Obama CTO

[Lithos]

Wanted to kick this by one more time. Help set the priorities for Obama's new CTO.

http://obamacto.org/

[gateley]

1. Kickin' for you, although I don't have any input. What do YOU think his piorities

should be?

[Lithos]

3. There are two ways to look at this

What should be Obama's political technical agenda and what should the agenda be of the Federal government. The CTO is really more towards the latter, but people have pulled ideas from the two.

From a general political perspective, I think Net Neutrality, revoking DRM, revoking the DMCA and pushing open standards (which does not necessarily mean open sourced), and pushing/upping broadband connectivity are important.

From a Federal Government perspective, I think using the power of the Federal government to push open standards and to realize cost savings by implementing technologies such as Linux, OO where it makes sense. Truthfully pushing open standards will make the decision to utilize Linux, OO much less significant.

[gateley]

4. Yikes -- almost sorry i asked since I don't understand many of your references.

So glad we've got people like you who know and are keeping an eye on this. Carry on! :hi:

[starroute]

18. The quick version: It just means pushing back against corporate control

Corporations are scared of free systems (like the Linux operating system and the Open Office business applications) because they cut into their sales. They're not even happy about open standards, which would let other people design applications compatible with theirs. They prefer to keep all the control in their own hands through closed, proprietary systems like Microsoft's Windows and MS Office, where nobody else even knows how they work.

In particular, the corporations are afraid of governments insisting on open standards for their own agencies and for anyone who does business with them -- they'd much rather make it so you can't even file your taxes online unless you're using Windows.

Music and movie companies are also trying desperately to hold onto copyright control, whether through digital rights management (eg, requiring verification to use their software, sometimes to a point where you can't even sell it or give it away when you no longer need it) or through suing college students under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act for downloading pirate copies of songs. They're even trying to criminalize copyright violation so they can get the government to go after infringers and throw them in jail.

Corporations don't want to bother extending broadband to areas where it doesn't pay, and even where it does pay they're rather keep it scarce so they can jack the price up. In some cases where cities have tried to install their own wireless networks, telecoms have sued them for unfair competition.

And companies like Comcast and Verizon want to be able to allow corporations to pay for priority routing -- overturning net neutrality as it has always existed -- so that, say, downloads of Hollywood movies would whiz along while Democratic Underground got shunted aside.

That about covers what Lithos said -- but hopefully more intelligibly. All of those are areas where people are looking to an Obama administration to push back against the corporations and establish policies that provide the greatest benefit to the American people and American business and innovation as a whole, rather than protecting the profits of a few select industries.

[gateley]

20. Wow -- thanks for the education. Now I get it!

:pals:

[TahitiNut]

12. GMTA

I didn't push what I saw as more general political priorities (Patriot Act transcends CTO) and kept to more IT-specific areas: open standards (God how I detest proprietary 'standards'!), fiber-to-the-curb municipal infrastructure, and shit-canning DMCA. While each is not wholly-contained within the federal bureaucracy's hands-on purview, they're key, imho. Each one represents corporate predation - over-reaching and anti-competitive behavior.

[tigereye]

19. more OO sounds good, as well as Linux ( I love OO-don't like Windows)

and my husband the software geek agrees with you!


:hi:

[JFN1]

2. Interesting.

Net Neutrality should be at the top of the list.

[me b zola]

5. It recently occurred to me re net neutrality

PE Obama's ability to reach people via the internet and other tech routes played a key role in his victory in the election. His first radio address was also put on you tube to reach the most amount of people. He would be shooting himself in the foot if he failed to protect net neutrality.

I am feeling fairly confident that we have a good chance to protect net neutrality.

[Cha]

6. Let's Rec'd this, too..so

it can be spread far and wide on our internet.

[Unsane]

7. what is cto?

[Fleshdancer]

8. Chief Technology Officer n/t

[Fleshdancer]

9. The site claims that he will appoint the country's first CTO...is this true?

I haven't heard anything about that.

[Born_A_Truman]

10. Rural broadband is important

I live in a very small unincorporated area in the high desert (Mojave) in California. Moved here 15 years ago from the San Fernando Valley. Our free television consisted of outdated translators and they were either off the air or so bad you couldn't get a picture half the time. Many people here can't afford satellite tv and we are so off the beaten path, there is no hope of getting cable, much less DSL broadband. I don't know what will happen when television goes all digital in February to communities like mine.

We do have dialup here and our local ISP has wireless but I live out in a "cove" surrounded on three sides by buttes, so I couldn't get the wireless broadband. I finally got satellite internet since I work from home and dialup just wasn't cutting it. It's better than dialup but still isn't near as fast as cable or DSL. I had hoped to see broadband via our electric grid, but that looks like it won't be happening in my lifetime.

I hope to see all Americans have access to technology, not just the major cities.

[Drunken Irishman]

11. I want free porn.

[TahitiNut]

13. Plenty of it on Usenet.

:shrug:

[Drunken Irishman]

14. I can never get Usenet to work.

[TahitiNut]

15. If your ISP provides news servers (or you subscribe), Xnews is very good software.

While Seamonkey does offer news client functions, I prefer Xnews, since it covers virtually EVERYTHING - and I'm spoiled from being a "pre-Web" internet user.

[Drunken Irishman]

16. I'll have to check it out.

I used to use 'em back in the 90s and 00s.

[ailsagirl]

17. kick

[alwysdrunk]

21. This is awesome

Would McCain have done this? No.