This Friday is a coveted day for many shoppers around the nation. The day referred to as “Black Friday” produces several unbeatable sales and usually causes thousands of people to crowd shopping malls and camp out for hours hoping to fill their shopping carts with all the newest toys and latest gadgets for Christmas. But sometimes the mass amount of people on this popular shopping day can be a little overwhelming. In this case, we suggest participating in online shopping this Friday. You can still receive hundreds of great deals without having to fight over a spot in line at the checkout.

Shopping in your slippers can also help protect the environment! Think of all of the cars that will pack the parking lots this Friday and drive from shopping center to shopping center looking for the best deals. Online shopping is just one of the several ways broadband can help reduce CO2 emissions. Instead of being stuck in traffic as you drive all over town, online shopping allows you to see all the best deals with a simple click of the mouse.

So remember this Friday try online shopping and fight global warming without fighting crowds.

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As we approach Thanksgiving Day, we at NextGenWeb, of course, are giving thanks for broadband and all of the opportunities that a high speed Internet connection provides.  From solving some of America’s biggest societal challenges, to improving communications, to pure entertainment, broadband is an integral part of people’s professional and personal lives.   Despite some disagreements in the best ways to move broadband forward, we all agree that deployment, adoption, investment, and innovation are key to our broadband future.  NextGenWeb will continue to advocate for these objectives.  Will you join us?

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The National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL) recently held their 8th Annual Summit in San Antonio, TX to explore the different avenues available to increase Latino competitiveness in the 21st century. The discussions at the summit were concentrated on the issues that NHCSL focused on in 2010 and the available policy options that could help strengthen the Hispanic community.

Among the attendees were Jose Luis Rodriguez, President and CEO of the Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network (HITN), and Jerry M. Fuentes, AT&T President for the states of Arizona and New Mexico. As members of the NHCSL business board of advisors, they were particularly interested in the caucus’ focus and support for ensuring broadband access to the Latino community.

NextGenWeb sat down with both gentlemen to gain insight on the NHCSL summit’s accomplishments as well as what still needs to be done in order to maintain progress in the Latino community moving forward.

Click below to watch the interviews.

Jerry M. Fuentes

Jose Luis Rodriguez

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This morning hundreds of people who follow technology policy convened at Union Station for Politico’s “What’s Next in Tech: How Washington Will Act on Key Policy Issues in 2011” event.  Driven by the Politico Morning Tech team  (Kim Hart, Tony Romm, and Jennifer Martinez), attendees heard a diverse array of government and industry representatives share their views and ideas on issues including broadband, innovation, and cybersecurity through the prism of recent midterm election results.

Kim Hart opened the event interviewing Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra, who shared reflections on lessons learned, as well as priorities ahead.  Chopra will continue his work on open government initiatives and he predicts patent reform, privacy, and spectrum policy to be major initiatives in 2011.  Here is a link to read a comprehensive recap of Chopra’s talk on Gov20.GovFresh.

Next topic was the “View From the Hill” with Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and John Ensign (R-NV) and Congresswoman Eshoo (CA-14).  Although asked about personal favorite technologies (iPad, Blackberry), the Senators also addressed issues like immigration, cybersecurity, and even education relative to training the next generation of engineers and developers.  When it comes to looking ahead with net neutrality, Senator Ensign’s “modest proposal” was to “kill it.” Senator Warner acknowledged that the network providers have legitimate capacity concerns, which require light-touch regulation and industry involvement in addressing.   Rep. Eshoo predicts net neutrality won’t be taken up again. “I don’t think the votes were there in the House even before election.”

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A good deal of progress is being made to balance the needs for consumer privacy, behavioral advertising, and internet innovation. Today, USTelecom hosted a panel event discussing important ways to balance a consumer’s right to online privacy while still enabling advertisers to gather data to target consumer buying needs and wants. The discussion began with an overview of online advertising and the ways it has evolved throughout the years to a rather complicated structure involving hundreds of third party groups.

USTelecom’s VP and General Counsel Genie Barton moderated the panel which included the following presenters: Stuart Ingis, Partner, Venable LLP and counsel to the Digital Advertising Alliance; Christopher N. Olsen, Assistant Director – Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, Federal Trade Commission; Colin O’Malley, Co-Founder, VP Business Development and Policy, Better Advertising; Kathleen Zanowic, Chief Privacy Officer, Verizon.

Since new questions began to arise over privacy, the FTC along with a group of associations and companies involved in the advertising industry met about how best to keep consumers in control to make choices about how their personal information is gathered and used online, while still allowing information to be gathered in a transparent environment. While the FTC was holding a series of roundtables to gather input on the issue, industry began work on a self-regulatory process that resulted in the creation of a new industry-standard icon that will appear at the corner of web pages where data is collected. Consumers can click on the icon and be taken to an “opt out” page. This page will allow consumers to edit what information, if any, the page is allowed to collect.

The industry is investing in tools to ensure transparency for all consumers and a platform to build trust with its clientele. Many sites have placeholders for this new icon, although the complicated technology behind it is still being worked out. According to panelist Colin O’Malley, by the summer of 2011, four to five million site pages will host this icon. Early tests seem to illustrate that the icon exemplifies trust for consumers who are adamant that their personal information be kept safe. People are engaging with the icon and 36 percent of users are more likely to buy from a site that hosts the icon. The current “opt out” rate is very low.

Concerns over the length of time the self-regulation icon is taking to formally post, along with questions about how this entire idea will properly work, are still floating. And steps to regulate advertising practices are ongoing. The FTC and Department of Commerce will both be issuing a report by year’s end that proposes a new privacy framework to give consumers greater control over their online data.

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Last week we highlighted a recent study released by the Commerce Department titled, “Digital Nation II.” The study looked at contemporary trends in broadband adoption amongst different demographics of American society. To get another perspective on the findings of the study, and what policy implications those findings might have, we sat down with David Sutphen, co-chair of the Internet Innovation Alliance, for an interview. Click below to hear Sutphen talk about the barriers to broadband adoption, and what can be done to help cross those barriers.

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It’s rare to see seven experts on technology policy reach a unified consensus, but there was across the board agreement that the inclusion of engineers and economists in the Internet policy discussion will lead to better decisions.   This theme ran throughout comments given yesterday at the ITIF event “Perspectives on the Future of Digital Communications.”  Originally suggested by University of Pennsylvania Law and Computer Science Professor Christopher Yoo, the panel went on to add this interdisciplinary approach would help to bridge Washington disconnect and disaggregate communities.  Harvard Law Professor John Palfrey suggested the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group was a good example of this.

The purpose of the event was to discuss new writings by the participants compiled to address “the future of digital communications.”  Some of our favorites are below:

• Dale N. Hatfield
  Executive Director, Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship, University of Colorado
  “The Challenge of Increasing Broadband Capacity.”
  Read the essay
• Nicol Turner-Lee
  Vice President and Director, Media and Technology Institute, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
  “The Challenge of Increasing Civic Engagement in the Digital Age.”
  Read the essay
• Christopher S. Yoo
  Professor of Law & Communications, University of Pennsylvania Law School
  “The Challenge of New Patterns in Internet Usage.”
  Read the essay

Also, watch the video below for more from Dale Hatfield:

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A sizable audience gathered yesterday at the Brookings Institution for a one and a half hour discussion on the topic of Internet Governance and Regulation.  The pending question specifically was “what should be government’s role?” and the speakers, listed below, were able to draw consensus around past successes and politically sound next steps.

• David Cohen, Executive Vice President of Comcast Corporation
• Erik Garr, Partner of Diamond Management and Technology Consultants
• Gary Epstein, General Counsel, Aspen International Digital Economic Accords (IDEA) Project

The top overarching theme participants agreed upon was the need to settle on some sort of principles of net neutrality so that we can move on to foundational issues like deployment and adoption.   Cohen advocated strongly for the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG) as a clear-cut solution, due to its efficiency and blend of self-governance and consensus building.  Garr agreed that the time it takes regulators to act complicates matters and raised the issue of impact on investment noting the reality that a majority of U.S. broadband investment is fueled by private industry.

Full audio of the program is available here.

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Thanks to broadband, the jobs of first responders and public safety officials all across America are being made easier on a daily basis. Through improved communication and access to up-to-the-minute information including video and other vital data, broadband is transforming emergency response and preparedness.

So important is the role of broadband to public safety efforts that an entire section of the recently released FCC National Broadband Plan was dedicated to its role in public safety and homeland security. The plan states:

“Broadband technology is particularly critical to public safety because it can provide enhanced situational awareness from first responders in emergency situations. Through broadband use, public safety entities can access medical records, site information and other video and data information useful for emergency responses. Broadband will also improve the nation’s current 9-1-1 system by establishing the foundation for the transmission of voice, data or video to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) during emergency phone calls.”

This week, NextGenWeb will be shining a spotlight on how first responders and public safety officials are using broadband on a daily basis. In the meantime, be sure to check out this archived interview that we conducted with Rear Admiral (ret.) James Arden Barnett, Jr., Chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission, to learn more about the vision of a nationwide interoperable public safety network powered by broadband.

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Raising investment capital is a must in order to launch new enterprises, or facilitate growth in existing businesses, within the telecommunications and broadcasting field.  This can pose a challenge especially for small, minority and/or female owned businesses.   The FCC is seeking to address this tomorrow in an event hosted by the their Office of Communications Business Opportunities (“OCBO”). Two panels, including government representatives and private sector finance experts, will present capitalization strategies and provide productive feedback on participant’s individual business plans.

The event is free of charge and will also be livestreamed at http://reboot.fcc.gov/live

Friday, November 12

9:00 a.m. -  5:00 p.m.

FCC Headquarters, Commission Meeting Room

445 12th Street, SW

Washington, DC 20554

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