Ars Technica

These are people like Sascha Meinrath of the New America Foundation, a creative advocate of open networks who has done work on white spaces and the new ...

Current research projects simply have a "massive shortcoming in data collection and analysis," Sascha Meinrath of New America explained to Ars. According to ...

Eric Schmidt spoke at an event sponsored by the New America Foundation. He argued that the green lining in the economic implosion is that it has created demand for a massive domestic stimulus, opening the door to large-scale public works programs of the sort undertaken by Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression. LINK

As surrogate Reed Hundt stressed at a New America Foundation event last week, he also envisions a more transparent and participatory government that makes more information available online, and provides venues for citizens to provide feedback on pending legislation or regulation. LINK

The white space battle has made progress in part because of the advocacy of groups like Free Press, Public Knowledge, the New America Foundation, and the Media Access Project. LINK

Among the panel speakers was New America Foundation scholar Michael Calabrese, who addressed an otherwise neglected argument offered against white spaces by broadcasters: The claim that auctioning white spaces for licensed use could provide a financial windfall to a cash-strapped government. Drawing on a freshly-released NAF working paper, Calabrese argued that industry estimates of some $10 billion in revenues from a white space auction were based on a flawed comparison between the "Swiss cheese" of white space bands and bands in the 700 MHz range, which are suitable… more

Take the question of spectral availability. While this might seem one of the easiest to settle-is more than half of US TV spectrum lying fallow or is it not?—the answer isn't obvious. The New America Foundation, a think tank that supports white space devices, claims that 25 to 80 percent of TV bandwidth is unused, depending on where you look. When the group hosted Google co-founder Larry Page at a DC event a few months back, Page also spoke of… more

Critics of US spectrum policy will have plenty of ammunition for their howitzers after reading the new working paper (PDF) from J.H. Snider of the New America Foundation. Snider heads up the Wireless Future Program at New America, and his paper offers an inside look at the sometimes-dirty world of spectrum lobbying, which Snider characterizes as responsible for a $480 billion giveaway from the public treasury. The giveaway in question comes after Congress passed… more