Panelists at Day Two of the TechVoice D.C. Fly-In Tackle Cyber Warriors, Startup 3.0 and More

This morning we kicked off day two of the TechVoice D.C. Fly-In with a Tech Summit that included exceptional panel members from the private sector and federal government diving into IT workforce, Internet governance and other important issues for the tech entrepreneur.

Ernest McDuffe, lead of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, started the morning with discussion of an initiative called NICE, which defines a framework to improve online behavior skills to enable a safer cyberspace. There was a lot of discussion about who the “cyber warrior” is, who is in charge of what and where funds would come from to support cyber-security. Erik Jones, deputy general counsel at the U. S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, encouraged our member companies and information technology small- and medium-sized businesses to partner with the federal government and collaborate on effective cyber-security policies. He said that while the process has begun with a recent executive order on cyber-security signed by President Obama, we still have a long way to go.

The panelists also discussed improving the cyber-security workforce, agreeing we need a well-trained one. One of the panelists said that to fix the shortage of STEM-skilled workers, we need to start encouraging students in middle school. He said this can be done with scholarships, competitions and parental support. He stated that there is still a hangover from the tech bubble burst years back, with a significant drop in students enrolled in STEM coursework, and that today we’re still short.

Another panelist said that while there is a shortage of skills, there is not a shortage of jobs but rather a shortage of experience. Not only is there not a developmental pipeline for STEM, but many organizations don’t want to hire junior people.

On a second panel discussing “IT Innovation on the First Responder Platform,” we heard from Jeff Cohen, chief counsel for law and policy with APCO International, who painted a picture of the rudimentary public safety communications landscape of the nation’s first responders. He said that public safety today relies on land mobile radio signals that do not provide first responders with the much needed data that smart phones provide, like maps, real time video, medical records, traffic alerts, etc. Not only are land mobile radio signals antiquated, but they’re expensive – a two-way radio can cost $3,000 to $4,000, depending on the features.

Cohen discussed the importance of having a mandate dedicated to providing a national broadband network to deliver more up-to-date communications tools. He also touched on the policy initiatives in place to promote a national safety broadband network, including FirstNet, a congressional mandate for a broadband wireless network. He encouraged private companies to partner with their government to make this happen.

We also heard from Ashok Agrawala, professor of computer science at the University of Maryland and director of the Maryland Information and Network Dynamics (MIND) Lab, who showed the audience where public safety technology is going with a demonstration of M-Urgency, a first responder app created for students on the College Park Campus.

Another panel member talked about opportunities for information technology small- and medium-sized businesses to get involved in public safety communications and the need for solid technology tools so that first responders can do their critical jobs. He also encouraged anyone interested to get involved at the state level since every state has its own safety needs.

Our last panel of the day was about “Startup 3.0” legislation allowing small- and medium-sized businesses to grow and prosper. The timing of the panel couldn’t have been more perfect, considering that the House of Representatives version of Startup 3.0 will be introduced this week and the Senate version was introduced yesterday. We learned about two new visa provisions of the bill. The first is intended to benefit STEM students pursuing advanced degrees with the addition of 50,000 new visas and the second is intended to benefit entrepreneurs who create businesses and new jobs with the addition of 75,000 new visas. These provisions would create 26 million new jobs in the U.S.

We also learned that Startup 3.0 offers a new R&D credit that is more accessible to startups. The credit would be offered against employment taxes instead of income taxes. Panelists urged co-sponsor support, so please write and/or call your local representative or go to TechVoice.org and click on the Action Alert button to seamlessly contact your state’s representative. For details on the names and titles of the speakers we heard from this morning, check out our TechVoice website.

It was a great few days in D.C.! Please check out twitter chatter on today’s panel at @TechVoice.