#3 - Technology Expansion

Barack Obama has stated that the United State’s ranking of 15th in the world for citizen internet access is unacceptable, and indicated that for the long-term growth and economic viability of the nation, internet access must be available to all. Therefore, a massive undertaking to provide high-speed broadband internet to every school and library across the nation will be a major component of the Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. Wireless technologies will potentially be used to reach areas that are more difficult to access efficiently by hard lines. Though this expansion could potentially create jobs in the short term, the necessary evaluation and planning period could prove to be extensive, preventing its classification of “shovel ready.”

President-elect Obama will also soon announce the consolidation and elevation of the nation's cyber defense against waves of cyber attacks that are stealing terabytes of sensitive data from Department of Defense computers, the defense industrial base, and seizing control of industrial computers critical to the national infrastructure. A primary focus of the new leadership team will be raising the defenses, improving the cyber-response capabilities of utilities and reducing the risk to the reliability of nation's power supply and other critical services. Many of the initiatives contained in the stimulus package include advanced technology to streamline the processes of government into a Web 2.0 paperless environment. The conversion of medical records into electronic form and storage, discussed below, is one example. Given the new realities of threat from the cyber security standpoint and the increased value of information and information technology of the new administration, cyber security is expected to be an integral component of these initiatives.