Abbreviation ITIF Location Washington, D.C. Founder Robert D. Atkinson President Robert D. Atkinson | Formation 2006 Website itif.org Founded 2006 | |
 | ||
Type Public Policy Think Tank Co-Chairs Vic Fazio, Philip English Motto Smart Ideas for the Innovation Economy Similar New America, Center for Democracy and Tech, Ewing Marion Kauffman, Brookings Institution, American Enterprise Institute Profiles | ||
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) is a U.S. nonprofit public policy think tank based out of Washington, D.C. The organization focuses on public policies that spur technology innovation. The University of Pennsylvania rates ITIF the most authoritative science and technology think tank in the United States, and the second most authoritative science and technology think tank in the world, behind Germany's Max Planck Institutes. Ars Technica has described ITIF as "one of the leading, and most prolific, tech policy think tanks."
Contents
Leadership
Referred to as "scrupulously nonpartisan," the think tank was established in 2006 with two former U.S. Representatives, Republican Jennifer Dunn and Democrat Calvin Dooley, as co-chairs. Currently, Republican Philip English and Democrat Vic Fazio, also former U.S. Representatives, co-chair ITIF, while Senators Orrin Hatch and Chris Coons and Representatives Anna Eshoo and Darrell Issa serve as honorary co-chairs. Robert D. Atkinson, former vice-president at the Progressive Policy Institute, is president of ITIF.
Mission
ITIF's stated mission is to promote new ways of thinking about technology-driven productivity, competitiveness and globalization. The newspaper Roll Call described ITIF as trying to "navigate the ideological waters to promote government support for innovation in many forms and with a broad range of ideals."
ITIF has called for the United States government to implement a national manufacturing strategy to combat job losses and the trade deficit which they attribute to declining international competitiveness. They have argued that the U.S. government's gross domestic product (GDP) statistics suffer from statistical bias and thus overstate U.S. manufacturing output and productivity growth. They have also criticized the Chinese government for behaviors they label "innovation mercantilism" including standards manipulation and intellectual property theft.
In Internet policy, ITIF supported both the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. Congress. They oppose stringent net neutrality legislation, arguing that it would stifle Internet innovation. ITIF has praised both the U.S. and the European Union "open Internet" rulings. For similar reasons, they have supported legislation aimed at curtailing Internet piracy, stirring some controversy when they argued that data caps on Internet usage would be an effective anti-piracy tool.
Along with the Breakthrough Institute, ITIF has called for increased public funding for clean energy innovation, arguing that the United States is falling behind countries like China, Japan and South Korea.
Publications
In economic policy, ITIF publishes the State New Economy Index, which measures how much U.S. states’ economies are driven by knowledge and innovation. They publish The Atlantic Century, which ranks countries on their competitiveness and innovative capacity. ITIF took over publishing the "B-index," which measures the strength of countries' R&D tax incentive systems, from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2012.
In the life sciences field, ITIF published Leadership in Decline: Assessing U.S. International Competitiveness in Biomedical Research in 2012, which director of the National Institutes of Health and leader of the Human Genome Project Francis S. Collins deemed the "one book" he would require President Barack Obama to read in his second term in office.
ITIF has published several reports advocating greater deployment of information technologies, including Digital Prosperity and Digital Quality of Life. In Digital Prosperity, ITIF found that IT investment delivered three to five times the productivity growth of other types of investments. Commenting on the study, former Dean of Wisconsin School of Business Michael Knetter agreed with the productivity figures, though expressed caution given that some of ITIF's contributors are in the technology industry. ITIF's report Steal These Polices: Strategies for Reducing Digital Piracy provided the foundation for the controversial PROTECT IP and Stop Online Piracy Acts in the U.S. Congress, which the think tank acknowledged were at odds with the positions of many of its contributors.
In 2013, the think tank published a widely cited report which found that the U.S. National Security Agency's PRISM electronic data surveillance program could cost the U.S. economy between $21.5 and $35 billion in lost cloud computing business over three years.
The Foundation yearly awards the Luddite Award for the "Year’s Worst Innovation Killers".
Funders
ITIF contributors have included the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies, Cisco, Communications Workers of America, eBay, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Google, IBM, the Information Technology Industry Council, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and Bernard L. Schwartz. ITIF's research has also been funded by U.S. government agencies such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In September 2010, ITIF received funding from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to study means for improving voting accessibility for U.S. military service members who have sustained disabling injuries in combat.