As we say goodbye to the old administration and the old technological initiatives are set by the wayside (remember the Internet is/are a bunch of tubes, classic, classic), it is important to look at President Obama’s technological policy point and see a possible road for the nation’s technical infrastructure.
According to the White House website, it seems that Obama’s team is focusing on ensuring “the full and free exchange of ideas through an open internet and diverse media outlets.” The center point of this is protecting network neutrality and protecting the individual’s right to privacy with regards to companies’ ability to breach individual’s rights. The rest of the subpoints dealing with the free exchange of ideas deal with content management and distribution, as opposed to a focus on the political structure of the Internet. Protect the openness of the Internet, encouraging diversity in media ownership and protecting children while preserving the First Amendment all tend to take the free exchange of ideas outside the realm of the ivory tower of Washington D.C. and into the hands of those who do produce and control the media within the World Wide Web.
If we are to look at Obama’s choices of technological focus through the social filter, it would seem that Obama wants to remove more of the barriers to connection to the Internet. Hopefully, this will include a renewed commitment to municipal high-speed Internet and wi-fi. The digital divide issues still affect people. There are still several areas around my region that only have dial-up if any Internet access at all. These must be a priority to ensure that the nation can catch up with the rest of the connected world.
