New President-Elect Obama has announced that upon taking office a mere two months from now, he plans to bring a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) into his cabinet. The newly appointed CTO would bring a level of tech-awareness never before seen in Washington. The appointee's sole purpose would be to ensure that our government and all of its branches will make efficient use of the best technologies available and research best practices to find shortcomings in our nation’s existing technology infrastructure. This includes, but is not limited to: internet technology, security technology, and networking technologies nation wide.
What does all of this mean to you? Well, in short, it means that the U.S. will now hopefully be able to crawl out of its dismal hole in the middle of the world-wide tech stampede with the help of the CTO. The U.S. currently ranks only 15th in the world in both the availability of broadband internet and the speed of our connections according to a study done by the ITIF (I know, it surprises me too). The average speed of a broadband connection in the U.S. clocks in at around 4.9Mbps while countries like South Korea and Japan are topping out at around 45-60Mbps of average speed. Unfortunately, this means that internet in the U.S. is, well, SLOW. As far as availability, the U.S. has the most broadband subscribers by quantity, but the numbers suffer on a per capita basis – this means that broadband access simply isn’t available in very many places.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt was the first to be asked by Obama’s administration to take the position. Schmidt turned the position down saying that "I love working at Google and I'm very happy to stay at Google, so the answer is no". Tech Loop wonders who they will ask next….hmm, maybe Steve Jobs? If there is anyone that knows how to save dying technology it’s surely him!
Tech Loop is hoping that Obama’s new CTO will help bolster our fledgling internet situation over the course of the Obama administration. The fact that the U.S. ranks 15th in the world is completely unacceptable. We also feel like the CTO position is one that is long overdue in high level government - after all, ecommerce and internet infrastructure are just as big a source of economical life as any other. Technology is an important part of how the U.S. economy and communications operate on a daily basis. We are cautious about the position, however, because it could lead to overregulation and the undermining of the free-spirit that technology (especially the internet) thrives on. While the Obama camp promises to ensure net-neutrality, we fear that they may start regulating under the guise of national security…something that turns a cheek to net-neutrality.
Overall, as technology lovers and geeks, Tech Loop whole-heartedly welcomes the new position. Anyone or anything in our government that can foster better internet communication will always get love from the geeks. We are excited about the fact that we will now have a voice at the highest level of government. Here’s to more, better, and faster internet!!!
What do you make of the new position? Are you looking forward to it, or are you dreading it? Let us know in the comments below!
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
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Blake Schnitkey
As a graduate in Visual Communications Technology from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, Blake was drawn into a love for technology via the biggest passion in his lif More
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I think this is very exciting for the tech community, but as a tax-paying citizen worried about the troubled economy, this is yet another salary to go on the payroll. Is it worth it? Probably yes. But with so many problems, I'm not sure why positions are being added rather than subtracted. Now, that being said, I'm in favor of the CTO position; I just think some other stuff will have to be slashed back to make room for it.
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