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New Grassroots Organization to be Advocate For Illinois Technology (Possible model for a similar effort in Montana?)

A group of Illinois technology supporters on Wednesday announced the formation of a grassroots organization with a dual purpose: to make Illinois a business-friendly state for technology firms and to use the latest Internet and telecommunications tools to provide a direct link between Illinois citizens and the candidates in the Illinois governor’s race.

Board member Jim Graham said: “Our immediate objective is to motivate the tech community to become involved in the political process by reading the positions of the candidates, sending feedback and voting in the governor’s race. In the longer term, we hope to firmly establish ‘Technology Votes’ as a two-way pipeline of information giving a voice to the technology community and encouraging responses from other candidates and officeholders.”

Fellow board member Dennis Sienko said: “Our discussions with Illinois technology leaders pinpointed three key issues: education, economic development and tech business advocacy. Through TechnologyVotes.com, we are now putting those issues before the tech community for immediate feedback."

In what may become “the click heard around the state,” Technology Votes will use new communications technologies to foster dialogue in a variety of ways. One example is e-mail message forwarding from the technology community and other organizations directly to candidates.

The three immediate issues of concern for Technology Votes are:

* Education. The board is interested in federal, state and local education policies that make tomorrow’s workforce technology savvy. It wants to close the “digital divide” and see schools use advanced technologies as teaching tools.

* Economic development. The group expects to focus on government policies that give Illinois technology companies access to capital. It also believes that state government should work to increase international awareness of the state’s status as a technology industry leader.

* Advocacy. Technology Votes anticipates strong interest in public policy related to Internet commerce and privacy. It wants to ensure that Illinois technology companies get their fair share of federal, state and local government contracts.

In the weeks immediately ahead, Technology Votes plans to:

* Get feedback from the tech community on the elections.

* Get the tech community to read the technology positions of the candidates.

* Release results or feedback and try to get as many companies to show their support by flying the Technology Votes flag and link on their site.

Along with Graham, Technology Votes board members include people with a deep background in technology, public relations and public policy making. Board member biographies are located at http://www.technologyvotes.com.

To learn more about Technology Votes and to provide opinions about which issues warrant the new group’s greatest attention, people are encouraged to visit http://www.technologyvotes.com.

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