Internet, radio and TV are key tools​ for connecting local communities with their government, said city, anchor institution and public broadcast officials Friday. "Technology helps us narrow the gap between government and its complicated processes, and our residents,” said Philadelphia Chief Data Officer Tim Wisniewski at the Technology Learning Collaborative annual conference there. The city seeks to encourage innovative uses of open data by developers and overhaul the city’s website to better engage local citizens, he said: “Technology on its own just looks really neat. The only way to truly improve civic engagement with government is through empathy.” The city is seeking beta testers for its new website, beta.phila.gov, and plans to test usability at the city’s Keyspot computer labs across the city over the next couple of months, he said. The presidential election makes digital literacy an even more critical issue for Philadelphians, said Free Library of Philadelphia Director Siobhan Reardon. “We have an opportunity in the next three weeks” as the political parties’ presidential nominees try to win Pennsylvania, a key battleground in the election, she said. “It’s a giant opportunity for us to get in front of these candidates to ensure that our agenda around literacy, around information [and] informed citizenry are in front of these people.” Reardon also highlighted the importance of making PCs available to communities, and also accessible. People must be able to get to the computers to use them, so the Free Library launched an effort to increase accessibility at each of its libraries, she said. While not as fresh as the internet, radio and TV remain important channels for community media, said PhillyCAM Executive Director Gretjen Clausing. PhillyCAM is the city’s public access TV provider and licensee of WPPM(LP). Radio and TV aren’t mere “legacy media,” she said. “I see these as incredibly … important and vibrant platforms.” PhillyCAM provides training in TV and radio production to empower people to report and have conversations about their communities, she said. WPPM, dubbed "people powered media," which covers a two-mile radius in Center City and went on the air for the first time Thursday, wouldn’t have been possible without congressional and FCC actions in the past five years on low-power FM radio, Clausing said.

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force's proposed repacking plan will be published in Monday's Federal Register, said an advance notice. Comments are due (see 1610040076) Oct. 31, replies Nov. 15.

Facebook "in the weeks ahead" will permit more posted items that people think are "newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest -- even if they might otherwise violate our standards," wrote Joel Kaplan, vice president-global public policy, and Justin Osofsky, vice president-global operations and media partnerships, in a Friday blog post. They said they will work with the community and partners -- including journalists, law enforcement officials, photographers, publishers, safety advocates and others -- to figure out how to do this through new tools and enforcement approaches. But they said the goal is to allow more images and stories that won't pose safety risks or show graphic images to children and others who may not want to see them. The company has tried to respect local norms, which may deem images of nudity or violence offensive or illegal, while trying to uphold global practices, they said. The social media website was recently criticized for removing -- and then reinstating -- the iconic Vietnam War-era photo of a naked, crying girl running from a napalm attack. Facebook has also faced criticism for how it reviews popular news stories before posting them prominently on users' feeds (see 1610140054).

A suspected distributed denial of service attack against DynDNS early Friday resulted in outages or latency for many websites that use the service. The attacks primarily affected users on the East Coast. Dyn confirmed that a DDoS attack against its servers began at 7:10 a.m. EDT, with service restored by 9:20 a.m. Dyn said it subsequently began “monitoring and mitigating” a new DDoS attack by mid-day. Amazon Web Services said it began experiencing outages and latency at 7:31 a.m. EDT, but operations returned to normal by 9:10 a.m. GitHub was “one of the sites affected” by the DDoS attack, a spokeswoman said. Airbnb, Etsy, Netflix, Reddit, SoundCloud, Spotify, Tumblr and Twitter were among the other sites experiencing outages or connectivity issues. Sony said some of its PlayStation services were still “experiencing issues” at our deadline. Dyn didn't confirm the size or origin of the DDoS attacks. The Department of Homeland Security is “investigating all potential causes” of the attacks, a spokeswoman said.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy unveiled an initiative Friday that the administration dubbed “Harnessing the Small Satellite Revolution,” touting relevant steps in a fact sheet. “NASA will establish a Small Spacecraft Virtual Institute at Ames Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley early in 2017” that will act “within the agency to promote relevant programs, guidance, opportunities, and best practices, as well as share lessons learned on smallsat missions,” the fact sheet said. “NASA is also working to standardize its management practices associated with smallsat missions to reduce the administrative burdens associated with them in comparison to larger, more traditional space missions.” The Commerce Department will expand the Space Commerce Office’s role “to reflect the growing importance of commercial space as a driver of economic growth, productivity, and job creation” and “enable the Office’s Director to advise the Secretary of Commerce on commercial space issues and the office to coordinate policy on critical issues such as licensing, export controls, export promotion, and open data,” it said. “This will enable the Office’s Director to advise the Secretary of Commerce on commercial space issues and the office to coordinate policy on critical issues such as licensing, export controls, export promotion, and open data.” The White House earlier this month pledged $50 million toward small satellite tech (see 1610130001).

A workplace retaliation lawsuit brought by an FCC employee (see 1609300016) raises red flags about "the prevailing institutional culture" there, with the agency seemingly unconcerned about pornography viewing in the workplace, said Tech Knowledge Director Fred Campbell in a piece in Forbes Thursday. "When the head of the FCC office responsible for promoting business opportunities for women condones loud and conspicuous porn watching by a group of males in a cubicle adjacent to a female employee and admits to using his own office in the FCC as a location for sex, there is evidence of a problem that should be addressed by more than an aggressive legal defense." According to an ongoing suit, the head of the Office of Communications Business Opportunities turned a blind eye to such workplace porn watching, with an employee who complained about it suffering discipline. That same boss, OBCO Chief Thomas Reed, reportedly also had sex in his office with a Washington Post reporter (though not one covering the FCC) who later became his wife. Reed reportedly was not disciplined. Reed and the FCC didn't comment.

The FCC’s scrapped Critical Information Needs study threatened free expression, Commissioner Ajit Pai said in a speech accepting The Media Institute’s Free Speech award Wednesday evening at a dinner we attended. His office has "had success in calling attention to government initiatives that threatened our constitutional freedoms,” he said. “This study involved researchers funded by the agency that licenses television stations going into broadcast television newsrooms and asking questions about editorial judgment.” The FCC canceled the study in 2014 in the face of widespread public opposition and questions from legislators (see 1403040033). Though Pai wrote in The Wall Street Journal attacking the CIN studies as an FCC overstep, he downplayed its part in the agency eventually scrapping the study. “What compelled the FCC to stop was the opposition of Americans from around the country and across the political spectrum,” he said. Pai said an increasing culture of censorship on college campuses is connected with policies designed to prevent offensive speech. “This progressive impulse to squelch speech on college campuses is anything but progressive,” Pai said. “An academic culture pervaded by safe spaces, trigger warnings, and a fear of ‘microaggressions’ must be challenged if America is to preserve the first freedom embedded in our Bill of Rights.” Pai also criticized the CIN study during a speech at a 2014 Media Institute event (see 1411190060)

The FCC didn't put a business data service order on its Oct. 27 meeting agenda released Thursday, which did include a broadband privacy order (see 1610200044) and other items. The BDS order wasn't expected to be on the Oct. 27 agenda, but Chairman Tom Wheeler plans to seek a vote on it at the Nov. 17 meeting, said an industry official Wednesday (see 1610190046). TDS Telecommunications, U.S. TelePacific, Uniti Fiber, Public Knowledge and others made BDS filings posted Thursday in docket 16-143. Also on the Oct. 27 meeting agenda are: enforcement items on Locus Telecommunications, Lyca Tel, Touch-Tel and NobelTel; consent agenda items on two station matters and a Freedom of Information Act request handled by the Office of General Counsel; and three personnel actions. Previous personnel items were approved in party-line votes at the September meeting (see 1610030045).

The Department of Commerce’s National Technical Information Service selected Amazon, HP and 33 other firms Wednesday to be joint venture partners on federally funded data projects. The partnerships are aimed at accelerating “the data innovation process by quickly connecting private sector experts with agencies striving to create smart cities, deliver critical public services, enhance operational excellence or improve accessibility and interoperability among national data sets,” said NTIS Director Avi Bender in a news release. “We expect the new data science platforms, tools and apps created through these partnerships to help agencies save time and money through innovative, effective ways to manage data in carrying out their mission and operations.” NTIS said it selected the 35 joint venture partners through a merit review of submitted proposals.

Yahoo, criticized for scanning customers emails at the behest of the government, is urging Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to provide clarity about national security orders issued to obtain user data (see 1610050038). In a Wednesday letter to Clapper, Yahoo General Counsel Ron Bell said media reports mentioned the company's involvement with the "alleged classified order," but "we find ourselves unable to respond in detail. Your office, however, is well positioned to clarify this matter of public interest." Bell is asking Clapper to confirm whether the order was issued, declassify the order, if it exists, in whole or in part, and "make a sufficiently detailed public and contextual comment to clarify the alleged facts and circumstances." An ODNI spokesman emailed, “we can confirm that we have received the letter and will respond to Yahoo directly.”