Closing out the final INTX 2015 General Session, NCTA President and CEO Michael Powell sat down for a conversation with Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. On top of mind for both was the role of the Department of Commerce and it’s programs in both expanding broadband access and protecting businesses and individuals from inherent Internet threats.
Secretary Pritzker started by emphasizing both her and President Obama’s commitment to expanding broadband access. She also affirmed the leadership role the private sector has taken in expanding broadband access. Secretary Pritzker noted the “$300 billion [the broadband] industry has invested.”
Secretary Pritzker went on to talk about the role of innovation in the American job market. “Fully one-third of growth comes from innovation,” she said, meaning a huge part of our economy comes from industries that not long ago, didn’t exist. The supporting statistic Powell cited was that “65 percent of kids today will be doing jobs that don’t exist yet.” Secretary Pritzker applauded the cable industry supported program Connect to Compete as contributing to expanding digital literacy amongst young people so that they’re ready for these jobs.
“65 percent of kids today will be doing jobs that don’t exist yet.”
Rounding out the conversation was a deeper dive into the future of cyber security and individual privacy protection on the Internet. Secretary Pritzker noted the important role The Department of Commerce plays in establishing a framework for cyber security protection. She said that one of the hardest parts of cyber security is the fact that technology is, “both complicated and ubiquitous.” Solutions, she said, need to come from public-private partnerships and in a way that balance both the needs of national security as well as personal protection, copyright protection, and the benefits of big data.
Closing the conversation, Secretary Pritzker said, “We need to protect information and the use of it has to be in a fashion that draws the right line.”
See below for the full video of Powell and Secretary Pritzker’s conversation: