Hillary Clinton's approach includes a working group known as “rules of the road" to examine regulations standing in the way of innovation. | AP Photo Clinton quietly amasses tech policy corps

Hillary Clinton's campaign has tapped a network of more than 100 tech and telecom advisers to craft a policy agenda that echoes many of Silicon Valley's top priorities, from knocking down laws that limit innovation to defanging so-called patent trolls, sources familiar with the effort told POLITICO.

The breadth of her outreach to technology experts — not previously reported — marks yet another contrast with Donald Trump, who has offered few clues about who might have his ear on issues important to the tech sector, and whose positions on issues like immigration have alienated large segments of the industry. Even more than Barack Obama did eight years ago, Clinton conspicuously embraces Silicon Valley's view of the world and what it needs from Washington — a view that’s often at odds with long-standing interest groups such as taxi unions and big cable companies.



Clinton’s tech advisers — divided into about a half-dozen working groups — provided input for the "technology and innovation" agenda that she released June 28, the sources said.



The Democratic nominee’s detailed approach includes a working group known as “rules of the road" to examine regulations standing in the way of innovation. Q. Todd Dickinson, a member of the group who served as director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under Bill Clinton, said Clinton's process marks a stark contrast with Trump.



"For those of us who work in [patents], what's interesting, or maybe it's troubling, is that no one knows where the Trump campaign is," he said. "I knew who was advising the Romney campaign. There's just nobody working on these issues for Trump."



Dickinson, who played a similar advisory role in Obama’s White House bid, called Clinton’s “drill-down” on tech and innovation issues “maybe even unprecedented."



Steven Koltai, who served as a senior adviser for entrepreneurship to Hillary Clinton at the State Department, said the working groups allow the Clinton operation to “get maximum ideas [and] involvement from a wide range of all kinds of people." Koltai, who's part of a group centered on the "disruptive economy," said the process relies on collaborative digital tools like Google Hangouts.






Trump’s campaign did not return a request for comment.



Clinton's tech agenda aligns closely with the views of the tech companies and activists who see innovation as a powerful force for economic and social good, but hamstrung by bureaucrats and entrenched industries. It would press local governments to change rules that "protect legacy incumbents," seek to curtail patent lawsuits and encourage cities to boost access to high-speed internet.



The Democratic nominee’s policy approach is probably good news for companies like Uber and Airbnb, which are battling local regulators; Apple and Amazon, which are fighting litigious patent holders; and Google, whose Fiber broadband project has faced resistance from telecom giants.

Broadcasters and cable companies have complained that Obama’s appointees to the Federal Communications Commission routinely side with Google on issues such as net neutrality, broadband privacy and new regulations for cable set-top boxes. Clinton’s pledge to defend net neutrality and her apparent interest in community-run broadband will probably prove similarly discouraging to incumbent Internet service providers, while her focus on the potential of “gig economy” companies is likely to be worrisome to taxi unions and the hotel industry.



Like Obama, Clinton has avoided taking a strong stand in one area of intense interest to the tech industry: whether law enforcement should get easy access to encrypted communications. She has endorsed creating a commission to study the encryption issue, a stance that leaves privacy advocates worried that law enforcement advocates would dominate the panel — but that was much less bombastic than Trump’s call for consumers to boycott Apple during its encryption dispute this year with the FBI.



The Clinton campaign's broader tech agenda, shaped by the network of advisers, has helped to allay the industry’s fears that Clinton wasn't fully on board with the sector's policy priorities.



Clinton caused jitters in the tech world last year for a speech in which she said the gig economy is "raising hard questions about workplace protections," a comment many took to mean she favored cracking down on the labor practices of the emerging sector. But her tech agenda stresses that, as president, she would reduce barriers to entry for upstart companies.



The campaign has taken a big-tent approach to its selection of tech advisers, bringing in people with different views and interests. For example, the working group on regulations includes Jannie Lau, general counsel at InterDigital, which was part of a trade group that opposed legislation to crack down on patent trolls — thus running afoul of a longtime goal of major tech firms.



But Clinton’s tech platform sides squarely with patent reformers, saying, "The Obama Administration made critical updates to our patent system ... but costly and abusive litigation remains, which is why Hillary supports additional targeted rule changes." (Lau declined to comment.)





Trump’s handful of tech-related policy stances includes his calls for scaling back a high-skilled visa program that much of the industry relies on, as well as his pledges to force Apple to make its products in the U.S. And he has struggled to gain traction in Silicon Valley, even with Republicans. Among his few public supporters there is venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who spoke at the Republican convention in July but hasn’t donated to Trump’s campaign — and, The Wall Street Journal reported this week, doesn’t plan to do so.



Some of Clinton’s proposals — with their focus on stopping government from stifling innovation — seem designed to capitalize on the region’s libertarian leanings, which would normally offer at least an opening for the Republican candidate.



The disruptive economy working group focuses on issues related to companies like Uber, which were repeatedly praised by GOP presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio this year. In addition to Koltai, the group's members include Ari Wallach, a New York City entrepreneur who heads a firm called Synthesis Corp. that has consulted with the State Department; former Clinton White House aide Tripp Donnelly, now the CEO of RepEquity; and Lorraine Hariton, a former special representative for commercial and business affairs at State under Clinton. Hariton led two Silicon Valley startups, Beatnik and Apptera, a speech recognition company.

Another working group is focused on broadband competition and deployment, an issue that has pitted giants like Comcast against municipalities and activists seeking better public access to high-speed internet. Among the group's members is Joanne Hovis, CEO of the Coalition for Local Internet Choice and a proponent of public-private partnerships for building out broadband networks. Clinton has said she wants to explore such arrangements as part of her effort to make affordable broadband accessible to all U.S. households by 2020.



Jonathan Spalter, the chairman of wireless industry association Mobile Future, and Tom Power, a former White House official who is now with the industry group CTIA, are among the members of a working group devoted to wireless technologies, sources said.



"As part of our policy development process we have engaged a diverse group of people from across the country including experts, practitioners, and other leaders as a way to make sure our technology and innovation policy agenda presents a clear and comprehensive vision for the country," Clinton campaign spokesman Tyrone Gayle said in a statement.



A separate team of fewer than two dozen people is charged with studying the use of technology and data to improve the functioning of government institutions. Its leadership includes Sonal Shah, an economist who has spent time at Google's philanthropic arm and the Obama White House and who now heads a center at Georgetown University on social impact and innovation, and Peter Harrell, a veteran of both the Clinton State Department and the 2008 Obama campaign.





That group's subteams are devoted to building better federal websites, transforming IT procurement rules and "evidence-based government," according to a source.



As POLITICO previously reported, two former State Department aides who served under Clinton — Alec Ross and Ben Scott — are playing key roles in managing the adviser network. Another important player, a source said, is Elana Berkowitz, a former State Department adviser on innovation who earlier served at the FCC, where she worked on its report on extending the reach of broadband across the U.S.



The three are closely associated with Clinton’s State Department initiatives on “Internet Freedom," aimed at ensuring that everyone around the world has the ability to roam freely on the internet, and “21st Century Statecraft," which emphasizes the use of digital tools like Twitter to engage with foreign citizens, not simply foreign leaders.



"As president, Hillary will reach out to the tech community to partner with them, and bring the best of their ideas to Washington to help develop public policy that will lead to broad-based growth, reduce social and economic inequality, and secure American leadership on the global stage," Gayle said.



Clinton's network of tech and telecom advisers — which includes donors who have maxed out with $5,400 donations in both the primary and general election portions of the campaign — are contributing their time to the campaign unpaid.



Li Zhou contributed to this report.