Digital Discourse / Policy

Cloud Computing and Its Green Lining: Responses to James Glanz and the New York Times

October 17, 2012 By

Author James Glanz created a stir in September with his New York Times article, when he wrote that cloud computing and Big Data are actually big energy wasters. I have written about this controversy previously for the SIIA and have found that not to be the case. In fact, data centers are environmentally friendly for three reasons:

  1. Large data centers are more efficient than small and medium-sized data centers, so regardless of this looking negative at first blush, the electricity/unit of computing is less.
  2. Devices themselves are using less energy especially as  desk tops and laptops give way to tablets and smartphones,
  3. Cloud data centers can and will drive to renewable energy, as detailed in this report. Companies like Oracle, Adobe, and  IBM are devoting their considerable resources to sustainable computing practices, and this trend will only increase as they continue to work to make data centers more efficient and clean.

A number of voices have come out in support of cloud computing’s environmental benefits for these very reasons. The New York Times hosted quite a few on their Room for Debate page. Here is a short sampling.

Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President for Technical Infrastructure at Google, knows from personal experience how data centers work, operating Google’s servers, networks, and data centers. He writes on the New York Times website:

“Because of our obsession with efficiency, we’re able to help others be more efficient as well. Small and medium data centers use two-thirds of the total energy because it’s much harder to run them efficiently, so the trend of replacing on-premise servers with efficient cloud services will reduce the amount of energy used to run the same workload.”

Similarly, Jonathan Koomey, research fellow at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University refutes Mr. Glanz:

“Modern cloud-based data centers are much more efficient and have much higher utilization levels than standard data centers, giving them substantial economic and energy-related advantages. And the shift to mobile computing promises big efficiency gains for users as well. For example, laptop computers, which typically use a third to a fifth of the power of desktops, outsold desktops for the first time in 2009 (according to IDC data). Sales of tablets, which are even more efficient, are growing much faster than those for laptops.”

Gary Cook, the senior I.T. sector analyst for Greenpeace International’s Cool IT campaign,  also provides cautious optimism, writing:

Customers need companies to be more transparent about their energy choices so that they can understand the true environmental performance of their Internet and cloud use and make more informed choices. If given the information, people will choose a company that chooses clean energy. We can – and should – be able to feel good about our likes, tweets, photos and music, but it’s up to these companies to take the bold steps to make that possible.

Charles Babcock of Information Week summarizes the other side thusly:

“Everyone is doing a lot more computing, as the story notes. But as we do so, the amount of electricity consumed per unit of computing is going down, which the story somehow misses. Nowhere does the Times address this salient point. Instead, it concludes we are doing a lot more computing and, therefore, we are all guilty of driving environmental degradation. If you’re going to reform the world, you need to build a better soapbox than this.”

Tracy Carlin is a Communications and Public Policy Intern at SIIA. She is also a first year graduate student at Georgetown University’s Communication, Culture and Technology program where she focuses on intersections in education, video games and gender.

Share|
Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Cloud/Gov, Policy - Cloud Computing, Software

SIIA Testimony to NY Education Reform Commission Calls for School System Redesign to Personalize Learning through Technology

October 17, 2012 By

I had the opportunity yesterday to provide invited testimony to the “New NY Education Reform Commission” appointed by NY Governor Andrew Cuomo to study and make recommendations for the reform and improvement of the state’s education system. My submitted written testimony describes a comprehensive vision for redesigning education to pesonalize learning through technology, and then makes dozens of reccommendations around each of the Commission’s seven objectives.

My October 16 oral testimony is provided below and video archived (at 02:02:40):

On behalf of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) and our 500 high-tech companies, thank you for inviting me today. I am Mark Schneiderman, SIIA’s senior director of education policy.

SIIA agrees with the Commission that, “Future generations of students cannot compete unless we dramatically reform our education system.”

Our industrial-age education practices are largely unchanged over a century or more:
- Too many students are disengaged, not due to lack of technology, but from undifferentiated resources, rote one-to-many instruction, and lack of attention to 21st century skills.
- Time and place are constants, but learning is variable.

Instead, our education system must be fundamentally reengineered from a mass production, teaching model to a student-centered, personalized learning model to address the dramatic change in student daily lives, diversity and expectations.

The mandate is not for marginal change, but for: redesign to free learning from the physical limitations of time, place and paper; and instead customize instructional resources, strategies, and schedules to dynamically address each student’s unique abilities, interests and needs.

The redesign of education can take place without technology and digital learning, but not at scale.  Technology is a teaching force multiplier and a learning accelerator.

This doesn’t mean computers replace teachers, or that all learning takes place online.

It does mean that we use the technology:
1. to collect and analyze extensive student learning data to a degree not otherwise possible;
2. to provide a differentiation of interactive, multimedia teaching and learning resources and student creativity and collaboration tools not possible from one teacher, book or classroom; and
3. to free teacher time from rote and administrative activities to redirect to more value-added instruction.

The result is a more effective teacher, a more highly engaged and better performing learner, and a more productive system.

SIIA’s 2012 Vision K-20 Survey of 1,600 educators found that interest in digital learning is high at about 75%, but only about 25% rate actual technology access and use as high by their peers and institutions.

Here are 10 SIIA recommendations to the Commission and state:

1. Eliminate the Carnegie unit (credit for seat time) as the measure of learning and replace it with a competency-based model that provides credit, progression and graduation based upon demonstrated mastery and performance.

2. Eliminate fixed, agrarian-age definitions of the hours of the school day and the days of the school year and instead provide flexibility for 24/7/365 learning as needed for student mastery.

3. Ensure all teachers have access to a minimum slate of digital tools and supports provided to other professionals, including instructional technology coaches and virtual peer learning networks.

4. Ensure all educators have the skills needed to personalize learning and leverage technology, including by updating the curriculum of teachers colleges as well as teacher licensure and certification requirements.

5. Encourage and support a shift from print-only curriculum to instead provide students with anytime, everywhere access to interactive digital content and online learning.

6. Create a statewide online learning authority for approval and oversight of virtual learning providers to New York students and schools, and loosen arbitrary limits.

7. Invest to ensure equity of technology and digital learning access to change the education cost-curve and provide opportunity to learn, while providing increased local flexibility in the use of state grant funds to meet unique local needs.

8. Set minimum expectations for school/teacher electronic communication with parents and families and support home access to student performance data, assignments and curriculum.

9. Support more flexible higher education policies that end seat-time requirements, allow students to demonstrate prior learning and complete course modules that fit their learning gaps, and receive student aid for study toward skills certifications valued in the job market.

10. Finally, recognize the role of the private sector, which invests hundreds of millions of dollars each year to develop and deliver educational technologies and digital learning. Support public-private research partnerships, and reform the RFP process to enable the private sector to share their expertise, vision and innovative business models.

Our nation’s continued success will require that our educational system adopt modern methods and means to remain not effective and relevant in the 21st century.

On behalf of SIIA and our member high-tech companies, I look forward to working with the Commission to further identify and advance a reform plan for New York education.

Mark SchneidermanMark Schneiderman is Senior Director of Education Policy at SIIA.

Share|
Filed Under: Digital Policy Roundup, Ed Tech Government Forum, Education, Education Policies, Education Policy, Legislation, Personalized Learning, Policy, Postsecondary, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

FTC Announces Online Privacy Workshop on Consumer Data, U.S. Internet Governance Delegation Formed, Update on Proposed Net Traffic Proposal, and more

October 16, 2012 By

FTC Announces Online Privacy Workshop on Consumer Data

The Federal Trade Commission announced on Monday that it will host a workshop in December to explore the practices and privacy implications of comprehensive collection of data about consumers’ online activities. The Workshop follows up on the FTC’s March 2012 report, Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change, which called on companies handling consumer data to implement recommendations for protecting consumers’ privacy, including privacy by design, providing simplified privacy choices to consumers, and greater transparency to consumers about data collection and use. The FTC is encouraging consumer protection organizations, academics, business and industry representatives, privacy professionals, and other interested parties to attend, and has solicited input for specific topics and requests to participate in panels. SIIA will submit a request to participate in this workshop.

U.S. Internet Governance Delegation Formed, Update on Proposed Net Traffic Proposal

The U.S. has fully formed its delegation to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), consisting of 100 members from government, industry and civilians, with representatives from the Defense and Commerce departments, the FCC, FTC and NTIA, he said. Industry representatives come from both the telecom and Internet industries. Mark MacCarthy, Vice President of Public Policy at SIIA and adjunct professor in Georgetown University’s Communication, Culture and Technology Program, has been named to serve as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the WCIT.

Other recent announcements from WCIT Ambassador Kramer include an update that the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO) is likely to withdraw its controversial Internet traffic compensation proposal, but is now considering another proposed revision to the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) that would, among other things, establish a “sender-party-pays” model for Internet traffic compensation that could require the sender of any Internet content to pay for its transmission.

Publishers, Google Settle Book Dispute

On October 4th, several book publishers (McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin Group, John Wiley & Sons, and Simon & Schuster) and Google announced that they had settled their seven-year dispute over copyright infringement issues relating to Google’s book search program. While the announcement says that Google “acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright-holders,” it is silent as to the terms of the settlement, and more specifically Google’s views on whether unauthorized scanning and indexing of works constitutes fair use. The announcement did state that, under the settlement, a publisher may opt to have Google remove its works from the Google Book Search database and those publishers that choose to keep their works in the database may request copies of electronic versions of their works from Google. It is unclear if there was any payment made by either party as the terms of the agreement are confidential, and because the deal is a private settlement, there will be no public settlement document. The announcement also said that the settlement need not be approved by the court. Although the publishers have now settled, the Authors Guild has continued their suit against Google as a class action suit.

Senate Leader Confirms Cyber Will Again Come up in Nov.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) confirmed over the weekend [ http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/261891-reid-vows-fresh-bid-to-pass-stalled-cybersecurity-bill ] that the Senate will again consider cybersecurity legislation (The Cybersecurity Act, S. 3414) when it returns for its “lame duck” session in November. The legislation failed to garner the necessary 60 votes to advance in August, but supporters appear optimistic that the less politicized environment and looming threat of the Administration’s executive order on cybersecurity will help garner additional support from Republicans. Of course, any speculations about the outcome of that process should be held until after the elections, as changes in administration or congressional leadership in either body could have a significant effect on the lame duck strategy.

SIIA Federal Cloud Survey Goes Live

Last week SIIA’s Public Sector Innovation Group launched its inaugural Federal Cloud Survey, seeking to aggregate data on the federal government’s progress in adopting cloud computing, mobile technologies, and data center consolidation. Federal government IT professionals are encouraged to have their voice heard by responding to the survey, which can be found here. The findings of the survey will be published as part of SIIA’s Cloud/Gov Conference in Washington, DC on February 12, 2013. Learn more about Cloud/Gov here.

For SIIA policy updates including upcoming events, news and analysis, subscribe to SIIA’s weekly policy email newsletter, Digital Policy Roundup.

David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy.

Share|
Filed Under: Cloud/Gov, Digital Policy Roundup, Government, Policy, Software, Software Events

Supreme Court to Review Data Access, White House Still Moving towards Cyber EO, and NTIA Mobile Privacy Meeting Next Week

October 10, 2012 By

Supreme Court to Review Access to State Data
At a time when there are overwhelming reports citing the opportunities of data to revolutionize how we do business, communicate and live our lives, there is a major battle taking place in the courts regarding access to state public records information. As surprising as it may seem, the case of McBurney v. Young promises to determine whether a state may preclude citizens of other states from accessing public records that the state affords its own citizens. Last Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal of the case. In August, SIIA joined with a Coalition of companies and association in filing a brief urging that a state’s restriction of access to public data is violation of Constitution’s commerce clause and would have a chilling effect on the flow of critical public records data and the innovation that can be derived from them. Read more on SIIA’s Digital Discourse Blog.

White House Reportedly Moving Forward with Cyber EO
In a meeting with key Senate Committee staff last Friday, Administration officials discussed the potential for moving forward with a cybersecurity executive order (EO) to establish standards or guidelines for critical infrastructure providers. As previously reported, the most likely approach is to require regulatory agencies, such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to actively help develop standards, possibly making them mandatory in cases where regulation is authorized.

While continuing to stress that an EO would not alleviate the need for comprehensive privacy legislation, the meeting provided an opportunity for the Administration to begin seeking input from Congress and the private sector. Senate proponents of cybersecurity legislation, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and others have signaled support for this approach, while also reiterating that it doesn’t alleviate the need for legislation. While the timing and details are clearly still under consideration, it seems more a matter of “when and how” the Administration will proceed with an EO, rather than “if” they will do so.

NTIA to Convene Fourth Mobile Privacy Meeting Next Week
Several months into the ongoing multistakeholder discussions to develop a code of conduct for mobile transparency, NTIA has kept true to its commitment to be a hands-off convener, steering clear of substantive engagement in the process. Since a declaration in late August that the third meeting would mark a “turn to substance,” there have been a series of briefings that looked at the issue from a high level, and fell short of substantive discussion many engaged stakeholders have been seeking. However, the biggest shift to substance so far came in the form of a discussion draft for a mobile app transparency code of conduct circulated by Venable LLP at one of the September briefings. So while the discussions on substance have yet to take place, there’s still hope that the long awaited “shift to substance” will take place at the meeting next week.

For SIIA policy updates including upcoming events, news and analysis, subscribe to SIIA’s weekly policy email newsletter, Digital Policy Roundup.

David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy.

Share|
Filed Under: Digital Policy Roundup

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Key Case on Access to State Data

October 9, 2012 By

At a time when there are overwhelming reports citing the opportunities of data to revolutionize how we do business, communicate and live our lives, there is a major battle taking place in the courts regarding access to state public records information.  As surprising as it may seem, the case of McBurney v. Young promises to determine whether a state may preclude citizens of other states from accessing public records that the state affords its own citizens.  Last Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal of the case.  In August, SIIA joined with a Coalition of companies and association in filing a brief urging that a state’s restriction of access to public data is violation of Constitution’s commerce clause and would have a chilling effect on the flow of critical public records data and the innovation that can be derived from them.

Of course, this isn’t a new issue.  For years SIIA and other advocates of access to public records data have been vigilant in combatting state laws and policies that preclude access to public data.  What is surprising is that this case comes now, at a time when there is broad recognition of the opportunities provided by “big data.”  Just last month, the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) released a report citing the opportunity for states in data analytics:

State government may be described as an enormous data generation engine. And the sky is the limit in terms future data generation based on the growth in mobile applications, sensors, cloud services and the growing public-private partnerships that must be monitored for performance and service levels. The challenge is that many state government agencies are still being run as islands of information versus members of a single state government enterprise. The result is state government is not fully exploiting the data it has at hand.

And the report goes on to say that:

Enterprise architecture becomes even more important as the organizational structure of government encompasses more public-private partnering.

So at a time when states should be capitalizing on the benefits of the data they collect, Virginia and other states are living in the past, trying to hold their data close and restrict access for no good reason.  Lets hope the Supreme Court gets this one right, or the roadmap could be set for states to keep driving around in the dark.

David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy.

Share|
Filed Under: Content, Policy Tagged With: ,

Testing College and Career Readiness

October 9, 2012 By

Addressing the high levels of remedial coursework in higher education and better preparing students for college are important national challenges as the United States works to improve its educational and economic standing. Both are high on the agenda of PARCC (Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) and SBAC (SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium), the two assessment options for the Common Core State Standards implementation.

On a recent Alliance for Excellent Education  webinar, SBAC and PARCC leaders provided a good overview of their tasks, deliverables and timelines. Both will pilot their computer-based assessments in the 2013-2014 school year and fully implement in 2014-2015.

SBAC and PARCC are focused on the challenge of testing college and career readiness as defined by CCSS.  SBAC’s goal is to have their high school assessment qualify students for entry level, credit bearing coursework in college or university.  SBAC is working in collaboration with 175 public and 13 private higher education systems to ensure their assessments meet the rigor required by these institutions.

PARCC has established a 5 point assessment scoring scale to address college and career readiness. Students who score a level 4 or 5 will be exempt from college placement tests and will be able to immediately begin credit bearing coursework. A detailed description of the 5 levels can be found on slide 8 of the PARCC presentation.

SBAC and PARC leaders and states acknowledge that collaboration with Higher Education is key in developing accurate and constructive examinations for the common core curriculum, and securing their buy in for placement.

SBAC is releasing new samples on October 9th that give a better idea of the upcoming assessments.  To learn more about the samples and the implications for curriculum publishers and technology developers, SIIA members are encourage to attend SIIA’s October 11 webinar  that will help companies prepare for the assessment future.

 

Lindsay HarmanLindsay Harman is Market and Policy Analyst for the SIIA Education Division.

Share|
Filed Under: Education, Education Policies, Education Policy, Policy, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

This Week in IP Enforcement

October 3, 2012 By

SIIA Calls for More Trademark and Copyright Protections for New Domain Names
In comments filed with ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) last week, SIIA called for more intellectual property (IP) safeguards before any new generic top level domain (gTLD) applications are approved. Under the new program, trademark and copyright owners will be forced to expend significant resources and time to protect their intellectual property on thousands of new domains. Specifically, SIIA continues to stress the need for registries (the gTLD applicants) that are approved by ICANN put in place greater safeguards to protect against piracy and counterfeiting — this is especially true for domain names that are targeted toward software and information products and brands. Establishment of a clear process for complaints and systems for ensuring that domain information is accurate and publically available are the minimum levels of protection that rights holders deserve under this new program. Read more on SIIA’s Digital Discourse Blog.

SIIA Continues on China’s Trade Practices at Issue at USTR
Last week, USITO filed comments with the United States Information Technology Office (USITO) in China, in the annual review of China’s compliance with its accession commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO). As a follow-up, SIIA Public Policy VP Mark MacCarthy will be testifying on behalf of SIIA and USITO at the USTR’s hearing on these issues on October 3rd, focusing on the issues of intellectual property enforcement, utility model patents, services invention remuneration and Internet regulation. His oral testimony is here.

IP News

Holder Announces Grant Winners in Effort to Prosecute Intellectual Property Theft (The Baltimore Sun)
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced $2.4 million in grants to 13 jurisdictions that are helping to fight intellectual property theft.

Japanese Music Pirates Face Jail, Big Fines (paidContent)
In contrast with the emerging approach in other countries, new laws in Japan make uploading and downloading illegal content a criminal rather than civil offense, punishable by large fines and up to two years in prison.

Google’s Motorola Drops ITC Patent Infringement Complaint Against Apple (International Business Times)
Google’s Motorola unit suddenly and unexpectedly withdrew a complaint it recently filed with the ITC against Apple, asking the ITC to ban U.S. imports of all current and recent iPhone, iPad and Mac Computer models.

MPAA Chief Says SOPA, PIPA ‘Are Dead,’ But ISP Warning Scheme Lives On (Wired)
Former Sen. Christopher Dodd, now chairman of the MPAA, said SOPA and PIPA are not going to be floated again in Congress, but the nation’s major internet service providers are cooperating to implement mitigation measures to fight piracy.

Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.

Share|
Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Policy - Intellectual Property
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »