Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
By Mercy Gakii, Reporter-Researcher, BroabandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, September 30, 2009 – Federal Communications Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker said at the agency’s workshop on September 30 that security is the most important challenge facing the communications sector. "I think it's really important we get this right, because if this is the part we get wrong, all the rest is for naught."
Don Welch, president and CEO of the nonprofit research group Merti Network, told the agency that the internet service providers are lacking the incentives to justify investments in network security are missing. He suggestedthat the federal government provide such incentives by requiring ISPs to disclose information about network breaches.
"If I can say my network is more secure than your network, I'll get some justification for investing in cybersecurity,” he said. “Coming up with that return is really what's going to be hard for private industry.
John Nagengast, executive director for strategic initiatives with AT&T's government solutions division, pointed out that it is nearly impossible to answer the question that amazes every user: “Where did this attack come from?” Global real-time monitoring is the only way to tackle the problem, he said.
An effective information-sharing regime faces the challenge of creating partnerships between the federal government...
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Saturday, July 25th, 2009
By Douglas Streeks, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, July 25, 2009 - Advertisers need to consider consumers’ right to privacy when they collect information on individual internet consumers, a panel of academics, non-profits and industry officials agreed on Friday.
The experts spoke during a panel discussion sponsored by the Technology Policy Institute, a market-oriented think tank on technology issues.
Emphasizing the success of the Internet as an unregulated medium, Florida Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns said it is important to treat any such legislation with caution.
Stearns said that “only the consumer” knows how he or she feels about the information being collected about him.
Still, increased transparency and choice would help in resolving the conflict between advertisers’ needs for information and consumers’ privacy.
Any legislation passed should apply the same privacy rules to similar types of companies collecting the same type of information for the same reasons, he said, and parties accountable only for what they know and control.
Besides the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, Stearns suggested that a new agency could be formed for this type of regulation.
During the panel discussion that followed Stearns’ remarks, Alessandro Acquisti, associate professor of information technology and public policy at the Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University, said that...
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Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
News
By Drew Bennett, Special Correspondent, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, October 7 – Congress last week passed legislation, the “Broadband Data Improvement Act,” that seeks better information about high-speed internet connections through enhanced data collection by five separate government agencies.
But as passed by the Senate and the House, S. 1492 deleted all authorization of funds – an amount that had totaled $40 million for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012 in the Senate Commerce Committee version of the legislation.
Although S. 1492 was agreed to by the House, the bill undercut many of the key features of a companion House bill, the “Broadband Census of America Act,” H.R. 3919.
H.R. 3919 passed the House in November 2007. It would have forced the disclosure of company-by-company broadband data. It also would have created a national broadband map under the aegis of the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, with details on broadband coverage by every broadband provider at the nine-digit ZIP code level. Both features are absent in the final bill.
The Senate finally passed S. 1492 on Friday, September 26 – the same day that many state officials and academics gathered in Washington at the “Broadband Census for America Conference” sponsored by BroadbandCensus.com, Carnegie Mellon...
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Monday, September 8th, 2008
Key Academics, State Officials and Broadband Data Collectors to Speak
Embassy of Ireland to Give Luncheon Keynote Address on Publicly-Available Broadband Data
Coverage of the Broadband Census for America Conference
- Broadband Census for America Conference Web Site
- Tvol's Flickr photostream of the Broadband Census for America Conference
- "Propriety Data Cited as Challenge for Broadband Mapping," by Lynn Stanton, TR Reports
- "Regulators, Officials Debate Need for National Broadband Policy, Fund," by Carrie DeLeon, TR Reports
- "Service Providers Should Report Better Metrics, Panelists Say," by Scott Sleek, Broadband Advisory Services, Pike & Fischer
- "U.S. Copes with Broadband Statistics Void," IP Democracy
- "Guessing at data," Susan Crawford's blog
- "Experts call for broadband transparency,"by Maya Prabhu, ESchool News
- American Library Association District Dispatch
For Immediate Release
WASHINGTON, September 8, 2008 – Many of the nation’s foremost broadband policy-makers and experts will analyze and discuss best practices for improving the collection and sharing of public data about high-speed internet access at the Broadband Census for America Conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, September 26, 2008.
Panelists at the half-day conference include Rachelle Chong, California Public Utility Commissioner; broadband data pioneer Professor Kenneth Flamm...
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Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
Blog Entries
By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, August 19 - BroadbandCensus.com is pleased to support
One Web Day, and I am very happy to be an Ambassador for this effort.
Most Americans who have high-speed internet can't imagine life without broadband. How could you connect to the Internet of today without it? In today’s world, broadband is as basic as running water and electricity. And yet the U.S. is falling behind globally.
As a technology reporter, I’ve been writing about the battles over broadband and the Internet for more than a decade here in Washington. Yet there is one fact about which nearly everyone seems to be in agreement: if America wants better broadband, America needs better broadband data.
That’s why I’ve recently started a new venture to collect this broadband data, and to make this data freely available for all on the Web at
http://BroadbandCensus.com.
One Web Day presents an opportunity for all of us to take stock with the true state of broadband in this country. BroadbandCensus.com wants to work with each of you to help us “crowdsource” the data we need to get a better handle on availability, competition, speeds, prices, and quality of service of local broadband.
What is...
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Friday, August 8th, 2008
Blog Entries
By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
A recent post to Dave Farber's [IP] list:
WASHINGTON, August 8 - I'd like to take a moment to respond to some of the issues raised by the recent e-mail of
Brett Glass.
With respect to the issue data confidentiality, it's important to separate out several issues here:
(1) The names of carriers and the locations in which they offer services, by ZIP code.
(2) The number of subscribers that carriers have in a particular ZIP code.
The Form 477 of the Federal Communications Commission requires carriers to submit both types of information to the FCC.
I agree that category (2) may well be confidential information. I do not think that category (1) can be considered confidential.
The web site that I run,
http://BroadbandCensus.com, is an attempt to combine information about broadband from various sources. In addition to "crowdsourcing" data from internet users, we are combining public information from the FCC's Form 477, publicly available information about carriers and where they offer services, as well as from states and localities. Since we launched BroadbandCensus.com in January 2008, We have had thousands of internet users tell us the names of their providers, where those providers are offering service, and they've...
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Thursday, August 7th, 2008
'Broadband Census for America' Conference to Focus on Sharing Publicly-Available Broadband Data
Save the Date Announcement
Editor's Note: The agenda for the Broadband Census for America Conference was released on September 8, 2008, and is available at http://broadbandcensus.com/blog/?p=569. Please visit the page for fuller details about the conference program.
WASHINGTON, August 7, 2008 - BroadbandCensus.com, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Texas at Austin's Robert S. Strauss Center, and the Virginia Tech eCorridors Program invite government officials, academic researchers and other key stakeholders to a half-day conference on collecting and sharing public data about high-speed internet access.
The conference, “
Broadband Census for America,” aims to assemble state, local and federal officials engaged in gathering and mapping information about broadband availability, competition, speeds, prices and quality of service. Academic researchers will lend their perspective on the importance of universal broadband data.
Keynote speakers scheduled to address the conference include:
- Eamonn Confrey, First Secretary, Information and Communications Policy, Embassy of Ireland. Mr. Confrey has confirmed as the luncheon speaker on “Mapping out Broadband for Consumers: The Irish Experience.”
- Massachusetts Representative Ed Markey*, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. (*Invited to present opening keynote.)
The conference will also feature two...
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Monday, July 28th, 2008
News
By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, July 28 – By combining better public information, market mechanisms and smarter systems of subsidization, the government can play a positive role in funding infrastructure investments in telecommunications, according to three reports released Friday by the Brookings Institution.
The papers, released on Friday at an event that also featured an address by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, are part of a Brookings Institution initiative promoting investments in infrastructure – both physical, transportation investments, as well as new ways to spur improvements in the telecommunications infrastructure.
“No economy improves with a declining infrastructure,” said Kaine, a Democrat. “Unless you make that high-tech investment easy by telecom access, you won't get” improvements in your state's economic condition, he said.
Brookings, a liberal-leaning think tank, released the reports as part of an initiative dubbed the “Hamilton Project.” The project seeks to put forward policy ideas that “embrac[e] a role for effective government in making needed public investments,” according to the think tank.
Friday's event featured the release of six reports: three on transportation, two on telecommunications, and an overview report with recommendations on both subjects.
“The rapid page of technological progress in telecommunications and the widespread dispersion of new products and services... may present...
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