Techno-Politics and Tech Culture

The ups and downs of Obamacare — from its passage to its rollout and now implementation — have consumed Washington, D.C., and American politics. But for those who run companies — and provide health insurance to more than half of all Americans — not much has fundamentally changed. Health care is still a business disease: Continue Reading →

The drama of the HealthCare.gov Ad Hoc team is now a modern tech fable: a small cadre of young geeks from Silicon Valley and President Obama’s election campaign parachute into the federal bureaucracy to rescue the site and help exceed the goal of 8 million insured households nationwide. But even as they worked 80-hour weeks Continue Reading →

A Federal appellate court recently upheld the constitutional right to record police traffic stops, which allowed a lawsuit against several New Hampshire police officers to proceed. The court case stemmed from an event on the evening of March 24, 2010. Former Weare, NH police sergeant Joseph Kelley pulled over a motorist, and Carla Gericke attempted to Continue Reading →

Iranian spies appear to be engaged in their most elaborate and persistent effort yet to dupe lawmakers, journalists and defense contractors into revealing email addresses, network logins and other information that could be used to collect intelligence. A three-year espionage campaign, believed to have originated in Iran, has used an elaborate scheme involving a fabricated Continue Reading →

  The US National Security Agency has been recording nearly every phone call made in Afghanistan, according to WikiLeaks. The recordings are being made as part of the same program that was reported earlier this week to be capturing nearly every call in the Bahamas, as well as phone records from Mexico, Kenya, and the Continue Reading →

When Americans voted to renew President Barack Obama’s lease on the White House in November 2012, more than 9 million citizens took to Facebook to click the “I’m a Voter” button, showing their online friends that they had cast a ballot. The social media site plans to offer versions of the feature around the world Continue Reading →

On May 15, 2014, the FCC voted to move forward with considerations on a proposal for new rules known as "Open Internet" rules -- the new name for Net Neutrality. If you are a provider of Internet services, nothing has changed. You still get to do business exactly the way you have been. If you are a concerned citizen wondering how you can compete and prosper in a world where ISPs charge for the "fast lane," you still have time to make your case. Continue Reading →

The Federal Communications Commission approved a proposal for a controversial set of new net neutrality rules on Thursday morning that advocates say could undermine the very principals that they set out to support by introducing so-called “fast lanes” to the internet. The rules aren’t set in stone just yet, however: as the FCC has been Continue Reading →

The U.S. Federal Election Committee said on Thursday that the virtual currency, bitcoin, could be used for donations to political action committees under certain conditions. In a unanimous vote, the FEC, which enforces U.S. campaign finance laws, said a political committee could accept donations in bitcoins up to an individual limit of $100 for each Continue Reading →

Establishing the identity of online users is a thorny issue for the electronic delivery of government services. A thorough identity proofing ensures the right person receives services, but can be burdensome to both the citizen and the state, while more user-friendly techniques to encourage cost-efficient online access can open programs up to fraud. To help Continue Reading →