What IT Wants From The Next White House

NANCY RAMSEY Bio: Futurist, author and rentrepreneur, board member, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. Endorsing: Barack Obama. The Skinny: Ramsey's concerns range from 'sneaky' taxes on Internet transactions in the form of fees to a need to get 'far more serious' about education in math ad science. She has served as Legislative Director to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and has a direct line to issues involving the technology and exploration of space thanks to her marriage to original Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart.

WHAT SHE WANTS FROM THE NEXT PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION:

I'd like to see that we don't tax information or information exchanges. People say we're not going to levy taxes, but then we see fee increases, which are essentially a sneaky way to tax. I don't want to see fees on Internet exchanges. Of course, in other areas, we will need to raise taxes. Here's my question for the people who reflexively oppose any new tax: 'If you don't want to raise taxes, how do you see us dealing with the economic crisis we're facing?' People don't want to talk about the cost of the war ... and it's all off-budget!

The next administration must be far more serious about education, with an emphasis on including minorities and women, especially in science and technology. When we lose that potential in the next generation, we lose the potential for national dominance. If we're going to stay in the front, technological education is crucial. In the last 30 years, 40 new rocket engines have been built. Only two of those have been built in the United States. That said, I am deeply concerned about the weaponization of space.

I would like to see the continuation of funding post-graduate work. The kind of creativity that comes from graduate and post-graduate students is great because they haven't yet entered the system that stymies that. And the cross-disciplinary nature of post-graduate work is really crucial here. You don't have a biology post-doc student now who doesn't also have a computer science or business degree. To keep open the funding for these sorts of educational pursuits is crucial.

I'm torn as to whether our government should be involved in projects like One Laptop Per Child. We have one in our house, because we did the 2-for-1 deal where one goes to a child in a developing country. When you get into the USAID infrastructure, you're talking about huge overhead. International programs like Unicef and Save the Children are better at that sort of thing than the U.S. government.

Next: Anil Dash