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 leaders and supporters
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Bruce P. Mehlman
Co-Chairman
David Sutphen
Co-Chairman
Larry Irving
Former Co-Chairman
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Wednesday, December 23
Now this is a good use of technology. Government agency NORAD, which has long tracked Santa’s flight for children, is teaming up with Google to keep tabs on St. Nick online. The site, Santa Tracker, will go live on Christmas Eve.
Speaking of the holidays, next week the Podium will be on a break. We’ll return Monday, January 4.
Not content with dominating the downloadable music market, Apple is rumored to be exploring a subscription-based service for TV content. From the New York Times:
Apple is eliciting tentative interest from some networks in its proposal to offer a TV subscription package via the Internet.
Theoretically, customers would be able to tune in online, allowing them to cancel their cable or satellite subscriptions.
ABC and CBS are among the networks that are considering joining the Apple venture, people close to the talks said Monday night. The people requested anonymity because they were not authorized by their companies to comment on confidential talks. They said that the talks were at a very early stage.
According to Harris Interactive, the average adult Internet user now spends 13 hours a week online. In 2006, the average time spent online was nine hours.
The age group that spends the most time online? 30-39 year olds.
A new report from Pew has some encouraging news about Internet use in the Hispanic community:
From 2006 to 2008, internet use among Latino adults rose by 10 percentage points, from 54% to 64%. In comparison, the rates for whites rose four percentage points, and the rates for blacks rose only two percentage points during that time period.
Latinos still trail whites in Internet use, but the Pew report shows that the gap is diminishing. Unfortunately, when it comes to broadband adoption at home, the Hispanic community saw very little change — from 79% of Internet users in 2007, to 81% in 2008.
The full Pew report is available here (PDF)
Tuesday, December 22
How well is online retail doing this holiday season? The Wall Street Journal reports that while sales at traditional stores were flat compared to last year, online stores saw an increase in sales of 4%. In fact, on December 15 alone sales totaled $913 million — a new single day record.
Writing for RealClearMarkets, Bret Swanson, president of Entropy Economics (and an IIA Broadband Ambassador) investigates the much-touted study on open networks produced by Harvard’s Berkman Center for the Internet and Society and finds problems:
The 231-page report was an ode to foreign broadband success and especially to the regulatory model of “open access,” a euphemism for mandated sharing of network assets at government-set prices. Although U.S. Internet innovation is flourishing, the Berkman Center found the U.S. tragically lagging other nations in consumer broadband penetration, prices, and network speeds. In a perfect set-up for a dramatic re-regulation of U.S. communications networks, Berkman concluded that open access mandates have “a positive and significant effect” on broadband penetration and that the effect is “somewhat larger . . . and more robust than previously thought.”
Just one problem. Actually many problems. The report botched its chief statistical model in half a dozen ways. It used loads of questionable data. It didn’t account for the unique market structure of U.S. broadband. It reversed the arrow of time in its country case studies. It ignored the high-profile history of open access regulation in the U.S. It didn’t conduct the literature review the FCC asked for. It excommunicated Switzerland.
Read Swanson’s full report. The Berkman study is available here in PDF form.
The Washington Post is reporting that President Obama will name Howard A. Schmidt, who worked as a cyber security expert at eBay and Microsoft, and served in the Bush administration, as the White House cybersecurity coordinator.
Monday, December 21
With 58 days to go before the FCC presents its national broadband plan, Rep. Rick Boucher [D-Va] has megabit speed on the mind. Reports Media Post:
As the Federal Communications Commission readies its national broadband plan, a leading lawmaker is urging the agency to aim to ensure that the vast majority of U.S. residents have speedy connections.
“The commission should explicitly endorse a goal for minimum broadband speeds of at least 50 megabits downstream and 20 megabits upstream for 80 percent of the population by 2015,” Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) wrote last week in a letter to the FCC. “Without committing to such ambitious, but achievable, levels of speed and service, the promises of telemedicine, distance learning and telecommuting may remain a far-off dream rather than a near-term reality.”
Rep. Boucher’s full letter to the FCC is available here.
Ford has become the latest car company to dabble in broadband-enabled vehicles. From an official press release:
Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) will turn vehicles into rolling WiFi hot spots when it introduces the second generation of its popular SYNC(®) in-car connectivity system next year.
Inserting an owner’s compatible USB mobile broadband modem - sometimes called an “air card” - into SYNC’s USB port will produce a secure wireless connection that will be broadcast throughout the vehicle, allowing passengers with WiFi-enabled mobile devices to access the Internet anywhere the broadband modem receives connectivity.
“While you’re driving to grandma’s house, your spouse can be finishing the holiday shopping and the kids can be chatting with friends and updating their Facebook profiles,” said Mark Fields, Ford president of The Americas. “And you’re not paying for yet another mobile subscription or piece of hardware because Ford will let you use technology you already have.”
Friday, December 18
Tom Bowles and Phillip Mezey discuss smart grid technology in New Mexico and California at Gridweek.
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