Increase Government's Technical Literacy

A danger inherent in allowing the government to regulate competition in high-tech industries is that the officials who are involved in making policy decisions (legislators, legislative aides, judges, paralegals, etc.) lack expertise in the quickly-changing technical domains that they are regulating. One embarassing fact that the Department of Justice inquiry into Microsoft's practices brought to light is that confusion and misunderstanding about computer products is rampant among government officials.

Whatever course of action the government eventually elects to pursue in dealing with the allegations of anti-competitive practices that have been levelled against Microsoft, one component of its policy should be to make real efforts to improve the level of computer knowledge and familiarity with emerging technologies among employees in the Department of Justice and the federal court system--as well as among members of Congress.

A variety of measures to address this shortcoming are possible, including the active recruitment by the government of employees with a technical background. One simple starting place would be to introduce employee education programs to bring government employees involved in technology industries up to speed on the rapidly developing industries which they oversee.