The 463: Inside Tech

Wash Post: "Can-do" Economy Starts with Innovation

 (Jim Hock) The Washington Post's Bob Samuelson today writes a great piece on the U.S. economy of how a "can-do culture" must combine at its bedrock: intense ambition; flexibility to adapt; and (in our view, most importantly) an "instinct for innovation."  

Samuelson calls entrepreneurship the "sleeper issue" that can help us overcome.

Yes, most of us get this but we'd like to make sure that our political leaders recognize this too as Bob rightly points out that "all net job creation from 1980 to 2005 came from firms that were five years old or less, according to a study by economists John Haltiwanger of the University of Maryland and Ron Jarmin and Javier Miranda of the Census Bureau."

Extremely important point there.  Entrepreneurs create those small firms which in turn create jobs.  Let's make sure we make our policies clear to help them unleash that potential. In my view, we can do that by getting health care right (and completed) and then move on to strong job creation in 2010.  

Could U.S. Innovation Future Rest on Health Care Passage?

 

(Jim Hock) The New York Times David Leonhardt writes a fascinating column this week making the case that passage of health care is directly tied to America's innovation and job creation future.  Think about it for a second. If potential employees are more worried about their potential health care benefits, it has a distortive effect.  The reality is that they should choose a job because of the job and whether their skills match, not because of health care.

Businesses like ours have to forecast in health care cost increases of up to 20% annually. Not  many other inputs to our bottom line have that volatility.  And have you noticed recently that health insurance premiums have been jacked up again prior to potential reform?  Let's face it -- health care is a broken market.  

We need reform for a lot of reasons, but in other countries that we are competing with, health care costs less, serves more people (and oftentimes better service).  

Mr. Leonhardt is on to something -- 1.5 million people stay in jobs they don't like or want because they are afraid to lose their benefits.  It pains us when anyone is out of a job, but just think about the efficiency gains if people could be empowered to make better choices in this tough economy. And get healthier at the same time.

Right Brain Innovation

Stephanie Tackach -- We’ve been hearing a lot about innovation in the news these days with the current economic situation. However, the Consumer Electronics Association decided to put a fun spin on it by partnering with Threadless, an online community for t-shirt designers, for a contest for the Innovation Movement.
 
Designers were asked to give their interpretations of innovation in the past, present or future for a chance to win a trip to CES along with many other prizes.
 
170 designs were submitted but David Fleck of Edinburgh, Scotland, won with his “Innovation Revolution” design. Fleck will join the winner of CEA’s “Apps for Innovation” contest, which is still accepting submissions through December 14. For more details on the contest, click here.

 
See all designs here.

First Ever Online Presidential Address on Cyber Security

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month and today President Obama is doing his part to raise awareness through the first ever online presidential address demonstrating that America's cyber security protection is our "shared responsibility."  Kudos to the President, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and so many others within our government that are fighting the good fight to raise awareness of this important issue. 

The National Cyber Security Alliance has great information and tools to learn more about this important issue.  More information and tips available at www.staysafeonline.org.  You can also link to the President's official declaration of October as cyber security awareness month.  Remember that cyber security is our shared responsibility.  Each of us can do our part.

 

Mr. Chopra Goes to Silicon Valley

Katie Hallen -- Aneesh Chopra received a rock star’s welcome Tuesday night at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., in an event hosted by TechNet, the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Churchill Club.  For America’s first federal CTO, it was his first visit – and public appearance – in Silicon Valley since President Obama appointed him to office in April.

Chopra, who previously was Virginia’s secretary of technology, had initially been perceived by some in the room as a Silicon Valley outsider, but last night they embraced him as a visionary with big ideas and specific objectives to help the government translate technology to boost U.S. global competitiveness and better engage the citizenry.

Among those in the packed room of 350 attendees was Tim O’Reilly, an early Chopra supporter.  O’Reilly wrote back in April when news of the CTO appointment hit that: “Chopra has been one of those who have taught me the most about how we can build a better government with the help of technology.” 

Chopra revealed his near-term (next 90 days, by September 22) versus long-term priorities, looking at how government can invest in the building blocks of innovation, promote innovation to achieve national policy goals, and instill a culture of openness and transparency.  In particular, he cited his huge support for health care IT, education technology and government R&D investment.

 “We need to embrace this spirit of commonwealth – the idea that we can bring the power of entrepreneurship to deliver game-changing innovation in our public services,” said Chopra who peppered his remarks with stories of social entrepreneurs who have inspired him to help technology and the government work better for the American people.

Watch the YouTube video from the talk and Q&A on the Churchill Club’s YouTube Channel.

Read the Twitter chatter here.

See more coverage from TechCrunch, PC Magazine and the New York Times.

TechNet and the Center for Democracy and Technology are 463 clients.





 














 

Aneesh Chopra, The Preview

Want a sneak peek into how the new federal CTO Aneesh Chopra is approaching his job? You won't do much better than read Saul Hansell's piece from today that covers his very recent sit down with Chopra.

That said, it's understood that Chopra remains working on his official platform and priorities and that he will soon lay them out to the public and business leaders. Patience. The man has only been on the job for a couple of weeks.

When the official roll-out does happen, as Hansell notes, expect there to be plenty of talk of metrics and measurements mixed in with vision...

When I asked about his goals for the job, Mr. Chopra walked over to his desk and grabbed one page of what appeared from a distance to be a PowerPoint deck, which he described as “my theory of the case document.” It listed Mr. Chopra’s four objectives, as presented recently to Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff. They were:

   * Economic growth through innovation

   * Addressing presidential priorities through innovation platforms

   * Building the next-generation digital infrastructure

* Fostering a culture of open and innovative government...

... Mr. Chopra, a former management consultant, talked often about ways to quantify and evaluate various government efforts. And at the end of our talk, he proposed two metrics by which his own work could be measured:

First: “Can we achieve the president’s goals better, faster, cheaper through technology?” And second: “How many new billion-dollar businesses can we create by unlocking government data or government policy?”

Um, This Is Kind of a Big Deal. That Other Thing? Not So Much.

Sure, it was a lot to pack into a single speech.

Yesterday, President Obama covered everything from the Swine Flu to math tests in a speech to the National Academy of Sciences about his administration's innovation policy. But, there was some very specific significant news that came out of it.

Hint: This wasn't it...

"Google’s CEO Gets an Official Seat at President Obama’s Table" (Mashable)

or this:

"Google’s Schmidt and Microsoft’s Mundie Appointed As Obama Tech Advisors" (TechCrunch)

Or many of the similar stories about the PCAST appointments.

Give up?

It was this, from the Financial Times:

Barack Obama on Monday promised to double public funding of scientific research to exceed the level Washington spent during the “space race” unleashed by Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy 50 years ago.

The US president’s pledge, made in a speech at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, included a promise to take ideology out of public research following what many scientists saw as the politicisation of science under George W. Bush – particularly in the field of climate change.

Under Mr Obama’s pledge, the US would increase to 3 per cent the proportion of gross domestic product it spends on scientific research and development – roughly the same level as under Kennedy.

Information Week further explains:

Obama in his budget has proposed doubling the budgets for the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

He also introduced a new arm of the Department of Energy, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy, designed to replicate the research success of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

In addition, he said he planned to triple the number of NSF graduate research fellowships.

TechNet applauded the news.

Good for the FT and Information Week, but unfortunate that the Schmidt PCAST appointment, in particular, stepped on what should have been the headline of most of the coverage yesterday. Instead, we got analysis of Google's relationship with the Obama administration and paragraphs like this:

The role doesn't give Schmidt any decision making powers on the federal level. But it does place him in a seat of influence, potentially on issues that impact Google like network neutrality, privacy and copyright.

Actually, yes, no and no. Because, if this were the case, this fellow PCAST member would soon be deep in shaping the future of Internet policy...

Barbara Schaal is Professor of Biology at Washington University in St Louis. She is a renowned plant geneticist who has used molecular genetics to understand the evolution and ecology of plants, ranging from the US Midwest to the tropics.

The usually smart All Things D blog chimes in with:   "(The Schmidt appointment) is one more indication–and the biggest one yet–that Google has become firmly part of the Washington establishment."

Not really and absolutely not.

You see, PCAST is a well-respected body that has been employed by most presidents in the last fifty years or so. But, it is, to its core, a top-notch blue-ribbon panel made up of academics, researchers and select industry folk. Check out what the PCAST team in the Bush White House developed here. And, here is a link to the Clinton PCAST page.

Saying that this is the cherry on top of Google becoming part of the "Washington establishment" is paramount to saying that the "Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University now has the same access to the Obamas as the first puppy." (Daniel Schrag, the Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology in said department is also a member)

Even with an exponential increase in prioritization from the Obama Administration, PCAST will remain a helpful body that focuses on big picture research issues and ensuring that the country remains competitive by providing balance of innovation incentives and tools for learning. But, it will not be deciding the future of net neutrality.

History's Lessons Forgotten (Again)

I've rewritten this post a few times. I've settled on being as dispassionate as possible and letting the content from others speak for itself (for better or much worse). I want to avoid my own rhetoric from going off the deep end. The folks that will be quoted below handle that nicely themselves.

As is apparent here, we followed the Aneesh Chopra national CTO appointment closely. The coverage and the commentary was universally highly positive on the choice. However, there were a few minor exceptions. Some felt that a true "technologist" should have been appointed and others gave the standard issue libertarian spiel about the ironies of a government employee preaching efficiency and innovation. Fine. I totally disagree on both points and there is plenty of content out there that backs me up, but, sure, points taken.

Much more troubling was the blatant (and almost proud) racism in the reaction to the appointment by a vocal minority of story commenters.

Somehow, the fact that Chopra has an Indian heritage means that he somehow is not a "real" American, is only going hire Indians, and is part of an international conspiracy of Indians to take over the business world. All this from an all-American guy who is a massive Pittsburgh Steeler fan.

Let's state the seemingly obvious upfront: Indians are just the latest in the series of many immigrant groups to the United States made scapegoats for the natural disruptive churn that is our chosen capitalistic economy. At various times, the Irish, Italians, Polish, Jews, Chinese, Japanese, Germans, Mexicans and so on have felt the wrath for attempting to fulfill the promise of the American Dream by entering our cherished melting pot. But, what makes America America is that all have persevered and become an essential part of the fabric of our nation.

It feels strange to recite such basic elements of our country's heritage and promise, but, apparently, this is a lesson that needs to be re-learned by every generation.

Consider the comments to the Chopra appointment. (And, before you get there, it should be noted that many of the commentators cross-commented on the different stories and/or seemingly posted under different user names. I don't want to give the perception that there are more of these folks than there actually are)...

From a ZDNet story:

"Let's get off the "politically correct" bandwagon already -- there are plenty of good 'ole American boys (& girls), who are law-abiding and could do this job equally well as these imports. AMERICA FIRST."

Digg had insightful comments like this:

"Why hire an H1-B? Aren't any Americans available?"

ReadWriteWeb had these keepers:

"Before yu know it, we will all be forced to praise Allah! LOL"

"Can he PLEASE change his name to Apu, thank-you and come again!"

Wall Street Journal commentary includes:

"Aneesh will bring his 40 cousins to fill postions under him, they will bring their families from India to fill positions under them, who will bring the 40 people living in their apartment to fill positions under them and so on and so on. They will hire only Indians. They will be very good at making change and filling slushie cups, but you don’t have to be good to work in a government job."

"The invasion of the upper-caste Indians continues, and all Americans will soon be drinking out of clay cups."

"Can’t Obama find a suitable non-desi American. This is like a slap in the face for unemployed Information Technology and Engineering Americans. First their jobs were taken by Guest Workers and then outsourced to India. Now even the newly elected President does not believe in American engineers and programmers."

And, Tim O'Reilly' great post is followed by comments that include:

Tim O'Reilly: I hope someday your job is outsourced to India. Now this CTO will send all the jobs to India so what is good about that? You collaborator.

Articles like this make me want to vomit. What, everybody in I.T. has to be Hindu or of Indian decent? Americans invented the software industry, but suddenly we're an inferior race that needs to be purged out of I.T.?

That last comment came courtesy of "Kevin Flanagan" with a helpful link back to "his" blog. Here is an except of recent content there:

While the insurgency only advocates rhetorical violence and psychological cyber-warfare, here is some good news, out of all bad comes good -- four more Americans may get jobs in the I.T. industry. And there are four slots open to get a MS in I.T. from EIU...

"Four Indian students killed as drunk US cop crashes car..."

Sometimes innocents get hurt. But the alternatives are worse. So, for those of you Desis and collaborators pissed off at my cold, reckless, and tasteless disregard for the death of four Indian college students, I have one thing to say.

Shit happens.

It is called "collateral damage" in combat.

Like, what can be more tasteless than making an American I.T. professional train his semi-literate replacement? Killing a Dalit, perhaps? It happens every day. Often. And Hindus think of Americans like Dalits. They want us drinking out of Clay Cups. And if we bring up caste, they say it is none of our business. Fuck them.

I can't add anything to that.

And, P.S., I will delete any un-constructive comments.

What People Are Saying About the Aneesh Chopra Appointment

It's been less than six hours since the appointment of Aneesh Chopra as the first national CTO was officially made, but, already, the opinions on it are flying.

Bottom line: While some in Silicon Valley are lamenting that one of their own wasn't chosen, anyone who knows Aneesh is thrilled. Both sides are represented in this Slashdot conversation titled: "Obama Appoints Non-Tech Guy As CTO".

By far, the best summation of Chopra's potential comes from uber-geek Tim O'Reilly. I've excerpted his top-eight list of reasons on why the appointment was an excellent one, but please go to the source for all the fire power behind each point...

1. Chopra has been focused for the past three years on the specific technology challenges of government.

2. The role of the CTO is to provide visionary leadership, to help a company (or in this case, a government) explore the transformative potential of new technology.

3. Chopra demonstrates a deep understanding of the idea that the government is an enabler, not the ultimate solution provider.

4. Chopra understands that government technologists need to act more like their counterparts in Silicon Valley.

5. Chopra is a practical innovator.

6. Chopra has a real focus on measurement, and on figuring out what really works.

7. Chopra has specific expertise in Health Care IT.

8. Chopra is incredibly charismatic.

Amy Shatz of the WSJ says this about the reaction:

Silicon Valley execs and tech bloggers sounded genuinely excited about Obama’s choice Saturday morning and tech industry lobbying groups TechNet and the Business Software Alliance quickly released statements of support, as did several tech heavyweights

More specifically, here is what said heavyweights said...

Craig Barrett, Chairman, Intel Corporation:

“Aneesh Chopra is one of technology’s leading lights and we are lucky to have him as our nation’s Chief Technology Officer. Aneesh demonstrated outstanding leadership as Virginia’s Secretary of Technology and believes to his core that innovation and technology are the backbone of our economy. We applaud President Barack Obama for this choice of a proven, results-driven and experienced executive that will harness the power of innovation and cutting-edge discovery to help to make government work better for all of our citizens.”

Vinod Khosla, Founder of Khosla Ventures:

“President Obama has made a stellar choice in the appointment of Aneesh Chopra as America’s CTO. This man is a ‘do-er,’ plain and simple. He is a visionary leader and executive who can bring people together around a vision to get the job done.Aneesh is a passionate advocate of how technology and innovation can positively impact the lives of millions of our citizens through improved education, health-care, helping better protect our environment and so much more.”

Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corporation and founding Chair, Mozilla Foundation:   

“President Obama has made an outstanding choice in naming Aneesh Chopra as the nation's first CTO. I got to know Aneesh during the 2008 Presidential campaign and transition, where I worked with him and experienced first-hand his great drive, broad skills and inspirational approach to to how technology can be used to spur innovation, help create good jobs, grow the economy, and improve the delivery of services by the government to its citizens. Aneesh's experience as Virginia's Secretary of Technology and that state's CTO has provided highly relevant preparation for this new role, and I am confident he will be a major asset to the Administration.”

Scott McNealy, founder and Chairman of Sun Microsystems and Chairman of Sun Federal, Inc.:

“Aneesh Chopra is the type of results-focused and open-minded technology leader that our country needs. Aneesh has the abilities and experience to harness innovation for the greater public good, whether that is to reduce health care costs or increase access to government services through open source, make our country's systems more secure, foster job creation, or better prepare our future workforce. We have the utmost confidence that Aneesh will succeed in driving more efficiency and innovation into the government and get the most for the U.S. tax payer's investments.”

John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and TecNet Co-founder:

“If you want innovation, change and high performance – in any organization – the CTO role is crucial. Aneesh is an inspired appointment. His smarts and experience in technology, health care and investing will serve us well.”

Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association:

“Chopra is an excellent selection as he served proficiently in Virginia as Secretary of Technology and also has a strong background in the private sector advising the health care industry on technology management issues. He will bring to the position real world technology and public policy experience. The creation of the CTO position – and the excellent appointment of Aneesh Chopra – demonstrate the high priority the Obama administration places on the technology industry. CEA views this position as critical as it allows one individual responsibility across government agencies on key technology issues. It also ensures our industry a strong voice at the Cabinet level as issues of intellectual property, immigration, trade and taxes are discussed.”

Jim Hawley, TechNet Acting CEO:

“Aneesh is a true visionary who keenly understands the power of innovation to create jobs, help our environment, improve health care delivery and better educate our kids. His work and track record in Virginia will serve as the model for this newly created office of Chief Technology Officer. In Virginia, his office set the standard of how technology and cutting-edge discovery can improve the lives of our citizens and this will serve as a model of how IT can help make government work better for all of us. We look forward to working with him to ensure that America remains the epicenter of global innovation."

Leslie Harris, CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology:

“I know Aneesh to be an amazingly dynamic and results-oriented innovation leader. His leadership as Virginia’s Secretary of Technology was outstanding and this background and experience will serve him well in the new Administration. He knows that technology helps drive our economic recovery and is critically important to improving government service for all of our people. CDT looks forward to working with him."

Aneesh Chopra: National CTO

Now that the puppy has been picked, it's OUR turn to get some love from the Obama Administration. At last, the geek parlor game of guessing the national CTO has ended.

And, no, the new, much anticipated national CTO is not going to be an emissary from Silicon Valley like Eric Schmidt (though, saying that Obama "spurned the Valley" is going too far). The role is going to be Aneesh Chopra -- a guy who has been, effectively and to much praise, been doing close to the same job at the state level for the Commonwealth of Virginia. In his weekly radio address Saturday morning, President Obama said:

Aneesh Chopra, who is currently the Secretary of Technology for Governor Kaine of Virginia, has agreed to serve as America’s Chief Technology Officer. In this role, Aneesh will promote technological innovation to help achieve our most urgent priorities – from creating jobs and reducing health care costs to keeping our nation secure.

Aneesh ... will work closely with our Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra, who is responsible for setting technology policy across the government, and using technology to improve security, ensure transparency, and lower costs. The goal is to give all Americans a voice in their government and ensure that they know exactly how we’re spending their money – and can hold us accountable for the results.

Chopra had been recommended for the job by two Virginia congressmen who said:

Chopra's public and private experience in the technology field made him the right candidate. They also noted his focus on healthcare IT "is ideal for a position that will have responsibilities dealing both with stimulus spending on healthcare and environmental programs."

And, really, if Health IT can't be raised the forefront with Chopra in the White House, it never will.

The 36-year-old Chopra has also been very active in finding innovative ways to use technology to benefit education -- as MacWorld reported this week.

I highly recommend watching a good portion of the video below. It's from this year's Congressional Internet Caucus conference in January. One relevant aside on it is that a Congressman was supposed to be speaking the same morning but was unable to make it because of a family issue. This gave Chopra much more time than he had expected. You'll see that he used it wisely in his very interesting talk on open government, health IT and broadband...

Some speech highlights:

3:50: Open government
11:10: Discovering/searching for govt data
16:00: Open stem education
19:50: A very cool "open textbook" program
22:30: "The iPhone is my life"
24:00: Health care IT
35.15: Broadband policy
44:00: Open education (Q&A)

Chopra may not be a Valley guy, but Silicon Valley is going to like him a lot. He's energetic, insightful and can speak the language (again, watch the video). He's no bureaucrat.

And, just because you didn't previously work for a chip company or an Internet start-up doesn't mean that you "are not a tech guy" as I just read on another blog. Chopra spent a bulk of his career seeing technology in action (for better or worse) in his work in the health care industry and knew that it could and should do better to bring change to the massive sector.

So far, Micah Sifry at TechPresident has the best wrap up on Chopra's relevant experience:

A few quick observations about this choice. First, it looks like very good news for the transparency movement, as well as those of us looking for an open-minded leader willing to experiment with new forms of collaborative governance. For example, back in early 2007, under Chopra's leadership, Virginia was one of the first states to move, with Google's help, to make its state websites more searchable and thus more accessible to ordinary citizens. The state has also been in the forefront of efforts to create robust web services tracking the giant government stimulus spending package enacted by Obama, and as fed-watcher Christopher Dorobek points out, Chopra is well aware of and supportive of citizen-led watchdog efforts like Jerry Brito's StimulusWatch.org.

Under Chopra (and it must be mentioned, his boss Governor Tim Kaine), the state also launched a highly interactive website that collected more than 9000 suggestions from residents on how the stimulus monies might be spent. "Relative to calls and letters, it's fairly safe to say this is probably a tenfold increase in civic participation by allowing people to click on a button, submit their ideas and engage with their governor," Chopra told a local paper back in March.

Finally, like his soon-to-again-be-colleague Vivek Kundra, Obama's Chief Information Officer, who also came out of Virginia before serving as DC's CTO, Chopra is willing to try new ways to innovate government processes, inspired by the open and lateral networking development culture of the internet. Governing Magazine calls him a "Venture Governmentalist," specifically citing "a small but intriguing experiment in Virginia that aims to bring the high-risk, high-reward ethic of venture investing to state government." Last year, Chopra invested $2 million in about a dozen small internal agency tech projects with potential to pay big returns in terms of productivity. "More important, and more unusual for the bureaucrats," says Governing, "he gives them permission to fail. You can't innovate, Chopra tells them, without taking a gamble every now and then." He adds, "We need to fundamentally change the culture of government in which change is measured in budget cycles to one in which change is measured in weeks or months." Who can argue with that?