Voices for Innovation

Voices for InnovationTechnology Policy Draft Agenda  

Based on survey responses from Voices for Innovation members, we have drafted and established priorities for the VFI Technology Policy Agenda.

But this Agenda is still a work in progress. We want your input to help us enhance and edit the Agenda before we present it to the new Administration!  

Priority Number One: Education and Workforce Development

Technology businesses thrive, innovate, and grow when they have access to a skilled workforce. The Obama Administration and Congress should support education and workforce development programs that emphasize science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Programs for evaluation and funding should include:

• Increasing technology access opportunities in primary and secondary schools;
• Technical training at the community college level;
• High-tech skills education in worker retraining programs.

Public policies should also allow greater numbers of highly educated foreign-born workers who have been educated in the United States to remain and work in this country.

Priority Number Two: Free Trade and Fair Competition

Free trade and fair competition promote innovation and business growth. The Obama Administration and Congress should support free trade, open competition, and fair rules for government technology purchasing through the following activities:

• Enforcing antitrust and intellectual property (IP) laws consistently across the technology sector and the computing experience -- on the Web, in the data center, and on the PC;
• Using diplomatic leverage and other means to encourage foreign governments to drop tariffs and other barriers that impede market access for U.S. technology products and services;
• Establishing, reaffirming, and enforcing procurement processes based on objective criteria that are technology- and vendor-neutral procurement policies in the United States, and encouraging parallel policies abroad.

Policy Priority Number Three: Intellectual Property

Strong incentive systems such as intellectual property rights (IPR), including patents and copyrights, drive innovation and business growth by enabling innovators to receive financial compensation for their inventions. The Obama Administration and Congress should strengthen U.S. incentive systems and support IP enforcement worldwide by:

• Strengthening and improving IP-based incentive systems including patents to protect innovations;
• Enforcing the law and penalties on IP piracy;
• Enabling IP developed through public funding to be commercialized by the private sector.

Policy Priority Number Four: Internet Privacy, Safety, and Security

The growth of Web technologies and commerce depends on public trust in the safety, security, and privacy of the Internet. The Obama Administration and Congress should take steps to support and strengthen privacy protections, safety, and security on the Internet, including by:

• Establishing reasonable and comprehensive federal privacy legislation that strengthens privacy protections for the digital age and reduces patchwork approaches to privacy;
• Expanding resources available to law enforcement efforts to fight cybercrime and enhancing international coordination to fight cybercrime while also protecting privacy and free expression;
• Promoting adoption of more secure methods for authentication and identity management.

Policy Priority Number Five: R&D

Scientific research leads to innovation, commercial technologies, and economic development. The Obama Administration and Congress should fund basic scientific research, allow the results of this research to be commercialized, and support incentives for private sector R&D. Actions in support of this policy priority should include:

• Making the corporate R&D tax credit permanent;
• Adequately funding national scientific research programs;
• Allowing the private sector, regardless of business, licensing, or development model, to use the results and innovations from public research for commercial ventures.

As an 50+ year old person with degress in engineering and computer science, I am sick and tired of people worshiping at the alter of 'technology.'   Perhaps the most overused word in the English language.

Right now you can witness the result of innovative lending pratices. 

Right now you can see how innovation is helping the US Auto industry. 

Right now you can see how innovative investment stratagies have helped our financial system.

Don't forget the global Microsoft monopoly - O/S, tools, databases, servers, applications, compilers. 

The bottom line is that technology and the internet are not the end all that they have been cracked up to be.  Further, people keep chasing change, rather than establish tried and true methods for people to be able to perform productive work and enjoy their lives.

Whoa.  I was going to comment on the Agenda, but first I'll respond to dgbrong's provocative post. "Technology" and "innovation" might indeed be overused words, and technology can be applied to just about any endeavor. Overreaching with technology has also been a constant cultural theme (the biblical story of the Tower of Babel is sort of about technological overreaching).  Of course, innovation has produced positives and negatives historically. You note that innovative lending practices have contributed to the current financial crisis.  But innovative finance -- in the form of insurance and other financial instruments -- powered late 18th-c. and early 19th-c. economic growth in the U.S., which in turn helped fund the industrial revolution. Okay, enough history lesson.

What I'd like to hear from dgbrong is how you turn your observations into policy recommendations or edits for the Agenda. Should there be some sort of overarching item about oversight and risk assessment (e.g., don't support technology for technology's sake). At the same time, trial-and-error and risk-taking are important. If we settled for "tried and true," we'd still be using scrolls as opposed to books, horses, dial phones, etc. You also lament the Microsoft monopoly (in databases, too?!), but note that the draft VFI Tech Policy Agenda clearly calls out for enforcement of antitrust laws.

I'll have more to say on other Tech Policy Agenda specifics later.

It is imperative for the health and growth of both the American business sector as well as the education sector for our new administration to focus on these policy priorities.  The first priority of Education and Workforce Development is long overdue and critical to keeping our people technically savvy and secure.  A technically educated citizenry will foster a new era or American innovation and leadership contributions to the country and our planet.  Thanks for listening.

Richard Losciale

Richard LoscialePresidentPremier Knowledge Solutions Inc.
1 Campbell Plaza  |  Suite 2B  |  St. Louis, MO 63139-1780
Phone: 314-450-4710 | F: (314) 644-3670
Proud Members of United Training                                   Member: Voices for Innovation www.voicesforinnovation.org/ 

 

I don't know why I was invited to this forum.  I do not make it a practice to rant.  However this place is sooo over the top, I think you people could use a reality check.

I understand what is behind this forum:  People who hope to benefit monetarily and business wise (books / consultants / training) by hyping 'technology' and all the associated MBA stuff that is invented daily.  I would wager that very few participants here are successful serious software developers.

Here is where our US culture has arrived after two decades of technological progress:  It takes two incomes to buy even a modest home.  Children are warehoused in daycare facilities and then sent to school, which is now nothing more than the next daycare facility.  25% of teen girls have an STD, nearly 40% of the births are out of wedlock, in 2003 45% of the custodial parents were either divorced or seperated.  A huge portion of our government budgets go toward entitlement programs, never ending wars, and now a massive economic bail out of  monopolies: the Big 3 auto companies, insurance companies (AIG), and huge banks (Wacovia). If you don't belive me, look it up on Google, the 'other monopoly.'

We have over 10,000,000 illegal immigrants from Mexico.  There are over 500,000 illegal immigrants in US prisons.  This website suggests that we import more third world workers (coders) and let the H1-B's stay.  Great - our kids can compete and work for $12/hr.

Having two degrees, one in engineering, another in comp sci, my advice to young people is don't go in to a technical field.  Engineers and programmers are the last to be rewarded, and the first to be laid off.  This web site advocates importation of competion and outsourcing of jobs.  Any tech person:  programmer, engineer, contract law, radiology, even surgery, are being outsourced to third world countries. 

The solution?   How many of you have made a commitment with a significant other?  How many have raised your children with a parent at home?  How many of you have made a chair or table or other furniture? Cut dovetails in a drawer by hand?  Cut down a tree more than 4" in diameter?  Varnished furniture?  Made a dinner for 10 or more (by yourself)?  Remodeled a home together?  Mastered a musical instrument to your satisfaction?  Fixed some major thing that has gone wrong?  Wrote a book?  Knitted a sweater?  Sewen clothes?

If you would like your parents to take care of you forever, if you don't like to think about details, if you like the idea of continuing in high school for the rest of your life, if you don't mind many co-wokers who have nothing to say, if you like to sit in a cube farm, if you accept management treating you as a child then tech / corporate life is for you.

My advice is get with it and be a real person.  Technology is just an aspect of life, it's not life, and it's not the solution (as witnessed by the current economic crisis).  It's just like the TV, a vast waste land, with a small application.

In closing I suggest the you evangalists on this forum refrain from using the following words / phrases:  Overreaching, cultural, innovation, oversight, risk, leadership, opportunities, public trust (is this a joke?), multi-tiered, competencies, exciting constantly changing,

**The editors of Voicesforinnovation.org (VFI) have had to edit this post because it contained content that was deemed offensive to other members of the community.  Please note that VFI has policies related to forums including staying on topic, not attacking others personally and refraining from the use of inappropriate language.  Postings that do not comply with these policies will be deleted or edited.**

 

 

Take a look at this link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,453825,00.html

 60 percent of 12,000 general practice physicians found they would not recommend medicine as a career.  Once again technology doesen't seem to be the answer.

 I can't imagine why you would censor my other comment:

 

 Please let me know why you are afraid to let this comment stand?

**The editors of Voicesforinnovation.org (VFI) have had to edit this post because it contained content that was deemed offensive to other members of the community.  Please note that VFI has policies related to forums including staying on topic, not attacking others personally and refraining from the use of inappropriate language.  Postings that do not comply with these policies will be deleted or edited.**

Voices for Innovation encourages thoughtful discussion. We welcome open debate and viewpoints that differ from those of the post authors. That said, we wish to keep the conversation civil. Remember that the people under discussion members of the community as well. Challenge the ideas of those with whom you disagree, not the posters themselves personally.

Liked this post. Very thoughtful.

Here are some thoughts I have regarding Policy Priority Number One.  I welcome comments from others.

 

Technology businesses thrive when they have good leadership, share common goals, and have a clear vision.  Technology changes too quickly – some good and some bad.  In today’s business, the bottom line is making money instead of doing some good.  I suggest a compromise that results in a profitable business that gives the employee satisfaction beyond the paycheck and provides something to the community.  Leadership is necessary to determine the best direction and priorities for business success.  I also suggest that each business adopt or understand the concept of “quality circles” as introduced by Edward Deming.  This provides a check and balance for the common goals and corporate vision.

 

The challenge is not for the Obama Administration to support education and workforce development programs but the challenge must rest with those corporations to educate and develop their workforce by providing assistance to universities, high schools, and middle schools to identify those students who have potential.  The corporation’s goal is to identify and encourage students to pursue those skills that win them scholarships or jobs.  College athletics does this today.  I think it is a good idea for IBM, Microsoft, Raytheon, and others create national challenge programs televised and promoted to attract talent and reward those who have the desired skills with scholarships as early as sixth grade.

 

I disagree with the need to create policy to allow greater foreign-born workers in the US.  This is an excuse so that large corporations continue to do nothing to build the type of employee the corporation needs.  The entire retraining program must exist within the corporation – it is also in the corporation the innovation occurs. 

 

The common thread that must exist throughout is leadership.  The CEO and Board of large corporation must consider an investment in the workers and must share the success and failure of the organization with those who give so much to it.  Through these workers, the corporation becomes a part of the community and community a part of the corporation.  This way the community creates and supports the needs of the corporation and the corporation provides for the community.

 

dgbrong,

The link you've given actually DOES indicate that technology is an answer.  I quote the last paragraph:

Many of the health plans proposed by members of Congress, insurers and employers's groups, as well as Obama's, suggest that electronic medical records would go a long way to saving time and reducing costs.

The problem, according to the linked story, is too much paperwork and a lack of trained doctors.  Technology does not change this fact.  Frustration and overwork in the medical community is nothing new; the nursing shortage is long documented. 

Innovation, technology and change form the backbone of improvement in any society, but no one here or elsewhere would suggest this comes without cost.  When we moved from hunter-gatherers to agriculture, I'm sure there was some neolithic dgbrong out there arguing that people needed to stop farming beets and learn to kill a mammoth with their bare hands!  The industrial revolution had its many well-documented problems, but led to the many conveniences you enjoy today (such as the computer on which you aired your views in this forum).  There is no doubt that it is a shame more people cannot personally build a home and work with their hands to build their own furniture.  Where would we be without the craftsman?  But those people who have chosen, happily, to work in technology, do so with the hope that they can (for example) design something that will ease the load on doctors, allowing them to focus more on their patients.  Is that not worthwhile work?

Technology and innovation are imperfect solutions to all problems, but they are nonetheless enmeshed in our present and our future, and it is worthwhile to support efforts to free innovation and encourage it to blossom.  There is a place for corporations, who have the means to produce big, new changes, as well as the entrepreneur working in their garage or dorm room.  Let's look forward, not backwards.

Now it may because I too am a "50+" person or just because great minds think alike but I too am confused as to how these points have ANYTHING to do with innovation.  They all sound very noble and that's a good thing, but they're also kind of obvious.  It's like advocating for truth, freedom, and the American Way.

The great thing about the greatest President in my lifetime, John F. Kennedy, was that he truly challenged us to innovate.  And his innovation wasn't about legislation or anything close.  He was about getting to the moon.  How many people reading this remember that we've been to the moon or care?  Well, back then it was inconceivable and he challenged us all to conceive of it.  And we did.  And it was awesome.

Today there are other inconceivable things, and not just Microsoft actually releasing a product when they say they're going to.  How do we use all our wonderful technology to improve the many things on our planet that need improving?  Start with communication.  How do we use all of this technology to get nations to communicate with each other and figure out how to behave to promote the greater good?

And what about teaching our children how to think about technology, how to treat it as a tool not as magic.  How to approach it as something that will serve us well if we just invest a little time in configuring it properly.

And what about the Transporter?  You can keep all the rest.  I want to be able to beam over to my favorite pizzeria and grab a slice when I get the munchies.

Trying to take this seriously,

HMC

 

 

 

 

A quick response to Howard Cohen's comment: "They [the Agenda items] all sound very noble and that's a good thing, but they're also kind of obvious.  It's like advocating for truth, freedom, and the American Way."

What might be obvious to us or taken for granted will be less obvious and in need of communication to elected officials and the broader public -- thus the point of Voices for Innovation and the Agenda (which also creates priorities). For instance, the Agenda supports IP rights, but there are thousands of technology advocates who do not support software patents: code is for the taking. Re, trade and competition: many countries have protectionist policies, and the Agenda and advocacy make this issue less easy to ignore for government officials.

While these are issues that should be taken seriously, I will say that I like your Batman costume.

It time to recognize potential threat that poorly designed or implemented systems pose. The potential military and financial threats that come from having systems which are designed and maintained by less qualified personnell is a threat to all of us.

We need a trustworthy foundation to build our businesses, government and transactions upon. The time to lay that foundation is now. If we do not plan properly it will not hold the structures which could come later.

• How many businesses have your personal information?
• What is the likelyhood that one or more are suceptible to one or more threats which will expose that information?
• Who is checking or confirming the protections are in place?
• If a breach happens will you be notified?
• What expectation should we have that private data is purged from the systems of orginizations you no longer do business with?
• Are systems we must count on worthy of our trust?
  

A good step would be to implement some of the plans which the open voting consortium has laid out to solve some of the problems with electronic voting:

• The whole voting system must be open to complete public scrutiny with no room for "trade secrets,"
• the voting system must include a durable paper ballot that can be handled, stacked, counted, and recounted if necessary,
• the voting system should invite public participation instead of discouraging it,
• your ballot should be cast in private but counted in public,
• accessibility features should be built into the system,
• we need to conduct elections in a cost effective manner,
• the future of democracy in the United States and around the world is at risk,

Operating systems need to have the ability to select which applications can read the keyboard. Thus if you are entering a password only the window which is asking for the password should be able to read keystrokes. It should be easy for a user to determine which applicaitons can read the screen or keystrokes at any given moment.