Tonight:
4°c
It's taken a while, but President Obama has his technology team in place. What's most striking to us in California is how few of them have any association with the foremost regional generator of tech innovation (which would, ahem, be us).
Take Vivek Kundra, the new chief information officer. He was previously in charge of technology for the District of Columbia and while he certainly has tech management bona fides, they are all from companies based in the DC area.
The same goes for chief technology officer Aneesh Chopra, who hopped over from the state next door, Virginia, where he was secretary of technology. Susan Crawford, Obama's special assistant for science, technology and innovation policy, was born in southern California, but made her name as a tech policy lawyer in Washington and New York. Julius Genachowski, the new head of the Federal Communications Commission, has worked only in DC.
These are eminently qualified people but they're also lifelong East Coast establishment insiders.
So do we Left Coasters care? In one sense, no. According to the White House, the main role of the CIO and CTO, for example, is “to make the government more effective, efficient and transparent”. That's a thankless, bureaucracy-fighting task for which few here would have the patience.
On the other hand, DC determines the business rules of play those in the Valley care very much about. At the moment, we're concerned about the rather pathetic state of US patent law and assorted efforts being promoted to “improve” the internet, which could throw more than a few Valley business plans badly out of joint.
The Valley, though, has always been most comfortable working slightly under Washington's radar. It means that for the most part it leaves us alone. And it means we can't really complain when it looks to its own in filling its tech positions.
* Russian investor DST has confirmed a second $100 million investment in Facebook, so Facebook employees will get to cash out some stock pre-IPO. That won't give us a new tranche of Valley-nouveaux riche, though. Facebookers can't sell more than $700,000 worth of options, which around here buys only the most modest starter home in the most unglamorous of 'burbs.
* Twitter the peacemaker? Citing Twitter's value in helping citizens oppose oppressive governments around the world, a former Bush administration official wants the service nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. The site, though, had another security scare this week. There won't be any prizes if their tweeting ends up making protesters easier to arrest.
