4 Things to Take Away From President Obama's Historic Tech Speech

As the first sitting president to speak at the South by Southwest Festival, President Obama made sure to leave his mark on the popular annual event. The president touched upon issues of technology and how the government can work better to harness its potential.

In an almost hour-long conversation with Texas Tribune CEO and editor-in-chief Evan Smith, President Obama hammered in the idea that it is not up to the government to make key choices in changing how the country gets connected to the Internet. The same concept applies to other areas as well, like getting people to vote or to solve larger problems that involve technology.

One key area that the president remarked it's not the government's role to get involved in is how to counter extreme terrorist organizations online that may be influencing kids. "For good reasons, we don't want the government to be the lead on that," said President Obama. "First of all, we're not credible with the people who might be receiving those messages. Second of all, it's dangerous if the government gets in the business of propaganda." His solution is seeing what data there is available to understand how to solve that problem and what would actually work.

Another area the president wants technology to have a greater impact on is in voting. "We're the only advanced democracy in the world that makes it harder for people to vote," said President Obama. ". . . And yet, we systematically put up barriers and make it as hard as possible for our citizens to vote. It is much easier to order a pizza or a trip than it is for you to exercise the single most important task in democracy, and that is for you to select who will represent you in government." To solve this, Obama spoke about making it easier to vote online and finding technologies that help someone understand what they are voting for.

This task and everything else it encompasses, such as getting people connected, isn't up to the government to solve. "These are solvable problems, but it's not a matter of us passively waiting for somebody else to solve them," said Obama. "And that's part of the mindset that I'm trying to break." This especially comes in with getting connected. "One of the greatest traits of all this is making sure whatever the government is doing is supplemented and enhanced by a private sector and nonprofit sectors with a way to step up."

The conversation took a turn when Smith asked the president a question that's on everyone's mind. The topic? Privacy among our smartphones, of course. While he didn't comment on the the current battle between Apple and the FBI, he did make it clear that the government needs to come up with a solution to this issue. He remarked on our civil liberties and how many of those we give up when it comes to our safety. For example, no one enjoys the hassle of the TSA and long security lines at the airport, but we do it because our safety is important. The president thinks the same idea should apply to our data and smartphones. "There has to be some concession to the need to be able to get to that information somehow," he said. Later, he added, "The notion that somehow our data is different and can be walled off from those tradeoffs we make is incorrect."

The conversation ended on a plea from the president to get involved and become a more active citizen. "There are a number of different ways in which all of us can plug in to what I've been talking about here today," said President Obama.

You can watch the entire keynote below: