First U.S. tech officer will have hands full

WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama's pledge to name the nation's first chief technology officer has triggered a flood of wishes, hopes and demands from tech enthusiasts who'd like the job to have the same stature and reach as, say, the White House national security adviser.

The new officer should be an "Internet evangelist" involved in every practical and policy aspect of government, said Andrew Rasiej, a founder of two websites about politics and technology.

"Technology is not a slice of the pie. It's the pan," he said.

That's not quite how the Obama transition team defines the job on its website. The chief technology officer is assigned to make sure federal computer networks are secure and agencies "use best-in-class technologies and share best practices."

Transition spokesman Nick Shapiro hints at a bit more in the only statement the team will make on the record. "We have used technology to help run an historically innovative and open transition," he said. "The chief technology officer will help us continue to bring government into the 21st century."

Thousands of people are suggesting priorities for the tech officer on a website called ObamaCTO.org. At the top of the list, with more than 12,600 votes, is making the Internet widely accessible and ensuring Net neutrality — that is, making broadband connections available on a non-discriminatory basis, with no preferential treatment for any company in terms of transmission speed and quality.

In second place with more than 9,800 votes is "ensure our privacy and repeal the Patriot Act," the law enacted after the 9/11 attacks that gives authorities new tools to fight terrorism. Also in the top five: Rethink copyright law, move to the metric system and open up government data.

Only the last one fits with the current job description and Obama's campaign pledges to put bills, contracts, meetings and other federal business on the Web. Clearly the technology community has its own ideas.

"There are a lot of issues they are passionate about," said Mike Mathieu, whose civic-software company, Front Seat, sponsored the site.

He said the list reflects those passions, but "I don't expect that this is actually going to relate to the priorities of the actual CTO."

Yochai Benkler, co-director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said discussion of the new job is tangling two distinct tasks. One is to bring the government's technology infrastructure into the 21st century. The other is to formulate plans across all sectors — government, business, academia — to create and sustain U.S. technological leadership in the 21st century.

"A lot of people are projecting the second onto the first because there is so much thirst for something like the second," Benkler said. Even so, he said, the first task is "an achievable immediate target for massive improvement" within the government.

Last fall, for instance, a Treasury Department inspector-general said the IRS was proceeding with a $2 billion modernization project despite "known security vulnerabilities" that put taxpayer privacy and security at risk.

After the 2001 terror attacks, taxpayers spent $170 million on a computerized case-management system for the FBI. In 2005 the project collapsed in what Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., called a "sad saga" of mismanagement. A new system projected to cost $425 million is due in 2010.

Beyond improving government performance, security and savings, the incoming administration said it is committed to using technology to share federal data and activities with citizens.

Among other things, Obama promised during the campaign to create a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records and campaign-finance reports; put video and transcripts of agency meetings online; and post non-emergency bills on the White House website for five days of public comment before signing them.

That's all very nice, Rasiej said, but not much use to U.S. households without Internet access (about 20 million, according to a study this year). Furthermore, he said, the United States lags in percentage of people with broadband or high-speed service (15th of 30 countries in a 2006 study), and "high-speed" here is much slower than in other countries.

Rasiej acknowledges that a chief tech officer focused on government performance could make a difference. For instance, he said, a better understanding of technology at the Federal Emergency Management Agency would have improved services such as resource distribution and family reunification after Hurricane Katrina.

That kind of top tech is "the mechanic who makes sure your car can get there," Rasiej said.

"What we need is a visionary voice with a seat at every table, at every Cabinet meeting, to make sure that we have a 21st-century perspective."