Tech Policy Summit blog

TPS '08 Follow-up: PolyFuel Readies Prototype

If you attended Tech Policy Summit '08 in Hollywood earlier this year, hopefully you had a chance to hear PolyFuel CEO Jim Balcom discuss his company's portable fuel cell membrane technology. We invited Mr. Balcom to participate in the program because of his firsthand experience as an entrepreneur working with the federal government to advance innovation in an emerging market -- in this case the quest for better alternative energy sources.

As he recounted during his Tech Policy Summit talk, PolyFuel had sought assistance from the Department of Energy in order to fund his startup's R&D work on a prototype of a fuel-cell-based laptop power module. Despite the red tape and challenges associated with such funding, he made a compelling case for why federal funding is sometimes necessary to advance certain technologies.

So we were excited to learn today that PolyFuel has developed a functioning prototype laptop that it plans to demonstrate to manufacturers in the next several weeks. According to News.com, the prototype relies on a direct methanol fuel cell to convert methanol to electricity in order to power the computer without relying on lithium-ion batteries.

For more info, check out News.com. You can also listen to a complete podcast of Mr. Balcom's talk at Tech Policy Summit in the Media Vault.

Sciencedebate's 14 Questions on Innovation

Sciencedebate 2008 hasn't been able to convince Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) to face-off in a debate on science and technology policy. Yet. 

But we're happy to report that the grassroots movement is continuing its effort to highlight the importance of science and tech issues by launching Innovation 2008, a series of 14 questions that it has submitted to the presidential contenders. Sciencedebate organizers have asked the campaigns to respond in writing, and to consider participating in a nationally televised program about the issues.

The questions were developed in consultation with 11 other groups after receiving more than 3,300 submissions from individual supporters. Here's a look at the first one, about innovation:

Science and technology have been responsible for half of the growth of the American economy since WWII. But several recent reports question America's continued leadership in these vital areas. What policies will you support to ensure that America remains the world leader in innovation?

A number of nonprofits have also banded together to pose a shortened list of seven questions to all of the 2008 congressional candidates. To see if candidates in your area have responded, search this interactive database hosted by Scientists and Engineers for America (SEA). And, if you support Sciencedebate 2008's mission, please spread the word.

Global IT Rankings Out: Denmark Keeps Top Spot

The World Economic Forum (WEF) and INSEAD have released the results of the 2007-2008 Global Information Technology Report, its seventh annual Networked Readiness Index (NRI).

This year's report compared the IT capabilities of 127 economies around the world across 68 different variables, with Denmark and Sweden retaining the No. 1 and No. 2 spots for a second consecutive year. The United States, for its part, moved up a few notches to rank fourth overall, and Korea broke into the top ten.

Here's a quick look at this year's top 10; you can compare that to last year's list.

2007-2008 NRI

1. Denmark                                          
2. Sweden                                          
3. Switzerland 
4. United States
5. Singapore
6. Finland
7. Netherlands
8. Iceland
9. Korea
10. Norway

For more info, check out the video interview with WEF senior economist Irene Mia in the Media Vault. You can also read excerpts from the report on INSEAD's site, and Ars Technica's Nate Anderson has this analysis (others are far more skeptical).

As you may remember, we had planned to unveil the report at Tech Policy Summit on March 26th, but the WEF delayed the release date.

Tech Policy Summit '08 Podcasts Available

We're happy to report that the podcasts from the 2008 Tech Policy Summit, which took place at the Renaissance hotel in Hollywood last month, are now available for your listening pleasure. You can find audio of all 24 sessions in the Media Vault, along with photos from our conference photographer Terry.

They're posted in chronological order, so be sure to click through to the second page for more podcasts, including the March 27th keynote by FCC commissioner Robert McDowell and the one-on-one interviews with craigslist founder Craig Newmark and BitTorrent president Ashwin Navin.

Even if you were at this year's Summit, you'll find something new in the podcasts since there were six concurrent breakout sessions on the opening afternoon that are definitely worth checking out. 

Those topics include:

• Using Social Media as a Policy Tool
• The Role of Privacy and Trust in the Innovation Economy
• Building a More Effective Public Policy Organization
• Copyright in a Converged World
• Maintaining a Competitive Edge: [How] Can the U.S. Tech Workforce Stay on Top in a Flat World?
• The Future of Wide-Area Public Broadband

Enjoy!

Bill Gates' Visit to Capitol Hill

During his testimony yesterday before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science and Technology, which celebrated its 50th anniversary, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates told lawmakers that America is "at a crossroads" and that it risks losing its competitive edge if leaders from the public and private sectors don't do a better job of working together to support education, research and workforce initiatives.

In particular, he echoed his concerns about a shortage of qualifed workers and urged Congress to increase the cap on H-1B visas so that more U.S. firms can hire foreign-born workers (the government will start accepting applications for 2009 on April 1st). He also emphasized the need to improve the educational system along with immigration policy, to expand the pool of talented scientists and engineers.

You can watch video of his remarks in the Media Vault.

Dueling Press Releases

The rift between the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Wireless Innovation Alliance (WIA) over use of the so-called white spaces was all too apparent yesterday when the organizations issued conflicting accounts of recent FCC prototype testing.

The two groups have been at odds over WIA's desire to deliver wireless broadband via unused portions of television spectrum. NAB has insisted that using the white spaces would interfere with existing services offered by broadcasters, an assertion that WIA has repeatedly refuted.

NAB fired the first shot in this latest battle when it issued a news release stating that a prototype developed by Microsoft had failed FCC testing when the device lost power. The release quoted an NAB exec as saying, "By failing two out of two tests at the FCC, Microsoft and the Wireless Innovation Alliance have demonstrated that unlicensed devices are not ready for prime time."

WIA shot back with its own release that accused the NAB of using "scare tactics" and said, "to be clear, the Microsoft device successfully tested both digital TV signals and wireless microphones." The WIA characterized the power failure as an unrelated issue and stated that it "expects a successful conclusion of the testing process."

You can learn more about the FCC's ongoing testing here.

CCIA's Scorecard Rates Congress

How did the U.S. Congress treat tech in 2007?

According to the Computer and Communications Industry Association's (CCIA) recently released High Tech Scorecard, while technology policy fared better in the first session of the 110th Congress than it did in the last session of the 109th Congress, the 2007 session's accomplishments were "modest."

The scorecard ranks legislators in the Senate and the House of Representatives according to how they voted on a variety of tech policy issues that are deemed as core by CCIA. The Senate scores were based on how each Senator voted on seven bills, including the America Competes Act and the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement. The House, which had more floor votes in general, was rated according to how representatives voted on 14 different pieces of legislation, including the Free Flow of Information Act and the Patent Reform Act.

CCIA gave three senators scores of 100%: Sens. Maria Cantell (D-WA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR). In the House, a total of 54 members, including 14 from California, received scores of 100%. Among the presidential candidates still in the running, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) received a score of 86%, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) a score of 79%, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) a score of 64% and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) a score of 39%.

For more info, you can download CCIA's PDF of the results. Plus, visit our Tech Policy Central site for more tech policy news and updates.

FCC Commissioner McDowell at Tech Policy Summit; Auction Update

We were just about to announce that Commissioner Robert McDowell of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be participating in the Tech Policy Summit conference this March when we heard the latest news regarding the 700 MHz spectrum auction. So consider this a two-for-one announcement.

A week after the FCC opened its auction, the $4.6 billion reserve price for the coveted C block has been met. Though we'll have to wait and see who wins the national license when all is said and done, the winner will now need to comply with the Commission's open access conditions.

As you may remember, Commissioner McDowell was the sole dissenter when the FCC approved those rules last summer. In a statement he released at the time, he explained his dissent in part as follows: "While we can agree on the destination -- consumers should be able to enjoy device and application portability if they want -- we may respectfully disagree about the best path to get there."

The reserve prices have also been met for other sections of spectrum including the A Block and B Block, leaving the D block that had been set aside for a public safety network as the only license that's lagging well below its reserve price. The FCC has set the reserve price for the D block at $1.3 billion, but the top bid thus far has been $472 million.

In total, The FCC has already received bids worth over $12.7 billion, which puts it well within the $10 billion to $15 billion range the government had been hoping for.

Given the numerous issues before the FCC, and their importance to technology innovation and adoption, we look forward to Commissioner's McDowell's involvement in Tech Policy Summit. Click here to learn more about him and the other speakers joining us March 26-March 28 at the 2008 Summit, and sign up online to be there in person.

Davos Leaders Discuss Wireless Future

"When people say content is king, it's not true anymore. Customer is king."

That quote from Sony CEO Howard Stringer is one of key takeaways from a high-powered Davos panel on the "Future of Mobile Technology" that featured Stringer, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Kevin Martin, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, SK Telecom CEO Kim Shin-Bae, China Mobile Communications CEO Wang Jianzhou and NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker.

We've posted video of the hour-long session in the Media Vault, and it's worth watching. For those who prefer the sound bites, here are some of the highlights:

- Host David Kirkpatrick of Fortune magazine set the stage for the discussion by pointing out that there are over 3 billion mobile phones in use worldwide, compared with 1.2 billion PCs, positioning the cell phone to become the de facto device for accessing the Internet. At the same time, he said that the industry is in a "weird transitional period" where consumer expectations and wireless services are not quite in sync.

- While Eric Schmidt wasn't at liberty to talk about Google's participation in the 700 MHz spectrum auction, that didn't stop him from advocating for an Internet-like, open model for wireless that would spur innovation in wireless applications and services (of course, as Schmidt acknowledged, Google wants to make money from advertising on the mobile Internet).

- For his part, FCC chairman Kevin Martin touted the "spillover effect" of the commission's open access rules in forcing carriers to move in the direction of a more open environment, citing Verizon's announcement last November as an example. He said, "from a regulator's perspective, the business models will end up developing" and how that happens isn't as much a concern for the FCC as ensuring that consumers have choice and access. 

For the rest of this post, visit our Tech Policy Central site.

Davos' Q&A on Climate Change and Green Tech

At the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos yesterday, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Google.org chief Larry Brilliant took to the stage to discuss their foundation's clean tech initiatives like the RE<C (renewable energy cheaper than coal) program. Video of the audience Q&A is available in the Media Vault, along with a number of other Davos-related clips.

We also wanted to highlight an excerpt that ties into what we wrote last week about green-collar jobs.

Van Jones, who's been advocating for green-collar jobs that would offer employment opportunities to low-income urban communities in the U.S., spoke passionately about the need to get more people involved in fighting climate change. In turn, he was asked by session host Tom Friedman what one thing he thinks the Google founders could do to help the green-collar movement.

Jones' response:

The most important thing is that we tend to have these conversations...and it's all about the technology and it's all about the entrepreneurs. And that's great. But, what about the workers?...Tell us how we're going to be able to get X number of jobs out of your innovation and we'll make that a part of what we celebrate. You suddenly have changed this conversation because people aren't just thinking, "Oh, it's good for the polar bears. They're thinking maybe it's good for me and my child."

That's one tiny example about how technology fits into the big conversations taking place in Davos as leaders discuss how to improve environmental, social and economic conditions around the world.