TELECOM GETS HIGHER PROFILE IN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

摘要

Communications issues are commanding high-level attention in the presidential campaign, a change from four years ago that many credit to Sen. Barack Obama. Obama, D-Ill., outlined a technology agenda last year with clear-cut goals, and he has used technology to connect with voters like no previous presidential candidate, observers said. "These issues have become more partisan," and that has raised their profile in the presidential campaigns, said Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. The Democratic convention featured a three-hour technology roundtable held by the University of Colorado's Silicon Flatirons Center. The session included high-profile participants from industry, academia and politics and ended with a speech by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. Atkinson said he also held a panel at the Democratic convention. Former FCC chairmen Reed Hundt and Bill Kennard were among speakers who discussed how technology can help make the government more open and responsive and help the economy grow. Sen. John McCain's technology platform includes a promise to make high-speed Internet access available to all Americans and an assurance that the Web will remain untaxed and unregulated. People should be "free to use the applications and services they choose; free to attach devices they choose, if they do not harm the network, and free to choose among broadband service providers," it says.