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Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

  • Agreement Reached on Internet Policymaking Principles

    Posted by Danny Weitzner and Karen Kornbluh on July 1, 2011 at 11:30 AM EDT

    This week, at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) High Level Meeting on the Internet Economy, we joined Tim Berners-Lee and Vint Cerf, along with representatives from business, civil society, and Internet technical communities from 34 countries to discuss how to preserve the openness of the Internet. Also present were policymakers who, over a decade ago, helped establish the Internet policy framework—elegant in its restraint—that enabled the open Internet to flourish with innovation and human connections beyond our wildest expectations.

    After intensive conversations, the OECD issued a communique of fundamental principles , highlighting commitments to:

    • Promote and protect the global free flow of information
    • Promote the open, distributed, and interconnected nature of the Internet
    • Co-operate in multi-stakeholder policy development processes
    • Ensure transparency, fair process, and accountability
    • Strengthen consistency and effectiveness in privacy protection
    • Maximize individual empowerment
    • Promote creativity and innovation
    • Limit Internet intermediary liability

    Illustrated by the release of the President's International Strategy for Cyberspace in May, Internet openness is an Obama Administration priority. As the President told a group of students in China, “I can tell you that in the United States, the fact that we have free Internet—or unrestricted Internet access—is a source of strength, and I think should be encouraged …. the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes…." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched an Internet Freedom agenda and in February challenged other countries to “join us in the bet we have made... that an open Internet will lead to stronger, more prosperous countries.”

    In sharp contrast, last month Iran announced plans to disconnect Iranian Internet services from the rest of the world. There are calls for greater governmental and inter-governmental, top-down, one-size-fits-all control over the Internet. If these trends continue, they risk balkanizing the Internet—with high costs in both economic opportunity and the realization of human rights. According to McKinsey, the Internet has generated as much growth over the past 15 years as the Industrial Revolution generated in 50 years. In the past five years, the Internet has been responsible for 21% of the growth in mature economies and has created 2.6 jobs for every 1 job it has displaced.

    But the Internet is not just a generator of today’s jobs; it is the biggest innovation incubator in the world, with a global reach never before achieved in human history.

    That’s why these principles should be embraced by governments and other stakeholders. They were developed through an extensive, transparent, multi-stakeholder process. Although there was broad support from the government, technical, and business communities, the civil society groups participating in the process were not able to support the final text due primarily to concerns about specific provisions on online copyright questions.  We will continue to seek common ground with them on how these principles are interpreted and implemented.

    In another fifteen years, those of us who gathered together at the OECD will look back and be proud of what we did—just as those who set the original framework for the Internet are justifiably proud.

    Danny Weitzner is Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Internet Policy

    Karen Kornbluh is US Ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

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  • An Invitation to Our Latest Open Innovation Ecosystem: Energy.Data.Gov

    Posted by Aneesh Chopra on June 30, 2011 at 7:58 PM EDT

    Today we launched Energy.Data.Gov, the latest installment of our growing family of Data.gov communities to deepen our engagement with stakeholders interested in the analytics to measure our Nation’s energy performance. As with our previous open government communities, in health and law, this platform aggregates tools, high-value datasets, and applications to shed light on energy use.  It includes 216 free datasets and tools have been gathered from agencies across the Federal government with the goal of empowering all Americans to understand energy issues, including energy consumption within the Federal government.

    Our motivation in launching these communities is to harness the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit within each of you to catalyze the breakthroughs the President has challenged us to achieve in unleashing a clean energy economy. To further our efforts in this regard, I called on technology and innovation leaders across the government to help scale best practices that embrace this model of open innovation, emphasizing the government’s role as “impatient convener.”

    When you visit Energy.data.gov, you will find a portfolio of apps, tools, and ideas about how to better monitor, manage, and save energy.  To maximize opportunities for education and entrepreneurship, Energy.data.gov has simplified access to challenges, prizes, and competitions that relate to energy data in meaningful and engaging ways. Or you can be inspired by existing innovations like the “Mashathon” that cobbled together data from multiple sources across seven cities highlighting opportunities like the following for residents of Milwaukee, WI – that residents might save $903 annually with a 5kW solar (PV) system.

    And this is just the beginning.

    By the end of the year, we will showcase data on Federal building energy use, prospects for energy efficiency improvements, and the Federal government's energy consumption and costs dating back to 1975 by agency and energy type. 

    Whether your interest lies in alternative fuels, electricity generation, managing buildings to be more energy efficient, or trying to better manage energy use in your own home, this platform has the raw material for you to build new products and services that have the potential to deliver our clean energy future. I look forward to celebrating the birth of a new competitive marketplace for innovative applications powered by open energy data that improve our energy security. Let’s get started.

    Aneesh Chopra is US Chief Technology Officer

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  • Feedback on Circular A-21 Invited

    Posted by Kelsey Cook on June 29, 2011 at 11:25 AM EDT

    Seven years ago the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released “Circular A-21,” a document that established key principles for determining costs applicable to grants, contracts, and other agreements between the Federal Government and educational institutions.  The principles were designed to ensure that the Federal Government covered its fair share of these institutions’ total costs. But the document’s requirements also created administrative burdens that this Administration believes could likely be reduced without undermining the effectiveness of the Circular.

    An interagency task force under the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) is focusing on possible improvements to Circular A-21 with the goal of recommending to the NSTC and OMB specific revisions and clarifications. The task force’s work is part of the Administration’s larger effort to minimize unnecessary economic and related burdens through review and reform of regulatory processes.

    To assist it in its work, the A-21 Task Force is seeking input from faculty and staff at educational institutions, members of relevant professional societies, and others including the general public. For further information and to submit comments, please read the formal Request for Information (RFI) submitted by the National Institutes of Health on behalf of the Task Force at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfi_files/a-21/add.htm. To read a blog about this effort posted by Sally Rockey, NIH's Deputy Director for Extramural Research and a co-chair of the A-21 Task Force, see: http://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/rock-talk/

    Responses to this RFI must be submitted by July 28, 2011, so please spread the word to your professional colleagues and others with an interest in this topic.

    Questions about the RFI itself can be directed to: A-21_Task_Force@mail.nih.gov

    We look forward to hearing from you.

    Kelsey Cook is a Senior Policy Analyst at OSTP and a member of the A-21 Task Force

  • Federal Scientist Receives Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology

    Posted by Pedro Espina on June 28, 2011 at 10:46 AM EDT

    A materials scientist who worked for decades at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and who continues to serve today as an Emeritus Senior NIST Fellow at that agency’s Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory was last week awarded  the 2011 Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology—Japan's highest private award for contributions to the betterment of society.

    Dr. John W. Cahn was cited for developing the theory of “spinodal decomposition,” which has greatly helped scientists and engineers predict the optimal microstructures of metal alloys and maximize their utility for a wide range of applications. His theory has helped scientists design and produce metals, glass, semiconductors, polymers, and other materials with unique properties, including extreme strength, thermal conductivity, pore permeability, heat resistance, and magnetism. Dr. Cahn is also an affiliate professor at the University of Washington and was a recipient of the 1998 National Medal of Science.

    Dr. Cahn is an extraordinary example of the countless dedicated scientists and engineers who have devoted their careers to public service within the Federal Government. From the Manhattan Project, Space Program, and Human Genome Project to the cutting-edge research taking place at our National Laboratories, Federal scientists and engineers have transformed our Nation’s investments in scientific and technological research into products, and jobs that have made America the world leader it is today. Dr. Cahn began his Federal service in 1977—after stints at the University of Chicago, General Electric, and MIT—by joining NIST’s precursor agency, the National Bureau of Standards.  More than 30 years later he continues to inspire his colleagues in the Federal workforce and contribute to the Administration’s commitment to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build America’s competitors.

    The Kyoto Prize is an international award to honor those who have contributed significantly to the scientific, cultural, and spiritual betterment of mankind. The Prize is presented annually in each of three categories: Advanced Technology, Basic Sciences, and Arts and Philosophy. The Advanced Technology category encompasses achievements in electronics, biotechnology and medical technology, information science, and—as in the case this year—materials science and engineering. Dr. Cahn will join the winners in the other two categories at an award ceremony to be held in Japan in November.

    Congratulations to Dr. Cahn on this profound recognition, and for serving as such a stellar example to others pursuing advances in science and engineering.

    Pedro Espina is Executive Director of the National Science and Technology Council

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  • Competition Shines Light on Dark Matter

    Posted by Jason Rhodes on June 27, 2011 at 4:32 PM EDT

    The world’s brightest physicists have been working for decades on solving one of the great unifying problems of our universe.  It is a problem that explores our place in the cosmos and, as was the case with Newton’s law of gravitation and Einstein’s theory of relativity, would provide a generational leap in our understanding of the nature of the Universe if solved. Recently, top experts celebrated an exciting breakthrough from an unexpected place.

    On May 23, a consortium of the very best from NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Royal Astronomical Society posted the problem on the data-mining website Kaggle and Challenge.gov for all the world to weigh in. In less than a week, Martin O’Leary, a PhD student in glaciology, had crafted an algorithm that outperformed the state-of-the-art algorithms most commonly used in astronomy for mapping dark matter.

    Chalk another one up for the power of crowdsoucing, and this Admnistration’s commitment to using prizes and challenges to find solutions to some of our most pressing problems—here on Earth as well as in the furthest reaches of space!

    read the rest
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  • Crowd-Sourcing the Renaissance of Manufacturing

    Posted by Tom Kalil and Regina Dugan on June 24, 2011 at 2:12 PM EDT

    DARPA Car 2

    The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency car is a combat support vehicle for the Department of Defense, constructed by Local Motors from Arizona. (Photo courtesy Local Motors)

    Today, the President announced the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership at the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. While there, President Obama caught a glimpse of what may become the future of Defense manufacturing – a concept vehicle that is a fully functioning next-generation combat support vehicle designed and built by U.S. entrepreneurs at a fraction of the conventional time and cost.

    That accomplishment grew out of the military’s need to face rapidly changing mission demands and the conviction by the Director and Deputy Director (Ken Gabriel) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that it is possible to design, manufacture, and test a new vehicle in about one-fifth the usual time and with significant cost savings. To pilot this approach, DARPA enlisted the services of Local Motors Inc, a small company in Arizona that is led by a former-Marine named Jay Rogers and specializes in harnessing the combined ingenuity of the American people to push the limits of creative design.

    A $10,000 prize competition was launched to design the body of the Crowd-derived Combat-support Vehicle (XC2V). Then the vehicle was built (on an existing Local Motors chassis design) in less than four months and brought from Arizona to the Presidential event in Pittsburgh, arriving ahead of schedule.

    While the XC2V is the first-ever military vehicle design to be created through crowd-sourcing, it is just one of many products to emerge from such competitions, which are designed to drive innovation by tapping talent from unexpected places.  As an example, each month, Local Motors challenges its 20,000 community members to develop novel automotive solutions for cash awards. 

    Such approaches give unknown innovators a chance to turn their ideas into reality, advance technologies that drive our Nation forward, and answer the President’s call to “spark a renaissance in American manufacturing.”

    Faith in the ingenuity of American people is at the heart of the Obama Administration’s work to tap the Nation’s best ideas wherever they may lie.  In his Strategy for American Innovation, the President called on all agencies to increase their use of prizes to solve tough problems. And in January 2011 he signed new legislation granting every agency broad authority to do so. The Administration also launched Challenge.gov, a one-stop shop where entrepreneurs and citizen solvers can find public-sector prizes. 

    In its first nine months alone, Challenge.gov featured nearly 100 competitions from more than 30 agencies, generating novel solutions for childhood obesity, financing for small businesses, Type 1 Diabetes, and many other national priorities.

    Challenge.gov invites the public to design cool science experiments for America’s classrooms, take on America’s Home Energy and Education Challenge, build apps that benefit patients and providers, and map dark matter.  Everyone has a role to play – whether it is competing, recruiting experts in your network, voting for the best submissions, or just showing your support for the prizes you care about. Check out Challenge.gov today and join the army of citizen solvers tackling our Nation’s challenges, large and small.

    Tom Kalil is Deputy Director for Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

    Regina Dugan is the Director of DARPA

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