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In every shift of technology, new companies emerge to dominate new spaces while incumbents falter (and sometimes fade away). Today’s epic shift to mobile, big data and real-time analytics will certainly change the corporate landscape. But the emergence of these new technologies is also inspiring major change in the C-level suite, and the biggest beneficiary will be the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Traditionally, CMOs have dealt with the “soft skills” of marketing. They headed up cost centers filled with branding, advertising and campaigns that were expensive endeavors, producing benefits that were often difficult to measure. In this current shift, CMOs might not bring CIOs to their knees, but if corporate budgets could talk they would certainly favor the CMO. To wit: Gartner predicts that by 2017 the CMO will spend more on IT than the CIO. Why? Mobile, big data and real-time analytics are transforming the modern CMO’s organization from a cost center to a critical revenue-driving arm to reach and engage the customer base. Realizing that CIOs and CMOs probably hate stories of a battle raging between them, there is actually a peaceful, and logical, middle ground in which the two work together to harness the vastness of big data to create real-time – and importantly, actionable – analytics. While the CMO brings the marketing skills to the table, the CIO has the technical chops to deal with capturing, processing and integrating data to make it useful. Click headline to read more--
It's sad to note how collective humanity has done an ostrich on the warnings about the machines. Still the NFL exists, robbing us of our best and brightest, who will no longer be available for the coming war with SkyNET. Conferences on what to do about the surely coming robot horde have produced little in the way of a path forward and have gone relatively unreported in any case. Due to this, we know very little about what form the non-existent threat of terminator-like metal monsters will take. Will they simply wage war against us? Will they syphon our body heat for energy? Will they farm our skin and dance around in it to Goodbye Horses, like some kind of graphite Buffalo Bill?
Not according to Rice University professor Moshe Vardi, who claims that they have a far more terrifying plan in store: displacing the human workforce. According to Vardi, sometime around the year 2045, you won't have a job any longer because the robots will have taken it away from you. Click headline to read more--
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has done a highly detailed analysis of broadband deployment in the U.S. -– looking at broadband availability by speed, by technology, by state, by county, and by various combinations of these factors. The upshot, the NTIA said, is that although the U.S. continues to make progress on broadband deployment and speeds, gaps between rural and metro areas persist. The report notes, for example, that almost 100% of urban residents have access to download speeds of at least 6 Mbps but only 82% of rural communities can access these speeds. And while almost 88% of urban residents have access to speeds of 25 Mbps, only 41% of rural residents have the same access. One of the most interesting charts in the report was one showing the percentage of counties where people can get broadband at various speeds ranging from basic 3 Mbps downstream service to high-speed 100 Mbps downstream service. In the chart, reproduced here, each speed level has a low and a high mark. The high mark shows the percentage of counties where 25% of the population can get broadband at a certain speed, while the low mark shows the percentage of counties where 95% of the population can get service at that speed. Click headline to read more--
In February 2005, when Google released the earliest version of its Google Maps product, the company changed the way the world views online maps. Almost overnight, Google made incumbents like Mapquest look antiquated. And with the passage of time, the Mountain View, Calif.-based search and information giant has been quietly making incremental yet important upgrades to its the maps product. But on Wednesday, the company launched the first substantial and major overhaul of Google Maps, and created a product that is finely tuned to today’s modern, data rich web. When compared side by side with early versions of Google Maps, the difference between the maps of 2006 and 2013 is the equivalent to the difference between a Rio MP3 player and an iPod. “We originally created the draggable maps and now we sat down and basically wondered how were we going to reinvent the mapping experience,” said Jonah Jones, lead designer for Google Maps, who has spent the past seven years at Google working on maps. “It wasn’t as much dissatisfaction with the current maps, but more about how we can do this better.” The new Google Maps marries data, social and the concept of hyper-personalization, tastefully layering those principles on top of beautiful and detail-rich maps. Google used the popular Google Earth app to enhance the Google Maps experience itself. In doing so, Google is acknowledging that today we live on a much faster internet; we work on personal computers that have a lot more muscle and as consumers we have an expectation that everything should be personal to us. “There was more and more information which was being layered on the maps and we wanted to simplify and personalize that,” Jones said. “We think this is what next generation of what mapping looks like.” Click headline to read more--
Redbox Instant by Verizon is going to bring its streaming service to Google TV devices soon: The company demonstrated a prototype of its app at Google I/O Friday, and a representative told me that the app will launch in earnest within the next few weeks. After that, the company is going to launch a channel on Roku media streamers. Redbox Instant by Verizon’s prototype app was on display on an LG Google TV that ran the next version of Google TV that is based on Android 4.2.2, or Jelly Bean. That version will come to Google TV devices in the third quarter of this year, but I was told that the Redbox Instant app will be available before that, and that is going to work just fine with the current version of Google TV. However, the service won’t be available on Google TV devices using an Intel processor, which means that owners of the Logitech Revue and other first-generation devices won’t be able to use it. Click headline to read more--
Twenty years ago electronic health records were nascent, digital music was mostly a fantasy, Twitter was what birds did, and Google cofounder Sergey Brin was a summer intern at Wolfram Research. The past two decades have seen a nuclear explosion in the collection and storage of digital information. In 2012, 2.8 zettabytes—that’s 1 sextillion bytes, or the equivalent of 24 quintillion tweets—were created or replicated, according to the research firm IDC. There are hundreds or thousands of petabyte-scale databases today, and we’d compare their size to what existed two decades ago, only every time the basis of comparison would be zero. Here’s a look at some of the world’s largest and most interesting data sets Click headline to see the legend that explains the type of data the size and color of dots represents--
Coming soon to your smartphone: unlimited video streaming of some television shows, without getting stuck with an expensive wireless bill for high data usage. Maybe. The idea of allowing consumers to subscribe to a content provider such as ESPN so they can watch their favorite shows without being charged for data use has been controversial. But it got new momentum this week when Randall L. Stephenson, AT&T’s chief executive, said he saw such deals in the industry’s future. That has sparked concern among some consumer groups, who say the practice would make it harder for upstart content providers to compete against big companies willing to pay for consumers’ voracious mobile-video consumption. Stephenson did not mention specific plans to broker deals with content providers. But his forecast that such deals could be feasible sparked protest from consumer advocacy groups. They say carriers have long argued that networks are strained from too much video traffic. But, the groups say, wireless firms appear to welcome more traffic if the content provider pays a higher fee. “Allowing a few deep-pocketed partners to pay for preferred treatment will stifle innovation, hinder competition, raise prices over time and give mobile phone companies the power to pick and choose the content you can access,” said Matt Wood, policy director for the public interest group Free Press. Federal regulators have not opposed the idea, and analysts say President Obama’s nominee to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler, probably won’t put up any obstacles. Click headline to read more--
Two seemingly unrelated things popped up over the last few days. One of these things was an article along the lines of a discussion I had not too long ago with friend Yermo about. Simplicity in software design. From Reducing Complexity: The Next Software Imperative: "...And that should be the goal of all developers to make an app so elegant, so well designed; you forget you're using it --or even the device on which it's installed. The reason people gravitate toward apps at work is because mobile devices often offer the most elegant solutions to long-standing problems. Instead of fighting with clunky enterprise software, users find software that does what they need it to do and nothing more --and more importantly that just works..." For those of you who don't remember what the Mozilla browser used to look like, as an example, one need only take a look at the community Seamonkey project, something I use every day because it does many things I want to do exceedingly well. It downloads my emails for me, something that it seems a generation has completely forgotten about unless they're locked into Microsoft Outlock Outlook. It has a built in HTML editor. It has an IRC component. It has an address book. I'm not the norm. The Firefox project does one thing very well. It's just a web browser. Seamonkey and Firefox have the same engine underneath. Which one is more popular? I don't think I need to look for statistics to show you that Firefox is more popular than Seamonkey. More popular examples would be apps for mobile phones. They do one thing and they do it well (unless it's something recent from Facebook, or so I hear). Simplicity. Yet simplicity almost always masks complexity; it's a matter of who deals with it. Click headline to read more--
In the next few months, 420,000 U.S. Cellular customers in the Midwest will find themselves without a mobile network. Sprint on Friday closed a $480 million deal with U.S. Cellular that will hand all of the latter’s spectrum in Chicago, St. Louis and the surrounding regions into Sprint’s waiting arms. This is no mere transfer of network title, though. Sprint plans to shut down U.S. Cellular’s network completely some time in those two metropolitan regions in the next several months (Champagne, Ill., and South Bend, Ind., will also be affected). And despite the fact that U.S. Cellular’s systems uses the same CDMA technology in the same PCS frequencies, Sprint isn’t supporting its existing handsets. All of those customers must either start over with new devices and new service plans on the Sprint network or go find a new mobile operator entirely. Sprint Regional VP for the Midwest Kevin Gleason told GigaOM that Sprint planned to make the transition as easy as possible for U.S. Cellular’s customers by offering them plenty of incentive to move to Sprint. “I believe our recapture rate will be high,” Gleason said. “We’ve already started communicating with them and several of them have already made the switch.” Click headline to read more--
Back in March, we noted that while a district court had ordered the US to hand over the evidence it was planning to use against Kim Dotcom, an appeals court had overturned that ruling, and said that the evidence wasn't needed for the extradition fight. Dotcom immediately appealed to New Zealand's Supreme Court, who has now said that it will review that ruling as well, so this case will continue to drag on for some time.
In this year's Special 301 report, the United States Trade Representative listed Ukraine as a "Priority Foreign Country" (aka PFC), triggering a 30 day countdown to initiate an investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act to determine trade sanctions. 19 USC 2412(2)(A). This is only the second time that the U.S. has threatened a WTO-member country with sanctions as a PFC. And thus it is an appropriate time to ask what restrictions the World Trade Organization places on the operation of the Special 301 program. As described more fully below, any sanction of Ukraine, including removal of General System of Preferences (GSP) benefits, would likely violate WTO rules. Indeed, the listing of Ukraine as a PFC, and the more general operation of "watch lists" threatening sanctions for intellectual property matters, could be challenged under the WTO even prior to any sanction actually going into effect. Click headline to read more--
Most cloud storage solutions like Dropbox and Google Drive give users space at a premium, but the actual data is stored in a data center in some remote location. A new product called Space Monkey aims to take the storage out of the data center and put it back in the hands of the user. This allows it to offer more data than traditional cloud storage solutions for a much lower price. Space Monkey, unlike other cloud services, actually puts a piece of hardware in the home of the user. The physical device allows the company to offer 1TB of cloud storage for US$10 a month, which is substantially cheaper than other storage solutions. Dropbox, for example, charges $9.99 a month for 100GB of storage. The other benefit of having a physical device is the speed. According to the creators of the Space Monkey, its offering is up to 60 times faster than any other cloud storage service on the market. Of course, this extra speed comes from being on the same local network as the device itself. If a user is out and about, Space Monkey promises speeds similar to that of traditional cloud storage services. When data is uploaded through Space Monkey, it is encrypted and spread out to different drives on the network. This is done to protect the data in the event of a disaster, such as a fire. It also creates redundant copies, which helps make sure no files are ever lost. Click headline to read more--
The grand opening of Conroe’s Deison Technology Park is scheduled for the end of the month, but city officials hope to have a tenant by then. The park could be on a “very short list” to secure the corporate headquarters of a South America firm, Conroe Industrial Development Corporate Executive Director Larry Calhoun told the CIDC board Thursday during its monthly meeting. The company is looking to build a 40,000 square-foot office with Class A space that would house 100 employees with an average salary of $100,000, Calhoun said. “I hope to hear something by next week,” he said. “We would be one of two finalists.” The opening ceremony of the 240-acre site is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. May 30. Representatives from the South American firm and the Greater Houston Partnership paid a recent visit to the development, which is located next to FM 1484, just west of the Lone Star Executive Airport. The visit was conducted by the Greater Houston Partnership, as part of Governor Rick Perry’s Office of Economic Development and Tourism. Click headline to read more--
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Plenty of people rightly mocked the news a few years ago that the Associated Press was working on a plan to "DRM the news." The idea was to put some sort of licensing mechanism together to get news aggregators to pay to promote their news. This seemed incredibly dumb for a whole host of reasons. It added no value. Its only purpose was to limit the value for everyone in the system by putting a tollbooth where none needed to exist. When it finally launched last year to great fanfare in the newspaper world, under the name "NewsRight," we pointed out that, once again, it made no sense. Basically, the whole focus appeared to be on getting bloggers and aggregators to pay for a license they legally did not need.
Since the launch... we heard absolutely nothing about NewsRight. There was a launch, with its newspaper backers claiming it was some huge moment for newspapers, and then nothing.
Well, until now, when we find out that NewsRight quietly shut down. Click headline to read more--
Marlene Castro knew the tall blonde woman only as Laurene, her mentor. They met every few weeks in a rough Silicon Valley neighborhood the year that Ms. Castro was applying to college, and they e-mailed often, bonding over conversations about Ms. Castro’s difficult childhood. Without Laurene’s help, Ms. Castro said, she might not have become the first person in her family to graduate from college. It was only later, when she was a freshman at University of California, Berkeley, that Ms. Castro read a news article and realized that Laurene was Silicon Valley royalty, the wife of Apple’s co-founder, Steven P. Jobs. “I just became 10 times more appreciative of her humility and how humble she was in working with us in East Palo Alto,” Ms. Castro said. The story, friends and colleagues say, is classic Laurene Powell Jobs. Famous because of her last name and fortune, she has always been private and publicity-averse. Her philanthropic work, especially on education causes like College Track, the college prep organization she helped found and through which she was Ms. Castro’s mentor, has been her priority and focus. Now, less than two years after Mr. Jobs’s death, Ms. Powell Jobs is becoming somewhat less private. She has tiptoed into the public sphere, pushing her agenda in education as well as global conservation, nutrition and immigration policy. Just last month, for example, she sat down for a rare television interview, discussing the immigration bill before Congress. She has also taken on new issues, like gun control. “She’s been mourning for a year and was grieving for five years before that,” said Larry Brilliant, president of the Skoll Global Threats Fund who is an old friend of Mr. Jobs. “Her life was about her family and Steve, but she is now emerging as a potent force on the world stage, and this is only the beginning.” But she is doing it her way. Click headline to read more--
There has been some tension in the marketplace regarding broadband and voice service, particularly in rural markets. It stems from growing consumer demand for standalone broadband – that is subscribing to broadband without the requirement for an accompanying voice line (sometimes referred to as naked DSL). Regulated rate-of-return rural carriers are challenged with this marketplace desire, given the regulatory requirement for an underlying voice line with DSL, for cost recovery purposes. As a result, rural telcos have been implementing creative ways to package DSL with home phone service, even as more and more customers look for a broadband only option. Why Force a Landline?
To some rural telecom outsiders, the practice of forcing customers to take a landline with DSL may seem quite odd. Why force customers to buy something they don’t want (telephone line) just to get the one thing they do (broadband)?
This dilemma flows from regulatory requirements, which tie Universal Service Funding and other cost recovery mechanisms to traditional phone service, not broadband. In other words, if the telco delivers a circuit to a home, it must include home phone service to qualify to receive cost recovery, in the form of High Cost Loop Support (“HCLS”) and Interstate Common Line Support (“ICLS”). A broadband-only circuit is considered special access in this context, which is not eligible for USF support. Cost recovery is crucial in high cost rural markets. Without it, phone service and broadband would be too costly for end customers. FCC Opens the Door
NTCA and others have brought this marketplace reality to the attention of the FCC and have pushed to change the rules to allow cost recovery for broadband-only lines. The FCC is finally starting to listen and issued a public notice requesting comments about how and if cost recovery should be extended for standalone broadband services offered by rate-of-return rural carriers. This debate is part of a broader debate on how to implement the next generation of USF, the Connect America Fund.
“It’s an intriguing idea as consumers increasingly subscribe to fiber, DSL or cable broadband Internet access service and use a mobile phone to talk. So we’re soliciting specific proposals for carrying out this idea,” says Julie Veach, Chief, FCC Wireline Competition Bureau in an FCC blog post. Click headline to read more--
Before Tom Wheeler, President Obama’s pick to head the Federal Communications Commission, can find his seat at the federal agency overseeing the nation’s telecommunications industry, he will need time to sever the extensive ties he maintains as an ex-lobbyist and investor in the companies he will soon oversee. To avoid an even bigger appearance of a conflict of interest, Wheeler has agreed to dump at least $1 million in personal stock in AT&T and Verizon, as well as divest himself of holdings in 76 other media and tech companies including Time Warner, Comcast, Google, Sprint, Deutsche Telekom and News Corp. Wheeler is also submitting his resignation from the board of Earthlink, an Internet Service Provider, and will also sell off his shares in that company. He will also have to step down from Core Capital, a venture capitalist investor firm with extensive holdings in the telecom industry. In our view, Wheeler has shown he couldn’t be more of a telecom industry insider unless he also served on the board of AT&T. Wheeler’s extensive holdings depict someone who has maintained a direct financial interest in the industry for years, even after ending his leadership at the National Cable Television Association and leading the nation’s biggest wireless industry lobbying group, the CTIA. These kinds of deep industry ties are a serious concern for the average consumer. As we’ve reported before, Tom Wheeler has said almost nothing on his blog about consumer interests, writing views from the perspective of an industry lobbyist and investor. Watching him disgorge well over a million dollars in direct investments in AT&T and Verizon — companies he’d oversee in his new role — does not ease our concern he remains a consummate insider. He is well-positioned to move back through the D.C. revolving door at the end of the Obama Administration to reinvest in the companies his tenure at the FCC could potentially make or break. Wheeler’s appointment represents another broken promise from the Obama Administration: Click headline to read more--
If you are a customer of Verizon Wireless, you might want to consider switching carriers in light of the Associated Press phone snooping scandal. When the feds came knocking for AP journalists’ call records last year, Verizon apparently turned the data over with no questions asked. The New York Times, citing an AP employee, reported Tuesday that at least two of the reporters’ personal cellphone records “were provided to the government by Verizon Wireless without any attempt to obtain permission to tell them so the reporters could ask a court to quash the subpoena.” I contacted Verizon Wireless for comment, querying whether the AP incident may prompt the company to change its policy regarding how it responds to such requests. Spokeswoman Debra Lewis said Verizon Wireless complied “with legal processes with regard to requests from law enforcement” but wouldn’t comment on specific cases. In regard to a change of policy, Lewis said she was “not going to speculate on what may or may not happen in the future.” Either way, the debacle is likely to come as a much needed wake up call for some reporters, even if companies fail to change their questionable practices. The message is simple: Don’t communicate with sensitive sources on the phone, regardless of who your carrier is. Encryption is an option, but safest is to do things the old-fashioned way: face-to-face, with a notepad and a pen. Click headline to read more--
NRRI Report, May 2013 "Twenty-five states had passed legislation eliminating or reducing state commission authority over telecommunications by the end of the 2012 legislative sessions. By the end of 2013, this number could increase significantly, given the legislation pending in states across the country. Legislation reducing regulatory oversight (or clarifying the deregulation initiatives passed earlier) was proposed in 20 states during the 2013 legislative session... Should the majority of the legislation pending in the 2013 sessions be enacted, nearly 70% of the states will have significantly reduced or eliminated commission jurisdiction over retail telecommunications services." Let's connect the dots. Starting in 2007, AT&T, Verizon, Centurylink and the cable companies, working with a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), created state-based model legislation and principles designed by the companies to accomplish one thing -- the removal of all regulations, obligations and oversight on the companies' businesses. As the NRRI report outlines, 25 states have removed some, if not all regulations and oversight, and there are more to come in 2013. Moreover, the incumbent phone companies were supposed to compete with each other for wireline/broadband services as each merger to make these companies larger was based on commitments to compete out of region. Now it's all one, big, happy family. However, what is startling is that the three largest phone companies, covering almost every state, are now all working together using the exact same principles, talking points, legislation and even lobbying groups, such as ALEC. The ALEC state senator in Wisconsin or Florida or Connecticut all are working from the exact same playbook and are being supported by very deep pockets of companies that should have been competitors, not collaborators. The public's side? There is no other serious side with these resources, much less a national plan. Click headline to read more--
Layton congratulates Provo on the opportunity the Google Fiber partnership will bring to its residents and on them joining other cities in becoming a gigabit community. Provo’s residents will be able to appreciate the benefits and advantages of gigabit-capable broadband. We join Utah Gov. Gary Hebert and House Speaker Becky Lockhart in applauding Provo for having the foresight to bring this critical infrastructure to its citizens and make it flow like water and electricity. The excitement surrounding this event validates in many ways the importance of fiber as essential infrastructure and the vision Layton and other cities began working toward 11 years ago with formation of the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency, or UTOPIA, which serves 11 member cities on the Wasatch Front. The fact is that to remain competitively positioned in today’s evolving economy, it is essential that we do a much better job of providing advanced communication networks. The U.S. has fallen to 17th in the world in the deployment of high-speed broadband communications. If we don’t change this, we will continue to be left behind as more technologically advanced countries move ahead in adapting to an evolving economy that relies more and more on the information superhighway. Internet access is now as essential to everyday life as telephone and electricity were 100 years ago. As cities, our long-range planning is dependent upon business development that will provide sustainable jobs into the future. The businesses that will provide these jobs are highly dependent on high-speed broadband capabilities. The business community and our residents demand fast, affordable and widespread Internet access. Click headline to read more--
Time Warner Cable Inc., the second-largest U.S. cable-TV provider, is considering taking an equity stake in online-video site Hulu LLC, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Discussions are at an early stage and a transaction isn’t certain, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Another pay-TV company is also weighing a Hulu bid, said one of the people. A deal would make New York-based Time Warner Cable a co-owner with Walt Disney Co., News Corp. and Comcast Corp., which each hold about a one-third stake, said the people. Time Warner Cable could offer Hulu to its customers as a bundled service inside and outside of the home with its current products, one of the people said. The company is focusing more on its broadband business as traditional pay-TV growth stalls. Ownership in Hulu would open the door to more ad revenue at Time Warner Cable and, eventually, could help the cable company transcend regional limits to its growth. Hulu also would potentially improve the company’s access to local advertisers, a group it has targeted. “Hulu’s a great asset,” said Rich Greenfield, an analyst with BTIG LLC in New York. “Conditions like a national footprint will seem silly 10 years from now.” Meredith Kendall, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles-based Hulu, declined to comment, as did Justin Venech at Time Warner Cable. Having its cable rival as a partner could also allow Philadelphia-based Comcast, the biggest cable-TV service, to piggyback on any deals Time Warner Cable makes with Hulu. Comcast agreed not to make management decisions at Hulu as part of its January 2011 purchase of NBC Universal. Click headline to read more--
Tom Wheeler, President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the FCC, agreed to sell holdings of $500,001 to $1 million in both AT&T Inc. (T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) to resolve possible conflicts of interest before taking office. Wheeler, a former head of wireless and cable trade groups, disclosed his holdings and willingness to divest from 78 companies that also include Google Inc. (GOOG) and smartphone maker Apple Inc. (AAPL) in documents released yesterday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. He also reported stakes in top cable company Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) worth $2,002 to $30,000 that he would sell. As head of the Federal Communications Commission, Wheeler would regulate broadcast and cable companies, review industry mergers and help set rules for auctioning airwaves coveted by leading U.S. telephone company AT&T and No. 2 Verizon for the wireless services powering their growth. Wheeler, 67, reported income of at least $1,105,189 from sources including salary, advisory fees, and serving as a director of companies including Earthlink Inc. (ELNK) In a letter accompanying his disclosure form, Wheeler said he would resign from Atlanta-based Earthlink’s board and sell shares of the Internet-service provider if he wins Senate confirmation. Wheeler also said he would sell his holdings in wireless provider Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) and its partner Clearwire Corp. (CLWR) which are seeking merger permission before the agency. Media companies he listed for divestiture include cable providers Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) and Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC), along with broadcasters CBS Corp. (CBS) and Walt Disney Co. (DIS), which owns the ABC television network. Click headline to read more--
Milwaukee officials will apply for federal funding to complete a feasibility study for a potential Center for Advanced Manufacturing at Century City, the city-owned former A.O. Smith/Tower Automotive site on the north side that is being redeveloped as a business park. The Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee, or RACM, on Thursday afternoon approved the application for a grant to conduct the feasibility study. The U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration grant is for $100,000, which would be matched by $20,000 from RACM. The center would focus on training workers who would receive certifications in order to be hired by advanced manufacturers and other key industry clusters that Milwaukee has a competitive advantage in, like water technology, said Kein Burton, RACM development manager. “Century City needs something to really distinguish it from any other industrial park,” Burton said during the RACM meeting. “We’re competing globally.” The center would be created through the federal “Make it in America Challenge,” a $40 million program announced in September 2012 to accelerate the trend of “insourcing,” where companies bring jobs back from overseas and make additional investments in American operations. The competition would fund 15 projects. Federal funding is coming from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. Click headline to read more--
Negotiations between the FirstNet board and entities that received Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grants are nearing completion, but all parties involved sought a 30-day extension that was approved last week to finalize the spectrum-lease agreements needed to let the public-safety LTE projects proceed. Sue Swenson, the FirstNet board member overseeing the negotiations with the BTOP recipients, said the 30-day extension—granted by a unanimous vote during last week’s special meeting of the FirstNet board—was requested by mutual consent by FirstNet and the seven BTOP recipients. “I think we’ve made substantial progress, but we need a bit more time to wrap it up,” Swenson said during the meeting. “I have confirmation by the BTOP recipients that a 30-day extension would be appropriate and enable us to close these negotiation and move forward to close on these agreements and, of course, then make our recommendation over to the assistant secretary of Commerce and to NTIA.” Click headline to read more--
We should have know that once the press started picking up on the ridiculous moral panic over Google Glass that Congress would be quick to follow. In a move that smacks of traditional political grandstanding, a group of Congressional Representatives have sent a letter to Google raising a bunch of questions about the supposed "privacy concerns" of Google Glass. I'm wondering if next they'll summon a representative of the seeing public to discuss the privacy concerns of your own two eyes.
First, they jump to the go-to point that any anti-Google privacy activist goes to: the data collection from open WiFi. What no one ever seems willing to discuss is the fact that this is the nature of open WiFi. Anyone can see any of the unencrypted data traveling over that access point. Why that gets blamed on Google makes no sense. Click headline to read more--
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