Beta Bytes: Week of January 23rd, 2021
Photo by Jelleke Vanooteghem on Unsplash
Snippets of breaking news calibrated to science, technology, and engineering topics as well as our clients’ interests.
President Biden’s Tech To-do List
The incoming administration has a number of challenges and opportunities facing them regarding the future of technology regulation and international relations.
Government lawsuits that accused Google and Facebook of breaking the law to become successful or stay that way will be handed off to the new administration, which is expected to continue them. More lawsuits could come, too, possibly making it harder for Big Tech to continue as is.
Biden seems to agree with the Trump administration’s concerns about the ambitions of China in tech and other areas, but he hasn’t said much beyond aiming for a more consistent and coherent policy and has also expressed support for more government investment in essential U.S. technology to counter China’s tech ambitions.
From the New York Times
Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce Join Effort to develop COVID-19 vaccination digital passport
Microsoft, Oracle, and Salesforce have joined a broad coalition of technology and health care companies to create the Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI), which aims to accelerate access to COVID-19 vaccination records by creating a digital passport.
The technology would allow individuals to obtain a copy of their immunization records through a digital wallet of their choice, such as Apple Wallet or Google Pay, while those without smartphones would receive paper printed with QR codes containing verifiable credentials.
The push comes after the Commons Project Foundation developed its own digital health app last year, known as CommonPass, which has already undergone a trial run with United Airlines for flights between the United States and the U.K.
From Fox Business News
Major Infrastructure Plan is On the Way
The Biden administration’s legislative ideas are coming into sharper focus, starting with a $1.9-trillion coronavirus “rescue” plan that includes only a small list of construction-related provisions.
The second item on incoming President Joe Biden’s Capitol Hill agenda: an economic recovery proposal due in February that Biden says will “make historic investments in infrastructure, along with manufacturing, research and development, and clean energy.”
Construction officials say they hope 2021 will finally be the year when Congress approves the biggest of that “big stuff”—a long-term infrastructure bill with as much total funding as politically possible.
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