Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Google CEO Touts Innovation Amid Economic Turmoil

Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke to a crowd convened by the New America Foundation in Washington on Tuesday about the ways technology can help Barack Obama's administration and Congress address two of the biggest challenges ahead: generating short- and long-term economic and job growth that can help pull the nation out of financial turmoil, and restoring public trust in government. Schmidt, who chairs the foundation's board and is a member of Obama's transition team, said America "has the intellectual foundation, leadership and literally the people in the room not just to solve problems but build a better place."

"A hundred years ago, nobody had information. Now all of you are significant users of the Internet," Schmidt said. "In our lifetime, almost all people will have access to almost all the world's information. That’s a remarkable achievement on par with Gutenberg." Just about every American can now create and publish their ideas, he said, noting that "some of them are absolutely wacko." Nevertheless, the power of communication is in everyone's hands, he said, noting that the U.S. government and individual citizens are only now beginning to understand that power. His thesis: "Technology makes a difference."

Schmidt's talk was not without controversy. During the question-and-answer session, Consumer Watchdog's John Simpson confronted him with a question about the need for Google to build greater privacy and security protections into its applications. Simpson urged Congress not to use Google programs because of certain alleged vulnerabilities and said representatives from the Internet giant are trying to sell Capitol Hill staffers on the firm's software and services. Schmidt said he read a letter Simpson sent to him and would be happy to discuss his concerns at a later date. Read more in CongressDaily's AM edition on Wednesday.