GENEVA -- New and emerging telecom issues will be debated at an April forum in the lead-up to an ITU treaty conference on International Telecommunication Regulations. A 2006 resolution by ITU’s member countries called for a World Telecommunication Policy Forum to consider emerging international telecom policy and regulatory issues. The forum is linked with a 2012 treaty conference that may change the International Telecommunication Regulations. Countries also agreed to call a World Conference on International Telecommunications on recommendations that emerge from the review.
By 2011, 80 percent of media consumed will be digital, FanTrust Entertainment President Catherine Warren said on a panel organized by the National Association of Television Program Executives. Despite the emergence of DTV, multiplatform distribution still faces significant obstacles, the speakers said, including monetization, rights issues and scale. “There’s a lot of sex appeal when talking about cross-platform, but … there’s a tremendous amount of operational savvy required to pull these things off,” Digital Media Strategies founder Janet Balis said. “And mobile is developing even more slowly.” A possible solution is producing directly for the Internet, then getting broadcast revenue through conventional syndication.
GENEVA -- New and emerging telecom issues will be debated at an April forum in the lead-up to an ITU treaty conference on International Telecommunication Regulations. A 2006 resolution by ITU’s member countries called for a World Telecommunication Policy Forum to consider emerging international telecom policy and regulatory issues. The forum is linked with a 2012 treaty conference that may change the International Telecommunication Regulations. Countries also agreed to call a World Conference on International Telecommunications on recommendations that emerge from the review.
The balance point between patient privacy and the proper flow of medical information to improve care and reduce costs see-sawed during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday on health IT and privacy. Witnesses agreed on the necessity of privacy protections and a comprehensive framework for privacy and security, but didn’t necessarily agree on the exact approach. “Unfortunately, the balance is neither precise nor clear,” said John Houston, vice president of information security and privacy at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Much of the discussion came back to the HITECH Act incorporated into House economic stimulus legislation last week.
The Defense Information Systems Agency said it extended CSC Systems & Solutions’ contract to integrate the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service and the Wireless Priority Service through 2010. The current contract, worth nearly $450 million, was awarded on a non-competitive basis in February 2004. “This service is a major Department of Homeland Security program for improving national security and emergency preparedness telecommunications in the event of natural or man-made disasters by utilizing the surviving assets of the public switched network to provide priorities and routing alternatives not available to normal telecommunications traffic,” DISA said.
The National Emergency Number Association sent key House and Senate appropriators a letter Friday asking them to consider, in economic stimulus legislation, investment in technology supporting 911 and emergency communications. “There can be no more critical infrastructure than the 911 systems relied on by the public and the emergency communications systems used by those responding to emergencies,” NENA CEO Brian Fontes wrote. “Similarly, while promotion of broadband access for the general public is an important investment, it is even more important for the future of 911 and emergency communications, which will increasingly depend on high bandwidth networks to effectively prepare for, and respond to, emergencies.” Public safety’s needs include “the establishment of IP backbone networks and the application-layer software infrastructure needed to interconnect the multitude of emergency response organizations,” the letter said.
Brands and retailers are turning to digital coupons, particularly mobile coupons, to sweeten consumer offers, in response to the spread of Internet-enabled phones and the tightening of consumer budgets, companies and analysts said. Distribution of coupons across social networking sites and mobile platforms increased last year. It will again in 2009, companies said.
Brands and retailers are turning to digital coupons, particularly mobile coupons, to sweeten consumer offers, in response to the spread of Internet-enabled phones and the tightening of consumer budgets, companies and analysts said. Distribution of coupons across social networking sites and mobile platforms increased last year. It will again in 2009, companies said.
In addition to proposing an investment of $20 billion in health IT, the health IT portion of the economic stimulus package includes privacy and audit-trail provisions as well as prohibitions on the sale of an individual’s health information. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH, is the result of collaboration among the chairs of the House Science, Commerce and Ways and Means Committees and Senate Health and Finance Committees, according to a statement by Science and Technology Committee Chair Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn.
On January 20, 2009, President Obama's Chief of Staff issued a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies communicating President Obama's plan for managing the Federal regulatory process at the beginning of his Administration.