Aneesh Chopra, the newly-announced United States Chief Technology Officer, is getting
rave reviews, including a detailed and highly influential one from Tim O'Reilly.
Chopra seems to be cut from the same cloth as United States Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra. In particular, both seem focused on the innovative, agile, and prudent use of new consumer-style technologies and technological approaches -- search, social networking, iPhones, crowdsourcing, and the like. The biggest difference seems to be that Kundra has over a decade of actual IT experience, while Chopra is more of a health care and public policy guy who just recently segued into IT.
By no means do I want to bust on Chopra's resume. After all, I was one of the top analysts of the IT industry at age 24 or so, three years after leaving the Kennedy School of Government, which is the same place Chopra got his first graduate degree. But I have the same concerns about the Chopra/ Kundra team that I have about Kundra alone. Namely, I'm afraid that Obama, Chopra, and Kundra are so focused on shiny new technologies that they won't address some of the devastatingly critical challenges of government IT.
For the record, my top three seemingly-to-be-ignored, utterly critical government IT challenges are, in declining order:
Yes, using new technologies transforming government, health care, and education are all hugely important. But the more "big iron" types of issues I'm highlighting are utterly crucial as well.
Edit: Thinking further in preparation for an upcoming radio interview (more on that after the audio file is posted), it occurs to me that much of this can be boiled down as follows:
Two of the top challenges for government IT are technology adoption and data integration. Obama's team seems focused on -- and hopefully stellar at -- the first, but not at all tuned in to the second.
Curt Monash is a leading analyst of and strategic advisor to the software industry. Praised by Lawrence J. Ellison for his "unmatched insight into technology and marketplace trends," Curt was the software/services industry's #1 ranked stock analyst while at PaineWebber, Inc., where he served as a First Vice President until 1987. He subsequently co-founded Evernet, Inc., a $40 million networking systems integrator. Since 1990, he has owned and operated Monash Research, an analysis and advisory firm covering software-intensive sectors of the technology industry. In that period he also has been co-founder, president, or chairman of several other technology startups.
Curt has served as a strategic advisor to many well-known firms, including Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, AOL, CA, and Netezza. Curt earned a Ph.D. in mathematics (Game Theory) from Harvard University. He has held faculty positions in mathematics, economics and public policy at Harvard, Yale, and Suffolk universities.
The Leader in Network Knowledge
US CIO/CTOs
Curt,
As you allude to, one of the main problems that IT faces is its focus on the new and shiny, sometimes to the exclusion of the older, but more worthy. I'm by no means a technology Luddite, progress is to be desired, but there has to be some reason for it; something beyond just being neat.
This is a double-headed monster in my opinion. First IT types like me are often drawn to the new and sexy - maybe that's why we got into the business in the first place. Second, the flashy - particularly when it makes it to general business publications, can generate a "me too" attitude in senior executives, sometimes deflecting IT attention from less glamorous, but more necessary work.
As with most things in life, a balance between both elements of IT is probably what is most necessary.
Peter
http://peterthomas.wordpress.com
The latest and greatest versus the valuable
Curt,
Your article spurred me to pen some more general thoughts at: http://peterthomas.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/the-latest-and-greatest-versus-the-valuable/
Peter
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