Joshua Rand Kagan, Attorney-At-Law

On “Technology Policy,” Let’s Be More Specific

Earlier this week Professor Michael Scott of Southwestern Law School called for a “coherent federal technology policy.”  He pointed to the decline in government R&D spending and argued that the next president should “turn things around.”

He’s right.  But I want to go one step further and specifically outline what a good federal technology policy should include.  Here are my ideas.

• The first problem is that our present government doesn’t seem to understand technology when it matters.  For example, Senator Ted Stevens (R. Alaska) delivered a now-infamous speech in which he demonstrated a complete lack of understanding about how the Internet works.  Normally I wouldn’t care, but at the time Sen. Stevens was the chair of the Senate Telecommunications Committee.  He vehemently opposed an important bill on the basis of this erroneous understanding.  This is destructive.  The people in charge of technology need to be experts in the technology.  It’s obvious that Sen. Stevens and others in Congress have their committee chair positions simply because of seniority.  In other fields this probably isn’t a big deal, but in technology it’s huge.
• Another issue is reform of the broken patent system.  A good technology policy should provide consistent, predictable, and reliable protection for inventions while closing off the patent trolls as much as possible.  Let’s use the U.S.P.T.O. to encourage innovation, as it was designed, instead of undermining innovators and rewarding trolls.
• We also need a consistent policy for protecting our IP abroad.  We live in a nation with an increasingly information-driven economy.  Innovation may soon be our greatest export, and because of the Internet information has no borders.  In some industries like entertainment this is especially important.  We need a fair and consistent set of rules that allow American businesses to cooperate and competitively conduct business in foreign markets over the Internet.
• The next problem is that our present government doesn’t embrace technology when it should.  The Internet is a powerful tool for bringing people together and allowing them to do and understand things very efficiently.  The next president should create a cabinet-level position for using technology to communicate and work with the people.  For example, people should be able to use the Internet to retrieve up-to-date information about how tax dollars are being spent.  Let’s use the Internet to create the ultimate transparency law.
• In addition to embracing technology, the government should also embrace science.  Our current administration has an almost antagonistic relationship with science.  When our scientists present valid peer-reviewed findings, the policy should be to put their recommendations first, not second to the needs of some lobbying group or faith-based position.
• The government also needs to have a policy of promoting next-generation technologies like broadband access.  It’s ridiculous that the U.S. trails behind Korea, Canada, the Netherlands, and other countries in broadband penetration.  The Internet is quickly becoming the most important way that people communicate, and everyone should have access, regardless of socioeconomic status.  This is an area where the U.S. should lead, not trail.
• Finally, a good technology policy needs to be committed to information neutrality across all channels.  This includes everything from net neutrality on the Internet to continuing the U.S. tradition of content neutrality on the airwaves.  Give everyone a chance to express their opinions and to try to make their business models work.

Obviously there’s more that can be done, but I think this would be a terrific start toward “turning things around,” back on the road to being the technological leader that our nation could be.  Let’s invest in our future.  Let’s embrace the 21st century instead of running from it.