Media
Media
Thinking about the FTC’s Public Workshops and Roundtables: From Town Crier to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive ...
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 10/20/2009 - 10:22On December 1st and 2nd, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is holding “Workshops and Roundtables: From Town Crier to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?“ In the public notice they have a long list of questions that they propose should be discussed.
Over the next few weeks, I hope to gather some of my thoughts, and hopefully, reactions from others about these questions. With that, I am providing the list of questions along with some of my initial reactions. It may take me a while to get through all the questions, so I’m posting the first group now, and I’ll try to post more over the coming days.
Blogger’s Notebook
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 10/18/2009 - 11:16It is a rainy Sunday morning about two weeks before municipal elections in Connecticut. My inbox has piled up with various notices and it seems like a good time for another Blogger’s Notebook post, highlighting some of the notices and clearing my queue.
At the top of the list are notices about voter registration. Since we do not yet have election day registration in our state it is even more important to look at when your last chance to register will be. Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz as well as various civic involvement organizations have been working hard to get more citizens registered. For those wishing to register by mail, voter registration cards must be postmarked by Tuesday October 20th. If you wish to register in person you have until 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday October 27th to make it to your Registrar of Voters office.
Politicians are all out this weekend meeting potential voters. Since the elections are municipal elections, many of the candidates lack name recognition and the draw is often the better-known politicians stumping for the local candidates.
On Sunday Senator Chris Dodd, Mayor Dan Malloy, Ned Lamont, State Treasurer Denise Nappier, State Comptroller Nancy Wyman, and State Representatives Roberta Willis and Michelle Cook will be attending various events supporting local candidates in Torrington, Harwinton, and Goshen. The Torrington event will take place at Torrington Democratic Headquarters, 29 Main Street, Torrington, 2 p.m. Harwinton will have a turkey roast at 215 Locust Road, Harwinton for $25 per person and the Goshen event will take place at Goshen Town Hall Conference Room, Route 63, Goshen, 2-4 p.m.
Yesterday, Senator Dodd, along with his wife Jackie Clegg Dodd and Milford Democratic Mayoral hopeful Genevieve Salvatore all participated in the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network’s (FAAN) 3rd annual “Walk for Food Allergy: Moving Toward a Cure”. The Dodd’s daughter and the Salvatore’s son both suffer from severe allergies.
Ned Lamont is also out stumping for other Ms. Salvatore at 100 Lansdale Avenue in Milford this morning, after also having been out stumping for David Martin in Stamford.
In other electioneering, the New Haven Register has an interesting article, Tweeting for Votes on the use of social media in local elections. The article is worthy of a blog post in and of itself discussing some of the views expressed there.
In other news about Twitter and politics, CTNewsJunkie reports Twitter has sided with the Democrats over the fake Twitter accounts the CT GOP had set up. These accounts have been taken down.
One of the important aspects of the municipal elections in many locations will be board of education elections. One board of education announcement that came across my desk from several different directions was the announcement that “Alex Johnston, Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN), a New Haven-based education reform advocacy group, has been appointed by Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. to serve on the New Haven Board of Education.”
I met Mr. Johnston at a conference on education at Yale and New Haven is lucky to have him. The conference was during the confirmation hearings for Linda McMahon to be appointed to the State Board of Education. State Rep. Andrew Fleischmann at the time spoke vehemently against McMahon’s appointment. With her current run for U.S. Senate, McMahon’s work at WWE is coming under much greater criticism, as highlighted in this blog post on MyLeftNutmeg.
As a final note about electoral politics, CTNewsJunkie also reports about an informational forum planned by the Government Administration and Elections Committee on the Citizens’ Election Program. This program was struck down by a judge and needs prompt modifications if it is to be used for the 2010 election cycle. The forum will take place at the Legislative Office Building on Thursday at 11 AM. Hopefully, I will be able to attend and live blog the event.
Last Thursday, there was a Bus Rapid Transit Symposium at the Legislative Office Building. On Monday, there will be a “2009 Prospering Communities, Thriving Families” conference at the Hartford Downtown Marriott. The week ends off with International Day of Climate Action on Saturday. From 1 to 4:40 there will a Family Fun Day at the Massaro Farm at 41 Ford Road in Woodbridge. Community Supported Agriculture shares in the farm are expected to be available at the family day. This is a practical, fun, and close to home way to help fight climate change.
There will also be events at the lower green in New Haven on Saturday starting at 2 PM as well as a potluck dinner and discussion at the Quaker Meetinghouse on 225 East Grand Avenue starting at 5 PM.
Unfortunately, we are supposed to be attending an event in New Hampshire and will most likely miss these events.
On the national level, I need to finish up my work on my response to Cablevision’s request to encrypt basic cable in New York City. I’m also working on my thoughts for the FTC hearings in Washington in December about the future of journalism.
The FCC has now posted an independent review of the FCC by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Next Generation Connectivity: A review of broadband Internet transitions and policy from around the world. That is on the to do list, as well as following legislation to support public access television as well as Local Community Radio Act (HR 1147).
In other tidbits, David Plouffe campaign manager for Obama's presidential campaign will be speaking in Second Life as part of the fall public affairs lecture series, “Assessing Obama's First Year.” . You can find more information at http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2010/oct/plouffe101609.html
The GoodNewsNetwork highlights an article about a Former refugee who recycles US hotel soap for Uganda
The Country Club of Woodbridge is having an open house today. It is a rainy day which might not be best for the open house. However, they have discounts on membership in effect until the end of the month, so it is worth stopping by and checking out.
Finally, for this morning, Bill Chmura has written about his first batch of hard cider. Bill and I have been emailing back and forth, and I need to follow up with him on his latest adventures.
There are plenty of other items I would have liked to highlight, but the notebook is long enough, and I have other tasks to get to.
Who will pay for the news?
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 10/12/2009 - 12:28Underlying all the discussions about blogs, the Internet, the future of journalism, the death of daily newspapers, and so many related topics is the question, “who will pay for the news?” The idealistic answer is that information should be free. We should be able to get our information freely off of the Internet. News sites should not charge for the distribution of what is, after all, normally public information. Likewise, service providers shouldn’t be getting in the way of people’s access to information. The net should be neutral.
Yet it does take time and energy to gather, make sense of, and distribute information. Different people will have different motivations to engage in this activity, and this will affect the way the information is understood and distributed.
One motivation is simply to make a profit. Gathering and distributing news becomes no different than raising, slaughtering and distributing pigs or chicken for consumption, and it is telling to hear people talk about the public consumption of news. Indeed, too often news stories distributed from these large corporate entities are nothing but Twinkees, sweet and enjoyable for some to eat, but containing little to no value and contributing to national health problems. Others might be juicy pork chops, perhaps from some slaughtered pig in lipstick, and the whole focus ends up being about the gravy train.
Recently, Tom Curley President and CEO of the Associated Press spoke about their efforts to get the gravy train back on the tracks. At the Xinhua Beijing Media Summit he spoke about “News Registry – a rights management and tracking system.” He says, “The NewsGuide would enable news publishers together to create a preferred web destination for consumers of breaking news, which also would serve as a conduit to related content displayed on the publisher Web sites.” In other words, he is recognizing that news publishers have lost the battle to be the primary destination for news and he is trying to get the toothpaste back in the tube.
He also says, “The News Registry will use a common taxonomy and format around intellectual property rights and licensing rules. It will reflect common understanding around the aggregation and indexing of published news content and will enable participating publishers to share mutually in new licensing opportunities whether based on subscriptions or advertising.” To me, this raises all kinds of issues. Part of what makes the world of the web so wonderful is that it allows people to look at the news through many different prisms instead of some common understanding of how news should be indexed.
Even small websites can fall prey to this desire to ride the gravy train. I spend a lot of time surfing blogs and find many of them which focus on how to make a quick buck online. Some are actually quite interesting as potential incubators for new online revenue models. Others are more interesting for illustrating the potential pitfalls of an internet based information economy.
The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), recently issued new guidelines on what sort of disclosure a blogger most provide when they receive something of value related to something the blogger is writing about. Advertising Age finds the new rules, which are scheduled to go into effect on December 1st, Excessive, Ridiculous and Hypocritical and Ken Wheaton suggests the rules are so silly, the only option is laughter.
Dan Gillmor, who is currently running the Knight Center for Digital Entrepreneurship describes the new ruling as a dangerous federal intervention in social medial. Yet Glenn Fleishman, in the comments, says that he doesn’t have any problems with the new guidelines. All the folks he knows already adhere to the guidelines and if there is a seamy underbelly of blogger payola, it is probably just as good that it gets revealed. If we go back to the idea that all information should be free, then it would seem information about who has been receiving what material interest ought to be free as well.
Yet this still leaves the issue of who will cover what news and why. Advertising agencies and PR firms will do what they can to get bloggers to cover news about products they promote. Communications directors will send out press releases about issues that they want covered. Individuals might write about some of this if they get freebies they like or if the issue is near and dear to their hearts, but what about the rest of the news? Especially, what about the news that takes a lot of hard investigative reporting to uncover?
Soon after the FTC released their new guidelines, they announced another event. On December 1st and 2nd, they will sponsor Public Workshops and Roundtables: From Town Crier to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?
The new FTC guidelines exposed part of the problem with who pays for news. The workshops and roundtables have the potential to explore this further. Some of the problem may well have been created by the consolidation of news organizations to being highly leveraged corporations trying to maximize ROI on a product they treat no differently than pork chops. Yet there are plenty of other issues, and hopefully, plenty of new ideas on how we can pay people to keep information free. How do you believe news gathering and dissemination should be paid for?
Cablevision Seeks to Encrypt Basic Cable
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 12:47On September 23, the FCC released a public notice that “Cablevision Systems Corporation (“Cablevision”) has filed a request … for waiver of Section 76.630(a) of the Commission’s rules with respect to its New
York City franchise areas …[which] prohibits a cable operator from encrypting the Basic service tier.”
Cablevision “asserts that grant of the requested waiver ‘will reduce costs, improve customer service, reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions and have virtually no negative impact on customers’” and that “Commission precedent supports grant of the requested waiver”.
“Cablevision asserts the Commission has found that the purpose of the rule prohibiting encryption of the Basic tier is to limit the additional cost and inconvenience of the equipment that consumers would need to view encrypted analog programming in an otherwise rate-regulated tier. Cablevision emphasizes that if its waiver is granted, and it transitions to an all-digital system with an encrypted Basic tier, the issue of cost and inconvenience for subscribers would be moot because nearly all of its subscribers will have either a digital set-top box or CableCARD-equipped device to view digital programming, and by extension, encrypted programming”
“Cablevision acknowledges, however, that grant of this waiver will affect subscribers with television sets equipped with digital cable tuners (quadrature amplitude modulation or “QAM” tuners) who subscribe only to broadcast Basic service. Currently, Basic tier subscribers, and some other subscribers who have additional television sets without set top boxes, can rely on the digital cable tuner in their television to receive Basic tier programming without the need to obtain a box. However, if the Basic tier is encrypted, these subscribers would need to buy or rent additional equipment (either a set-top box or a CableCARD)”
I believe that it is a bad idea for the Commission to grant the waiver. First, while Cablevision states that “nearly all of its subscribers will have either a digital set-top box or CableCARD-equipped device”, it would create additional costs and inconvenience to those who do not “have either a digital set-top box or CableCARD-equipped device”. The larger inconvenience is for people who have additional televisions or tuners that do not support CableCARD. As an example, while I have a set top box for the main television in our living room, I often use my Pinnacle PCTV HD Ultimate USB stick to receive non-encrypted digital channels on my computer, which also provides the ability to record these channels for playback at a later time. My USB stick which does not support CableCARD would be rendered virtually useless if Cablevision were granted a similar waiver in Connecticut.
While I recognize that I may be closer to the cutting edge of technology adoption than others, I cannot help but wonder how many other people would be inconvenienced or face additional costs, even if only to get additional CableCards from Cablevision. It is my understanding that Cablevision currently charges an extra $2 per month per CableCard. Beyond that I am concerned that this could inhibit the development and growth of other digital tuners that do not have CableCard capabilities.
If Cablevision were willing to agree, in perpetuity to make all CableCards free, to cover the difference in the purchase cost between nonCableCard enabled devices and similar CableCard enabled devices, and make it convenient to get such devices with such discounts, then such an action might be defensible. However, I cannot see CableVision being willing to make such an agreement, and I’m not sure that it would be wise for them to do so.
It is also worth noting that Microsoft’s FAQ about CableCards states “You'll need a CableCARD if you want to watch encrypted digital and HD channels. If you choose not to use a CableCARD, you can watch and record basic cable TV channels”. I do not know how many people have set up Windows Media Center without a CableCard based on this information, but the information would no longer be correct for people receiving their cable signal from CableVision in New York City if the exception is granted.
Another reason why I am particularly concerned about this is that even though I do not currently live in New York City I do live in another area served by CableVision and their comment about relying on precedent raises a further concern for me. I do not want such a ruling to establish a precedent that could negatively affect CableVision service in other areas including the area where I live.
The public notice states that “Comments may be filed electronically using the Internet by accessing the ECFS: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/ecfs/ or the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov”. I am considering filing a comment through this system and I would encourage others to do the same. In addition, if you have additional thoughts on using digital sets, tuners, or USB devices without CableCards, please share them so that that we can all provide more effective comments on the public notice.
What’s in a name? Ask ICANN and Twitter.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 10/06/2009 - 09:45What do Martin Luther King, Jr., Glenn Beck and Chris Donovan have in common? Each of them have websites using their names in a critical manner.
Recently, I read about the website entitled Glenn Beck Raped and Murdered a Young Girl in 1990 dot com. In early September, Matthew A. Kaplan and Al J. Daniels, Jr., attorneys for Mercury Radio Arts, Inc and Glenn Beck submitted Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) complaint against the domain.
The Citizen Media Law Project has an excellent article about the complaint, including a link to the response to the complaint. Not only does the response explain why Glenn Beck’s complaint is without merit, it is a good background on UDRP complaints, free speech issues and even a good explanation of Internet Memes. As a side note, Mr. Beck lives in New Canaan, CT.
Also here in Connecticut, the Connecticut GOP has set up a site criticizing the speaker of the house, Chris Donovan as well as around thirty other State Legislators. It would seem as if any argument against these websites should not include a UDRP complaint, as illustrated by the issues above. Yet there are other issues.
Not only did the CT GOP set up websites, they also set up Twitter accounts. In Twitters’ Terms of Service they reserve the right, without assuming any obligation to do so, to terminate or reclaim users that do not adhere to Twitter’s rules. These rules include: “You may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others”
Some have argued that these sites are intended to be parody sites and as such are protected. Others have noted that unlike Glenn Beck Raped and Murdered a Young Girl in 1990 dot com, these fail the “Moron in a Hurry” test. Put briefly, even a moron in a hurry is unlikely to believe that a site entitled “Glenn Beck Raped and Murdered a Young Girl in 1990” is likely to be a site run by Glenn Beck, but the same moron in a hurry, might believe that “Meet Rep Donovan” is actually a site run by and supportive of Rep. Donovan. I’ve actually spoken with some savvy internet users who were initially confused about the site. It is unclear if Twitter is likely to take any action against the CT GOP.
The broader complaint is that it the site really isn’t any good. The Glenn Beck site, besides making effective use of an Internet Meme, also provides a striking criticism of his style. The CT GOP sites criticizing the Democratic Legislators really have very little to say, which reflects a broader criticism of the CT GOP as a whole.
So, where does Martin Luther King, Jr. fit into all of this? A white supremacist organization hosts Martin Luther King dot org. It is often brought up in discussions about media literacy. Whatever happens with Glenn Beck and Rep. Donovan, we need better media literacy and this should be more of a focus in our schools and beyond. Hopefully, this will have helped various readers understand a little better some of the media literacy issues we face here in Connecticut.
