Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

FTC Commissioner: If Companies Don‘t

Protect Privacy, We‘ll Go To Congress

FTC Commissioner Julie Brill told a crowd of privacy

researchers at UC Berkeley that her agency was willing to

go to Congress if online advertisers and analytics

companies don’t clean up their act.

By Joe Mullin for paidContent.org

As the FTC gathers comments on its proposed privacy rules, including a ―Do Not Track‖ proposal, FTC Commissioner Julie Brill told a crowd of privacy researchers and policy wonks gathered at UC Berkeley that her agency was willing to go to Congress if online advertisers and analytics companies don‘t clean up their act.

While Do Not Track has become a buzz phrase that has been getting a lot of attention, there‘s more that‘s needed beyond implementing a good no-tracking option, Brill said. First, companies need to start considering “privacy by design.” That means that companies building new products need to think about privacy from the get-go, not just ―retrofitting‖ privacy features once there‘s a problem. Online companies also need to think about collecting less information about their users and holding it for a shorter period of time, Brill added. That‘s a suggestion that puts the FTC in direct conflict with the data-retention policies desired by the Department of Justice and law-enforcement agencies.

Second, privacy choices need to be simplified for consumers. Privacy policies are too cluttered and confusing, and tend to be full of information that‘s barely relevant to the consumer. For example, an online shopper already knows that his address will be shared with FedEx or another shipper when he buys something. Privacy policies need to address the collection of the data itself, not just how the data is used. For example, plenty of companies, such as ad networks, are holding large amounts of consumer data and could stop using it for behavioral advertising if consumers opt out.

Finally, data practices need to be transparent. Not only should consumers know what kind of data companies are collecting about them, but the FTC is actually proposing that consumers should get access to that data, Brill said. More at http://paidcontent.org/article/419-ftc-commissioner-if-companies-dont-

protect-privacy-well-go-to-congress/

Figure of the week

65% & 54% The percentage of Facebook and

Google users, respectively, who,

according to results of a USA TODAY/

Gallup Poll, say they are worried

about Internet viruses while searching

those sites.

Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011 Page 2

Health IT

Microsoft Intros State Health Insurance

Exchange Platform

The software giant is partnering with Extend on

turnkey technology for the online insurance

marketplaces required by healthcare reform.

By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, InformationWeek

The new Microsoft State Health Insurance Exchange, or HIX, includes core technology components from Microsoft as well as from partners, including Extend Health, which operates one of the country's largest supplemental Medicare insurance exchanges.

Microsoft HIX provides an interoperable framework that

connects new and existing government and private insurer

systems.

The offering includes a consumer portal for states to provide

individuals with an online marketplace to shop for insurance

plans via the Web, as well as provide to the exchange "behind

the scenes" functionality, such as eligibility determination,

financial services, plan enrollment, and administration, said

Dave Meyers, chief technology strategist of health and human

services in Microsoft's U.S. health and life sciences group.

For instance, during the eligibility determination process, the

exchange can interface with existing federal or state

government systems to check whether an individual is a citizen

of the United States, qualifies for a state's Medicaid coverage,

or is eligible for subsidized insurance based on income level,

said Meyers.

The end-to-end HIX offering also includes "wizard"

technologies provided by Extend, such as plan comparisons

tools to that help consumers choose coverage that best meets

their needs, said Jack Hersey, general manager of Microsoft's

U.S. public sector, healthcare, and social services group. Also

available for the exchange is call center support from Extend.

Pricing depends on the technology components needed by the

states. "Many components on the backend are already owned

[by potential state customers] and can be leveraged," Meyers

said.

That includes BizTalk Server 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server.

Other key Microsoft technologies that are part of Microsoft

HIX's foundation also include Windows Azure and Microsoft

Lync Server 2010.

More at http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/

admin-systems/showArticle.jhtml?

articleID=229203006&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All

Laboratory IT Systems Poised For Growth

By Bernie Monegain, Editor, Healthcare IT News

The laboratory information systems (LIS/LIMS) market will

grow in the 6 percent range annually in the next few years, up

from $800 million in 2010, forecasts a new report from

research firm Kalorama Information.

Tomorrow's laboratories will utilize advanced diagnostic and

information management technologies, such as digital

pathology and molecular studies, and they will require

sophisticated, fast, easy-to-use and, most importantly,

interoperable laboratory information systems (LIS) to handle

the resulting more complex and high volume data, according

to the report Laboratory Information Systems (LIS/LIMS)

Markets.

Because labor accounts for more than 60 percent of the cost

of producing test results, automation and better information

management systems effectively can reduce the number of

hands-on procedures in a lab and optimize the efficiency of

labor, researchers say.

Many operations still use manual processes for collecting,

analyzing, and reporting data. It is estimated that more than

two thirds of laboratories operate with less than half of their

instruments interfacing with an LIS. But with growing

pressures to cut costs, increase efficiencies and quality of

care, and report test results in real time, labs must plan for

more sophisticated LIS if they wish to remain competitive,

Kalorama concludes.

"The vendors with a long-term view are developing a next-

generation of LIS that will meet the needs that even many of

today's systems cannot provide," says Bruce Carlson,

publisher of Kalorama Information. "Hospitals are rapidly

automating, and clinical lab information systems will need to

offer features such as an interface with electronic charting,

EMRs, real-time data integration, reporting, analytics and

data visualization, and insurance billing software."

More at http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/laboratory-it

-systems-poised-growth

Page 3 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Health IT - (cont.)

ONC to Track Nationwide EHR, Info-

Exchange Use

By Joseph Conn, Modern Healthcare.com

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information

Technology at HHS has awarded two contracts totaling more

than $3.9 million to monitor the nationwide use of health

information exchanges and adoption of electronic health-

record systems.

Surescripts, an Arlington, Va.-based vendor of electronic

prescribing services and, more recently, an information

exchange portal and an ONC-authorized health IT testing and

certification body, was awarded a contract valued at more than

$1.4 million.

Surescripts is to collect, report and analyze "ongoing evidence

of nationwide electronic exchange of clinical information, such

as electronic prescribing," and submit reports at least

quarterly, according to a contract description posted on a

federal website.

Surescripts also should include breakdowns by state,

metropolitan area, county and ZIP code, and identify "any

areas where accurate estimates of exchange could not be

made," according to the description.

SK&A Information Services, Irvine, Calif., received an ONC

contract for $2.5 million to conduct ongoing surveys to assess

providers' adoption and use of EHR systems.

SK&A's quarterly reports should group healthcare providers

using EHR systems by medical specialty and characterize their

level of EHR system adoption and use of key functions,

according to the terms of the contract, as well as provide

detailed analysis of providers' EHR use by state, metropolitan

area, county and ZIP code.

For both contracts, the ONC expects to receive data beginning

in September and continuing through 2014.

More at http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20110207/

NEWS/302079987

Information Sharing

IG Deems DHS Intel System Management

'Effective'

By GovInfoSecruity.com

The Department of Homeland Security inspector general

expressed a few reservations about DHS's enterprise-wide

security program and practices for its top secret/sensitive

compartmented information intelligence system, but generally

called the management of the system effective.

In an unclassified summary of the audit made public Tuesday,

the IG said the overall IT security procedures have been

documented and adequate security controls have been

implemented. Nonetheless, the IG said "issues remain"

regarding the effectiveness of management oversight and

operational issues.

"We have concerns with the documentation for the Coast

Guard Intelligence Support System certification and

accreditation package and the information system security

training and awareness program for intelligence personnel,"

the summary said. "Also, we identified security issues with the

classified local area network and Coast Guard Intelligence

Support System.

We recommended that the undersecretary for intelligence and

analysis address the open recommendations identified during

our review. The department concurred with all four

recommendations."

The Federal Information Security Management Act required

the IG to review the department's security management,

implementation, and evaluation of its intelligence activities,

including its policies, procedures and system security controls

for enterprise-wide intelligence systems.

The IG assessed the department's plan of action and

milestones, certification and accreditation and incident

reporting processes, as well as its security training and

awareness program.

More at http://www.govinfosecurity.com/articles.php?

art_id=3334&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&ut

Page 4 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Points of View

The State of the Internet

By Anna G. Eshoo, U.S. House of Representatives, Co-Chair of

the Congressional Internet Caucus; Published by the San

Francisco Chronicle

As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, the Internet is no longer an optional resource. It is a fundamental tool encountered in every aspect of our daily lives. We rely on it for business, information, education, communication and personal expression. We use it at our offices, in our homes, on desktops and laptops and even on our phones. The vibrancy of our nation's economy increasingly depends on the growth and utilization of this transformative technology.

In Silicon Valley, the innovation capital of our country, startups have become billion-dollar businesses by leveraging the power of the Internet. These companies are transforming our society, making our economy grow and creating hundreds of thousands of domestic jobs.

As President Obama noted in his State of the Union address, the federal government has played a crucial role in the growth of the Internet and our most innovative businesses. The technology at the Internet's core was funded by a Defense Department program, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Silicon Valley has been a substantial beneficiary of federal research funding, and the dividends are apparent. Giants like Google, Cisco and Sun Microsystems (now part of Oracle) all emerged from federally funded research projects.

But as the Internet continues to grow in prevalence and complexity, what can we do to replicate our past two decades of success?

It begins with an investment in basic research. The private sector has always been the engine of American job creation and innovation, and the federal government has provided the resources and incentives necessary for our businesses to innovate and compete. While the United States still leads the world in funding basic research, China and other nations are working aggressively to catch up. We must continue to invest in research and preserve our advantage in this critical area.

The Research and Development Tax Credit is another essential economic tool, because it directly rewards business investment in new technologies, but the tax credit has been renewed only on a short-term basis.

During my 18 years in Congress and three administrations, I've worked to make the tax credit permanent. Last February, I led a bipartisan effort of 120 members of Congress in urging the expansion of the credit. There are few easy answers to improving the economy of our nation, but the R&D tax credit is one of them. It needs to be made permanent.

A climate of openness and innovation has been the hallmark of the Internet. A decade ago, it's what allowed a startup named Google to compete with better-funded, less technologically advanced competitors. Today, Congress has the responsibility to preserve this climate for the next Google, and for the consumers and the economy that will benefit from its success.

This begins with broadband availability, ensuring that every community has access to affordable high-speed Internet. In a recent poll conducted by Cisco Systems and the Saïd Business School, the United States ranked 15th in the world in broadband quality. We must close these gaps, and quickly.

All available options should be on the table. In the last Congress, I sponsored legislation calling for the installation of broadband channels when the ground is already being torn up for construction and transportation projects. The Federal Highway Administration estimates it is 10 times more expensive to dig up and then repair a road to lay fiber than to dig a channel for it when the road is being fixed or built.

More at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/

a/2011/02/06/INEI1H56JG.DTL&tsp=1

Page 5 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Points of View - (cont.)

Could Health IT Progress Stall Given Recent

Events?

By Kate Ackerman, iHealthBeat Senior Editor

It's been a busy time in the health IT sphere. On Thursday,

National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal

announced that he plans to step down from his post as the

country's health IT chief in April.

The news of Blumenthal's departure came just 10 days after

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) introduced a bill (HR 408) aimed

at cutting $2.5 trillion in federal spending over 10 years partly

by eliminating funding for the meaningful use incentive

program.

Under the meaningful use incentive program, included in the

2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care

providers who demonstrate meaningful use of electronic

health records can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid

incentive payments. While Jordan's bill appears to have little

chance of passing, it has raised concerns among health care

providers who were preparing to move forward with their

health IT adoption plans.

At the same time, the battle over the health reform law --

which includes several health IT-related provisions, such as

Web-based state insurance exchanges and online enrollment

for health care and human services programs -- has

heightened.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson ruled that

the reform law's individual mandate is unconstitutional,

agreeing with plaintiffs in a multistate lawsuit that the

provision exceeds Congress' power to regulate interstate

commerce.

Vinson went a step further and invalidated the entire law

because he concluded that the mandate is "inextricably

bound" to other provisions in the law.

So what do all of these policy developments mean? Could

they slow health IT momentum and ultimately derail the

meaningful use incentive program? Or are they part of the

normal policymaking process?

In an e-mail to Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT staff, Blumenthal, who has served as the country's top health IT leader for nearly two years, said returning to his academic post at Harvard University "was planned when I accepted the position."

More at http://www.ihealthbeat.org/features/2011/could-

health-it-progress-stall-given-recent-events.aspx

A Prescription for Fear

By Virginia Heffernan, The New York Times

If you‘re looking for the name of a new pill to ―ask your doctor

about,‖ as the ads say, the Mayo Clinic Health Information

site is not the place for you. If you‘re shopping for a newly

branded disorder that might account for your general feeling

of unease, Mayo is not for you either.

But if you want workaday, can-do health information in a

nonprofit environment, plug your symptoms into Mayo‘s

Symptom Checker. What you‘ll get is: No hysteria. No drug

peddling. Good medicine. Good ideas.

This is very, very rare on the medical Web, which is

dominated by an enormous and powerful site whose name —

oh, what the hay, it‘s WebMD — has become a panicky

byword among laysurfers for ―hypochondria time suck.‖

In more whistle-blowing quarters, WebMD is synonymous

with Big Pharma Shilling. A February 2010 investigation into

WebMD‘s relationship with drug maker Eli Lilly by Senator

Chuck Grassley of Iowa confirmed the suspicions of longtime

WebMD users. With the site‘s (admitted) connections to

pharmaceutical and other companies, WebMD has become

permeated with pseudomedicine and subtle misinformation.

Because of the way WebMD frames health information

commercially, using the meretricious voice of a

pharmaceutical rep, I now recommend that anyone except

advertising executives whose job entails monitoring product

placement actually block WebMD. It‘s not only a waste of

time, but it‘s also a disorder in and of itself — one that preys

on the fear and vulnerability of its users to sell them half-

truths and, eventually, pills.

But if careering around the Web doing symptom searches is

your bag (and, come on, we‘ve all been there), there‘s still

MayoClinic.com. Where WebMD is a corporation that started

as an ad-supported health-alarmism site with revenues of

$504 million in 2010, the Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit medical-

practice-and-research group that started as a clinic.

More at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/

magazine/06FOB-Medium-t.html?_r=2

Page 6 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Points of View - (cont.)

Security and Freedom in the Cyber Age -

Seeking the Rules of the Road

In a speech to the Munich Security Conference,

Foreign Secretary William Hague said that Britain

is "ready to play its part" in responding to the

security challenges.

Published by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office of the

United Kingdom

It is a pleasure to be here at the Munich Security Conference

and to share a platform with two such distinguished speakers.

It is one of the first principles of security that you must look

ahead to anticipate the evolution of future threats, even during

times of austerity, which is why I would like to speak today on

the subject of cyber security.

Cyberspace is changing the way we view and conduct foreign

policy as well as transforming our everyday lives.

The political upheaval in Egypt is a recent example. The

Egyptian government tried to shut down the internet and

mobile phone networks and broadcasters like Al Jazeera.

The CEO of Vodafone called me just before to discuss the

attempt made yesterday by the Egyptian authorities to send

messages to all their supporters via the Vodafone network.

Twitter and Google created a ‗speak-to-tweet service‘ so that

Egyptian citizens could circumvent government controls. And

NGOs like Amnesty International sent live updates about

casualties via Twitter. There are also reports of authorities in

third countries blocking internet searches for the words

―Egypt‖ and ―Cairo.‖

The internet, with its incredible connective power, has created

opportunity on a vast and growing scale; unlocking economic

potential, revolutionizing access to information and requiring

democratic governments to be more transparent.

It has transformed traditional notions of hierarchy and

authority.

It blurs geographical boundaries, allowing people on opposite

sides of the world to communicate at the speed of light and to

organise themselves around a sense of anger or common

identity.

As a colleague of mine Lord Howell has written, ―for better or

worse we are destined to be all connected, rich and poor,

developed and developing, benign and malign, small and

mighty.‖

But there is a darker side to cyberspace that arises from our

dependence on it.

We rely on computer networks for the water in our taps, the

electricity in our kitchens, the ‗sat navs‘ in our cars, the

running of trains, the storing of our medical records, the

availability of food in our supermarkets and the flow of money

into high street cash machines.

Many government services are now delivered via the internet,

as is education in many classrooms. In the UK 70% of younger

internet users bank online and two thirds of all adults shop on

the internet.

This is not a phenomenon confined to any one part of the

world. In less than 15 years the number of web users has

exploded from 16 million in 1995 to more than 1.7 billion

today, more than half of whom are in developing countries. By

2015, it is said that there will be more interconnected devices

on the planet than humans.

More at http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?

view=Speech&id=545077882

In Britain’s view, seven principles

should underpin future international

norms about the use of cyberspace:

The need for governments to act proportionately in cyberspace and in accordance with national and

international law

The need for everyone to have the ability – in terms of skills, technology, confidence and opportunity – to access cyberspace

The need for users of cyberspace to show tolerance and respect for diversity of language, culture and ideas

Ensuring that cyberspace remains open to innovation and the free flow of ideas, information and expression

The need to respect individual rights of privacy and to provide proper protection to intellectual property

The need for us all to work collectively to tackle the threat from criminals acting online

And the promotion of a competitive environment

which ensures a fair return on investment in network,

services and content.

Page 7 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Points of View - (cont.)

The Information

How the Internet Gets Inside Us

By Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

When the first Harry Potter book appeared, in 1997, it was just

a year before the universal search engine Google was launched.

And so Hermione Granger, that charming grind, still goes to

the Hogwarts library and spends hours and hours working her

way through the stacks, finding out what a basilisk is or how to

make a love potion.

The idea that a wizard in training might have, instead, a magic

pad where she could inscribe a name and in half a second have

an avalanche of news stories, scholarly articles, books, and

images (including images she shouldn‘t be looking at) was a

Quidditch broom too far. Now, having been stuck with the

library shtick, she has to go on working the stacks in the Harry

Potter movies, while the kids who have since come of age

nudge their parents. ―Why is she doing that?‖ they whisper.

―Why doesn‘t she just Google it?‖

That the reality of machines can outpace the imagination of

magic, and in so short a time, does tend to lend weight to the

claim that the technological shifts in communication we‘re

living with are unprecedented. It isn‘t just that we‘ve lived one

technological revolution among many; it‘s that our

technological revolution is the big social revolution that we live

with. The past twenty years have seen a revolution less in

morals, which have remained mostly static, than in means: you

could already say ―f—-‖ on HBO back in the eighties; the

change has been our ability to tweet or IM or text it. The set

subject of our novelists is information; the set obsession of our

dons is what it does to our intelligence. The scale of the

transformation is such that an ever-expanding literature has

emerged to censure or celebrate it. A series of books explaining

why books no longer matter is a paradox that Chesterton

would have found implausible, yet there they are, and they

come in the typical flavors: the eulogistic, the alarmed, the

sober, and the gleeful.

When the electric toaster was invented, there were, no doubt,

books that said that the toaster would open up horizons for

breakfast undreamed of in the days of burning bread over an

open flame; books that told you that the toaster would bring an

end to the days of creative breakfast, since our children,

growing up with uniformly sliced bread, made to fit a single

opening, would never know what a loaf of their own was like;

and books that told you that the toaster would make breakfast

better and sometimes it would make breakfast worse.

More at http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/

atlarge/2011/02/14/110214crat_atlarge_gopnik

The Technology of Counterrevolution

The Web helps reformers, but Egypt's autocrats

are using it for their own ends.

By L. Gordon Crovitz, The Wall Street Journal

Hosni Mubarak isn't the only one caught flat-footed by the

revolt against his rule. The suddenness of the popular

movement against his regime, powered by Facebook and other

tools of fast-developing technology, shocked everyone from

telecommunications executives whose companies were turned

into instruments of state repression to leaders of authoritarian

countries far from Egypt.

Technology is now shortening the cycle of political change,

leading to what seem like instant revolts in unlikely places that

were long thought stable. Authoritarian regimes are reacting to

this new reality.

Nepal severed Internet connections in 2005 when the king

declared martial law, and the government in Burma closed off

the Web in 2007 during the crackdown on reformers. Bahrain,

Uganda and Yemen have all blocked communications during

elections in recent years. China closed down the Internet in

Xinjiang province in 2009 following ethnic riots.

But the authorities in Cairo last week added a new element to

what the OpenNet Initiative, which tracks controls on the Web,

calls "just-in-time blocking."

Western telecommunications companies were instrumental in

closing off the Internet in the country almost entirely. The

Egyptian government does not have direct control of the

Internet from a central, state-run service hub. Instead,

authorities ordered Internet service providers to shut down

service.

Egypt's largest mobile-phone provider, Vodafone, was even

commandeered to send government-drafted text messages to

its customers. These included, "Youth of Egypt, beware rumors

and listen to the sound of reason" and "Egypt's honest and

loyal men to confront the traitors and criminals." Other text

messages gave details about rallies in support of the regime.

More at http://online.wsj.com/article/

SB10001424052748704709304576124573160468928.html

Page 8 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Points of View - (cont.)

In Europe, a Right to Be Forgotten Trumps

the Memory of the Internet

Why is it that two sprawling yet similar Western

cultures -- those on both sides of the Atlantic --

respond so differently to Internet privacy?

By John Hendel, The Atlantic

A quarter-century after coming to the United States, Franz

Werro still thinks like a European. The 54-year-old

Georgetown law professor, born and raised in Switzerland, is

troubled when ads in French automatically pop up on his

American laptop. The computer assumes that's what he wants.

We live naked on the Internet, Werro knows, in a brave new

world where our data lives forever. Google your name, and

you'll stumble onto drunken photos from college, a misguided

quote given to a reporter five years ago, court records, ancient

1 a.m. blog comments, that outdated Friendster profile ... the

list goes on, a river of data creating a profile of who you are for

anyone searching online: friend, merchant, or potential future

employer. Werro's American students rarely mind.

But America is not Europe, and despite our no-secrets age of

WikiLeaks, Europe wants to enshrine a special form of privacy

into law. Individuals should, according to many in Europe,

possess what they call a "right to be forgotten" on the Internet.

How would this even be possible? This developing right,

authorities in several European countries suggest, would allow

an individual to control and sometimes eliminate his or her

data trail and allow him or her to ask Google to

remove select search results -- a newspaper article, say, which

once painted him or her in a bad light. A look at recent news

events guarantees that this right will only become more

relevant in 2011.

On January 19, Google refused Spain's request that the

ubiquitous, California-based search engine remove 90 links.

Many of the links Spain wanted to remove included newspaper

articles and information from public record, often painting the

plaintiffs in a bad light.

Google called Spain's request "disappointing" in its official

statement and emphasized that as a search engine, it should

not be responsible for curating Internet content. Removing

links would be expensive, Google argued in court, and violate

the "objectivity" of the Internet search.

Last November, the European Union announced data

protection goals for 2011, which include "clarifying the so-

called 'right to be forgotten', i.e. the right of individuals to have

their data no longer processed and deleted when they are no

longer needed for legitimate purposes.

The EU explicitly said that users should have the right. It has

already been heavily discussed and praised in countries such as

France, whose President Sarkozy said last year:

"Regulating the Internet to correct the excesses and abuses

that come from the total absence of rules is a moral

imperative!" France's leadership at the coming G8 summit also

signifies more dialogue, as Sarkozy hopes to discuss the right

on an international stage.

These European concerns rarely come up in the United States.

People may worry about Facebook's privacy settings, but few

would suggest an individual has a right to remove an offending

Gawker post from Google's index.

After all, who decides? A person might want an embarrassing

photo removed from record, but what if the photo features not

only that person but four others?

The question of censorship is inevitable.

The European Union seeks to clarify it’s previously

announced plans for a “right to be forgotten”

initiative. (Img: Corbis)

More at http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/

archive/2011/02/in-europe-a-right-to-be-forgotten-trumps-

Page 9 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Points of View - (cont.)

The Facebooks of China

China's fake Facebooks started as mere copycats

but now drive innovation in advertising and

gaming. They've also built something unique in

their country: a place where people can find love,

speak out, and be whoever they want to be.

By April Rabkin

"Know anyone who has any needs?"

"I'm not sure, I can ask around for you."

"Don't you have any needs?"

"I just want to be with someone I love."

"Really, I'm not bad. Give it some thought."

It was the worst pickup attempt that Dong Jin had ever heard.

You might think that something was lost in translation, that

surely this sounds better in the original Chinese, but you would

be wrong. That all this was unfolding online -- Dong, 26, a

Beijing teacher, was being approached by a college student

who had just friended her on the Chinese social network

Renren -- made it even weirder. Scenes like this (many of

them, fortunately, less awkward) repeat themselves hundreds,

if not thousands, of times a day on the Facebooks of China.

The real Facebook is not available behind the Great Firewall of

China, except to netizens rich enough and technologically

savvy enough to buy access to proxy servers, because

government censors have blocked it as a foreign threat. Twitter

and Google are off-limits too. According to the recent

WikiLeaks disclosures of U.S. State Department cables, the

latter fell victim to politburo member Li Changchun, who

launched a personal campaign against it after Googling himself

and finding an abundance of critical material.

In the absence of these web titans, dozens of Chinese copycats

have sprung up, but none tell a story of evolving, modern

China like the fake Facebooks, some of which mimic Facebook

down to page architecture and color scheme. The leading social

networks on the mainland are Renren, which, like Facebook,

initially targeted the college crowd, and Kaixin001 (kaixin

means "happy," and the 001 was added to give a techy feel to

the name), aimed at young professionals.

In some ways, social networking in China is much like that in

the U.S. It has spread well beyond its original target

demographic. Office workers stay logged on constantly. Artists,

singers, and secretaries post status updates a dozen times a

day from their laptops or their cell phones. Grandmothers

grow potatoes on local versions of FarmVille.

As with Facebook, the membership rolls are astounding and

growing rapidly. In a 1.3 billion-strong nation where less than

a third of the populace is online, Renren claims about 165

million users. A slogan on a chalkboard in an employee lounge

at its HQ claims, "Every day the number of people joining

Renren.com would fill 230 Tiananmen Squares." Kaixin001

says it has 95 million users.

In significant ways, though, online life behind the Great

Firewall is different. For one thing, there is no dominant site.

By blocking Facebook, the government has unwittingly ignited

an especially fierce and litigious competition between Renren

and Kaixin001. The two networks have pushed each other

strategically and technologically, devising ingenious new ways

to advertise to audiences that are even more saturated by

marketing than Americans.

Also, according to Netpop Research in San Francisco, Chinese Internet users are twice as conversational as American users; in other words, they're twice as likely to post to online forums, chat in chat rooms, or publish blogs. And to the joy of advertisers and marketers, social media is twice as likely to influence Chinese buying decisions as American ones, which explains why brands such as BMW, Estée Lauder, and Lay's have flocked to China's social networks.

Sites like Renren and Kaixin001 are microcosms of today's changing China -- they copy from the West, but then adjust, add, and, yes, even innovate at a world-class level.

Wang Xing, who started the site that is now called

Renren, says his goal in creating a social network was

"to make a better world." Today, he almost never goes

on Renren. (Image: Fastcompany)

More at http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/152/the-

socialist-networks.html

Page 10 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Internet Governance

(Secret) US Cables Reveal: ACTA Was Far

Too Secret

By Nate Anderson, Ars Technica

US government cables published by WikiLeaks show us that it

wasn't just "the usual blogger-circles" (as the US Embassy in

Sweden called them) complaining about the secrecy of the Anti

-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

French digital rights group La Quadrature du Net has compiled

a list of relevant WikiLeaks cables regarding ACTA.

In one, a top intellectual property official in Italy told the US

that "the level of confidentiality in these ACTA negotiations

has been set at a higher level than is customary for non-

security agreements."

He added that it was "impossible for member states to conduct

necessary consultations with IPR stakeholders and legislatures

under this level of confidentiality."

In Sweden, the EU's top negotiator on ACTA told the US

embassy there that "the secrecy issue has been very damaging

to the negotiating climate in Sweden…

The secrecy around the negotiations has led to that the

legitimacy of the whole process being questioned."

SK&A Information Services, Irvine, Calif., received an ONC

The inevitable result of such secrecy was leaks and rumors.

When the US proposals for the Internet section of ACTA

leaked, the head of Sweden's Justice Ministry had "to go public

earlier this month to appease the storm of critics by assuring

them that the Swedish government will not agree to any ACTA

provision that would require changes to current Swedish laws."

And the EU negotiator added a criticism of his own: "the

European Commission is concerned that the USG [US

government] has close consultation with US industry, while

the EU does not have the same possibility to share the content

under discussion in the negotiations."

The cables note that critics wanted ACTA to take place before

an existing body like WIPO, where processes were in place for

transparency and for the involvement of public interest groups.

But cables from the US embassy in Japan make clear that the

US pushed back against this approach, in large part because it

knew other nations wouldn't go along with what it wanted.

More at http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/

secret-us-cables-reveal-acta-was-far-too-secret.ars?

utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

Neelie Kroes ,Vice-President of the

European Commission Responsible for the

Digital Agenda Ending Fragmentation of the

Digital Single Market Business for New

Europe Event London, 7 February 2011

By Neelie Kroes, European Commission

It is a great pleasure to be here today. I know we share the

same passion for Europe‘s Single Market. Indeed, I understand

that Lord Brittan addressed you recently about the need for a

'ruthless focus' on completing the Single Market. I have to say

that matches my view perfectly.

The growth and development of the digital Single Market is

where we need to put our attention now. Every gap, and every

failure to keep up with developments in the digital economy

that lead to growth, holds us back from long-term recovery. In

times of austerity, even more so.

Just as the UK Government is currently taking hard policy and

investment decisions, at the European level we need to make

hard reforms if we want the Single Market to live up to name.

This level of ambition is there in the Single Market Act reforms

introduced by my colleague Michel Barnier, and in my own

Digital Agenda for Europe. These are truly comprehensive

reform agendas – and they have to be – because we can‘t

afford to waste our time playing at the edges.

For me, the top of the list is ending fragmentation in the digital

Single Market and ensuring it runs using the best digital

infrastructure.

Today, for example, a company specialising in health

equipment needs 27 certificates if it wants to operate in all 27

member states. That is no way to grow eHealth markets or deal

with our ageing population.

More at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?

reference=SPEECH/11/70&format=HTML&aged=0&language=

EN&guiLanguage=en

Page 11 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Internet Governance - (cont.)

China Building a City for Cloud Computing

But it Has a Way to Go to Match U.S. in IT

Spending

By Patrick Thibodeau , Computerworld

China is building a city-sized cloud computing and office

complex that will include a mega data center, one of the

projects fueling that country's double-digit growth in IT

spending. The entire complex will cover some 6.2 million

square feet, with the initial data center space accounting for

approximately 646,000 square feet, according to IBM, which is

collaborating with a Chinese company to build it.

In sheer scale, this project, first announced late last month, is

nearly the size of the Pentagon, although in China's case it is

spread over multiple buildings similar to an office park and --

from the rendering -- may include some residential areas. But

it may be a uniquely Chinese approach that brings data centers

and developers together.

These big projects, whether supercomputers or sprawling

software development office parks, can garner a lot of

attention. But China's overall level of IT spending, while

growing rapidly, is only one-fifth that of the U.S.

According to market research firm IDC, China's IT spending,

which includes hardware, packaged software and services, is

forecast to total about $112 billion this year, up 15.6% from $97

billion in 2010. By comparison, U.S. IT spending is expected to

reach $564 billion this year, a 5.9% increase from 2010.

China's IT industry isn't that big at this point and "there is a lot

of reliance on the vendors" to design data centers, said Dale

Sartor, an engineer at U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence

Berkeley National Laboratory, who visited about eight data

centers in China last year. Sartor, who leads a team of energy

efficiency specialists, is on a project to "scope" out the

possibility of helping the Chinese on data center energy

efficiency issues, something the Energy Department has

already been doing in India for several years.

Among the things Sartor is working on, in an effort that

includes the China Electronics Standardization Institute, is

data center standards development. He said there is a lot more

regulation in China on data center design, but these

regulations "haven't to date paid a lot of attention to energy

efficiency." Sartor expects to see accelerating data center

development in China, particularly involving very large centers

delivering cloud services. Large data centers may soon be the

norm.

"I got a sense that the cloud is going to be huge in China for

both efficiency reasons as well as the ability to control," said

Sartor. "If everything was cloud computing and the

government owns it, it's much easier to keep your finger on the

Internet and other issues than [by using] a very distributed

model."

China will be using IBM's data design services, among other

services, in the Hebei Province complex. It is working with

Range Technology Development Co. on the project. China's

rapid IT growth has been a plus for IBM, which said its growth

in that country in 2010 was up 25% over the year before.

The first phase of the Hebei Province plan calls for building

seven low-slung data centers. But the data center space could

easily expand to more than a million square feet. The plan calls

for another six data center buildings, three on either side of the

initial seven, if they're needed. The center is expected to be

completed in 2016, IBM said.

In terms of size, the data centers will be among the world's

biggest. The largest known data center complex is a 1.1-million

-square-foot facility in Chicago owned by Digital Realty Trust,

according to Data Center Knowledge, which has ranked the

data centers by size.

More at http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9208398/

China_building_a_city_for_cloud_computing

This rendering shows the planned city-sized cloud computing

and office complex being built in China. (Image: IBM)

Page 12 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Internet Governance - (cont.)

Progress on the Intellectual Property

Enforcement Strategy

By Victoria Espinel , The White House Blog

In his State of the Union address, President Obama re-

emphasized our nation‘s commitment to help turn America‘s

innovative spirit into economic prosperity for our people and

our nation.

That is what my job and my office is all about. America‘s

creativity and ingenuity cannot thrive without intellectual

property protection and enforcement, which allows a

revolutionary idea to blossom into economic opportunity.

A little over a year ago, I was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as

the first U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator.

A little over six months ago, I submitted to Congress the

inaugural Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property

Enforcement (Strategy), which was developed as a result of

significant public input (including more than 1,600 public

comments) and the coordinated efforts of the Federal agencies

that enforce intellectual property rights.

It included 33 specific actions that we committed to undertake

to improve intellectual property enforcement.

In the little more than six months since we issued that Strategy

in June, the U.S. Government has been hard at work taking the

steps we identified to improve intellectual property

enforcement. Today, I have sent to Congress the first annual

report outlining what we have done to implement the Strategy.

Some of the significant activities that I want to highlight for

you are:

Voluntary Private Sector Action: As a result of our efforts

to work with those who make the Internet function effectively

and efficiently, I announced that American Express, eNom,

GoDaddy, Google, MasterCard, Microsoft, PayPal, Neustar,

Visa, and Yahoo! agreed to form a nonprofit organization with

other private sector participants to educate consumers, share

information, and take voluntary enforcement action against

illegal online pharmacies.

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement: In November,

the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative concluded the

negotiations of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

(ACTA) with 38 countries, representing over 50% of

global trade.

More at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/02/07/

progress-intellectual-property-enforcement-strategy

Digital Agenda: Commission to Step Up

Efforts to Safeguard Children Online

By Staff Writer, Europa

On the occasion of Safer Internet Day 2011, the European

Commission today announced that it will step up talks with

ICT industry and children's organizations to encourage the

design of safer products to help keep children safe online.

Moreover, the Commission will shortly review the 2006

Recommendation on minors and how to protect them in

audiovisual media and Internet and on the 2008

Communication on the protection of youngsters from harmful

content in video games.

Children are going online from a younger age and not just from

computers, but also games consoles and mobile phones. More

than 82 % of 15-16 year olds in Europe have a social

networking profile, as well as 26 % of 9-10 year olds. Safer

Internet Day is being marked today in more than 65 countries

around the world under the slogan "Internet is more than a

game, it's your life!".

This is supported by the EU's Safer Internet Programme,

which helps parents and their children to be safe online.

Children's safety online is an important part of the Digital

Agenda for Europe.

Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission for

the Digital Agenda said: ―It is hard for parents to ensure their

children are always safe online, especially as youngsters now

access the Internet not just from PCs, but also via smart

phones and games consoles.

This places greater responsibility on the ICT industry to

provide products and services that protect and empower

children online. We have worked productively with social

networks and mobile operators. Now we call on the whole

chain of ICT industry to work together to do more to safeguard

children online."

More at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?

reference=IP/11/135&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&g

uiLanguage=en

Page 13 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

New Reports and Papers

On-line Threats a Fundamental Weakness

in Australian Security

By Nicole Quinn, Kokoda Foundation

A Kokoda Foundation report, Optimising Australia's

Response to the Cyber Challenge, to be released today has

found that cyber security has become the fundamental

weakness in Australia's national security, and that the threat

is poorly understood by politicians, business people and the

general public.

Authored by former Deputy Chief of Air Force John

Blackburn and strategic consultant Gary Waters, the report

says that Australia has reached a tipping point where the

current trajectory of cyber responses is being rapidly

outpaced by the evolving threat.

―A broader understanding of the nature, scale and extent of

on-line threats to private information is crucial to the

ongoing security of this country,‖ said Mr Blackburn.

The report concludes that whilst progress in implementing

the government‘s 2009 Cyber Security Strategy has been

laudable, Australia is not keeping pace with the growing

threat and as a result our collective and individual security is

being placed at risk.

The Future of Computing Performance:

Game Over or Next Level?

By Samuel H. Fuller and Lynette I. Millett, Committee on Sustaining Growth in Computing Performance & National Research Council

Summary

Information technology (IT) has the potential to continue to

dramatically transform how we work and live. One might

expect that future IT advances will occur as a natural

continuation of the stunning advances that IT has enabled over

the last half-century, but reality is more sobering.

IT advances of the last half-century have depended critically on

the rapid growth of single processor performance—by a factor

of 10,000 in just the last 2 decades—at ever-decreasing cost

and with manageable increases in power consumption. That

growth stemmed from increasing the number and speed of

transistors on a processor chip by reducing their size and—

with improvements in memory, storage, and networking

capacities—resulted in ever more capable computer systems. It

was important for widespread IT adoption that the

phenomenal growth in performance was achieved while

maintaining the sequential stored-program model that was

developed for computers in the 1940s.

Moreover, computer manufacturers worked to ensure that

specific instruction set compatibility was maintained over

generations of computer hardware—that is, a new computer

could run new applications, and the existing applications

would run faster.

Thus, software did not have to be rewritten for each hardware

generation, and so ambition and imagination were free to drive

the creation of increasingly innovative, capable, and

computationally intensive software, and this in turn inspired

businesses, government, and the average consumer to buy

successive generations of computer software and hardware.

Software and hardware advances fed each other, creating a

virtuous IT economic cycle.

More at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12980

More than a million computers in Australia each year are said

to be infected by viruses that can be used to bring down a

website or network, while Australia has the fifth-highest level

of malware infections in the world.

―This is an issue that is just as important to Mums and Dads

and small business operators as it is to governments,

bureaucrats and corporations, ‖ said Mr Waters.

According to Paul O‘Rourke, Security Lead for Accenture

Australia, the issue of security has moved from being just a

technical issue, and has risen in prominence within local

organizations.

―Security needs to be assessed as a broad-based business

problem, and not just a technical issue, as it has reputational

and transactional implications which are obviously top of

mind for executives and boards,‖ Mr O‘Rourke said.

The Kokoda report warns that such threat could endanger

critical infrastructure such as electricity grids, water storage

and distribution, aviation and maritime transport and

telecommunications networks.

More at http://www.kokodafoundation.org/Resources/

Documents/CyberMediaRelease4February2011.pdf

Page 14 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Reports and Papers - (cont.)

Clinical Data as the Basic Staple of Health

Learning: Creating and Protecting a Public

Good: Workshop Summary

By Alex W. Goodby, LeighAnne Olsen, and Michael McGinnis, IOM Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine (Series), Institute of Medicine Because of their potential to enable the development of new

knowledge and to guide the development of best practices from

the growing sum of individual clinical experiences, clinical

data represent the resource most central to healthcare progress

(Arrow et al., 2009; Detmer, 2003).

Whether captured during product development activities such

as clinical research trials and studies, or as a part of the care

delivery process, these data are fundamental to the delivery of

timely, appropriate care of value to individual patients—and

essential to building a system that continually learns from and

improves upon care delivered.

The opportunities for learning from practice are substantial,

from improved understanding of the effects of different

treatments and therapies in specific patient subpopulations, to

developing and refining practices to streamline or tailor care

processes for complex patients, to the development of a

delivery system that can advance the evidence base on novel

The Future of Computing Performance:

Game Over or Next Level?

By Samuel H. Fuller and Lynette I. Millett, Committee on Sustaining Growth in Computing Performance & National Research Council

Summary

Information technology (IT) has the potential to continue to

dramatically transform how we work and live. One might

expect that future IT advances will occur as a natural

continuation of the stunning advances that IT has enabled over

the last half-century, but reality is more sobering.

IT advances of the last half-century have depended critically on

the rapid growth of single processor performance—by a factor

of 10,000 in just the last 2 decades—at ever-decreasing cost

and with manageable increases in power consumption.

That growth stemmed from increasing the number and speed

of transistors on a processor chip by reducing their size and—

with improvements in memory, storage, and networking

capacities—resulted in ever more capable computer systems. It

was important for widespread IT adoption that the

phenomenal growth in performance was achieved while

maintaining the sequential stored-program model that was

developed for computers in the 1940s.

Moreover, computer manufacturers worked to ensure that

specific instruction set compatibility was maintained over

generations of computer hardware—that is, a new computer

could run new applications, and the existing applications

would run faster.

Thus, software did not have to be rewritten for each hardware

generation, and so ambition and imagination were free to

drive the creation of increasingly innovative, capable, and

computationally intensive software, and this in turn inspired

businesses, government, and the average consumer to buy

successive generations of computer software and hardware.

Software and hardware advances fed each other, creating a

virtuous IT economic cycle.

More at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12980

diagnostic and therapeutic techniques Furthermore, U.S. per

capita healthcare costs are now nearly double that of

comparable nations (Health care spending in the United tates

and OECD countries, 2007), and broader access and use of

existing and future clinical data may be a key opportunity to

better understand and address system-wide factors— such as

waste and inefficiencies—that contribute to rising healthcare

expenditures.

Clinical data now reside in many often unconnected and

inaccessible repositories, making linkage, analysis, and

interpretation of these data challenging on an individual or

population level.

The increase in potentially interoperable electronic and

personal health datasets—integrated with laboratory values,

diagnostic images, and patient demographic information and

preferences—and development of approaches to link and

network these data offer even greater opportunity to create and

use rich data resources to help transform healthcare delivery

and improve the public‘s health. Concerns about privacy of

health data, as well as the treatment of medical data—even

those generated with public funds—as proprietary goods pose

additional challenges to data use.

More at http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12212

Page 15 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Reports and Papers - (cont.)

Rethinking Knowledge Work: A Strategic Approach

Knowledge Workers’ Information Needs Vary. The Key to Better Productivity is Applying Technology More Precisely.

By Thomas H. Davenport, McKinsey Quarterly In the half-century since Peter Drucker coined the term

―knowledge workers,‖ their share of the workforce has steadily

grown—and so has the range of technology tools aimed at

boosting their productivity.

Yet there‘s little evidence that massive spending on personal

computing, productivity software, knowledge-management

systems, and much else has moved the needle. What‘s more, a

wide variety of recent research has begun suggesting that

always-on, multitasking work environments are so distracting

that they are sapping productivity. (For more on this problem,

see ―Recovering from information overload.‖)

After researching the productivity of knowledge workers for

years, I‘ve concluded that organizations need a radically

different approach. Yes, technology is a vital enabler of

communication, of collaboration, and of access to rising

volumes of information. But least-common-denominator

Most Americans Favor Electronic Medical

Records: Study

Despite Privacy Concerns, More Than Three

Quarters of Americans Favor the Use of

Electronic Medical Records, According to a New

Study.

By Bernd Debusmann Jr., Reuters

Researchers from the University of Chicago who polled 1,000

people found that while nearly half said they had worries about

the privacy of electronic medical records but 64 percent

thought the benefits of being able to access their records online

outweighed those concerns.

"Our core finding is that a large majority of Americans support

use of health IT to improve healthcare and safety, and reduce

costs," said Daniel Gaylin, executive vice president for research

at the university's National Opinion Research Center.

"This suggests that government and industry efforts to

increase the effectiveness and use of health IT are generally

consistent with the public's wishes."

Gaylin and Adil Moiduddin, one of the authors of the study,

described the results as notable because they show that many

Americans back government efforts to ensure that all

Americans have electronic medical records by 2014. President

Barack Obama set aside $20 billion for a plan that provides for

health care to be modernized to eventually reduce costs.

But the program, part of Obama's stimulus plan, the Recovery

Act of 2009, is being questioned by the new, Republican-

dominated Congress. "Prior to the Recovery Act, there was a

sense that investment in health IT and government promotion

of it was generally seen as a positive thing. This is still basically

the case, but many elements of the Recovery Act (including

health IT adoption provisions) are undergoing serious scrutiny

in the new Congress," Moiduddin said.

More at http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/08/us-

records-electronic-idUSTRE7174QS20110208

approaches involving more technology for all have reached a

point of diminishing returns. It‘s time for companies to

develop a strategy for knowledge work—one that not only

provides a clearer view of the types of information that workers

need to do their jobs but also recognizes that the application of

technology across the organization must vary considerably,

according to the tasks different knowledge workers perform.

Few executives realize that there are two divergent paths for

improving access to the information that lies at the core of

knowledge work.

The most common approach, giving knowledge workers free

access to a wide variety of tools and information resources,

presumes that these employees will determine their own work

processes and needs.

The other, the structured provision of information and

knowledge, involves delivering them to employees within a

well-defined context of tasks and deliverables. Computers send

batches of work to employees and provide the information

needed to do it.

More at http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/

Strategic_Organization/

Rethinking_knowledge_work_A_strategic_approach_2739

Page 16 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Reports and Papers - (cont.)

Open Data: Empowering the Empowered of

Effective Data Use for Everyone?

By Dr. Michael Gurstein, Executive Director of the Centre for

Community Informatics Research, Development and Training

in Vancouver, Canada; published by First Monday.

Abstract

This paper takes a supportive but critical look at ―open data‖

from the perspective of its possible impact on the poor and

marginalized and concludes that there may be cause for

concern in the absence of specific measures being taken to

ensure that there are supports for ensuring a wide basis of

opportunity for ―effective data use.‖ The paper concludes by

providing a seven element model for how effective data use can

be achieved.

The Open Data Movement

The open data movement in the area of access to public (and

other) information is a relatively new but very significant, and

potentially powerful, emerging force.

It has now been widely endorsed by, among others, Tim

Berners–Lee, often referred to as the father of the World Wide

Web. The overall intention is to make local, regional and

national data (and particularly publicly acquired data)

available in a form that allows for direct manipulation using

software tools as for example, for the purposes of cross

tabulation, visualization, mapping and so on.

The underlying idea is that public (and other) data, whether

collected directly as part of a census collection or indirectly as

a secondary output of other activities (crime or accident

statistics, for example) should be available in electronic form

and accessible via the Web.

There are significant initiatives in this area underway in the

U.S., the U.K. and Canada among many other jurisdictions and

as part of a wide variety of not–for–profit initiatives as well.

This drive towards increased public transparency and allowing

for enhanced data–enriched citizen/public engagement in

policy and other analysis and assessment is certainly a very

positive outcome of public computing and online tools for data

management and manipulation. However there would appear

to be some confusion between movements to enhance citizen

―access‖ to data and the related issues concerning enhancing

citizen ―use‖ of this data.

More at http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/

index.php/fm/article/view/3316/2764

Consider the Censor

By Derek E. Bambauer, Wake Forest Journal of Law & Policy,

Forthcoming Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper

Abstract

WikiLeaks is frequently celebrated as the whistleblowing heir

of the Pentagon Papers case. This Essay argues that portrayal

is false, for reasons that focus attention on two neglected

aspects of the case.

First, the New York Times relied on a well-defined set of

ethical precepts shared by mainstream journalists to

contextualize the Papers and to redact harmful information.

Second, American courts acted as neutral arbiters of the

paper‘s judgment, and commanded power to enforce their

decisions. WikiLeaks lacks both protective functions to

regulate its disclosures. The Essay suggests that WikiLeaks is a

bellwether: an exemplar of the shift in power over data

generated by plummeting information costs.

While that trend cannot realistically be reversed, the Essay

offers two responses to the problems that WikiLeaks and its

progeny create.

First, established media outlets must continue to act as

gatekeepers governed by strong journalistic ethics, even in an

environment of ubiquitous access to raw data.

Second, governments should consider, and debate, the

possibility of using technological countermeasures –

cyberattacks – against intermediaries threatening to disclose

especially harmful data. There are times when the censor

should win.

Nixon could have won. This is the key lesson from the

Pentagon Papers case, as the recent controversy over

WikiLeaks demonstrates. The fight between Daniel Ellsberg,

the New York Times, and the administration of President

Richard Nixon is typically celebrated as a triumph for free

speech, and for transparency in government.

More at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?

abstract_id=1757890&http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/

papers.cfm?abstract_id=1757890##

Page 17 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Reports and Papers - (cont.)

Health and Well-Being in the Home: A

Global Analysis of Needs, Expectations, and

Priorities for Home Health Care Technology

By Soeren Mattke, Lisa Klautzer, Tewodaj Mengistu, Jeffrey

Garnett, Jianhui Hu, Helen Wu. Published by RAND.

Background

An increasing number of countries are experiencing the so-

called ―epidemiological transition‖: Chronic diseases with the

need for long-term treatment have begun to replace infections

as the primary cause of death in these aging societies. This

shift is not confined to the developed world.

While noncommunicable diseases accounted for 44 percent of

the burden of disease in low- and middle-income countries in

2002, it has been estimated that, by 2030, this share will

reach 54 percent.

As a result, there is growing concern about the sustainability of

the current system of health care delivery, which is

compounded by rapidly rising costs and workforce shortages.

This concern has triggered an interest in approaches to

mitigate the impact of chronic disease and disability on

population health, economic productivity, and health care

spending.

Several medical and technological innovations have

theoretically framed this challenge as an opportunity and have

caused the health care sector to rethink current paradigms of

health care delivery.

For example, promoting tools for aging in place and for

transforming the current provider-driven model into a patient-

centric system not only would objectively improve health

status but would also enable patients with chronic conditions

to live an active and fulfilling life as an integrated segment of

society.

Advances in home health care products and services are

attractive, promising, and, perhaps, even necessary solutions

to mitigate the current pressure on the health care system

while improving the patients‘ well-being beyond the

physiological parameters of disease control.

These innovations allow the shifting of care from institutional

and professional settings to patients‘ homes.

More at http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/

occasional_papers/2010/RAND_OP323.sum.pdf

Online Privacy as a Corporate Social

Responsibility: An Empirical Study

By Irene Pollach, Business Ethics: A European Review, Vol.

20, Issue 1

Abstract

Information technology and the Internet have added a new

stakeholder concern to the corporate social responsibility

(CSR) agenda: online privacy.

While theory suggests that online privacy is a CSR, only very

few studies in the business ethics literature have connected

these two. Based on a study of CSR disclosures, this article

contributes to the existing literature by exploring whether and

how the largest IT companies embrace online privacy as a CSR.

The findings indicate that only a small proportion of the

companies have comprehensive privacy programs, although

more than half of them voice moral or relational motives for

addressing online privacy. The privacy measures they have

taken are primarily compliance measures, while measures that

stimulate a stakeholder dialogue are rare. Overall, a wide

variety of approaches to addressing privacy was found, which

suggests that no institutionalization of privacy practices has

taken place as yet. The study therefore indicates that online

privacy is rather new on the CSR agenda, currently playing

only a minor role.

More at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?

abstract_id=1754812

Figures of the Week

7 out of 10 & 52% Number of Facebook members and Google users,

respectively, who say they are either "somewhat" or

"very concerned" about their privacy while using the

world's most popular social network and dominant

search engine, according to results of a USA TODAY/

Gallup Poll.

Page 18 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Reports and Papers - (cont.)

Shaping Preventive Policy in “Cyber War”

and Cyber Security: A Pragmatic Approach

By Tony Guo, University of Miami

Abstract

As the Egyptian government took the country offline—in an effort to squelch public dissent—the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give the President the same emergency powers to shut off ―critical‖ Internet infrastructure in the event of a ―cyber emergency.‖ This bill, along with others like it, has been introduced in light of recent political rhetoric on ―cyber war.‖ The proponents of ―cyber war‖ evoke images of large explosions, poison gas clouds, and a high degree of mortality.

In reality, cyber warfare is a misleading metaphor, and has long been confused with crime and espionage. "Cyber war" is not an issue of war, but an issue of security--systems security, network security, and due diligence on part of its operators.

The majority of security breaches today are as a result of systems failure and human error, and the legal responses considered should be limited to such.

This comment acknowledges that cyber security is relevant to national security, but makes the point that sweeping legislation may have the same effect as the cyber attacks they seek to

address—both may have devastating effects on the economic vitality of the nation.

On January 28th, 2011, Egypt disappeared from the global

map. In a coordinated shutdown of all major Egyptian

internet service providers--an effort by its government to

squelch public dissent--virtually all of Egypt‘s Internet

addresses became unreachable worldwide. The action was

unprecedented in Internet history.

Across the globe, the U.S. Senate is currently considering a bill

that would give the President the same power to shutdown

―critical‖ Internet infrastructure in the event of a ―national

cyber emergency.‖ This bill and others like it were introduced

in light of the political rhetoric on ―cyber war.‖

In recent years, ―cyber war‖ has emerged as one of the nation‘s

most widely publicized national-security concerns.

"In the past, you would count the number of bombers and the

number of tanks your enemy had. In the case of cyber war, you

really can't tell whether the enemy has good weapons until the

enemy uses them," says Richard Clarke, former chairman of

the White House Critical Infrastructure Protection Board.

More at http://works.bepress.com/tony_guo/2/

Privacy and Security

Internet Tracking May Threaten Privacy

Rights, EU’s Reding Says

By Stephanie Bodoni, Bloomberg

European Union regulators are concerned individual privacy

rights are threatened by mobile phone and computer products

that monitor online activities.

―I am concerned about the use of highly privacy-intrusive

tracking technologies,‖ EU Justice Commissioner Viviane

Reding said in a speech in Brussels today.

―Mobile phones and computers have become tracking devices.

We no longer range unseen across the net.‖

Reding proposed in November an overhaul of the 27-nation

region‘s almost 16-year-old data protection rules to adapt them

to online advertising and social-networking sites such as

Facebook Inc.

The new law, which the commission may propose later this

year, may include stricter sanctions, such as criminal penalties,

and the possibility for consumer groups to file lawsuits.

Tracking technologies have ―serious consequences‖ for people

and can lead to criminal penalties for people or cause them to

being blocked or disconnected from the Internet in an

―unauthorized‖ manner, said the EU commissioner today.

Reding, 59, said ―recent events‖ in Egypt have shown

governments can ―manipulate and censor the Internet to crush

dissent,‖ and she urged nations to let journalists use the

Internet to ―speak out‖ and allow people share their thoughts

and feelings.

―The Internet cannot be used as a tool of oppression,‖ she said.

More at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-09/

internet-tracking-may-threaten-privacy-rights-eu-s-reding-

says.html

Page 19 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Calendar

FEBRUARY 14—16, 2011 Defending America’s Interests at Home and Abroad. This forum will discuss preparedness, incident management, threat reduction, advanced technologies, interoperability, and medical countermeasures to prevent, detect, protect against, and respond to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives attack.

Location: Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner Hotel, Vienna, VA.

More at http://cbrnevent.com/Event.aspx?id=408522

FEBRUARY 16, 2011

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EST. What Local Health Departments Need to Know about Meaningful Use. This Web seminar presents the most up-to-date information about Meaningful Use criteria and meeting incentive eligibility.

Location: Online

More at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/574331160

FEBRUARY 16, 2011 Cyber Security: Legal and Policy Issues. Not only will internationally recognized subject matter experts provide the latest developments regarding the threat posed by cyber attacks as it impacts national security, law enforcement, and the business community, the conference will also concentrate on identifying all of the myriad legal and policy challenges associated with each of these fields of interest. Location: St. Mary‘s University, San Antonio, TX. More at https://www.stmarytx.edu/ctl/pdf/Cyber_conf11.pdf

February

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

30 31 01 02 03 04 05

06 07 08 09 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 01 02 03 04 05

06 07 08 09 10 11 12

Featured Conference

of the Week

Public Media and Political

Influence: Lessons for the Future of

Journalism from Around the World

February 15, 2011 6:00—8:00PM

Public media in America are weathering new attacks on their funding and independence, at the same time they are being asked to fill the widening news and information gap left by the shifting media landscape.

At the heart of these attacks is a question: Can government play a positive role in helping promote quality, independent journalism?

In a new international study of public media systems in 14 leading democracies, NYU media scholars Rodney Benson and Matthew Powers analyze the concrete ways that other countries fund and protect the autonomy of their public media.

Their findings may surprise you.

Location:

20 Cooper Square, New York, NY

NYU Journalism 7th Floor Commons

More at http://www.nyu.edu/ipk/events/152

On February 15, NYU School of Journalism hosts a discussion on the

struggles of public media funding in America. Rodney Benson and Matthew

Powers, present, with panel discussions by Emily Bell, Director, Columbia

University Tow Center for Digital Journalism; Ellen Goodman, Professor of

Law, Rutgers University; and Hartmut Wessler, Professor, University of

Mannheim Department of Communication.

Page 20 Volume 10, Issue 6 February 11, 2011

Sites Compendium www.arstechnica.com

www.theatlantic.com

www.bepress.com

www.bloomberg.com

www.computerworld.com

www.fco.gov.uk

www.firstmonday.org

www.georgetown.edu

www.govinfosecurity.com

www.healthcareitnews.com

www.ihealthbeat.org

www.informationweek.com

www.kokodafoundation.org

www.mckinseyquarterly.com

www.modernhealthcare.com

www.newyorker.com

www.nytimes.com

www.prnewswire.com

www.reuters.com

www.ssrn.com

www.sfgate.com

www.whitehouse.gov

www.wsj.com

Book Notice

The National Security Enterprise

Navigating the Labyrinth Edited by Roger Z. George, Harvey Rishikof, Foreword

by Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, USAF (Ret)

Recent breakdowns in American

national security have exposed the

weaknesses of the nation‘s vast

overlapping security and foreign

policy bureaucracy and the often

dysfunctional interagency process.

In the literature of national security

studies, however, surprisingly little

attention is given to the specific

dynamics or underlying

organizational cultures that often

drive the bureaucratic politics of

U.S. security policy.

The National Security Enterprise offers a broad overview and

analysis of the many government agencies involved in national

security issues, the interagency process, Congressional checks

and balances, and the influence of private sector organizations.

The chapters cover the National Security Council, the

Departments of Defense and State, the Office of the Director of

National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the

Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland

Security, and the Office of Management and Budget. The book

also focuses on the roles of Congress, the Supreme Court, and

outside players in the national security process like the media,

think tanks, and lobbyists.

About the Editors

Roger Z. George teaches national security policymaking at

Georgetown University and the National War College. He has

also worked at the CIA, National Intelligence Council, the State

Department's Policy Planning Staff, and the Office of the

Secretary of Defense.

Harvey Rishikof is a professor of law and national security

studies at the National War College and the chair of the

American Bar Association Standing Committee on law and

national security.

More at http://press.georgetown.edu/detail.html?

id=9781589016989

Research and Selection: Stefaan Verhulst

Production: Kathryn Carissimi & Lauren Hunt

Please send your questions, observations and suggestions to

sverhulst@markle.org

The views expressed in the Weekly Digest do not

necessarily reflect those of the Markle Foundation.