The use of FACCTS was suggested by Dr. Gillette to be a useful tool for preparing for the Accenture challenge. I wouldn't know. I wasn't the primary researcher on my team.
I can't speak to the use of FACCTS for Accenture. However, I can speak to what I have seen of it. I have had the opportunity to get a few views of the database tool during meetings with Dr. Gillette and our 221J staff, and on a few brief occassions alone.
Here is what I found of the service. It is quick and well organized. The content is organized into categories and getting to an article only takes a few clicks. With these positives comes a few negatives. There was a small amount of scrolling to be done on the FACCTS pages. Not a major concern, but it has been my exprience that the most user friendly websites limit to the greatest extent possible the ammount of scrolling that must occur. Also, the navigation system seems lacking. To get up a level or two, the user must click on the BACK button of the browser. There doesn't appear to be a navigable system for browsing the site.
Other that the few minor qualms I had with the user experience, I found FACCTS to be a powerful industry tool that warrants further investment.
Greetings. This is my first entry in the "Information Renaissance" blog. I have what I feel is a perfect piece for this intial entry.
I attended a speech by Barry Umansky, The Edmund F. and Virginia B. Ball Endowed Chair of Telecommunications, last Wednesday. The theme was Muncie Media in the Year 2014: Predicting a Day in Your Life.
Umansky discoursed on how convergence of traditional media and new divergent media (including those that will be possible via broadband over powerline and high capacity wireless) will lead to people becoming "Individual Gatekeepers." Of particular interest to CICS-types was his inference that Software Defined Radio might be an answer to spectrum problems, "for a price"
I'd love to entertain your questions about the presentation. E-mail me or ask me around the IRC sometime. In the meantime, I'm presenting as a courtesy to everyone my notes from Barry Umansky's presentation... (these were scribbled quickly during the speech, so I apologize for any spelling or grammar errors... the notes are in the extended entry!)
-Tony
Barry Umansky:
Bracken Library
1. Barry Umansky: 3rd endowed chair of TCOM
1.1 WCRD/WWHI faculty advisor
1.1.1 Purchased license from Muncie Community Schools for $1 (worth $600,000)
2. Steve Bell (first endowed chair): “a high standard for BSU speeches” (Umansky)
3. Umansky bio
3.1 Broadcaster
3.2 FCC
3.3 NAB (National Association of Broadcasters)
3.4 Private legal practice in DC
4.
4.1 No “2001” yet
4.2 Picture Phones (developed by Bell Labs)
4.3 Monoliths? (perhaps Clear Channel is…)
4.4 “HAL” is here
5. Media Convergence
5.1 Digital Communication
6. The movie “Network”
7. 2014 or 1994 30 years later
7.1 privacy & preferences
8. Components
8.1 technology
8.2 programming
8.3 consolidation
8.4 spectrum
8.5 Gatekeepers
8.6 Privacy
8.7 Broadband Wireless
9. The FCC, other interests – “Forks in the road”
9.1 Rights to transmit and receive information
9.2 New Bush spectrum policy
9.3 Re-allocations
9.3.1 Spectrum auctions
10. Technological hedonism
11. New antenna and wireless options
12. Localism: key to survival in the early days
12.1 community involvement
12.2 compete with newspapers
13. Stations should focus on the brand, not the towers
13.1 People become individual gatekeepers
13.2 dockable portable devices
13.3 Advertisement/product placements
14. The government will never relinquish control
14.1 The FCC has evolved into a “morals and vice squad”
15. Broadband over powerline
16. All roads lead to the home: media convergence
16.1 The Internet: key conduit
17. Future of over the air TV
17.1 interests: FCC, Congress, White House, Courts, State and Local Government
17.2 Multimedia broadcasting
18. 19.4 Mbps over 6 MHz
19. Better reception over service area
20. Slow rollout
20.1 Cable operators reluctant to carry DTV
20.2 The Emmis concept: multicasting
20.3 DTV on a steep curve in sales
20.4 DirecTV/Echostar merger shot down
21. Digital radio
21.1 Sirus/XM
21.2 Over the air: inband, on-channel
21.2.1 iBiquity Digital
21.3 No need to protect channel six any longer
21.3.1 More ERP for BSU’s FMs
22. 1996 TCOM act
22.1 VoIp
22.2 Co-ownership of Newspaper/TV
22.2.1 flexible fibers substitute for “paper” to allow for moving images
23. Media storage
23.1 cryptographic wrappers allow for DRM
23.2 digital picture frames
24. Billboard retinal scanning
25. Video games as advertising vehicles
26. Personal gatekeepers?
26.1 music as model
26.1.1 equilibrium of downloading legit, DRM music
26.2 Online Renaissance
27. What is the public interest?
27.1 “It’s the interest of a majority of FCC commissioners”
28. Consolidation’s future
29. Anti-trust is not a though in the current DC environment
30. Oligarchy of Media Barongs
30.1 diversified ownership; diversified content
31. 48% fewer owners
32. “nobody home” in emergencies at radio stations
32.1 courts stuffed FCC ownership rules in 2004; more consolidation
32.2 divesture unlikely
32.3 extract localism by placing more requirements on broadcasters (artificial localism)
33. Indecency and it’s futures
33.1 Courts may toss rules
34. Report only the good news?
35. “Spiritual Machines” by Kurzweil
36. Streamed and downloadable future
36.1 You’ll be the gatekeeper
36.2 embrace new technology
36.2.1 Issue for HFI???
36.3 move to Pay Access
36.3.1 “For a price”
37. Software Defined Radio
37.1 Spectrum access “for a price”
38. Personal gatekeepers: myopic society?
38.1 We’ll still need some media aggregators?
39.
39.1 TiVO system
40. Radio survives?
40.1 localism vs satellite services
41. Do we care about who owns the spectrum? (Steve Talbert’s question!!)
41.1 other issues beside content regulation
41.2 effects of programming on people
41.2.1 commissioner Roth doesn’t own a TV
42. Information have nots
42.1 People who can’t pay $2000 for a TV set
42.1.1 Set top devices?
42.2 Is a portion of DTV services enough?
42.3 TV stamps (like food stamps)
42.3.1 incentive for tax payers?
42.3.1.1 balanced deficit?
43. BPL vs Cable MSOs