New Rules on Kids and Apps

Good News for Parents
Do you have a child that uses the Internet or plays with an app on your phone or tablet? Unless you live in Mad Men times, you've probably answered "yes" to these questions. Then, you should have heard about COPPA, right?

I didn't until recently. I assumed it was the Barry Manilow song. However, COPPA is the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, a U.S. federal law enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to protect the privacy of children when they go online.

 

It requires parental consent from websites and apps looking to collect personal information from users under 13-years-old. It's the most significant overhaul of the nation's laws to protect children's online privacy. In short, COPPA is good news.

 

The updated federal children's online privacy rules go into effect in July. Developers of games and other mobile software are still figuring out how to comply: They must balance their desire to tap the lucrative kids' market and the increased regulatory headache of targeting children.

 

The biggest problem: data-collection practices that have become routine in the app industry could run afoul of the new rules when used in kids' apps.

 

Regulators spent much of the last two years soliciting comments from entertainment companies, app developers, consumer groups and others about how to best update the way the government enforces COPPA.

 

The FTC can seek civil penalties against Coppa violators, and in the past has won settlement payments as high as $3 million.

 

In the law's early years, COPPA was relatively simple to enforce: Regulators cracked down on websites that asked kids for emails, home addresses and phone numbers without first checking with their parents.

 

But the explosion of smartphone and tablet games complicated the picture. Children are big users of those devices and are picking them up at very young ages. The devices have expanded the range of information that can be harvested, from device usage patterns to location data to photos and videos.

Traditional Journalism Proves its Relevance

Horrific Mistakes
by Mainstream Media

Pizza never tasted so good.

 

The entire newsroom of the The Boston Globe was treated to pizza last week. The gift card read: “We can only imagine what an exhausting and heartbreaking week it’s been for you and your city. But do know your newsroom colleagues here in Chicago and across the country stand in awe of your tenacious coverage. You make us all proud to be journalists. We can’t buy you lost sleep, so at least let us pick up your lunch. – Your friends at the Chicago Tribune.”

 

A simple gesture, but powerful at a time when so many media outlets made horrific mistakes. In the drive to be first after the Boston Marathon bombing, the gaffes ranged from the New York Post fingering – with Page 1 photos – the wrong bombing suspects, to CNN reporting prematurely an arrest has been made.

 

As big as those stumbles were, it was almost as irritating to watch endless cable coverage – dozens of reporters with so little new to report. We would hope big national news operations will learn from this debacle, but I’m pretty sure they won’t.

 

Throughout it all, the hometown paper, The Globe, covered the big story responsibly and accurately. Like many newspapers, The Globe has a pay wall on its website, but it lifted the pay wall for a week so the site was open to all, from around the world or down the block. It was remarkable and thorough coverage.

 

In an age of tweets, social media posts and other technology that allows “news” to travel almost at the speed of light, The Globe reminds us that we need traditional journalism, too, with professionals who care about accuracy, responsibility and the community they serve.

Will 3D Printing Fuel Forgery?

Badges?! Badges?! We don't need no stinkin' badges!

Like those new Nike's - but don't want to pay the retail price? How about that bling you saw on the fashion runway? But you can't afford the designers' premium for you and your BFF? Just make your own with 3D Printing!
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Remember what it was like when consumers could open Napster and then download any song they wanted … for free? Well, the recording industry sure does; it’s never fully recovered from its transition to digital even after Napster has come and gone.

Now, the manufacturing world in general — essentially any company that builds and sells a physical product — is beginning to wake up to the potential of 3D printing to wreak similar havoc on their business.

 

The reaction, predictably, is a growing movement to shackle 3D printers — machines that use a digital blueprint to “print” a three-dimensional, physical object by repeatedly layering materials — before the horse is out of the barn. 

3D Printing is a process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model. 3D printing is achieved using an additive process, where successive layers of material are laid down in different shapes. 3D printing is considered distinct from traditional machining techniques, which mostly rely on the removal of material by methods such as cutting or drilling (subtractive processes).

Since the start of the twenty-first century there has been a large growth in the sales of these machines, and their price has dropped substantially.

A disruptor like no other
Though still in its infancy, personal 3D printing technology already shows the same disruptive potential as the original printing press. Just as moveable type spread across Europe and democratized knowledge, the proliferation of 3D printers eventually promises to democratize creation. Broken dishwasher part? Download the relevant CAD file and print it out in plastic. While Amazon made trips to the store seem dated, 3D printing will make ordering (some) things online feel positively quaint.
  
Most people think of “printing” as a strictly 2D affair, but 3D printing works much like its 2D cousin, the inkjet printer, though it builds up a succession of layers to form its objects. Such printers can cost between thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars (a build-it-yourself model, the RepRap, can be assembled for a few hundred bucks).

The fabrication process begins with a 3D design file, created from scratch or drawn from a 3D scan of an object. Software deconstructs the 3D image into a series of 2D cross-sectional slices and the printer deposits layers of material, typically plastic or metal, one atop the other in the shape of each 2D slice. The layers are fused, and the fabricated object is treated and hardened.
 
Because 3D printers don’t need to carve material from preexisting blocks (as in sculpture), the process allows for elaborate and visually stunning shapes to be created in a matter of hours with no manual labor. The size of these shapes is only limited by the size of the printer making them.

All that is well and good, but any technology that allows users to digitize and replicate objects is bound to have some Intellectual Property implications. And it’s precisely because of its potential as a game changer that 3D printing presents challenging legal questions best addressed before the technology becomes ubiquitous.

Gutenberg didn’t have to worry much about intellectual property laws, but he had to compete with an array of other legal and societal challenges to his invention. Eventually copyright, a novel concept in the 16th century, emerged as a means to regulate Gutenberg’s disruptive technology. 3D printing is especially intriguing from a legal perspective because, like the printing press, it has broad implications for the existing legal regime (including all three areas of Intellectual Property- patent, copyright, and trademark), but it also presents issues that may warrant broad changes to existing law—or require new laws entirely.

Sources:
1. Masable, Topics: 3D Printing
2. Peter Hanna, "The Next Napster?" ArsTEchnica, April 6, 2011
3. Peter owak, "Will 2013 be the year 3D printing sparks a patent law armageddon?" Canadian Business, January 9, 2013
3. Wikipedia: 3D Printing

More Than Eye Candy

More Than "Spin and Grin"

Auto Show Models Expected to be Experts

Starting in the mid-1990s, Detroit automakers shifted away from putting the young and the beautiful on their cars in favor of "product specialists" -- men and women chosen less for their looks and more for their ability to transform into walking information kiosks.  

Even the remaining fashion-forward models were expected to field questions about the vehicles they were draped over. With consumers growing more knowledgeable about new vehicles -- and women accounting for a larger share of car buyers -- the old way seemed sexist.  

While that approach became standard practice in the United States, overseas auto shows never made such a move. (And there's one big U.S. exception: the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association - SEMA - show in Las Vegas for aftermarket parts, whose imagery can't even be linked from family-minded auto show blogs.)

Once thought of "eye candy" to go along with the vehicles, product specialists have evolved from standing and smiling to becoming a major part of the show.

Margery Krevsky, founder and president of Productions Plus - The Talent Shop, has nothing to do with manufacturing or designing vehicles, but she pioneered how automakers look at auto show "models."

Productions Plus was started by Krevsky and a partner 33 years ago with a handful or so of product specialist for one automaker. The Bingham Farms, MI-based business now operates offices in New York, Los Angeles ad Chicago with hundreds of employees and dozens of clients.

At this year's Detroit auto show, Productions Plus had more than 300 people working for 13 automotive brands and companies.

Krevsky, certainly not a gearhead, has turned into an icon in the automotive world, and was given the title of "The Queen Bee of the Car Show Models" from Forbes Magazine. 

Sources:
1. Justin Hyde, "Chrysler Brings Back Sexy Show Models," Detroit Free Press, January 12, 2013
2. Michael Wayland, "Not Just 'Eye Candy," AnnArbor.com, January 27, 2013
3. Productions Plus - The Talent Shop website: http://www.productions-plus.com/

The UN Wants the Internet



Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor
of the World Wide Web
(not Al Gore!) tweeted
at the 2012 Summer Olympics,
"This is for everyone."

Authoritarian governments aspire to control the net

Do you want bureaucrats to be able to read every text, image, tune, spreadsheet, or whatever you send or receive? Do you want your business communications snooped on by unknown entities?

The open Internet, available to people around the world without the permission of any government, was a great liberation. But, authoritarian governments this month attempted to make this intrusion internationally legitimate.

Under a resolution made on December 4, 2012 at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) conference in Dubai, a majority of countries that subject their population to internet censorship and suppress publishing approved a treaty giving governments new powers to close off access to the Internet in their countries.

The motion was withdrawn on December 12. In another power grab, a motion by Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Sudan to give equal rights to domain naming and numbers to all countries was shelved.

In a rebuff to the proposal, the Internet Society stated that it’s “extremely important that this treaty not extend to content, or implicitly or explicitly undermine the principles that have made the Internet so beneficial.”

Vint Cerf,
"Father the Internet,"
was instrumental in the
funding and formation of
ICANN from the start.

Vint Cerf, the computer scientist who co-designed some of the Internet’s core underlying protocols, said: “The free and open net is under threat.”

Who Are These ITU People?

From 1995 through December 1949, the International Telecommunications Union (originally the “T” stood for Telegraph) was directed by a Swiss citizen.

Since 1950, the ITU has been a specialized United Nations agency for information and communications technologies, governed by a “Secretary-General” with a nominal term of four years.

Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré, Secretary-General of the ITU since 2007, was re-elected for a second four-year term in 2010.

A national of Mali, Dr Touré holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Leningrad, and a PhD from the University of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of Moscow.

It is reported that he had a pre-Dubai meeting with Russian president Putin, who “reminded” him of Russia’s involvement in the formation of the ITU (even though it had none).

As the Internet has grown, it has acquired enemies. Just as the fax became a liberating tool at the time of Tiananmen Square, the Internet became one during the recent uprisings in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.

Much of the discussion at the conference concerned the “openness” of the Internet and the aspiration of many governments to be able to control it. Said Terry Kramer, the U.S. ambassador to WCIT:

“There have been proposals that have suggested that the ITU should enter the Internet governance business. There have been active recommendations that there be an invasive approach of governments in managing the internet, in managing the content that goes via the internet, what people are looking at, what they’re saying. These fundamentally violate everything that we believe in in terms of democracy and opportunities for individuals, and we’re going to vigorously oppose any proposals of that nature.”

It’s Scary!

Google warned the event threatened the "open Internet", while the EU said the current system worked, adding: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

But the agency said action was needed to ensure investment in infrastructure to help more people access the net.

"The brutal truth is that the Internet remains largely [the] rich world's privilege," said Dr. Touré, ahead of the meeting.

"ITU wants to change that."

Sources:
1. L. Gordon Crovitz, "America's First Big Digital Defeat," The Wall Street Journal, December 17, 2012
2. Peter H. Salus, "The UN and Your Business: Why ITU Dubai Loss is Your Gain," Forbes, December 14, 2012
3. Leo Kelion, "Un Internet Regulation Treaty Talks Begin in Dubai," BBC News, December 2, 2012

New Roles for Citizen Warriors

Can They Do It All?

Citizen soldiers, like those in the National Guard, have seen their role change from "weekend warriors" -- protecting our homeland after natural disasters and civil unrest -- to supporting our nation's role in the "Operation Enduring Freedom" and other military actions. 

By definition, the National Guard is a reserve military force composed of militia members of each state and US territory. The majority of National Guard soldiers hold a civilian full-time job while serving as a National Guard member.

But, can they do it all?
The catastrophe of Kartina caught our nation flat-footed. Then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recast the National Guard during the Iraq war from a reserve deployed only in times of crisis to an active, operational force. During that conflict, 80,000 members of the National Guard were deployed in Iraq (including those from Louisiana) - leaving scant few to assist with the aftermath of the hurricane's devastation.

The devastation of superstorm Sandy again begs the question: how do we provide crucial emergency services to our neighbors in time of crisis while so many of those in the National Guard are thousands of miles away?  

Army National Guard leaders want to maintain the proficiency that soldiers have gained during lengthy combat deployments over the past 11 years, but say a return to "weekend warriors" won't cut it.  Consequently, National Guardsmen/women have been deployed over and over to supplement the regular army.

__________________________

Over a year ago, Jim Wood (my wifes' brother) left his job in Michigan, turned over the chores and domestic responsibilities to his wife and four kids, and headed for Camp Shelby in Mississippi.

As a SFC Sergeant First Class in Michigan's National Guard, he was being deployed to Afghanistan.

The more than 200 members of the 126 Calvary Squadron returned home October 19 after completing a 14-month tour of duty in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Jim's troop, A-Troop, did not suffer any casualties, but others in their Squadron did.

This is the second time the 126 Calvary, A-Troop (known as the "Mavericks") has been deployed overseas in a combat support role. Their previous 12-month tour of duty was two years ago in Kuwait/Iraq, during that conflict.

Homecoming is sweet - especially when a father & husband civilian soldier gets out of danger and comes home safely. A toast to you all our service men/women on Vetran's Day and more important - thank you for all you do. Welcome Home!

New Car Ads Focus on Relationships

"Like Me" Branding Strategy
In a break from hawking horsepower and leather upholstery, automakers are now trying to show customers they want to be their friend as well.

Honda and Volkswagen both are unveiling emotional ad campaigns this week that emphasize relationships — how well they know you and your needs and foibles -- rather than the car.

Honda’s campaign is themed “It all starts with you.”

It aims to tug on people’s heartstrings as it depicts consumers going through everyday life and making mistakes along the way.

Volkswagen is unleashing a TV and social-media package called “Why VW,” with the tagline “It’s not the miles, it’s how you live them.”

The campaign is for the brand, rather than individual models.

Both campaigns are unusual given how automakers have long relied on touting the features and attributes of cars, says David Stewart, a marketing professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

General Motors showed how emotional ties could build a brand when it launched the Saturn brand more than 20 years ago, but it hasn’t been tried much since, except for Chrysler’s moody Super Bowl ads.

“It has been less common in the auto industry,” he says. “A lot of this has to do with the auto industry still being engineering-driven.”

Of the two campaigns, Honda’s will probably be harder to miss, particularly on TV. Honda is mounting the biggest ad blitz in its history in the U.S. to launch the new 2013 Accord flagship sedan.

A lot of the campaign’s creation involved developing a knowledge of habits that most people take for granted.

Volkswagen, like Honda, is taking advantage of having built a loyal base of customers over the years who have genuine affection for their cars; in VW’s case, going back to the lovable Bug. The TV ad for the “Why VW” brand campaign — showing happy people — in fact never shows a car.

But the part I like best, Volkswagen of America is attempting to offer TV watchers across the country a foil to the nastiness and mud-slinging in the mist of the Nov. 5 political election campaign.

The carmaker released the special spot tied to the presidential race which it says will "deliver a lighthearted break" from the election cycle. The commercial is by VW's agency Deutsch, Los Angeles, and in a highly unusual move in the world of auto advertising, the ad doesn't show a single car, let alone depict the usual product shots or typical performance claims that most car ads do.

Instead, over the course of the 30-second commercial -- which is called "Smiles" -- all we see is a selection of random people, from babies to senior citizens, of all different nationalities, laughing and smiling. The spot closes with the following message: "It's not the miles, it's how you live them. That's the power of German engineering."

What do you think? Does the spot grab your attention and provide a welcome change to election ads? Or does the lack of product shown in the ads seem befuddling and detract from the VW brand?

Sources

1. Dale Buss, “Volkswagen Grows Up with New ‘Why VW’ Marketing Campaing,” Forbes, September 18, 2012

2. Rupal Parekn, “Volkswagen Ad Aims to Give Americans a ‘Break’ From Tone of Election Year,” Ad Age, September 18, 29012

3. Chris Woodyard, “Car Ads Shift Strategy, Focus on Relationships,”  USA Today, September 21, 2012