Obama, the techie president?
Civil Liberties Group Asks Obama for Tech Changes (PC World) by PC World: Yahoo! Tech
In my semi-humble opinion, I've seen very little to show that Obama knows technology any more than necessary to use a Blackberry, which is almost nothing. I don't have anything against Blackberries; they're very useful devices that enable people who need the connectivity to have it seamlessly. Very powerful devices they are indeed. But a tech-head a Blackberry user does not entail.
That said, I hope that this group, the Center for Democracy and Technology (this is the first time I've ever heard of them) isn't speaking to a brick wall. While the Patriot Act may very well be repealed only because Bush touched it, and therefore evil in the minds of leftists, I would like to see some sensible Internet policy being made.
There is an extraordinary lack of any form of privacy regulation to protect us except from the authorities, and even this is frequently ignored by groups such as the FBI. But even though some people consider personal information to be private—even though many people throw their personal information all over the Internet and somehow expect it to remain private—any information about anybody collected by a corporation belongs to the corporation. As in, the person who collected the information OWNS the information and can literally do with it as they please. Only a company's privacy policy, which they can change or rescind at any time, prevents them from selling that information to anyone they please.
I'm not sure what this "universal broadband" idea is. I've heard it several times, but it's just a catch phrase to me. Catch phrases uttered by any politician means absolutely jack squat (ok, maybe less) to me. Does he mean free? That sounds like a dumb idea, even though Democrats seem to love such ideas. Internet is not a right, nor should it ever be. Free speech is a right, but we don't demand that Shure place a microphone in the hands of every American, nor force Bic to give a pen to everyone in this country. Does he mean treating it like a public utility? That's a really interesting concept, and I'd like to learn about such a thing. I would, however, like to know how we don't have that already, considering how broadband internet is currently disseminated.
All in all, I'm most interested to know what he is going to do about freedom of information. I was surprised to learn that Ashcroft had sent a memo to government offices directing them to withhold FIA request information, directly conflicting with the spirit of the law. I don't know what it actually said, and the limited discussion of this in the news article suggests to me that a bias exists, but I do not like any restrictions of information from the Federal Government.
I also would like to see some extra protections on the Internet. It is a global forum on which anyone with a keyboard and a mind can propound whatever he or she so feels important enough, regardless of another's opinion of the intrinsic value of such. Lawmakers and political pundits like to make broad overreaching statements about "problems" that only they can fix (thereby ensuring their continued election in their respective offices), but when it comes to the internet, they don't get it. They hear the song "The Internet is for Porn" and believe it, and probably believe that the Internet should be outright banned because of such activity. Good luck with that.
So let's see what happens.
In my semi-humble opinion, I've seen very little to show that Obama knows technology any more than necessary to use a Blackberry, which is almost nothing. I don't have anything against Blackberries; they're very useful devices that enable people who need the connectivity to have it seamlessly. Very powerful devices they are indeed. But a tech-head a Blackberry user does not entail.
That said, I hope that this group, the Center for Democracy and Technology (this is the first time I've ever heard of them) isn't speaking to a brick wall. While the Patriot Act may very well be repealed only because Bush touched it, and therefore evil in the minds of leftists, I would like to see some sensible Internet policy being made.
There is an extraordinary lack of any form of privacy regulation to protect us except from the authorities, and even this is frequently ignored by groups such as the FBI. But even though some people consider personal information to be private—even though many people throw their personal information all over the Internet and somehow expect it to remain private—any information about anybody collected by a corporation belongs to the corporation. As in, the person who collected the information OWNS the information and can literally do with it as they please. Only a company's privacy policy, which they can change or rescind at any time, prevents them from selling that information to anyone they please.
I'm not sure what this "universal broadband" idea is. I've heard it several times, but it's just a catch phrase to me. Catch phrases uttered by any politician means absolutely jack squat (ok, maybe less) to me. Does he mean free? That sounds like a dumb idea, even though Democrats seem to love such ideas. Internet is not a right, nor should it ever be. Free speech is a right, but we don't demand that Shure place a microphone in the hands of every American, nor force Bic to give a pen to everyone in this country. Does he mean treating it like a public utility? That's a really interesting concept, and I'd like to learn about such a thing. I would, however, like to know how we don't have that already, considering how broadband internet is currently disseminated.
All in all, I'm most interested to know what he is going to do about freedom of information. I was surprised to learn that Ashcroft had sent a memo to government offices directing them to withhold FIA request information, directly conflicting with the spirit of the law. I don't know what it actually said, and the limited discussion of this in the news article suggests to me that a bias exists, but I do not like any restrictions of information from the Federal Government.
I also would like to see some extra protections on the Internet. It is a global forum on which anyone with a keyboard and a mind can propound whatever he or she so feels important enough, regardless of another's opinion of the intrinsic value of such. Lawmakers and political pundits like to make broad overreaching statements about "problems" that only they can fix (thereby ensuring their continued election in their respective offices), but when it comes to the internet, they don't get it. They hear the song "The Internet is for Porn" and believe it, and probably believe that the Internet should be outright banned because of such activity. Good luck with that.
So let's see what happens.
posted by omahaprogrammer at
3:27 PM
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