Think Tank Recommends Tech Policy Agenda
Oct 6th, 2008 | By Dawn Rivers Baker | Category: TechnologyLest anyone forget that there is a presidential campaign going on in the midst of the economic melodrama playing itself out on the Hill and on the Street, a new policy paper from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation serves as a timely reminder. The ITIF is a Washington-based tech policy think tank headed up by this paper’s author, Dr. Robert Atkinson. The outfit publishes quite a lot of material and this effort, entitled An Innovation Economics Agenda for the Next Administration, was published for the purpose of giving the incoming administration a few pointers on spurring economic growth.
Of course, since this paper is focused on entrepreneurship and, specifically, on IT-based entrepreneurship, any policy benefits to the nation’s microbusinesses that it contains would only be accidental. That is no coincidence, either; the pro-entrepreneurship crowd tends to have a somewhat condescendingly tolerant attitude toward mere small businesses, unless they transform into gazelles. Of the eight recommendations in the paper, the only ones that are likely to have a direct impact on microbusinesses are those calling for a national broadband strategy and for patent reform.
