Obama lays out plan for Technology.

Originally published on Kapuno in the Technology community

🔗 Obama Wins The Election! Here’s His Technology Agenda (Article)

President Barack Obama to NY Tech Meetup

Dear Members of NY Tech Meetup:

Thank you for carrying forward the entrepreneurial spirit that makes

us a nation of doers, dreamers and risk takers. You understand that

innovation and job creation occur when we make smart investments in

infrastructure and technology and build an environment that encourages

entrepreneurs to change the way we live and work.

Together we’ve used that bedrock American belief to recover and

rebuild from the worst economic crisis in a generation. Today,

entrepreneurship is at record levels and the number of business

startups is up almost 10 percent since my first year in office. And

this past Friday, we learned the unemployment rate has fallen to its

lowest level since I took office. As inventors, makers and thinkers

you’ve helped get us here, believing that if anyone has a solid plan

and is willing to work hard and play by the rules, we can turn any

idea into something.

I believe it, too. That’s why I’ve been laying the foundation for an

economy built to last through investments in infrastructure and

technology. We’re expanding broadband networks to connect businesses

large and small with markets around the World. The health care law

invests in our health IT infrastructure, improving the delivery and

management of care. Wall Street reform put a consumer protection cop

on the beat, using technology to help consumers understand their

rights when buying a home or using a credit card.

Across your government, we’ve used technology to bridge the offline

and online divide to empower citizens and build a more participatory

democracy. On my first day in office I created the position of U.S.

Chief Technology Officer so we can pursue new open data initiatives to

unleash unprecedented volumes of government data related to energy,

education, international development, public safety and other areas.

We’re unlocking our resources to fuel new products, companies and

industries and connect the next generation of entrepreneurs to freely

available government data, while rigorously protecting and respecting

privacy rights. And we recently announced the first class of

“Presidential Innovation Fellows,” talented private sector innovators

who will spend six months in Washington partnering up with the

govemment’s top innovators to meet straightforward goals: improve the

lives of the American people, save taxpayer dollars and fuel job

creation across the country.

This past April, I also signed a law to help high-growth entrepreneurs

and small businesses harness “crowdfunding” to raise capital

consistent with investor protections and make it easier for young,

high- growth firms to go public. I also launched the Startup America

Partnership to improve the environment for high-growth

entrepreneurship across the country. I encourage you to join, as we’re

focusing on unlocking access to capital to fuel startup growth,

connecting mentors and education to entrepreneurs, accelerating

innovation from “lab to market” for breakthrough technologies and

unleashing market opportunities in industries like health care, clean

energy and education.

I signed patent reform into law to help American entrepreneurs bring

inventions to market sooner, leading to new businesses, jobs and

industries. But that also depends on a regulatory system that supports

our homegrown innovations. That’s why I’ll continue to stand by you to

protect the openness of the Intemet while still enforcing intellectual

property rights.

But investments in human capital remain our strongest economic asset.

We have a start-up visa program that’s allowing foreign entrepreneurs

to establish businesses in America and create American jobs. And I

have set concrete goals to create an economy built to last, including

recruiting 100,000 math and science teachers over the next 10 years

and training 2 million workers at connnunity colleges for jobs in

fields like health care, advanced manufacturing clean energy and

information technology.

As a nation. we can’t simply cut our way to prosperity or fall back to

the top-down, trickle-down economics that benefits the few, but guts

investments in our country’s future that grow our economy — and your

startups. But that’s the choice in this election between two

fundamentally different paths for our country, between moving forward

and falling back.

As your president, I will continue to stand by you because if we

combine our creativity. our innovation and our optimism, we can

achieve anything. And the reason I’ve never been more optimistic about

the future is because of all of you. You’ll be the next entrepreneur

to turn a big idea into something — a new invention or an entire new

industry. That’s the promise of America; that’s what this country is

all about.

That is the legacy of Edison and Bell. That is the story of Google and

Twitter. That is what landed NASA’s Curiosity on Mars, reminding us

that our preeminence — not just in space. but here on Earth — depends

on investing wisely in the innovation, technology, and basic research

that has always made the United States the envy of the world.

So keep doing and dreaming and moving our country forward.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama