They say all politics is local, my “neighborhod” is tech.
I don’t want to appear to be myopic by focusing on just this aspect of the Obama administration amidst all the inauguration after glow. But let’s face it, the sector can use all the help that it can get, and it is great to have a President who really gets it when it comes to tech.
From his attachment to his BlackBerry, to his co opting of social media as a communications platform, to his views on building out our broadband infrastructure and healthcare information systems (see this Healthcare IT News piece), you can tell that Obama is literate and forward thinking when it comes to tech.
This Portfolio article (inactive) talks about the positive reception for his FCC pick and links to Obama’s Technology and Innovation Plan.
The right will continue to grouse that he is a liberal tax and spender, and find every way to undermine and criticize.
Yet it is pretty clear that the government needs to continue to do its part in getting the economy going and part of this is spending on public works. As I have long maintained, continuing to build out our information highway is no less vital than investing in physical infrastructure. Other nations are ahead of us on this. (People might think we are doing fine here, but weren’t the Internet “pipes” slow yesterday – what did that do to productivity? What about the digital divide and widespread availability of mobile broadband?)
And stimulating the development of better methods for pooling and sharing medical records will lead to dividends in fewer medical errors, better information for research, and ultimately better health care at lower costs.
