Wireless Future Blog

Google Makes Case for Geolocation

Ben Lennett — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:59:00 -0400

In a recent post on their public policy blog, Google expands upon their geolocation proposal for the television white spaces:

We believe it's possible to marry the benefits of mobile devices for consumers with the protection of fixed devices for TV broadcasters and other incumbent users of this spectrum (including wireless microphones) -- in part by using geolocation technology that would prevent a white space device from transmitting over channels that are in use.

Some observers, particularly in the public interest community, have asked whether geolocation might compromise the promise of the TV white spaces, particularly with regard to "mesh networks." Happily, this need not be the case. In a new white paper, we explain how our proposals can provide the protections afforded to incumbent users by geolocation, without significantly limiting the promise of mesh networks. We also describe how this technology can support use by the public service community in times of natural disasters and in other emergency situations.

Earthlink Announces it's Dismantling the Wireless Philadelphia Network.

SaschaMeinrath.com — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

Last year, New America Foundation released an in-depth report and analysis of the Wireless Philadelphia Project, "The Philadelphia Story: Learning from a Municipal Wireless Pioneer." We concluded that the private franchise model was suboptimal and that Philadelphia's solution was problematic in a number of ways. At the time, we received good press coverage and a helluvalot of blowback from certain constituencies (who continued to assert that everything was on track).

Now that we've made it to May, 2008, Wireless Philadelphia is on its last legs. While many of us are still working to salvage something from this mess, reading through the New America Foundation report, it's amazingly how eerily prescient it is. Ironically, the solution we proposed was exactly what has been on the table for the past couple months -- but, as with far too many innovative ideas, this one got mired in the muck of Philly politics and, perhaps, personal egos.

Sadly, the mainstream press continue to demonstrate a remarkable ignorance by tagging this failure as a failure of "municipal wireless" -- the reality is, the Philadelphia model is a corporate franchise granted to Earthlink -- much of the problem stems from the fact that the municipality has no control or ownership over the network and Earthlink has demonstrated no accountability to the local community. Conde Nast's Portfolio gets it completely wrong -- heading their story, "Another Municipal Wi-Fi Plan Dies" -- which is a particular shame since I've spoken with the article's author, Sam Gustin, previously and he knows better.

Computer World labels the Earthlink failure as, "another blow to the municipal Wi-Fi market", when a better understanding of the situation would dictate that it's a failure of the corporate franchise business model. SiliconValley.com rightfully points out that where Earthlink's wireless networks have been taken over by municipalities, they've continued to operate, while those that haven't (e.g., Philly and New Orleans) they're being shut down. Isn't the story, then, that where corporate franchises are converted into municipal networks, the networks continue to thrive?

The story's also being covered by PC World, Digital Trends, and a host of other news organizations.

My recommendation? Read The Philadelphia Story: Learning from a Municipal Wireless Pioneer, check out my recent article for GovTech's Digital Communities, Municipal Wireless Success Demands Public Involvement, and remain critical of the notion that the death of municipal wireless is nigh.

Think Tank Citation Numbers: New America Pulls Out the Stops.

SaschaMeinrath.com — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) recently released a fascinating assessment, "The Incredible Shrinking Think Tank" documenting the third straight year in a row that think tanks were cited less than the prior year. At a time when think tanks are, on average, saw a 17% decrease in their citations in the press between 2007 and 2008, New America Foundation saw a 44% increase! In fact, New America saw the largest increase of any think tank in the study. When you take a look, the numbers are rather stunning:

The Philadelphia Story Continues... A.K.A. Lose Lips and Something About Ships.

SaschaMeinrath.com — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

The Philadelphia saga is about to get a whole lot more interesting. Though I've been privy to a lot of the behind-the-scene negotiations, if you're looking for details, you'll have to look elsewhere. However, you won't have to wait long -- the Philadelphia Metro has already started covering things -- which means that someone's already spilling the beans. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News are going to be running stories tomorrow.

All in all, the proposed solution is a really good one for the residents of Philly; but yes, it's caught up on the demand for a $250,000 payment. Meanwhile, Wireless Philadelphia released this statement today...

I am writing to provide you a brief update on the Wireless
Philadelphia Initiative.

Philadelphia's Wi-Fi network continues to operate in the roughly 80% of the City in which it has been deployed (see map

). Nothing in the ten-year Network Agreement

permits EarthLink to unilaterally impose deadlines for the network's transfer, turn off the network or remove network equipment.

It has been well publicized that EarthLink recently announced its intention to sell its Wi-Fi networks and exit the municipal wireless business. Wireless Philadelphia and the City of Philadelphia continue to work together to explore options for the network's future. In the meantime, we are committed to our core mission of serving Digital Inclusion customers with internet access, hardware, technical support and training.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Best regards,

Greg Goldman
CEO
Wireless Philadelphia
ggoldman@wirelessphiladelphia.org

Fun with OLSR. A.K.A., More Iphone Hacking.

SaschaMeinrath.com — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

My friend and colleague, Aaron Kaplan, has been playing around with his Iphone and is now running open source mesh software on it. The eventual goal of all of this is to create device-as-infrastructure networks -- i.e., systems where every piece of hardware is also a part of the communications network. As we've continued to work on integrating myriad open source wireless technologies into a single solution, experiments to integrate Iphones and other devices into new network architectures continue to provide fascinating results.

IPv4 -- Less than 1000 Days Left Until Number Exhaustion!?!?

SaschaMeinrath.com — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

Mike Leber over at Hurricane Electric put out a reminder that some estimates are now putting IPv4 number exhaustion at less than 1000 days out.

Having raised this issue with folks here in DC quite a bit, I've been intrigued by the lack of regard with which this problem has been met. In fact, it seems like few folks want to really address the issue, even though it's a problem that's certain to only grow in complexity and dysfunction as we near exhaustion.

Having just attended the most recent ARIN meeting in Denver, CO, I know that the scientific, research, and general IP communities have been ringing the klaxon for awhile now. Impressive amounts of information on the impending IPv4 exhaustion are readily available, and there's even some of us inside the beltway who are available resources to talk with anyone who'd be interested in addressing the problem (so do give a call).

What's worse, IPv6, while the only solution available, has its own scalability problems.

All I'm saying is, when this becomes "the big story" -- remember, lots of us have been working to proactively address the problem for years. We certainly can't say we didn't see this coming.

Art Brodsky: Why The 'Right' Gets Net Neutrality Wrong

Public Knowledge Policy Blog — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

Just in time for the House Telecom Subcommittee’s May 6 hearing on Net Neutrality legislation, Public Knowledge achieved a new level of notoriety when we were prominently mentioned in a blog post on the American Spectator, the publication best known for funneling millions of dollars to investigations of Bill and Hillary Clinton...

Art Brodsky: Why The 'Right' Gets Net Neutrality Wrong - Part 2

Public Knowledge Policy Blog — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

Picking up where we left off…

Market-Based Myths Abound

The argument against Net Neutrality really goes off-track when it gets into the nature of private property, the state of competition, and the effect of regulation. That’s more than one track to be thrown off of, so it’s quite the disaster scene. We may need CSI: Telecom to sort it all out.

Public Knowledge earned its headline in the Spectator because of the petition we filed with the FCC asking that companies like Verizon which offer text messaging not be able to decide which groups should be deemed worthy of service and which shouldn’t be...

Computers, Freedom, & Privacy 2008 Conference

SaschaMeinrath.com — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

I've been on the coordinating committee for the upcoming Computers, Freedom, & Privacy Conference which is taking place up in New Haven, CT later this month. The schedule is now just about finalized and it has shaped up to be an amazing group of intellectuals and experts.

Here's more information for anyone who's interested in these issues:

COMPUTERS, FREEDOM, AND PRIVACY: TECHNOLOGY POLICY '08
http://cfp2008.org/
18th Annual CFP conference
May 20-23, 2008
Omni Hotel
New Haven, CT

Conference Blog: http://cfp08.blogspot.com/
Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?id=683858084
Conference Wiki: http://cfp.wikia.com/wiki/CFP08
LinkedIn Group: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/61857/7885844E0F9D

Hotel Conference Discount Deadline: May 1, 2008
Early Bird Registration: Fri., May 2, 2008
YJoLT Tech Policy Essay Contest: Mon., May 5, 2008

ABOUT CFP: TECHNOLOGY POLICY `08

What should the technology policy priorities of the next administration be?

As the choice of presidential candidates becomes clearer and election year moves towards a comparison of the candidates' platforms on the issues, technology policy is increasingly relevant to the forefront of public debate. In the areas of privacy, intellectual property, cybersecurity, telecommunications, and freedom of speech, topics that were once confined to experts now appear in the mainstream of political issues. We now know that our decisions about technology policy are being made at a time as the architectures of our information and communication technologies are still being built.

This year, the 18th annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference is focusing on those issues at the forefront of technology policy this election year. With plenary panels on the "National Security State and the Next Administration" and "The 21st Century Panopticon?" the discussions taking place look towards our present and future priorities.

CFP: Technology Policy '08 is an opportunity to participate in shaping those issues being made into laws and regulations and those technological infrastructures being developed. Policies ranging from spyware and national security, to ISP filtering and patent reform, e-voting to electronic medical records, and more will be addressed by expert panels of technologists, policymakers, business leaders, and activists. The panel topics are listed below and full panel descriptions are available on the conference website at:

http://www.cfp2008.org/wiki/index.php/Program.

The CFP: Technology Policy `08 conversation has already begun in the virtual spaces connected to the conference. Even if you are unable to attend the conference this year, there are several opportunities to participate remotely. The guiding principles that ought to guide our policies are being debated on the conference blog. Social networking groups on Facebook and LinkedIn are providing new spaces for the CFP community to meet and discuss. The Yale Journal of Law and Technology is hosting a call for essays, on the priorities of the next administration, with more details below.

We look forward to seeing you in New Haven on May 20-23.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Plenary Sessions
Presidential Technology Policy: Priorities for the Next Executive
The 21st Century Panopticon?
The National Security State and the Next Adminstration

Tutorials
A Short History of Privacy
Constitutional Law in Cyberspace
e-Deceptive Campaign Practices: Elections 2.0
Maintaining Privacy While Accessing On-line Information

Panel Sessions
Activism and Education Using Social Networks
Breaking the Silence: Iranians Find a Voice on the Internet
Charismatic Content: Wikis, Social Networks, and the Future of
User-Generated Content
Filtering Out Copyright Infringement: Possibilities, Practicalities, and
Legalities
Filtering and Censorship in Europe
Hate Speech and Oppression in Cyberspace
Interoperability at the Crossroads?: The "Liberal Order" versus
Fragmentation
Law, Regulation, and Software Licensing for the Electronic Medical Record
Measuring Global Threats to Internet Freedom
Network Neutrality: Beyond the Slogans
New Challenges for Spyware Policy
Patents: The Bleeding Edge of Technology Policy
Privacy, Reputation, and the Management of Online Communities
Rights & Responsibilities for Software Programs?
States as Incubators of Change
"The Transparent Society:" Ten Years Later
Towards Trustworthy e-Voting: An Open Source Approach?

CALL FOR ESSAYS

Yale Journal of Law & Technology Call for Essays on the Technology Policy of the New Administration.
Deadline: Monday, May 5th

The Yale Journal of Law & Technology (YJoLT) is seeking essay-length submissions concerning the technology policy platform of the new American presidential administration. Essays selected for publication will appear in the Fall Issue of YJoLT (publication date November 2008).

Ideal submissions will discuss the priorities and guiding principles that American technology policy should follow. Submissions analyzing a particular technology policy issue in depth will also be accepted.

Essays of less than 5,000 words are preferred. Please submit all essays to yjolt.submissions@gmail.com. Please include the text "CFP Essay" in the subject line of the email. The authors of essays selected for publication will be notified on a rolling basis. Any questions can be directed to Lara Rogers, lara.rogers@yale.edu.

CONFERENCE FUNDING FOR JOURNALISTS

The Yale Law School Law and Media Program (LAMP) announces an opportunity for journalists to receive full funding to attend CFP: Technology Policy 08.

CFP: Technology Policy 08 will begin with a full day of tutorials and programming specifically geared toward journalists writing about information technology and policy, followed by a networking reception for journalists and other participants in the Law and Media Program.

We invite you to take advantage of this opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of US technology policy in the information age.

Journalists writing on privacy, intellectual property, telecommunications and cyberlaw are encouraged to apply for conference funding, which will include travel, hotel, meals and any registration fees for the full conference.

To apply, please send a cover letter explaining your interest in the program, along with your resume and three writing samples (by e-mail and hard copy) to Tracey Parr (tracey.parr@yale.edu), Yale Law School, P.O. Box 208215, New Haven, CT 06520-8215, by March 31, 2008. Up to twenty journalists will receive conference funding. Applicants accepted for conference funding will be notified by April 4, 2008.

Harold Feld: Follow Up On Medical Devices: Smarter Devices And Smarter Policy, Not More Bandwidth

Harold Feld - Tales of the Sausage Factory — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

So I've been following up more since initial post yesterday. As a general matter, I recommend interested readers start with this piece from the FDA's website, followed by the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) FAQ on wireless medica...