Technology will have a significant effect on politics, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told the keynote gathering of the Personal Democracy Forum in New York.

Schmidt acknowledged that the Internet in particular is a great leveler in political campaigns as it enhances fact-checking.

Internet can help politicians by allowing them to deliver personalized messages, and also accomplish the loftier goal of verifying truth, Schmidt said.

On the other hand, the Internet makes it difficult for politicians to escape their mistakes, and few of today’s candidates would be able to run for office had they grown up in this era of cell phone camera ubiquity, he said.

He pointed to the experience of US senate candidate George Allen, caught on camera making a slur that was widely Webcast.

On the downside, it’s not just politicians who should expect public scrutiny.

Take the Google-effect on recruiting and hiring employees. “At the age of 21, it should be OK to change your name,” quipped Schmidt, alluding to the trails of reputation-corrupting blog posts, images and videos many young people are wishing they could delete when it comes time to impress potential employers.

However, Schmidt said he believes the Internet is still young, and that people are still learning from current mistakes and incidents.

“People are living with a historical record,” he said. “They are probably going to be much more careful about how they talk to people, what they offer of themselves. They’ll also have to be aware that the cameras are everywhere. People are always now in the media in some form,” Schmidt explained.

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Entry was posted on Friday, May 18th, 2007 at 11:59 pm under Google, Uncategorized.

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