732 results found
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Stop the H1b and L1 Visas
While there is a recession put the H1b and L1Temporary Technology Worker Visas On Hold. This will allow unemployed American IT workers to get jobs and also encourage students to take Computer Science as a Major. Invest in Americans.
22 votes -
Develop a secure web-based voting system for elections.
Encourage those with internet connections to vote via the web. The system would be run using social security numbers to ensure no voter fraud. This would provide voters with immediate web access to be an informed at the polls, would increase the "youth" vote and would reduce long lines at the polls. While additionally decreasing operational costs and reduce the "carbon footprint" of a paper-based election.
21 votes -
Declare IE6 obsolete
Declare IE6 obsolete and ban its usage in the US, include a compulsory "Ban IE6" clause in any trade agreement between the US and any other nation.
21 votes -
Make software and business methods unpatentable
Patents are a creation of statute, and can be removed by statute. Software and business method patents are a farce which have caused innovation to stagnate and companies to waste billions on lawyers. They are toxic to the development of free software. The very idea that an abstract idea can be monopolized and held to ransom is morally offensive. Software and business method patents have got to go.
21 votes -
Move federal employees off of expensive MS Office
Over 90% of federal employees using Microsoft Office could be equally productive using free equivalents such as OpenOffice.
Mandating the usage of established open source technologies would save the federal government many tens of MILLIONS of dollars.
21 votes -
Reduce the term for non-biotech patents
Biotech requires a long patent period to account for the time to get to market-- outside of biotech (read: software) reduce the patent term.
Yes, there's also the idea of ending "software" patents and "business method" patents, but these solutions have obvious flaws because clever patent filers (and their attorneys) can convert software patents into hardware patents by adding a computer or chip. I know this personally, having filed 20 patents and gotten a half dozen issued.
Please vote on the idea of shortened patent term lengths outside of biotech or other fields with long times to market-- not on…
20 votes -
A plan to end the war in Iraq within months
In a nutshell, it's about running a big media campaign in Iraq to show good willed intentions, win hearts and gain trust.
I imagine Obama speeches addressing the so called terrorists, explaining that Iraq needs them. I imagine speeches telling that for US troops to leave, order must be restored, that the damage has to be undone and that we need to work together. I imagine president Obama talking common sense, appeasing hurts, asking for reconstruction and cooperation in a movement of hands joined together. I see him as a bridge builder and therefore I imagined him building bridges as…
19 votes -
Break up Microsoft into MANY small Companies
Microsoft has repeatedly violated the Sherman Antitrust act over the last 30 years. This is unacceptable. This monopoly does nothing except stifle innovation. Small business is the key to innovation in this country. We are 30 years behind where we would be in terms of technology because of Microsoft. The Obama CTO needs to do everything in its power to break up and disband Microsoft.
19 votes -
Stop Outsourcing as it is the root cause of all problems
Outsourcing is the root cause of all the problems. Put limits on outsourcing of manufacturing jobs to China and high paying computer jobs to India.
19 votes -
tax-penalize companies who overuse H1B to keep wages down
Many or most large corporations are using off-shored IT resources because they are cheaper. They are also hiring a lot of foreign H1B-visa employees, claiming that similar expertise cannot be found in the U. S. work force. This is a blatant misrepresentation; there is plenty of expertise, but it costs more. Use of H1B's for jobs which Americans could fill should result in a higher tax burden.
19 votes -
Remove Under God from pledge and In God We Trust from money
I would like the Pledge of Allegiance to be restored what it was before the words "Under God" were added. Also I would like the words "In God We Trust" removed from the currency.
Our government is supposed to be secular and having these words on our money and in our pledge is unconstitutional and a blatant violation of state and church separation.19 votes -
Fund AI research, both weak and strong
Whether it's the economy, energy, education, health care or national security, one of the common aspects of each of these challenges is that they require decision making in the face of uncertainty. This is one of the things that AI can excel at.
AI got a bad rap early on after promises that a "thinking machine" was right around the corner proved to be vapor, but it's a reality whose time is coming. We are making rapid advances in understanding the brain. We have cars that are starting to drive themselves. We have started to understand the mathematical origin of…
18 votes -
Beamed energy propulsion
We need to open up space access, the current technology and bureaucracy are getting us nowhere, beamed energy propulsion has the ability to change everything. for a modest sum government wise we can definitively find out if this technology works or not, consider that prf Myrabo in 2000 reached 250 feet of altitude with an object powered just by a laser beam then NASA lost interest and the funds were given only by the military while in the rest of the world (china, japan, Germany, Brazil, Russia) are stepping up the financing for this technology. if you want to see…
18 votes -
Tony Dawes
Your only choice should be Tony Dawes from Suquamish WA. Not only is he the brilliant cyber-czar you are looking for but he is a down to earth family man who would be a tremendous asset to this post.
18 votes -
Encourage educated foreign citizens to stay/come to the U.S.
Increase the length of time a foreign born individual can stay in the U.S. on a student visa, and fast track visas for those who are skilled and educated. Allocate a percentage of the visas to be used for the most highly skilled applicants.
Also, reduce the uncertainty for the visa application process. Currently, employers sponsor an applicant (approx $5k) without any sort of guarantee that the applicant will recieve the visa. Employers, especially small-businesses, don't like spending $5k on someone with the risk that the applicant won't even receive a visa. Hence, the U.S. loses a skilled applicant who…17 votes -
Reestablish a U.S. Office of Technology Assessment
Congress shortsightedly abolished the former U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) in 1995. In the meantime many European nations have strengthened their institutional capacity to anticipate and guide technological innovation and to understand science-and-technology intensive policy issues. Denmark especially has excelled in developing mechanism for allowing laypeople to participate in policy deliberations related to science and technology (see www.tekno.dk/eng).
17 votes -
Enact a content consumer's Bill of Rights
The US has slid much too far in the direction of protection of large corporate copyright holders, to the exclusion of traditional Fair Use of the content we consume. We should enact legislation specifically protecting the right of consumers to archive, copy, and transfer content to different media formats for the purposes of our own convenience and consumption. It should be made explicit that provisions of the DMCA do not override these fundamental rights of content consumers.
17 votes -
Breaks up the monopoly that cable companies have.
Most cable companies operate in areas that there simply isn't any choice but to use their service (or not use the internet at all). This needs to stop. Allow me the choice to have other companies come in and provide service to the areas (or force them to if there is some price fixing happening). I'd like to be able to pick my provider and not have to resort to dialup.
17 votes -
Unified Civic Network
The Obama administration should sponsor, in partnership with various public and private entities, the creation of a unified meta-network of state, county and municipal online communities.
The government should not own this network, it should be built as a co-op owned by the citizenry and managed by a non-political, trans-partisan organization. Government entities will be able to participate in an official capacity but not moderate citizen participation.
Contact me if you have questions: michael at socialchord dot com
17 votes -
Decomplicate Undersimplification
Does every voter have to have a friggin advanced degree to understand what they're voting for? What about all of the contracts we sign by clicking "I accept"? Smart people are making it harder, not easier, for the rest of us average types to get by in this world. Cut it out! The new CTO can use technology to empower people by bringing SIMPLER, SHORTER, MORE ACCESSIBLE LANGUAGE TO BEAR as part of everything the government publishes and regulates. 6,922 votes.
16 votes