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Editor's note: The following two stories are part of a series of articles on the technology policy views and technology uses by presidential candidates.
Campaigns
Why Aren't Candidates Talking More About Tech Issues?
by Sandra Gonzalez
When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney confused the YouTube video-sharing site with the MySpace social network in a speech about online predators this summer, techie fingers were wagging and Romney found his technology awareness being questioned.
Romney's staff defended him by saying that he "certainly knows the difference between MySpace and YouTube." The candidate "spoke about MySpace at five different 'Ask Mitt Anything' events in Iowa" on the day in question, a spokesman said. "In the fifth, he simply misspoke."
The episode shows how much attention technology is getting in the 2008 race. David All, a Republican media consultant, said candidates' tech savvy is being tested and critiqued more than ever. Unfortunately, he added, candidates in both parties are "pretty pitiful" in proving that they are knowledgeable about tech-related topics.
All said their failure to address important technology matters is largely due to the campaign staffs thinking the issues do not need to be addressed. "You're not going to find network neutrality on any poll," he said in a reference to one hot-button Internet policy topic of the past two years. "But they are issues that influential people care about."
If the staffs aren't interested in tech issues, All said, the candidates do not get the information because they "principally rely on staff" for briefings on specific issues.
A group called Obama For Technology is working to develop a broad-based technology platform for Democratic candidate Barack Obama. Edmund Dante Hamilton, the founder of the group, said that with voters caring more about candidates' views on issues like the Iraq war, it is no wonder technology issues are not first priority for campaigns.
"Technology in itself is not on the same level as Iraq," Hamilton said. "People are probably telling [Obama] he's better off talking about one issue than another."
After a group of Obama supporters from his Web site drafted a technology platform proposal for the Illinois senator, Hamilton said he had a firsthand experience with an "uninterested" staff. The group was approached by the campaign after submitting the proposal but was asked to volunteer tech skills for the candidate, not for opinions about tech issues.
"Here we were trying to do something strategic and they wanted us to string wires and cables," he said. "I think they are missing the greater picture of how technology can affect America other than in the fundraising area."
While Obama's campaign may have been hesitant to listen to the citizen group for advice, John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, said Obama is actually "someone who has listened to some of the great people in the field."
Obama's campaign said he has visited with technology leaders from Illinois, Silicon Valley and "some of the leading academics in the arena."
"While not an expert in the mechanics of technology," a spokesman said, "Barack Obama believes in the power of innovation and technology to change lives, raise our standard of living, and better connect citizens to each other and their government."
A spokesman for Republican candidate Ron Paul also admitted to needing assistance with technology issues, saying that while Paul "considers himself to be well-informed," he also recognizes "that there are others out there with greater, more complete knowledge."
Romney's campaign spokesman said he "routinely" meets with tech experts but mostly "relies upon data to reach a decision [about issues], including in the area of technology."
Other campaigns are less interested, according to Palfrey. "It's pretty clear when you go to their Web sites because you don't see a ton of technology material," Palfrey said. "You can [also] probably tell a little from their use of social mediums and the extent to which they use it" as to how important tech matters are to the candidates.
All said that without strong online presences, candidates are likely to disregard tech issues. "Ron Paul's activity online is in part responsible for him addressing technology issues in a comprehensive way," he said, adding that accessing that audience is a crucial part of being viewed as tech savvy.
Palfrey added that since it is still early in the campaign, he hopes tech issues will be more widely addressed. "I don't blame them for not addressing them" thus far, he said. "I think that over time, candidates will get prompted to say more things about specific issues."
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Campaigns
Free Trade: What The Presidential Contenders Say
by Winter Casey
Some Democratic presidential candidates are leery of trade agreements in general, while others advocate environmental and labor considerations. Republican candidates, meanwhile, appear to be divided over trade issues.
Democratic frontrunners Hillary Clinton and John Edwards oppose the pending trade agreement with South Korea. Edwards also opposes any trade agreements that do not have international labor and environmental standards, according to his campaign, and he has consistently opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement, which took effect in 2004.
An issue tracker at the Council on Foreign Relations provides details on other candidates. It says Joseph Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson generally support free-trade policies but have environmental and labor concerns.
Obama spoke against the Central American Free Trade Agreement in 2005, and Biden has criticized CAFTA and voted against agreements with Singapore and Chile. Biden's campaign said he will insist on strong labor and environmental protections in trade deals and decide upon each pact individually.
In the past, Richardson has seemed more trade-friendly. In 1998, he supported NAFTA and favored giving the president authority to negotiate trade deals more quickly.
Mike Gravel has called NAFTA "a disaster for the working class of both the United States and Mexico." His campaign Web site notes an Economic Policy Institute study that said the deal has cost more than 1 million U.S. jobs.
On another trade front, Christopher Dodd has voiced concern over outsourcing American jobs to other countries. "Government contracts should not go to companies that fulfill their contracts by hiring overseas workers," he said in 2004.
Trade appears to be more of a top issue to Dennis Kucinich than any other Democratic candidate. Kucinich contends that the World Trade Organization, NAFTA, presidential trade-negotiating authority and a proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas should all be rejected. He wants bilateral trade agreements to include wage and environmental safeguards.
Canceling NAFTA "and the WTO will enable the U.S. to protect high-tech jobs from outsourcing," according to a statement on his campaign site. "This, plus careful monitoring of H-1B visa practices, will slow the tide of outsourcing." He said the "expanded use of H-1B and L-1 visas has had a negative effect on the workplace of information technology workers in America."
Some GOP candidates have records of supporting trade pacts. Sen. Sam Brownback has supported normalizing trade relations with Vietnam, implementing the Central American deal, and favoring trade with Singapore and Chile, according to the Web site OnTheIssues.com.
According to the Club for Growth, Rudy Giuliani generally supports free trade but has a "sparse record" on the issue and opposed NAFTA.
Presidential contenders such as Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo have slightly different views on the issue.
Tancredo opposes the renewal of trade-negotiating authority, which expired this summer. "The constitution gives Congress, not the executive, the power to negotiate treaties," he said. He also voted no on implementing CAFTA and agreements with Chile and Singapore, according to OnTheIssues.
Hunter's Web site said that although American workers are "the most productive and innovative in the world," they face an "unfair environment." He said China is cheating on trade and taking millions of American jobs.
Huckabee also has expressed concern about U.S. job losses.
And Paul's campaign said he favors trade -- but by free people in countries without the interference of the government. He supports tariffs to help the U.S. government fulfill its constitutional obligations but not to discourage or encourage trade. Paul has supported withdrawing U.S. support for the WTO and has criticized CAFTA and trade agreements with Chile, Oman and Singapore.
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Politics
Gaming The YouTube Debate With Game Questions
by Michael Martinez
A consumer advocacy group is prepared to give away free shirts to people willing to ask questions about videogames to Republican presidential candidates in a debate this fall.
The Entertainment Consumers Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to defending the rights of videogame players, wants to make sure the Republican candidates who have agreed to participate in November's CNN/YouTube debate are asked where they stand on game-related issues. Earlier this month, it promised to send free shirts to all who record and upload to YouTube video questions about the topic.
The tactic so far has inspired more than a dozen videos on efforts to restrict sales of violent videogames, an issue that has not received much attention from Republican or Democratic candidates. At least one of the questions is directly aimed at two GOP candidates who have been talking about videogame violence recently: Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
In July, Romney began running television advertisements in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina that lament how violent videogames, television programs and movies have corrupted America's youth. He has advocated a plan to punish retailers that sell violent and sexually explicit games to minors. Brownback, meanwhile, has championed legislation against violent game sales.
Romney has not yet committed to participating in November's debate. A Brownback spokesman said he has not received an invitation yet but plans to accept when he does.
Association President Hal Halpin said that even though some people see videogame violence as a niche issue, it is important that candidates be asked about it because legislative efforts to restrict game sales have been a waste of taxpayer money. Last week, a federal court overturned such a law in California on constitutional grounds.
"The legislators have known full well they're going to get overturned," he said. "They know all that in advance and they do it anyway."
Halpin insisted the his group's efforts to generate questions for the debate, which it has promoted on its GamePolitics blog, are aimed at encouraging gamers to be more engaged in the democratic process. He said his only disappointment is that the group did not make such a push before the Democratic CNN/YouTube debate last month.
But efforts by others to influence the debates have surfaced. The campaign of Democratic candidate Joseph Biden, for instance, invited people to repeatedly ask a scripted question about the Iraq war before the Democratic debate. CNN called attention to the effort in the introduction to the forum.
Carol Darr, the director of George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet, said it is perfectly natural for candidates and constituencies to want to game debates to their advantage. "There's always a contest for the limited attention candidates receive in a debate and the audience's capacity to watch it," she said.
Because the Republican CNN/YouTube debate has been moved to November, Halpin noted that gamers have more time to demonstrate why their questions should be treated seriously. "Maybe it's also an opportunity for the candidates to answer the questions intelligently," he said.
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Budget
Popular Tech Programs Rescued Again By Lawmakers
by Andrew Noyes
Two technology programs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology that were targeted for cuts in the Bush administration's fiscal 2008 budget have been salvaged once again by appropriators on Capitol Hill.
The Advanced Technology Program, which funds higher-risk, smaller-scale research in small or medium-sized firms, and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a resource for small manufacturers, are routinely put on the chopping block during budget season.
This year's budget called for eliminating ATP. But the sweeping competitiveness bill that Bush signed into law earlier this month abolished ATP and rechristened it as the Technology Innovation Program.
The House-passed appropriations bill, H.R. 3093, requests $93 million for TIP -- $14 million more than it received in fiscal 2007. The measure approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee, S. 1745, would give the program $100 million.
MEP, meanwhile, would get $108.7 million under the House bill, $62.4 million above Bush's budget request and $4 million more than it was granted in fiscal 2007. The Senate legislation, which awaits a vote by full chamber, would provide $110 million for MEP.
NIST Director William Jeffrey, who will be leaving the agency at month's end, told a House Appropriations subcommittee in March that ATP last awarded grants in 2004 and sufficient funds are available to finish those projects. He also said the budget cut requested for MEP could be covered by "a combination of increased fees derived from the benefits accrued by individual companies and cost-savings in the operations of the centers."
But Senate Appropriations defended MEP in its report on the bill, arguing that firms helped by the initiative "lack the in-house technical knowledge and experience to implement cutting-edge technologies and cost-saving processes, which places them at risk from foreign competition."
The committee also championed "moving smaller companies toward the next phase of innovation," and it recommended $4 million for a test program to push government and university research "out of the laboratories and make it readily understandable and adoptable by small and medium-sized manufacturers."
Kei Koizumi, a researcher for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said the budget battle over ATP and MEP has "gone on since 1995 and I don't think it's going to stop."
For a decade, the House has either proposed decreasing or eliminating ATP funding altogether until this year when Democrats regained control of the chamber, he said. Perhaps "calling it something else will help diffuse the annual fight," he said of the program's name change.
MEP has been less controversial, Koizumi said.
"A lot of our small and medium manufacturers rely on MEP in order to survive," said Marc-Anthony Signorino, technology policy director for the National Association of Manufacturers. "It's definitely worth saving and definitely worth protecting."
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a staunch supporter of both programs, said they "play a useful role in stimulating competitiveness." With limited federal resources, the initiatives "should be encouraged by increased funding, rather than with budget cuts," he said.
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Budget
White House, Congress Split Over Telecom Program
by Andrew Noyes
The federal agency charged with implementing telecommunications and information policy would get $18.5 million for salaries and expenses in fiscal 2008 under the appropriations bills for the Commerce Department.
If approved, the legislation would provide Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration $519,000 more than in fiscal 2007, which is the same as the Bush administration's budget request.
But there are some disagreements. Under the White House's plan, the public telecom facilities program would be phased out. The House bill, H.R. 3093, would fund the initiative at $21.7 million and the Senate measure, S. 1745, would provide $20 million.
The program, which has been part of NTIA since 1978, helps public broadcasters, state and local governments, and other groups construct facilities to air educational and cultural programming. In March, NITA Administrator John Kneuer told the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees Commerce that he wanted to move the program to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to "enable the most efficient use of available resources."
The White House has tried zeroing out the program for several years, with the justification that CPB's budget is "substantially larger," former NTIA chief Michael Gallagher said.
Congress, however, has left the program funding as-is each year, and the agency is "doing a great job" administering it, he said.
The House Appropriations Committee report on the fiscal 2008 spending bill calls the initiative "a critical source of funding" for stations in underserved rural areas. Lawmakers also noted that the program provides important infrastructure assistance for public radio and television stations seeking aid after disasters.
National Public Radio Vice President Michael Riksen called Kneuer's comments "disingenuous," partly because the administration has proposed drastic cuts to CPB's budget in the past.
John Lawson, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, agreed, saying the scheme is part of "a long line of proposals to effectively de-fund public TV and radio." CPB officials declined to comment.
Public broadcasters said there is "no reason whatsoever to spend the time, money and energy to move" the agency away from NTIA, Riksen said. Hundreds of NPR stations' translators have gotten program funding, which is "essential to public radio," he said.
Riksen added that the FCC plans to open a noncommercial educational filing window in September for new FM frequencies, and the program "will figure prominently into our ability to bring these new frequencies to life."
The House committee report also criticized NTIA's provision of resources for public-safety communications equipment. While some steps have been taken, "not nearly enough progress has been made in putting in place interoperable communications networks for our public-safety agencies," lawmakers wrote.
The committee said creating a new fund for the digital television transition and public safety would provide "a unique opportunity to put in place model programs across the country that provide immediate local, state and regional interoperable networks."
The Senate Appropriations Committee's report also noted $10 million for a program whose precursor expired in 2004. The initiative, which funded rural high-speed Internet deployment for a decade, gave 610 grants to state governments, schools, law enforcement and other groups.
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E-Government
Imaging Program To Offer Natural Resources Snapshot
by Aliya Sternstein
The White House has announced a plan for a long-term land-imaging program that would strengthen the country's leadership in moderate-resolution, satellite-based imagery. Unlike defense-oriented high-resolution imagery, it is adept at monitoring the world's natural resources.
A global record of such land-imaging is important for managing territorial possessions and agricultural resources, and for tracking global land change, according to a report commissioned by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and released Tuesday.
"While U.S. policies have led to robust and growing markets for high-resolution aerial and satellite land-imaging, attempts to foster the commercial development of moderate-resolution satellites have not succeeded," the report states.
Today's Internet applications, like Google Earth and Microsoft's Virtual Earth, have become essential tools in everyday life. The report notes that with the Internet transforming how data about the Earth's surface is manipulated, such imagery would help better understand and regulate societal affairs upon the surface.
Since the 1970s, the U.S. Landsat satellites have provided moderate-resolution data for every level of government in the United States and other countries.
But Landsat 7 was the last satellite launched -- in 1999. Landsat 5, launched in 1984, and Landsat 7 have suffered a series of technical problems that either restrict coverage of the entire Earth or limit the quality of the satellite data. A replacement satellite is not scheduled to launch until 2011 at the earliest. And it is expected that both satellites will need to be decommissioned by 2010.
The newly unveiled strategy seeks to ensure U.S. leadership in moderate-resolution, satellite-based imagery beyond the end of the decade. The overhaul also would deem the Interior Department as the permanent overseer of the domain. The United States has never had a program purely focused on moderate-resolution land-imaging capability.
Moderate-resolution satellites are critical for detecting the ramifications of global climate variability and change, population growth and movement, and changes in land-use practices, the report states.
Google spokeswoman Megan Quinn said, "We're pleased to see the government's continued support of Landsat." The company uses Landsat data for Google Earth's 15-meter base imagery.
Robert Snow, a director at the navigation system manufacturer Magellan, said that while the company is not involved with land-imaging, the administration's move will benefit its customers who load Google Earth images into Magellan products.
Steve Kopp, a program manager at the geographic information system software vendor ESRI, said the development also is good news for consumers who analyze moderate-resolution images with ESRI applications. The continuity of the program is important because "it's a 30-year record" of the environment, Kopp said. Historically, the program has been in limbo, flip-flopping between the commercial sector and government. "Now it has a home."
In recent years, high-resolution satellite imagery has received more attention from the government because of its defense and homeland security applications, he said. "It feels as if there's now again a long-term commitment to moderate-resolution remote sensing."
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Today's Feature:
State Roundup
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle this week unveiled a plan to offer millions of dollars in tax incentives to companies that can enhance his state's high-speed Internet infrastructure.
Every Thursday, read the State Roundup by Michael Martinez.
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E-briefs
Crime: IBM and the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers have agreed to pay the U.S. government more than $5.2 million to settle allegations that they solicited and provided improper payments and other things of value on technology contracts with government agencies, the Justice Department said Thursday. IBM will pay $2.9 million and PWC will pay $2.3 million. The government intervened in the companies' dealings because the alleged relationships amounted to kickbacks and conflicts of interest. Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler said his agency brought the complaints in an effort to "protect the integrity of the procurement process for technology products and services." The actions are part of a larger ongoing probe of government technology vendors and consultants that has resulted in complaints being filed against Accenture, Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems.
Crime: William Heaton, who once served as chief of staff to former Rep. Bob Ney, was sentenced Thursday to two years of probation and fined $5,000 for a charge of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud. Heaton pleaded guilty to the charge Feb. 26. The named co-conspirators include Ney, former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Neil Volz, who served as Ney's chief of staff before Heaton. All have pleaded guilty in connection with the government's investigation. Ney resigned last fall before being sentenced to 30 months in prison on corruption charges. Heaton admitted that he joined a conspiracy with Ney and others, in which he and Ney corruptly solicited and accepted a stream of things of value from Abramoff, Abramoff's lobbyists, and a foreign businessman in exchange for taking official action to benefit them. One effort involved pushing a multimillion-dollar wireless contract with the government.
Intelligence: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy on Thursday asked the Justice Department's inspector general to investigate potentially false or misleading testimony given by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during his appearances before various congressional committees. CongressDaily reports that in a letter to Inspector General Glenn Fine, Leahy alleged that several statements by Gonzales are contradictory and disputed, including comments about the administration's anti-terrorism surveillance without warrants, the use of National Security letters and the firings of U.S. Attorneys last year. "I have given him an opportunity to clarify and revise his testimony, but he has not meaningfully addressed our significant concerns," Leahy wrote. Leahy asked Fine to review the testimony not only for possible perjury, but also to determine whether, by his statements, Gonzales committed "misconduct, engaged in conduct inappropriate for a cabinet officer and the nation's chief law enforcement officer, or violated any duty." The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Intellectual Property: A trade group for the software and content industry announced Thursday that it has settled the first case in its effort to combat corporate piracy. The Software and Information Industry Association reached a $300,000 agreement over copyright-infringement claims against the market research firm Knowledge Networks. The company had been internally distributing "press packets," which sometimes included unauthorized copies of articles owned by SIIA members such as AP. As a part of the settlement, Knowledge Networks agreed to work with the association and its members to educate the firm's executives and professionals on copyright compliance and licensing, and to ensure that protected materials are properly licensed. SIIA Litigation Counsel Scott Bain said, "We are pleased with the settlement and hope that it alerts other users of copyrighted content ... to the importance of securing proper licenses, even for internal copying and distribution."
Television: The National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Wednesday awarded a nearly $120 million contract to IBM to provide services related to the digital television transition. IBM will provide consumer education about coupons for converter boxes needed for the transition, coupon distribution and financial processing to reimburse retailers. The transition from analog broadcasting is set for Feb. 17, 2009. The coupons will allow households using analog televisions to obtain boxes that switch the digital signals into an analog format. Without such boxes, or satellite or cable subscriptions, analog sets will not receive programming. "This is a major milestone toward implementing a successful coupon program to ensure the switch from analog to digital television is completed smoothly and as planned," NTIA Administrator John Kneuer said. "By awarding the contract on schedule, NTIA is preparing to be open for business so consumers may request coupons starting January 1, 2008, as required by law."
Politics: BlogPac, an organization that raises funds for progressive activists and activities, has awarded five grants as part of a "progressive entrepreneurs contest." Winners include: Brian Amos, whose project CandidateSource.com seeks to transcribe and catalog political content from video sites like YouTube; Glen Ford, whose weekly Black Agenda Report turns a critical eye on black institutions; Jay Lassiter, who blogs about the New Jersey statehouse at Blue Jersey; Chad Lupkes who is mapping online every precinct in Washington state, with their voting histories; and Blogs United, which is an online organization for bloggers and online activists. An additional grant through a separate program will help upgrade security at SoapBlox Network, which hosts many state-based blogs. The grants virtually exhausted BlogPac's bank account of just more than $20,000, so the group asked supporters to help refill the fund to support more causes.
Business: Diebold, a company that has been plagued by controversy over its voting machines, said Thursday that is has not been able to sell its voting technology business. AP reports that the company instead that it will allow the unit to operate more independently, giving it a separate board of directors that includes independent members and perhaps a new management structure. Diebold Election Systems has had steady growth in sales and profits but has become a lightning rod for critics of the reliability of e-voting devices. Critics have questioned whether Diebold software running the devices can be manipulated. Diebold often defended its voting machines and its own business intentions, even after its former chairman and CEO, Walden O'Dell, sought with little success to convince critics that his Republican politics and fundraising for President Bush were not the motive for the company's involvement in elections.
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