This week, President Barack Obama will meet with Silicon Valley leaders about many of the hot button tech issues of 2013, like the NSA spy scandals and the Obamacare website fiasco.
These tech giants include Apple CEO Tim Cook, Yahoo President/CEO Marissa Meyer, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and AT&T President/CEO Randall Stevenson. One issue to be tackled is the improvements made to the infamous Obamacare website. It has been riddled with so many mistakes and glitches it has become the punchline in comedian’s jokes. The White House didn’t come out and say the NSA will be discussed but it will be. This meeting comes in the wake of a federal judge calling the surveillance programs ‘likely unconstitutional’. Also, issues like tech job security, job creation and education in the tech field.
I’d really like to be a fly on the wall for this meeting, especially when it comes to the NSA stuff. Many companies are now saying they were coaxed, manipulated, or outright bullied into cooperating with the Feds in these surveillance programs. There was a 60 Minutes article which didn’t make them look too much better. Now Snowden is working some deal with Brazil in exchange for asylum. Come to think of it, these issues aren’t going to be addressed in a day. They’re simply too many issues to be addressed. What about that EBT card glitch back in October? What about the struggle for college graduates in tech fields to find jobs? What about employers firing people and/or denying work simply for the content of social media’s pages? Where would I begin?