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Information Technology News Googling Barack Obama
Information Technology News Googling Barack Obama | Googling Barack Obama |
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| by Davey Winder | |
| Tuesday, 21 October 2008 | |
      
The big political news over the weekend has been the endorsement of Barack Obama from the unlikely direction of Republican former Chief of Staff and Secretary of State, Colin Powell. However, the bigger news for those with an interest in both IT and politics involves Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Schmidt has already been known to informally advise the Obama campaign team on issues involving technology and energy, but now the Google Head Honcho is making it clear that he also backs the Democratic Presidential candidate while at the same time stressing this is not Google policy but his own personal choice. The Wall Street Journal reports that while Schmidt has not made any donations to either presidential campaign, Google employees certainly favour Obama. Indeed, the newspaper reckons that Google employees have contributed a total of USD $487,355 to the Obama campaign, compared to a trifling USD $20,600 for McCain. The fact that Obama gets the backing of a 'Google guy' is certainly not something that can be overlooked. Obama will be happy with the tech clout of Schmidt in his camp, particularly as John McCain already has former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and Cisco CEO John Chambers advising him. Two questions , however, spring to mind as a result of the Schmidt decision, and his hitting the campaign trail this week on behalf of Obama. The first being whether this will be interpreted as an effort to gain influence regarding such issues surrounding both Net Neutrality and personally targeted online advertising which are currently being considered by Congress. With Google increasingly sitting centre stage when it comes to regulatory scrutiny. It is known, for example, that the tech savvy Obama is a supporter of Net Neutrality having co-sponsored legislation some years ago. A stance shared by Google, and opposed by the 'leave it to the market' opinion of McCain. The second question is whether Schmidt is jockeying for position, specifically the position of Chief Technology Officer within an Obama Government should he, as looks likely, win the Presidential election? The Wall Street Journal quotes Schmidt as denying any desire to enter the world of politics, saying "I'm actually very busy running Google."
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