The White House Pillars getting painted Blue, Red, Yellow and Green by Google



In an effort to influence online advertising regulation and other issues, Google spent $1.34 million in Washington, D.C. on federal lobbying during the second quarter, up 41 percent from the same period a year ago, according to nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Consumer Watchdog.

The company now has spent $2.72 million lobbying during the first half of the year, according to reports filed with the Senate Office of Public Records.

Other issues Google has been and continue lobbying for include patent reform, consumer privacy issues, cyber security as it relates to cloud computing, health information and privacy, renewable energy policies, censorship, cloud computing for government and broadband access. Read more of this post

Google Lobbying Spending Increases in First Quarter


by
Elias Shams

Since the rise of  Obama Administration, I noticed Eric has been hanging out in DC at least once a week. I was always wondering about that. Now, I know.

Google spent $1.3 million on lobbying efforts during the first quarter, up 57% to $1.38 million from $880,0000 over the same period last year, according to DC-based consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, citing public records filed on Tuesday. Google is increasingly finding itself at the helm of many regulatory cases. read more…

The Good The Bad and The Ugly Of The National Broadband Plan

I am half way through the 376-page National Broadband Plan document that FCC submitted to The Congress a few weeks ago, and I already,  sense that we will be watching the 21th century version of the  classic 1966 movie – The Good The Bad And The Ugly soon. To enjoy reading the post,  you may want to play the clip below as you scroll down. There is no need to watch the video, as it is only the sound track :-)


read more…

Dear beloved Wireless Carriers, Please go Green and take us with you


This post is not really a Washington, DC thing unless you are in the telecom space or you lobby for a telecom carrier. The fact is that all the US telecom and mobile service providers have a strong lobby in our nation’s capital, I figured that I would give them and you my 2 cents on telecom operators and the path they should take to go GREEN. I am a telecom geek anyway!

So, if you are a wireless operator or you are lobbying for them, I hope you are taking notice.

I’ve been following this for years since my virginity broke at the age of 22. Not sure what the connection was, but, yes 22! depressing :-( isn’t it? Not the non-green thing, the virgin till 22 thing :-( Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a retard or geek in my teen. The thing is, I was 13 when I realized girls were different than boys :-( By the time, I was gonna a do something about it, an Islamic revolution happened…Then, there was a war with Iraq… Believe me sir! I knocked on every door – cat, dog, goat, every door! nothing!!! So, I was around 21 1/2 when I got off the boat, landed in this great new country of mine, USA, and finally… :-) It was a beautiful goat in a barn in some ville town in West Virginia on July 28, 1985 at 2:38:45 p.m EST. No wonder they say Virginia for lovers! I still carry her picture in my wallet. Here she is :-) aaah…Just look at that smile —>

Anyway, back to the green technology. This has been a very interesting topic since the first Earth Day in 1970 when I was only a little boy. However, momentum behind environmentally friendly public policy and business practices has dramatically picked up over the past 15 year or so. There has been more focus on it since the rise of Obama administration in our beloved Washington, DC. Not to mention the global recognition of the need to protect the environment for future generations has also increasingly become a central issue that is now shaping behaviors in both the public and private sectors.

The good news is, subscribers of all age groups are now expressing awareness of and interest in ecofriendly device and service incentives. Such issues were not even a talking point a couple of years back. According to a report by ABI Research, almost half of North American mobile consumers are likely to be influenced by suppliers’ green credentials when buying telecom services or devices. Of 1,000 respondents:

- 41 percent said they would be significantly more likely to buy services from telecom providers with green credibility,
- 45 percent said they would be more likely to buy devices from telecom companies that are seen as green.

Respondents were asked whether they would be more likely to buy mobile services or mobile handsets from an operator with “green” initiatives, described as one that “gives money to organizations seeking to help the environment, actively employs programs that reduce its carbon footprint and buys network equipment from green equipment vendors.”
Read more…

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