Whether it is arguing over how best to regulate getting necessary internet access to everybody who needs it, or big social media giants patting themselves on the back for their good deeds, the socioeconomic benefits of the information age has been a hot topic lately.  Well, it seems that while others have been talking and/or arguing about the issue, some people have actually gone about making something happen.  An organization called “The Alliance for Digital Equality” has just made and publicly presented their proposed plan to get high speed internet to every inhabitant of Los Angeles.  If they can actually get the backing and subsequently implement it, it would be quite a game-changing feat.

Okay, so as we already know the FCC is trying to get broadband internet reclassified as something that they actually have the right to regulate.  Naturally, a great deal of people aren’t particularly pleased.  From senators with connections to broadband providers, to concerned citizens, people all upset at the proposed “socialization” of the internet.  Why shouldn’t they be?  Competition between the internet providers ought to be regulation enough, right?  Normally that would be absolutely true, but that’s the problem with the current state of broadband: there isn’t any actual completion.

There has been a fairly sizable hubbub surrounding the F.C.C. and their ongoing battle with the current state of the internet.  Naturally, now that they have just officially opened up a notice of inquiry to reclassify Broadband, there is a great deal of debate over whether or not this is a good idea.  The way some look at it, the reclassification of broadband as a utility could potentially damage the major broadband providers.  Jobs could be lost, and the already limping economy could be damaged.  However, there are a number of reasons that, despite the outcry, this could very well be a good thing.

You know how Yahoo has been recently trying to retake many of the web-based industries that they were once leaders in? From search engine to text chat, they are tired of being the go-to second tier choice of the internet.  Well, it looks like the comapny's returning CEO actually knows more about what she’s doing than some thought. Yahoo recently introduced a plan to increase the global popularity of all Yahoo services, particularly Yahoo messenger.  They have created a unified platform for data management specifically targeted at countries where more users may be using data-phones/the internet for the first time in their lives, particularly Indonesia.

Ten days from today London will be hosting the fourth annual Broadband Connect Summit.  Providers of internet service and content alike from around the world will come together to discuss the future of Broadband technology as it is today.  Given the current mad dash for Wi-Fi and (3+)G coverage, it is particularly fitting that one of the major topics of focus this year is going to be the ways in which wireless internet connectivity can and cannot replace good old fashioned broadband.  For the record, the irony of having to call broadband old-fashioned is not lost here.

It hasn't been a good couple of months for Microsoft.  First their position as king of the profitable computer technology companies was taken by Apple, and then Google starts to seriously move in on their primary cash-cow software: Microsoft Word.  It even got so bad that they had to offer a cloud MS word for free.  Just to add insult to injury, the current iteration of Microsoft Windows has just been revealed by Palo Alto Networks to have some very serious security holes (even by their standards).  Normally this would be bad, but with their recent history, and online security/privacy being such a hot button issue right now, it’s absolutely disastrous.

Remember back in January, when Google challenged China and it came back to bite them in the form of a serious hacker attack originating from China.  It looks like Google has had the security holes in their company computers exploited one too many times, and have decided to make a severe change in their IT computer policy.  Google has now enacted an internal order, so from this point on their company computers will no longer run on Microsoft Windows.  Google employees now have the choice between Linux, MacOS, and Chrome.  Given that Google is such a leader not only in business, but in the internet as a whole, the choices that they make could well make an impact on the future of the desktop software market.

Everybody loves a good underdog story.  Whether it’s Rocky Balboa beating Mr. T, the plucky underrated hooligans beating the proverbial “rich kids” team, or the rebels showing the Evil Empire what for, we love to see joe everyman beating “the establishment.”  What happens, however, when the underdog becomes bigger than the big bad guy that he railed against in the first place?  Well, that is exactly what happened this week: Apple is officially bigger than their former “evil emperor,” Microsoft.  That’s correct, the very same people who brought you their quirky “fight the power” 1984 ads have officially surpasses the very people who those ads were slinging mud at.

Google has revealed its U.S. economic impact for the first time ever. In 2009 an astonishing $54 billion was reported as Google’s impact. One of the biggest drivers in business development was Google Ads. The blog post says, “People think of Google first and foremost as a search engine, but it’s also an engine of economic growth. In our report, we’re announcing that in 2009 we generated a total of $54 billion of economic activity for American businesses, website publishers and non-profits. Over the years people have asked us whether we could quantify our economic impact on a state level, and we’re pleased to do that for the first time with this report, which you can download at google.com/economicimpact.” 

Remember way back in the dark ages when everybody still used Internet Explorer to browse the web? Then, remember when Mozilla came riding along in their shining armor and fiery canine steed to rescue us from security holes and unnecessarily bulky coding?  Well now there is even more reason to laud Mozilla as the one of the great white knights of all things internet.  Today, they have informally announced their intention to begin working on a application marketplace that is actually cross-platform open source, totally equal to developers.  Granted this project is still in the very base conceptual level right now, but if completed it could really have some amazing ramifications.

In a recent interview, CEO of Viacom Philippe Dauman, spoke about such things as the digitization of television and his controversial decision to pull both The Daily Show and The Coblert Report from Hulu. All in all the man doesn’t necessarily seem to be against the merging datastreams of television and internet, but he does seem to have a fair amount of dissatisfaction with Hulu. Namely, he isn’t getting enough money from them. He spoke of the internet television phenomenon as more of an experiment. They were testing out whether profitable web tv is possible, and apparently it is… just as long as you get rid of all the middlemen. He spoke of both increased traffic and content on Comedy Central’s own streaming broadcasts of the aforementioned shows, he just doesn’t like handing over the control of the ads to someone else.

It has been said that if HP wants WebOS to be a major player in the operating system market, then they will have to seriously step up their game.  The OS was already on cusp of blinking out of existence, and it was only HP’s buy out that kept it afloat, but they can’t even seem to keep their app portal fully operational.  However, they do seem to be making a real effort to get the OS actually out there in the public eye as a viable option: as of today, there is at least one smartphone with WebOS as the default option available on absolutely every major US 3G/4G carrier.  The only other operating system that can make that claim right now is Android.

It has been almost a year since the program was launched, so the great folks at Berkeley decided to put together a preliminary report. What did it find? Well in a nutshell it described where the funding went and mentioned that the program aided job growth within the sector. As of March 1, 2010, nearly $2.6 billion were distributed to a variety of projects. The big winner was wind powered projects, which received 86% of the funding. Other noteworthy areas which received funding included geothermal (6%), solar (4.5%), and biomass (2.8%).

Ever since the iPad came out, everybody and their dog decided that what they needed to do was create the next big device type between smartphone and laptop.  It looks like Sony has just jumped on that bandwagon with their new Vaio P.  The real draw that they seem to be pushing is the new accelerometer interface.  Essentially it has the best of both worlds; it has enough of a functioning keyboard that it can function as a computer, and enough of a touch-screen that it can function as a smartphone.

In one of two ways, the Nokia vs. Apple case is representative of the end of modern tech patents.  On the one hand, this is a quintessential example of the frivolous patent infringement suits on the part of big tech companies that have been plaguing the industry  for years.  Everybody is always infringing on everybody's patents.  It’s a universal fact, but that means that everybody is always vulnerable to a major multi-million dollar lawsuit from any number of their competitors.  While they are being sued by Nokia, Apple is still suing HTC over their equally broad patents.