Barack and Technology

As some of you may know, I had the honor and pleasure to serve as a panelist at this year’s African American Internet Summit in Chicago. The panel was called African-Americans and Digital Media: The Next Big Thing, and consisted of Cheryl Mayberry McKissack, President and CEO of Nia Enterprises, Jason Smikle, Director, TUVOnline Quincy Newall, President, Codeblack Interactive, and yours truly.

The panel was moderated by Ken Smikle, the creator and organizer of the summit. Mr. Smikle’s line of questioning was short (mainly because our panel was toward the end of the summit and the moderator wanted to leave some time for questions), but nevertheless profound. One of the questions in particular was so interesting that I thought that it would be worth a follow up post. The question was:

“How will a Barack Obama presidency help with our businesses?”

Each panelist was given a few minutes to share their thoughts, and the answers were wide ranging. Some spoke of how inspiring an African American candidate would be, others mentioned our economic struggles under the current administration and how Barack would be the candidate for change. Quincy Newall and I took a different route, choosing to discuss how inspiring, Barack was from the technical perspective. Quincy cited as proof, Barack’s plan to appoint the first ever Chief Technology Officer and I mentioned how Barack’s innovative use of technology and social media during his campaign would trickle over into his presidency. We also discussed the importance of hiring Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, to head up his social networking efforts, and Barack’s use of video games to help market his campaigns.

The conversation was great and showed a number of diverse opinions, but I came across some footage from the Obama Campaign that spoke directly to Barack’s technology initiatives. Hat Tip Tech Crunch. Enjoy!

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