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Guest Commentary: Philadelphia Network Flop Points to Failure of Corporate Franchise Model
Last year, New America Foundation released an in-depth report and analysis of the Wireless Philadelphia Project, “The Philadelphia Story: Learning from a Municipal Wireless Pioneer.” We concluded that the private franchise model was suboptimal and that Philadelphia’s solution was problematic in a number of ways.
Guest Commentary: Northeast Ohio Muni Wireless Project Brings Together Education, City Officials
This week The Chronicle of Higher Education published a story entitled: “Struggling Communities Turn to Colleges: Small private institutions work to help ailing local economies.” The article discusses the value of collaboration between higher education and local government.
Visions of the New News
We all know that the news terrain is changing—the question is, how can we imagine its shifts? Below you'll find a number of different efforts to visualize new relationships between news makers and consumers, reporters and sources, community builders and members, and more. We bring you these sketches as part of our evolving Atlas of Media Maps, which leads up to the June 17 Beyond Broadcast conference. Don't miss out the chance to challenge your own mental maps; join us! The media world as we knew it: Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine offers a simple diagram of the old news relationship: A more complex rendering emerged at the recent NewsTools 2008 conference (larger version is here). Both emphasize the relatively tidy…
Florissant, Missouri Installs Wi-Fi Cameras for Public Safety
The city of Florissant, Missouri (pop. 51,000; 11.4 square miles outside St. Louis) is installing wireless cameras as part of a citywide Wi-Fi network for public safety. The first three cameras have already been set up in areas that are plagued by vandalism.
Weekly Radio Spin: Smokin' the Competition
Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we look at why we should pity the oil industry, how invasion of privacy is sold as a good thing, and kids fighting back. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we look at Philip Morris's ability to see into the future. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!
MetroFi Plans Market Exit: Sale or Shutter
MetroFi will sell its networks, but plans to shutter if there are no buyers: Ah, folks, the trifecta has arrived, and I’m nothing but sad about it.
California City Gets Video Surveillance Fever
Taking a cue from surveillance camera-laden London, this San Francisco Bay Area city is installing security camera systems for the police and at the port to reduce crime and protect against terrorism.
Senate Slams FCC Newspaper-TV Cross-Ownership Rule
In 2003, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) sponsored a resolution condemning the Federal Communications Commission's massive relaxation of its media ownership rules. It passed the Senate by a big but not overwhelming margin: 55 to 40. Thirty-eight Senate Republicans voted against the measure, including Republican John McCain.
Riverside Residents Get Crash Course in Wireless Technology
AT&T officials on Monday taught the public how to get onto the citywide Wi-Fi network that the company is preparing to roll out in Riverside.
More than 250 residents, many of them senior citizens, attended the presentation at the Riverside Convention Center downtown.
The Senate Stands Up Against Big Media
Thursday night, the Senate cast a near-unanimous vote to reverse the Federal Communication Commission's December 2007 decision to let media companies own both a major TV or radio station and a major daily newspaper in the same city.
Strategizing to Save Public TV Channels
A strategy session was held this morning at Tampa Bay Community Network (TBCN) to discuss ways citizens can rally and amend Florida’s Consumer Choice Act of 2007, which threatens Florida’s public access, education and government TV channels, known as PEG channels.
Governments Must Intervene to End IP Address Shortage, Says OECD
Businesses alone are not doing enough to avert an impending shortage of Internet Protocol addresses, and governments must work with them to secure the future of the Internet economy, according to a report published Thursday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
FCC Extends Comment Deadline for Universal Service
In the Matter of High-Cost Universal Service Support Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service
WC Docket No. 05-337
CC Docket No. 96-45
Revised Filing Date:
Reply Comments Due: June 2, 2008
By the Acting Associate Chief, Wireline Competition Bureau:
NAB Wants Eyes on Wilmington DTV Switch
The National Association of Broadcasters wants to make sure that the government is paying sufficient attention to the potential problems with its Wilmington, N.C., test of the switch to digital TV.
One in Five U.S. Households Has Never Used E-mail
Roughly one-fifth of all U.S. heads-of-household have never used e-mail, according to National Technology Scan, a forthcoming study from Parks Associates. This annual phone survey of U.S. households found 20 million households are without Internet access, approximately 18% of all U.S. households.
New Study Shows FCC Needs to Act on Comcast Blocking
The Max Planck Institute has released a new survey of worldwide BitTorrent traffic finding that Comcast and Cox are the chief offenders for throttling traffic, and that they block at all hours of the day and night.
The study is here:
http://broadband.mpi-sws.mpg.de/transparency/results/
The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge:
Icahn's Bid May Force Yahoo Back into Microsoft's Arms
Carl Icahn's audacious bid to overthrow Yahoo's board could bring Microsoft back to the bargaining table and revive the tech megamerger.
On Thursday, the billionaire investor instigated a plan to expel Yahoo's board of directors for "irresponsible" and "unconscionable" acts that prompted Microsoft to drop a $47.5 billion bid to buy Yahoo.
Public Knowledge, Media Access Project Clarify Letter from Georgetown Partners
Public-interest groups Public Knowledge and Media Access Project want to make sure the FCC understands their position on the Sirius-XM merger in light of a recent letter from Chester Davenport, the Managing Director of Georgetown Partners.
FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein Responds to Senate Resolution on Media Ownership
Last night, the Senate voted to adopt a resolution of disapproval of the FCC’s media ownership rule. In response, Commissioner Adelstein released the following statement:
Obama, Bush at Odds Over Media-Ownership Vote
The fight over the Federal Communications Commission's Dec. 18 media-ownership vote set up a potential battle between the current president and a senator who wants to be the next one.
