Silicon Beach Debate Gaining Traction

In Henry Waxman's first term, Microsoft and Apple were founded and the Internet was just a research project.  As the legendary Congressman steps down, his district is now home to the third-largest technological hub in the nation known as Silicon Beach.

Historically, the tech community has had little interest in the political process, but that is changing as was evident in the massive response of the tech community in opposing SOPA and locally in the strong support Mayor Garcetti received from Silicon Beach.

As the host of Cyber Law & Business Report, a radio show broadcast from Santa Monica that covers tech law and policy, I thought it was important that the candidates seeking to represent Silicon Beach at some point address some of the issues of concern to Silicon Beach.

So we decided to create a virtual Silicon Beach debate and have invited candidates to take the 10+10 challenge which includes stating their position on 10 tech issues and then taping a 10 minute interview with us which we will air on May 14th and May 21st on WebmasterRadio.fm and over iHeartRadio.

Because of the size of the field, we only invited the seven candidates who have demonstrated the greatest political viability which are Elan Carr, James Graf, Wendy Greuel, David Kanuth, Ted Lieu, Matt Miller and Marianne Williamson.    

We are asking that they state their position on NSA Reform, Net Neutrality, Cyber Security, US oversight over ICANN, Patent Reform, Online Privacy (Do Not Track), the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, Online Gambling, the Startup Act 3.0 and the Marketplace Fairness Act.  Information on each of these issues and the candidates respoinses once received We will be posted on SiliconBeachDebates.com.

So far David Kanuth, Ted Lieu and Marianne Williamson have responded favorably and we are awaiting responses from the remainder.  We are very excited about having this discussion and hope it will lead to greater involvement of Silicon Beach in this important election. 

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