New legislation?

It is common knowledge that, over the past ten years, the Internet has, for lack of a better word, exploded. The immediacy of the medium has made it a staple for people worldwide, and because of the available users, it has also become a new medium for advertisers, one that they are learning how to embrace and use more and more each day. Advertising has become such a presence that it is garnering attention for the lengths that advertisers will go to in order to obtain consumer data, which has sparked a huge controversy.
The core of the issue with online advertising and collection of consumer data comes down to an issue of privacy, something that is tied in very closely with the invasiveness of advertising. Because the Internet is ever changing, the ways in which ads are placed have changed as well, something that is new to consumers. Television has commercials and infomercials, print media has print ads, and radio has commercials, all of which can be avoided—you can turn the page or the channel to find one without an advertisement. Internet, however, does not provide this option. Websites, with few exceptions, all feature advertisements: Flyers, banner ads, pop-ups, surveys, and a host of other types of advertising make it virtually impossible to escape.
The current controversy with online advertising is the collection of consumer data. This issue has recently been brought to light by New York assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who is attempting to pass legislation that would make it a “crime for certain Web companies to use personal information about consumers for advertising without their consent.” The issue is proving problematic because, although it is gaining support, a law passed by the New York Assembly would apply only to residents of New York, and so laws would likely have to change nationwide to protect all U.S. citizens from having their data sold or used by online agencies for specific targeting. The issue has the potential to severely hurt the online advertising industry, but due to the lack of federal regulations for Internet enterprise, the direction that the case takes is still very much to be determined. The Internet giants have differing responses: Microsoft is supporting the potential regulation, although Yahoo is resisting regulation, as they technically own the online territory that they are using data from. The advertising industry is also against the regulations, as it could put an end to a lot of their online practices. Internet advertising currently focuses on the use of targeted advertising, and online advertising becomes a great deal less appealing to advertisers if they are incapable of reaching their most desirable audience, particularly when it is a luxury that is already being enjoyed. A decline in online advertising has the potential to dramatically change the Internet landscape once again.
Although I disagree with the selling of consumer information without the consumers’ knowledge, I think that the issue becomes one of consumer understanding and how much knowledge online users can be expected to possess, something that changes drastically with each person. I know that when I enter my information on a website, for instance, setting up an email account, that by clicking “Submit,” I am willingly giving my information to whichever company owns the website I am on. This knowledge is not, however, universal, as it is such a new technology still that many people, especially those who did not grow up with it, are having a very hard time adjusting and are at times not as well informed on the issue. I do not know how much control the government can manage to maintain over the internet, but I am certainly interested as to how the FTC might handle such an issue, and what this could mean for cyberspace in the next ten years.

References: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/technology/10privacy.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/business/media/20adco.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

More wireless competition?

In order to provide customers with the best possible networks, cellular giants like Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint focus on acquiring spectrum licenses to expand their network. A recent auction of almost 1,100 of these licenses that took place in Colorado has resulted in helping what may become a new national network: Frontier Wireless, a subset of EchoStar, which until recently also owned DISH Network, spent $711.8 million to acquire spectrum licenses in almost 200 cities nationwide, which puts them in the running to potentially enter into competition with the current front-runners. Because they owned DISH Network, I feel as though the company may have enough clout to really get some attention. I'll be waiting to hear what comes out of this, it could be interesting... I'm just sad they don't own DISH anymore, that could really have worked to their advantage.


Source:
http://mobile-voip.tmcnet.com/topics/mobile-communications/articles/23527-frontier-wireless-compete-with-att-verizon.htm

TextMarks

This past Saturday, I attended the Edelman Digital Bootcamp hosted by the PR Campaigns class. It was decidely a long day, but I definitely took a lot away from it, which I feel is also going to help with the project for Capstone. Not much was mentioned about communicating through mobile media, although at the end of the day, the topic was discussed briefly. I learned about a website called Text Marks, and it essentially deals with the idea of a cell phone list-serve, if you will. Text Marks owns the number "41411" and users go to them with a key buzz word-- for us, it could perhaps be "PPSA." So interested parties text "PPSA" to 41411 and whenever the user updates or comes up with a new message, everyone who has subscribed receives updates. Users only pay for the number of texts that are sent out, and subscribers only pay standard text messaging fees determined by their cell phone providers. The website is also tied to a shirt printing company, so that users see that they have an opportunity to spread the word even further by putting their information on shirts that people can wear around and therefore expose a greater number of people to the message and therefore hopefully increase the size of the list-serve. I think that this can be especially useful for our intentions in Capstone, especially DURING the event so that updates may be sent to the participants.
Hopefully this can be of some use; if not, it's really just an awesome idea!