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Google Wants To Administer the First White Spaces
aabelro writes "Google proposes to the FCC to become the administrator of a White Spaces Database containing geo-location information about devices using the free channels in the radio spectrum."
I would much rather the FCC be the administrator of it. I know Google is the big player right now, but it is still just a corporation(especially one that profits from data mining/advertising). The government is not for profit. Google is completely for profit. The government is more likely to make access to the database free. As always, as those who know my views can guess, I trust the government more than I do corporations, and this includes corporations like Google.
I don't like Linux. This doesn't make me a troll.
...letting Pfizer admin the FDA... oh wait, their lobbyists already do.
These aren't the droids you're looking for, move along.
Perhaps they'll use a whitespace minifier to remove all of the whitespace from the electromagnetic spectrum, so our radios will load faster!
White spaces? What about Black Spaces and Latino Spaces and Asian Spaces?
Google is attempting to monopolize racism!
I agree that the way that broadcasters have "parked" spectrum is appalling. Did you know every FM slot is "taken" even in areas where no one uses them ? I once tried to buy a radio station-it was an education. The fact is that even here in media saturated NYC there's a lot of unused RF, and at the higher UHF allocations the fact that one market might interfere with another is greatly lessened. There is no good reason why we need to regulate the way we have been. It's like making a national park with strips of industry. The real reason is that this was a great "restraint of trade" for the established propaganda providers (see "community FM radio") Still, if I were a broadcaster, I'd be very afraid. Since the Congress is a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate america, google can't do a worse job than the FCC.
Google Wants To Administer the First White Spaces?
Does that mean Google wants to control all Python code? They have gone too far this time!
I really like the "Google is NSA" tag. I think it's my favorite conspiracy theory yet!
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
This is *not* about gated communities; rather, it has to do with allocating the radio spectrum.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Eric Schmidt is just one furry white cat and a cigarette-holder short of a Bond villain.
you dont know jack shit. what you term 'lobbyist driven bureaucrats in government' are just a storefront for really evil money grubbing corporate types, like at&t, riaa, time warner et al. had they got their way up until now, the internet you so ordinarily use would have turned into a cable network already.
compared to them, google types come up as clean as an angel.
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The FCC currently outsources a lot of activities including frequency coordination, license examinations, and so on.
They can put rules in place in the agreement requiring free access. I had to remind one of their outsourced organizations of that when I wanted access to their database, it was granted.
i posted in this thread. perhaps more iditos who didnt read the article wont come barging in yelping libertarian/republican crap if they understood what was it about.
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Google slogan : "Don't be evil"
Google slogan in 5 years : "Don't be soooo evil"
Google slogan in 10 years : "Just don't be as evil as Satan himself"
Google slogan in 20 years : "All your arses are belong to us"
The FCC should have responsibility for this,and so should maintain the data.
Google wants to get a foot in the door to be able to control/promote a wireless carrier in this spectrum.
And that I don't much mind. But they should have to pay, or at least compete, for that space.
In a way, this is worse than the major carriers playing tic-tac-toe with spectrum auctions.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
They want to be one of the administrators - not the only administrator. There are many organizations that will be running databases - all flowing from a master database that the FCC controls.
I'm extremely concerned at the amount of power Google is gathering, its data collection, its lack of privacy protection. BUT in this case, Google is the good guy. The FCC forced this whole database option upon the white spaces industry and then said white spaces database admins can charge fees for the service. The company with the most experience (and in Microsoft's camp) was actually partially funded by an FCC commissioner ... so the FCC could be granting a profit-making contract to "one of its own." Now the FCC can't say that it doesn't have another option. Google is big enough -- and its proposal not only says it wants to offer this service for free (possibly), but it includes a method for multiple providers, keeping competition in the game.
(My full views here if you are interested: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/49544).
Julie
--
Network World's Google Subnet
Do you HONESTLY think the government will run it better than google? And, do you think the government won't simply do it in OTHER businesses' interest? Google is the obvious choice.
The first thing a hacker would do is use a trim() function and destroy all the data...
Summation 2
If you give the government the job, they will never let it go. If you delegate it to a company you can replace them for poor performance. The government won't fire itself for poor performance. Example is of course the Newark Airport TSA.
I've never been comfortable with the entire White Space approach, especially the database idea. A big problem is that primary users are only protected out to a predetermined contour, not to their actual range as used in the field. For example, TV stations are only protected out to a given contour (a specific distance out from the tower, where the station's signal strength is predicted to weaken to a predetermined threshold) specified in their license. However, many, many people in rural areas watch over-the-air television at distances well outside the contour, by using antennas that are larger, and mounted higher (often with mast-mounted preamplifiers), than those assumed when the signal strength threshold was set. Should a secondary user query the Google database from this area, he will get authority to transmit on the television channel, since he's outside the protected contour of the TV station, and would then interfere with the television reception in the area. A homeowner (or, more likely, a farm owner) could complain to the FCC, only to be told that he's outside the protected coverage area of the TV station and has to accept the interference. I doubt he'd be happy with that answer.
A similar problem arises with the licensed wireless microphones used in electronic news-gathering (ENG) trucks. They're quite mobile, and cover large areas. How are they supposed to get Internet connectivity in the field to check the database? Presumably they're out of cellular range, since they're in rural, White Space areas; what do they do? And if they use the channel without updating the database, how is a secondary user going to know he's there? The secondary user will query the database, get an "all clear" and, not knowing the microphone is nearby, transmit on the same channel as the microphone.
It just seems like the practical aspects of all this need some more thought.
Google employs ex NSA geeks, advertised for programmers with security clearance, and has DoD contracts. Don't be too quick with your sarcasm.
..soldier quarter YOU!
Didn't we know Google was after administrating white space for the past five years?
We don't plan to become a database administrator ourselves, but do want to work with the FCC to make sure that a white spaces database gets up and running. We hope that this will unfold in a matter of months, not years.
and
Google proposes the operation of a WSDB for at least 5 years, promising to “transfer to a successor entity the Database, the IP addresses and URLs used to access the Database, and the list of registered Fixed WSDs” in case they cannot live up to it. Google proposal does not limit the possibility of existing other such databases.
They're not proposing to do it on their own and willing to hand over everything if they fuck it up.
That's why you have separation of powers, warrants, process rights, and other safe guards. Patriot act, the no-fly list, Germany's attempted child pornography list, Australia's internet laws are examples of governments removing safeguards without too much public protest, because the government does it for "good" reasons. At some point they of course will abuse that power.
Limit the power of the administration: Not a direct appointed "Czar", but maybe a director, appointed by a board. Or term limits that are different from the election cycle.
It should be a decentralized agency with a clear mission that is not part of the day-to-day 2-party fight, but follows long-term goals. I would list the US Postal Service as an example, but then there was Comstock. It's hard to protect such a "service" agency from administrative "wishes" without making it immobile and resistive to any change. But then, there are basic safeguards, which haven't been restored yet.
I've been paying attention to US politics since Eisenhower/JFK transition years and I have yet to see this asshat voting out theory turn to practice. What happens is one group of asshats replaces another one. We have two groups of asshats who swap off every other election or so, but the continuation is corrupt government, whistleblowers or potential whistleblowers in government bureaucracy are always afraid of repercussions in their jobs (or worse...). Both those government hijacking groups lobby hard and perpetually to scare the population into "not wasting their vote" on any alternative to the asshat nominee, to insure only asshats get voted for. It is a remarkable effective and simple technique in keeping the asshat party, the one with two wings, in power.
So even if you decide to "run for office yourself" to help clean things up, you are lucky to make it past real local elections, county or above, you toe the asshat party line or ..nothing. You most likely won't get elected, big fat waste of time, and if you do get elected, you are in peril of either being marginalized, or heck, they off people man. The dual wing corrupt asshat "shadow government" just plain do not like honest people who aren't bribed or blackmailed off. Stuff happens to those folks, or they just get completely ignored, one or the other.
The closest we have come to breaking this power sharing corrupt criminal cartel and kleptocracy is the reform party efforts, but they scared the two wing asshat party so much that they decided that they "wouldn't allow" anything *but* asshats on the stage at the big national debates, and the asshat controlled media went along with that. Pretty much knocked the stuffing out of any third party/alternative vote efforts.
The League of Women Voters, to their credit, dropped their sponsorship of the asshat national debates at that time. Which should have been a major clue to the electorate..but around 97% or so now have caved in and decided to "not waste their vote" and have kept electing asshat criminals right along since then. And the asshats make damn sure government is run as a for profit bribery and influence and jobs peddling organization.
Any real mavericks, perhaps with new ideas or..gasp..not corrupt, really honest people, get marginalized and demonized immediately in the controlled asshat press, labeled as "fringe", or they just get completely ignored.
So..my conclusion is..there's about no diff anymore if some corporation or alleged government runs things, the asshats are in charge in both areas, and its the same people with revolving door government to global corporation jobs, etc, where just about everything at the decision making level is done with behind the scenes payoffs and bribes, etc, and our form of government should more fairly and accurately be labeled as a Corporatocracy.
It is not as bad as it could get yet, obviously there are some other rather extreme heinously run nations that are even more despotic and corrupt, but this has been the trend and direction, heading towards that total despotism, as long as I have been paying attention.
What is sad and funny at the same time is sitting in the middle, having to shift all around all the time so as not to catch any asshat cooties, and watching both asshat extremes of the vigorous "true believers" types point fingers at each other across some fairy tale imaginary dividing line while they chant in unison "It's all your fault!! If only all of OUR asshats where in charge, things would be just so much bettah!".
Damn funny really.
What this has to do with Google and whitespaces and spectrum, etc I can't say in exact terms, but I am fairly confident to predict that in general terms, which ever policy that will go to ship the most amount of cash into the fewest amount of hands will eventually turn out to be "the" policy or regulation, etc. What asshat spokesmodel they slap in front of that will be mostly irrelevant.
Propaganda (aka PR) for generations on behalf of corporations has suckered the ignorant American public into a warped view of reality.
Even the word socialism has been destroyed; we lack even general terms for the public to use. Populism still exists but is often equated with mob rule over here. Most extremes turn out poorly, democracies are by nature more socialist and populist.
I remember the 80s when we had the peak of anti government hype outside and inside the government (hell we had a corp spokesperson as president.) We even still have the common phrase "government of the people by the people, for the people." Despite this, many people thought that the government was the problem and was a separate thing from themselves - ignoring that THEY are the government.
If a democratic government can't do something that means that the people can't organize and do it as a group; essentially arguing that democracy does not work in that situation. Perhaps so-- but people would support democracy more if they realized what it really is beyond the meaningless BRAND name it has become in the eyes of the public.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
While they're at it, why don't they create a Brainfucks database. Now that would be useful.
Looking forward to see the API bindings on Google Code.
This is simply a way to monetize something that was intended to be free.
Free or not, where there is a demand, the market will create itself and Google plans on being there first. I RTFA and it seems to me that they are just trying to "grade" a whitespace based on its physical location and the devices at that location. So and so coordinates, with yada-yada using it. Check. The database is simply to let those users know who is who, and where.
The next step would be, in my mind, to strangle the supply of whitespace by camping as many geo-locations as possible.
(wow, that actually sounds like fun...Pitch a tent and roast marshmallows!)
My first impulse(were I without a conscience) would be to lease/mount a transmitter on every cell tower out there, specifically to fill whitespace. It could simply broadcast old Jimmy Swaggart reruns or simply white-noise. Just keep it filled to claim priority. After all, the idea is to keep people from interfering with ANY other transmissions...even if it is someone simply camping the whitespace there. This is basically a Land-Rush on the whitespace, and the lawyers think that mapping it all will give them something to work with...some sort of claim of rights to that whitespace.
When you have most of it camped, you are then in a position to start making deals.
Market created.
The problem is eventually that "non-existent" market will drive use to the point it actually WOULD interfere with adjacent frequencies...exactly what was trying to be prevented by the creation of whitespaces.
Back to square one with Google making truckloads of cash in the process.
what you cite there has never happened.
what happens is always to the contrary. some minority private interests, which have more financial or economic power than the majority sponsors candidates, and they win.
this is the story you have been living in the last 150 years. this is the reason you are screwed. dont be fooled by fucked private interest propaganda. 'majority finds out they can get benefits from public treasury' my ass.
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so, there are corporations that want to gimp internet to being a cable tv so that free expression, uncalled for political ideas, grassroots movements wont be able to flourish. so, they arent the worst corporate evil out there today.
there are companies 'insuring' your health, but weaseling out of their obligations with dubious legal clauses when you hit the hospital, at the risk of your own life. buuut, apparently, they arent the worst corporate evil out there today either.
there are corporations which foster war, so that they will be able to contract defense projects at the cost of lives. but, they arent the worst evil out there today.
there are oil companies which curb innovative new technologies so that we will use oil, forcing us to breath shit in the air and fostering radical islamist organizations in middle east, which not only create turmoil in the world, but also make the lives of middle easterners a nightmare. BUUUUT, they arent the worst corporate evil out there either.
and then there is google. despite being a corporation, ALL the company did has been empowering individuals, ranging from small, underdog webmasters to small businesses with a few items to sell, developers, advertisers, any kind of small people who were treated like shit and ignored by big buck corporations up to this date, and many of those people have been able to make a living thanks to that empowerment. in addition to that, despite being a corporation, the company stuck to most of the ethical guidelines that SHOULD have driven all corporations but a few, like the china case, and in general has been a friend of the new ways of the internet and digital age.
BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT, despite ALL of that, google is the worst kind of corporate evil out there. is it.
no sir. let me tell you, you are a complete moron. that is beyond comprehension. i wont even attempt the effort to explain anything to you. people like you cause all of us to suffer due to your gullibility and naivete, because you are sooo easy to fool. and 2 fools have wasted their mod points on you. probably they were using their mod points discriminately, rather than indiscriminately, as they should.
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when the administration changes, fcc will become the influence area of another private interest block. it may happen to be the at&t - riaa - media cartel that seek to undermine everyone in the digital age for their own interest.
google is there to stay. the company vision is sound and reliable. it wont just change in 4 years. brin and page dont seem to be retiring or dying anytime soon, so the vision will keep going like this and even strengthening in future.
you would be much better off relying on google to administer it.
for if i know anything, the cartel/telecom block is going to screw every single person out there as soon as their supported candidates are in administration.
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