Announcing a new white spaces trial in Logan, Ohio
I’m in Logan, Ohio, today to announce that Spectrum Bridge, the Hocking Valley Community Hospital, and Google have teamed up to deploy a broadband network using the TV white spaces.
This is an exciting new deployment – the first of its kind for a hospital – demonstrating the potential of the TV white spaces to improve broadband and spark new applications in healthcare. First responder vehicles, hospital grounds as well as the health department are being equipped with high-speed wireless Internet access. Additionally, the hospital is using the network to manage its outdoor video surveillance system.
To prevent interference with other signals, the network is using Spectrum Bridge’s real-time TV white spaces database (to determine TV white spaces availability at any location, check out Spectrum Bridge’s free search tool.)
This deployment is operating on an experimental white spaces license granted by the FCC. Next Thursday, September 23, the Commission will be voting on final technical rules governing the white spaces – a vote that could pave the way for unlicensed white spaces deployments across the country.
We’re excited that the final rules are up for a vote, and can’t wait to see how entrepreneurs and innovators nationwide will use unlicensed white spaces to introduce cool new products and services.
Stay tuned to this blog for an update from this morning’s launch event.
Google D.C. Talks: 10 Things You Don't Know About Online Advertising
Updated with video from the event below.
Let's say you go to a documentary screening at the National Archives. After the screening your friend really wants gelato. You search for a place nearby on your phone. Along with your search results you see an ad for a gelato bar that, turns out, is only a block away. Your friend gets bourbon vanilla and you get pistachio. Everyone is happy. How did your phone know to serve you a gelato ad for a place around the corner instead of Georgetown? It's called geo-location advertising, and along with innovations like social advertising, interest-based advertising, and pay-per-click search ads, it's one of the biggest things in online advertising.The U.S. online advertising economy is now $25 billion a year. But this growing space is little understood in Washington. Why are advertisers shifting money from TV and print to the web? How are ad prices set? Do those banner ads really work? Is geo-location a threat or new way to get discounts from your favorite stores? Will the iPad and tablet devices hurt newspapers or lead to their rebirth?
As part of our ongoing Google D.C. Talks series, and in conjunction with DC AdWeek, we'll discuss these questions and more with the Interactive Advertising Bureau's leader Randall Rothenberg and industry experts in search, display, and social advertising. The discussion will cover the basics of online advertising as well as emerging trends and interesting uses.
Google D.C. Talks Presents
10 Things You Don't Know About Online Advertising
Monday, September 20th
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Google DC
1101 New York Avenue, NW
2nd Floor
Washington, DC 20005Please
Click here to RSVP.
Updated with video from the event:
Maximizing openness of broadband data
Earlier this year the FCC launched a wide-ranging Data Innovation Initiative to improve the ways it collects, analyzes, and disseminates information about the state of broadband in the United States. They’ve already made great strides, launching a Consumer Broadband Test and a Spectrum Dashboard.
In comments filed today, we offered some ideas on how the FCC can take these efforts to the next level.
Data innovation depends on open data. The more open and transparent the FCC makes its broadband measurement data, the easier it will be for third-parties to build on them – to analyze the information, layer it on top of maps, or create other user-friendly reports. Some of the most useful insights may come from network researchers engaging in deep analysis of raw data, as well as examining and comparing different data sets.
Open data also will drive better measurement over time. There’s a common saying among open source advocates: Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow. Providing open access to the raw data will help network researchers and others identify shortcomings and improve methodologies.
The Commission has made some good progress on this front. For example, last week the FCC released software to help others build on the results of its Consumer Broadband Test. This test uses the Network Diagnostic Tool that runs on Measurement Lab (M-Lab), an open platform for broadband measurement. All M-Lab test results – currently, over 100 terabytes of information – are made publicly available so that anyone can build on and learn from the data without restriction (data is currently available through Amazon Web Services, Google Big Query and Google Storage for Developers).
The FCC is now building on this effort through the TestMyISP project, a collaboration with SamKnows, to comprehensively measure U.S. broadband quality. The project intends to make use of M-Lab, and make the resulting data openly available.
As the FCC embarks on this and other measurement projects, maximizing openness and transparency will be absolutely essential.
Online censorship as a trade barrier?
Earlier this week U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Ron Kirk held a roundtable with a cross section of Silicon Valley companies to discuss trade challenges and opportunities faced by the U.S. tech sector.
One of the strongest themes? How online censorship functions as a trade barrier for U.S. technology companies abroad. Both Google and Facebook discussed the importance of strengthening laws and treaties to ensure the free flow of information online so that U.S. companies can compete on a level playing field abroad.
The event was hosted by the Global Innovation Forum, a project of the National Foreign Trade Council, and can be watched here.
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