He has worked for IBM for about 20 years, currently as a high-level policy executive on global government issues. Howell is also a board member of the U.S. Internet Council, based in Washington, D.C., and an offshoot of the Chamber of Commerce. Howell talks about the growth of e-commerce and the Net citizen population. My whole passion for the notion of quality government, but more importantly, for education, came about due to my interest in technology. Having been fortunate enough to work for IBM for 20 years, I had a high-level view of what technology could do to increase productivity in the business world, and it only made sense that these same principles of increased productivity could only come about through technology.
Technology is a tool to do more with less.
And the only way you can accomplish that is through technology. The bottom line on this whole thing was to compete in a worldwide economy. We thought, we're going to be hosting the world in 2002, and this to me was just a perfect opportunity to leverage ourselves internationally. It hasn't accomplished quite everything because there aren't enough applications. And I think now that as more applications become available, it will accomplish what I'd hoped for.