Silicon Valley Learns Washington’s Language (and Vice Versa)

How do Washington folks use tech differently, compared with other parts of the country?

My unscientific conclusion is that the Washington metro area has the highest per-capita concentration of Twitter users whose profile photo is a shot of them appearing on cable news. Some of those people are my friends, and I would like to take this opportunity to urge them to reconsider.

How has the tech fluency among lawmakers changed, or not, over time?

Many lawmakers have become more fluent in tech — or at least more conversant — since the infamous Mark Zuckerberg hearings in 2018. There’s an understanding that before they became giants, Capitol Hill didn’t pay enough attention to the platforms that now account for a large share of the economy. In both the House and the Senate, lawmakers are often asking sharper questions than they used to and doing a better job of diving into the specifics.

There’s a related issue: For years, “tech policy” largely meant communications policy. It was about regulating the infrastructure that allows us to share information with one another. That has much wider implications than it used to.

If you oversee banking, you have to grok Facebook’s attempt to build a cryptocurrency. Google’s use of patient records is a health policy question as much as it’s a tech policy one. I’m interested in how lawmakers and their staff members adapt to this moment, when major tech companies are trying to play in more and more parts of modern life even as they face scrutiny for the business models that made them successful.

And what is the tech industry like in Washington?

All eyes are on Amazon and, more specifically, on its second headquarters in Northern Virginia. Its arrival has prompted a lot of questions about whether it will trigger even more gentrification in an already gentrifying city.

Amazon has been aggressive in building relationships with local educational institutions. In October, its chief executive, Jeff Bezos, visited a class at Dunbar High School in Washington, and the company is counting on local universities to help build the work force for its new offices.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/technology/personaltech/silicon-valley-washington.html?emc=rss&partner=rss