PALO ALTO, Calif. -- It's by no means the first time Meg Whitman has keynoted a tech event, but now her mission is different. While she still talks up her former employer, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), Whitman is running for governor of California and spends much of her time making the case as to why she should be elected.

Whitman kicked off the Silicom Summit here on the Stanford University campus today, making her case for the state's highest office by citing her tech experience, including ten years at eBay. Comparing California to a faltering tech firm, she said the state needs a turnaround specialist with a laser-like focus on the biggest issues like job creation and innovation.

"Focus, focus, focus," said Whitman. "It's better to do three things a hundred percent well than ten things at eighty percent." She also said she learned "the art of exclusion" at eBay, dumping or ignoring activities that weren't worthwhile to the company's overall mission and health.

"You have to have a bias for action," she said. "In technology, if you stand still, others will swim by you. You're going to make mistakes, but the best thing to do is acknowledge them and fix them."

Whitman claimed California could save "at least $15 to $20 billion by deploying technology" more effectively. She noted California is, for example, one of only ten states that still mails benefit checks instead of using a card system.

The Skype story unfolds

eBay's $2.6 billion purchase of VoIP provider Skype in 2005 on Whitman's watch has been criticized as a mistake because the company hasn't figured out a good way to mesh the service with the needs of its millions of online auction users. eBay recently announced it plans to spin Skype off as a separate company.

But though Whitman conceded eBay has "taken a lot of grief" for the Skype purchase, she still thinks it was a good move. "I believe it's going to prove to be a tremendous opportunity," she said.

At its analyst day in March, new eBay CEO John Donahoe admitted to mistakes related to the eBay purchase, but also called it one of the fastest-growing businesses in history.

Lessons from the dotcom bust

LATEST NEWS

Microsoft's Dynamics ERP to Gain New Services
Barnes & Noble's e-Reader Nook Sold Out Already
Memory Market Due for Big Shift in 2010
Microsoft: No 'Back Door' in Windows 7
Tech's H-1B Hiring Faces 'Employ America Act'

Whitman warned investors and entrepreneurs in the audience that she fears some lessons from the dotcom bust of 2000-2001 haven't been learned. For example, she said some Web startups are pitching their ability to attract a great number of "eyeballs," or visitors, to their site.

"Revenue has to be bigger than expenses, you have to have a business model," she said.

As to why anyone should vote for her, Whitman said her goals are very simple: "I refuse to let California fail, and right now California is in big trouble."