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TOPIC: Obama’s Unsung Tech Hero: Hillary Clinton (HuffPo 1/25/11)

Jen the Michigander

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Posts: 1788

Date: Jan 25, 2011

Obama’s Unsung Tech Hero: Hillary Clinton (HuffPo 1/25/11)	Permalink

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marvin-ammori/two-years-in-obamas-tech-_b_813127.html On the campaign trail, Obama offered aggressive and lofty promises on technology policy — from net neutrality (the principle that enables you to go anywhere on the Internet without permission from your phone and cable company) to media diversity to broadband policy. And he was technologically one step ahead of everyone else as his campaign used new technology innovatively to organize new voters across the nation. These promises and innovative uses contributed to the overwhelming support Candidate Obama received from Silicon Valley, many “Net Roots” activists, and even among young voters who grew up with digital technologies. But his early report card on technology policy is a mixed bag, with some real surprises — both in the success column and certainly in the failure column. One of the biggest surprises is the low-profile successes of a high profile player. But first, the glaring failure named Julius Genachowski, the FCC Chairman. I (and others) have written previously about how he has broken the president’s promises and failed the public on network neutrality, broadband policies, media ownership, and public safety. He has even even broken these promises with impressive political incompetence. Many people are privately calling Genachowski the most disappointing failure in FCC history. The most surprising and impressive successes on technology policy in this administration have come from perhaps the agency and the woman least expected to deliver them — the State Department and Hillary Clinton. In 2008, she was supposedly techno-challenged and out of touch… a creature of the 90s… a luddite who ignored Silicon Valley in the campaign and didn’t quite understand the Internet era. Remember that woman? (Remember 2008?) Today, in 2011, I’m giving Secretary Hillary Clinton the nod as the Obama Administration’s improbable MVP in the technology realm. While she has not magically downloaded world peace on every nation’s hard drive, she has been the smartest, most aggressive, and most successful senior member of the Obama Administration to attempt to harness all things digital to serve her department’s wide-ranging agenda. For that alone, she deserves credit. She has initiated several innovative technology-based diplomacy and development efforts as a means of re-imagining power relationships in a networked world, under the umbrella of a State-Department marketing slogan — “21st Century Statecraft.” So, while I have often noted Administration shortcomings (especially at the FCC), here I can give credit where due. From where I sit, it appears the State Department has become a hub of technology activity. The Department has been dreaming up imaginative ways to use technology and actually implementing them in particular communities, for the benefit of particular people, in ways that further American diplomatic and development goals. Here are some encouraging examples: •Clinton’s team facilitated more than $30 million in donations from Americans through text messages for earthquake relief in Haiti. This “people-to-people” diplomacy can be more immediate than “diplomat-to-diplomat” diplomacy, both to other nations’ citizens and to our own. It can win hearts and minds abroad and increase engagement here. •Clinton’s team has rethought the State Department’s approach to civil society with a program called Civil Society 2.0 that connects grassroots organizations with technologists. They have used multiple strategies based on mobile technologies in both the Afghanistan war zones and Mexican drug wars. •They have started initiatives that further economic and human development by promoting entrepreneurship in developing countries. •Clinton has also used technology to address the key development challenge of gender inequality, announcing, with Cheri Blair, an “MWomen” initiative aimed at slashing in half the gap between men and women who use mobile technology. She’s also sending a delegation of women techies to Liberia and Sierra Leone to explore how technology can increase opportunities for women and girls in those countries. •And they are injecting new ideas into the State Department while inspiring the next generation. For example, more than 100 college students now have internships in the “virtual student foreign service,” helping embassies understand how to use social media. But, more than even these initiatives, Clinton’s global Internet Freedom agenda has struck me as the most important Internet policy initiative of the Obama Administration. Of course, I have worked on open Internet, speech, and entrepreneurship issues for years; so this item is close to my heart. But Clinton has done something historic here. Almost exactly a year ago, she launched the initiative to place Internet Freedom at the center of our nation’s diplomacy and development agenda. While this initiative specifically challenged China and Iran in some ways, it’s more a broad directional commitment than a specific project. Putting Internet Freedom center stage in our diplomatic agenda is part of a long game. International relations, and even international “law,” turn largely on persuasion, on ideas, and on customs among nations. The long game is to change assumptions about, and actions concerning, technology, politics, and economics in the Internet age. Rather than being mere rhetoric, in international relations, demonstrating thought leadership and injecting ideas into international dialogue plays an important role in this long diplomatic dance. Governments, supporters, and critics already measure their views and actions on global Internet Freedom against the standard she set in that speech and subsequent actions. Its toughest challenge to date appears to be WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks will force the leaders on Internet Freedom and open government (both at home and abroad) either to reaffirm their principles under fire or else explain how targeting WikiLeaks is consistent with those principles. If the Administration adopts over-the-top policies of domestic Internet surveillance or puts Julian Assange in the dock on modern-day sedition charges, it will be hard to convince the rest of the world that we still believe in Internet Freedom — as I’ve written elsewhere. The response at State and across the Obama administration was not encouraging at first. But we are still in early days. Clinton’s initiatives and articulated ideals give me some hope — at least her decisions will be based on reflection and a sensitivity to our ideals. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, declaring that all men were created equal, he owned slaves. Women couldn’t vote. But, throughout history, our abolitionists, suffragettes, and civil rights leaders called on our nation, in reality, to live up to the nation’s professed ideals in that Declaration. At least Clinton, like Jefferson, has declared as our goals in the 21st Century to be the highest ideals of freedom and equality. And many are calling on the U.S., once again, to live up to these ideals. As a result, as I watch the WikiLeaks become the latest flashpoint balancing liberty and security, I take some comfort that this flashpoint has happened now, with Clinton, Obama, and their lawyers at the helm — rather than a few years back in the days of Bush, Cheney, Addington, and John Yoo. The Bush-era ideals were better reflected in now-reversed legal memos than in initiatives for online privacy, energy innovation, and Internet Freedom. Through this challenge, and others, we’ll see if the State Department will maintain a strong, consistent record that will serve our nation in the long-term — or demonstrate the kind of lovable but myopic lack of courage and vision that will define FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s legacy on a range of issues. I expect some disagreement and know the biggest challenges await. But if you’re giving credit where due, and recognizing the best tech policy and leadership in this Administration’s first two years, you have to give credit to Secretary Clinton. __________________ Nobody puts THIS baby in the corner!

Lynne

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Posts: 112

Date: Feb 7, 2011

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Hillary learned her lesson from 2008. She has turned a weakness into a strength and in the process has laid the foundation for another run at President. Better yet, she did this right under Obama's nose. She took his claim to fame and made it hers. Goes to show that actions speak louder than words. __________________

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