FCC Releases and Withholds Ownership Documents
FCC Releases, Withholds Ownership Documents, By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable, 1/5/2007. Eggerton says, "The FCC's Media Bureau has released a number of documents and audio transcripts related to its media ownership proceeding, but has withheld some 1,400 pages of documents, including two draft reports, citing various privilege exemptions." I believe the documents released are here: Additional Materials documents identified by Commission staff pertaining to localism, media ownership, minority ownership and other related issues Federal Communications Commission Continue reading
Net Neutrality 101
If you are looking for a quick introduction to what net neutrality is all about and why you should care about it, you can't do much better than the "Inside Risks" column in the current issue of the Communications of the ACM.
- Ma Bell's revenge: the battle for network neutrality [subscription required] by Lauren Weinstein, "Inside risks" Communications of the ACM Volume 50, Number 1 (January 2007), Page 128.
If you can't get that, an almost identical version appeared earlier on Weinstein's blog as Why Consumers Should Care About Network Neutrality, Lauren Weinstein's Blog (October 30, 2006). Lauren Weinstein is co-founder of People for Internet Responsibility (www.pfir.org).
He says:
The outcome of this controversy will affect everybody who comes into contact with the Internet... Neutrality is an aspect of the Internet that is so taken for granted that it seems invisible and intrinsic, but it has been critical to the Internet's success to date. ...most Internet users simply don't realize how drastically and negatively they could be affected if anti-neutrality arguments hold sway. Getting true network neutrality back after it's been lost is likely to be effectively impossible. Except for the anti-neutrality camp itself, we'd all be worse off with a non-neutral Internet, and that's a risk we simply must not accept.Continue reading
IE insecure
According to the calculations of Washington Post Security blogger Brian Krebs, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 was "unsafe" (that is, vulnerable to known security holes, with no available patches) for 284(!) days in 2006 -- more than 75 percent of the time. By contrast, Firefox experienced a total of nine days' worth of insecurity last year. Take a look at the vulnerability graph to see the problems with IE. When are folks going to get wise, dump IE and instead use Firefox, Opera, Safari (for macs) or some other -- any other! -- standards-compliant, secure browser. Continue reading
What are you optimistic about?
Every year, the Edge Foundation puts a single question to a host of scientific, political, philosophical, technical dignitaries -- among them Howard Rheingold, Piet Hut, Cory Doctorow, George, Freeman and Esther Dyson, Richard Dawkins, Clay Shirky, Diane Halpern, Joi Ito etc. -- and publishes the responses of online. Here's a list of past questions. This year's question is equally intriguing:
WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT? WHY? As an activity, as a state of mind, science is fundamentally optimistic. Science figures out how things work and thus can make them work better. Much of the news is either good news or news that can be made good, thanks to ever deepening knowledge and ever more efficient and powerful tools and techniques. Science, on its frontiers, poses more and ever better questions, ever better put. What are you optimistic about? Why? Surprise us!Cory Doctorow mentions librarians when he writes:
I'm optimistic that the risks of anti-copying technology and the copyright wars are starting to move to the mainstream. Daily newspapers are reporting on the risks from Zune's DRM; governments and librarians are starting to question the fairy tales from the entertainment industry. The British government is poised to be the first government in history to reject a proposal to extend copyright. A Canadian MP lost her seat last year because she'd sold out the country to a bunch of entertainment dinosaurs. Four European nations opened inquiries into the competition and consumer protection issues raised by iTunes DRM. The latest WIPO treaty looks like it has died, killed by activist involvement.I'd like to put that question to you, our FGI readers. Please leave a comment telling us what you're optimistic about? I'd like to hear especially what you're optimistic about in terms of libraries and government information, but feel free to tell us whatever it is that's on your mind. Happy 2007! [Thanks BoingBoing!] Continue reading
FirstGov.gov will soon become USA.gov
Update 1/18/2007 - Name change confirmed by GSA, new usa.gov site. See their reasons for the change.
Is there any truth to the rumor that FirstGov.gov will soon become USA.gov? Tamara Thompson of PI Buzz posted Jan 5 2007 about a name change to FirstGov.gov. In This Week in Public Records Tamara tells us that
The government Web portal for Georgia is announcing a name change for the federal government site Firstgov.gov, due January 11. The official Web portal of the U.S. government is changing its name — to USA.gov. FirstGov.gov will become USA.gov and FirstGov en español.gov will become GobiernoUSA.gov.The State of Georgia's e-government web site, georgia.gov confirms this story.
Why the name change? Even though FirstGov.gov gets more than 80 million visitors a year, its name recognition is very low. The name doesn’t intuitively tell you that this is the official U.S. Government site. It is cumbersome to say and difficult to remember. On the other hand, USA.gov clearly describes the site. USA is the term that most people around the world recognize for the United States – in fact, we already get about 600,000 visits a year from users who guess and type USA.gov into search engines. USA.gov is intuitive, simple and easy to remember.Several years ago the ICGI Web Content Standards Working Group recommended renaming the web site, and it looks like this is about to become official. While no announcements are posted on the FirstGov.gov web site, search results for USA.gov point directly to the FirstGov.gov web site, and it appears as if this rumor may be the real thing. Continue reading