Content & Copyright

• PFF, FTC Workshop Tomorrow on Future of Journalism to Consider Controversial Recommendations (June 14): Lots of links to related material. And lots more here. AND: Ars technica, “Addressing Market Fragility”: public policy’s role in stabilizing journalism (June 14): “New America Foundation’s C.W. Anderson looks at the suggestions for “saving journalism” being considered this week at a meeting of the Federal Trade Commission.”
• TechDirt, Film Director: File Sharing only Hurts Bad or Mediocre Films. More at Torrent Freak.
• ExtremeTech, E3 2010′s Top Ten Rumors [about the video game industry] (June 11): “Pre-show previews are all well and good, but let’s be honest: . . . . When it comes to rumors, however, sometimes it’s the crazier the better.”

Patents

• Peter Orzag, Director of OMB, Speech on IT (June 7): “[T]he Patent Office receives more than 80 percent of patent applications electronically. That’s great. However, these applications are then manually printed out, re-scanned, and entered into an outdated case management system. The average processing time for a patent is roughly three years. And this is the agency that interacts with the most creative and innovative individuals and companies in our country.”

The Net

• PR Newswire, Initial Plans for Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group Announced (June 9): “A group of leading broadband and high-tech companies joined Adjunct Professor Dale Hatfield of the University of Colorado at Boulder today in announcing initial plans for a voluntary Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG or TAG).  The TAG’s mission is to bring together engineers and other similar technical experts to develop consensus on broadband network management practices or other related technical issues that can affect users’ Internet experience, including the impact to and from applications, content and devices that utilize the Internet.  Participants agreed that the TAG’s mission could also include: (1) educating policymakers on such technical issues; (2) attempting to address specific technical matters in an effort to minimize related policy disputes; and (3) serving as a sounding board for new ideas and network management practices.” Participants include AT&T Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Comcast Corporation, DISH Network, L.L.C., EchoStar Corporation, Google Inc., Intel Corporation, Level 3 Communications, LLC, Microsoft Corporation, Time Warner Cable and Verizon.  The news release was issued by DCI Group, which is one of Washington’s leading “public affairs management” firms.
  • AND SEE: PFF, What the Oil Spill Really Says About Net Neutrality: Regulatory Capture v. the Nirvana Fallacy (June 10): “If given the chance, BITAG cold evolve over time into a sophisticated system for the private production of ‘law’ governing disputes between online operators whose great virtue would be the flexibility and nimbleness necessary to keep up with a rapidly changing technological landscape.”
  • AND SEE: BitTorrent blog, BITAG Brings Hope to Net Neutrality Debate (June 11).

• Broadband Breakfast, Will This Signal Be Televised? ‘Retransmission Consent’ Unscrambled at Breakfast Panel (June 11): “here’s your chance to catch up and re-examine the issues in a complex debate that’s been controversial since the enactment of the regime in the 1992 Cable Act.”
• Cisco, Robert Pepper (VP of Global Technology Policy) talks about the global demand for broadband (June 8) and Cisco’s Visual Networking Index report.
• ZDNet Asia, Developers to face mobile browser fragmentation (June 9):  “the market can expect to see various browser iterations appearing, utilizing different elements of the Web markup standard. The issue of browser fragmentation runs deeper, though, as developers not only have to observe HTML5 standards but also a slew of other considerations.”
• Connected Planet, The ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ (June 9): “Thinking out loud about how operators can influence customer behavior on overcrowded mobile networks. Ideas of bandwidth quotas and pricing incentives are bandied about, but first marketers and CFOs must reconsider price elasticity and the value of ‘time’ as well as money.”  Good piece on a tough topic.
• Verizon PPBlog, Predicting the Future in Information Technology (June 8): Link Hoewing has fun looking at past predictions, such as:
  

  One of the studies I came across in [the 1990s] was done by McKinsey and Company, a respected business management and forecasting firm.  They were asked by AT&T in the early 1980s to assess the growth potential of the mobile market which AT&T of course pioneered.  McKinsey’s study was based almost purely on the then existing technologies and business models.  The study’s failure to predict with any accuracy the market over the next 20 years was largely based around not taking into account advancements in actual communication devices, advancements in mobile bandwidths, and improvements in such things as battery power and miniaturization.   McKinsey estimated a total market size of fewer than 1 million subscribers with mobile devices by the year 2000!  The actual number of mobile devices globally in 2000?  415 million!

  Readers of the recent FCC report should pay attention (and preparers should pay even closer attention), speaking of which see AT&T PPBlog, Right Brain vs Left Brain (June 10):  “It doesn’t matter whether the HHI is 2168 or 2848; performance measures that customers care about show the U.S. mobile wireless market to be a strong and still improving success.  This is the only point that matters.”

• Phoenix Center, The Broadband Credibility Gap (June):”We demonstrate that a “light touch” toward regulating broadband in not a credible commitment. Moreover, we use the current Commission’s own actions to demonstrate it lacks the necessary self-discipline or mindset for “light touch” regulation. Next, we consider the investment effects of reclassification using a theoretical model of investment. In this model, a model firm faces either “weak” or “strong” regulation. This model shows that an increase in the ex ante probability of “strong” regulation—that is, reclassification—weakens investment incentives. Third, we provide evidence from the financial markets supporting the negative investment effects implied by the theory.”

Competition

• ZDNet Asia, US Federal Trade Commission will investigate Apple (June 14): “At issue is Apple’s recent tweaking of its App Store rules [which] prohibit certain developer tools from being used to create applications for the iPhone and iPad, and last Monday effectively blocked Google’s AdMob and other non-independent mobile ad networks from accessing applications on the iPhone.”
• Phoenix Center, SEPARATING POLITICS FROM POLICY IN FCC MERGER REVIEWS: A BASIC LEGAL PRIMER OF THE “PUBLIC INTEREST” STANDARD (June): “a brief primer of the ‘public interest’ standard that the . . . FCC uses in reviewing mergers pursuant to the Communications Act.”
• Truth on the Market, Antitrust Law and Economics, a volume edited by Keith Hylton, is now available.

Cybersecurity & Privacy

• ZDNet Asia, Bill gives US president emergency Net power (June 11): “A new U.S. Senate bill would grant the president far-reaching emergency powers to seize control of or even shut down portions of the Internet. . . . TechAmerica, probably the largest U.S. technology lobby group, said it was concerned about ‘unintended consequences that would result from the legislation’s regulatory approach’ and ‘the potential for absolute power’. And the Center for Democracy and Technology publicly worried that the Lieberman bill’s emergency powers ‘include authority to shut down or limit Internet traffic on private systems’.”
• Volokh Conspiracy has a series of posts: Proposed Emergency Powers for a Computer Network Attack (June 13)(by Stewart Baker, author of Skating on Stilts: Why We Aren’t Stopping Tomorrow’s Terrorism); Louis Brandeis: Wuss or Snob? (June 13)(also Baker – an amusing look at the seminal legal article on the right to privacy, which involved newspaper reporting of a Boston social event); The Future of Privacy: Facial Recognition, Public Facts, and 300 Million Little Brothers (June 11)(by David Thompson, author of Wild West 2.0: How to Protect and Restore Your Online Reputation on the Untamed Social Frontier);  Google Changed Reputation and Privacy Forever (June 10)(Thompson again). In fact, keep scrolling, because these issues are regulars at the VC.

Digital Commerce

• Mercatus Center, Payment Card Interchange Fees: Picking Up the Tab (June 9): Video of a panel on interchange fees . . . moderated by Megan McArdle, econ blogger for Atlantic Monthly. This was part of last week’s excellent session on the topic (discussed at Danger: Congress at Work on Interchange Fees). Background works:

• Todd Zywicki, THE ECONOMICS OF PAYMENT CARD INTERCHANGE FEES AND THE LIMITS OF REGULATION (June 2);
• ICLE, The Law and Economics of Interchange Fees and Credit Card Markets (Blog Symposium – Dec. 8/9, 2009);
• CEI, Payment Card Networks Under Assault (Dec. 2009).

Health Care, Medical, Genetics, Agriculture

• TigerHawk, A short note on the double-barreled attack on medical technology (June 9): Among other things, “the tax has a much bigger impact on start-ups than on established profitable companies. Because the tax hits revenues, it makes it harder for start-ups to become profitable at all. That simple fact will make venture capitalists and angel investors less willing to fund med-tech, and that will reduce both innovation and employment.”
• eFlorida, The Future of Biomedical Innovation (April 26): Florida, “innovation hub of the Americas.”

Innovation

• Surprisingly Free, Clay Shirky on Cognitive Surplus (June 14): “Clay Shirky, adjunct professor at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, discusses his new book, Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.  Shirky talks about social and economic effects of Internet technologies and interrelated effects of social and technological networks.  In this podcast he discusses social production, open source software, Wikipedia, defaults, Facebook, and more.”
• Popular Science, What’s Truly New in iPhone 4 (June 7):  Among other things, it takes advantage of recent advances in gyroscope technology.
• Extreme Tech, Two-Terabyte Drives Are Almost Cheap (June 8): “can be found for as little as $100 (street), only a year and a half after first coming to market at $250 and up.”
• Knowledge@Wharton, Regulating the Unknown: Can Financial Reform Prevent Another Crisis? (June 9): One of the biggest needs of innovators is a smoothly-functioning, low-transaction-cost, financial system. So this praise for the current reform proposals is not reassuring: “What finally came out is not as bad as it could have been,” says Wharton finance professor Jeremy J. Siegel. On the good side, provisions to put derivatives on exchanges: “Among the Wharton faculty members interviewed, the most popular reform is the move to centralize trading of derivatives, including hard-to-value mortgage-backed securities.” Via RealClearMarkets.
• AEI Enterprise Blog, Boom Time (June 9): “[C]ontent, wireless, and broadband industries . . . there’s huge potential for growth in this sector to get the broader economy chugging again. Net or search neutrality regulations, restrictions on business model experimentation, and other regulatory intrusions from the FCC, FTC, or other agencies are more likely to impede this boom.”

Open Government

• Fiscal Times, Orszag Targets ‘IT Gap’ in Reducing Government Spending (June 9):  “Orszag said that the government’s ‘IT gap,’ compared to private industry, is the biggest reason for its sluggish productivity growth.” (Orzag’s speech is here is linked above, in Patents.) The bad news: the government really is as inefficient and duplicative as the conservatives say it is. The good news: the open government initiatives seem to be making progress, probably because they do not require complicated action and coordination; they require only that data be opened up so that members of the public can use it as they choose.

China

• Information Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, White paper on the Internet in China (June 8): “A crystallization of human wisdom, the Internet is a significant technological invention of the 20th century and a major symbol of contemporary advanced productive force. The Internet has brought about profound impacts on the world economy, politics, culture and social progress, and promoted the transformation of social production, daily life and information dissemination.” Via the Volokh Conspiracy, which also links to James Fallows’ commentary.
• Li & Fung/Institute of Finance and Trade Economics (IFTE), Blue Book of Commercial Sector – Annual Report on China’s Commercial Sector (2009–2010): Available for $35.96 from Cengage Learning Asia.  Some useful sources of information on Asia:

Cengage Learning Asia. “Delivering state-of-the-art, tailored learning solutions for individuals, institutions, businesses and organizations in a traditional or virtual learning environment. Helping people and organizations find learning solutions, learn, and measure their performance.”

Li & Fung Research Centre (LFRC) “serves as a knowledge bank for the Li & Fung Group on China’s economy, industries, logistics and distribution sector, with its research scope covering the whole spectrum of the entire supply chain, from ideation, production, distribution, to retailing to consumers. It has a reputation for research excellence and offers research analyses and consulting services on China.”

Institute of Finance and Trade Economics (IFTE) “is the economics research arm of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and was founded in 1978. It serves as a think tank on finance and economics for developments and reform in China. Its research fields include fiscal policy, taxation system, public administration, international trade and investment, distribution sector, supply chain management, real estate industry, tourism and leisure industry, information service, and E-commerce.”

• And from Vietnam, the Google PPBlog notes Disturbing Concerns (June  ) about compulsory installation of site control software at Internet cafes.

Events

• American Freedom Network, Is the (Real) News Dead? (June 14-15; Malibu , CA): “Who, today, controls the traditional media and who will control the alternative media in the future?  What, if any, is their agenda? What are our news services’ priorities and is providing fair, balanced and accurate news coverage one of them?”
• Broadband Breakfast, Challenges to Rural Broadband Availability and Adoption (June 15; DC): RUS Administrator Edelstein keynotes.
• TechDirt Saves Journalism (and sells some T-shirts) (June 16; Google HQ in Mountain View, CA): “the focus is on brainstorming ideas to help the journalism market. It will kick off with three short presentations: one by me, one by Google economist Hal Varian, who’s been doing a ton of fantastic work on newspaper economics, and one by Ian Rogers, the CEO of Topspin, one of a growing group of companies that is helping to reinvent the music business.”
• FTC Announces Third Workshop on the Future of Journalism June 15 at the National Press Club (June 15; DC):  “A small group of experienced journalists, publishers, academics, economists, and other policy experts will compare, contrast, and evaluate the ideas for sustaining journalism that have been set forth in two previous FTC workshops and in a wide variety of reports and conferences. This discussion will help inform potential recommendations to be contained in a report the FTC will release later this fall.” Open to the public; will also be webcast.
• Connected Planet, Webcast: Customer data has surpassed the network as telecom’s most valuable asset. How are telecoms making the most of that asset? (June 17):  “successful IT leaders take an inclusive and holistic approach to customer data management, delivering insights to the enterprise that drive better decision-making across services and business units.”  Hmm – maybe I am on the other team.
• ITIF, Where does the US Really Stand in Broadband and Why? (June 21; DC): “a robust debate on the relative status of U.S. broadband and what is needed to boost our performance,” with Sascha Meinrath (Director, Open Technology Initiative, New America Foundation); George Ford (Chief Economist, Phoenix Center); Matthew F. Wood (Associate Director, Media Access Project). ITIF head Rob Atkinson moderates.
• Connected Planet & USTelecom Ass’n, Building a Better Internet (June 22; DC):  “a one-day event for service providers, diving deep into: Consumer expectations for the Internet/Domestic and International efforts to expand broadband/Ways of creating a more efficient Internet for delivering a broad range of current and new services to consumers and businesses.”
• Hong Kong Polytechnic & Lingan Univ.,  2^nd Asian Competition Policy Workshop (June 17-18; Hong Kong).
• BIO, Seventh annual World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing (June 27-30; DC): “Researchers, academics and business leaders will discuss the evolution of the technology and the ethics, regulation and the potential commercial uses of synthetic biology.”
• Broadband Breakfast Club, A Breakfast Chat with the Obama Administration’s IP Czar (tentative) (July 13; DC)
• Excellence in Government, Open Government (July 19; DC).
• The ninth Supernova Forum 2010: Perestroika (July 30; Philadelphia).  Three key themes: Evolving Digital Infrastructure: Everything is a Platform? / Networked Business Innovation: Models and Vision / Crossing the Abyss: Transforming (or Replacing) Established Institutions.
• pii2010 (which stands for privacy, identity, innovation), a tech policy summit by the proprietors of Tech Policy Central (Seattle, Aug. 17-19).
• Technology Policy Institute Aspen Forum (Aspen, CO; Aug. 22-24).

[The explanation of the title Firehose is here. The Firehose image is from here.]