Barack Obama is going to appoint the nation's first CTO. What are the top priorities?
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12,602 votes
Ensure the Internet is widely accessible & network neutral
The Internet is one of the most valuable technical resources in America. In order to continue the amazing growth and utility of the Internet, the CTO's policies should:
Improve accessibility in remote and depressed areas.
Maintain a carrier and content neutral network.
Foster a competitive and entrepreneurial business environment.
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9,798 votes
ensure our privacy and repeal the patriot act.
The patriot act had many sub-ordinate clauses that strip away our privacy as American citizens. These were shoehorned in as an effort to protect us, while they in fact strip us of certain rights to privacy as citizens. Lets protect our nation while ensuring confidence and privacy to our citizens.
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8,190 votes
Repeal the Digital Milennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
It is evident that the framers of the infamous Digital Millenium Copyright Act intended it to have a transformative effect on the public and legal perception of intellectual property. In the attempt to develop a fully-realized definition of what constitutes infringement, fair use, and the rights of users in the consumption of digital works, the DMCA has had quite the opposite effect by institutionalizing considerable legal ambiguity. The recent spat between the John McCain presidential campaign and YouTube has demonstrated that both practitioners of law and a leading supporter of the DMCA are no closer to understanding the controversial law than the general populace.
With so much confusion and abuse surrounding the DMCA, isn't it time we start over and take a fresh approach to intellectual property that doesn't irreconcilably tip the scales in favor of big media?
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6,122 votes
Complete the job on metrication that Ronald Reagan defunded
The government has failed to take the lead on completing the task of moving the country completely to the SI metric system. George H.W. Bush tried to do something about it, but gave the bureaucrats an easy out. Failure to follow the same measurement standards as the rest of the world is costing US industry something like $1 trillion per year.
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5,705 votes
Open Government Data (APIs, XML, RSS)
We can unleash a wave of civic innovation if we open up government data to programmers. The government has a treasure trove of information: legislation, budgets, voter files, campaign finance data, census data, etc. Let's STANDARDIZE, STRUCTURE, and OPEN up this data.
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5,554 votes
Kick Start Research and Innovation in Energy
Double the # of engineers who graduate from American universities each year to 60K. Bring more women into the field, encourage foreigners who study engineering here to stay.
We train foreign nationals, invest in them, and then make them go home. I would staple a green card to their diploma.
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4,212 votes
Get broadband to every community in America
One strategy to bridge the digital divide is to make sure everyone has broadband access to the Internet. Broadband should be available everywhere--with plenty of public access in libraries and other government offices for people who can't afford broadband in their homes.
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2,639 votes
Ensure reliable & trustworthy election technologies
Electronic voting machines are insecure, unreliable, and prone to a variety of problems that undermine trust in our elections process. Optical scanners and other technologies have some problems as well.
The CTO can create a clear roadmap to get reliable, trustworthy, verifiable voting technology into every precinct in America by the time of the 2010 elections.
Additionally, the CTO should employ information designers to create a national standard for ballot designs so that all citizens are ensured the right to a ballot that is clear, easy to use, and reliable.
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2,175 votes
Gov to be ran on 100% free software
Premise: Software is licensed to distribute the overhead of its initial development, the cost of which few organizations could afford. Because all government software purchases are made with public funds, the public should be licensed to use it.
Proposition: All future investments are to be made in software that is licensed to grant use and source code access to all governed subjects. Security will be maintained with the use of trusted concepts, including asymmetric cryptography, and not rely on the obscurity of closed source software. Where viable further development of existing operating systems and applications will be funded. Where not viable, or where competition is lacking, new projects will be originated. No patents will be granted for pubic works. Release of existing patents will be used as bargaining in the contract bidding process.
Opinion: The ability of corporations and individuals to support themselves by developing software will not be impeded. On the contrary, the funding will be fair market representations of what the development is worth. The only thing that will change is that public will receive direct benefit from having paid for the software. The result will be a new renaissance in software advancement. We will also realize boons in hardware utilization and life cycle extension, helping to relieve the e-waste crisis.
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1,993 votes
Start a "Green Collar Jobs" program
Connect the work that most needs doing (retrofitting our buildings with solar panels, insulation, etc.) with the people who most need work. Let's have the green energy revolution lift all boats--not create an energy apartheid! See http://www.vanjones.net/ for more.
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1,661 votes
Build a nation-wide smart grid
Embed intelligence throughout a nation-wide electrical grid, on both sides of the meter to enhance the efficiency of distribution and use. This will (A) accelerate the penetration of sources like solar & wind that are diurnal or intermittent; (B) take advantage of smart meters and distributed storage as plug-in cars become available; (C) permit power to be wheeled from where resources are rich to where electricity is needed; (D) provide tens of thousands of jobs and train workers to replace the baby boomers who will retire from utilities over the next 5-10 years. Start with the government-owned Bonneville Power Administration in the Northwest, learn what works, and extend the network across the country.
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1,377 votes
Require open access for publicly-funded research
Require open access to the results of non-classified research funded by taxpayers. Extend the exemplary policy now in place at the NIH to all federal agencies.
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1,239 votes
Carefully consider the future of Intellectual Property right
We're at the early stages of what appears to be a slow-motion upheaval of IP rights worldwide. What we're missing is a clear and consistent vision and set of policies in this space. Patents, copyright law, and many other aspects fit under this umbrella.
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1,029 votes
Make election software application code public property
The mechanics of democracy should not be private. Elections should be completely transparent . The private sector should not be able to profit from proprietary vote counting systems. All vote counting software applications should be the property of the citizens of the United States of America. As such, they should be completely reviewable, testable, and transparent.
The Federal Government should coordinate with the states to migrate all election systems to publicly owned, standard platforms.
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857 votes
Allow the public to comment on all legislation
Allow at least a 5 day comment period where the public can comment on all legislation before it is signed into law.
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772 votes
Launch more X-Prize type contests
Spur innovation by putting a few million dollar prizes out there. You'll get a lot more than a million dollars of innovative work out of it.
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769 votes
Restore DARPA to its former glory and autonomy
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is the research and development arm of the Defence Department. They were a key player in the development of the Internet--now they are making robots that will run up caves. We are starving for fundamental research.
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619 votes
Public online bidding process for government projects
Create a website where large and small government projects are opened to bidding from private companies, organizations, and individuals.
Make some information about the bids public so that interested parties can assist in ensuring that jobs are only awarded to those who are qualified and ready to fullfill them.
Streamline the process to make it possible for government to farm out micro-tasks.
Make it possible for citizens to volunteer in the service of important government work, either by donating labor or serving as advisors.
Create a tagging structure to make the site searchable. Publish listings using RSS and allow users to subscribe by email using a saved search to filter for the jobs they're interested in.
Make it easy for posters to cross-post some jobs to 3rd party sites that specialize in particular kinds of work like design, programming, research, or translation.
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534 votes
rely on open standards, open devices, OS where possible
We need to multipurpose devices, networks, spectrum whenever and wherever possible. Government procurement can lead the way by demanding openness for procurements that involve large numbers of machines. For example, transponders in cars; smart meters in homes; huge laptop or cellphone purchases; and networks that really could give excess capacity to abuttors while preserving priority for emergency services.
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514 votes
Introduces Social Media Inside Government
Execute a social media strategy that integrates public and government on all levels.
- STRUCTURE: Create a distributed multi way information plan: Country, State County, City, People and back.
- TOPICS: Create focus topics like Energy, Economy, Transportation... you get the idea.
- WORK GROUPS: Build active communities of volunteers to run those online initiatives. 100 Million volunteers connected online - the spirit of co-creation now on a national level.
- FEEDBACK: Allow the public to comment on government units and services, provide inputs and possible solutions.
- ARCHITECTURE: There is a lot technology, even more new technologies who may just be allowed to jump on it. Create a way to let go and let those technologies proof itself. Not everything need to be "integrated".
- EVOLUTION: The contributors will determine what tools works and what not.
- COORDINATION: To prevent 1,000 groups or tools provider competing for attention publish the success of each tool, each group, each initiative..
- SUCCESS: When other nations come and visit to learn from what was accomplished
- OBJECTIVE: Make things happen faster (online) with more resources (people) at lower cost (volunteers). -
472 votes
Create/support a national IPv6 wired/wireless Internet
Connected services are to the 21st Century (and beyond) what the telephone was to the 20th century. A national CTO should support and enable the creation of a wired/wireless IPv6 wired and wireless Internet that blankets the entire country, so that everyone, rich and poor, young and old, urban and rural, has equal and affordable access to this system. It should be a public utility, like the electrical and water systems.
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382 votes
Make all non-classified taxpayer-funded software open source
All software created by or for the government should become open source, a shared resource, since it was paid for by taxpayer money. As should data and literature. Even better would be to use and improve existing open source software.
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330 votes
ensure network operators operate their networks fairly
in consumer and end-user networks especially, neutral treatment of all traffic (without regard to protocol, source or destination) is essential to avoid a situation in which an ISP favors e.g. its own VoIP traffic over that of a competitor, or throttles an entire protocol (say, BitTorrent). Exceptions for abuse are implied.
A complementary proposal is that ISPs and telcos stop advertising unlimited access unless they are prepared to deliver it - strict enforcement of false advertising laws should help protect consumers from signing up for a service their provider has no intention of delivering.
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323 votes
All legislation, precedence and codes publicly avail at no $
Make all legislation, precendence, laws, municpal codes, etc publically available at no charge, and providing a means of indexing, sorting, searching, and determining differences with updates and bills. It needs source control!
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284 votes
encourage adoption of Agile software development practices
Successful technologies companies have mostly transitioned to Agile methods over the course of the last decade. It's time for government-sponsored technology projects to do the same.
Agile software development refers to a group of software development methodologies that are based on similar principles. Agile methodologies generally promote: A project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation; a leadership philosophy that encourages team work, self-organization and accountability; a set of engineering best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software; and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals. (Description from Wikipedia)
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279 votes
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182 votes
high speed trains in local and interstate levels.
i believe that we should have better public transportation to also kick or dependency on foreign oil. it promotes a greener country and encourages more americans to see their country from the ground.
its time that we upgrade our local and national trains to european standards. it makes simple sense.
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172 votes
Embrace stem cell research
Reverse the Executive Order limiting stem cell research in the United States. This field promises to cure some of the most tragic and crippling diseases of our times.
The US has already begun to lose its leadership status in advanced medical research and risks losing its ability to compete in this 21st century industry.
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124 votes
fund more pure science research (@ universities)
We have the greatest research universities in the world, but we limit what they can study because of policy & politics. Blind funding for good ideas should be the basis for how we enable pure research (top 2-5 universities per state should be "funded" for research in a speciality field).
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108 votes
Protect scientific research from ideologies and religions.
Scientific research of all disciplines is continually hampered and stifled by regulations from all sorts of directions, motivated by political agendas, ideological censorship, via a variety of religious or superstitious motivations. This must not be. Science is what drives progress and improves everyone's lives, even when the benefits don't seem to come readily visible or available. Science must be ensured to work freely and openly, and not clamped down.
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98 votes
Decriminalize marijuana use for recreational purposes.
If alcohol is legal, marijuana should be as well. It's health risks are significantly less than those attributed to alcohol consumption. And, to be honest, everybody loves smoking marijuana.
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93 votes
Support Community Media and Technology Centers in the U-S
Community Media and Technology Centers provide essential training and ICT tools for people throughout the United States. Their work must be expanded and accelerated to ensure that all people have the ability to engage in civic life in the 21st Century. Expanded funding streams and improved federal policies will ensure that Community Media and Technoogy Centers will flourish in communities across the U-S.
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89 votes
Start investing in Electronic Healthcare
Our paper based healthcare system is archaic and inefficient. The US currently lags behind our neighbors in electronic based healthcare.
Electronic health records are the key to empowering the patient, ensuring safety, security and privacy, and saving taxpayers billions in costs.
We need to invest in companies that are making Electronic Health Records possible, foster data sharing and securing initiatives and give incentives to healthcare providers to move away from their paper systems and onto electronic ones.
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80 votes
Fund Fusion Technology Projects Similar to the ITER
France is beginning construction on the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), a tokamak style reactor to be functioning by 2016. The US has not been the leader in nuclear and fusion technologies in recent years. The US is lagging behind in scientific innovation in this area. Projects like the ITER and institutions like CERN (makers of the largest particle accelerator and the worlds most sensitive "camera") make the US pale in comparison.
Furthermore, nuclear / fusion electrical production has a minuscule carbon footprint when compared to that of the "cleanest" coal fired plant. In fact, technologically we are closer to consumer viable nuclear fusion plants than we are to "clean coal technologies."
Invest in micro-fusion research as well. UCLA scientists have created a "desktop reactor" That could fuel future spacecraft and medical devices. Breakthroughs are being made in Pulsed High Density Fusion. The science is sound.
Don't be afraid of events such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, but let them be warnings. These incidents were caused by careless experiments, flawed designs, and poor government oversight. Modern nuclear plants have safety built into the physics of the reaction, the plant would automatically shut down if left alone for three days.
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74 votes
Create a smart mass transit system
Let's build a smart mass transit system on the scale of the interstate highway system.
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70 votes
Protect Net Neutrality
Carriers/ISPs are fast becoming power-hungry when it comes to controlling the information you send across the Internet. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from blocking, speeding up or slowing down traffic which may compete with their commercially provided services. This way the consumer has more choice over the services he/she uses without carriers interfering based on their own commercial interests. If there were more competition among carriers, this would be a non-issue but we've seen much carrier-collusion in recent years, and this needs to end.
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69 votes
stop bandwidth caps and restore unlimited internet access.
More and more American broadband companies are imposing restrictive bandwidth caps on their users. This hurts the development of the internet, it hurts businesses that depend on digital distribution to sell their product, and finally it hurts everyday Americans who use the internet for learning, to earn a living, or to entertain themselves with the media of tomorrow.
ISP's argue that a mere few consume the most bandwidth, and therefore all should be punished with restrictive monthly caps on their usage. This is wrong. The internet is growing and expanding. Video is everywhere, online gaming is an industry unto itself, and internet appliances are finding their way into more and more American homes. Americans everywhere are enjoying richer more prosperous lives because of the rise of the modern internet.
What is the respone of the large Cable/DSL providers in America? STOP IT! SLOW IT DOWN! CEASE AND DESIST! NO! NO! NO!
Please do everything you can to restore the promise of the internet, and stop companies who failed to invest in the American internet infrastructure from robbing their customers of the many benefits of a free and unlimited internet.
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68 votes
Encourage zero energy houses
Builders ignore new technology that returns investment within a few years. Examples:
- Use ground water heat pumps (3-1 energy return)
- Orienting the house to get sun
- Instant water heaters
- Solar sheets
- Both 120vAC and 24vDC wiring, e.g. for LED lights
- Smaller, not too big
- Rainwater collectionTax builders based on how much energy the house will use, reducing and ultimately giving a break if zero net energy usage.
Buyers have no real choice when buying. With this, the incentive would be on slight redesigns that would have enormous savings long run (5-10 years).
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66 votes
Make sure all public services use open formats/protocols
Public services should use open formats and protocols.This promotes:
- interoperability
- lack of lock-in
- democratizes access
- promote competition between providers
- allows for support from other providers than the original vendor
- prevents data becoming obsolete or even inaccessible -
64 votes
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60 votes
Reform Immigration
Smart people should be able to stay in the US. It should be quicker to get permanent residency and citizenship for talented people. The bar should not be low, but the process should be efficient.
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60 votes
Set the Goal of a Full Fiber America
We don't just need broadband everywhere and Internet for everyone, we need to acknowledge and embrace that the endgame for all this is a fiber optic cable to every building in the country. We don't need competition between the characteristics of broadband pipes; we need competition between services that run over a common infrastructure with unlimited capacity.
And in building out this full fiber infrastructure we need to start making the principles of the Internet applicable to specific geographic regions so that increased connectivity does not just connect us to the world but also improve how we communicate with our neighbors.
Already the pieces are in place to get this started. There are dozens of communities with full fiber networks. We need to get them peered together so they can create a bandwidth-rich environment in which to develop the next-generation of applications and services. And there are many more communities ready and willing to deploy if only they had the capital to do so. That's why we need to start by including in any new economic stimulus package the creation of a Rural Fiber Fund that'll help us wire rural America sooner rather than later.
There are a lot more pieces that go into making this larger puzzle a reality, but if we start by setting the goal of achieving a Full Fiber America the rest of figuring out how to get there should fall into place naturally.
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58 votes
Lazer sharks
Defend our nation from the terrorizers with friggn' lazor sharks.
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57 votes
Require independent review by technical experts
Over the last 8 years, many governmental projects have failed to take into account basic principles of systems and software engineering, design, computer security, and privacy. The REAL ID proposal, for example, stored personal data in unencrypted form, relied on databases which didn't yet exist, and ignored the questions of false positives due to inaccurate data. Independent review by experts can detect these issues early in the process, which either gives time for them to be addressed or allows the project to be rethought far more cheaply.
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55 votes
Promote computer and Internet literacy
The value of the Internet is directly related to the number of people who are comfortable using and contributing to it.
Computer and Internet literacy is more than understanding how to use a mouse and a web browser. It also means understanding online social interactions, effectively finding information and people, protecting against fraud and other malicious practices, and thinking critically about the information discovered on the Internet.
Computer and Internet literacy should be taught in childhood education, and in continuing education for adults who are coming online. As the Internet becomes an increasingly powerful tool of modern business and culture, we also have a increasing responsibility to help ensure Americans know how to use it effectively.
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54 votes
Jumpstart Grade School Education
The crisis that the US primary and secondary schools are facing is no secret. Somehow we need to connect students with great teachers who are not only knowledgeable but also inspirational.
We need to have middle and highschool material available for free online. MIT is doing this now but only for college material.
http://ocw.mit.edu/For more info check out:
http://sites.google.com/site/educationproposal/
I pitched this to Google's 10^100 project. -
48 votes
Space mining of helium 3 for fusion power
Space mining would provide be a new industry space if it were profitable. One application for space mining would be helium 3 mining for fusion power and thus reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
The moon and gas giants are know to have helium 3 deposits and in combination with building a space elevator, costs to mine these material can reduce over time to affordable levels.
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48 votes
Protect the internet by *requiring* ISPs to stop botnets
There are millions of malware infested PCs in the world, and many of them sit on US ISP networks. These bots do all kinds of damage to the internet. They are responsible for most spam (outbound port 25) and they are capable of inflicting crippling denial-of-service attacks, sometimes even on entire countries. It's a national security issue and can be controlled a *lot* better than it is now.
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43 votes
standardize on Ruby on Rails for custom web app development
There's a reason that Ruby on Rails dominates the world of custom web application development: it's a best-of-breed technology with massive uptake by some of the brightest, most enthusiastic open-source people behind it.
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41 votes
Appoint Lawrence Lessig as Copyright Czar
Get our IP laws out of the dark ages and into the 21st Century!
