Obama calls on tech industry at SXSW to help solve nation's problems

[Lodestar]

Source: USA TODAY

AUSTIN — President Obama called on the tech industry Friday to help solve some of Washington's thorniest problems — from upgrading outdated federal networks to connecting rural classrooms to resolving the national privacy vs. security debate sparked by the current legal battle between Apple and the FBI.

Speaking to a theater filled with about 2,000 techies, engineers and dot.com leaders gathered for the annual South by Southwest Interactive Festival, Obama urged the audience to think about putting their vast skills to work improving civic life.

"The reason I’m here is to recruit all of you," he said. "We can start coming up with new platforms, new ideas across disciplines and across skill sets to solve some of the big problems we’re facing today."

Obama was in Austin for the opening day of SXSW, a 10-day interactive/film/music gathering that draws more than 80,000 participants, including some of the country’s most successful and talented tech industry leaders. Obama is the first sitting U.S. president to attend the 30-year-old gathering. Michelle Obama is scheduled to speak here on Wednesday.

Asked about his administration’s battle with Apple over whether the tech giant should be forced to write new code to unlock the San Bernardino killer’s iPhone, Obama said he wouldn't comment specifically on the case. The Justice Department has been locked in a heated legal battle with Apple in a California federal court to unlock the phone. Apple has opposed a court-order to unlock the phone, claiming doing so it would put millions of other phones at risk.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/03/11/obama-tech-sxsw-apple-fbi/81628850/

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Full Speech

[lovemydog]

1. Tech, science, law, the arts,

every committed person in every field can take steps to spend more time helping solve the nation's problems. Especially those who are fortunate enough to have work and fortunate enough to make good money!

Great speech.

Thanks for sharing it here Lodestar!

[politicasista]

2. Kick

[Major Hogwash]

3. His speech was DOA.

The tech industry doesn't do anything for free.
So, unless there are a couple of billion dollars to be made from it, they aren't going to lift a finger to solve any big problems.

[billhicks76]

4. To Spy On People

Sorry Obama but that's not the kind of America worth claiming. Privacy and freedom must be protected. These back doors are used mostly in the drug war and leveraging details from politicians or ther prominent people's personal lives for blackmail.

[AzDar]

5. I love him, but he has been SUCH a goddamned disappointment...

[seabeckind]

6. If only we could find somebody in charge of the country

Somebody who could look at all the disjointed efforts, all so very obsessed with monetary returns instead of service and quality....

I wonder where we should look for leadership?

[Lodestar]

7. I like the way he's thinking and wish he/we would create MORE opportunities

for this type of drawn out discussion on important issues,
speaking adult to adult with citizens... as he suggests,
getting a two-way communication going with
government so that people and government truly work together.
Not like FDR's fireside chats exactly ( there wasn't a means for citizen input),
but a venue similar to a city council meeting but on the national/federal level
where he or any president can get past sound bites into the meat of issues facing us
and get immediate feedback, organize citizen working groups, brain storm, etc.
We really have under-utilized all our technology and its potential to open up
dialogue and really draw on the wealth of resources in our citizenry.

[longship]

8. Why don't people see a back door to encryption for what it really is?

A back door by which any nefarious element can get through. Terrorists, hackers, other governments, etc. Encryption algorithms are pretty simple. They're just number theory, meaning mathematical expressions based on integers, usually based on prime numbers.

It is really, really difficult to factor a product of two large prime numbers. REALLY DIFFICULT!!! But an algorithm of multiplying two big numbers is really, really simple when coded in a computer. So any back door is going to stick out like a sore thumb. Everybody's going to know about it.

The science of this is all pretty simple. It doesn't take complex mathematics to make strong encryption. There are many functions which have no inverse. Any one of them which map into whole numbers might be suitable for encryption. And one cannot likely hide a back door in any of them.

[MH1]

9. Maybe start hiring AMERICANS to do tech jobs

(instead of importing foreigners and pushing Americans into customer facing positions that require decent English language skills)

and they might be interested in trying to solve America's problems.

Just a thought. Not that anyone's listening, except other IT workers who have experienced this. Sigh.