Matthew_Nickash: What about trying to steer technological development in an economically positive direction? How much integration should exist between public/private sectors?

Curt_Monash: Let's review government influences on commercial IT in the past: 55-60 years ago, they were huge. Early spending started commercial computing. Arpanet is a similar example. But in later stages of commercialization, not so much. I can see it happening more easily with hydrogen cars than with computers -- MAYBE educational computing.

Jeff_Doyle: A simple example of low-hanging fruit is in the standards arena: The government currently defines broadband as 200kpbs and above. Welcome to the 90's.

Curt_Monash: That's a good point regarding standards. The government has tech standards for buying. But it also has its more passive "standards-recognition" duties at NIST. All of that could have a major reorganization.

Dan_Tynan: A key area would be making the telcos make good on their promises to build out fiber and other high speed nets to consumers. They got tax breaks for this in the 90's and we're only now seeing some of this development.