Washington Post Sees the World “Switch”ing

Today the capital’s leading media source (yes, still more important than Politico—after all, even people in New York read it) began publishing a regular blog about the intersection of technology and public policy, called (slightly opaquely) The Switch. This is, in our view, just the kind of techonomic movement that the world, and journalism, needs. As its first post explains, the site’s goals will be “making the policy process accessible to technologists, while helping policy professionals gain a deeper understanding of technology.” That sounds quite parallel to what we’re doing over here at Techonomy—trying to be where, as one attendee recently said, “the suits meet the geeks.” This is more important in Washington than just about anywhere, since ignorance about the true pace of change and the true complexity of technology issues among Congresspeople is legendary, and continuing. Granted, on the first day it isn’t waxing profound—the current lead post is a predictable photo essay celebrating the 55th anniversary of NASA—the one technology project people in Washington already more or less understand. But it is much needed and we wish The Switch well, and plan to read it regularly. No doubt you will see some of its postings highlighted periodically here.