Investments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are greatly responsible for the nation’s productivity gains over the past decade, and a key advisor to President Obama is encouraging more investment via the government’s economic stimulus package.
“If you invest in ICT infrastructure in an economic downturn, you not only get better short-term job-creation effects but you get better long-term productivity impacts,” says Robert Atkinson, founder and president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a Washington, D.C. think-tank, and member of Obama’s transition team.
Atkinson notes that the current stimulus plan invests $7.2 billion in broadband networks, “but the market could have absorbed at least $15 billion.” And with the world economy so mired, it’s important that new technology get into place ASAP. “You want these projects to hit the ground running over the next 18 months, and ideally sooner than that,” he told IDG News Service.
Explaining that stalling on stimulus-related technology projects could result in diminished economic output and increased budget deficit, he said: “If you make these investments and you make then right, you can certainly have long-run economic impacts, which can be very sizeable.”
Whoa! And you think you have mind-boggling responsibilities — Vivek Kundra will be responsible for managing the government’s “entire technology portfolio.” Read more…
Still thinking of ways to spend your business’s Stimulus money? How about a new server dedicated solely to tracking every bit of Internet traffic your company does for two years?
That’s the intent of proposed federal legislation requiring all Internet providers and Wi-Fi access points — that means your local coffee shop, your hotel, and yes, even possibly you — to keep records of all Internet traffic so you can turn them over to the police in the event of an investigation.
Bills introduced last week by Republicans in both the House and Senate state: “A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least two years all records or other information pertaining to the identity of a user of a temporarily assigned network address the service assigns to that user.”
According to CNET, that means anyone with Wi-Fi access points or routers using the standard method of dynamically assigning temporary address (what we know as DHCP). It includes millions of homes as well as the big guys such as Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and the like.
Why even consider such a potentially costly and invasive requirement? One of the Senate bill’s sponsors, U.S. Sen. Johh Cornyn of Texas, said: “While the Internet has generated many positive changes in the way we communicate and do business, its limitless nature offers anonymity that has opened the door to criminals looking to harm innocent children.”
If you’re interested, the legislation is Senate Bill 436 and H.R. 1076 in the House. Click here for a CNET News article.
