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Obama = Lawrence Lessig -> US Secretary of Technology?
Recoil42
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Meh, I never come in D&D, so please forgive any broken social conventions. I think I should be ok, but you know PA: Leave one forum, step in another, and the rules completely change. On with it:
I just saw this on Reddit:
http://venturebeat.com/2007/11/13/exclusive-barack-obama-to-name-a-chief-technology-officer/?view=print
And confirmed here:
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-11-19-n10.html
That when Obama spoke at Google a while back, he announced that if elected, he would create a new top-level position and office to explore and ensure that new technologies are understood and applied properly.
And then it hit me. Lawrence Lessig had endorsed Obama a while back. And then it hit me again, harder. Something else I had read earlier this week. Lessig recently announced the creation of a congressional exploratory committee to decide if he will run for congress to fill the San Mateo / San Francisco CA-12 seat. Essentially, he's announced that he's open game for politics.
It gets better. He not only endorsed Obama as mentioned above, not only is game for a political career, but recently helped Obama draft his technology policy, as well. Wait, it gets better. Not only that, but apparently? The two were colleagues at the University of Chicago Law. They know each other well.
So the cogs are turning, and I have to conclude: It's a serious possibility. In fact, I'm now thinking Obama might have decided this with Lessig specifically in mind.
What do you think, D&D? Am I stretching? Or does this totally make too much sense you need new pants?
I just saw this on Reddit:
http://venturebeat.com/2007/11/13/exclusive-barack-obama-to-name-a-chief-technology-officer/?view=print
And confirmed here:
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-11-19-n10.html
That when Obama spoke at Google a while back, he announced that if elected, he would create a new top-level position and office to explore and ensure that new technologies are understood and applied properly.
And then it hit me. Lawrence Lessig had endorsed Obama a while back. And then it hit me again, harder. Something else I had read earlier this week. Lessig recently announced the creation of a congressional exploratory committee to decide if he will run for congress to fill the San Mateo / San Francisco CA-12 seat. Essentially, he's announced that he's open game for politics.
It gets better. He not only endorsed Obama as mentioned above, not only is game for a political career, but recently helped Obama draft his technology policy, as well. Wait, it gets better. Not only that, but apparently? The two were colleagues at the University of Chicago Law. They know each other well.
So the cogs are turning, and I have to conclude: It's a serious possibility. In fact, I'm now thinking Obama might have decided this with Lessig specifically in mind.
What do you think, D&D? Am I stretching? Or does this totally make too much sense you need new pants?
Recoil42 on
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that being said, with an Obama presidency (KNOCK ON FUCKING WOOD), Lessig would be an ideal ally for him on technology/computing initiatives in the Senate.
edit: Will's right, it's the House, not the Senate. he'd be running for the seat Tom Lantos held before he passed away.
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
edit: ugh beated by Flip. Though I'm pretty sure it's the house and not the senate.
Congress, actually, and I mentioned that in the OP: All it means to me, and should mean to you, is that he's up for being a politician. That's the important thing here. It does NOT mean he is not willing to be a CTO for the President.
Running for Congress is just hedging his bets, so to speak. See yourself as theoretical Lessig: You want in to politics. The CTO job with Obama would be nice, but it's all still theoretical at this point, he still has to beat Hillary, let alone Mccain. You can't wait to see if Obama will get elected or not and want you as his CTO, the local election won't wait for you. So you have to act now.
Simple risk-minimization. You try to put your foot in the door as far as possible for BOTH jobs. If one doesn't pan out, that's ok, because you have the other.
If you get elected, and Obama loses, that's ok, you still got your foot into politics, you're a congressman.
If Obama gets elected, and wants you as CTO, it's not a problem. You quit your congress position. People have done it before. Ron Paul is a congressman right now. Mccain, Hillary, and Obama are Senators, and would all have to quit their jobs if elected. People move up when a better position appears all the time.
When you apply for jobs, do you hand in one resume at a time, and wait to see if each one results in an interview/job before handing in another resume? Of course not, you exploit as many opportunities as possible, before the door closes for any.
All the importance of this signal here is that Lessig has said that he is interested in politics. That's all it means.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
That's my district. I would volunteer for that man's campaign. There are very few people I'd say that about.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I skimmed over Obama's plans and I am nodding in agreement and I wish /my/ government would do the same.
Subtlety and nuance of politics be damned.
Assuming you're like pretty much everyone else on these forums: very, very good.
Stanford Law professor, the founder of Creative Commons, board member of the EFF and probably the world's leading and foremost proponent of the copyright reform and "free culture" movements ('knowledge is free', the free software movement).
He understands DRM, copyright law and it's failings in the new age, the free software movement, and technology in general on both the political and technical levels probably better than anyone in the world.
As JamesKeenan basically said, with revision: If you're pro- internet culture at all, you want to root for this guy like hell.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
...carry on.
One of the best things about an Obama presidency, you know that every position would be filled with the people who have the most knowledge in their respective fields, not cronies.
Bolded for not my word. Yeah. I'm not big on this whole "fixed" internet phoenominon.
Anyway, Obama has no cronies that I know of, given that he's a junior Senator and before that he was a state legislator. Okay, fine, he has campaign staff, but I think the majority of them have displayed quite a bit of organizational competance and would be fine public servants. I don't see him making his event volunteer wrangler the head of FEMA, though.
Understanding technology isn't really relevant. Understanding the impact of technology is relevant.
I don't really if the Tech Secretary can write "hello world," or if he understands the nuances of the BitTorrent protocol. I do care if the Tech Secretary realizes how BitTorrent's distribution method is effecting our country's bandwidth utilization and what some internet providers are trying to do to hamstring America's data distribution.
Depending on your opinion of the free software movement, Lessig may very well be the most qualified person on the planet in this regard.