Tech Policy Summit blog

Tech Policy Summit '08 Podcasts Available

We're happy to report that the podcasts from the 2008 Tech Policy Summit, which took place at the Renaissance hotel in Hollywood last month, are now available for your listening pleasure. You can find audio of all 24 sessions in the Media Vault, along with photos from our conference photographer Terry.

They're posted in chronological order, so be sure to click through to the second page for more podcasts, including the March 27th keynote by FCC commissioner Robert McDowell and the one-on-one interviews with craigslist founder Craig Newmark and BitTorrent president Ashwin Navin.

Even if you were at this year's Summit, you'll find something new in the podcasts since there were six concurrent breakout sessions on the opening afternoon that are definitely worth checking out. 

Those topics include:

• Using Social Media as a Policy Tool
• The Role of Privacy and Trust in the Innovation Economy
• Building a More Effective Public Policy Organization
• Copyright in a Converged World
• Maintaining a Competitive Edge: [How] Can the U.S. Tech Workforce Stay on Top in a Flat World?
• The Future of Wide-Area Public Broadband

Enjoy!

Who Will Get H-1B Visas for FY 2009?

Yesterday was the last day to submit H-1B visa applications for FY 2009 to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), ending a five-day application window that is expected to set a new record.

Even though more time was alloted for applying this year, the debate continues over the number of visas available to companies. Under current law, the annual cap allows for 65,000 H-1B visas and an additional 20,000 for students with advanced degrees from U.S. universities. Tech industry associations that favor increasing the cap have been pushing for legislation to change that limit, with two new proposals surfacing in Congress in the last several weeks.

The first, known as the Innovation Employment Act, was introduced on March 13th by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and calls for doubling the H-1B visas to 130,000 per year. The following day, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) upped the ante with a proposed a bill called the Strengthening United States Technology and Innovation Now , or SUSTAIN, Act that would triple the number of H-1Bs this year to 195,000.

Bill Gates' Visit to Capitol Hill

During his testimony yesterday before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science and Technology, which celebrated its 50th anniversary, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates told lawmakers that America is "at a crossroads" and that it risks losing its competitive edge if leaders from the public and private sectors don't do a better job of working together to support education, research and workforce initiatives.

In particular, he echoed his concerns about a shortage of qualifed workers and urged Congress to increase the cap on H-1B visas so that more U.S. firms can hire foreign-born workers (the government will start accepting applications for 2009 on April 1st). He also emphasized the need to improve the educational system along with immigration policy, to expand the pool of talented scientists and engineers.

You can watch video of his remarks in the Media Vault.

Companies Creating Home-Grown Engineers?

There's an interesting article in today's Wall Street Journal about the lengths some companies are going to here in the United States to ensure that they have an ample supply of engineering talent to hire in coming years. In addition to supporting broader educational programs, some companies like Intel and Lockheed Martin have been funding classroom training and curricula in school districts where they have facilities in hopes that it will help them develop "home-grown" engineers.

In a 2007 survey of over 270,000 college freshmen, only 7.5 percent of students said they planned to major in engineering. According to the Journal, that's the lowest level since the 1970s and it's been declining for the last several years (see yesterday's post about computer science majors).

Which is one reason a nonprofit called Project Lead The Way (PLTW) that's featured in the article has been able to attract corporate donations to help supports its mission of preparing junior high and high school students to succeed in science and engineering. PLTW has been offering specialized courses in schools around the country for the last decade and, according to a 2007 report on the program's effectiveness, PLTW students are much more likely to major in engineering or technology in college than other students.

The article does acknowledge the criticism that corporate donors may be placing their own hiring priorities ahead of broader educational goals. Weigh that against the needs of cash-strapped school districts, and the opportunities programs like PLTW offer, and it begs the question: how many public schools would be offering courses in aerospace engineering or robotics without such support?

New Data on CS Majors; Start of H-1B Season

Data from the Computing Research Association (CRA) indicates that the number of undergraduates majoring in computer science at North American universities remains dramatically lower than it was at the beginning of the decade -- there has been a 49% decrease in enrollment numbers between the 2001-02 and 2006-07 academic years.

The silver lining, if there is one, is that the downward trend that followed the dot-com bust might be coming to an end. CRA's research, which focuses on departments with Ph.D programs, shows a slight uptick in the number of undergrads declaring a computer science major in the last couple of years. The organization will release more data on the number of graduate-level degrees later this year.

As Computerworld writes, data on declining enrollment numbers is "often cited as an argument for increasing the H-1B visa cap" by industry supporters like Bill Gates. The Microsoft chairman called the current H-1B program the "worst disaster" last year. And it's almost that time again: on April 1st, the U.S. government will start accepting H-1B applications for 2009. 

If last year's surge is any indication, the annual cap of 65,000 visas will be reached right away. In fact, Oracle exec Robert Hoffman, who co-chairs the industry group Compete America (strong advocates of increasing the cap on H-1B visas), told Computerworld that "the expectation is that you are going to see an even bigger flood of applications than what we saw last year." Mr. Hoffman will be among the speakers at Tech Policy Summit later this month.

Update on Sciencedebate 2008

It's been a month since we first wrote about our support for Sciencedebate 2008, the grassroots campaign to hold a presidential debate focused on science and technology issues.

Since then, the organizers have set a date and location (April 18th at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia), invited the candidates (no takers yet) and picked up key endorsements by the Council on Competitiveness, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and others.

The momentum is there. But will that be enough to convince the candidates to face off in a science and technology-focused debate?

Over the weekend, AAAS hosted what might be considered a dry run when it invited the candidates' science and technology advisors to debate each other at the organization's annual meeting in Boston. None of the Republican candidates' campaigns accepted the invite, which left two surrogates for Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.

Clinton advisor Thomas Kalil, once President Bill Clinton's deputy assisitant for technology and economic policy, and Alec Ross, vice president of external affairs for One Economy Corporation and an advisor to Sen. Obama outlined their candidates' positions on digital health, funding for research and cleantech but were "noncommittal" about the April debate. (Note: Mr. Ross will be among the speakers at Tech Policy Summit next month).

President's State of the Union: Tech Highlights

As a follow-up to our earlier post about the President Bush's State of the Union address, here is a summary of what he had to say about tech policy-related issues in his speech to Congress last night:

• Without elaborating, he encouraged Congress to "promote health information technology."
• He called for the creation of a new international clean technology fund to help developing nations like India and China "make greater use of clean energy sources," and recommended continued investments in renewable fuels and advanced battery technology.
• He reiterated his support for free trade, pressing Congress to approve pending agreements wtih Colombia, Panama and South Korea. According to the President, "these agreements will level the playing field [and] will give us better access to nearly 100 million customers."
• At the same time, he asked Congress to reauthorize and reform the Trade Adjustment Assistance program to help displaced workers learn "new skills and find new jobs."
• He also asked Congress to follow through on funding the America Competes Act, which he signed into law last August, to increase federal support for education and research in math and science.
• In one of the more obviously partisan moments, the President urged Congress to pass the controversial electronic surveillance bill, the Protect America Act, to extend liability protection to telecom carriers that helped U.S. intelligence agencies monitor phone calls and e-mails of suspected terrorists without a warrant. The bill is set to expire February 1st, and the President received a standing ovation from supporters when he declared, "We have had ample time for debate. The time to act is now."

Davos' Q&A on Climate Change and Green Tech

At the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos yesterday, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Google.org chief Larry Brilliant took to the stage to discuss their foundation's clean tech initiatives like the RE<C (renewable energy cheaper than coal) program. Video of the audience Q&A is available in the Media Vault, along with a number of other Davos-related clips.

We also wanted to highlight an excerpt that ties into what we wrote last week about green-collar jobs.

Van Jones, who's been advocating for green-collar jobs that would offer employment opportunities to low-income urban communities in the U.S., spoke passionately about the need to get more people involved in fighting climate change. In turn, he was asked by session host Tom Friedman what one thing he thinks the Google founders could do to help the green-collar movement.

Jones' response:

The most important thing is that we tend to have these conversations...and it's all about the technology and it's all about the entrepreneurs. And that's great. But, what about the workers?...Tell us how we're going to be able to get X number of jobs out of your innovation and we'll make that a part of what we celebrate. You suddenly have changed this conversation because people aren't just thinking, "Oh, it's good for the polar bears. They're thinking maybe it's good for me and my child."

That's one tiny example about how technology fits into the big conversations taking place in Davos as leaders discuss how to improve environmental, social and economic conditions around the world.

CEA: Gadgets are Great, but Trade Matters Too

Amidst the lure of shiny new gadgets - and the many distractions that make Vegas what it is - the Consumer Electronics Association is hoping to send a message to the 140,000+ assembled for its international CES show: international trade matters.

It's certainly not the first time that CEA has made its pitch on behalf of open markets. Indeed, promoting free trade is one of the organization's key policy priorities. Since many of its 2,200 members sell goods internationally, the association has a big stake in how the federal government acts on trade matters (CEA's government affairs chief Michael Petricone will speak about trade policy at Tech Policy Summit in March).

Congressional opposition and concerns about U.S. workers losing jobs, fueled in large part by the efforts of CNN's outspoken commentator Lou Dobbs, have posed a challenge for CEA and other pro-trade groups that have been backing agreements like those with Colombia, Panama and Korea.

For the rest of this post, please visit our Tech Policy Central site.

Gravel's Take on Tech

TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has released a transcript of his fifth presidential candidate interview -- this time, he spoke with the always colorful Democrat, Mike Gravel. Arrington asked the former Alaska Senator for his views on many of the same issues he discussed with the other candidates.

We've posted highlights from Sen. Gravel's interview below; you can also look back at our write-ups of Arrington's earlier talks with Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain, Sen. John Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama.

On advancing tech's growth in international markets: "I'd be very open to immigration, both technical people and also other people and also student visas and tourists. It is appalling, we've lost about $20 billion this last year on this criteria of batting down the hatches, that we're afraid of everybody in the world."

On H1-B visas: "I am very much an advocate for them and not only that, I would leave it open-ended, I would not put a limit on them. This is just so short-sighted, here we've got a program and we want to limit intelligent people coming to our country, does it get any stupider than that?"

To read the rest of this post, please visit our Tech Policy Central site.