Some of the earliest supercomputers were literally stacked side-by-side in large rooms and networked together to handle a crazy number of instructions per second. Today, your iPhone or Android manages vast amounts of data and instructions per second, and exceeds the capability of those earliest supercomputers. When I began my career in the United States Senate back in 1982, having an IBM Selectric Typewriter was cool because you could backspace and erase what you just typed, without using Wite-Out. The following year our typewriters were replaced with Wang computers.
Advances in technology and innovation happen today at a dizzying pace and that has changed everything about business from communications, marketing, record keeping, product development, billing, and more. At the State Chamber, every member uses technology, and we have other members that not only use technology but also sell, manage, or maintain the tech of other businesses.
We are all very dependent upon our tech and the conveniences it offers. Do you remember the days when you had to scramble for change to locate a (working) pay phone? And, oh how times have changed. My twenty-something kids hardly ever use the “phone” function on their devices because why do that when you can simply text or message someone?
When you consider the vast amount of data that exists in the world today, we need people who can find hidden insights or the correlations we never knew existed. The possibilities are endless, and these discoveries can help advance society and businesses.
For all these reasons, the data, the technology and more, the State Chamber is standing up a Technology Committee. Would you or someone in your organization like to be involved? Policymakers are faced with pressures to react to issues associated with data and technology every session. It would be helpful to assemble a group to help inform those decisions as policies are developed. Please reach out to
Tyler Micik if you are interested.
