Lobbyists for the high-tech industry see Barack Obama’s victory last week as a boost to their interests.

Advocates are encouraged by how the president-elect embraced technology in his own campaign — by using the Internet to set new fundraising records, for example — and for his support of open access to Internet networks and tax breaks for research and development.

Tech lobbyists have largely been disappointed by the Bush administration, which failed to deliver on the president’s promise that every American household would have broadband access during his second term.

The tech community, meanwhile, moved quickly to embrace Obama. He won the endorsement of several prominent tech thinkers, such as Larry Lessig of Stanford University and Tim Wu of Columbia University. Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook, the social networking site, helped design the Obama website, which served as the backbone of the campaign’s massive get-out-the-vote effort.

Obama’s economic transition team, meanwhile, includes Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive officer. Another close adviser is Julius Genachowski, a Harvard Law School classmate of Obama’s and co-founder of LaunchBox Digital, a tech investment firm.

“By surrounding yourself with people like Julius, you clearly seek advisers who are bullish on using technology to solve national problems,” said Bruce Mehlman, founding partner of Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti.

Mehlman, a former assistant secretary for technology policy at the Commerce Department in the Bush administration, noted Obama’s support for using technology to lower healthcare costs and clean up the environment in particular.

In addition, Obama has argued that a tax credit for research and development should be permanent, a perennial goal for tech lobbyists, and has also spoken of the need for increased government funding on technology programs.

“Those are all positive things that are geared towards the tech community,” Mehlman said.

Tech lobbyists are also encouraged by Obama’s plans to create a chief technology officer position, based in the White House, to help develop best practices for the federal government’s use of technology.

“Having a tech-minded person to [contribute to] every policy debate that is going on Capitol Hill is fantastic,” Ackil said. “It is like having a tech lobbyist in the White House to speak up on these issues.”

During the campaign, Obama was more aggressive in promoting broadband access than was Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who as a former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee had jurisdiction over the frequently feuding telecom and high-tech industries. In general, McCain favored encouraging private investment, while Obama promised more federal investment to expand high-speed Internet access.

Obama’s biggest policy difference with McCain when it comes to technology may be over “network neutrality.” Network neutrality describes the policy of prohibiting Internet providers — usually large cable or telecommunications companies that actually own the broadband or wireless “pipelines” — from limiting Web traffic on their networks.

Obama has said network neutrality is imperative to “preserve the benefits of open competition.”

McCain opposed network neutrality because he believed that it represented an unnecessary government intrusion in the marketplace and could delay additional investment in the Internet.

Telecom giants have said not allowing them to control their own broadband networks could limit their investment and growth as heavy Web traffic begins to weigh on their systems.

“It is potentially antithetical to boosting to the economy,” said a telecom lobbyist. “Net neutrality cuts in several ways by impacting entrepreneurship, investment, job creation and economic growth.”

A telecom attorney said that the Obama administration would not be neutral in the fight, and may favor Internet companies like Google over telecoms.

“This will be more of an administration that says the Internet spurs innovation, instead of favoring the Bell incumbents,” the attorney said.

But supporters of network neutrality argue access to the Web must remain free of restrictions by providers, and were hopeful that Obama would embrace the policy as president.

“Preserving an open Internet is critical to economic growth in that it enables any entrepreneur in America to innovate without having to ask permission,” said Chris Murray, senior counsel for the Consumers Union.