Obama’s tech agenda is back in the spotlight. How will it be revitalized in his second term?
Politico’s Tony Romm today asserted that President Obama’s second term is a mandate for what he called “Tech 2.0,” or a doubling down on the previous four years’ tech policy. SiliconANGLE Founding Editor Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins believes that although there were a few good bureaucracy-related things that came out of Obama’s first term, in general, any policies that have been enacted have not proven to be positive for the technology industry.

Hopkins observed that success for tech and media companies have happened uniformly, despite new tech policies, rather than because of them. Along the same lines, the President has been largely recognized for his use of Big Data, especially in his campaign tactics, but Hopkins questions whether the prominence of Big Data wouldn’t have risen to the surface on its own merits.

Even though Obama’s camp claimed that big campaign donations were coming from huge tech innovation companies, such as Microsoft and Google, Hopkins sees conflicting signals from various areas of Obama’s administration that point to non-friendly tech views. He gave the example of the FTC announcing possible post-election anti-trust hearings in regards to Google.

Hopkins also discussed the issues that have dominated the Obama administration’s tech policies and statements. In regards to the new James Bond movie, “Skyfall,” which centers around cyber security and whether pushing the topic to the spotlight will have an effect on the success of related legislation, Hopkins said, “[They] probably included cyber security to increase box office numbers more than anything else. I think . . . it’s cyber security promoting the movie, not the movie promoting cyber security.” See the entire segment with Kristin Feledy and Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins on the Morning NewsDesk Show.