Obama’s Intentions on Technology Direction

Whether you consider yourself a Republican, Democrat or anything else, technology will   always be here and will only progress and advance. If you have any negative feelings for our next president, put them aside for a moment while we analyze what our next president will do for IT and for the future of technology. Below are some of the highlights.

One of the technology issues that stood out the most to me was regarding Net Neutrality. This is something that we can all agree on. Below are excerpts from Obama’s site regarding some of the highlights the Obama campaign will be taking once in office.

A key reason the Internet has been such a success is because it is the most open network in history. It needs to stay that way. Barack Obama strongly supports the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet.

Obama also believes in having a widened communications infrastructure.

Barack Obama believes that America should lead the world in broadband penetration and Internet access. As a country, we have ensured that every American has access to telephone service and electricity, regardless of economic status, and Obama will do likewise for broadband Internet access. Obama and Biden believe we can get true broadband to every community in America through a combination of reform of the Universal Service Fund, better use of the nation’s wireless spectrum, promotion of next-generation facilities, technologies and applications, and new tax and loan incentives.

Obama also wants to create an Electronic Health care system eliminating most errors that happen by using paper records.

A key feature of Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s health care plan is the use of health information technology to lower the cost of health care. Most medical records are still stored on paper, which makes them difficult to use to coordinate care, measure quality, or reduce medical errors. Processing paper claims also costs twice as much as processing electronic claims. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will invest $10 billion a year over the next five years to move the U.S. health care system to broad adoption of standards-based electronic health information systems, including electronic health records.

Lastly Obama believes in bringing the Government to the “21st Century”

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will use technology to reform government and improve the exchange of information between the federal government and citizens while ensuring the security of our networks. Obama and Biden believe in the American people and in their intelligence, expertise, and ability and willingness to give and to give back to make government work better. Obama will appoint the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century. The CTO will ensure the safety of our networks and will lead an inter-agency effort, working with chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices.