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Comment by cjoh | Hacker News Reader

PG is absolutely dead wrong on betting the Government won't change. At the end of the day, the Government is STARVING for innovative technical solutions, new ways to communicate with people and getting validated online. There's a ton of money to be made on great, smart tech to sell to Government. And if you're a start-up, you ought to be thinking about whether your product is useful to government.

Whether that's change or not, I don't know. But what I do know is, a year ago, two years ago, three years ago the Government could care less about the Internet or how it interacted with constituents online. Now it can't stop talking about it.

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Only having read this list, I took the "Government Won't Change" theme to mean that overall policy direction won't change wildly. Will the US ever have completely open immigration? Will it become significantly more libertarian? Will the balance of power between the Federal government and the states change significantly? I would not bet on any of these in the next twenty or thirty years.

I think the word "Government" is too vague.

If by government you mean elected officials. Then they will be very interested in anything that can produce more votes or money for them. I think the Obama campaign changed how a lot of officials view the internet.

If by government you mean, established lobbyist with things to lose. There will certainly be a resistance to change and innovation.

Overall, this list is probably too vague to start debating it.

McDonalds also recognizes the power of the Internet and they make extensive use of it, but I wouldn't say anything fundamental has changed about their business. I think the government's in the same boat, just 5-10 years behind.

You might be interested in knowing the McDonalds has experimented with telepresense. They thought about making booths with something equivalent to skype with a big TV, so people at two McDonalds locations (presumably family) could have a meal together.

Does the term Government encompass the U.S. "Defense" industry? How about "Health Care"? Ignore the current health care bill(s) debate -- there's plenty of opportunity just getting medical records online securely.

Whether there are startup opportunities therein is another question.

Not being there, I couldn't tell if pg was addressing startup opportunities, or general business opportunities. Or if there's any difference between the two.

If you are right about the government starving for innovative technical solutions, it is hard for me to envision how startups can help with this. I see government, in its smallest procurement/technological acquisition like the enterprise solutions, and at biggest, military-scale procurement efforts.

The great, smart tech sell to the government would be of what is called the "long sell" variety, where the sales cycle is measured in years.

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