I'd like to welcome you to Intel's new Policy Blog space. This is a new cyber forum and I'm pleased to be the guest blogger for today to cut the virtual ribbon. My name is Bruce Sewell and I am a senior vice president at Intel with responsibilities for law, public policy and corporate social responsibility, among other things.
In order to kick-off the blog I thought the best way to get started would be to talk about - Why? Why is Intel starting to blog about public policy, particularly when we already have a site where Intel's key global public policy objectives and positions are spelled out?
The benefit of our existing site is that visitors get a sense of what Intel stands for, and what we care about in the public policy arena. The limitation is that the site is pretty static. At the 50,000 foot level, our most important policy objectives don't tend to change very much from year to year. This largely reflects the age old difference between strategy and tactics. But, go one level beneath our broad policy goals and there's a lot happening. Intel is engaged in policy debates around all sorts of issues in the United States and internationally. In this milieu things don't happen by the year or by the quarter, but day-to-day, minute-by-minute and in multiple dimensions given the private and public sectors' roles and public perceptions and reactions. Furthermore, companies like Intel aren't monolithic. Our policy stances emerge from the views, debates - even passions - of many individuals engaged in our efforts, not to mention interactions with those outside our company, of course.
This new policy blog will let us highlight issues and positions at critical stages during the policy process - such as before a vote or committee hearing. And we can go in-depth on select issues when we think it's more relevant to readers. We're encouraging all of our individual policy staffers to blog at-will, with minimal filters. And we're intending these to be brief, timely, conversational postings. No dull treatises.
At the same time, we want to encourage dialogue - from any and all quarters. We are placing more importance on our policy functions around the world and this blog is one visible example of that. We really hope that you will join us in this conversation.
I think there are many topics that could benefit from interactive discussion. For starters, think of policy issues around energy, healthcare and immigration. U.S. national energy policy seems to be moving toward "cap and trade." You might not be surprised that we favor a rational, competitive energy policy. But is cap and trade merely the least bad alternative? Is there another policy approach altogether?
We won't go there now, but please stay tuned. For now, I'm just looking forward to what Intel people - and you - have to say here.
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