regulations;
-- S. 1625, which aims to protect against the unauthorized installation of computer software and require that users be told of software features that may pose privacy threats;
-- H.R. 2711, which would prohibit certain types of computer-assisted hunting;
-- And H.R. 487, which calls for modeling and simulation technology to aid U.S. security.
| |
|
Today's Feature:
Executive Summary
The FCC's pending release of rules to auction spectrum from the transition to digital television generated plenty of meetings and other lobbying activities this week before a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the issue.
Every Friday, read the Executive Summary by K. Daniel Glover.
|
|
|
|
E-briefs
Security: Backed by the travel and tourism industry, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Friday said the United States needs to adjust its policies for attracting visitors because some security programs imposed since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have created a negative backlash around the world. "[A]fter five years of experience, we've seen where some of it worked and some of it hasn't worked," Ridge said. "Clearly in some areas where it hasn't worked, it has created a misimpression that we aren't welcoming." Ridge and officials from the Discover America Partnership, which includes the presidents of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, and American Express, said a recent industry-backed survey concluded that travel to the United States has declined 17 percent since 2001. They called on Congress to expand a program that waives visas for U.S.-friendly nations.
Budget: The American Association for the Advancement of Science says the first round of House-proposed spending bills for fiscal 2008 would provide significant increases for federal research and development. The AAAS analysis found that the measures would provide much higher funding for R&D than the president's budget, with the exception of funds related to his competitiveness initiative. "Although it's still early in the process, it's clear that appropriators want to increase federal funding for research, especially research relevant to American competitiveness, climate change and renewable energy," said Kei Koizumi, director of the AAAS R&D budget and policy program. The Homeland Security Department, which received a steep cut in R&D funds this year, would get a 3.3 percent increase to $986 million, slightly less than President Bush requested. The Environmental Protection Agency would get a 10.6 percent R&D increase, primarily for a new climate-change research.
Courts: A federal judge on Friday said that he cannot make telecommunications entrepreneur Walter Anderson pay the $100 million to $175 million he owes the federal government in taxes because of a mistake the Justice Department made in a plea agreement last year. AP reports that U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said Justice cited the wrong law in a binding plea agreement with Anderson, who was charged with tax crimes. "The court is not free to read something into a contract that is not there or to interpret uncertain language in the government's favor," Friedman said. The judge said he could have ordered Anderson to repay the money as part of his probation, but prosecutors did not discuss probation in Anderson's paperwork. Prosecutors described the legal mistake as "a typo." Prosecutors said the IRS plans to sue Anderson in civil court to recoup the money.
Crime: The chairman and ranking Republican of the of the House Science and Technology Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee asked the Justice Department on Thursday to investigate NASA's general counsel for obstruction of justice and destruction of government records. Brad Miller, D-N.C., and James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., wrote in a letter to Justice that Michael Wholley destroyed video compact discs of an April meeting between the NASA administrator and staffers from the inspector general's office, knowing that the meeting was relevant to an ongoing subcommittee probe of IG Robert Cobb for abuse of authority. Last month, Wholley told the subcommittee, "I did not believe it wise to have these in any way become records, subject to release under [the Freedom of Information Act]." He added, "I personally made the decision to destroy them, and I did so by breaking them into pieces and throwing them in the trash."
Intellectual Property: Sections of legislation aimed at revamping the U.S. patent system would be detrimental to trial courts and the U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit, which hears patent cases, the panel's chief judge said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Judge Paul Michel wrote a similar letter to the House Judiciary Committee, which is considering a companion bill. In the Senate letter, he continued to argue against language on mandatory apportionment of damages, which in a patent case means awarding money to the successful litigant. Michel also endorsed an article on the topic written by William Rooklidge, past president of the American Intellectual Property Law Association. According to Foley & Lardner attorney Harold Wegner, the judge's views are aligned with those of the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform, which is backed by Eli Lilly, General Electric, Motorola and others.
E-Government: The Food and Drug Administration has published software to help manufacturers, growers, retailers and others in the food industry assess their facilities' susceptibility to terrorist attack. FDA released the computer program, called the CARVER + Shock software tool, on Friday. The name is an acronym for six of the seven government-defined attributes that factor into risk -- criticality, accessibility, recuperability, vulnerability, effect and recognizability. The seventh attribute is psychological ramifications. The psychological consequences are greater when there are a large number of deaths or if the target has historical significance. FDA's goal in developing the software "is to maximize protection of the American food supply," Assistant Commissioner for Food Protection David Acheson said. "The relative risk-ranking methodology used by the CARVER + Shock software tool has been designed to assist facility operators in identifying potential vulnerabilities and assist in providing preventive measures to increase the defense of products and operations."
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
