Barack Obama and Technology
11/07/2008The recent election has made many computer-savvy people wonder about the changes that the new president will enact in the technology sector, affecting the way we compute and communicate. President-elect Barack Obama proposed to appoint a chief technology officer (CTO) to the White House, demonstrating his attention to the technology-related issues seen daily in the news and in government. On his new website, Change.gov, he stresses the importance of connecting citizens to cooperate in solving the nation's problems, and emphasizes the potential role of technology in government, with:
"We must use all available technologies and methods to open up the federal government, creating a new level of transparency to change the way business is conducted in Washington and giving Americans the chance to participate in government deliberations and decision-making in ways that were not possible only a few years ago... An Obama presidency will use cutting-edge technologies to reverse this dynamic, creating a new level of transparency, accountability and participation for America's citizens. "
However, what has been proposed and what is followed through with may differ in some respects. One of the key points about technology Obama made during his run for president and makes on his new website is that he intends to protect the openness of the Internet in order to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet . Although said benefits are not precisely enumerated, this statement about network neutrality seems to be related to network control or absence thereof.
Governmental control of the Internet has been a hot topic lately, with Internet censorship in China prohibiting the Chinese from entering some websites the Chinese government has deemed inappropriate or otherwise worth censoring. China is not alone in deciding which information its citizens can access; Australia has recently announced plans for a new policy that would obligate Internet service providers to offer a clean feed to users, that would block content deemed illegal, inappropriate, or pornographic. Many Australians have spoken out against the proposed censorship, using examples of material that would be blocked irrationally, such as soft-core pornography and games with R (adult) ratings, a classification that Australia does not offer.
Obama is not pushing for such strict censorship of the Internet as China currently implements and Australia appears about to implement, however. Instead, he proposes increased utility of technology by citizens and government and increased network security, especially in regards to government-related issues. He also supports an increase in the attention law enforcement gives to Internet investigations of child pornography and other illegal and harmful mediums. More specifically, Obama hopes for broadband Internet access in every community of the United States, which would make the Internet as commonplace as telephone service and electricity.
One of the most talked-about hopes Obama expressed for the future of the nation during his candidacy was to lower health care costs. This will be done via (increased) implementation of electronic information technology systems, and $10 billion each year over a five-year period. Digitizing medical records and healthcare paperwork in general, he claims, will allow for better coordination among multiple providers for individual patients, reduce medical errors, and will cost less (not to mention the environmental impact of less physical paperwork in exchange for digitized records). However, Barack Obama is not the first politician to attempt to shift an entire nation's healthcare system to electronic records. Australia has been dealing with problems associated with shifting their healthcare system to an electronic records system, mainly issues of privacy. Virtually any network is prone to infiltration by an unwelcome user, or at least unwelcome programs. Putting private medical records on a network, no matter how vulnerable to attack it may be, is risky nonetheless.
When Barack Obama takes office early next year we shall see how his actual policies differ from his proposed policies, and how citizens are affected by whatever new technology legislation may be enacted. Until then, there can only be inconclusive reflection on what was said and what will be done in the area of technology.
