Obama: We can't take an 'absolutist' view on encryption - CNET

To recap: Apple is the middle of a standoff with the FBI over the govement's request for data from an iPhone used by a terrorist in the December shootings in San Beardino, Califoia, that claimed the lives of 14 people. Silicon Valley has thrown its support behind Apple, with tech giants including Google, Facebook and Microsoft filing amicus briefs with the court. At stake is what the tech industry believes is its duty to safeguard the privacy of its users, while law enforcement officials say they need access to data as a matter of national security and crime-fighting.

Obama conceded there should not be an overreach by the govement. "Technology is evolving so rapidly that new questions are being asked," he said. "I am of the view that there are very real reasons that we want to make sure the govement can't willy-nilly get into everyone's iPhones."

Still, he said the issue isn't black and white. "If technologically it is possible to make an impenetrable device," Obama asked, "how do we apprehend the child poographer, or disrupt a terrorist plot?"

The 'shiny new thing' is not enough

Obama didn't only talk about privacy and data.

The worlds of Silicon Valley and Washington, DC, have grown increasingly connected, as technology has become an influential driver of the economy and tech companies have pushed the bounds of regulation and policy. Obama, the first president of the social media era, is no stranger to the tech industry. He's met with key leaders of Silicon Valley several times, including the brass at Apple, Google and Facebook.

"There's a strong attention to the startup ecosystem in the White House," Hugh Forrest, head of SXSW Interactive, the tech-specific portion of the festival, said in an interview earlier this week. "Disruption is going head to head with regulation."

Earlier this week, the White House announced an expansion of the TechHire initiative, which is aimed at making sure more Americans are trained to fill technology jobs. The effort, launched a year ago this week, is a partnership between the White House and 50 communities around the country, including Austin, Seattle and Miami. The program uses methods like coding boot camps to try to ensure technology skills are taught to different types of people across the board, including people who have been unemployed for a long time and those changing careers.

That's key because the White House says more than half a million of today's jobs are in technology.

Getting schools and communities to teach technology skills earlier also affects another problem plaguing the tech industry: diversity. Whenever tech executives are confronted about not having a diverse enough work force, one of the most common responses is that there aren't enough women and minorities with those kinds of skills in the pipeline.

The Department of Homeland Security also said that starting May 10, inteational students who ea a degree in a science, technology, engineering or mathematical field will be able to stay longer in the US after they graduate. The new rules will let them stay for three years after graduation to get more work experience. That's a bump from the one year previously allowed for inteational students, regardless of their major.