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Federal Government Technology Directions and the Fed CTO

January 19, 2009 By

Technologists in and out of government have been very excited about the work of the Obama transition team, especially the work of their technologists.   A group known as the TIGR (Technology, Innovation and Government Reform) Team has brought some of the best and brightest minds together to strategize and impact the action plans of the federal government.

We have now been treated to an insider’s view into the workings of this team.  The Change.gov website posted a 4 minute video introducing these thinkers and showing us some of the dialog underway.  See it below:

The video shows glimpses of the entire team, but features :

  • Dan Chenok, a former IT executive and Obama advisor.
  • Blair Levin, Telecom analyst and former FCC executive.

Watch the video to see them in action!  Listen for the term “mashups.”  And a good definition of cloud computing relevant to the federal enterprise.

For those who have made it a hobby to speculate on who Obama’s CTO will be, I think the answer now is that it almost doesn’t matter which of the nation’s great tech leaders will be selected.  We know whoever it is will stand on the shoulders of giants and will be served with a group of advisors who have mapped out a vision and an action plan for success (whoever it is, I just hope to have dinner with periodically to pick his or her brain and see how I can serve from the outside- I sure want to see them succeed).

Now things are about to get exciting!  Time for all of us to do what we can to ensure the visions of this group become reality.

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About BobGourley

Bob Gourley is Crucial Point LLC’s founder and editor of CTOvision.com. Bob has received industry recognition including Infoworld top CTO award, AFCEA’s meritorious service award, and recognition as one of the top 100 “Tech Titans” in DC by Washingtonian magazine. He was named one of the “Top 25 Most Fascinating Communicators in Government IT.”

  • http://www.intelfusion.net Jeffrey

    Well said, Bob. And thanks for posting the video. I would have missed it otherwise.

  • http://ctovision.com Bob

    Jeffrey, thanks for the note. I'll see you online.
    Cheers,
    Bob

  • Joe Mazzafro

    Bob,
    First, thanks for bringing this video to our attention so we would not miss it. I was struck by the process trumping outcomes condition in government.This is really important as the value of government is not measured in Wall Street ROI but in terms of effects or outcomes. National Security is an effect not a process; access to health care is an effect not a process. This doesn't mean process is not important to achieving effects but it process can not be a substitute for effects it is in place to enable joemaz

  • http://ctovision.com Bob

    Thanks Joe. I keyed on the same point and thought about FISMA and the fact that the only thing that really does is raise awareness of security as an issue. I guess it also funds several jobs and I know folks are trying to use it to improve security but the fact is it has not really helped. Process trumped results.
    That said, I'm a process guy when it comes to ITIL and CMMI and I guess we have to see what the balance will be. We need both process and outcome-focused leadership.
    Bob

  • Shyam

    Thanks for posting this video.
    It's very encouraging to see that Fed CTO is driving value based IT investment managment than what one would normally think so. Being a process consultant myself, can't agree anymore that process trumps results. Being said that, I caution that Compliance and Security are equally important to assure we the right rigor and discipline are in place to thwart any potential tech threats.
    I'm keen to see the Federal IT spending bring innovation not just to services, but also to the whole gamut of Process, Governance and Compliance.
    Cheers,