Bloggers give Obama marching orders for the IT industry

In a roundtable discussion, bloggers from Network World and Computerworld expressed their wishes for the new administration including the new federal CTO, net neutrality, use of the BlackBerry and technology education.

Network World
January 16, 2009 05:32 PM ET

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On Friday, a group of IT experts gathered to create some marching orders for president-elect Barack Obama after he takes office January 20. The participants included the following Network World bloggers, Matthew Nickasch (Considering Convergence); Jamey Heary (Cisco Security Expert); Craig Mathias (Nearpoints); Jeff Doyle (On IP Routing); Curt Monash (A World of Bytes); and from Computerworld, Dan Tynan (Culture Crash).

Moderator-Julie: Hello and welcome everyone.

Jeff_Doyle: I have a question for everyone: Obama has said he's going to appoint a federal CTO. What do all of you think of that? Is it a good idea? Will it have effects beyond the federal government networks?

Craig_Mathias: Having a central CTO could do some good - but getting all of the various bureaucracies and agencies and departments to pay attention would be tough - very tough.

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Dan_Tynan: I say it's good idea (what's taking him so long to find someone?) but also, what's the job description? That seems a bit murky.

Curt_Monash: I've been on the CTO issue extensively. I think s/he needs to be a CIO. The "council of CIOs" isn't enough and ambitions are too low.

Craig_Mathias: A bigger question will be policies and objectives, not implementation.

Dan_Tynan: One problem, I think, is that people will expect too much of this position. Look at obamacto.org and you'll see what I mean.

Jeff_Doyle: There was a pretty good job description on Obama's campaign website. I agree it should be a CIO; Eric Schmidt at Google has been mentioned, as has Vint Cerf. Personally I'd like to see Vint in the role.

Craig_Mathias: It would be hard to have a single individual do everything. DoD/intelligence/energy would have to be separate regardless.

Curt_Monash: Yes, it's a job for a team, not a person. Vint Cerf is NOT a CIO type. He's exactly what I'm arguing against. Although he certainly could play an important role. My first recommendation was Charles Rossotti. He turned around the IRS. He ran a large professional services firm. He's one of the most honest men I know. He insists he wouldn't want the job, but that's a detail.

Dan_Tynan: Did the IRS really turn around? That would be news.

Craig_Mathias: The IRS project wasted billions, as I recall. But Curt has a good point - we need a manager not a star.

Matthew_Nickasch: Sure, I can see the "scope creep" happening already. But a "council" or advisory committee that handles the roles of a CIO or CTO would be more beneficial.

Jeff_Doyle: I think what's needed here, however, is vision, which Vint could provide.

Craig_Mathias: Vision is easy. Management is hard, especially with politics and constrained budgets.

Jamey_Heary: I can't see putting anyone from the IRS in this role. The IRS doesn't seem very visionary to most people.

Matthew_Nickasch: Perhaps such a CIO position would get lost in a "devil in the details" implementation, without proper roles being defined in the first place.

Curt_Monash: Let's back up. There are two or three major kinds of CTO functions. One is making the government be a better user of technology. I don't see why the public's perception of who is a visionary would matter much at all to that. Second, there's a need for a senior advisor that decides which new technologies to promote. That's the role where people think they want a star.

Dan_Tynan: I really think the position is symbolic, and if that is indeed the case, then a highly visible geek with political skills is what's needed not a hands-on guy or gal.

Jamey_Heary: Curt, you need to be a visionary in order to implement the right solution. Whatever is picked for a solution will be the standard for years. The government doesn't change standards lightly. I would argue that all good CTOs are visionaries. In order to properly structure an enterprise you have to be looking out 3-5 years.

Matthew_Nickasch: We need commercial influence at this point as much as inter-governmental influence. It needs to be a hybrid position or council.

Curt_Monash: A third part of the role is to be an advisor about technology-related legislation. I think privacy-related legislation is crucial, for example.