Telecom
Municipal Broadband Begins To Hit Its Stride
     When the Internet debuted on the national political stage in President Clinton's 1997 State of the Union address, it was generally accepted that the private sector would take the lead in growing the unusual and compelling, new commercial network. Eight years later, the debate about whether municipalities should be funding or creating high-speed Internet networks has a back-to-the-future quality. Technological advances, dissatisfaction with the nation's broadband pace over the past several years, and the dynamics of convergence have led "digital municipalism" to hit its stride. Many cities want to offer broadband networks at low cost, or free. National Journal's Technology Daily began reporting on the issue this week in a multipart series about municipal broadband networks that will run throughout August. Another story looked at the similarities between the current municipal battle and one over municipal power systems about 100 years ago.

Broadband
Lafayette, La., Has Model Problems For A Pioneer
     City officials and telecommunications providers continue to battle over a city-owned, fiber-to-the-home project for high-speed Internet service in the Louisiana town of Lafayette. In the wake of a successful public vote approving the project, the state's Public Service Commission (PSC) is set to rule Sept. 1 on additional funding issues, setting off what is expected to be a month-long war of words between the city and private industry. The Lafayette Utilities System (LUS) last year announced plans to extend its existing fiber-optic broadband network, which now services city agencies, to small businesses and homes through the use of $125 million in bonds. The region's dominant telecom providers, BellSouth and Cox Communications, opposed the plan, calling it anti-competitive. Tech Daily also reported on the municipal broadband debate in the twin cities of Bristol that overlap the Tennessee and Virginia border.

Broadband
Congress May Address Debate Over 'Net Neutrality'
     The FCC's decision to deregulate high-speed Internet services offered by telecommunications companies without also binding rules of open networks could lend momentum to the issue on Capitol Hill. One legislator said Congress must codify FCC principles. The FCC adopted a policy statement on "net neutrality," or ensuring that communications networks do not discriminate against the content of competitors. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., endorsed the FCC's adoption of the statement but added, "The next step must be taken by the Congress in codifying the net neutrality principles and bestowing on the FCC the clear authority to enforce the principles." Several public-interest groups urged similar action, as did the technology companies that comprise the Coalition of Broadband Users and Innovators. "Either Congress or the FCC still needs to assure [that] the principles endorsed Friday by the four commissioners can be enforced over the long term," said a statement prepared by a technology industry source.

Business
Small Providers Fear Demise After Broadband Ruling
     Independent Internet service providers (ISPs) are scrambling to respond to a major setback at the FCC. The agency ruled that dominant telecommunications carriers no longer will have to give competitors access to their digital subscriber lines (DSL) at pre-set wholesale rates. The lines are used to offer high-speed Internet access. According to the new rule, the larger carriers will be allowed to drop the wholesale requirements in one year. Small ISPs, which depend on cheap wholesale access, said the rules could kill their industry. "It leaves us defenseless to the 'goodwill' of the regional Bell operating companies," said Paul Rice, executive director for the Federation of Internet Solution Providers of the Americas. The FCC rule dealt a blow to the Washington Bureau for Internet Advocacy (WBIA), a grassroots group that started last year to represent small ISPs before the FCC and Congress. The group generated more than 600 responses to rulemakings at the commission in its first few months.

Science
Foundation Aims To Boost Supercomputer Capabilities
     The National Science Foundation (NSF) is embarking on an ambitious campaign to boost its supercomputing capabilities by 2010. By the end of the decade, the agency wants to have multiple teraflop-speed computers and at least one machine capable of operating at between one and 10 petaflops. A teraflop is a trillion calculations per second; a petaflop computer theoretically would run at one-thousand trillion "floating-point operations" per second. None have been built to date, but the speed will require scores of supercomputers running in parallel. NSF received larger high-performance computing budgets for the past three years and has requested $509 million for fiscal 2006. In an internal memorandum obtained by National Journal's Technology Daily last month, the Bush administration said it plans to emphasize supercomputing in its fiscal 2007 research and development budget request to Congress.

Security
Tags To Be Imbedded In Some Visitors' Travel Documents
     The Homeland Security Department plans to imbed radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology in travel documents of Mexican citizens and U.S. visitors from countries whose people are not required to obtain visas. The department said it would test RFID at five land borders to record foreign visitors entering and exiting the country. The department plans to imbed RFID tags into I-94 documents, which are given to visitors carrying nonimmigrant visas such as the Mexican border-crossing card. Visitors entering the United States from "visa waiver" countries also would receive RFID tags. The waiver program is for citizens from certain key allies of the United States like the United Kingdom. Citizens of those nations do not have to obtain visas to visit the United States for business or vacation.

Politics
Liberal Bloggers Tout Political Value Of Their Medium
     A Democratic think tank released a report outlining methods that liberals can use to engage more effectively with online communities. The report was issued by the New Politics Institute (NPI) and written by Chris Bowers of the MyDD Web log and Matt Stoller, who blogs for the gubernatorial campaign of New Jersey Democrat Jon Corzine. The report includes a toolkit for using blogs to generate political power and influence campaigns, and a strategic comparison of liberal and conservative online communities. Although the study said conservatives took the early lead in utilizing blogs as part of their political strategy, it claims that the current blogging strategy of liberals could be more effective in the long run. The authors argued that it is easier for new liberal blogs to attract readers because they are not as entrenched.