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Spectrum
House Bloc Favors Light FCC Touch For Auction
by David Hatch
Thirty-seven House Republicans and one Democrat urged the FCC on Monday not to impose onerous public-interest conditions on licensees that secure airwaves at a major upcoming auction, siding with dominant wireless providers such as AT&T and Verizon Communications.
The correspondence emerged as FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, plans as soon as this week to begin circulating proposed auction rules to set the stage for a late July vote.
Past auctions "were successful due to an FCC-governed process that did not saddle licensees with burdensome regulations," the letter argues.
Eleven signatories are GOP members representing districts in Texas, where AT&T has been headquartered since its merger in 2005 with San Antonio-based SBC Communications. Several other signers represent districts in northeast states where Verizon has a heavy presence. Spokesmen at both companies were not immediately available.
The auction of the so-called 700 megahertz spectrum, to be relinquished by analog television broadcasters as they shift to digital signals in early 2009, is shaping up as a major battleground.
Dominant firms oppose conditions that they warn could reduce the bidding value of the frequencies and interfere with their ability to deliver services. Watchdog groups and small firms support requirements designed to ensure that more entities can participate and that more competition results. The auction must occur no later than Jan. 28.
Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, might weigh in at a July 11 hearing on related wireless topics.
A Markey aide said the lawmaker has asked the FCC to embrace "open access" leasing of capacity to small companies, public-private partnerships designed to promote emergency communications and "neutral" wireless networks that can accommodate many devices. "He's already met with every single commissioner," the aide said. "They're well aware of what he'd like."
But Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of the advocacy group Public Knowledge, which supports stringent public-interest obligations on the spectrum auction, wants Markey and other Democrats to do more. Sohn argues that proposed restrictions would increase the value of the spectrum by attracting more bidders. "It would be better for the economy because you'd have more competition," she reasoned.
Public Knowledge and its allies contend that the auction provides a rare opportunity to enable a viable "third" competitor to telecom- and cable-delivered high-speed Internet access.
But Greg Louer, the legislative director to Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who signed Monday's letter, disagreed. "To essentially rig the game with open-access rules or other heavy-handed regulations will jeopardize the potential success of the auction and not likely yield additional innovation in the wireless industry," he said in an e-mail.
A spokeswoman for Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., did not have an immediate comment.
The latest letter follows a June 29 missive from 16 Energy and Commerce members -- 12 Republicans and four Democrats -- who raised similar concerns.
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Campaigns
Top Candidates Tap Fans To Raise Cash Via E-Mail
by Heather Greenfield
The top three presidential fundraising campaigns this quarter had one common trait -- giving online supporters the tools to send their own fundraising e-mails.
Sen. Barack Obama, who said he raised $32.5 million from April 1 to June 30, farmed out some of his fundraising to his supporters. Campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said video and e-mail appeals by many people who have never been involved in politics, donations or fundraising helped collect $10.3 million online and get donations from 258,000 people so far this year.
Obama supporters are invited to create their own personal fundraising pages on the campaign Web site. The pages can include supporter photographs, testimonials on why they back the candidate, and thermometers showing how close they are to meeting their fundraising goals.
Supporters of another Democratic candidate, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., can be "Hillraisers" by establishing fundraising goals and sending customized fundraising e-mails to family and friends. Clinton raised $27 million during the second quarter.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who raised the most money of the Republican candidates with $17 million this quarter, offers a quick, easy section on his Web site for supporters to e-mail their contacts and ask for campaign donations. They can paste in the campaign's draft paragraph or write their own pitches.
Colin Delany, who notes successful e-campaign trends at e.politics.com, said the next round of online fundraising by presidential candidates is giving more evidence of what works. "Give your supporters every tool possible to go out and work for you," he said, "If not, you're missing a real opportunity. You're giving supporters yard signs; why wouldn't you give them fundraising tools?"
The campaign of the fourth-leading fundraiser, former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, does not entirely jump into the trend toward loosening control over fundraising. Romney's campaign raised $14 million this quarter.
The campaign does offer sophisticated fundraising e-mails with an issue video designed to appeal to known voter demographics. But the e-mail lists are generated by the campaign, not supporters.
"We try to maintain some kind of control to make sure donations are raised legally and in full compliance with the law," Romney spokesman Alex Burgos said. Burgos said the campaign does allow Students for Mitt to raise funds, but participants have to apply, receive instruction on fundraising and get fundraising identification numbers.
The fifth-leading fundraiser for the quarter, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., followed the more hands-off approach taken by the three leading candidates. McCain highlights the top 10 donors on his Web site's action page. A spokeswoman said supporters can create their own "McCain Space" section and send fundraising e-mails to friends and family.
"That typically has been small donations ... but they add up," McCain campaign spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said. McCain raised $11.2 million this quarter.
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Intellectual Property
Online Dispute-Resolution Firms Fight Over Patent
by Andrew Noyes
A pair of feuding Internet-based dispute-resolution providers continued their ironic yet high-stakes patent battle in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday. The case involves competitors Cybersettle and the National Arbitration Forum.
At issue is a complex Cybersettle patent that pertains to various methods and computer systems for performing online dispute resolution. The White Plains, N.Y., firm has used that technology for more than 160,000 transactions, which resulted in more than $1 billion in settlements.
A New Jersey federal court ruled last year that the Minneapolis-based arbitration forum infringed on Cybersettle's patent. The forum, which is also a major mediator of disagreements over Web addresses, had been hired to run the Garden State's no-fault automobile insurance personal injury protection program.
U.S. District Court Judge Mary Cooper determined that two versions of the forum's Web-based software were in violation of Cybersettle's patent for a double-blind, dispute-resolution program capable of multiple rounds of bidding.
But when the forum made its initial pitch to the state, it proposed a single-round negotiation tool called ANS, and Cybersettle did not challenge that system's validity. Therefore, ANS was not covered by the injunction against the two other versions, according to the forum.
The infringing systems -- known as ANS 3 and ANS 1X -- did not generate any revenue and Cybersettle claimed no damages as a result of the infraction. The forum no longer uses those systems and concluded that there is "little, if any, interest in those products in the marketplace."
Cooper issued an injunction in December 2006 and an appeal was filed with the federal circuit shortly thereafter. "We felt the district court's opinion on the issue was incorrect, and that it is important to seek clarity on what the patent covers," said Thomas Vitt, an attorney for the forum.
The three-judge panel that heard the case Monday seemed to concur. At one point, Judge Alan Lourie asked Cybersettle attorney Daniel Ladow why Cooper's opinion should not be read as "plainly wrong." Later, Chief Judge Paul Michel scolded Ladow for making an argument that he could not follow "at all, from A to Z."
After the hearing, the forum's Vitt said that based on the comments and questions from the bench, he is "optimistic about the outcome." Cybersettle CEO Charles Brofman said he was "very pleased with the argument that our counsel made."
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Health
Health IT For Veterans Gets Notice In New Orleans
by Aliya Sternstein
Nearly two years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, there is still debate about where to rebuild a healthcare system that will provide the best treatment and most efficient electronic record-keeping for veterans in the southeastern Louisiana region.
"Veterans in south Louisiana have waited too long for a decision to be made on the future of healthcare delivery in this area," House Veterans' Affairs Health Subcommittee Chairman Michael Michaud, D-Maine, said in written testimony for a Monday field hearing in New Orleans.
The session was held to address the future of VA health care in the region by convening local government leaders and university officials, veterans and representatives from regional healthcare systems.
Healthcare delivery "remains in flux as leaders struggle to come to some agreement on both the best location and the best partnerships" to forge for providing care to veterans and other citizens, said full House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner, D-Calif.
Before Katrina, the New Orleans VA medical center had a partnership with New Orleans' Louisiana State University, the Tulane University Schools of Medicine and many allied health profession programs. Congress has appropriated $625 million, through two emergency supplemental appropriations, to move ahead on building a new facility.
Frederick Cerise, secretary of the Louisiana Health and Hospitals Department, urged the committee to support a model that would leverage the success of VA's esteemed health information technology system by combining three New Orleans inpatient facilities that existed before Katrina into a single LSU-VA inpatient facility, with a dispersed network of clinics.
The goal of Louisiana's healthcare redesign is to provide care through partnerships that take advantage of health IT and improve health outcomes. "This is akin to the VA vision," Cerise said.
He noted that in the aftermath of Katrina, VA facilities nationwide were able to access patient information for evacuees because of the department's health IT system.
"Investments in HIT and the recently established Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum will aid in creating system-ness and ensuring that improvements in quality occur," Cerise testified.
He cited support for keeping the VA hospital downtown from the Regional Planning Commission for Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and St. Tammany parishes; the Downtown Development District of New Orleans; and the state legislature.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said the city also supports rebuilding the VA hospital downtown.
But Patrick Quinlan, CEO of Ochsner Health Systems, whose Jefferson Parish-based medical center remained open during and after Katrina, recommended that the VA locate the new medical facility outside downtown New Orleans, near Ochsner's center.
In commissioning an independent study of 600 veterans in 18 south Louisiana parishes, "overwhelmingly, 76 percent of veterans indicated they prefer a suburban Jefferson Parish location to one in downtown New Orleans," he stated.
Ochsner's proposal encourages the VA to occupy a 28-acre site owned by Ochsner that has easy access to major highways. "It is above sea level and not located in a flood plain," Quinlan testified. And, "electronic connectivity is possible with Ochsner's complete ambulatory electronic medical record system."
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States
Web Services Available Amid Pennsylvania Closure
by Michael Martinez
A budget impasse in Pennsylvania has prompted Gov. Ed Rendell to furlough tens of thousands of government workers in the Keystone State, but some services have remained available online.
The government shutdown has forced the closure of all the state's driver's license centers, as well as state parks and public museums. The state Transportation Department's 71 license centers and 26 "photo only" centers have been closed. The department is still accepting applications online for license renewals and registrations, and change-of-address notices.
Rendell, a Democrat, has closed a considerable portion of the government because lawmakers have not yet sent him a budget. More than 24,000 nonessential workers were furloughed without pay indefinitely at midnight Sunday night.
Rendell said in a press conference on Sunday that he hoped the furloughs would only last a day, and he blamed all of the parties involved for not moving faster on authorizing a spending plan. "I think everybody is at fault for not starting early enough in this process," he said. "I thought I pushed hard, but maybe I didn't push hard enough."
A state court has granted a temporary restraining order to keep the state's five casinos open. In a statement, Revenue Secretary Thomas Wolf announced Monday that the state has rescinded the furloughs of the state employees who monitor, manage and supervise the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board's central computer system, in accordance with the court order.
Rendell said Sunday that "considerable progress" has been made during recent budget negotiations, but lawmakers still failed to move forward on "three of four" central issues.
He also insisted that the dispute has not solely been the result of disagreements he has had with the Legislature. He said Republicans in both chambers still had not reached an agreement with House Democrats on several outstanding issues.
"So even had I been able to reach agreement on all the issues that were outstanding between the administration and the Senate and House Republicans, there would have still been that impediment," he said.
Other governors also have been busy working through spats with legislators.
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, and state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, a Republican, have engaged in intense disputes over several issues. But AP reported Monday that Spitzer has decided not to order a special legislative session to tackle unresolved issues.
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On The Download
Imagining The Apple IPhone's Future In Politics
by Shira Toeplitz, The Hotline
The iPhone must be seen to be believed.
Apple Inc.'s much-hyped combination of a cellular telephone, video iPod and Internet browser, with its touch screen and user-friendly interface, is superior to other cell phones. It's also popular. Despite the iPhone's hefty price tag of $499 or $599 (depending on memory space), more than 700,000 iPhones reportedly were sold this past weekend.
So if the phone fulfills the hype and surpasses sales projections, how could it change political technology? If it becomes as common as the iPod in a few years, it could become the standard for mobile communications in politics and then surely would influence the way campaigns pursue voters and supporters through technology.
For one thing, the new Safari Internet browser certainly bests other mobile browsers with its touch-sensitive, moveable and zoom-in screen. Users also can keep multiple windows open.
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is the first presidential candidate to publish an iPhone platform for his Web site -- an iPhone friendly version for his die-hard Internet supporters.
While Paul's page probably will not greatly influence campaigns, if the iPhone increases in popularity like the iPod, it could more importantly change the way people consume political news. An already fact-paced 24-hour news cycle might become even faster now that consumers have access to a better way to view the Web from their mobile phones.
Here's a review of other potential capabilities the iPhone brings to the table in terms of politics:
-- The cell-phone's capabilities on the YouTube video-sharing site have by far the most promise of all the iPhone's new features for changing politics and technology. According to Apple's promotional video and a live test of the phone, YouTube videos are easy to search, watch and forward via e-mail on the iPhone. The iPhone video program even has clearer and crisper quality than YouTube's player.
Most other cell phones on the American market currently cannot play flash videos off the Web. However, the Associated Foreign Press reported last week that YouTube signed a deal with the South Korean cell manufacturer LG to make a phone that will let users record, upload and watch videos on YouTube. The phone reportedly is scheduled to launch in Europe the second half of this year.
If the standard cell phone could record, upload and distribute a video on YouTube by 2012, any citizen could track a candidate quickly and efficiently. Any person at a political rally could influence the political process by catching a politician making an odd, off-the-cuff remark. Within seconds, a video of such political gaffes could be live online or forwarded to hundreds of people.
While it's possible to do that already with some advanced cell phones, iPhone's sleek screen and YouTube program make it easier -- and might make it common practice for politics.
-- The iPhone's map application offers great potential for campaigns, though it will be a challenge to figure out just how to use it on the trail. The map uses satellite imagery in addition to the traditional graphics mode. A political technology operative eventually could find a fantastic way to use the feature to bring more people to a rally or better organize a field team.
-- The iPhone could help developers create and upload applications. Could a campaign give volunteers an iPhone program to help them canvass neighborhoods? Or perhaps give supporters an application for their phones that would give frequent updates from the road or locate a volunteer headquarters in the area?
-- The iPhone's text-messaging capabilities are much more user friendly in "conversation" format, similar to Google's e-mail program, Gmail. Regardless of the type of cell phone, text-messaging in politics has not taken off in American like it has in overseas politics. The iPhone's platform is unlikely to change the potential for using text-messaging in politics, but an easier-to-use program could only help.
Editor's Note: On The Download is Hotline's dispatch on politics, multimedia and the Internet.
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Today's Feature:
Issue of the Week
Age-verification technologies have the potential to dramatically affect how people do business and interact socially online.
Every Monday, read the Issue of the Week by the Technology Daily staff.
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E-briefs
E-Government: Senate appropriators have drafted legislation that would direct the National Institutes of Health to make federally funded research available to the public via the Internet. A June 27 report accompanying the fiscal 2008 spending bill for the Health and Human Services Department and other federal entities states that "all investigators funded by the NIH" must submit "an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts" to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central database for public access within 12 months after publication. A similar policy already exists, but it is voluntary. "Action by our senators in supporting this change is especially welcomed by the patient community," said Colleen Zak, executive director of the Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease and Congenital Hepatic Fibrosis Alliance. "Delivering on the NIH public-access policy will create anticipated opportunities for accelerating research and finding cures."
Civil Liberties: Privacy watchdogs met with FBI Director Robert Mueller on Monday to discuss the agency's new guidelines for employing a special subpoena power for anti-terrorism investigations. Caroline Fredrickson, the American Civil Liberties Union's top lobbyist, said she was glad to see the FBI's recent reforms but called the efforts "too little, too late." In March, the Justice Department detailed abuse of so-called "national security letters." The FBI's own audit revealed even more improprieties, including the erroneous collection of citizens' telephone, e-mail and financial records. Fredrickson said she remains skeptical "that any internal FBI regulation of NSL use will correct the problem." Representatives from the Center for National Security Studies, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Electronic Privacy Information Center also attended the meeting, sources said. EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg said he "appreciated the opportunity to meet with the FBI director and his staff" but still believes the authority should be repealed.
Health: Bush administration officials are wary of a Senate health information technology bill currently under consideration. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt expressed "significant concerns" with the measure, S. 1693, in a letter to Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. Leavitt said several provisions would create barriers to progress already under way. The administration particularly wants market forces rather than government regulations and subsidies to propel the shift to electronic records, opposing the use of grants and state loan programs to stimulate the adoption of health IT. Leavitt also said the administration favors public-private entities to serve as advisory committees rather than having one federal committee as proposed in the bill. Without changes to the bill, Leavitt said, the administration will oppose it. President Bush has set the year 2014 as a target date for health records to be kept electronically nationwide.
Privacy: It is too early for lawmakers to start regulating radio-frequency identification tags, according to a new report by the free-market think tank the Pacific Research Institute. The report said RFID tracking tags have incited fears about privacy, but those fears should not incite government regulations. "A relatively new technology like RFID tends to spark fear in people, but fear should not drive government regulation," said K. Lloyd Billingsley, the report's author. "Lawmakers should weigh the pros and cons of this technology before imposing a regulatory regime." The report says some of the concern over RFID may come from hostility to big businesses and the U.S. military, two well-known users of the tags. RFID tags have various uses -- from allowing companies like Wal-Mart to track consumer purchases to e-passports that help customs officials validate identities. Potential uses in the health industry and counterfeit protection are undergoing research.
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