The Elements of President Barack Obamas Administrative Proposals - Case Study Example

The elements of President Barack Obama’s Administrative Proposals for addressing Technology Challenges and Advancement Date: Introduction With every waking day, the world advances in terms of technology. The human mind is relentless in search of working technologies to make the world a better place than it is and make life worthwhile and comfortable. Technology brings many opportunities while at the same time creating daunting challenges that must be dealt with conveniently (Milakovich & Gordon, 2013). President Barack Obama’s understands the role of technology and stands committed to address the challenges facing technology and make its value trickle down to the benefit of all Americans. The president’s commitment to addressing the daunting technological challenges became evident on his first full day at the office when he appointed the chief information technology officer. Since then, he has shown relentless efforts to address the challenges through legislations and proposals that have seen the country tackling the challenges effectively (Reddick, 2012). The president’s administration has shown the goodwill to sign signed several bills into law in recognition of the challenging and dynamic technology sector. Technological Commitments The Obama administration provides students at all levels with the skills needed for excellence in rewarding technological fields of science, mathematics, engineering and technology. This is from the basis of the understanding that technology plays a leading role in transforming the society and processes in every sphere of life. Developing the capacity of students encourages them to pursue technology-related courses and excel in them. It is worth noting that success in technological fields does not only take interest, but the creation of an enabling environment for success. The administration has created that environment to encourage aspiring students to pursue their dreams without problems (Milakovich & Gordon, 2013). The administration clearly understands the challenges bedeviling technology sector and wastes no time to address them. The Cyber-Security Internet Policy The president pledged to ensure that free and open internet is preserved so as to encourage innovation, defend free speech and protect the choices of consumers. An internet policy task force has been created to integrate the industry with policy experts and consumer groups (Reddick, 2012). The attempt to bring these key groups together is aimed at identifying ways of perpetuating the reliability of the internet and trustworthiness of the resources in it. The administration joined representatives from civil society, business groups and internet technical communities from over 30 countries to reaffirm the significance of the internet policy principles. Open access to the internet resources has been a challenge in some quarters. The Obama administration woke up to this reality and ensured that open internet access flourishes to enhance human connections and innovations to unimaginable heights. The president and his administration understand the need to make internet secure to all Americans. The contemporary technological environment is marred with serious technological challenges that have detrimental effects on individuals and organizations (Milakovich & Gordon, 2013). Americans need to bank, shop learn and communicate online without being subjected to security threats including their accounts being hacked and identity stolen. The president recognized the need for cyber security and declared cyber crime as one of the most serious economic and national security challenges facing America. He recognized the fact that the prosperity of the country in 21st century depends on how the administration tackles that security threat. In order to fully address this technological challenge, the administration proposed to implement the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace. It also ensured the release of the International Strategy for Cyberspace. This effort was not an exercise in futility as it aims to promote free information flow, ensure privacy and security of data and the integrity of networks that are interconnected (Reddick, 2012). The administration continues to engage with the congress to provide solutions to potential internet security threats. Cyber security of federal departments has been given high priority by the Obama administration. Furthermore, the implementation of the Federal Information Security Management Act is on course and at its stages of maturity. Modernizing the Patent System Patients are very important for countries that want to succeed technologically and economically. The Obama administration is alive to the challenges of patent. In the realization of the need of modernized patent system, the president signed into law, the America Invents Act in September 2011. This was a step in the right direction given that the outdated patent system had operated in the country for close to a decade. The patent laws help in eliminating potential and costly delays and litigations that are unnecessary. Instead, the companies dedicate time, effort and money in job creation and innovation (Milakovich & Gordon, 2013). An effective intellectual property system helps many industries in the United States such as manufacturing, telecommunications, medical devices, biotechnology and advanced manufacturing. For a long time, excessive litigation was a character of the patent system. It was a thorn in the flesh of intellectual property that plagued the system a great deal. The Invents Act offers American entrepreneurs new ways of avoiding litigation with respect to the patent validity without going to the district court. The patent quality has also been transformed by this law. More judges have been hired to handle matters related to patent to make issues resolved quickly, cheaply and conveniently. The new law seeks to harmonize the process of patenting in America with the rest of the world (Avril & Zumello, 2013). This makes entrepreneurs market their products simultaneously within the United States and abroad. Divorcing Technology from the Lab to the Market The Obama administration has worked closely with the federal agencies and partners in the private sector to launch the new “Lab to Market Initiatives”. The aim of these initiatives is to help in achieving the president’s goal of strengthening the commercialization of up to $148 billion for federally funded research and development. This was proposed in 2011 January in white house (Reddick, 2012). The efforts gave the federal agencies the morale to streamline technology transfer procedures, encourage commercialization of novel technologies and support the industry-government collaboration. The 21st Century Digital Infrastructure The president’s administration has expressed commitment to ensure high-speed wireless services to more than 98% of the Americans. This commitment has been transformed into reality by availing new wireless broadband services. The aim of this is to ensure than as many Americans as possible are able to make use of the internet for education purposes, entertainment and work. Every American is supposed to get these services regardless of their locations (Milakovich & Gordon, 2013). The president, further, directed the federal agencies to avail more airwaves for the enhanced smart phones and wireless services in a period of ten years. The president also proposed and signed a plan for designing and deploying national wireless public safety into law. This was done to ensure that the first responders can share work and data across jurisdictions seamlessly (Avril & Zumello, 2013). This proposal responds well to the man-made or natural emergencies that may occur unexpectedly. Creation of an Open and Accountable Government The administration clearly understood the challenges facing governments with respect to openness, transparency and accountability. In response to this realization, the president signed the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government on the first day he had full day in the office (Reddick, 2012). This move ushered in a new era of accountable and open government meant to bridge the gap between the government and the American people. Unprecedented steps have been taken by the Obama administration to make the government more effective and efficient. In May 2009, the administration showed commitment to open access and launched the data.gov which has served to increase access of information to the public. The public information has been made accessible to the public. The United State and India have also partnered together to produce data.gov-in-a-Box to encourage other governments around the world to promote transparency and improve the citizen participation in the government affairs. The administration has developed a tracking system to establish how the government makes use of federal dollars with websites which are understandable such as IT Dashboard, USASpending.gov and Recovery.gov. The administration spurs innovation by applying prizes and challenges to motivate citizens to participate in order to meet the daunting technological national challenges (Avril & Zumello, 2013). In 2011 the president issued executive orders to cut wastage and streamline the operations of the government. Learning Technologies The 21st century is dynamic in terms of technological changes. Effective learning in schools and colleges depend on the availability of technology and ability to use it for the benefit of the learners and teachers. Teaching and learning has become dependent on information and communication technology. The Obama administration is a live to the challenges facing students and teachers and has taken steps to incorporate this powerful tool to aid teaching and learning. The department of education and private foundations launched the digital promise to advance the learning technologies (Reddick, 2012). This promise was launched to harness everyone’s efforts from entrepreneurs to educators and spur research and development. Advanced Manufacturing The president’s administration launched the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership to bring together the universities, industry and federal government. This much needed partnership was meant to invest heavily, in the emerging technologies, and ensure the creation of very high quality manufacturing jobs and enhance America’s competitiveness in the global arena (Milakovich & Gordon, 2013). The partnership came up as a result of the recommendation of the president’s advisors on matters of science and technology. Robotics The president initiated the National Robotics Initiative as part of its broader effort of promoting a renaissance in the American manufacturing industry through healthy partnerships. This initiative focuses on the development of robots that will work either with or beside people to augment and extend the human capabilities (Avril & Zumello, 2013). This was a good idea which developed upon the realization of the need to complement the work of human hands. The robots increase the worker’s productivity at their various places of work. They also help astronauts through difficult, dangerous and expensive missions. Moreover, robots help scientists in the process of accelerating the discovery of life saving drugs. Furthermore, they assist in the improvement of the safety of food and sensing the possibilities of microbial contaminations. The Federal Chief Information Officers The Obama administration is alive to the challenges facing the information age of the contemporary society. Big businesses in this diverse and dynamic information sector continuously find it absolutely necessary to have a chief information officer to ensure smooth information flow within and across the different business components and management levels. Early in his administration, the president recognized that the government also needs chief information officers (Reddick, 2012). He recognized the role of such officers and the benefits they could bring to his administration. He appointed the first federal chief information officer. The appointment bore fruits as it came with many benefits. As a result, a number of federal agencies and departments have emulated the president’s move and appointed information chiefs. One of the most important tasks of the chief information officer is to ensure efficiency in relation to the numerous information technology projects being undertaken by the government. These projects save the tax payers money as it makes the government operations efficient and effective with limited or no wastage. The Obama administration released an implementation plan to guide and reform the manner in which the federal government manages the information technology projects. The chief information managers are expected to go beyond the management of IT projects, but also focus in ensuring that there is the highest return on investments in IT (Avril & Zumello, 2013). They ensure that the technology is transparent and accountable and the security of information in the federal websites is effectively guaranteed. The federal information chiefs have to identify information technology projects that are no longer viable and shut them down. The administration shut down all the underperforming technology resources by 2012 June. The federal officers also work closely to ensure that the federal data centers are consolidated. The federal information chiefs ensure that information held in individual computers are moved to the digital cloud, thereby promising significant gains in efficiency. The Federal CEOs and Open Data Initiatives The Obama administration pursued initiatives to liberate the government data and spur great heights of success in innovation and entrepreneurship. The initiative also aimed at creation of jobs and value creation. The administration believes in the country’s enormous technology resource potentials and expands upon the potentials. Chief Technology Officer The president created the position of United States Chief Technology Officer on his first full day at the office. He noted that corporate leaders have recognized the significant value of having such a resourceful person to ensure that technology is utilized effectively and efficiently as much as possible. The U.S. Chief technology Officer has a duty to ensure and advance the use of innovation in technology approaches in support of the administrative priorities (Reddick, 2012). These priorities include but are not limited to job creation, enhancement of energy efficiency, ensuring broader access to affordable healthcare and ensuring a more open government and security. Conclusion From the foregoing, it is clear that the Obama administration has taken deliberate steps to make proposals to tackle the daunting challenges of technology. The administration clearly understands the role of technology and the need to enact legislations in regards to technology to make America the knowledge based society that it should be. The president showed his intentions of investing in technology on his first day in office when he appointed the first technology officer. Since the appointment, major transformations have taken place in the technological front. The administration is conscious of the potential benefits of removing technological restrictions and encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation. The administration has achieved major milestones with respect to enacting and implementing laws governing the use of technology and solving potential problems. References Avril, E., & Zumello, C. (2013). New Technology, Organizational Change, and Governance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Milakovich, M. E., & Gordon, G. J. (2013). Public Administration in America. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning Reddick, C. G. (2012). Public Administration and Information Technology. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Read More