This is an important step.  In order to be useful, however:

• Phones need to be able to report their location to dispatchers.  If your phone doesn’t have a built-in GPS, even cell-tower triangulation would be helpful.  Currently, location comes from an automated text message response asking for a zip code.
• This needs to be carrier independent.  Currently, if your carrier doesn’t support, you get an automated message telling you to call 911.
• The capability needs to be standard for more well-defined geographies.  I hope this a standard develops within a couple of years.

Boeing is running into a similar situation with the development of their 787 Dreamliner.  While computer models had simulated stress testing of the wings without problem, actual testing by bending the wings identified areas that needed extra reinforcement.  From the Seattle Times:

Scott Fancher, the head of the Dreamliner program, explained the structural problem in a conference call early Tuesday morning. He said that late in May engineers, performing wing bend tests on the airplane that is set aside inside the factory specifically for ground testing, found that strain gauges showed higher stress than predicted by the computer models at multiple points along the upper part of the wing-to-body join.

:

When engineers checked the areas flagged by the instruments measuring the strain, they found evidence that the structure was indeed stressed. Asked if that meant delamination, meaning separation of layers in the composite material, Fancher didn't specify exactly but hinted that visible damage was apparent.

That’s why we actually do the tests.

As of midnight tonight, televisions stations will be making the switch so that their broadcasts are now digital only.  If you are getting your TV signal via rabbit ears, you will need a convertor box to convert the digital, hi-def signal back to analog  (or buy a new HD TV).  If you are a cable, satellite, or FiOS subscriber, you can continue to use standard TVs without the convertor.

The official DTV transition site is http://www.dtv.gov.  Some questions and answers are posted in a Times article here.

To recognize the day that TV died, Henry Blodget has a great article that admits “Sorry, There's No Way To Save The TV Business”. 

The traditional TV industry--cable companies, networks, and broadcasters--is where the newspaper industry was about five years ago:

In denial.

As with print-based media, Internet-based distribution generates only a tiny fraction of the revenue and profit that today's incumbent cable, broadcast, and satellite distribution models do.  As Internet-based distribution gains steam, therefore, most TV industry incumbents will no longer be able to support their existing cost structures.

See http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-analysts-begin-to-realize-that-theres-no-way-to-save-television-2009-6

The Washington State Legislature is struggling with a $8 to $9 billion shortfall in the state budget.  Drastic cuts are being considered.  Some have floated ideas for closing tax loopholes, increasing tax rates, or new taxes.  How do you present a complex idea to the voters for their feedback?  The governor and the legislature have offered online spreadsheets.

Below is a game that I helped design for Fuse Washington that allows you to balance the state budget.  Unlike the spreadsheet, it offers an intuitive way to look at different categories for revenue and expenses.

To play the game, go to www.YouBudget.org

The problem--which a known bug in Internet Explorer--was caused by an update in the javascript code that sitemeter is using.  (This has been fixed today.)

I don't which is scarier...

• sitemeter released an update to their javascript code on a Friday.  (Not releasing updates on weekends or holidays unless you can avoid it is probably covered on the first day of Operations 101.)
• sitemeter is not testing with Internet Explorer 7!

I know that there has been a lot of excitement for Apple's Safari (available on Mac and Windows) and Mozilla Firefox, but remember IE still has 74% market share, according to Wikipedia.  I've had the same experience reviewing logs of my sites.

Finally, the federal government and cell carriers are coming up with a plan for national alerts via text messages.

• CNET:  FCC greenlights text message emergency alert system
• CNN:  FCC approves emergency alert system 
• WSJ:  Text Messages are Approved for Nationwide alert system 

The Wall Street Journal reports such a system "could be in place" by 2010. 

Jim Beaugey shows off the Peavey Riffmaster Guitar Controller.  It is a real Peavey guitar with Guitar Hero controls instead of strings.  You can also customize it from with custom artwork. 

George Parthimos explains the free MiRoamer site that helps you find your internet radio sites around the world and MiRoamer devices that you listen to your favorite internet radio sites without a computer.

Microsoft's Kirk Gregerson demonstrates Office Live Workspace that takes your office documents and collaborate on the internet.

Stories will be published throughout January.  Some highlights...

Interview with Netflix VP Steve Swasey on their partnership with LG to deliver a set-top box to watch movies instantly from the internet.

Phil Raman explains Wireless USB, a technology to eliminate wires needed to connect your laptop to various devices.

This interpreation of the rules were proposed based on a panel I participated in regarding the Internet and Campaigns on August 20th and Commision discussion on September 28^th.

[note:  all of these quotes are draft proposals by staff to the commission and not yet adopted] 

The Commission’s intent in providing this Interpretation is based on state voters’ strong interest in public disclosure of campaign financing which allows the public to “follow the money.” However, the Commission also recognizes the unique and evolving nature of the Internet, and that it often offers no-cost or low-cost opportunities for candidates, voters, bloggers and others to participate in the political process. The focus of the agency will be to first apply current state laws and rules to Internet activity where possible, before promulgating new rules or amending current rules.

The draft interpretation includes the following general principles:

• The PDC wants to "not interfere with the free flow of political information via the internet, particularly when the information is provided at no or little cost."
• The PDC recognizes the "internet is unique and evolving and warrants a restrained regulatory approach at this time."
• Where possible, "state regulation of Internet activity will follow the Federal Election Commission approach" (which does not regulate or require disclosure for uncompensated bloggers, and only requires disclosure on expenditures by people buying ads or paying consultants). 

Some specific items mentioned in the proposal include:

PDC Assistant Director Doug Ellis summarized his memo, emphasizing the guiding principles that staff developed.  Staff is looking to the commission for "general direction" for rulemaking, if the commission decided to take action here.

PDC Counsel Nancy Krier discussed the approach used by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which takes a "follow the money" approach for spending, not sites receiving advertising revenue.  She mentioned that the fact the PDC is looking at the internet reflects they are "cutting edge" and "ahead of the curve", and couldn't mention examples from other states doing so.

The discussion compared the FEC approach, current state law and regulations, and potential areas of interest for action:

• media exemption--does it apply to bloggers?  Currently, it doesn't for Washingotn State races.
• how to identify who is the person or organization behind web sites?  Currently, sites are not required to disclose.
• does income from "tip jar" contributions to political sites get reported?  Currently, it would only be reported as spending if contribution came from a candidate or committee.
• are disclaimers required on mass email?  Currently, they are not in Washington State races.
• what is the threshold volunteers who are freelancers or semi-professionals provide services of web site deign and maintenance without it being considered an in-kind contribution?  The commission discussed having a threshold of $10,000.

The discussion between Commissioners and Staff was fairly detailed, informed, with good specific questions based on scenarios that we laid out in last month's panel and others that the commissioners are exploring.

The PDC recessed for lunch without formal action. 

Today, Verizon Wireless declined to allow a political campaign to send text messages over their network.  This was for a campaign where the receipients of the text messages had explicitly signed up to receive them.  But the corporation said that the messages were too controversial.

Most telecommunications companies have opposed net neutrality saying that it would prevent them from building a express delivery "toll road" that provides selected cusotmers with faster or guaranteed service for delivering their content (for extra pay, of course). 

But, this example illustrates the importance of network neutrality in treating all internet traffic equally, regardless of content or origin.

Update:  Verizon has reversed themselves and are now allowing the campaign.

(Last month, I participated on a PDC panel discussing the Internet and Campaigns.)

The memo's "guiding principles" are encouraging, recognizing the internet is unique, evolving, and critical to the free flow of political information.  They suggest following the Federal Election Commission when possible--which has determined not to regulate uncompensated bloggers and treat them like media.  People hired by political campaigns or advertising purchased are still covered by disclosure and reporting requirements.

Some questions proposed in the memo:

• Does the Public Disclosure Commission want to extend the media exemption to mainstream media web sites?  To bloggers web sites?
• Does the Commission want to require "paid for by" disclaimers for web advertising, including web badges and other community-building tools?
• Does the Commission want to require disclosure beyond that currently required by candidates, political committees, or employers that pay bloggers?  (They mention examples of "tip jar" or "pledge week" contributions are not currently tracked--something they questioned us at length during last month's panel.)
• Does the Commission want to require disclaimers on emails at a certain level of distribution or monitor complaints about unidentified emails?
• Does the Commission want reporting requirements for computer use, investments and maintenance when computers are for "general use"?
• Does the Commission want to add web site design, maintenance, and similar services to the list of "volunteer services" that do not require disclosure if the volunteer is not compensated as a professional outside of the campaign?  (What is the threshold for compensated professional?)

If the PDC is going to propose new legislation, notice with the legislature would have to be filed before October 24th.  Draft language could be presented at the PDC meeting on October 25th. 

I'll blog from the meeting in Olympia tomorrow.

• Quality Customers:  How are your customers finding and using your site?  How do you identify who are the most active, quality customers?  Who are the next targets to cultivate into your best customers?
• Questions:  how can people get questions to you?  Are you making it easy for people to contact you and you to get all feedback, positive and negative.  Bad news is great--if you have complete enough information to deal with and fix the problem. 
• Quotes:  what are people saying about you?  What is happening on the internet where people are quoting your site or commenting about your site? 
• Quick Response:  How quickly can you respond in putting content on your site?  If you are first, you can shape your own press and media coverage, directly respond to customer/constituent concerns, and encourage and train people to go to your site first.

This information exists.  Your web site design (and more importantly, your web site platform) needs to make answering these questions easy.  Once you have the data, now do something about it.  You need to be using this information on a regular basis to drive continuous quality of service (QoS). 

"The big thing that has happened really is that ... search has been far and away more than anyone imagined such a massive driver of traffic," said Vivian Schiller, a senior vice-president at NYTimes.com.

The NYTimes also has its archives available back to 1987.  Details here.

They also do a good job of implementing RSS for feeds for their home page, different sections, and individual columnists. 

On Wednesday, I testified before the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission on the Internet and Campaigns. The meeting broadcast is available at www.TVW.org and will air on TVW on Tuesday, August 21^st at 8:AM and 4:PM.

I was part of a panel with Bob Stern, President for the Center for Governmental Studies (and previously General Counsel to the California’s Fair Political Practices Commission--equivalent of the PDC), Steve Hoersting, Vice President of the Center for Competitive Politics, former General Counsel to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (and an expert on the FEC), Stefan Sharkansky, founder of SoundPolitics.com, and David Postman, chief political reporter and blogger for the Seattle Times. Some background material for the meeting is posted here.

My role was as a podcast producer and consultant—one who had worked on political campaigns before.

The hearing started with examples of how the internet is being used in campaigns from presidential races, nationally-known voices with strident messages, individual blogs ("everyone's entitiled to my opinion"), and shared video using sites like YouTube.

During opening remarks, I added the idea of community not reflected in the examples. I talked about local blogs as being an online town hall bringing people into the public dialogue and having in-depth conversations. I talked about the roles that political blogs like SoundPolitics and Horse’s Ass are filling in the roles of local newspapers, providing analysis and even doing original reporting.

Bob Stern outlined some of the research California has done, but said that if the PDC decided to act here in tackling campaigns and the internet, they would be "leading the nation" and "ahead of the game".

Stefan Sharkansky talked about how expressing his political views and commentary on his web site is similar to the mainstream media outlets (like Postman's blog) or offline counterparts.

David Postman talked about how the internet is exploding, how quickly things are moving (both with technology and reporting), and the effectiveness of blogs as word of mouth and potentially generating press.  He talked about the challenges of determining who is a journalist--something the legislature struggled with in considering "shield law" last session.

Steve Hoersting outlined how the FEC treats uncompensated bloggers—bascially not putting restrictions or reporting requirements on individuals blogging on their own time, even if they are volunteers for a campaign or work in politics elsewhere. Candidates are required to disclose their expenditures when hiring bloggers and consultants, but the individual blogger's freedom of speech is not impacted.

FEC was very reluctant to determine which sites were "the press" or not. They drew the line on paid ads, not content on the particular site. The advertiser, not the web site operator has the responsibility of complying with campaign law.

As we talked about how bloggers generate their revenue, the panel talked through various scenarios about internet advertising and how campaign or candidate spending would show up on existing PDC reports.

Some questioning was around independent expenditures and especially paid bloggers. Commissioner Jane Nolan asked about the process of creating a video podcast and how to get airtime.

Some of the discussion here talked about how news media would be impacted.

The discussion also talked about well-known issues of appearance of corruption including Armstrong Williams, Jerome Armstrong, and the consultant behind the ad mocking Hillary Clinton using Apple’s 1984 Superbowl ad. One note that the panel mentioned that wasn’t emphasized enough—these instances were a handful of tens of millions of active blogs.  And that the possibility of generating interesting and entertaining video is in the hands of more and more people.

Overall, closing themes from all of the panel members was that...

The PDC should tread carefully. Many scenarios involved not only the organized campaign (or opposition) but also an individual supporter or volunteer that could be caught by requirements. The 2003 report from Bipartisan California Commission on Internet Political Practices still applies today and illustrated several problems with regulators not understanding the nature of the internet, or unintended consequences with taking action.

PDC assistant director Doug Ellis summarized the following timeline if the PDC wanted to take action for new regulation or reporting requirements for the 2008 elections.

• 9/27 meeting: Commissioners would need to give general guidelines and direction to staff for any proposal
• 10/24 meeting: Commissioners would need to consider any draft language
• 12/19 meeting: Any draft language would need to go the code revisor’s office.
• January 2008: Formal approval and action.

Notes:  I updated this entry with some additional notes once I was able to review the hearing broadcast, plus with some helpful feedback from Bob Stern. 

• Steve Hoersting posts "The Internet Isn't the Problem" in his summary of the meeting here.
•  Press coverage from the Olympian is here.
• The Seattle Times finally published an article on regarding this hearing, appearing on the paper on September 3rd.