Message From Michael - November 17,2008

THE TECHNOLOGY PRESIDENT – ANOTHER SPECIAL REPORT

THE CRACKBERRY ADDICT

THE GREATEST DIGITAL GENERATION

THE NON-DIGITAL PART OF THE EQUATION

WI-FI ON STEROIDS

COCKTAIL CHATTER


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THE TECHNOLOGY PRESIDENT. No doubt by now you’ve heard the description; now it’s not just a matter of how he uses technology but how he lets, or helps, others use it. After seeing so many different references, I decided to do my own research and the result is this abbreviated special report.

THE CRACKBERRY ADDICT. That’s one of the descriptions of people who can’t seem to live without their PDA. Obama had a Blackberry strapped to his belt constantly during the campaign, although as the New York Times points out, as President he may have to give it up for security reasons. His campaign e-mail database of supporters numbers more than 3 Million, a database which may end up being relinquished to the Democratic National Committee. Of course his campaign had a barackobama.com website, but it was the social networking site, mybarackobama.com, which racked up the impressive numbers. There is an obamafortechnology.com website which further enlists technology on behalf of the president-elect as well as a barack20.com site which purports to show businesses how to use the 2.0 social media lessons from Obama’s campaign to “win friends and influence millions.” As readers of MfM will remember, the number of Obama followers and subscribers on MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter far outnumbered Sen. John McCain. Just for laughs, btw, I checked Obama on LinkedIn and found that we’re only two degrees apart. How, I don’t know. Then there is the president-elect’s website, change.gov, which is focused on the transition process even though there is an ‘official’ transition site titled presidentialtransition.gov, which has such useful information as a “survivor’s guide” in case you’re asked to be part of the new government. (No, I’m not kidding.) The change website has specifics about his agenda, including technology, and that’s where it gets particularly interesting.

THE GREATEST DIGITAL GENERATION: The agenda technology page starts off with a call to “let us be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age.” Although the ‘change’ website drops the campaign rhetoric which noted that American students finished behind 16 developing countries in math and science scores and 20 developed countries, the site says we need to prepare our children for the 21st Century by making math and science a national priority – by recruiting math and science graduates to the teaching profession and improving science and math education in K-12.

MORE SPECIFICALLY, for those in the media business, the Obama-Biden ticket comes out as a strong supporter of net neutrality, and an equally strong supporter for “encouraging diversity in media ownership.” In previous campaign statements, the campaign has criticized the FCC for promoting “consolidation over diversity.” The ‘change’ website also says the Obama administration will push for “true broadband” in every community by reforming the Universal Service Fund (which telecommunications companies contribute to, through an assessment fee) and better use of the wireless spectrum. In previous campaign statements, the campaign criticized the FCC for defining broadband “as an astonishingly low 200 Kbps” which the campaign says distorted federal policy and hamstrung efforts to broaden access. They also call for Public Media 2.0, or in more cutesy language – the sesame street of the digital age – the next generation of public broadcasting.

LESS SPECIFICALLY, but still interesting, the technology agenda emphasizes the need to protect the First Amendment while protecting children online. Again, while the website does not have details, previous statements refer to such groups as Common Sense Media which promotes “sanity not censorship.” Also, on the technology agenda, is a call for strengthening privacy protections in the digital age, holding government and businesses accountable for violations of privacy; and a call to create a ‘transparent and connected democracy’ – opening up government to its citizens through technology. In previous campaign statements, the Obama campaign criticized the Bush Administration “as one of the most secretive, closed administrations in American history.”

THE NON-DIGITAL PART OF THE EQUATION. It’s easy for us in the media to think of technology in terms of telecommunications, IT and new media, but the technology agenda also includes a reform of the patent process, to “protect legitimate rights while not stifling innovation and collaboration”; restoring scientific integrity to the White House, so that decisions are based on “the best-available, scientifically-valid evidence and not on ideological predispositions”; investing in climate-friendly energy development and deployment; advancing biomedical research; and advancing stem cell research.

FINALLY, as most have heard, the president-elect plans to appoint a Chief Technology Officer, although as CNet.com points out, the question is whether the position will be symbolic or one with actual power. And although some people talk about Google CEO Eric Schmidt as the choice, others point to LaunchBoxDigital founder and technology transition team member Julius Genachowski as a more likely choice. More pragmatically the president-elect has to name a new Federal Communications Commission chairman, and as TVWeek points out, the inauguration takes place January 20th, just 29 days before the February 17th digital switchover.

If you want to read more about the technology agenda of the Obama-Biden administration than this very abbreviated report provides, you can go to two websites: http://www.change.gov/agenda/technology_agenda OR http://www.docstoc.com/docs/201649/Barack-Obamas-technology-policy .

WI-FI ON STEROIDS. One of the other things that seems to have dominated the e-mails and newsletters I receive is the “discovery” of Wi-Max technology. So, again, a little research was in order. Like so many other ‘discoveries,’ it turns out that Wi-Max has been around for much longer than you would expect. First off, the headline. Wi-Fi is the wireless connection to digital content that allows you to sit at Starbucks, have a cup of overly-expensive coffee and surf the Internet. Technically it transmits, usually at 2.4 Ghz, and only has a range of 120 feet to 300 feet. Wi-Max also operates in the 2 to 11 Ghz range, up to 66 Ghz, and theoretically can transmit a whopping 70 Mbps up to 30 miles. It’s for that reason that many television stations are looking at Wi-Max as an alternative to microwave live shots. The reality is that the further the distance the higher the bit rate error. Okay, I know, this is way too much 4-1-1 on technology. I’m sorry, but one last note. The other technology you hear about is 3G Technology, which stands for Third Generation of mobile phone technology. Reference site Wikipedia says that 3G provides “a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency” giving you download speeds of 14.4 Mbps. Remember, Wi-Max can theoretically provide up to 70 Mbps.

Anyway, enough of the technical. This stuff is way above my pay grade. What I found interesting that this technology of the future has been around for nearly a decade. This probably tells you something – according to Wikipedia, the country of Pakistan has the largest fully functional network in the world. Iraq’s national telecom operator is launching that nation’s first Wi-Max Network. When the tsunami of December, 2004, practically destroyed all infrastructures in Indonesia, it was Wi-Max that provided the infrastructure connections. One of the reasons we in the States may have not heard so much about Wi-Max is that we have one of the lowest deployments of Wi-Max in the world – at 14 for North America, behind Asia and the Pacific at 26, Latin America at 22, Africa at 21, Europe at 21, Eastern Europe at 18 but ahead of the Middle East at 4, according to website telegeography.com. There are numerous websites about the technology, from wimax.com, to wimax360.com and wimaxforum.org. Bottomline: as this much more powerful technology becomes implemented in everything from iphones to computers and mp3 players, you will want to know about it, and now you do.

COCKTAIL CHATTER. Online classifieds website Craigslist has announced a deal in which it will crack down on advertising by prostitutes, sex massage and ‘boudoir’ photo services offered under its erotic listings. Anti-smoking groups are protesting a move by Phillip Morris USA to sell cigarettes in its Virginia Slim line of products in pink-colored, specially designed packs, designed to appeal to young women. Environmental activist group Greenpeace has produced a digitally altered advertisement showing President John F. Kennedy supposedly making a speech about global warming. The Federal Trade Commission has launched a website aimed at children, explaining things like target marketing. If you just said, ‘you’re kidding me,’ I agree, after looking at the site. Japan has one of the highest percentages (40%) of online population visiting music entertainment sites and the highest percentage of iTunes users of any country, according to comScore.

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