Breaking the Cycle of Internet Repression

"If you want to liberate a society," said Egyptian Arab Spring activist Wael Ghonim, "just give them the Internet."




In retrospect, Ghonim should have qualified his statement to include the kind of Internet free societies need. For as online tools have become standard issue for protest movements worldwide, governments have heightened efforts to remake digital networks as a means of censorship and surveillance.




Today, the optimism about free speech and the Internet that emerged during Egypt's 2011 uprising has been dashed by the Morsi and Sisi regimes, which have silenced online and traditional media and imprisoned dozens of journalists.

Occupy Wall Street. Oct. 2011. (Photo: Timothy Karr)

In January, Egypt's Interior Ministry drafted legislation that would censor websites that "instigate terrorism," according to a report in Al Sherooq Sites the Ministry singled out for monitoring include Facebook, which has become a popular channel for Egyptians to report local news, connect with a larger community and voice their dissent.



It doesn't end there. This cycle of Internet optimism and despair repeats itself wherever people take to the streets and the Web to organize and report on large-scale protests.



President Vladimir Putin's signing of a law to register and monitor Russia's most widely read bloggers is just the latest reaction by authorities to the global blossoming of protest voices in new media.



By many accounts, Turkey's Gezi Park protests of 2013 were the country's high-water mark for online organizing and reporting. But after clearing the park, the Erdogan government imposed a ban on Twitter and YouTube.




A constitutional court decision to rescind the Twitter ban in April hasn't stopped the repression. The regime has shuttered local websites without court orders and collected Web-browsing data on individuals. Earlier this week, courts sentenced newspaper columnist Önder Aytaç to 10 months in prison for a single tweet insulting the prime minister.




In Kiev, during this past winter's Euromaidan protests, some of the best reporting came from a community of live streamers -- people using smartphone cameras, streaming apps and network connections to provide viewers worldwide with a live video record of protests.



And yet the aftermath in Ukraine has featured a crackdown against journalists so severe that OSCE Media Freedom Representative Dunja Mijatovic has had to intervene almost daily to protect journalists from censorship, surveillance, harassment, kidnapping and imprisonment.



The Arab Spring and other protest movements have evolved into a digital game of cat and mouse: Online activists and new media journalists devise ingenious new ways to get around firewalls to connect with others and report from the streets while repressive regimes deploy new technologies to turn the Web into a surveillance and censorship machine.



Today, when asked whether the Internet has been a force for good or evil, media scholar Zeynep Tufekci likes to answer "Yes."



In other words, it's both the best of times and the worst of times for the free speech rights the network is supposed to support.



To break the cycle of repression we must look more closely at the tools protesters and reporters use and ask whether they further the cause of freedom -- or just make speakers more vulnerable.



These tools fall under four categories:



1. Devices



The most immediate are the devices -- primarily smartphones -- now in the hands of hundreds of millions of people. Both protesters and reporters have pressed their phones into service to document and stream live events during occupations at Gezi Park, Tahrir Square, Zuccotti Park and beyond.



In most every setting reports have emerged of authorities targeting smartphone users for arrest or harassment.



Cellphones are also vulnerable to snooping. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, smartphone users sacrifice their anonymity, locations, privacy and even control of their devices to authorities using sophisticated intercept technologies.



We must support policies that defend everyone's right to record while adopting better technologies and applications to protect devices from shutdown and surveillance.



2. Applications



"Hosting your political movement on YouTube is a little like trying to hold a rally in a shopping mall, writes Ethan Zuckerman of MIT's Center for Civic Media. "It looks like a public space, but it's not -- it's a private space, and your use of it is governed by an agreement that works harder to protect YouTube's fiscal viability than to protect your rights of free speech."



The same can be said for Facebook, Twitter and most every other application protesters and journalists use. Zuckerman compares social media executives to "benevolent despots" who use corporate terms of service -- not First Amendment principles -- to govern their decision-making about content.



To be more accountable and transparent to users, these platforms must allow a full public view of every decision to block content. And these sites should invite feedback from users as a check against abuses.



3. Networks



In extreme cases, including Bay Area Rapid Transit's decision to block cellphone services during a 2011 protest, authorities have shut down networks. A more insidious approach involves filtering network content to identify -- and even locate -- speakers and block their communications.



Intelligence agencies worldwide have acquired network-intercept technology from a multibillion-dollar surveillance industry that has few reservations about selling its wares even to the most repressive regimes.



U.S. network providers have handed intelligence agencies the metadata on millions of customers while lobbying Washington to lift Net Neutrality protections that prevent them from blocking or degrading communications.



To protect networks we need laws that right the imbalance between privacy and national security. And we must restore Net Neutrality to give users full control of their online experience.



4. Audiences



Technology has turned reporting into a two-way conversation between journalists and the their audiences. While audiences -- or what journalism scholar Jay Rosen calls "the people formerly known as 'the audience'" -- aren't technically tools, they do play a very important role in this new-media feedback loop. And the loop works best only when everyone can participate via open and secure networks.



According to the International Telecommunications Union, only 40 percent of the world's population uses the Internet. And higher rates of usage are concentrated in developed countries (in contrast, only 16 percent of people in Africa have access).



If we're to realize Wael Ghonim's vision of a liberating Internet, we can't just protect the network from censorship and surveillance. We also need to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to connect.



Media technology has changed, but our free speech rights haven't. Freedom of expression is more important -- not less -- when anyone with a mobile phone and an Internet connection can speak out.



-- A version of this article was originally published at PBS MediaShift.

3 Big Challenges for Latin America's Electricity Sector, 3 Big Strategies for a Successful Future

This post is co-authored by Salvador Núñez

The World Bank expects Latin America's power consumption to more than double between 2010 and 2030, and estimates that $430 billion of investment will be needed to meet that demand. An even more intimidating perspective comes from a recent World Energy Council report, which concludes that between now and 2050, "even in the best case, the growth of energy supply in [Latin America] will still be insufficient to meet the rising energy demand associated with economic growth."




Latin America's power consumption is expected to nearly double by 2030. Source: "Meeting the Balance of Electricity Supply and Demand in Latin America and the Caribbean" (Figure ES2, World Bank, 2011)

What's causing these challenges for the region's energy sector and the electricity industry in particular? Demographic, technical, and environmental factors are all compounding in ways not seen before.

To tee up our May 21st webinar conversation about energy efficiency potential in Latin America (which you can sign up for here), consider these three big challenges for Latin America's electricity sector, and three big strategies for a successful future.

3 Big Challenges

1) A Rising Middle Class

The second decade of the 21st century signaled an historic shift in Latin American demographics: for the first time ever, more Latin Americans are living in the middle class than in poverty. And more are poised to join the ranks.

In Brazil, 37% of households will soon be middle-class or higher -- up from 24% in the year 2000. This portends tens of millions new consumers moving into the middle class in Brazil alone between 2013 and 2023. Some analysts expect Mexico to experience a nearly 30% growth in the middle class in the next five years alone.

More middle-class consumers means more refrigerators, television sets, air conditioners, and even more pet care. That all points to growing electricity needs.

2) Infrastructure Limitations

In the midst of rising demand, Latin America has been struggling with a wide-range of issues in building out new electric generation capacity.

Brazil and Chile have recently stalled plans to build new hydro-powered dams because of human rights and environmental concerns, forcing them to look for other sources of energy to meet projected demand.

Mexico represents an additional example, where the state-owned electric utility has been generating much of its electricity using natural gas, but has needed to use more expensive fuels as a way to free up natural gas for industry in response to recent natural gas shortages. Now, with Mexico's recent energy reform, private companies will participate in exploration and production for the first time in more than 75 years, and CFE (the country's electric utility) is seeking private-sector bids for natural-gas pipelines in northern Mexico that are expected to cost $2.25 billion.

Even domestic terrorism has led to the destruction of power infrastructure in the region, as in the case of rural power supplies in Colombia.

3) Climate Change

Climate change has added unprecedented operational risk into Latin America's energy landscape. In the summer of 2013-2014, Argentinians were rattled by one of the country's most severe heat waves on record -- prompting a huge air-conditioning spike in December that set all-time highs for power demand. The Argentinian grid was so overstretched that even the Casa Rosada -- the country's Presidential Residence -- could not escape the summer's heat-related blackouts.

To the northeast, in Brazil, February brought similar news. Peak demand for electricity reached an all-time high of 86 gigawatts. In a country that generates nearly 80% of its electricity from dams, water levels dipped below 37% of capacity, the lowest since 2001. And all this following the country's second-driest January in 80 years. Even some of the waterfalls from the Iguazu falls, one of the world's most iconic natural landscapes, largely dried up.



Following the country's second-driest January in 80 years, water levels in Brazil's iconic Iguazu Falls diminished severely. Latin American countries are exploring how end-use energy efficiency can serve as a solution to overcome reduced hydroelectric output (Image credit: Sanrod.org)

For the first time in over a decade, Brazil is considering power rationing to cope with the low water levels flowing through their dams. And even without rationing, Brazil's National Electricity System Operator, ONS, is recommending reductions in consumption of 4-6%.

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In light of these challenges, governments and utilities have begun making great strides towards developing solutions. In Mexico, for example, the federal government is legislating a historic energy reform that will help the nation achieve its ambitious climate change goals while improving the reliability and efficiency of its electrical grid. And in Chile, Michelle Bachelet has reassumed the presidency with an ambitious agenda, including a specific call to catalyze a stronger effort around energy efficiency.

Yet, despite these advances, demand-side resources - namely energy efficiency, demand response, and an engaged customer base - continue to be underutilized and can play a huge role for the region.

Here are three things that Latin America can do to fully unlock its demand-side resources and usher in a robust energy future.
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3 Big Strategies

1) Incentivize Utilities to Champion Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is the cheapest kilowatt of power generation never built. It is capable of providing resources that can displace electricity generation from coal, oil and other highly polluting fuels. And according to a new comprehensive report, energy efficiency costs utilities 2 to 3 times less than traditional power sources. Regarding its application in Latin America, the Natural Resources Defense Council recently highlighted energy efficiency as a crucial tool to enable sustainable growth in the region.

Electric utilities have an important role to play. But in the absence of a modernized regulatory environment, utilities have a natural incentive to increase their sales and have limited incentives to pursue energy efficiency. Numerous regulatory models developed in California, Massachusetts, and dozens of other states and countries have demonstrated the value of creating the right incentives to get utilities investing in efficiency.

Some Latin American countries -- like Brazil -- require distribution utilities to spend money on energy efficiency projects. But it's critical that industry leaders and policymakers take these measures a step further and incentivize energy efficiency results, not just energy efficiency spending.

2) Enable Demand Response

In addition to building long-term resources through sustained energy efficiency policies, governments should consider the immense potential benefits and savings that can be unlocked by demand response, which centers on trimming electric demand during peak times.

In March, the Brazilian government said it will cost customers 12 billion reais (US$5.4 billion) to recover the cost of buying expensive thermal power on the spot market to replace depleted hydro reserves during the summer heatwave. Utilities incurred the biggest losses during the hottest and highest-demand periods of the day, when power was most expensive. While Brazil has already designed a "Tarifa Branca" to encourage consumers to buy electricity when it is cheapest, slashing demand during these critical peak times could ease stress on thermal resources- and help save people money.

3) Put the customer first

New electric sector strategies in the region should focus on the customer and ensure they receive the highest-quality energy services and tools they need to manage their bills. Mexico's sweeping Reforma Energetica has opened an exciting conversation about how to improve energy services for its citizens. Chile's new government has similarly announced plans to take up broad reforms. As other countries develop tools for sustainable growth, it's important to ensure electricity consumers have the information and control they need to make smart decisions about their energy consumption.

New innovations, like the smart grid, have the potential to further empower consumers. As Latin America considers investing in these technologies, regional regulatory leaders and energy sector innovators should follow the lead of other countries, states, and municipalities that are shaping their electric-sector investments to ensure direct benefits for the consumer.

To learn more about how utilities and policymakers can unlock energy efficiency in meeting Latin America's energy challenges, sign up for Opower's upcoming webinar, "Transforme a sus clientes en activos para el sector eléctrico."

Jake Levine is Opower's Director of Regulatory Affairs for Latin America. Salvador Nunez leads Opower's product strategy for Latin America.

How Important Is Responsive Design?

As more people are beginning to use mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, for every task that used to be only capable on desktop, one thing has become clear: mobile is taking over Internet surfing. And, it's not even just surfing. It's everything from browsing social media outlets, checking emails and doing some online shopping.

Because mobile Internet usage is increasing steadily, it's extremely important that your website is mobile friendly. Usually this isn't a major concern. You have a website designed for desktop users and another site specifically developed for mobile users. But, is it possible to have a site that is equally favorable for both desktop and mobile users?

There actually is a design that can handle both types of users. And it's called responsive web design.

What is responsive design?

A responsive design simply means a website that has been constructed so that all of the content, images and structure of the site remains the same on any device. For example, when a user accesses a site on their desktop, they are getting the full view of the site. But when that same user goes to visit the site from their smartphone or tablet, the site will retract to fit on the smaller screen.

In other words, with a responsive website design, you don't have to have worry about having different websites for various devices or making sure that your site runs properly on a mobile device.

But there are some other really important reasons why you should make the switch to responsive design for your website.

Mobile Usage is Increasing.

Take a step into the outside world and you'll definitely notice a lot of people on their mobile phones. In fact, it seems that just about everyone is attached at the hip with their smartphone. For some reason, however, there are many businesses who have not yet picked up on this trend. Maybe they could use the following stats from Smart Insights to convince them how much mobile usage has skyrocketed.

• More than 20 percent of Google searches are now being performed on some sort of mobile device.


• In 2012 over half of all local searches were done on a mobile device.


• 25 percent of Internet users only access the internet via a mobile device in the United States.


• 25.85 percent of all emails are opened on mobile phones, with another 10.16 percent being opened on tablets.


• In 2014 mobile Internet usage is expected to overtake desktop usage.


• Out of the 4 billion mobile phones in the world, 1.08 billion are smartphones and 3.05 are SMS enabled.

Recommended By Google

We all know that Google is a really big deal. In fact, the Big G claimed 67 percent search market share in 2013, making it the most popular search engine in the world. So, if Google claims that it prefers responsive web design as the recommended mobile configuration, you better take that as a hint -- which was confirmed by Google's Pierre Farr in June 2012.

But why does Google prefer responsive design? For starters, it's more efficient for Google to bot crawl the site and then index and organize all the content that is online. The reason for this is that with responsive design, all sites have just one URL and the same HTML across all devices. When a business has both a mobile site and desktop site, there will be a different URL and different HTML for each. This forces Google to crawl and index multiple versions of the same exact site.

Also, when there is just one website and URL, it's much easier for users to share, engage and interact with the content on that site as compared to a site that has different pages for mobile and desktop users. Google is a fan of that as well. Why? Because what if someone shared a mobile site on a social media outlet and one of their connections viewed that mobile site on their desktop? That viewer would then be viewing a less than optimal site because it was intended for mobile. This makes the user unhappy.

And Google realizes that unhappy people will go elsewhere, meaning that bounce rates increase and the site will not rank on mobile searches. This creates a whole big headache involving Google's external link algorithm and on-page errors. Which in turn, also harms your SEO.
In other words, it's just bad for business for both Google and all of the websites that aren't taking advantage of the benefits of responsive design.

Can Increase Conversion Rates

Besides all of the search benefits, as well as making users happy, responsive design has the ability to increase those coveted conversion rates from all of the mobile users in the world. Why? Well, if a website is not working on mobile or tablet device, users will obviously be unable to convert. And how many people are doing online shopping from a mobile device? There has been research that found 69% of tablet users shopped on their device within the last 30 days.

So, when a user has to do more work than needed to complete a conversion, do you think that they will still convert? It's less likely they will convert. However, there's a little more to it than that. For example, since a responsive website design can adjust to any screen, developers have control on how all of those conversion elements will display on mobile and tablet.

Finally, responsive design allows you to do some important high-end heatmapping and A/B testing, which can be done through software like Clicktale or Optimizely. This means that you can segment users by mobile and gain a better picture of how those users are interacting on your site. When you do this, you can discover what sales tactics and marketing strategies are effective, as well as, those that are not. When you have this information, you can increase conversion rates.
Social Media Has Gone Mobile

We're guessing that you're involved with inbound marketing. But even if you're not, you still realize how important blogging and social media are in the 21st Century. In fact, if you have not implemented some sort of social media strategy in your marketing campaign, you're missing out on a lot of leads. But, social media has also now gone mobile, which you may have noticed. How important is mobile for social media users? According to a study from ComScore, 55% of social media consumption happens on a mobile device.

This is a really vital stat because what's the point of sharing content on social media if it's not compatible with mobile devices? Again, if a website isn't functioning on a mobile device, users get frustrated and leave. High bounce rates = low conversion rates. And, that puts everyone in a foul mood.

Better User Experience

We've briefly touched on this before, but responsive design gives users a better experience. For example, users don't have to fool around with zooming and shrinking the text or images on screen. Instead, all of the content automatically adjusts to the screen of the device. This makes it easier and more convenient for users to read and navigate on your site.

And, there are stats to further illustrate why the experience of users is so important. According to Google's Think Insights on Mobile, whenever someone arrives on your mobile website and is frustrated, or doesn't see the content that they are searching for immediately, there's a 61 percent chance they will leave and head to another website. However, whenever a user has had a positive experience with your mobile website, that individual will be 67 percent more likely to buy a product or use a service. Furthermore, 48 percent of users stated to Google that when a site doesn't function on their mobile device it makes them feel that the company does not care for their business.

A better user experience also makes it easier to be reached and complain. If people are able to contact you and find a way to complain to you have a much lower probability of them going online through social media and complaining.

Easier to Manage

Going back to SEO for moment, if you have separate desktop and mobile sites, you're going to have to run separate SEO campaigns for each. Wouldn't it just be easier to manage only one SEO campaign and one website? That would make not just your customers happy, but also your team including everyone from developers to content marketing managers. More importantly because you only have one site, responsive design is more cost effective as well

Stay Ahead of Competition

In the business world, you have to stay ahead of the competition. So, if more and more users are using their mobile devices to search and make purchases online, you have to cater to that audience by having a mobile-friendly site. In fact, 85 percent of adults believe that a mobile site must be as good, if not better than, a desktop site.

If that doesn't convince you enough. Around six months ago I redesigned my personal company site to have a responsive design. My mobile conversion (people contacting me) tripled overnight as well as people coming to my site doubled. I've also worked with several clients that have had similar results. Stay ahead of your competition and have a site that stands out. It'll make the difference.

Chances are that you competitors aren't making use of responsive designs, which means that they are losing out on potential customers. And, that is where you can stay ahead and take those customers away.

Do You Speak Sex?

As an acknowledged expert on the intersection of sex, relationships and technology, I sometimes find myself conversing in what sounds like a foreign language. In fact, a few weeks ago I was explaining to a group of fellow clinicians the need for them to understand what it means when a client looks at them and says something like:

"I was doing J-Date on the DL and my wife didn't know because I kept it to sexts and iCU2. But then I scoped AM and suddenly I was IRL with every MILF in town. Now I'm a walking STD. Plus, I've got this cyberstalker chopping bunnies in my kitchen. Seriously, she's tweeting my sexts and digits all over town and I'm totally not ROTFL because my wife is catching on. She even put a Net Nanny on my Droid."

Most likely, if you're at all involved with life online, you deciphered at least the basics of this individual's situation -- he's cheating on his wife, one of his girlfriends is doing a modern-day impersonation of Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, and his wife is catching on to the fact that he may not be holding up his end of their marital fidelity pact. But were you able to decode the entirety of his statement? If so, I'm impressed, and you should definitely feel free to read something else now. If not, you're hardly alone. To help, I've compiled a list of sexual and romantic terminology commonly used in online sexual and romantic interactions, creating an abbreviated "sexicon," printed below. (This material is pulled primarily from my recently released book Closer Together, Further Apart, coauthored with Dr. Jennifer Schneider.)

•Apps: Apps are software that can be downloaded onto smartphones and other digital devices. Apps can help users find restaurants, play games, listen to music, access porn, find a sexual partner, etc.
•Adult Friend Finder App: These apps are "friend finders" in name only. In reality, they are used to facilitate casual and/or anonymous sexual hookups.
•A4A (Adam4Adam): This is a website and app used by gay men for both dating and casual sexual hookups.
•AM (Ashley Madison): This is a website and app for married people looking to cheat
•Bang With Friends: This app, popular with young adults, helps people determine which of their Facebook friends might be interested in no-strings-attached sex.
•Blendr: This is an adult friend finder app used by straight people for casual sexual hookups.
•Chatroulette: This is a video chat site that randomly pairs strangers for web-based interactions. The site is popular with online exhibitionists and voyeurs.
•Cyberstalking: This is the deliberate, repeated, and hostile use of digital technology to harm, frighten, or otherwise harass another person.
•Digits: Digital contact information, such as phone number, e-mail, and website address.
•The DL: This is shorthand for "on the down-low." Initially this term was used in reference to gay or bisexual men who were in a primary relationship with a woman but sought male-on-male sex on the side, without their wife's or girlfriend's knowledge. In recent years, use of the term has expanded. Now it refers to any secretive sexual activity.
•FaceTime: This is a video chat service allowing one-to-one video calls between Apple users.
•Grindr: This is an adult friend finder app used by gay men for casual sexual hookups.
•Hookup Apps: This is another term for "adult friend finder" apps.
•iCU2: This is a video chat site often used for sexualized webcam exchanges.
•Instagram: This is a photo sharing service that lets users take pictures and share them on social media sites.
•IRL: This is digital shorthand for "in real life," as in: Do you want to hook up IRL?
•MILF: This is shorthand for "Mom I'd Like to F***."
•Newsgroups: These are advanced electronic bulletin board systems. Newsgroups are not as popular as they once were, but they are still used to post illegal sexual content.
•Omegle: This is a video chat site that is often used for sexualized webcam exchanges.
•PNP: "PNP" is short for "party and play." This designation is used on dating and hookup sites and apps to indicate a desire for drugs (usually meth or cocaine) paired with sex.
•PTP: "PTP" is short for "peer-to-peer" file sharing. This is a way for people to directly yet discreetly exchange files. Like newsgroups, PTP is less popular than it once was, but it is still used to exchange illegal content.
•PinkCupid: This is an adult friend finder app used by lesbian women for dating and casual sexual hookups.
•Second Life: This is a popular "virtual world" that is often used for sexual gratification. Technically, Second Life is an online video game, but really it is an opportunity to create self-directed animated porn.
•Selfie: This is a digital self-snapshot, usually taken using the camera in one's smartphone. Selfies are often sexual in nature. They are very easy to post onto social media sites and to share via text messaging.
•Sexnology: Technology used to generate or enhance sexual pleasure.
•Sexting: This is the sending of sexualized texts, often with an erotic image (usually a selfie) attached. Sexting is done to flirt, to titillate, to exhibit, and sometimes even to harass and denigrate.
•Skout: This is an adult friend finder app used by straight people for casual sexual hookups.
•Skype: This is a popular video chat service, sometimes used for sexual purposes.
•Snapchat: Snapchat is a photo-based social media site. It is becoming very popular with teens and young adults. Like other social media sites, photos can sometimes be sexual.
•Teledildonics: This refers to digitally-driven devices used for sexual stimulation. In other words, sexual implements that can be synced to onscreen pornography or even the actions of another live person.
•Tinder: This is an adult friend finder app used by straight people for casual sexual hookups. Most users are young adults.
•Webcam: This is a camera that is (usually) built into a computer, tablet, smartphone, or some other digital device. Webcams feed real-time imagery into digital networks, to be viewed by a person or people hooked into that particular network.
•Video Chat: Facilitated via webcams, video chat lets people see each other while they chat, sort of like the science fiction "video phone" of yesteryear.
•Virtual Sex: This refers to sex that occurs only online. Usually it refers to webcam sex (mutual masturbation through video chat). Additionally, there are numerous "virtual sex worlds," like Second Life, in which users create avatars (digital versions of their idealized selves) and then guide those avatars through sexual activity.

Needless to say, the above list is incredibly incomplete, and there are always new terms to learn. Nevertheless, it does contain the basics in case you'd like to be conversant on your next virtual spelunking expedition. I should also state that if you do choose explore online dating and hookups, you shouldn't feel bad about asking for clarification if/when someone uses a term you're not familiar with. It's a lot better to feel a bit embarrassed about the fact that you're not totally up-to-date with the sexicon than to find yourself unwittingly agreeing to something that doesn't turn you on or that might even frighten or endanger you.

Robert Weiss LCSW, CSAT-S is senior vice president of clinical development with Elements Behavioral Health. He has developed clinical programs for The Ranch outside Nashville, Tenn., Promises Treatment Centers in Malibu, and The Sexual Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, among others. A licensed UCLA MSW graduate and personal trainee of Dr. Patrick Carnes, Mr. Weiss is author of Cruise Control: Understanding Sex Addiction in Gay Men and Sex Addiction 101: A Basic Guide to Healing from Sex, Porn, and Love Addiction, and co-author with Dr. Jennifer Schneider of both Untangling the Web: Sex, Porn, and Fantasy Obsession in the Internet Age and Closer Together, Further Apart: The Effect of Technology and the Internet on Parenting, Work, and Relationships. For more information you can visit his website.

Intel's 3-Tier Pyramid For Delivering Progressive IT Value

The question of IT leadership is fraught with challenge. In a world where IT's relationship to the business is being called into question, the CIO has a special responsibility to drive a transformational agenda. In a special edition of CxOTalk we spoke with three of Intel's top IT leaders to explore Intel's approach to providing transformational value to the company - the development of a three-tier pyramid to deliver progressive value within IT and ultimately to the company as a whole.

Darcy Ortiz, General Manager, CIO Strategy Office, Aziz Safa, Vice President, General Manager, Enterprise Apps & App Strategy and David Aires, Vice President, General Manager, IT Operations give us insight into the importance of each layer of the pyramid and how achieving the cumulative effect of all three layers can really drive results for the company and influence the future of IT and the world of the CIO.




3 Steps to Delivering Progressive Value within IT:

1. Deliver Operational Excellence

Bottom Layer: Operational Excellence

"You can't just focus on the bottom layer in isolation, there are things you have to do - pay attention to the details, have disciplined processes, care about the customer - but you have to also do things because they add value to the business. There should never be an IT project, there should only be business value projects." - David Aires, Vice President, General Manager, IT Operations

At this foundational, bottom layer of the pyramid, IT must prove their reason to exist by delivering operational excellence across all of IT and everything that they do. David Aires is responsible for the infrastructure for all of IT worldwide at Intel. He says this layer is about delivering basic services, quality and reliability of service and user experience to meet the day-to-day needs of the business. But he is quick to mention that this is not just an infrastructure play; it's about making sure that every aspect of basic delivery within IT is done right. "The key is that if we don't do this part with excellence then no one will let us go up this pyramid. If you can't keep the network operational, no one will listen to your ideas on how to improve their business. It is essential to do this operational excellence piece really well just to get a seat at the table for higher level activities," says Aires.


Get back to basics - Aires, who started his career in manufacturing at Intel, says that there are basic principles and methods that are common to all types of industries that IT can apply to achieve fantastic results. He recommends that companies go back to the fundamental things that make a quality process: putting your customers first and having disciplined processes. "A key metric of ours is how many times we disrupt the business, which we drove down by 40% last year just by trying to get people to do the basics," says Aires.

Put the customer at the center - Having clarity of who the customer is, is really important to be able to deliver the value to that ultimate end paying customer. "Whoever you are providing that output to is your customer, but ultimately we like to connect this value chain of all of these customers so we actually get to the true customer - the real, outside of Intel, customer who is writing the check. If all of our efforts don't align to what the person who pays the bill at the end of the day wants, then we won't be successful," says Aires.

To ensure that they are meeting the worldwide infrastructure needs of all 100K Intel employees, a large number of business and all external customers that are depending on Aries' team to do their job well, Aries assigned GMs to be focused on the different lines of business to ensure that IT understands all the internal and external requirements. At the end of day, all of these people that we serve need to feel that they are the customer and are getting the value from Intel's investment in IT.

Focus on measuring and improving user adoption - A huge challenge in such a large organization is user adoption. A fundamental question is, "How do you get people to actually use the IT social collaboration tools that are put out?" If you don't think about the way people do work, or the culture and expectations of a team and how they will communicate, then everyone defaults back to email. "We have to think about how we get people to use new tools and build that into the way we do it and we also need to use the social tools to do the work so people will have to use the tool to be part of it," says Aires.



2. Collaborate with the Business to Deliver Business Value

Middle Layer: Collaborate

"Flawless and repeatable performance and forcing your IT organization to set the bar higher are the keys to being accepted by the business as an ongoing and full-fledged business partner and evolving to that next level where you have the right to transform the business." - Aziz Safa, Vice President, General Manager, Enterprise Apps & App Strategy

Once IT is preforming at a level where they are getting beyond a conversation about the last outage, they are ready to move to the next highest level. The middle layer of the pyramid is about earning the right to influence the business, which is done through collaboration that breeds innovation to achieve business goals. The theme of this middle layer is one of collaboration; sitting down together to understand the business requirements first and then coming up with a workable solution to solve a customer's specific set of challenges and helping to innovate and improve. If at this level IT is still meeting resistance from the business, Aries gives this advice: "Go to your business partners and ask them why they are setting their expectations so low for you."

Partner with the business -The advanced analytics group that reports to Aziz Safa spends a lot of time partnering with marketing to improve sales and customer response time. They have used big data to collect all the information they have about customers and use advanced analytics tools to find data and get insights into what customers might want based on market trends and the behaviors of other customers. "By mining the data to come up with better ideas to engage with customers and looking for opportunities for sales to upsell, we have seen an increase in sales," says Safa.

Understand the goals of the business - To create an environment where IT is viewed as a value added function; you need to work with the business. According to Darcy Ortiz, the business is used to that bottom layer of the pyramid relationship of IT just providing operational excellence. To move the business beyond that relationship, IT needs to retrain their expectations to help them see that IT can add value to the business. This requires relationship building and an effort on the part of IT to understand what the goals of the business are and to align IT goals to business goals. "IT will need to start demonstrating where they can add value and getting their foot in the door, otherwise they will stay at the bottom of the pyramid and the company will really miss out on the value that IT can add," says Ortiz.

Deliver IT solutions tied to real business drivers - The relationship between the business and IT needs to be a strategic partnership. At Intel, IT works hard to not just hand over IT solutions anymore. Solutions are tied to real business results and real business drivers. According to Ortiz, "If we are working side-by-side with the business and understand their needs and deliver capabilities that solve their problems, it's easier to bring them along and have their acceptance." The ultimate goal is that their solution will not even require training, it would just work.

3. Create transformational business value to the company as a whole

Top Layer: Transform

"In order to transform, you need to have to have a solid foundation at the other two layers. You need that core operational excellence and to be able to really demonstrate that you know the business. One of the layers is not more important than the other. The minute you let one slip the pyramid collapses. Each layer is important but it's the cumulative effect that really drives results for the company." - Darcy Ortiz, General Manager, CIO Strategy Office

At the top level of the pyramid, IT has earned the license to decide and this level is about what IT can do in partnership with the business to enable transformation and help the business grow. Intel's CIO, Kim Stevenson, has said that, "IT eventually gains the right to decide how the company should use technology." This happens when IT is deciding to do something, rather than being asked by the business to do something. At Intel, transformation is a reality and as they moved to this system on a chip space there was a need to do things different and faster. IT decided to put social and collaboration tools in pace to make it easier to share information and to not have to re-invent each time, which helps get products to market faster. "At Intel, we are always looking for more of these examples to drive more business results for the company," said Ortiz.

CIOs are in a unique position to exploit their knowledge of business and technology to influence or drive the direction of an organization's transformation, according to the findings of a new Forrester report titled "The CIO's Role in Business Transformation."

Be a change agent - According to Safa, "If you are a company, you are in business to make money, so from an IT perspective, unless you look at it that way you are just a cost added to the business." IT can add value by looking at leveraging the existing infrastructure in IT to solve business problems and help reduce costs and enable the business to move products to market faster.

Make the end goal the business goal, not the IT goal - Delivering the business results that drive transformation requires a change in the mindset within the IT organization. Typically IT projects focus on delivering IT systems on-time, on-schedule and on budget. "We still have to deliver on the IT goals, but we need to make a shift to take the business goals as our goals. The end goal is the business goal, not the IT goal," says Ortiz. At each level of the pyramid, IT has set business goals that require IT solutions, but the end result is the business goal. This is shifting the mindset of the people in IT and helping them to see the value they are adding to the company. "It's about engaging with the business and taking that joint goal with them and knowing we are at the table and we are going to help them achieve that goal for the company," says Ortiz.

It's clear after hearing from these three IT leaders that it's not just having a focus at one level or another, but it's about bringing all three layers together at the same time. By providing operational excellence and collaborating to understand the needs of the business, IT can move into a transformational role and become a strategic and valued partner to the business.

You can watch the full interview with Intel IT executives here. Please join me and Michael Krigsman every Friday at 3PM EST as we host CXOTalk - connecting with thought leaders and innovative executives who are pushing the boundaries within their companies and their fields.

Did Verizon NJ Rig the 'Stipulation Agreement' Comments to Erase Their Broadband Obligations?

In January 2014, Verizon New Jersey and the state Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) proposed a stipulation agreement to erase Verizon's commitments to have 100 percent of their territory upgraded with a fiber optic service capable of 45 Mbps in both directions by 2010.

Over the last few months, more than 1,000 comments were filed in this proceeding, and while Verizon complained that the comments opposing this agreement were "inaccurate" or somehow less convincing as they used a form letter, we have uncovered Verizon is doing worse things.

It seems Verizon not only has most of their comments written by Verizon employees, many of whom don't identify themselves, but worse, almost every group backing Verizon has received funding or Verizon is on their board and supplies some financial help.

Verizon -- The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

According to Wikipedia, "The pot calling the kettle black" is "an idiom used to claim that a person is guilty of the very thing of which they accuse another."

Verizon claims that comments opposing the stipulation agreement are inaccurate and that the other side has stacked the deck against them:

"The vast majority of comments opposing the Stipulation that have been posted by the Board to date were submitted via a standard form letter generated by the New Jersey State AFLCIO with the subject line 'Tell Verizon to Live Up to the Opportunity New Jersey Agreement.'"

"Other comments opposing the Stipulation offer inaccurate claims about what was contemplated by ONJ or what is in the Stipulation."

Verizon also claims that the AFL-CIO letters are somehow "less convincing."

"AFL-CIO Letters. These letters opposing the Stipulation appear less convincing when the locations of senders are examined -- More than 25 are from people located outside of New Jersey and some appear to be from municipalities not in Verizon's service territory. "

Verizon's comments to degrade others who filed goes on and on.

But, then I get this email:

"You wrote about the Verizon/Department of Public Utilities settlement a week or so ago. I just started noticing a lot of form letters in support of this settlement on the 24th.

"If Google/Linkedin.com the names and email addresses of the people in support of this settlement you will find quite a few of the people are either direct employees of Verizon or have some connection to Verizon. Perhaps Verizon made up this form letter and sent it out to employees and contacts.

"Here are three examples - Example 1, Example 2, Example 3. I'm sure there are more, I think it is dirty for Verizon to misrepresent this issue to politicians by having employees voice support for this bad settlement."

So I check and whaddya know: It appears Verizon has a form letter and there are hundreds who filed comments in support of Verizon.

"I would like to declare my support for the proposed stipulation between your Board Staff and Verizon As it relates to Opportunity New Jersey. The Stipulation will help ensure continued deployment of advanced communications services."

And sure enough, I find that one after the other who signed these form letters didn't mention they worked for Verizon. Two examples:

• Paul A Sullivan Verizon, NJ regional president of consumer and mass business markets,


• Tracy Reed, Manager at Verizon

There is another stack of form letters, but at least they admit that they are working for Verizon. It starts:

"As a New Jersey resident and Verizon employee, I am expressing my support for the proposed stipulation between BPU Staff and Verizon. The proposed stipulation is fair and balanced and, under your guidance, will build on the success that the Board and Verizon Have achieved in making the Garden State one of the most wired broadband states in the country."

But what is really disturbing -- when I go through all of the groups that Verizon lists as
"Many individuals and businesses in New Jersey support the broadband
deployment process in the Stipulation," they all have some financial relationship with Verizon.

Here they are, as well as others who filed on behalf of Verizon:

• New Jersey Technology Council -- Board member, Douglas Schoenberger, VP, Public Policy, Verizon NJ, Inc


• The Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce -- Donnett Barnett Verley, Director of Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility, for Verizon New Jersey. "I am responsible for Verizon's philanthropic and community outreach efforts throughout the state. I serve as an active board member of ...the Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce."


• Greater Paterson Chamber of Commerce -- "Hi. I'm Rick Ricca, Director - External Affairs. I am responsible for the company's relationship and interaction with municipal and county governments... I also serve on... Greater Paterson Chamber of Commerce."


• The Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey ("CIANJ"), Member of the Board, Sam Delgado V.P. Community & Stakeholder Affairs Verizon


• Greater Elizabeth Chamber of Commerce -- "Verizon, a telecommunication company received the Member-to-Member Award for its important contribution to Elizabeth's business."


• Cooper's Ferry Partnership --Verizon is on the Board of Directors. "The organization's operational budget is currently divided into three main categories: board membership... investments from these valued partners that has allowed CFP to grow its mission and expand throughout the city of Camden."


• Puerto Rican Association for Human Development --"Verizon Presents20,000 to PRAHD"


• Latino Institute -- Our Partners and Funders, Verizon


• Gudino, David Joseph -- Associate General Counsel, Verizon Wireless


• NJ SHARES --"Verizon New Jersey partners with NJ SHARES for Communications Lifeline outreach and enrollment efforts."

In fact, it's hard to identify any legitimate group that supports the Verizon stipulation and is not funded by Verizon.

But it does bring up a very interesting question -- who is paying for their funding or the staff time to be part of these organizations? As we pointed out in our comments, in 2009 and 2010 Verizon New Jersey showed $786 million in losses with an income tax benefit of $321 million, which was used by the corporate parent to lower their tax base. Based on information from Verizon New York for 2011 and 2012, Verizon NJ probably showed losses for those years as well.

There was one commenter supporting Verizon's position that surprised us: Steve Forbes, who chimed in to take shots at AARP and organized labor. Meanwhile, Forbes has been parroting Verizon's statements for the last six months, stating that the companies should be freed of regulations and they'd bring broadband.

There were over 1,000 comments. Against the stipulation agreement are the League of Municipalities, as well as a number of communities, including the City of Newark. Also, the New Jersey Rate Counsel is against the agreement. (I note a correction from my previous piece. They had not filed by the time I wrote the article but their previous track record didn't indicate that they would take a stand against the proposed agreement. Glad they did.)

5 Ways CIOs Can Drive Digital Business Transformation

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to conduct a special edition of CxOTalk live in New York City at the CIO Perspectives conference presented by CIO Magazine. Our special guest, Brandon Berger is the Chief Digital Officer at Ogilvy & Mather, the largest Marketing Communications firm with 22,000 employees in over 500 offices in 126 countries.


Brandon Berger, CDO Ogilvy & Mather

Under Berger's leadership, Ogilvy has built the largest global digital network. A global platform, that is capable of mobilizing worldwide resources for any client regardless of location. Ogilvy has also made digital capabilities core to the entire business. This includes establishing key global practices and M&A around mobile, ecommerce, data, user experience, technology and delivery, and launching Social@Ogilvy, the largest social agency network in the world.

Berger defines his position of CDO as being a business role that is focused on the customer and the understanding that the relationship between the business and the customer is inherently technology enabled and digitally driven. Berger gives some insight into the role of the CDO and offers valuable advice to CIOs for driving the digital transformation of their business.



5 Ways for CIOs to Help Enable Digital Transformation:

1. Place digital and technology at the core of the business: The 2014 State of the CIO survey conducted by CIO magazine found that CIOs that deal with digital strategy verses those that deal with more traditional functions, such as help desk and infrastructure, earn significantly higher salaries and are higher up on the organizational chart. Perhaps this is because there is such a demand for technology, as shown in the results of a recent IDC marketing study, predicting that in two years technology will account for 50% of the total marketing budget. The demand to build the tools and the technology to enable the relationship between the business and the customer is moving the CIO to more of a front office role. The closer a CIO is to the technology side of the business, versus the operational side, the more their compensation will be driven by business growth and transformation and the more effective the business will be.

While the role of the CDO varies by industry, Berger sees it as a business role that is responsible for driving and ensuring that digital and technology are at the core of the business. The CTO is looking at technical platforms, while Berger is looking at customer needs and building out the technology to fulfill them. In this sense it is a strategic, customer-focused role with deep technical knowledge. "You need to tie the role to the vision, mission and goal of the business, otherwise it gets hairy," says Berger.

2. Drive digital transformation from the top - According to a Gartner survey, by 2015 25% of all global organizations (1 in 4) will have a CDO. Additionally, there has been tremendous year-over-year growth in the CDO Club founded by David Mathison. While the role of the CDO is critical for ensuring that all facets of the organization remain focused on digital technology to deliver business goals, Berger says that the only way that organizations will be able to change is from a top-down commitment to digital transformation.

"It's all about creating a shift in the culture of an organization where delivering digital transformation is seen as everyone's job and something that we are all accountable for. A visionary leader that is committed is necessary to drive this shift," says Berger. A critical driver to Ogilvy's success in transforming their organization with digital has been the fact that they have a CEO who is committed to the digital transformation of the company.

3. Form partnerships with other technology and business counterparts - According to Berger, the hierarchy of CTO, CIO, CMO needs to change. These roles need to be partners and they need to be on the same page. "We need to figure out a way to be closer and there is a need for someone to help bring them together," he says.

As CDO, Berger works most closely with the CMO, is best friends with the CTO (so he knows which technology to use to handle the data) and is enabled by the technology that the CIO gives him access to. He says that today's CMOs are technology-savvy and CIOs are digitally-savvy, so having close partnerships allows him to get better technology insights to figure out the best way to accomplish his goals of serving the customer's needs.

At Ogilvy, Berger is partnering with his technology counterparts and collaborating all the time. He says for digital transformation to be a core business objective, the technology needs to be the core to everything they are going to be doing now and in the future. There is participation and collaboration across the range of different groups - it is not just a technical conversation, it is an organizational conversation. It is critical for technology partners to be in the room when it comes to brainstorming ideas. He says that the technology people that have a seat at the table are not the ones that are focused on cutting cost and managing the infrastructure, but are the ones figuring out how to make imaginations come to life.

4. Ask, "How can I help?" - For most organizations, the CIO is viewed around building the infrastructure, where the CDO is about customer service and the broader strategy of the business. His advice to CIOs who want to extend their role beyond keeping on the lights, is to be a partner. Be proactive and be a part of the discussion. Think in terms of the relationship between the business and the customer and work to help the rest of the organization enable it.

Berger says that the top 3 characteristics of the ideal IT partner would be, having a willingness to help, being innovative and entrepreneurial and a problem solver. He stresses the importance of asking the question, "How can I help?" He says that this simple question opens you up to all the ideas and gives people access to help solve mission-critical business challenges. "Ideally the perfect IT partner would be able to sit in the room with the creative team and imagine a better world for our customers and help us to get there," says Berger.

5. Put digital strategy into pace with ambition - When it comes to gaining the momentum to take strategy from paper to practice, Berger says that ambition is one of the most important things to strategy. Ambition is walking into a meeting and saying, "Here is what we are going to do." How we will get there, is the plan or strategy. He advises executives to first get the commitment and then recognize that the strategy will change and evolve. He says to be sure to know what things you will measure against so you can say that you got there. "Unless everyone is committed to that ambition and direction, the strategy is just a piece of paper," says Berger.

We polled our live audience of CIOs to find out what KPIs they measure against and they said ROI, uptime, budget, savings, customer satisfaction, average cost per user and SLAs. We were curious how these things compared against the metrics that a CDO looks at. The difference between the KPIs of a CIO and a CDO is infrastructure verses growth. Berger said his KPIs are driven around revenue growth, new customer segments and offering new services to customers - all things that lead to more growth.

From the perspective of a CMO, I can tell you that technology is core to marketing. For 2014, IDC identified 78 technical categories just for digital marketing and Scott Brinker developed a map of 1,000 companies delivering technical solutions to marketing alone. Today marketing is more of a science than an art and it requires partnership with technology.

You can watch the full interview with Brandon Berger here. Please join me and Michael Krigsman every Friday at 3pm as we host CXOTalk - connecting with thought leaders and innovative executives who are pushing the boundaries within their companies and their fields.