Freepress and consumer groups win extension on media ownership study proceeding

From Lasar's Letter on the FCC:

The Federal Communications Commission has extended to October 22 the window for public comments on its ten new media ownership studies. That's three weeks more for the public to respond to the surveys, which media reform groups charge have not received adequate peer review.

The proposal for an extension received strong opposition from the Media General company, which owns newspapers, radio, and TV stations in the southwest, and often calls for the relaxation of the FCC's media ownership rules.

"While we agree with Media General that undue delays in this proceeding should be avoided when possible, here we find that a brief extension of the filing deadlines is warranted," the FCC ruled today. "We believe that the public interest and our goal of assembling a full record in this proceeding would be best served by granting an extension of the comment and reply comment filing deadlines so that parties will have additional time to review the studies and underlying data."

For weeks, Freepress, the Consumers Union, and the Consumer Federation of America have argued that the studies, which survey media ownership patterns in the United States, run afoul of the Data Quality Act, because not enough of the information they used has been disclosed so that other scholars can duplicate the various reports' conclusions. "The Commission has not provided the sufficient data for enough time to perform such analyses," the three groups wrote earlier this month. "The public cannot evaluate these ten studies under the Commission’s rushed timeline."

The FCC released the studies with a 60-day comment cycle, which critics charged was an inadequate window for public comment. The public may now comment through the Oct. 22, and reply to comments through November 1.

FCC on track to meet/beat enforcement record

From DIYMedia:

As the graph above shows, the agency's Enforcement Bureau is well on pace to meet or exceed last year's record-breaking enforcement action effort. Looking more closely at the data, one can see how FCC field agents are escalating the initial levels of the enforcement protocol much more quickly now (for example, the New York field office has cut the time between visit to warning letter down to as little as eight days).

Nevertheless, the FCC's not keeping such a good record when it comes to excersising actual muscle to shut pirate stations down: the number of Notices of Apparent Liability and actual forfeitures issued appears relatively unchanged from last year, and these actions remain but a small fraction of the Enforcement Bureau's overall enforcement effort. The number of raids/seizures conducted against pirate stations may edge up this year, but this is due to state-level enforcement efforts, most notably in Florida, where unlicensed broadcasting has been criminalized as a felony.

As far as what happens during the last three months of the year, it's anyone's guess: historically-speaking, there's a tertiary spike in enforcement actions against unlicensed radio stations in November, and it will be interesting to see whether this trend continues. Nevertheless, it's safe to say the agency's still a paper tiger, as unlicensed microbroadcast activity continues to blossom, especially in the nation's largest urban areas. However, recent developments, like the Enforcement Bureau's new online pirate complaint form and the possible installation of an anti-pirate attorney general, may change the game, but it's too early to tell by how much.

OPEN CALL: Lovely Weather

Leonardo Publications are inviting papers, special issue proposals and book proposals that deal with artistic approaches to weather, climate and their modifications. Western societies have progressively dissolved their ancestral link to climate, a link that was critical: the question for food. This is largely a result of massive urbanization and the development of the modern lifestyle. It has been possible to observe a deterioration of sensitivity to meteorology and climate.

Today, very few professions still reveal a direct relationship to climate; our intuitive understanding of it is thus weakened. Artifical indoor climates have given us a sort of second skin but also leveled our general experience of climate. Until recently, in consumer societies, the weather forecast has mainly been used for the organization of one's leisure, and "talking about the weather" has a social function. It is no surprise, then, that the science of meteorology is still believed to be one of the last "objective" sciences.

From a scientific point of view, climate (as well as weather) can be divided into series of meteorological parameters such as temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind force, etc. However, it seems impossible to conceive it as a totality except in subjectives terms. Weather and climate exist as such only for corporal and sensitive being and can be regarded phenomenolgically speaking, as a landscape.

Landscape does not exist in nature without the eye, which grasps an expanse of land as a landscape. Weather's and climate's existence are similar. The perception of weather and climate is the perception of an arrangement, a configuration of the real. Weather and climate are thus a multidimensional phenomenon in which are combined the contributions of nature, culture, history and geography, but also the imaginary and the symbolic.

Art could help us to question our perceptions and relationships to weather, climate and their changes. Artistic explorations should not be restricted to illustrating our scientific discoveries, as is done in contemporary climate-change showcases. Art could instead help us to experience and reveal our inner participation with weather and climate, the rupture of their balance and its meaning for our inner world, in the same way that landscape artists reframed the relationship of humans to their environment.

Leonardo seeks to document the works of artists, researchers, and scholars involved in the exploration of weather and climate (change), and is soliciting texts for Leonardo Journal and Leonardo Transactions, special issue proposals for the Leonardo Electronic Almanac and book proposals for Leonardo Book Series.

Sub-themes:

We are interested in a very broad array of artworks that encompass visual arts, sound art and music, performance and performing arts, etc, as well as in climate sciences, meterology and social sciences.

Following thematic sub-themes have been defined (but the call is not limited to them):

- Environments: weather and climate works enabling new experiences of environments;

- Meteorological and climate sciences: artworks questioning and linking to these sciences. What dialogue with air pollution meteorology, weather modification, climate sciences and climate history;

- Weather and climate technologies: artworks questioning and linking to these technologies as space based global monitoring satellites and their databases, as well as remote sensing technologies;

- Sustainability: artworks engaged in alternative energy ressources or climate memories for example;

- Social and political action: weather and climate works which may spur new thinking for action on environments;

- Weather and climate perceptions and/or narratives: poetical perceptions/narratives of weather and climate phenomena. What for ontological issues about transience and mutability may be engaged in such artworks? Artworks engaged in weather and climate fiction (real or imaginary weather/climate phenomena, climates and weather phenomena on other planets).

The "Lovely Weather" Editorial Group on Art & Climate includes: John Cunningham, Annick Bureaud, Ramon Guardans, Drew Hemment, Julien Knebusch, Roger Malina, Jacques Mandelbrojt, Andrea Polli and Janine Randerson. A moderated discussion on the topic, moderated by Janine Randerson, will begin this fall on the YASMIN network: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

Author instructions:
Leonardo Journal: http://leonardo.info/isast/journal/editorial/edguides.html, Roger Malina, Executive Editor
Leonardo Transactions: http://www.leonardo-transactions.com/, Ernest Edmonds, Editor-in-Chief
Leonardo Electronic Almanac: http://leoalmanac.org/cfp/calls.asp, Nisar Keshvani, Editor-in-Chief
Leonardo Book Series: http://leonardo.info/isast/leobooks/guidelines.html, Sean Cubitt, Editor-in-Chief
Art & Climate Leonardo project: http://www.olats.org/fcm/artclimat/artclimat_eng.php
General Inquiries should be sent to: leonardolovelyweather@gmail.com

Attorney General nominee no friend of pirates

From DIYMedia:

Recently, former federal judge Michael Mukasey was nominated to be the next Attorney General of the United States. There's lots of punditry going on within the mainstream media about his past legal leanings (surprise, they're reactionary!), but Mukasey's also been involved in microradio case law to a degree not experienced by any other contemporary Attorney General. It was back in 1998, when the [Lower East Side-based] Steal This Radio collective preemptively sued the Federal Communications Commission in hopes of stopping a station raid or other major, life-threatening enforcement action.

STR's lawsuit was not the most well-thought-out piece of legal argument. It took a shotgun approach to the FCC’s licensing authority: some claims alleged the Communications Act itself was unconstitutional because it gave the FCC excessive latitude to restrict access to the airwaves via the licensing mechanism; one claim specifically attacked the practice of auctioning off commercial radio licenses for limiting "free expression" only to those who can afford it. Another posited the radio spectrum as a public forum, which necessitated the strictest scrutiny of government attempts to regulate it; under such analysis, the broadcast licensing regime was overly restrictive and therefore also unconstitutional.

Then-judge Michael Mukasey, working the Southern District of New York, first used a "jurisdictional wiggle" to avoid addressing some of STR's more substantive allegations. After doing so, he savaged their claims. Steal This Radio’s open display of lawlessness [on 88.7-FM] coupled with the scarcity rationale were enough to doom their case. However, Mukasey’s ultimate reasoning disqualified them based on the preemptive nature of their lawsuit - they had no standing to seek redress for harm not yet suffered, irrespective of whether the rights in question exist.

Now, as (possible) Attorney General, Michael Mukasey will not be adjudicating such cases any more. But he will be in a position to change the entire federal prosecutorial stance on select "crimes," such as unlicensed broadcasting, so as to give the FCC more muscle with which to pursue pirates. For example, Mukasey could write a memorandum cordially requesting all United States Attorneys to be more cooperative to the FCC's pleas for enforcing its fines and/or pursuing injunctions or other criminal-prosecution tools.

After all, Mukasey has personal experience with the issue, and a stance on crimefighting in general which borders on jack-bootery. It's just another reason why he isn't an optimal choice for the job.

One of the last great shortwave events?

From Kim Andrew Elliott via AP:

"Several prominent show business personalities and celebrities of Myanmar also echoed their support of the protests via shortwave radio and called on the public to join the growing protest." AHN, 24 September 2007. "Two leading Burmese actors, comedian Zaganar and heart-throb movie star Kyaw Thu, came to Shwedagon yesterday to bring food and water to the monks, witnesses said. Both men had spoken on shortwave radio urging people to support the protests." AFP, 25 September 2007. "Win Min, a Myanmar analyst who teaches at Chiang Mai University in Thailand, said prominent Myanmar actors and celebrities had spoken on shortwave radio to throw their support behind the rallies and to urge the public to join." AFP, 24 September 2007. "From a warehouse-like building in Norway's capital, a tiny broadcast network called the Democratic Voice of Burma is struggling to provide news and encouragement to countrymen rising up against the military dictatorship at home." -- AP, 24 September 2007.

A new push to address multiple ownership?

From Broadcast Law Blog:

Over a year ago, the FCC released its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on amendments to the FCC's multiple ownership rules. Issues from newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership, to local TV and radio ownership limits are all being considered. Our summary of the issues raised in the NPRM is available here. The FCC has been holding field hearings throughout the country on its proposals, gathering public comment on the proposals - the most recent having been held in Chicago last night. Only one more field hearing to go and the Commission will have conducted the six hearings that it promised. Many, including me, had felt that the timing was such that no decision in this proceeding could be reached until 2008 and, as that is an election year, the decision could quite well be put off until after the election to avoid making it a political issue. However, there are now signs that some at the FCC are gearing up to try to reach a decision late this year or early next - presumably far enough away from the election for any controversy to quiet before the election. With this push, others are expressing concern about a rush to judgment on the issues, and may well seek to delay it further.

Evidence of the FCC's increasing attention to the multiple ownership issues include the recent Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, asking questions about minority ownership and making proposals on how that ownership can be encouraged. The FCC has also asked for comment on several studies that it commissioned to look at the effects of ownership consolidation in the broadcast media. Comments on the Further Notice and the ownership studies are due on October 1, with replies due on October 15. Some have suggested that this time table is unnecessarily accelerated, especially as certain peer review documents on the ownership studies were just recently released.

At last night's Chicago field hearing, the two Democratic Commissioners expressed their concern about a rush to judgment. Commissioner Copps, in his remarks at the hearing, expressed concern over the short time frame given for comments on the issues raised by the Further Notice. Commissioner Adelstein suggested that the Commission appoint an independent panel of experts to review the ownership studies and report back to the FCC before any decision on the ownership rules is made.

At this week's Future of Music Policy Summit in Washington, DC, a legal assistant to Commissioner Adelstein expressed concern over this rush to reach a decision, suggesting that the Chairman wanted to see the decision out before his term ended, and was looking for a decision early next year. Several Congressional staffers on a panel about Capitol Hill activities that affect the music industry, as well as Senator Dorgan of North Dakota, all also expressed concerns about FCC action in this area, and indicated that both the House and the Senate intended to hold hearings on media consolidation this Fall, before any decision can be reached.

With battle lines being drawn, there are likely to be stormy times ahead in the multiple ownership debate. In 2003, with a Republican-controlled Congress, there were a number of bipartisan Congressional attempts to roll back the FCC's relaxation of the ownership rules before the Third Circuit Court or Appeals blocked most of those reforms. With a Democratic Congress, who knows what would come of any FCC relaxation of those rules in the coming months. But we may well see that issue play out - and perhaps become a political football in the upcoming elections.

XM satellite radio free POTUS '08 channel

XM channel 130 will be commercial-free, non-subscription channel from now until election day next year. Anyone with an XM radio, whether activated or not, will be able to receive it. XM radios can be bought on sale for $30 or less.

CellDar: Monitoring traffic via cell radiation

From Daily Wireless:

The Missouri Department of Transportation has begun anonymously monitoring cell phone signals as a high-tech way of tracking vehicle speeds and warning motorists of traffic jams. The goal is for motorists to get real-time traffic information over the Internet or road signs. Privacy concerns have slowed down the Missouri project - the largest of its kind nationally - which was supposed to have been deployed statewide by summer 2006 under a contract with Markham, Canada-based Delcan Corp.

Technology firms like Delcan and Atlanta-based AirSage (above) insist their data remain anonymous, leaving no way to track specific people from their driveway to their destination. The technology uses cellular signals to track car movements. Then it overlays that data with highway maps to estimate where the phones are and how fast they are moving. Lumping thousands of those signals together can indicate traffic flow. Many cities and states already measure traffic speeds and volumes by embedding sensors in pavement or mounting scanners along the road. But those methods can be expensive and take only a snapshot of traffic at a particular spot.

A recent study at Florida International University said nearly 30 companies and organizations claim to have the capability to provide real-time traffic data based on anonymous information gleaned from cell phones. But “the cell phone technology is not accurate in congested traffic conditions, where the data is more important than in the free-flow traffic conditions, and the accuracy decreases rapidly as the congestion increases,” according to the Florida report from this April. When it won the Missouri contract in December 2005, Delcan planned on using data from Cingular Wireless. But before the project could ever get started, Cingular opted out. “The cell phone company thought it just wasn’t worth the risk that the public might perceive their personal information was being used that way.”

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) raised concerns a couple years ago that once the cell phone data is collected and shared, it could end up being used for other government purposes such as law enforcement centers. Despite assurances to the contrary from the technology’s proponents, those concerns remain, said Lillie Coney, EPIC’s associate director. “The mission creep potential is there,” Coney said. “There are other ways of figuring out traffic patterns without having to go to something that’s so identifiable as a cell phone.”

It’s sounds similar to Celldar which exploits the RF signals radiated from ordinary cell base stations. BAE SYSTEMS and Roke Manor Research are teaming to develop CELLphone raDAR. Everything that moves can be tracked after subtracting static reflections. Lockheed-Martin is perhaps the best-known passive-radar champion, but others include Avtec Systems, Dynetics, and ONERA, the French counterpart of NASA. Lockheed-Martin’s system is dubbed Silent Sentry which tracked all air traffic over Washington, D.C., using FM and TV transmitters.

Evidence at Wave Farm

From Vonn New:

Last night (Sept. 19, 2007), I was invited to participate in a work-in-progress, "Channel Surfing" by the duo Evidence. Scott Smallwood and Stephan Moore, a/k/a Evidence, were finishing a week-long residency at the Wave Farm, a project of free103point9, transmission arts non-profit group.

This work made use of a series of FM broadcast signals of various low powers, a pile of assorted boom boxes, the 30-acre spread of the Wave Farm, and the natural curiosity and playfulness of about 10 participants.

When I arrived at the Wave Farm on this crisp, star-lit September evening, Stephan handed me an instruction sheet that included this: "Tonight, we are broadcasting sounds on several frequencies, which have been designed to be played simultaneously. Your participation completes the composition, as you mix and manipulate adjacent radio signals using the radio tuning dial, as well as your physical position and proximity to your radio's antenna. Each radio has a different character, and the air itself has a signal topology, which is yours to explore. A wide palate of textures, interferences, and interactions between the existing signals can be created through small adjustments of any of these controls, and we encourage you to experiment with this behavior."

The 85-minute piece gave me ample time to explore two modes of interaction. The first was highly active: fiddling with the tuning dial, playing with the antenna, walking around and exploring the edges of the low-power attenuation of the signals. The interplay of static and overlapping signals made a rich sound field. The second was less active. I tuned my radio to something interesting and set it down and then, using only my ears, wandered around the property listening to the sound field... or I sat still and listened while other participants wandered around me. At one point, Diana Slattery and I walked to the parking lot and tuned in the radio in my van.

Skot and Stephan made many recordings from field recording instruments and from the cassette decks in the boom boxes and will mix and process the materials into a future piece. I'll be sure to post a link when they have something for you to hear.

Alternatives to HD radio

From DIYMedia:

Believe it or not, "HD Radio" is not the only digital audio broadcast system in the world. Alternatives do exist: one of the most promising is Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) (which should not be confused with "digital rights management," a whole other (evil) animal), which has been jointly developed and deployed by some 30 countries around the world. It's an open-source standard, which has the potential to operate on either new or incumbent spectrum, and contains the potential to practically advance the service terrestrial broadcasting provides; it is not just a "better than analog" standard, featuring chimerical vaporware such as "buy buttons" for the download of digital music - services for which radio was not initially designed.

At present, while Digital Radio Mondiale is gaining traction around the world, it's all but been ruled out as a potential alternative to HD Radio in the United States, though that may be changing. A coalition of spectrum experts has been formed to advance the notion that broadcasters should be afforded the choice of picking between HD and DRM. As of now, this advocacy is restricted toward the possible deployment of Digital Radio Mondiale on the shortwave and AM bands only; although an FM version of the technology is under development, HD's relatively slow but steady adoption by U.S. FM broadcasters may make it a tough sell in the marketplace (even though some transmitter manufacturers are making dual-compatible HD/DRM transmitters, and there's no reason why receiver manufacturers couldn't follow suit).

On a related note, a coalition of public interest advocates, including the Prometheus Radio Project, Benton Foundation, Free Press, Media Access Project, New America Foundation, and the Center for Digital Democracy filed a petition for reconsideration of the FCC's latest report and order regarding the rollout of HD Radio. [Disclaimer: I provided some minor technical consultation to the authors of this document.] The petition asks the Commission to better justify the spectrum windfall it has handed to incumbent broadcasters - essentially letting them double or triple their footprints (and subsequent programming capacity) with no reasonable justification or renumeration (either in the form of cash or public interest program obligations).

It's anyone's guess whether the FCC will take these substantive critiques seriously and better defend its rationale, but my inkling is this (in conjunction like the coalition mentioned above) may be just the first volley in a long (albeit belated) public campaign for better accountability from both broadcasters and regulators - defining just what the "public interest" means in a digital radio world, and whether or not the anointed technological path to that world is the right one.

Newsweek: The secret lobbying campaign your phone company doesn't want you to know about

From Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Newsweek's top story today exposes the desperation of the telecommunications companies in light of cases like EFF's class-action lawsuit against AT&T, which accuses the telecom giant of assisting in the illegal surveillance of millions of Americans. The telecoms and the Administration are heaping pressure on Congress to get a 'get out of jail free' card for their role in helping the government spy on their customers:

"The campaign—which involves some of Washington's most prominent lobbying and law firms—has taken on new urgency in recent weeks because of fears that a U.S. appellate court in San Francisco is poised to rule that the lawsuits should be allowed to proceed. If that happens, the telecom companies say, they may be forced to terminate their cooperation with the U.S. intelligence community—or risk potentially crippling damage awards for allegedly turning over personal information about their customers to the government without a judicial warrant."

The telecom's worries are telling. Our case is representing a class of U.S. residential customers, and does not include any terrorists - just ordinary folks who use the phone and email. The per person penalties are quite reasonable - If the telecoms were not spying on millions of innocent Americans, there is no way for the liability to become "crippling."

Moreover, the Administration obtained prospective immunity in the so-called Protect America Act earlier this year. If the telecoms are only operating under the extremely broad parameters of the PAA, there is no liability reason to stop cooperating moving forward. And yet they are so worried about liability, they threaten to terminate their cooperation.

To achieve in Congress what they could not achieve in court, the telecoms are not holding back:

"Among those coordinating the industry’s effort are two well-connected capital players who both worked for President George H.W. Bush: Verizon general counsel William Barr, who served as attorney general under 41, and AT&T senior executive vice president James Cicconi, who was the elder Bush's deputy chief of staff.
Working with them are a battery of major D.C. lobbyists and lawyers who are providing "strategic advice" to the companies on the issue, according to sources familiar with the campaign who asked not to be identified talking about it. Among the players, these sources said: powerhouse Republican lobbyists Charlie Black and Wayne Berman (who represent AT&T and Verizon, respectively), former GOP senator and U.S. ambassador to Germany Dan Coats (a lawyer at King & Spaulding who is representing Sprint), former Democratic Party strategist and one-time assistant secretary of State Tom Donilon (who represents Verizon), former deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick (whose law firm also represents Verizon) and Brad Berenson, a former assistant White House counsel under President George W. Bush who now represents AT&T."

Somali troops attack radio station

From BBC:

Somali transitional government forces have laid siege to an independent radio station in Mogadishu for several hours. Shabelle reporters said soldiers deliberately targeted their office, firing shots through the windows.

One of the radio administrators, Jaffar Muhammad Kuukay, is quoted as saying that bullets damaged equipment and injured at least one person. Government troops had previously raided Shabelle Radio and detained 18 journalists after a grenade was thrown.

Both Shabelle and HornAfrik have been critical of the Ethiopian-backed transitional government and the Islamic militants who have been trying to topple the administration. "We do not know why they are targeting us," Mr Kukay said.

"On Saturday, they said a grenade was thrown at them from the Shabelle building. But now I do not know what they want." Shabelle and two other independent outlets, HornAfrik and IQK Koranic Radio, were briefly banned and taken off air in January and in June, prompting criticism from press freedom watchdogs. Last month, the owner and a radio presenter of HornAfrik were killed in separate attacks by unidentified gunmen.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused the transitional government of intimidating and persecuting Somali reporters. Joel Simon, the CPJ's executive director, said in a statement: "We call on the government to stop this harassment and to move its forces away from the main gates of the Shabelle Media Network offices."

Car WiFi radio: huge

From Daily Wireless:

Bridge Ratings says traditional and satellite radio will take a significant hit in listening about a decade after WiFi and WiMax technologies are available in-car.
Bridge Ratings surveyed consumers and device manufacturers and projects that WiFi in-car should reach more than 50 percent of the U.S. population after nine years of market availability.

According to Bridge, of the estimated 30 million users of wireless access technology in the U.S., 75 percent (23 million) have wireless-accessed Internet radio. In fact, 48 percent of those accessing the Internet via wireless technology seek out Internet radio. The number of Internet radio listeners accessing wirelessly will grow to 77 million by 2010 as wireless technology penetrates the U.S. lifestyle. The gating factor may be how quickly auto manufacturers are able to equip new cars. By the fifth year of in-car WiFi acceptance, traditional radio can expect to see the amount of time spent listening to fall below 19 hours a week; by year eight, when Bridge projects that more than 23 percent of the public will have adopted wireless Internet technology in-car, weekly time spent listening to traditional radio will fall below 18 hours per week.

By the ninth year of market availability the combination of natural market growth (1-2 percent per year) and a more effective effort at selling its Internet radio channels, traditional radio revenues could reach over $26 billion.

This can’t be good news for the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), with nearly 7,000 members including close to 6,000 stations in the U.S., and over 1,000 associate members in networks, representative firms, sales, and international organizations. Their figures indicate a combined local and national annual radio advertising revenue around $10 billion for the first half of 2007.

Live underwater cameras and microphones

For the next eight days, you can watch a live undersea camera via the Aquarius underwater ocean laboratory in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The laboratory is deployed three and half miles offshore, at a depth of 60 feet, owned by NOAA, and is operated by the NOAA Undersea Research Program’s (NURP) Undersea Research Center at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Cameras operate around the clock from inside and outside the research craft during missions, and sometimes divers go for swims with helmet cameras turned on. Watch here.

Underwater nature enthusiasts should also note the Nature Network, which has the OrcaLive feed of whales in Johnston Straight in the waters off Canada. The whale radio ends Oct. 31, but then they sink a camera in the South Pacific to watch sea turtles.
--Tom Roe

Make a foxhole radio

Click on link in headline to watch video demonstration of a simple, or foxhole, radio made out of a paper tube, wire, paper clips, a razor blade, and a pencil. (Image via Boing Boing.)

From Bre Pettis in Make magazine:

During World War II, GIs in the field built really amazing simple radios to listen too. These were made with materials that they could get their hands on and were small enough to carry around in a big pocket. You can modify this design if you want to set it up so that it's tuneable too!

Conflux festival, day 1

From Regine in We Make Money Not Art:

A few notes from Conflux Festival day one which runs until Sunday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The HQ is at the gallery The Change You Want to See, a space for projects at the intersection between art, activism and academia.

Christina Ray introduced this edition of the annual festival for psychogeography by reminding that it started in 2003 when a bunch of friends decided to set up an event where they would invite other people to come and explore the city with them. Conflux gathers artists and also people who wouldn't call themselves artists such as architects, activists, researchers, etc. This year there are over 100 artists selected. I'm not going to blog everything, just a few projects i particularly liked.

Here's my pick of the day:

free103point9/31 Down Radio Theater (Ryan Holsopple, you might remember his pay phone murder mystery project, Canal Street Station) presented Supplied by the Public which is currently working as Conflux radio station. The content of the radio station is made of calls from participants of the festival.

The calls (from public phones, cell phones, home phones) are streamed in real time over the Internet. The stream is also broadcast on a low power FM transmitter to the local area of the event for people to listen to via a wireless radio. The calls are archived and will repeat when no active calls are being broadcast. The project is inspired by Max Neuhaus's telephone/radio work, Public Supply (1966).

AM filing freeze while FCC accepts applications for a new AM in Rockland County, New York

From Broadcast Law Blog:

In a very unusual process - one that is probably unprecedented - the FCC last week announced that it is opening a window for parties to file applications for a new AM station to serve Rockland County, New York. AM stations are traditionally made available for filing on an on-demand basis - when the FCC accepts applications for new stations, parties can file in any location in the country, specifying any city of license that they select, as long as the station that they propose will not create interference to existing stations. This is unlike FM and TV, where there is a two step process - new channels are first allotted at specific locations based on a party's request, but that party gets no rights to the channel. Instead, after the allotment has been made, anyone can file for in a specified window seeking a construction permit to build the new station. In this window, the FCC has adopted a unique process for an AM stations, a process much more like that used in FM and TV. The Commission had been asked by a party for permission to operate a new station in Rockland County. Instead of simply permitting that party to build a station without competition, the FCC decided that a new station was necessary to provide emergency information about the nuclear power plant in the Rockland area, but determined that anyone could file for that channel. Applications for the channel (1700 AM - on the expanded band, for which there have been no applications for almost 10 years since the first set of expressions of interest were taken), will be accepted from October 1 through October 5.

In order to give parties the ability to prepare applications, the FCC is imposing a freeze on the filing of minor change applications for AM stations throughout the country during the filing window. Any minor change application that is filed during the window will be returned. So if you are planning an application for a technical change to your AM station, you need to plan to avoid that filing window.

Applications that are submitted in the window not only have to specify a community of license in Rockland County, but also must propose a coverage area serving the majority of the Rockland County portions of the evacuation area around the nuclear plant. Also, as a station operating in the expanded band, power is limited to 10 kw daytime and 1 kw nighttime. The initial application will be an auction "short form," filed pursuant to instructions that can be found here. If there are not differences between applicants that result in a decision under Section 307(b) of the Communications Act (evaluating the need for new radio service by the cities of license and coverage areas that will be served by the competing applicants), then the winning applicant will be selected by auction.

While certainly the Rockland County area has needs for local service, it would seem that this ad hoc AM window could set some dangerous precedents. Unlike FM stations that can be spaced as little as 65 miles apart on the same channel, AM stations can preclude operations on the same channel for hundreds of miles. By making a special decision to place a channel in Rockland County, the FCC may have precluded use of the channel in other communities around the country, without any evaluation of the needs for service in any of those other communities. These communities could be coastal communities that need to get alerts about hurricanes or other coastal storms, or communities under dams or near chemical factories or train tracks where dangerous conditions can arise. Will the Commission make channels available in each of these communities, or is there something so unique about this county that this special action is warranted? We will see whether this is a one-of-a-kind action, or the start of a new process of allotting new radio stations to dangerous communities.

RFID implants linked to animal tumors

From Cory Doctorow in Boing Boing:

VeriChip -- and other vendors -- have been busily implanting radio-frequency ID (RFID) chips in human and animal subjects ever since the FDA approved the process. But a series of studies conducted from 1996-2006 noted a high incidence of dangerous tumors arising at the sites of RFID implants -- something the FDA apparently did not consider when it approved the procedure.

Cancer or no, I wouldn't go near an RFID implant. These things don't have off-switches. They don't have disclosure policies. They don't have logs, or even notifiers. That means that you can't stop people from interrogating your RFID, you can't choose who gets to interrogate your RFID, you can't see who has polled your RFID -- and you can't even know when your RFID is being read. You wouldn't carry normal ID that behaves this way, but from London's Oyster Card to the DOT's FastPasses to the new US passports, these things are being stuck to our person in ever-greater numbers.

And while manufacturers claim that these things have inherent security because they can only be read from a few centimetres away, hackers have already ready them at more than 10m distance.

Leading cancer specialists reviewed the research for The Associated Press and, while cautioning that animal test results do not necessarily apply to humans, said the findings troubled them. Some said they would not allow family members to receive implants, and all urged further research before the glass-encased transponders are widely implanted in people.

To date, about 2,000 of the so-called radio frequency identification, or RFID, devices have been implanted in humans worldwide, according to VeriChip Corp. The company, which sees a target market of 45 million Americans for its medical monitoring chips, insists the devices are safe, as does its parent company, Applied Digital Solutions, of Delray Beach, Fla.

Latest reports on NYC microradio

Several reports from radio engineers posting to the New York Radio Message Board say that "pirate" radio activity in New York City is busier than ever. In Brooklyn, for instance, there are reports of FM stations on 91.9, 94.3, 95.1, 95.9, 96.5, 96.7, 97.5, 99.1, 99.3, 99.7, 99.9, 100.7, 101.5, 102.3, 103.1, 103.9, 104.7, 105.5, 106.1, 106.3, 107.1, and 107.9.

WHUT, the hip hop station on 91.9-FM evenings between 10 p.m. and midnight, is as strong as ever. A Hasidic pirate is allegedly using the 91.9 frequency (heard as far away as Westchester County) much of the rest of the week, and also airing on 1710-AM. Reportedly a station called "Red Hot Radio" is on 102.3, and it and another station on 95.1 are microcasting from E. 35th St. and Avenue H in Brooklyn.

Across the Hudson River from NYC, in Newark, New Jersey, there are reportedly pirates on 96.5 and 99.9.
--Tom Roe

OPEN CALL: Proposals for projects at Gallery Skolska

DEAI/setkání Association hereby opens a call for submissions for proposals of individual or collective artistic exhibition projects for Gallery Školská 28 during the year 2008–9 and a call for submissions for project proposals for artist's residencies at Open Studios Prague Dolní Počernice, an international residency program for artists and theoreticians for the year 2008–09. Deadline for submissions is October 1, 2007.

The kind of proposals sought for exhibitions and residencies is fairly open in terms of theme, medium, and the activities involved in proposed projects. However, the proposal must take into account the technical and functional limitations of the space, as well make sense within the space's historical exhibition record and sensibilities. This call is open to both Czech and foreign artists. For projects where long-term preparation and studio space are required, it is possible to combine a Gallery Školská 28 exhibition with an Open Studios artist's residency.

Projects will be evaluated by a five-member panel that will include: Prof. Pavel Baňka; Prof. Miloš Šejn, PhD.; the artist Krištof Kintera; Školská curator Dana Recmanová; and one other member yet to be determined. Selected projects will be furnished with physical space and technical and administrative support, according to the needs of the project and its creator(s). Selected projects will be entered into the Program Plan for 2008-09, whose realization is contingent on the financial resources of the year-long program. The panel's selections will be announced on the web page www.skolska28.cz on November 30, 2007.

Submissions must include a brief description of the proposed project, information on the artist's previous work, including images or any other relevant documentation. In the case of artist's residencies, the artist's preferred time period and length of time for the residency should be included. Submissions may be personally delivered Wed.–Fri. from 1 to 5 p.m. to Communication space Školská 28; or by post to this address: O.S. DEAI/setkání (KP Školská 28), Dlouhá 33, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic. Please clearly mark your parcel with the designation "2008." We do not accept proposals by e-mail. Your portfolio will be returned to you following the selection of projects, not later than the end of November. Please direct any questions concerning this call or the programs mentioned in it to Dana Recmanová by e-mail or personally by appointment. skolska28@skolska28.cz, tel. (+420) 731 150 179.

CA bill would ban forced subdermal RFID-tagging of humans

From Boing Boing:

California's senate passed a bill last week that bans the forced RFID tagging of humans (think: prisoners, employees, pedos out on the street who've done their time). The state senator who sponsored the bill described that scenario as the "the ultimate invasion of privacy." The bill is on its way to Governor Schwarzenegger's desk now; if it is signed into law, California would become the third state with such a ban on the books (along with Wisconsin and North Dakota).

Snip from Ars Technica post on this story:
"Senate Bill 362 'would prohibit a person from requiring, coercing, or compelling any other individual to undergo the subcutaneous implanting of an identification device,' and a similar version has already passed the state Assembly. Joseph Simitian, who came up with the idea, laments the fact that the RFID industry does not appear to find his idea a good one.

'I think it's unfortunate and regrettable that the industry hasn't come out in support of SB 362,' he said in a statement after the bill passed the Senate. 'I understand why we're having a robust debate about the privacy concerns related to RFID, but at the very least, we should be able to agree that the forced implanting of under-the-skin technology into human beings is just plain wrong. I'm deeply concerned that this isn't a given for the industry.'

OPEN CALL: LMCC Swing Space

You need space in lower Manhattan. LMCC has it. Swing Space is the missing link between temporarily vacant real estate and the artists who need that space to develop, create and present their work. Find out how we can hook you up with so you can make art happen. The application deadline is September 28, 5 p.m. Information sessions September 6 at 7:30 p.m. and September 12 at 4 p.m. RSVP required.

OPEN CALL: Field recordings via telephone

Bldgblog is looking for field recordings by phone. So if you're anywhere that seems sonically interesting over the next few weeks – a waterfall, a migratory bird preserve, a shuddering freight elevator, the Cornish coast, a screeching Red Line train, the International Space Station, a secret meeting between Bush and Ahmadinejad – feel free to give us a ring: +1 (206) 337-1474. You'll be connected to a voicemail account where you can simply hold your phone up high – and proud – and record whatever it is that you're listening to. Meanwhile, feel free either to leave a brief explanation of what it is we're hearing, or even call back and explain what sounds you've left for us to sort through. And then the best of the best will be played live on the radio in New York City – and podcast round the world – via DJ /rupture's weekly radio show on the incomparable WFMU, 91.1-FM.

The basic idea, if you're curious, is to open up the artistic possibilities of field recordings to anyone with a telephone – whether that's a mobile phone, a public phone, or even a phone attached to the wall in your kitchen. The results should prove that you can acoustically experience a landscape through the telephone. Tele-scapes. As it is, mobile phones in particular present us with an untapped microphonic resource; these roving recorders encounter different environmental soundscapes everyday – the insides of lobbies and elevators, cars stuck in traffic, windy beaches – yet we're so busy using them for conversation that we overlook (overhear?) their true sonic possibilities. The telephonic future of environmental sound art is thus all but limitless – and putting some of that on the radio is just fun.

OPEN CALL: Early Development Artist Residency Program at Three-Legged Dog

This program is predominantly for groups with budgets of between 5K and 25K. Applications are rolling. The selection cycle for Fall of 2008 ends on October 1, 2007. The selection cycle for Winter/Spring 2009 ends on January 1 2008. 3-4 artists will be chosen per season. The 3/4 artists are selected one year in advance of their season and spend the year as a cohort meeting regularly to discuss both their artistic and business challenges and successes. Residents are required at some point in their residency to open their studio to the public.

Each resident group that comes in to 3LD is expected to pitch in financially to the continuance of the facility. All artists pay a licensing fee extrapolated from a sliding scale dependent on a two-year financial history. This is a collective approach to ensuring that space and equipment can continue to be available to artists who need it. Studio C artists will be given residencies between 4 and 6 weeks @ $700 per week. 3LD will not fundraise for resident artists, however 3LD will work with them to devise a schedule and strategy based on each groups particular history and goals that if followed should result in organizational and financial growth. Any income earned by the artists while they are in their studio, the artists keep. Each group will manage their own box office through our account at TheaterMania, and will retain all earnings from any public showings. At the time of signing the license artists must pay 2 weeks worth of the fee. The day of load-in artists must provide a security deposit in the amount of one weeks fee. Please send any inquires and applications to:
Ms. Morgan von Prelle Pecelli
Artistic and Development Director, Emerging Artists
3-Legged Dog Art and Media Center
http://www.3ldnyc.org
80 Greenwich Street, NYC
t. 212.645.0374
m. 917.723.9642