Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Addressing the Digital Divide

The City of Madison is continuing to work diligently to address the digital divide and ensure that all Madison residents have access to either free or low-cost high-speed internet.  As technology develops and becomes increasingly innovative, the need to ensure that all youth have access to internet service to complete assignments, research topics of interest, apply to post-secondary education, and develop technological skills that can be put to use in future jobs and careers increases. I am confident that the City of Madison will continue to provide network connections at neighborhood and community centers, libraries, schools, and eventually, cultural centers. While these services are essential, there is still work to be done to ensure that all residents live, work, and play in an equitable Madison community.

Why the Comcast-NBCU Merger Matters

Susan Crawford's blog has the reasons:

AT&T/TCI, 1999, SBC/Ameritech, 1999, Bell Atlantic/GTE, 1999, AT&T/MediaOne, 2000, AT&T/Comcast, 2002, Sprint/Nextel, 2005, SBC/AT&T, 2005, Adelphia, 2006, AT&T/BellSouth, 2007

And now, Comcast/NBCU.

Three thoughts prompted by that list.  First, there’s been enormous consolidation in the market for high-speed Internet access services.  All those mergers.  The most recent figures from the FCC, released in February of this year, show that when it comes to local access at or above 3 Mbps most Americans have a choice of at most two providers - a duopoly.

What’s really interesting, though, is the second thing the list should make you think about.  When it comes to access at higher than 6 Mbps speeds, cable is clearly in charge.  Over 96% of that market is cable’s - and the big players don’t compete with one another.  Those are the speeds you need to watch video.

And that’s why the relative size of the merger isn’t all that relevant.  What’s relevant is the market power that Comcast has in particular regions to provide what is rapidly becoming a single fast pipe to the home.  Over that pipe, the cable industry’s view is that Internet access can take up a few channels but that the rest of the pipe belongs to them.  And they have every interest in ensuring that alternative video marketplaces online don’t take off.

...No one has ever seen a lobbying campaign to equal this one.  That’s the third thought prompted by the picture:  those other guys were pikers compared to Comcast.

It looks like Comcast-NBCU is a done deal. Too bad.

- Barry Orton

Debating Telecom Deregulation on Wisconsin Public TV

Friday, Wisconsin Public Television taped an eight-minute segment on SB 469, the telephone deregulation bill discussed at length on Waxing America last week.  Senator Jeff Plale, the lead co-sponsor, was on by landline phone from his South Milwaukee kitchen and I was in the Madison studio. It aired Friday night on the "Here and Now" program.

The segment is here.  My response to the familiar "level the playing field" argument was to state that the bill would "fire the referees." The protection of the competition that is available in the Milwaukee and Madison suburbs doesn't exist in many rural areas of Wisconsin, and doesn't extend to the elderly who will never use cell phones.  I asserted that rather than leave all phone services to marketplace discipline, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission should petition the FCC for jurisdiction over wireless services, which generate many complaints that the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection is unable to address for lack of technical expertise.  Needless to say, Senator Plale did not agree.

This issue will not go away soon.

- Barry Orton

Yahoo Provides Links to Olympic Rubbish

I still use Yahoo. Well, I did.

While I switched search engines long ago, I use the internet service as my homepage because I like the access to sports, business news, and my email accounts.

Not any more. Several months ago I noticed the flamboyant and exaggerated headlines 'above the fold' usually accompanied by pictures. The link usually was to the silliest and least important news of the day.

Exaggeration and hyperbole are the words that come to mind.

Saturday and Sunday Yahoo went over the top. Here are a collection of a few of the rotating stores Yahoo provided regarding the Olympics. Often the subject mentioned was the topic of just one paragraph in a much longer, but still irrelevant story. Notice that three of them involve security issues and have nothing to do with athletic achievement.

Bye Yahoo.

 Tense moment after first US gold  -her father, Tom, who couldn’t wait to celebrate with her. Doing so proved treacherous. As he bounded the gate, a security guard tackled him, unaware who he was.

Skier's husband detained -Hormell went to Cypress to watch his wife train for moguls and was turned away at a security checkpoint for not having proper credentials. He then snuck around security and into the venue so he could see the training. Shortly thereafter was found and detained by security for over an hour.

Serious threats made against Johnny Weir Though there are no indications that any of the verbal and written threats from extremists were credible, Weir's decision to stay in the more secure village was an obvious choice. 

On Air gaffe confuses Canadians    Terry Fox is a Canadian legend whose cross-Canada run, the Marathon of Hope, inspired Canadians while raising money for cancer research. Michael J. Fox is a Canadian actor who starred in the legendary "Back to the Future" trilogy and has become an advocate for Parkinson's disease research. They're pretty easy to confuse for each other. Right, NBC?

Olympian defends swimsuit photos   U.S. Olympians Hannah Teter and Lindsey Vonn...they train like madwomen to be the best in snowboarding and skiing respectively. A nice byproduct of that training is that they have gorgeous, athletic bodies, and both women are comfortable showing off those bodies.

Road Rage Reducer Brings Civility To Traffic Jams

The Sorry Thanks Road Rage Reduction Project is pure genius.

 

(Hat tip: Quomodocumque)

- Barry Orton

Twitter This

I am holding out and not signing up for Twitter. Enough is enough.

I started onto this entire Internet adventure in the early 1990's when I bought my first PC and signed up for CompuServe.  CompuServe was invaluable when traveling in the early 1990's, since it had the best dial-up network throughout the country. Far superior to AOL, which I never joined.

I moved on to various applications such as Yahoo, which I still launch on startup, Netscape, and Google- my favorite search engine.

I migrated from Microsoft Explorer to Firefox.

I have five yahoo emails, one hotmail, but no gmail. I have this blog, and my own domain and email for Soglin Consulting.

When social networking caught on I first used CompuServe's system and then looked at Yahoo's Profile and IM.

Enough was enough when it came to social networking.

While I ignored MySpace, I did explore youtube when my daughters' acting was recorded and posted. I was late to join Facebook and having just gotten the hang of it, joined Linkedin last week, after pestering from numerous friends.

In reviewing my evolution, I love Facebook for bringing me in touch with friends I had not spoken with in over forty years, and for knowing what they are doing now. I do appreciate the posts about the vacations, the pictures of the children and grandchildren, and the social, cultural, and political commentary.

The blog, the business website, and the one week of Linkdin did not bring a single business opportunity.

Now I see everyone is Twittering.

Well, Twitter Tweet this. No.

CNBC's Power Lunch: Chucke E. Cheese's Meets the Lunch Bunch

The economic crisis of the last few days led me to CNBC's noon hour market report discussion Power Lunch. Two people claiming to be Bill Griffeth and Sue Herea lead a lunch time discussion with five or six boisterous and obnoxious playmates.

They are rude, they interrupt one another and all they are missing are the pizza's, runny noses, music blaring at Chuck E. Cheese's and the frazzled staff from your child's day care center trying to maintain order during lunch bunch.*

Ignoring the sound advice of Sam Brown, "Never offend with style, when you can offend with substance," this crew manages to do both, very effectively.

The blather is so fast and furious there is not much time to digest their economic or political droolings, let alone make corrections, which is required in most instances.

*That thirty minute period when the kids in day care dine on jelly sandwiches and sliced carrots.

Madison Storm February 17, 2008. Blogging Unless the Power Goes

The storm moved in after midnight. It started with rain.

7:00 am No Sunday newspaper. We have great people doing the delivery but even they know not to venture out in this mess.  The street is covered with ice. I doubt we will get the cars unlocked today-they too are covered with ice. All the utility lines and tree limbs are sagging under the weight of the water and ice.

8:00 am Showered and then rinsed the bathtub and filled it with water. If the water pumping stations loses power we will have enough H2O for the dogs and cats; I plan to drink Crystal Light.

8:45 am A tree limb went down and with it the telephone line. We still have service.  The anchor in the house came out and the line is laying across the line.

8:47 am The rain turned to snow.

8:50 am Boris is out there in the snow and rain having a grand time. He is trying to carry the six foot limb that broke of the birch tree.

9:00 am Called the AT&T. The representative answered in three minutes and told me that crews would be out by Tuesday. I told her her "Tuesday if we were lucky." She smiled through the phone line and thanked me for being understanding. She said I could pick up the limb and that it was all right if I wanted to get the downed line out of the snow. I am thankful i did not get someone in the Philippines.

9:05 am It is back to rain.

9:10 am I am dressed for when hell freezes over and headed out the back door.

• Removed the downed limb.
• Put the step ladder in the yard and laid the line over it. Hooked the end of the line to the fence. Now the line is four feet off the ground.
• Moved fire wood close to the back door in case we need it later.
• The dogs want to play. Threw the ball and Frisbee for ten minutes to Boris and Roxy. Sara opened the door and told me that I was an idiot. The dogs are having a grand time. I am wet.
• Knocked icicles form the edge of the roof. I know better than to try to remove ice from tree limbs - it only breaks them.

9:35 am It appears the precipitation has stopped or slowed to a drizzle. I am going to go check the flashlights and get out some fresh batteries. Boris is still ruling over the backyard.

11:15 am It can't decide what to do. It could be a drizzle, it could be sleet, I know it isn't snow or sunshine. The dogs are having a grand time. But I have a feeling that the weight of the weather on the branches is going to start taking a toll soon.

11:45 am Another small branch, about six feet long, 3 inches in diameter, separated from a birch tree.

11:59 am Definitely a mixture of sleet and snow.

12:06 pm Definitely snow. A good day to read. Along with the campaign to expose WMC, I meant to read Judicial Elections: Robe Warriors by Zach Patton in the March, 2006 issue of Governing Magazine. Join me (this merits its own post later in the week; thanks to Jim Rosenberg @ Random Thoughts for the reminder):

The real power player on the business side is the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, which has dedicated millions of dollars in recent elections
to reshaping the state-level judiciary with business-friendly judges.
The chamber, which represents the interests of more than 3 million
businesses across the country, has reportedly spent $120 million in
just the past four years, most of it through the Institute for Legal
Reform, a tax-free affiliate. All that spending is paying off: In
2004, the chamber won every single contest in which it was involved.
Those triumphs all but guaranteed that spending by groups on both
sides of the tort overhaul debate would continue to rise. "We're going
to see more of the same for 2006, if not worse," Weiss predicts.
One reason judicial campaigns are costing so much is that they're
being waged more and more on the television screen. From 2000 to 2004,
the number of states that saw judicial TV ads quadrupled to 16,
meaning there were ads in four out of every five states in which
candidates ran head to head. Spending on TV ads in 2004 totaled $24.4
million, obliterating the previous record of $10.6 million set in
2000.

2:00 pm  No cars on our street since 9:35 am. No bicycles either. Oops.

The snow is piling up and I have no clue as to whether switching from rain to snow is better.  I think it is. Rain would have formed more ice increasing the likelihood of bringing down more trees and power lines. I think.

According to DANE 101 the Hillary Clinton event is canceled.  They think.

Sara is watching something about Yellowstone on the History Channel. Natasha is with us and will probably not go back to her dorm tonight. Alex came in from Milwaukee Friday to join Natasha in auditioning for an extra role in the Johnny Depp Dillinger film. She went back to Milwaukee last night to beat the storm.  Good move.

We have enough Crystal Light to get through Tuesday. I love the raspberry.

I have an appointment at the Labor Temple at 1:00 tomorrow followed by another across the street at Coffee Cargo. I plan to make both of them.

3:00 pm First phone call of the day since 9:00 am. It is from Hillary Clinton. At least it sounded like her.

4:00 pm Another phone call. Hillary again.

4:05 pm Another phone call. Natasha's roommate is ill and stranded in the dorm. Sara and Natasha go out and spend 15 minutes scraping the ice from the car.

5:00 pm Sara and Natasha are back from picking up the prescription and dropping it off. Sara says the roads are better where there is no plowing. The car gets traction in the snow. No snow, and it is ice. Another phone call. It is Hillary Clinton.

6:00 pm  Dinner. Sara, not too subtlety suggests that maybe I overreacted and the danger from the storm was not all that great. Sara and Natasha have been drinking the Crystal Light.  There is only enough to get us through Monday.

10:00 pm  Power is out to the west of us. I am vindicated.

Call Centers, Speaking English, Knowing More Than Me

I just had another experience with an agent at a call center.

This was different than many of my recent tormented calls to call centers involving airlines and financial service institutions.

I called Northwest Airlines about a problem involving frequent flyer miles not properly credited. It took about two minutes.

• I logged in the ID number and the pin. I was stunned when the agent came on line and we went right to work to solve the problem. I was not asked to repeat everything or provide my mother's maiden name and the birth date of my oldest child.
• The agent spoke English - fluently and clearly. This is not a requirement. But in too many instances I cannot understand the person who is suppose to help me.
• The agent understood the problem and knew more about the subject than I do.
• A synopsis of recent experiences:
  • Fidelity Investments: You always get someone who is knowledgeable and takes care of the issues. Solid
  • Dell Computer: A mixed bag. When they are bad, they are horrible; some issues take, not just hours, but days to resolve. If you are not under warranty, you might as well throw the equipment out; your time is more valuable than waiting for a person who can help you in one of the worst telephone prompt systems on the planet. You always have to go back to 'GO,' the disconnects are horrid.
  • American Airlines: The agents are just fine, but their internal communication system using both email and telephone sucks. When the agent cannot get the correct person at AA, you lose.
  • United Airlines: Horrible is the kindest word I can use for the agents assigned to handle ordinary people. They are difficult to understand, they know less than most travelers, and the time wasted is monstrous. Tip: The last time this happened I cheated. I called the number reserved for elite travelers, begged for help, the agent solved it in less than five minutes. I had wasted over an hour and half with two people in the call center in the Philippines.
  • Northwest Airlines: Frankly I do not like the reputation of this airline for the way it treats its employees but these agents are, overall, the best in their business.
  • Washington Mutual: I like these folks a lot. The fees are high but you get appropriate service.
  • M&I Bank: I may be miffed with my bank's role with WMC, but when it comes to service they are top notch whether it is a problem with a misplaced check, a check card, or a credit card.
  • ATT: Not bad. I dislike what they did on the Wisconsin cable bill, but overall their prompt system and their agents work well.
  • Charter Communication: I have not had the problems many of my friends mention but I hate their prompt system. When my Internet service goes out I know how to reboot the computer and the modem. I would like to get past those prompts and get right to the agent.
  • Any company that does not have a call center and expects you to send in an email to which they might respond in a week: screw you.

Secret tip of the week: (maybe not so secret): when you are tortured by the endless prompt system, many of those systems can be defeated by simply repeating the word "agent.'

The Capital Times Leads Wisconsin Journalism into 21st Century

Like most people, I was taken by surprise when The Capital Times announced that it was discontinuing publication of a daily newspaper and entering a new world - a world of on-line journalism and a two-day-a-week newspaper.

The surprise was that not in the demise of the daily newspaper. The surprise was the publishers and editors realizing that the future was on the Internet.

The die was cast a half a century ago when The Capital Times and the Wisconsin State Journal entered into a joint operating agreement to use the same press. In what appeared to be a stroke of good fortune and insight, The Capital Times won the right to publish in the afternoon.  The State Journal was 'stuck' with the morning.

In successive years, city after city, the newspapers folded. First the afternoon papers went under. Then cities with four dailies found themselves with one morning paper as television reduced the demand for competing newspapers.

For the past forty years Madison's afternoon newspaper was fighting a losing battle. Under the circumstances, it is amazing they hung in this long.

Then came the Internet.  There is an entire generation that has never read a newspaper but maybe a dozen times in their lives. But they get their news. They get it from the Internet and  television, which accelerated the demise of the dailies and is also feeling the impact.

This is a marvelous opportunity for Madison and The Capital Times. In the tradition of The Capital Times and the Progressive Magazine, there is an opportunity to not only present local news but also a continuous stream of analysis of critical state and national issues in a most timely manner.

Go for it.