News Byte

First White House Cyber-Security Coordinator to Retire

Howard Schmidt, the first-ever White House cyber-security coordinator, is leaving the post he’s held since 2009. Schmidt, who has spent the past two-and-a-half years working on protections for the country’s critical infrastructure, will step down at the end of this month; he’ll be succeeded by Michael Daniel, chief of the White House budget office’s intelligence branch.

Voices

U.S. Targets Tech’s Role in Oppression

President Barack Obama has signed an executive order targeting people and companies facilitating human-rights abuses with technology, part of a broader push by the White House to combat mass atrocities at a time of heightened concern over civilian massacres in places like Syria.

Remember Obama’s National Broadband Plan? Neither Does Anyone Else.

Two years after the introduction of the National Broadband Plan, a new study finds that not many more Americans have fast access at home than they did before.
Barack Obama Mac Laptop

News Byte

Todd Park Takes Over as U.S. CTO

The White House today named Todd Park, the chief technology officer of the Department of Health and Human Services, to fill that role on a national level, replacing the departed Aneesh Chopra. Park comes in with an entrepreneurial background, good press on his three years at HHS and, as the son of Korean immigrants, a compelling personal story.

Voices

Web Firms to Adopt “No Track” Button

A coalition of Internet giants including Google Inc. has agreed to support a do-not-track button to be embedded in most Web browsers — a move that the industry had been resisting for more than a year.

Viral Video: Jimmy Fallon Loses to a Lady (The First One)

Bring it on.
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Obama Administration Promises to Answer Quora Users’ State of the Union Questions

The intelligent discussion site Quora has gotten a nod from the Obama administration on the eve of the annual U.S. State of the Union address.
QuoraStateoftheUnion

Voices

“Nerd Lobby” Shows Muscle in Debate Over Piracy Bills

Late last fall, a select group met in the White House Situation Room to discuss U.S. Internet security and how it might falter if two anti-piracy bills being debated in Congress were to pass.

Obama: Don’t Worry Internet, I Got Your Back on That SOPA Thing

The White House signals that it doesn’t like the controversial SOPA bill. Here’s one writer who’s not the least bit surprised.
Barack Obama Mac Laptop

Obama Likes the Internet, So He’ll Probably Veto SOPA if It Gets That Far

Will he or won’t he?
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Michelle Obama Sends Her First Tweet

Barack Obama on Steve Jobs