Because every American
should have access
to broadband Internet.

The Internet Innovation Alliance is a broad-based coalition of business and non-profit organizations that aim to ensure every American, regardless of race, income or geography, has access to the critical tool that is broadband Internet. The IIA seeks to promote public policies that support equal opportunity for universal broadband availability and adoption so that everyone, everywhere can seize the benefits of the Internet - from education to health care, employment to community building, civic engagement and beyond.

The Podium

Tuesday, April 07

Aggregator Aggravations

By Brad

In an effort to protect its content—and earn additional revenue—the Associated Press is planning to demand sites like Google News and The Drudge Report begin asking permission, and paying, to use its content. From the New York Times:

A.P. executives said they were concerned about a variety of news forums around the Web, including major search engines like Google and Yahoo and aggregators like the Drudge Report that link to news articles, smaller sites that sometimes reproduce articles whole, and companies that sell packaged news feeds.

They said they did not want to stop the appearance of articles around the Web, but to exercise some control over the practice and to profit from it.

Whether sites that use A.P. content will play ball—and whether the A.P. is willing to head to court to try and re-define “fair use” for the online age—remains to be seen. But as more and more traditional media find themselves clobbered by the Internet, expect more arguments about content and use in the future.

Googling Elections

By Brad

Via TechCrunch comes word of Google India Elections Center, a site dedicated to educate India’s 700 million voters on the country’s upcoming election. The site is available in both English and Hindi, and helps voters find polling locations, see their constituency on a map, and get election news, among other things.

Big Investment Down Under

By Brad

While U.S. officials are still kicking around how to spend the $7 billion allocated for broadband expansion, Australia is making a much bigger investment. How big? As GigaOm reports:

The Australian government said today it will spend up to A$43 billion ($30.67 billion) to help set up a national broadband network. This is far from a purely socialist undertaking, however, as private sector involvement is expected as well. Regardless of where the funding comes from, the scope of the project is such that it’s going to revolutionize the Australian landscape.

By 2018 at least 90 percent of Australians will have access to speeds of around 100 megabits per second, mostly through a fiber network that will be built by a company formed expressly for this task. The remaining 10 percent will get their broadband via wireless or satellite links. The network is expected to be complete in 7-8 years, but the government plans to sell its stake in the company within five years.

 

 

Rules of the Web

By Brad

Today’s New York Times has a great piece by early Internet developer Stephen D. Crocker on an important anniversary. It was on this day, 40 years ago, that Request for Comments were written, creating the rules for using the Internet. From the article:

A great deal of deliberation and planning had gone into the network’s underlying technology, but no one had given a lot of thought to what we would actually do with it. So, in August 1968, a handful of graduate students and staff members from the four sites began meeting intermittently, in person, to try to figure it out. (I was lucky enough to be one of the U.C.L.A. students included in these wide-ranging discussions.) It wasn’t until the next spring that we realized we should start writing down our thoughts. We thought maybe we’d put together a few temporary, informal memos on network protocols, the rules by which computers exchange information. I offered to organize our early notes.

What was supposed to be a simple chore turned out to be a nerve-racking project. Our intent was only to encourage others to chime in, but I worried we might sound as though we were making official decisions or asserting authority. In my mind, I was inciting the wrath of some prestigious professor at some phantom East Coast establishment. I was actually losing sleep over the whole thing, and when I finally tackled my first memo, which dealt with basic communication between two computers, it was in the wee hours of the morning. I had to work in a bathroom so as not to disturb the friends I was staying with, who were all asleep.

Still fearful of sounding presumptuous, I labeled the note a “Request for Comments.” R.F.C. 1, written 40 years ago today, left many questions unanswered, and soon became obsolete. But the R.F.C.’s themselves took root and flourished. They became the formal method of publishing Internet protocol standards, and today there are more than 5,000, all readily available online.

The entire article is definitely worth checking out.

Monday, April 06

IIA Testimonials

By IIA

Here at IIA, we have a great and diverse membership representing a cross-section of the country. Each member represents communities with unique perspectives and needs. However, they share a common belief in the transformative power of broadband. We are kicking off a series of video testimonials of our members explaining “Why Broadband Matters to Us” in their own words. 

The first installment is from Mary Hunt, a county commissioner from Washington state and a member of the National Grange, which is an IIA membership organization. Here, Mary talks about why broadband is so important to rural communities like hers. 


 

Cyber Czar

By Brad

With more and more government business being dependent upon the Internet, cybersecurity is of utmost importance.

With President Obama’s 60-day comprehensive review of US cybersecurity still underway, Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) on Wednesday introduced sweeping legislation that would establish a cybersecurity “czar” within the White House and bring both governmental and private sector “critical infrastructure” under a unified regulatory regime.

The “czar”—more precisely, an Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor within the White House—is established in a separate short-but-sweet bill running a mere three pages. It specifies that the post will be subject to Senate confirmation, and it gives the cybersecurity advisor a backstage pass to all of the federal government’s cyber-related “special access programs,” a designation given to highly secret initiatives.

The full text of the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 can be found here.

The King of Classifieds

By Brad

For all the issues that have led to the demise of daily newspapers, none was as devastating as the loss of classified advertising revenue to the Internet. And as Barron’s reports, one site has done the most damage:

The evidence continues to mount: Craig Newmark is killing the newspaper industry.

According to new data from Hitwise, traffic to online classified advertising sites increased 84% in February from a year ago. The sector has seen positive growth in all but one month over the last three years. And while hardly the only player in the game, the single biggest beneficiary of the trend is Craigslist. According to Hitwise, of the top 100 classified ad Web sites, all but 3 were localized versions of Craigslist.

 

 

Surf While You Drive?

By Brad

The Internet is a wonderful thing—but this might be a really bad idea:

The Ford Motor Company has become the first car maker in the world to develop a dashboard broadband system.

The system is only available in the US and is limited to commercial vehicles like the Ford F-150, Super Duty, E-Series and Transit Connect trucks.

Given all the distractions drivers already have, being able to Google behind the wheel could be a blessing and a curse.

Broadband Fact of the Week

By IIA

Fact of the Week

If households used digital tools to set temperature and price preferences, peak loads on utility grids could be trimmed by up to 15 percent per year.

“Digital Tools Help Users Save Energy, Study Finds,” New York Times, Jan. 10, 2008 (describing a study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

More facts about broadband and infrastructure.

Download to the Unemployment Line

By Brad

Last week, an early version of the upcoming blockbuster X-Men Origins: Wolverine was leaked online. This led the film’s studio, 20th Century Fox, to call in the FBI. It also inspired an entertainment columnist from Fox News to download the movie, write a (glowing) review of it, and promptly lose his job.

 

 

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