Category: Obama
November 22nd, 2009
Internet: A threat to government or the other way around? (Part 2)
Part II
It’s been suggested in many articles that President Obama won the U.S. election in 2008 because his campaign used Twitter, Facebook and other social media effectively over the course of the campaign that spanned two years. But this new instant social media clearly it works both ways: Bad news travels much faster, and with significantly more power, than good news ever does. Face it: People love dirt and passing on bad news more often, with negative results which tend to stick in a voters mind for a longer period of time than good news does.
The snowball effect
There’s more to it than just a story being uploaded and published on a blog or RSS feed. It goes a lot farther, much much farther. Internet news is now available in every language, where anybody who has access to a computer or smart phone is now a potential audience for ‘news’. That has politicians nervous because just how many of these stories are published with incomplete information along with confirmation that the material they are publishing is true. Harder still, once it’s published, how much effort do you put into getting a retraction if the story is inaccurate? And if the politician pushes too far, it may be perceived that there is in fact truth to the article, compounding the problem. Twitter spreads news like a virus and it’s unstoppable and often it doesn’t, if ever, post retractions or corrections at the same velocity. We thought we understood the 7/24 news cycle when the era of 200 television stations became a reality… uh no…not even close were we in understanding what this cycle means - until now.
The Spin
Bad news is also how the opposition takes aim at its targets. Once a story is in the wild, you can bet your opposite is firing out their take on a story, sometimes with twice the venom and quadruple the amount of information that can literately engulf the target. If you thought spam was a problem, political drama is going to crush it in the years to come. One question it raises is: Can we absorb it all? The politician may have an escape route after all. But there’s an old saying: If enough junk is thrown at the wall, some of it is going to stick…
The story
News is also about agendas that elected leaders want to you to vote for. Out go the press releases, RSS alerts, Twitter, blogs and social portal postings. You become engulfed in it. You can’t surf anywhere without it coming at you. Well, you can, but don’t worry; they’ll find you anyway and make sure you listen. As opposing sides pitch you why each respective side is right and the other is wrong, you wonder if they even remember what they represent you for in the first place. This onslaught of political news is ignored, absorbed and debated and the arguments and dilution of substance begins. Often it can be ugly at one extreme to complete blandness at the other. Politicians rarely remember which side of the bed they woke up on, why should it be any different trying to get a bill passed on the floor of the legislature?
What some leaders are starting to realize is that if they are not careful, their constituents will tune out. So far that’s not holding true, with the majority of western world eligible voters having access to the internet and having an email address or a cell phone with a data plan. Most troubling for elected officials are secondary news sources that create perception beyond their editorial control. These secondary sources are your friends that pass on the news, as a tweet, email, blog or text message which are condensed and revised pieces of news. This audience tends to get engaged BECAUSE it came from a source they associate with. The future might hold that people create firewall or filter rules that prevent political messages getting to them, but rarely will they reject these secondary sources of news.
Reaction to government has moved from the lawns of universities and parks to the Internet.
November 13th, 2009
Life insurance may prove difficult to get if you contract H1N1
President Obama wants to ensure health insurance companies cannot deny you coverage if you have a pre-existing condition. This has key component of the President’s health care reform package going through the U.S. Congress. He may have another challenge lying ahead - life insurance. Already some insurance carriers in Canada, because of the pandemic H1N1 Virus, are asking on application forms if they have contracted it. In a Sun Media / Peterborough Examiner news article, this could lead to future profiling of consumers health and may eliminate the ability to get life insurance for some.
This may also force strict guidelines on health information privacy that a health insurance provider has in its database and ensuring that life insurance companies do not have access to it. It is legal to ask about a consumers current health and personal lifestyle habits such as smoking, but it does not bar you from getting coverage, only that it may have affect on what your monthly or yearly premiums will cost.
The debate this opens up is more than a few simple questions and no easy answers.
Loading ...November 5th, 2009
FCC Chairman testifies on driving while texting
Last week I posted that the Government of Ontario has implemented a ban on driving while using a mobile phone or CB radio. U.S. Congress is now holding hearings on the issue.
Chairman Julius Genachowski of the Federal Communications Commission testified before the Subcommittees on Communications, Technology and the Internet, Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, Committee on Energy and Commerce on the topic of Technological Devices and Vehicle Safety. Chairman Genachowski’s testimony brought out some interesting facts.
1995: approximately 34 million people had subscribed to a mobile phone.
2009: 276 million
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2008 that driver distraction is the cause of 16% of all fatal crashes - 5,800 people killed - and 21% of crashes resulting in an injury - 515,000 people wounded.
I posted last week that 6 U.S. states have banned driving while talking on a cell phone. 18 states now have some kind of law, primarily aimed at texting while driving.
President Obama signed an Executive Order banning all Federal employees (except in an emergency) from texting while driving any government vehicle or driving while on the job.
According to the Automobile Association of America (AAA), nearly 50% of teens admit to texting while driving.
Bluetooth and speech-to-text technology sales are likely to skyrocket, along with civilian versions of Heads Up Displays (HUD) in rear view mirrors.
November 3rd, 2009
The taxman goes mainstream on YouTube
Multimedia offers several things that ordinary print doesn’t: Driving home a point in person is one of them. Press releases, bulletins, direct mail often are ignored, so what to do? But video, multimedia, regular TV news also have their limits. In an era of 200 TV stations offering a variety of specialty channels where “news” is ignored, how to reach the masses and offer an ability to go when you please to view important information? The government in the U.K. has started to post on YouTube. HM Revenues and Customs have put Dave Hartnett, HMRC’s Permanent Secretary for Tax, straight onto video about the deadline for off shore tax havens.
The challenge for most ministries or departments is costs. Constantly sending out direct mail or advertising in newspapers or phone calls is becoming expensive. Putting out a video that anyone can download for free, view it on their own time is becoming an attractive option. The government can stipulate that public notice was given and published in a medium that anyone can retrieve and thus fair warning was established.
YouTube has been the source for political and official government messages with mixed results until the 2008 U.S. presidential election, where President Obama’s campaign used it aggressively. There are more than 137,000 videos related to the President. He’s not alone in the use of YouTube. Search results for Senator John McCain displays 179,000 videos, Former Gov. Sarah Palin 88,000, and former President Bush shows a whopping 388,000 different video clips! Many of these videos are responses or unusual commentaries on the individual and is clearly an effective medium to get one’s message out. The regular evening news may find itself being replaced when it comes to political affairs. Whether you hear about it or not, the government is coming to collect.
Here’s the HM Revenue & Customs video:
October 20th, 2009
FCC publishes rural broadband report
The FCC released its report on Rural Broadband Strategy. The report is classic government documentation with more footnotes on pages than actual content. The 77 page report was commissioned based on the 2008 FARM Bill law. (Hey, I don’t make this stuff up!) I understand the need for the FCC to work with other agencies, but what were senators or congressmen (and women) thinking ….
“ law requires the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, in coordination with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), to submit “a report describing a comprehensive rural broadband strategy” to Congress.”
The report says the same things we all knew: That the U.S. Government wants to subsidize the cost to deploy broadband to rural areas with incentives. That it needs more reports and analyses and that there are a few application forms to fill out to receive grants. That there’s $7.2 billion available. It gives a reasonably accurate analysis on past, current and future technologies to facilitate broadband Internet access to communities that are currently under-served. What it doesn’t tell you is how it should be designed or how it will be regulated. That probably requires another report commissioned by Congress in concert with the Environmental Protection Agency or something.
January 30th, 2009
Guest blog: Presidential BlackBerry means mobile revolution
By David Goldschlag
executive vice president of corporate strategy & technology for Trust Digital
Even before President Obama was inaugurated, there was a great deal of speculation about whether our first “connected” President would be allowed to keep his BlackBerry or whether security concerns and the Presidential “bubble” would take it away.
The government’s decision allowing President Obama to continue to use his BlackBerry demonstrates that the government appreciates both the value of a smartphone to its owner and the smartphone’s security risks, and found a way to mitigate the risks. Government IT sets a good model on how IT can better serve personnel they support, and in this case it is the Commander-in-Chief.
So what are the smartphone security risks? Bloggers, such as Marc Ambinder, were quick to report that Presidential use of the BlackBerry was secured by the National Security Agency adding a “super-encryption” package to his smartphone.
Other articles suggested the President would use a specialized dual-mode unclassified/classified device in addition to his smartphone. Regardless of President Obama’s exact method for staying connected, the larger story is that smartphones introduce a broad set of risks – some that are laptop-like – including: data compromise if the smartphone is lost, malware from viruses, emails and applications, and SPAM.
New risks are associated with the very personal and always-present/always-on/always-connected nature of the smartphone: location tracking (through the wireless carrier and GPS), surreptitious recording using the camera and microphone, and malware through SMS/text messaging and Bluetooth.
While President Obama’s smartphone of choice was the BlackBerry, more and more federal workers want consumer devices such as Apple’s iPhone to leverage the Internet and other applications beyond email. In October, Jordy Yager of The Hill reported that the House of Representatives’ chief administrative officer, who oversees the communication needs of the House, was investigating the use of the iPhone.
The driver behind this effort was workers’ demand for the iPhone. New blockbuster devices such as the Palm Pre and Google Android will further increase the pressure for more device choice and more mobile applications.
Of course, giving users device choice creates some implementation headaches for IT. IT needs more knowledge and guidance about how to mitigate risks. To address this situation, the Defense Information Systems Agency has published Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) for BlackBerry and non-BlackBerry devices.
These documents provide guidelines for the deployment, configuration and operation of smartphones and their management systems. In both DoD and civilian agencies, these STIG documents offer best security practices and help take the guesswork out of mobilizing email and other applications.
Regardless of what personnel an IT group is supporting – be it a public or private enterprise – by considering DISA STIG best practice, IT can empower workers with: smartphone device choice, allow smartphones to access current email and applications through their existing communications infrastructure, and mitigate the old and new risks associated with smartphones.
By layering DoD approved security and management software on top of commercially available smartphones, including Windows Mobile and BlackBerry, workers can use the mobile smartphone of their choice to access sensitive information and applications.
Trust Digital is the only mobility management platform tested and approved to secure Microsoft Windows Mobile and Exchange solutions per the updated DISA STIG.
January 24th, 2009
Should federal government go open source?
Could the federal government be going open source? The BBC reports that President Obama has asked former Sun CEO Scott McNealy to report on the relative benefits of open source software. Imagine that: a president who has heard of open source software.
And McNealy will report just how large those benefits are.
It’s intuitively obvious open source is more cost effective and productive than proprietary software. Open source does not require you to pay a penny to Microsoft or IBM or Oracle or any proprietary vendor any money.
And he wants open source mandates.
The government ought to mandate open source products based on open source reference implementations to improve security, get higher quality software, lower costs, higher reliability - all the benefits that come with open software.
Coming from McNealy, the opinion is hardly a neutral analysis. Sun is a vigorous proposal of open source and Unix; cofounder Bill Joy was a primary author of BSD. During his tenure as CEO, McNealy’s hallmark was his constant attacks on Microsoft and Bill Gates.
In his inaugural speech, Obama said:
those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
The question is how much longer spending huge amounts of taxpayer money on proprietary solutions can be justified as “spending wisely” or something other than a “bad habit.”
Michael Tiemann, VP of RedHat and head of the Open Source Initiative, estimated the global waste in using proprietary software at more than $1 trillion annually.
This is the kind of change we need if we are ever going to see the government reform its operational capabilities and cost basis. If they fail to do this, it’s one more stick in the mud. The capital markets are telling us today we can no longer afford much more status quo.
At TruthOut, Dean Baker has called for a $2 billion investment to further development of open source for the desktop.
This money can be used to further develop and simplify open source operating systems such as Linux, as well other forms of free software. The payoffs from this spending would be enormous. Imagine that every computer buyer in the world would be able to get a computer for which the operating system was free, as was almost all the software that they would ever use.
This would surely save consumers an average of at least $200 per computer. With sales at close to 20 million a year, the savings in the United States alone could easily exceed the cost of supporting software development. Adding in the benefits (and presumably some contributions) from the rest of the world, we will be way ahead by going the route of publicly funded open software.
I think Baker probably misses the ball on this one. I fully support expanded government funding of open source developments. But the real benefit is not in demolishing Microsoft’s market for Windows but in developing more and more robust database, cloud and distributed computing solutions. Cost savings for government and business would free up money to invest in R&D, expand into new markets and increase hiring.
January 22nd, 2009
Obama in BlackBerry heaven
Woo-hoo! Obama will keep his BlackBerry — thanks to the addition
of a superencryption package, Marc
Ambinder is reporting
It seems that the National Security Agency — or perhaps another
agency — added the package to to a standard BlackBerry so that Obama
can use it for routine mesages.
In general, government BlackBerries can only handle “secret”-level
messages. Howerver, the Sectera Edge from General Dynamics, allows for
“top secret” voice conversations.
Ambinder speculates that the NSA has created a special, more secure
pathway for the presidential messages.
Instant messaging, though, is right out.
January 22nd, 2009
White House is IT backwater
So this is where the new media rubber meets the old IT road. You know all that stuff I wrote about how technology would transform the presidency under Obama?
That was so naive.
The Washington Post reports that the White House is a technological backwater, a pathetic case of IT neglect. Bringing the White House into the 20th century will be a gargantuan task, as if things weren’t tough enough.
Here’s a quick tour of the gallery of IT horrors that is the nation’s homestead.
- Inability to update whitehouse.gov:
By late evening, the vaunted new White House Web site did not offer any updated posts about President Obama’s busy first day on the job, which included an inaugural prayer service, an open house with the public, and meetings with his economic and national security teams.
Nor did the site reflect the transparency Obama promised to deliver. … No one could quite explain the problem — but they swore it would be fixed. -
Lack of protocols:
One member of the White House new-media team came to work on Tuesday, right after the swearing-in ceremony, only to discover that it was impossible to know which programs could be updated, or even which computers could be used for which purposes.
- Outdated operating systems and hardware: Computers were running six-year-old versions of Windows. Laptops are scarce.
- Just plain unreadiness:
One White House official, who arrived breathless yesterday after being held up at the exterior gate, found he had no computer or telephone number. Recently called back from overseas duty, he ended up using his foreign cellphone.
Another White House official whose transition cellphone was disconnected left a message temporarily referring callers to his wife’s phone.
- Restrictive regulations:
Senior advisers chafed at the new arrangements, which severely limit mobility — partly by tradition but also for security reasons and to ensure that all official work is preserved under the Presidential Records Act.
“It is what it is,” said a White House staff member, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Nobody is being a blockade right now. It’s just the system we need to go through.”
January 20th, 2009
Inauguration 2.0: Citizen Networking
The Obama Administration (how I have longed to say those words!) has made a promise to involve common citizens in our government and a request that citizens get involve in the business of meeting society’s needs. While an inauguration is ceremonial, it works as a gathering point for the whole nation.
What’s unusual about this inauguration is that the gathering can happen not just in our emotions but also in our texts, our Facebook pages, our tweets. To some degree that happened on the media’s web portals and probably to a larger degree in the one-to-one and crowdsource media.
Ground zero for the social inauguration: Twitter, which cofounder Biz Stone said held up grandly to the onslaught of messages from the Mall. He told Computerworld:
We have a sense that Twitter is not about the triumph of technology, it’s about the triumph of humanity. We see this in the way folks use Twitter during emergencies to self-organize and help one-another, and we see it during important, massively shared events like today’s historic inauguration. Our role is to provide a more efficient way for people to communicate and then step out of the way and let it happen.
ZD blogger Jennifer Leggio says Web 2.0 stood up admirably to the rush of history. Social networkers offered up a winners and losers list for the Web.
Winners: Besides Twitter, cnn.com, Ustream, Facebook and FriendFeed. Losers: MSNBC and Hulu.
The result of all this is that you don’t just have to ask talking heads and think-tank pundits how it went. You can just tap into the flow of comment, if you can find a way to filter out the noise.
Dan Olds, principal analyst with the Gabriel Consulting Group, [said] “These personal histories can be viewed, aggregated, and eventually analyzed by anyone who is interested in getting a true sense of how people perceived particular events while they were happening. We haven’t had that ability before. It will be interesting to see if and how real historians use this vast collection of first person narratives in their own works.”
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