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Online legislation-writing effort gets good reviews	27 July 2007
(InfoWorld) - A blog launched this month has teamed with a U.S. senator in an effort to write new broadband legislation, and so far, participants have given the process high marks. OpenLeft.com, a blog focused on liberal issues, has been hosting a wide-ranging discussion on broadband policy since Tuesday. Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat and assistant majority leader in the Senate, has joined the discussion, saying he'll use the ideas from OpenLeft to craft broadband legislation. The discussion hasn't been one-sided. Advocates of net neutrality rules have debated with opponents, and critics of spectrum auctions at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission have sparred with advocates of free-market auctions. Through it all, the debate has sometimes been heated, but mostly civil. Durbin himself has entered the fray -- on Tuesday night, he stayed online longer than his scheduled 45 minutes, said Matt Stoller, a liberal activist, blogger, and cofounder of OpenLeft.com. "He ended up staying for an hour and a half because he liked it," Stoller said. The senator fielded questions about media consolidation, net neutrality, and the influence of lobbyists during the Tuesday night discussion. Asked about countering the influence of lobbyists, Durbin wrote: "The answer is partly to do what you're doing tonight -- get involved. And stay involved. Even if the fight doesn't go your way. That is one of the reasons the telecom lobby is so successful. If the bills they advocate don't pass or are amended in ways they don't like, they come back at it the next day. Or next week. Or next year. Net activists need to adopt that philosophy as well." The online legislation-writing effort isn't designed to eliminate lobbyists, Stoller said, but to give other people voices into the process as well. OpenLeft plans to host more legislation-writing discussions, he said. "What you're doing is putting people on a level playing field," he said. "You're [rewarding] people with good ideas." Among the participants in the week's debate were Kent Nichols, producer of a comedy video series called AskANinja.com; Davey D, a journalist, radio programmer, and webmaster; and Wally Bowen, executive director of the nonprofit Mountain Area Information Network, a wireless ISP based in western North Carolina. Bowen wrote that his business operates in the 900MHz unlicensed spectrum bands. "The signal can punch through heavy leaf cover, but it cannot penetrate buildings, and it requires 'near line-of-sight'," he wrote. "Despite high demand for our services, we can only reach a fraction of the market due to the limitations of 900MHz. We desperately need access to unlicensed spectrum in the lower frequencies." Among the most hotly debated issues was net neutrality. Advocates want Congress to pass a net neutrality law prohibiting large broadband providers from blocking or slowing Web content from competitors. Christopher Wolf, co-chairman of the Hands Off the Internet Coalition, an anti-net neutrality group, joined the discussion Wednesday night. Wolf noted that so far, the FCC has taken action in the one case where an ISP has blocked Web content. "Why aren't these protections enough?" he wrote. Several people commented, including Harold Feld, senior vice president of the advocacy group Media Access Project. "History shows trying to clean up messes after the fact (breaking up Ma Bell, trying to reverse cable market power) is very difficult, expensive, and not always effective," Feld wrote. "By contrast, putting some modest protections in place early is cheap and works much better." OpenLeft will post draft legislation in a few weeks, Stoller said. Durbin will use the information from OpenLeft in legislation he'll introduce in September or October, said Joe Shoemaker, Durbin's communications director. Durbin also plans to solicit comments from other Web sites, including the conservative RedState blog, Shoemaker said. The debate on OpenLeft has been useful because Durbin has been able to hear the stories of Internet users, Shoemaker said. While Durbin doesn't plan to shut out lobbyists, complicated issues like broadband policy deserve more voices, he added. "Once you get to that level of policy, you need broader input," Shoemaker said. "Ideas are exposed that he's not really heard of. [The debate this week] was a pretty useful back and forth."
Fring aims to cut cellphone costs with VOIP	16 February 2007
(InfoWorld) - Avi Shechter, co-founder and CEO of Fringland (Fring), could be on to something big with the launch of a cheap Internet-based phone service that runs over mobile networks. But the Israeli entrepreneur could also be in for the fight of his life with mobile phone network operators determined to protect their cash-cow voice business from virtual service providers. "I believe Fring brings value for users," Shechter said in an interview on the sidelines of the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, adding that the low-cost service will have an impact on the voice business of mobile phone network operators. Fring didn't have a booth at the show but if you ran into Shechter, he was more than happy to demonstrate the service. The former co-general manager of instant messaging company ICQ and his team of 30 have launched a peer-to-peer VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service that carries calls over cellphone networks in much the same way PC-based Internet telephony services transport conversations over Wi-Fi or fixed-line broadband connections. You can download the 200KB Fring application to your handset for free. You'll need a Nokia Series 60 3rd Edition phone but Fring hopes to widen the choice of handsets by enabling the application to run on other operating systems as well, including Microsoft's Window Mobile. Fring not only looks and feels a lot like other PC-based applications such as Skype, Google Talk, and MSN Messenger that offer integrated VOIP, instant messaging and real-time presence services; the application also connects with them. It uses Skype's API (application programming interface) but is not endorsed or certified by Skype, according to Fring's Web site. You can fill your contacts list with other Fring users, or friends on the other services, see when they're online and communicate directly with them. When in idle mode, the Fring application drains the battery a little faster than a cell phone normally would in standby mode -- but with the advantage that you are able to see when your friends are available, and signal your availability. The cost of using Fring depends on your data plan -- the application sends around 4.5MB per hour spent talking. While the costs of local or in-country calls are comparable with standard calls, the real savings appear to be made on international calls. You can make calls to users on public telephone networks, using Skype Out, but these carry an additional fee on top of the data charges. Also, if you make a "roaming" call from outside your home network, you will be charged a data roaming fee as you would for any other data service. For all its features, Fring still has some kinks. If you try to make calls over GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) or GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) networks, you'll notice a crackly voice quality similar to early PC-based VOIP service, according to Shechter. "Our service is designed for 3G networks but we're working on improving the quality in the other networks," he said. Because you have to connect to the Internet to use the service, you'll need a data package of sufficient size, and although most mobile Internet data packages are volume-based, make sure there's no time limit. That would severely restrict your ability to use Fring or any other mobile VOIP application for that matter. Some operators, such as T-Mobile International, have banned the use of VOIP applications on their networks. Other operators may also introduce measures to block access to virtual mobile VOIP service providers like Fring that use their mobile data networks without commercial agreements. To offset any lost voice revenue from the switch to IP, such operators could charge a specific VOIP subscription fee, or offer a more expensive data package service fee for using VOIP or even bundle additional services for a higher fee. Particularly in Europe, operators have invested far too much money in licenses, equipment and customer acquisition to give anything away. Like fixed-line operators that first fought and then adopted VOIP services, mobile operators must now deal with a disruptive technology that could radically change their business models.
Higher Royalty Rates Are Killing AOL and Yahoo's Web Radio Stations	28 November 2007
The recent hike in royalty rates for internet radio stations put many smaller stations out of business. Now it looks as though it will also kill AOL and Yahoo's radio services, which the two companies spent hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire.
Congress' "anti-extremist" bill targets online thoughtcrime	28 November 2007
Warning that the Internet "aids" in promoting extremism and radicalization, the House has voted to create a commission to prepare a classified report on the topic. This may not turn out well.
Web pioneer discusses science of the Internet	28 November 2007
Video: Web pioneer discusses science of the Internet. Tim Berners-Lee, considered to be the father of the Web, speaks with scientists and Silicon Valley executives at HP Labs in Palo Alto, Calif., about where he sees the Internet going in the next five years.
Client-side vulnerabilities loom large	28 November 2007
Critical vulnerabilities in common PC software, including both applications and operating systems, continue to grow in number and stand as the leading cause for concern in the IT security landscape today, according to training experts at the SANS Institute.Holes in so-called client-side applications, including Web browsers, e-mail clients, productivity suites, and media players, have become particularly worrisome over the last year, according to SANS, which highlighted the issue as part of its annual report on the top 20 Internet security risks for 2007.As hackers have shifted their attention further away from operating system flaws and drilled down to applications-layer vulnerabilities they have found a seemingly endless wealth of possibilities for infecting PCs with everything from spyware to botnet programs, SANS researchers contend.Unless something can be done to improve software developers' coding habits or better test popular applications for such issues before they land on end-users' machines, attackers will be able to continue their successful assaults against enterprise networks and devices for the foreseeable future, said Rohit Dhamankar, project manager for the Top 20 report at SANS and a senior manager of security research for TippingPoint.?"There's just been such a dramatic rise in the numbers of vulnerabilities found in applications like Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office and a number of media players that attackers are having their way," said Dhamankar. "Enterprises are bolstering security, but desktop users still pose a massive risk if they can download anything they want from the Web; the attacks are also growing in sophistication to the extent that many can defeat antivirus and other security systems primarily by obfuscating their code."Some of the most powerful tools that hackers have adopted in hunting for potential targets are the same industrial-strength applications fuzzing tools that software vendors themselves are using to search for holes in their products, said the expert.Enterprises could do themselves a favor by enforcing stricter policies that dictate the types of applications that end-users are allowed to put on their work machines and using technical means to ensure that those rules are being followed, Dhamankar said.Other SANS researchers noted that while companies may not want to tell end-users that they cannot utilize media players, messaging clients, and other applications that have moved into the business world from the consumer sector, they could help themselves out by limiting the variety of client-side applications that people may choose from."IT departments can't focus on all the applications of the world, but they can choose several and keep their eye on those while allowing end-users some freedom," said Amol Sarwate, research manager at Qualys who studies vulnerability patterns for SANS. "What companies need to do is enforce standards for applications usage and utilize technical means to block unwanted software, devices, and even wireless access points."While many businesses have already realized that they need to shift more of their efforts toward defending client-side vulnerabilities, most have failed to embrace a proactive approach versus simply keeping track of publicly-reported flaws and patching those issues said Sarwate.Enterprises need to think about future security issues It will be particularly important for firms to examine the additional security issues that will be introduced in the coming years with broader adoption of technologies including VoIP (Voice over IP), according to the expert."The key is for people to start thinking ahead of these client-side vulnerabilities to understand what the next big thing may be. Things like VoIP need to be examined for their security implications," said Sarwate. "Many companies are already adopting these tools because of all the advantages they offer, but there will be many attacks carried out against these systems as well."Among the advice that SANS is offering organizations hoping to improve their client-side security coverage is to mandate secure configurations at installation time for all applications, to constantly verify patching and upgrading of both applications and system software, to scan for new vulnerabilities frequently, and to keep their security systems up to date.Other leading areas of concern highlighted by SANS in its report included critical vulnerabilities in Web applications that allow for cross-site scripting attacks or for computers to be otherwise compromised simply by pointing their browsers at poisoned URLs."Gullible, busy, accommodating computer users," including executives, IT staff, and others with privileged access also remain a major weak point for enterprise security, according to SANS, as these seemingly more seasoned users of computers and software are still falling for increasingly targeted spear-phishing campaigns in large numbers.One of the best ways to educate users about the problem is for organizations to create fake spear-phishing threats and send them out to internal users to determine which individuals might be most likely to fall for the schemes and follow up with additional training, the group said.Critical vulnerabilities in the software and systems that provide the operating environment and primary services to computer users, or server-side software, remain another area of leading concern, according to SANS.Problems in Microsoft Windows services, Unix and Mac OS services, back-up and AV programs, management servers, database software, and VoIP technologies in particular are proving troublesome, according to the report.Many of those issues can be addressed by following the same advice offered for solving client-side vulnerabilities, SANS said in the research.
Panelists: Content management, meet social networking	28 November 2007
Enterprise content management and social networking form a natural nexus that is already taking tangible form, a software executive said during a panel discussion Wednesday at the Gilbane Group's annual conference in Boston."People have real requirements to secure information, but also have a demand to interact with people," said John Newton, CTO of Alfresco, an open-source content management software maker. "We are starting to blur the lines between what's inside the enterprise and what's outside the enterprise."Panelist David Mendels, senior vice president of Adobe's enterprise and developer business unit, echoed the idea. "The biggest single shift we're seeing is from the infrastructure of content management to humans -- to how humans engage with it," he said. "The real question is, what experiences are you going to build for your end-users, and how are you going to securely connect that back to your back-end systems?"David Boloker, CTO of the company's emerging Internet technology group, touched upon security concerns as well. "When you end up in the Facebook world or the Web world, you have to ask yourself, is that information correct? Do you have to annotate it, do you have to clean that information?""There are people out there who will try to take your information or plant a worm," he added.Mendels predicted that enterprise rights management software for securing content will see wider use. "We've talked about this for a while, but I think we're really on the cusp of it starting to accelerate," he said.Beyond addressing bottom-line concerns, such as security, enterprises will soon be compelled to apply social-networking principles in a wider range of areas, said Andy MacMillan, vice president of product management in Oracle's enterprise content management division. "The Web is going to lead the way, but pretty soon, you're going to be talking about the call center, the checkout kiosk at the airport -- how do I personalize those things?"Panelists took questions following the main discussion. One audience member asked them to render an opinion on content management's adoption rate around the world.Newton said lower-cost options have diversified the roles of content management software: "We see content management being pulled into types of applications it normally wouldn't have been before.... It's changing -- it's much more democratized. It's not so much about compliance."Mendels said hosted content management services, such as Adobe's Share and Buzzword offerings, will see faster growth outside the U.S., particularly among SMBs.Panelists at one point peered into their respective crystal balls. Mendels said Adobe's goal moving forward is "creating applications and experiences that keep people in context."Ideally, he said, the current practice of jumping among e-mail programs, instant messaging services, and the phone would be no more. "We see a world where you should have all those experiences tied to one document," he said.Mendels gave the example of a person sending an e-mail that prompts the recipient to return the query by phone. "Instead of picking up the phone and calling you, the document can call you," he said.Boloker pointed to mashups, saying they represent a new "application paradigm we're all walking into." IBM is working on a drag-and-drop mashup development environment called QEDWiki, which Boloker demonstrated for IDG News Service following the panel discussion.MacMillan said enterprises must now focus on not just cataloging their structured and unstructured data, but also applying analytics against it. "I think the next big step for content management from the infrastructure layer is to turn BI loose on it," he said.But Newton's take centered more on philosophy than a given technology. The Web 2.0-social networking boom has unleashed a "wave of creativity" that stands in contrast to "introverted, left-brain thinking" types, in Newton's view. "What our industry needs to do is get out of our left-brain, introverted mindset," he said.
Verizon Wireless' open network earns praise	28 November 2007
Verizon Wireless' decision to open its network to outside mobile devices and applications has won praise from several groups, including past critics.Verizon Wireless officials announced Tuesday they would open up their network to any devices and software customers want to use by the second half of 2008. Any device that passes a minimal connectivity test will be allowed on the Verizon Wireless network, officials said.That announcement drew applause from a wide variety of groups. Public Knowledge, a consumer rights group that has pushed for open network regulations from the U.S. Congress or the Federal Communications Commission, said it was "cautiously optimistic" about Verizon's decision.Verizon's decision could lead to "a more open network in the wireless industry at large," said Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge's president. Wireless carriers have fought an FCC decision to require open access on a portion of spectrum in the 700MHz band to be auctioned starting in January, she noted."The Verizon announcement, however, is very limited," Sohn added. "If other carriers don't follow the same model, then consumers will still find their phones tied to a specific technology or wireless company. In order for an open network to become a reality, all carriers will have to participate."Verizon will still decide what phones can operate on its network, she said. Public Knowledge would prefer to have a third party decide what phones can operate on the Verizon network, she said.She also has continuing questions about prices. If Verizon continues to offer its preferred mobile phones at a discount, "then the adoption of the open model will be minimal, absent a rapid decline in cell phone prices," Sohn said. "We need to know whether the rates for Verizon service plans will vary for those with subsidized phones and for those customers with a phone bought elsewhere."Others were less guarded with their praise.Verizon's announcement, combined with the Google-led Open Handset Alliance, is a "significant" step toward the goal of more open wireless networks, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, said in a statement."As I noted when we adopted open network rules for our upcoming spectrum auction, wireless customers should be able to use the wireless device of their choice and download whatever software they want onto it," Martin added. "I continue to believe that more openness -- at the network, device, and application level -- helps foster innovation and enhances consumers' freedom and choice in purchasing wireless service. I am optimistic that Verizon Wireless's commitment along with the upcoming spectrum auction will ensure an exciting new era in wireless technology for the benefit of all consumers."Solveig Singleton, an adjunct senior fellow with Maryland think tank the Free State Foundation, said Verizon's voluntary decision makes more sense than open network regulations, such as net-neutrality rules pushed by Public Knowledge and other groups."Requiring openness or neutrality beyond the basics now supported by demand would needlessly make development far more costly and slow," she said. "A company that wants to invent a new type of phone with cutting-edge features already has a good bit to think about without having to worry about new phones and networks being simultaneously built by everyone else."Many proposed net-neutrality rules would require wireless and broadband providers to treat all network traffic equally, she said."Mandate 'open' and 'neutral' everywhere all the time for everything, and innovation will slow to a snail's pace and network traffic will jam," she added. "Competition between operators to offer innovative combinations of services at special prices would become almost impossible. In this fast-changing context, a regulatory command to treat all traffic all the same is just a bad idea."Also praising Verizon's decision were Funambol, a developer of open-source calendar and messaging tools for mobile phones, and the New America Foundation, a think tank that has pushed for open access rules on the 700MHz spectrumThe FCC and Google deserve credit for pushing the issue forward, said Michael Calabrese, director of New America's Wireless Future Program."This appears to be a move to head off market entry and new wireless competition from Google and other Internet companies that would result if the incumbent carriers were unwilling to meet minimal FCC consumer choice requirements," he said in an e-mail.
EU telecom lobby group blasts regulatory laggards	28 November 2007
Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Belgium have the worst telecommunications regulators in Europe, according to a study carried out for the European Competitive Telecom Association (ECTA), an industry group that promotes the interests of new entrants into the market.The annual study, available on ECTA's Web site, compares the telecom regulatory environment and the application of the current legislative framework in 19 European countries. Top of the class were the U.K., the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and France."This year’s results show that countries where regulators have taken action to enable competition to flourish, including the UK, Netherlands and Scandinavian countries, have seen strong performance in their telecom markets. However, others including Poland, the Czech Republic and Greece have fallen behind," ECTA said in a statement.It added that "institutional weaknesses" may be preventing Germany, Belgium, and Finland from reaching their full potential.The study, dubbed the 2007 Scorecard, shows the impact of weak competition on consumers."If you are paying high prices for broadband, it may be because your regulator has not been able to open the market to competition," said Innocenzo Genna, chairman of ECTA, in prepared remarks at a conference in Brussels on Wednesday.ECTA supports the European Commission's plans to change telecom rules. In particular, it backs moves to allow regulators the power to break up an incumbent operator if it isn't giving rival service providers fair access to the infrastructure, such as the "local loop" of telephone lines that lead directly into people's homes and offices.Meanwhile, the Commission took Bulgaria to court on Wednesday for failing to police its telecom market "independently and effectively." Bulgaria joined the European Union at the beginning of this year, but it was supposed to have applied all the E.U.-wide rules concerning market access and fair competition in the telecom sector before its arrival.Viviane Reding, commissioner for telecom at the European Commission, attended the ECTA's conference in Brussels. In her keynote speech, she thanked ECTA for supporting the reforms she is trying to push through, but she warned that it will be a "hard fight" ensuring that the changes she has proposed get adopted.As well as proposing that functional separation should be introduced as a remedy to instill fair competition, she also called for the creation of an E.U.-wide telecom market authority to ensure that all national regulators apply the same rules in all markets. Functional separation calls for operators to set up separate units to manage and sell network services."We shall have to fight hard in the coming months to ensure that this vision of a competitive single market for the telecom sector becomes a reality. I count on your continuing support," Reding said.
New software detects Web interference (AP)	29 November 2007
AP - Increasingly worried over Internet providers' behavior, a nonprofit has released software that helps determine whether online glitches are innocent hiccups or evidence of deliberate traffic tampering.