IS 213 - Communications Spectrum

Susan meets a constituent, Jim Thompson, at a school board meeting. Discovering that she is an aide to a congresswoman, Jim jumps in about how his company’s Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology is under review by the FCC. It is, however, currently being blocked by the military because of concerns about interference. Sensing that Jim’s company might be a political ally for the Congresswomen, Susan, unsure about what spectrum UWB uses and for that matter what it is, goes to the communications spectrum site and selects UWB and receives information about the technology and the frequencies it transmits on. When Jim follows up with her, she will be knowledgeable enough to converse about UWB and understand what his company needs are.

1b. Scenario 2:
Katie researches how the communications spectrum is currently being used by various industries.

Katie has been assigned to write an article about the communications spectrum. This article needs to include a basic overview of what the communications spectrum is and how the use of the communications spectrum is divided among different industries. Katie would also like to include information about how the use of the spectrum by these industries has changed over the years and how it may change in the future.

Katie opens up her browser to the (Communications Spectrum) website. Since this is her first time writing an article on the communications spectrum, she chooses to step through the tutorial to gain a better understanding of the communications spectrum.

After completing the tutorial, Katie chooses to view spectrum information by industry. She then browses through different interactions tools, charts and documents which display and explain spectrum usage among industries. She delves further into the page to gain insight as to how a few specific industries have used the spectrum over years and the current standing that these industries have with the spectrum policy.

1c. Scenario 3:
Robert needs data and graphics for a paper he is writing about competition in consumer cell services.

Robert is writing a position piece advocating for greater competition in the consumer wireless market. He intends to prove how a few companies own virtual monopolies on wireless telecommunications services in rural and small to mid-size urban communities. He would like to find specific licensee data for several representative regions.

He comes to the communications spectrum site and chooses to view regional spectrum allocation. He chooses the View by Region option from the front page. After choosing from a list of available city/state locations, he receives a page that shows the allocation of the radio frequency in that specific region only. From there he can choose to zoom in further on the frequency band that corresponds to cell phone usage and receives tabular data that lists regional license holders, the frequency range they own, and the terms of their licenses. This page also shows a pie chart drawn from the data that represents the percentages owned by each licensee. Robert can download this tabular data in tab-delimited format and save the pie chart GIF to his hard drive.

1c. Scenario 4:
Robert needs to refresh his memory regarding current usage of the high end of the radio frequency.

Robert is honing his talking points for a panel discussion regarding optimal spectrum allocation. He wants to remember how the high end of the radio frequency is currently being used. He goes to the Communications Spectrum website and clicks on far right side of the image map that represents the radio frequency band. This takes him to a page describing the types of communications transmitted at that bandwidth.

2. Revisions to Personas and Tasks

Persona Goals

Susan Evans, Legislative Assistant

Goals

Contribute to the success of her congresswoman.
Identify issues that are important to her district and that could be useful for future campaigns.
Build a network of political contacts that will further her professional career.
Create areas of expertise that will make her a more valuable staff member.

Katie Coogan, Journalist

Goals

Become the first female associate editor of The San Francisco Chronicle.
Build and maintain a large network of resources including technology experts and the most informative web resources.
Impress her new boss by producing informative articles that help educate Chronicle readers about local technology related issues.

Robert Greenberg, Policy Analyst and Consumer Advocate

Goals

Advocate for the telecommunications issues that impact consumers the most.
Lead an effective team that advocates successfully for the rights of consumers.
Present knowledgeable and convincing arguments on behalf of consumer rights.
Foster productive relationships with lawmakers and industry representative to facilitate negotiations.
Develop a reputation as an expert and spokesperson for consumer rights in telecommunications services.

Persona Tasks

Susan Evans, Legislative Assistant

Task	Importance	Frequency	Details
Keep up to date on local issues	High	Frequently	1. Frequently attend local political functions such as; school board meeting, union events and chamber of commerce. 2. Create relationships with local political reporters, by fielding questions for the congresswoman, suggesting stories and pushing information about the congress womans politcal agenda. 3. Being availble for personal contact with constituents.
Research Federal Legislation	High	Sometimes	1. Identify Federal legislation that will have local impact. 2. Request research information from interested parties. 3. Speak with locally interested parties. 4. Speak with topical experts.
Summarize important topics	Medium	Sometimes	1. Gather together relevant information. 2. Write reports on important local. happenings and their political significance 3. Create policy recommendations for the congress woman.

Katie Coogan, Journalist

Task	Importance	Frequency	Details
Research Topic by Industry	High	Frequently	1. Assigned to do a story regarding a topic within an industry. 2. Search forums and mailing list for experts familiar with the industry. 3. Contact industry experts to interview them about their views on the topic. 4. Visits well known website relevant to the topic and/or industry. 5. Read articles from the website. 6. Follow links from the site to other relevant sites.
Gain a big picture understanding of a new topic	High	Sometimes	1. Assigned an article topic by her editor. 2. Search for existing articles on the topic. 3. Visit websites with topic information. 4. Interview topical experts.
Learn about a topic from different political perspectives	Medium	Frequently	1. Familiarize herself with the stances of politicians from each major political party. 2. Visit the websites of advocacy groups which take differing stances on the topic. 3. Familiarize herself with the stances of each advocacy groups. 4. Interview members of the advocacy groups.
Find new resources that can be referenced for article information	High	Sometimes	1. Go to currently used websites. 2. Follow the links of these websites to related websites. 3. Talk to her regularly referenced topical experts. 4. Ask experts for references to other topical experts.
Summarize important topics	High	Sometimes	1. Gather together relevant information. 2. Write articles on important local topics and their political significance.

Robert Greenberg, Policy Analyst and Consumer Advocate

Task	Importance	Frequency	Details
Execute winning strategies for affecting pro-consumer telecommunications policy	High	Frequently	1. Produce convincing position papers and talking points for key issues. 2. Coach team members on how to deliver consistent and persuasive messages. 3. Leverage the efforts of local grassroots advocacy groups through continual outreach and education. 4. Maximize the return on investment in PR and marketing.
Discover and prioritize areas of telecommunications policy where consumer advocacy is warranted	High	Sometimes	1. Stay abreast of all relevant policy and industry information in the field. 2. Maintain open communications with key players in both the public and private telecommunications arenas. 3. Foster the development of local consumer advocacy groups, and maintain grassroots communications through them.
Improve the visibility of Telecommunication Policy as a Consumer Issue	High	Sometimes	1. Garner invitations to speak at relevant conferences. 2. Become a reputable source for information on consumer rights in telecommunications services, among the media community. 3. Propose and/or contribute to relevant research efforts that support arguments for fair competition in the telecommunications industry.

3. Competitive Analysis

3a. John Neuhaus’s Website

http://www.jneuhaus.com/fccindex/144_mhz.html

John Neuhaus’s www.jneuhaus.com website is one of many sites created by amateur radio enthusiasts that provide information about radio spectrum usage and links to useful information. It is especially interesting, because he tries to provide the same basic information presented in the Department of Commerce’s Frequency Allocation Chart. John Neuhaus chooses to maintain the convention of a using color to differentiate between different sections of the radio spectrum. He also maintains the left to right flow of lower to higher radio frequencies. Both of these conventions are important to note, because they are well established within the radio community.

Neuhaus choose to use the chart metaphor only as an introduction do the radio usage data set. His allocation chart breaks the frequency up into eight commonly used divisions and provides details about these divisions in tabular text format. This is an acceptable convention for a user who is experienced with the frequency spectrum, but fails to provide a complete picture to the uninitiated. For the uninitiated the sight provides to little information initially and then jumps to a level of granularity that is difficult to comprehend.

Good Features to Include:

Maintains spectrum display conventions
Easy to understand functionality

Poor Features to Exclude:

Large of a transition from general information to granular data is confusing

3b. Federal Communications Commission Spectrum Policy Website

http://www.fcc.gov/sptf/

The FCC’s Spectrum Policy website informs site users of current spectrum policies and provides links to related sites and documents.

The FCC Spectrum Policy Task Force front page:

The front page of the Spectrum Policy Task Force provides users with an overview of the spectrum policy including a speech given by the FCC commissioner on the topic, recent headlines, the mission of the task force, and the names of the members of the task force. The left hand frame allows users to select from a number of links to more in depth information about the committee and the communications spectrum.

This interface is very clean and simple to use. It provides users with a very simple way to gain an initial understanding of the Spectrum Policy. The useful aspects of this interface are that the main content of the page is geared towards the latest news regarding the Spectrum Policy while the links on the side provide users with a simple way to reach more information.

The Main Spectrum Events Page:

This interface clearly lays out the upcoming spectrum events in chronological order for 2003. It also provides information about the event and links to events that have websites. This interface is very straightforward. One particularly useful recurring aspect of the pages on the FCC site is that dates are associated with all of the information on the site. This helps users determine the freshness of the information.

An obvious weakness included in the FCC’s spectrum site is their comments page. Comments are listed, ten per page, in reverse chronological order. There is no way in which users can search or sort comments based upon source, topic, etc. Consequently, it is cumbersome and time consuming to look through comments.

Good Features to Include:

An area which features the most recent information
Clearly displayed dates next to links and information

Poor features to Exclude:

Long lists of information that lack a way in which to sort or search the information

3c. The Australian Communications Authority Radio Frequency Planning Website

http://www.aca.gov.au/frequency

The ACA’s Radio Frequency Planning Page gives users a plethora of data about Australia’s spectrum policy and planning. It also includes a frequency chart where users can investigate the use of bandwidth by industry.

The ACA Radio Frequency Planning Front Page:

The front page of this site includes an overview of what the site includes along with a number of links to further information. For a user who knows little about the radio frequency spectrum, the terminology of the links is confusing and doesn’t provide the user with any further description about what the link includes.

The site includes an incredibly large number of links and each link includes a large amount of text with little supporting graphics and charts. This site would be cumbersome for someone who wants to gain a quick overview of the communications spectrum and its uses.

One graphic which is displayed on this site is a graph which displays the entire communications spectrum and how it is currently used. This page is displayed below.

The ACA Radio Spectrum Full Chart View:

The full view of this graph is incomprehensible. Accordingly, this page allows users to view the spectrum by frequency ranges. Having direct links to zoom in on the data is quite useful.

Good Features to Include:

Zooming capabilities on large graphs/data sets

Poor features to Exclude:

Confusing terminology for communications spectrum novices
Too much text

3d. A Self-Guided Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/gamma/spec_nf.html

The companion Web Site to the Death Star broadcast on the PBS Nova television show provides website visitors with additional resources regarding the Death Star show including a guided tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum. The self-guided tour is provided both in flash format and a regular html version.

The starting page of the Self-Guided Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum

The self-guided tour of the electromagnetic spectrum is made up of six electromagnetic categories that include radio, microwaves, infrared radiation, light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays. These categories are clearly displayed in a navigation bar at the top of the web page. The navigation bar shows the current category location of the tour as well as the wavelength range for the category. The tour of the electromagnetic spectrum introduces the website visitor the spectrum by beginning with radio waves and taking the user through the rest of the spectrum up to gamma rays.

The interface to the self-guided tour is clean and easy to use. It shows the spectrum category and the associated wavelength. It allows visitor to fast-forward or return to other categories of interest by simply selecting the category from the navigation bar. At each particular stop in the tour, the current spectrum category is briefly described by providing information such as the possible wave sources as well as sample technologies.

The self-guided tour provides the user with a clear introduction to the electromagnetic spectrum and associating familiar technologies that the visitor can associate to each particular spectrum category. It also associates a simple image of the technology. The screenshot below shows the association of the microwave spectrum category to technologies such as radar and a microwave oven. It briefly describes how the microwaves are applied to each technology.

The interface is very natural for a self-guided tour as it provides the navigational functionality to take the tour at your own pace. A possible weakness is the inconsistent amount of information at each spectrum category. Some categories contain more information about the source of the category.

Good Features to Include:

Easy to understand navigational functionality
Association of spectrum category to familiar technologies
Natural interface for a self-guided tour

Poor Features to Exclude:

Inconsistent summary information at each spectrum category

3e. The FCC’s Universal Licensing System – License Search

http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls/

The FCC Universal Licensing System (ULS) is a large and complicated website, probably intended to be a one-stop document repository and reference for FCC license holders and admininstrators. For the purposes of this competitive analysis, we will only focus on the License Search service at:

http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp

and ignore the news, application, filing, registration, downloads, and other services on the site. It is worth noting, though, that this comprehensive array of services offered on the front page of the ULS site does have the potential to confuse people who come to the site looking only for license information.

The screenshot below shows the basic License Search interface. This page offers a myriad of ways to access the license documents in the database. The user can choose to search on one of four different license data items, using the drop down menu next to the keyword text field. The links below the search interface provide other ways to drill into specific segments of the license document repository. The Advanced Search provides searchable fields for almost every data item in a license document, so that a user could quickly specify the exact document s/he seeks, if desired. Providing these multiple entry points to the document repository is definitely beneficial for users who only have to come up with one of many possible data items related to a license, to be able to retrieve it.

The Search Results page lists all matching documents in the system, showing Call Sign, Licensee Name, Frequency Registration Number (FRN), Radio Service, Status and Expiration Data. Clicking a Call Sign in the list delivers what looks like an online version of the documents in the file related to that particular license.

For the purposes of our target audience, this site does not provide the comparisons and aggregates of license data that are useful for analysis. Nor does the presentation of the data by license convey a big picture understanding of communications spectrum licensing issues. We certainly can learn from the License Search page though. The paths they have chosen to provide into the document repository, e.g. by Licensee Name, by Service-Specific usage, by Region, sheds some light on how insiders tend to understand and categorize the various types of licenses. We can use these same categories and labels on our site and be confident that it is at least somewhat standardized language.

4. Initial Designs

5. Interaction Flow Design

6. Work Distribution

SIMS 213 Spring 2003

SIMS 213
Spring 2003