The New Washington Tech Agenda

Since technology is the key to virtually all of President-elect Barack Obama's plans for sweeping changes in the direction of the country and the way Washington does business with its citizens, it is not surprising Obama brings a decidedly different technology agenda to the White House than President Bush did eight years ago. President Bush praised technology as a key driver of the economy and worked to remove government barriers such as laws, rules and regulations to let the free market make its decisions on winners and losers. Obama, though, embraces technology as the path to innovation and the future and plans to invest heavily in technology as the key to reviving the economy. A look at the emerging new Washington tech agenda: 1) Network Neutrality, 2) H1-B visas, 3) patent reform, 4) universal broadband, 5) spectrum management reform, 6) health information technology and 7) open-source government.