Technology What-Ifs in an Obama World

With Senator Hillary Clintons concession speeches planned for tonight and tomorrow (Saturday, 7 June) Obama's become the Nominee of the Democratic Party for the 2008 presidential election, and thus he's taken some quick steps to secure his hold on the party.

In going ahead with his pursuit of the Whitehouse on the General Election level he's opened certain aspects of his site up to see what the voters think on his proposed policies, including what they think the role of government is on a wide range of technical issues. So

While it's completely unprecedented in presidential electoral politics to tune into technology as a real issue (thereby creating the 'technology card'), this isn't really surprising coming from Senator Obama. Late last year in a stump speech the candidate mentioned his intentions to create a chief technology officer; a role that would include among other things, making the lawmaking process more transparent to, well, non lawmakers. Now he's asking for the public's help.

He's been touting some of these ideas for more than a year now; (1) the aforementioned placement of government data online, (2) computerizing the information aspects of the healthcare system, (3) pushing and developing our more sustainable natural resources like wind and solar power, and the list goes on and on. Over the little while I intend to take a look at just what's possible in the here and now concerning these policies. I intend to use what information I can find to determine whether they're viable at this point in our information technology development as well as whether emerging technologies can be employed for these aims.

The point here is to do more than shoot down what seems unfeasible. It's to see, as is in line with the rest of this blog's message, what we're capable of, and how those capabilities can be applied to more than just the quick buck small gadget consumer.

If you like, you can check out Obama's other proposed tech policies here . You can also contribute your own suggestions or check out a second space which allows you to take a look at previously contributed suggestions and discuss them.

I'm excited about this candidate's open push to use what we know in the ever growing tech sector to possibly promote a social agenda that promotes openness and democracy rather than fear-mongering and the degradation of personal privacy in America. I look forward to Senator Mccain's detailed suggestions on how we can use the current and emerging technologies to make America great again, and will comment on them when they appear.