Wading through US president-elect Barack Obama's technology plans, it looks like there will be changes in the country’s attitude to the internet.

If the plan goes through unchanged, then all Americans would have broadband internet access, and there will be better defences against cybercriminals and greater access to government services.

The great unwashed will be able to question members of the president's cabinet or track every penny of the US budget.

Obama has also said he wants to put Youtube-like videos of government meetings online, and has proposed a Google-like database of grants and contracts, so people can see where their money is going. Cabinet members will have to hold regular online town hall meetings, where they would field questions from the internet audience.

All good stuff, but to do it Obama needs to spend a lot of cash, probably in the form of tax and loan incentives to spur construction of broadband networks. Cash used to subsidise telephone service in rural areas will also be used to build high-speed internet lines that could also carry phone traffic.

However, there will be much resistance from rural phone companies, which don't like the idea of cheap competition entering their niche markets. Obama also faces a fight on a proposal to reallocate licensed radio and television frequencies to create wireless broadband networks, which was another one of his big ideas.

And there are other questions that Obama has not answered.  During the campaign, he was a  staunch supporter of "net neutrality" - the idea that internet providers should be barred by law from discriminating against particular kinds of data.  However, mention of the term has been dropped from his website.  There are some fears that such a law would enable the FCC to start regulating the broadband marketplace, including broadband speech. The FCC has been itching for the sort of powers it had to fine broadcasters for swearing or running films with nudity in them.

Another thing that is missing is any commitment to prevent internet snooping.  Obama's vice president Joe Biden was a keen supporter of giving the security services any powers they wanted to snoop on users.

Biden has also been a strong advocate for the music and film industry, and is likely to want to see some form of laws enacted against p2p pirates. X

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