The Commerce Department and the National Institute of Standards and Technology are trying to figure out what the federal government’s role in cloud computing should be. The agencies are hosting a panel discussion Tuesday with industry leaders and experts from academia to discuss this as well as other national needs.

A media advisory from the Commerce Department says, “Achieving national priorities – which include a Smart Grid for electricity distribution, electronic health records, cybersecurity, cloud computing and interoperable emergency communications –depends upon the existence of sound technical standards. The standards being developed through public-private partnerships for these new technology sectors are helping to drive innovation, economic growth and job creation.”

Some of the questions the agencies hope to answer at the event:

• What is the appropriate role for the federal government in convening industry stakeholders and catalyzing standards development and use?
• How should the federal government engage in sectors where there is a compelling national interest?
• How are existing public-private initiatives in standardization working?

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, and NIST Director Patrick Gallagher will all speak at the event.

Confirmed panelists include:

• Mark Chandler, General Counsel, Cisco
• Arti Rai, Professor of Law, Duke Law School
• Geoff Roman, Chief Technology Officer, Motorola Mobility
• Raj Vaswani, Chief Technology Officer, Silver Spring Network
• Stephen Pawlowski, Senior Fellow and General Manager, Central Architecture and Planning, Intel Corp.
• Ralph Brown, Chief Technology Officer, CableLabs

The event will be held from 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m., Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at the Department of Commerce.

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