The big picture: Why the VerizonNARAL flap matters- September 28, 2007 I arrived in DC in the middle of last night without a phone charger, having left mine in Manhattan last weekend. So this morning my first stop was a Verizon Wireless store downtown. Right in the store, in a corner, I plugged in my phone and called back someone who had a lot of questions about yesterday's kerfuffle. Sitting on the floor, I tried to explain why this story matters. The convenience of the VZ store downtown (and in fact the ubiquitousness of those stores in...http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/28/3258382.html Long rules for short codes- September 28, 2007 The VerizonNARAL tornado that passed through the US telecommunications village today (brief, but with a lasting effect) propelled me into reading the carrier rules for use of short codes.They're remarkable.Take a look at Verizon's rules, starting on p. 40 of the pdf. No bad words, no chat services, no gaming, no dating services - nothing that Verizon thinks would either offend people or compete with its own services.http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/27/3257397.html Buying regulation- September 26, 2007 So now AT&T has joined Verizon (and Frontline) in challenging the FCC's 700 MHz proposed rules. AT&T's beef is not about the no-locking, no-blocking rules - rather, they're focused on the block of spectrum that a commercial private actor is supposed to use to build out a network for public safety's purposes (the "publicprivate partnership"). They're saying it's too hard to do a deal with public safety officials before the auction. There just isn't enough information...http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/26/3255145.html Amateur Hour: Nov. 2, NYLS- September 25, 2007 From the esteemed Dan Hunter comes the following:From television (YouTube and Revver) to advertising (craigslist and consumer-made TV ads), movies (Machinima), photography (Flickr and iStockPhoto), and news (blogs and citizen journalism), technology is enabling amateurs to produce and distribute high-quality content that people want to watch, read, consume, re-use, and buy. Media and entertainment companies are facing a range of challenging new issues. On November 2, 2007, New York...http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/25/3253212.html Why the digital transition- September 24, 2007 One of my students asked whether his television set, connected to a cable system but with no set-top box, would be able to receive digital television after February 17, 2009.So I decided to try the experiment of being a consumer with this question. I was happy to see the NCTA has this site with information about how this will work. And this:The good news for cable customers is that the digital transition should be easy. Thanks to a compromise adopted by the FCC in September...http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/24/3250991.html Jottit.com- September 22, 2007 I know it's so common to think Aaron Swartz is special because he was a co-author of RSS when he was 14. But I really like one of his new side-projects, jottit.com. Go take a look. It's always been so hard for ordinary people to create web sites. This one allows you to pick a name for your site, then "claim" it, decide whether to apply a password to it, and whether other people will be allowed to edit it. Then you're on your way, setting up your site.This would be..http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/21/3245494.html The ham band- September 21, 2007 When I was in high school I remember going with a group to play a concert in an Elks lodge. The room was dusky and the building was a little broken down. There was a giant sign in the room where we played that read, "Keep America Strong. Ask A Young Man To Become An Elk." The people there were boisterous and kindly.Well, I think I've found the home of the telecommunications-Elks. It's amateur radio. The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual is full of folksy, boisterous,...http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/20/3243229.html A thousand posts- September 19, 2007 Four Septembers ago, I started this blog. It's mostly been a delight, a homecoming each day, to be here and write a little. Today is my thousandth post. So I'll keep it short. Enough already!First, for Kaliya Hamlin, who has to go through life rhyming with an overbearing regulatory cost-shifting scheme, a big congratulations for the upcoming She'sGeeky unconference on Oct. 22-23. I can't be there, but I'm with you in spirit.Second, for everyone that's had anything..http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/19/3240620.html Pond-jumping- September 18, 2007 On April 18, 2006, I was in Oxford (thanks to Jonathan Zittrain) giving a talk at the Oxford Internet Institute that Google Desktop tells me was titled "Seeing the Net: Recent FCC Developments." The slides I talked through had to do with BellheadNethead differences and the new laws, new institutions, and new asymmetries of information that the telco-incumbent-persuaded FCC was forwarding. Because it was Oxford I wrote out my notes in some detail, and I can see that I talked about...http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/18/3238815.html Beginnings and end-games- September 17, 2007 There was a big BusinessWeek story recently about the enormous contributions cell phones can make in developing countries -- and particularly in Africa. 'Mobile technology has brought many fruits, and no bad things,' insists Isaac Mahenia, a schoolteacher and part-time farmer in Muruguru. Abraham Maragua. . .agrees that life is finally getting better in the village, and that mobile phones are part of the change.I thought this was a pretty strong and interesting story, and I took it at...http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/17/3236826.html |