FCC survey of Internet use
"The Federal Communications Commission released its National Broadband Plan Consumer Survey, Broadband Adoption and Use in America, which found that affordability and lack of digital skills are the main reasons why 93 million Americans -- one-third of the country -- are not connected to high-speed Internet at home." (from the February 23, 2010 press release 93 MILLION AMERICANS DISCONNECTED FROM BROADBAND OPPORTUNITIES):
- Broadband Adoption and Use in America, OBI Working Paper Series no. 1, By John B. Horrigan, Federal Communications Commission, 2010. (52 pages. PDF) The FCC conducted a survey of 5,005 Americans in October and November 2009 in an effort to understand the state of broadband adoption and use, as well as barriers facing those who do not have broadband at home.... The main dividing lines for access are along socioeconomic dimensions such as income and education.... There are three primary reasons why the 35 percent of non-adopting americans do not have broadband: cost, lack of digital literacy and broadband is not sufficiently relevant for them to purchase it...
Historical Documents: There’s an app for that!
There's an App for That, by Emily Long, Tech Insider (02/19/10).
MultiEducator Inc., a multimedia software developer, earlier this month released American Dreams, [$2.99] an iPhone/iPod application that compiles historical documents, speeches and Supreme Court decisions. The program [has] text versions of 480 speeches (including every inaugural address), 90 Supreme Court rulings and 18 audio recordings, which will expand as events occur and other historical documents are deemed worthy of inclusion. ...A quick search of the iTunes app store revealed [another app] U.S. Historical Documents [By Standard Works LLC, $.99, with "over 200 of the most influential documents in U.S. history"], which lets users search, bookmark and create inline notes. Other related apps compile information on members of Congress, presidents and famous speeches.Continue reading
EPA’s model for rulemaking in the digital age
The Environmental Protection Agency's Rulemaking Gateway, which "provides information to the public on the status of EPA's priority rulemakings" could be a model for tracking rulemaking, according to an article in NextGov:
- EPA Web site paving the way to transparency, by Aliya Sternstein, NextGov (02/19/2010). EPA has committed to releasing rulemaking plans earlier than in the past. As soon as an agency regulatory policy officer determines it is appropriate to start developing a rule, information will be posted on the gateway, officials said. A regulation could appear on the site months or even years before a file is created on the governmentwide rule-tracking site Regulations.gov.
Berkman Center report on broadband deployment
Next Generation Connectivity: A review of broadband Internet transitions and policy from around the world, The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. (February 2010).
On July 14, 2009, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University would conduct an independent expert review of existing literature and studies about broadband deployment and usage throughout the world and that this project would help inform the FCC's efforts in developing the National Broadband Plan. The Berkman Center's Final Report was submitted to the FCC on February 16, 2010. ... Our most prominent initial findings, confirmed and extended in this final draft, were that U.S. broadband performance in the past decade has declined relative to other countries and is no better than middling. Our study expanded the well known observation with regard to penetration per 100 inhabitants, and examined and found the same to be true of penetration per household; subscriptions for mobile broadband; availability of nomadic access; as well as advertised speeds and actually measured speeds; and pricing at most tiers of service.The Center has made the full datasets behind their research available for download. Continue reading
Incompatible DRM for ebooks
Digital Rights Management (DRM) techniques are bad enough when applied to digital content, but this article notes that when there is not even a standard for DRM, the difficulties and problems that DRM creates are multiplied:
- E-books need a common language, By Troy Wolverton, San Jose Mercury News, (02/14/2010) I never need to worry about whether I can read a book. As long as a book's a book, that is — printed on paper, in English. I know I can pick it up and read it no matter how long it sits on my shelf after I bought it. But as we move into the era of e-books, that assumption no longer holds.
- Digital handcuffs for Apple ebooks?, by Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times "Jacket Copy" blog. (February 16, 2010) Apple's old digital rights management software (DRM), FairPlay, is slated to make a comeback with the e-books it will be selling on its iBook Store. While music users have been free of these "digital handcuffs" for the last year, Alex Pham reports that readers will not be.