OVERNIGHT TECH: Obama talks high-skilled workers in NC

Obama talks STEM: “And that’s because today only 14 percent of all undergraduate students enroll in what we call the STEM subjects -– science, technology, engineering, and math. Of those students, one-third will switch out of those fields, and only about 2 in 5 will graduate with a STEM degree or certification within six years. So these are the jobs of the future. These are the jobs that China and India are cranking out. Those students are hungry because they understand if they get those skills they can find a good job, they can create companies, they can create businesses, create wealth. And we’re falling behind in the very fields we know are going to be our future.”

Otellini gets a shout-out: “We’re talking about companies like Intel, whose CEO Paul Otellini is here today. And Paul is heading up our task force for the Jobs Council in helping to figure this out, because he understands Intel’s survival depends on our ability to get a steady stream of engineers. I’ve been, by the way, to the Intel plant out in Oregon. It is unbelievable. It’s out of — something out of science fiction. And I pretended like I understood what they were saying the whole time. But that’s what’s going to drive our competitiveness in the future.  We know that if we’re going to maintain our leadership in technology and innovation, our best companies need the world’s brightest workers — American workers.”

Facebook, Google battling over mom-and-pop businesses: The Wall Street Journal looks at the reasons tech giants are battling over tiny businesses as they enter the local advertising market. “For years, the $130 billion U.S. local-advertising market has largely eluded Internet companies. Now the daily-deal business model has given Web firms a new shot at the marketing dollars of the nail salon and coffee shop around the corner. The scramble to tap businesses like Ms. Yee’s is a hallmark of Silicon Valley’s new Web boom, with high-tech sites like Facebook, Groupon and others duking it out for these low-tech merchants.” More here. 

Bono Mack releases draft of data breach bill: Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) released a draft of a bill on Monday that would establish national notification standards for firms that suffer data breaches that compromise customers’ personal information. The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Manufacturing subpanel called the recent string of high-profile hacker attacks “a threat to the future of electronic commerce.” 

The subcommittee is set to hold a hearing on the Secure and Fortify Data Act (SAFE DATA Act) Wednesday morning at Rayburn House Office Building. “You shouldn’t have to cross your fingers and whisper a prayer when you type in a credit card number on your computer and hit ‘enter.’ E-commerce is a vital and growing part of our economy. We should take steps to embrace and protect it — and that starts with robust cyber security,” Bono Mack said in a statement. 

NYT opinion piece sees skill in vulgar tweets: Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times does the counter-intuitive take on the Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) scandal. 

“He was a skilled and even advanced Twitter player, whose politics and erotic life, like those of so many Americans under 40, were centered in digital culture. At a time when political analysts like James Carville, who said recently on CNN that he’d never seen Twitter, flaunt their ignorance of the Internet, we need more thoroughly digital minds — even if, like all minds, they periodically turn dirty — in public life.” 

She says Megan McCain is another sophisticated tweeter. More here. 

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