CCT@TPRC44

Reflections after the 44th Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy  

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Thanks

Thank you to presenters and attendees who shared research and business cards, to George Mason University for hosting the event, to CCT for sponsoring MA students to attend, and to all those who helped, including the TPRC board.  Special thanks to Syd and Laura Verinder for managing check-in, directing people, and ringing the bell to keep everything on track.

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“High-Speed Internet Access and Innovation: The Effects of Broadband on Patents within Korea and United States”                                                                                   Soyoung Park, University of Texas

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“ Although both Korea and U.S. have been shown to have fairly high broadband Internet penetration rates, their respective impacts on changes in innovation will appear somewhat differently in that the patterns of these penetration rates in both countries are to some extent dissimilar:   Korea has taken the lead while U.S. was slightly falling behind; the changes in speed are gradually increasing in U.S., whereas in Korea this pattern shows fluctuations.” - TPRC44 website, http://sched.co/7jzu

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Social capital as defined in presentation of “The Impact of Mobile Phones on Social Capital in Developing Countries” by Alain Shema,* Syracuse University - School of Information Studies, and Martha Garcia-Murillo, Syracuse University - School of Information Studies.

Shema and Garcia-Murillo studied telecom data to see how socio-economic communities in Rwanda interacted.  Q&A discussed practice of “flashing” or “beeping”, letting a call ring through but hanging up before the recipient picks up, to avoid cell phone calling fees.

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To sum it all up, I agree with OMB[the Office of Management and Budget]’s assessment that the absence of information on costs and benefits from independent agencies “is a continued obstacle to transparency” that can “have adverse effects on public policy” and “lead to inferior decisions.” My ongoing push for CBA[cost-benefit analysis]in FCC items, like my efforts for process reforms, is not intended to diminish the ability of the agency to accomplish the agenda set forth by its Chairman.  I fully acknowledge and accept that the Commission will still adopt policies that I may not agree with.  But if it does so after a full and fair consideration of the costs and benefits, the policies are likely to be better tailored to solve the problem at hand and less burdensome to companies and consumers.  That’s still an improvement and, more importantly, it is a necessary and prudent thing for an agency to do.

Keynote speaker Commissioner Mike O’Rielly of the Federal Communications Commission

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“See my remarks at @TPRCtweets 44th research conference → https://t.co/O0M5EA5Y47. Focus is lack of @FCC cost benefit analysis. #TPRC44”

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To study time spent on privacy policies and terms of service, the authors created a fake networking site and found that, regardless of time spent reading, all subjects clicked through and agreed to patently ridiculous terms.   

In presentation, Obar pointed out several design factors that played into this: the “quick join” layout of the first page with few fields and a big button screaming “JOIN!” encourage quick decisions, and the button was far more appealing than the small plain font link to the full terms.  Users want to “get to the fun”- and warnings are not designed to be fun.

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Mohamed El-Moghazi (of the National Telecom Regulatory Authority of Egypt) moderates a discussion panel on The Interaction between the International Spectrum Management Regime and National Spectrum Policies

In trying to keep up with the discussion, this International Telecommunication Union PowerPoint gave quick visual-based (if a little dated) background on ITU’s view of international spectrum use.

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Spectrum is the range of electromagnetic radio frequencies used to transmit sound, data, and video across the country. It is what carries voice between cell phones, television shows from broadcasters to your TV, and online information from one computer to the next, wirelessly. The FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) share responsibility for managing the spectrum. NTIA manages spectrum used by the Federal government (e.g., military, NASA) and the FCC is responsible for spectrum used by others, including individuals (e.g., garage door openers and wireless Internet connections), commercial operators (e.g., radio and television broadcasters, mobile phone providers), and public safety and health officials (e.g., police and emergency medical technicians). Frequency bands are reserved for different uses. For example, 88 – 108 MHz is used to broadcast FM radio to your car. Whereas, one of the groups of frequency bands used for cell phones is 824-849 MHz and 869-894 MHz. Because there is a finite amount of spectrum and a growing demand for it, effectively managing the available spectrum is an important priority for the FCC. With the FCC Spectrum Dashboard, the public can now learn more about spectrum licenses across the country and areas where spectrum is currently available.

reboot.fcc.gov

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Conference pro tip:

Bring a pen and blank paper, or something you can type on.  ^This is no use to anyone.

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World Development Report 2016

The World Bank Group’s recent World Development Report, highlighted by keynote speaker Valerie D’Costa, is available through iTunes and Google Play.

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Research suggested that concerns about online privacy and security risks could have a chilling effect on certain online activities.  The authors analyzed data from a July 2015 survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.  

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Full program for TPRC44 Sep 30-Oct 1 at the Antonin Scalia Law School George Mason University  Arlington, VA