Seeking political advantage in open source

John Edwards may be winning nothing more than Iowa and the netroots primary, but he is notable in being the first Presidential candidate to mention open source in his political campaign. (Picture from Hedgefunddomain.)

His campaign told the Open Voting Consortium last week he supports requiring open source code in voting machines.

He is also on record supporting copyright laws which really encourage innovation, not just proprietary monopoly, and Slashdot reports he even uses Twitter.

Ever since the Web was spun issues involving technology have been the property of the party in power. Voters are not that into us, so political decisions affecting us are made by elites.

These decisions can drastically impact the competitive playing field, bringing Microsoft low during the Clinton years, raising AT&T during the Bush years.

So the question for this Sunday is, should this change? Should the political questions involving technology have a higher priority? Or does government tech policy matter at all?