After the heady days of Vice Presidents inventing the Internet and the White House issuing Internet governance Green Papers, technology seems to have faded as an issue for Presidential platforms. Still, campaigns are savvy enough to focus on using the Web to market their candidacy and of course raise money. So I started to investigate the sites to see what position, if any, the candidates took on technology issues. A quick tour of the frontrunners revealed that many sites had a nod to energy policy (you know the drill, foreign oil and global warming are bad) as a key technology issue, but other technology issues were unaddressed. With all the attention on the Hill to YouTube and net neutrality, it seemed that candidates should have staked out more positions regarding technology policy.
I dug further and found that IT Consulting had a helpful article offering an overview of the technology positions of six candidates. It also reviewed each Web site’s functionality. But there are many more candidates, and there is the opportunity to probe where the candidates stand on a host of issues. So over summer I plan on writing a little bit about the candidates and where they seem to stand on technology issues. If nothing else, perhaps this project will start people asking that parties and candidates be clearer about technology issues such as net neutrality, Internet sales taxes, privacy, online speech, stem cell research, and so on. One small note: I liked the IT Consulting article’s istanbul escort bayan decision to review Web site functionality and istanbul escorts policy positions, so I will probably stick with that method. Nonetheless, if readers have suggestions as to other ways to approach the project, I am open to them.
My next post on Presidential Candidates and their technology policies will address a specific candidate’s position. Here’s a teaser: the first candidate I will profile is not Giuliani, McCain, Romney, Clinton, Edwards, or Obama. Someone else merits the pole position.
Fantastic issue to cover. As an admin law person, I am very interested in the tech coordination angle here, too. Would the candidate get some sort of czar, or at least White House coordinator, to try to develop a coherent approach? Consider that NN issues are the FCC’s bailiwick, which is totally separate from the Copyright Office, which is apart from USPTO.
On the other hand, given Boyle’s critique of Clinton’s NII paper, perhaps we want less coordination, not more!
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