Newly Ancient

Forty-five years ago, a great bit of history was made. Eight years ago, we saw a different sort of history. That history didn’t turn out so well.

Tomorrow, history will be made. The only question left is what sort of history it will be.

Today, I didn’t have school. School was closed in honor of a great moment in history, and the man who inspired it.

Tomorrow, history will be made. While it is made, I will be taking my math exam. I will be able to tell my grandchildren about quadratic formulas.

One of my favorite things about President-elect Obama is that he is the first president to truly understand the power of technology — to a large extent, it got him elected. Already, he is beginning to bring his powerful technology platform into government. I hope by that the end of his term we will see government data opened up with accessible and non-proprietary formats (like XML) which can be accessed by all citizens. The availability of this data will truly give news organizations, technologists, and students new ways to easily and effectively monitor government activity. Ethan Bodnar has written an excellent letter which reflects these principles and offers specific advice on what to do. Thankfully, these changes can easily be implemented, given the right team, and are (or should be) decidedly nonpartisan. I hope President-elect Obama learns from his success with technology on the campaign trail and brings that same edge to government.