John Sculley of Apple began to educate national policy leaders on the need for changing laws and regulations to allow greater use of computing power in various social functions such as education and lifelong learning, health care, job training, and commerce. Public policy for use of the Internet and computing became an issue in the 1992 election. We ended up with a President and Vice President who not only knew how to use computers, but actually wanted to integrate the technology into their national agenda for growing the economy and solving social issues. The idea of electronic commerce, of doing business over the Internet was born through the efforts of many in the industry who were inventing the technology and the concepts. This brought the issues of public policy squarely into the information technology industry and profession.
Electronic trade challenges many of the basic concepts of national sovereignty.
Governments like to regulate what comes into their territory. This is an exercise of their legitimate power, it is part of being a nation, part of maintaining the central values of their culture and language. Governments derive revenue from goods shipped into their territory. With electronic trade, intangible goods and services worth increasing millions of dollars are being transmitted across nation boundaries without any government awareness. This is creating substantial political anxiety among political leaders.