Day With the Massachusetts Legislature

Chris Pels — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 15:12:00 GMT

This past week I had the unique opportunity of joining Jonathan Zuck, President of Americans for Competitive Technology, Jim Prendergast, Executive Director of Americans for Technology Leadership, and fellow developer Patrick Hynds for a day of meetings with members of the Massachusetts legislature. I was there as a local small business person and representing the developer community through INETA. Our goal was to make the legislators aware we are available as a resource on technology issues not push any particular agenda. As technology issues arise the legislators would then be able to contact us for briefings etc.

Prior to the start of our meetings we had a private tour of the Massachusetts State House a beautiful and incredibly historic place. Seeing portraits of the early governors like John Hancock and Samuel Adams who were instrumental in starting our country was exciting.

Our meetings with the legislators were very educational and cordial. We sat down one-on-one and just talked about important issues in the technology world today. Topics included outsourcing, spyware, intellectual property in a global economy, K-12 technology education, and others. One thing that really struck me was these people making important decisions about our industry are much like the average adult in our country today, they really only understand a little bit of what technology is all about.

One interesting issue that came up in all our discussions was how our field, technology, contains many more entrepreneurs and small businesses than many other fields. This makes it harder for our voices to be heard on important issues. Thus, Jim and Jonathan's organizations. As I become aware of technology issues on the local or national level I will post information here so everyone is aware of the issues and can follow-up when necessary.

In the end this was a day well spent.

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Day With the Massachusetts Legislature