What happens when GoogleDocs goes down? A good question.

All privacy concerns aside -- one of the problems with the whole "Software as a Service" angle is the non-proximity of the problem. If, like me you've been wondering what happens after 30 seconds lasts far longer than 30 seconds, it's an important reminder of the dangers of over-reliance on any one medium. Single points of failure suck -- it's a good thing I have local back-ups of all important GoogleDocs.

Back in December 2006, I organized the COMMONS Strategy Workshop at the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. Now, a year-and-a-half later, Google is getting into the game and is hosting a two-day, off-the-record strategy session to put the ideas behind the COMMONS Project into practice.

It's fantastic being here -- 25-30 incredibly brilliant folks from across North America & Europe working to solve the problem that there's far too little data available to network research. This data acquisition crisis is remarkably dangerous -- we very much do not know what's happening across the Internet, how to solve growing problems, or even whether the problems being claimed by ISPs are, in fact, real.

I'm hopeful that by cloistering ourselves off for a few days we'll generate ideas that can be put into practice, both in the short term and over time.

A lot of folks have been asking me for my take on the recent Google ex parte filing at the FCC.

Google put in its ex parte on Friday, March 21, 2008. The final draft of the document does reflect some of the input that the New America Foundation provided, but still offers proposals that are particularly discouraging for ad-hoc (decentralized networking).

Here's a brief synopsis:

1. Google (and 30+ other major corporations) are developing an open stack mobile system (a.k.a., the Android phone) as a part of the Open Handset Alliance and want to use the white space as a medium for these new technologies.

2. Google is offering, "to provide, at no cost to third parties, the technical support necessary to make these plans happen; this could include intellectual property and reference designs for underlying technologies, open geo-databases maintained by Google, and other supporting infrastructure."

3. Google is backing Motorola's plan for "a combination of geo-location (to protect broadcast TV) and beacons (to protect wireless microphones)."

4. Google is proposing a safe harbor on channels 36-38 for wireless microphones.

5. Google states that "the combination of geo-location, beacons, and 'safe harbors' is more than sufficient to ensure the protection of all licensed uses."

6. Google reiterates that the technology has already been proofed out in the Darpa XG project and that DARPA XG systems are now in use by the military (the field deployment was new information): "widely used 802.11a-based WiFi currently supports spectrum sensing to protect military radar from interference. Moreover, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) neXt Generation (XG) program has graduated from lab experiments to field use of the technology. Both examples represent an important existence proof for the viability of spectrum sensing, where the risks of failure inarguably are far greater than those potentially posed to broadcast TV and wireless microphones."

7. Google asks for the creation of a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to explore the geolocational/beacon solution.

You can read the March 21, 2008 Google ex parte here.

With all the hubbub surround recent mergers and acquisitions, we over at New America felt we should get into the game. While we can't afford the whole company, we have managed to get an employee. Here's the release that's going out widely today...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 7, 2008

Contact: Jerry Irvine, (301) 801-3356, irvine@newamerica.net
Google CEO Eric Schmidt Appointed as Chairman of New America Foundation's Board of Directors

(Washington, D.C., February 7, 2008)- The New America Foundation, a nonpartisan ten-year-old think tank headquartered in Washington D.C., announced today the appointment of Dr. Eric Schmidt, the chairman and chief executive of Google, Inc., as the new chairman of New America's Board of Directors.

Dr. Schmidt, who has been a member of the New America board since the policy institute's founding, will succeed James Fallows, the author and national correspondent of the Atlantic. Fallows will remain on New America's board after the transition, which will take place on June 1st; Fallows was New America's founding board chairman.

"New America is a place where first-rate scholars are producing concrete, creative solutions for some of our nation's biggest challenges," said Dr. Schmidt. "I'm proud to be associated with the Foundation and look forward to helping shape its work and future."

"New America's influence and excellence over this last decade exceed what any of its founders could reasonably have expected," said Fallows. "We couldn't be more fortunate than to have Eric Schmidt devote some of his time, intelligence, and public-mindedness to New America's next stage of growth."

Dr. Schmidt's election to the chairmanship coincides with the arrival at New America of a new president and chief executive, the journalist Steve Coll, a staff writer at The New Yorker and former managing editor of the Washington Post who has twice received the Pulitzer Prize. Coll succeeded New America founder Ted Halstead last September; Halstead remains a New America board member.

"New America's success has been built on innovation and the search for promising new voices in scholarship, policy and journalism," Coll said. "Building cultures of innovation and seizing on breakthrough ideas has been the hallmark of Eric Schmidt's extraordinary career in Silicon Valley, and most recently at Google. New America has long benefited from Eric's counsel and support, and everyone here is delighted about his new role, which will strengthen the Foundation immeasurably in the years ahead."

One of New America's priorities during the next several years, Coll said, is to evolve toward a "digital think tank" model that will use new technologies to improve the Foundation's reach; to generate innovative research and develop new ideas; and to create networks of expertise around the most important issues facing the United States in domestic and international policy arenas.

"New America has experienced tremendous growth and success by trying to work outside of the traditional think tank categories and boundaries," Coll said. "We remain focused on our investments in great people, great ideas, and great scholarship and journalism, but we are searching for new ways in which our scholars and researchers can make themselves heard, and make a difference in national life - and we think new technology can be an important part of these ambitions."

"Generating ideas about public policy is still a very traditional business," said Fareed Zakaria, the author and editor of Newsweek International, and a New America board member. "Eric brings high intelligence and erudition, of course, but also a fresh perspective and focus on innovation that will be extremely valuable."

Dr. Schmidt earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Princeton University and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley. He rose to become Chief Technology Officer at Sun Microsystems, from where he was recruited to become Chairman and Chief Executive of Novell. He became Chairman and Chief Executive of Google in 2001.

Working with founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Dr. Schmidt has helped Google to become one of the world's most important companies - an innovator in Internet strategy, technology and corporate culture.

The New America Foundation is a nonprofit public policy institute whose purpose is to bring exceptionally promising new voices and new ideas to the fore of American public discourse. Relying upon a venture capital approach, the Foundation invests in outstanding individuals and policy solutions that transcend the conventional political spectrum. Headquartered in Washington D.C., New America also has offices in California.

The Foundation has made a significant impact on a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues since its inception in 1998. With about 100 staff and Fellows and an annual budget of $13.5 million, New America has twelve domestic and foreign policy programs, in addition to a Fellows Program and a California Program.

To arrange an interview and for more information, please call Jerry Irvine at (301) 801-3356 or e-mail irvine@newamerica.net, and visit www.newamerica.net.

Seems everywhere I turn I can't help but notice that Google's business decision to collaborate with the Chinese government to censor Internet content has been widely frowned upon. So it's with great trepidation that I read about possible censorship of content by Google right here in the US (thanks to Stephen Mansour for passing this info along):

From: www.travolisblog.com

News stories have reported Google’s decision to censor content within China. But is Google also censoring content in the USA? Searching for "big boom" on Google’s own video search service returns a listing for this video of an IED explosion. The description is as follows:

17 sec - Oct 25, 2004
"Detonation of Improvised Explosive Device used against Coalition forces. We found this one before they could use it against us."

 Instead of a video playing, a message appears, stating:

"This video is not playable in your country."

In your country? My country is the United States of America! This is a standard Cox Communications cable connection located in Virginia, USA. Checks with several friends indicate that this "not available" message is showing up in the United States, but friends in Canada and South America are able to view the video. Military operations are certainly a point of controversy right now, but I would expect Google to present all available information within our democratic borders. Is Google censoring information in the United States? 

Update: There are several of these censored videos.