Sources say speculation that Barack Obama's federal chief technology officer will be either Padmasree Warrior, the CTO at Cisco Systems, or Vivek Kundra, the CTO for Washington, D.C., is not correct. With Obama nominating Julius Genachowski, who was considered the front-runner for the post at one time, to head the Federal Communications Commission, that removes several of the names that were thought to be leading candidates.
COMMENTS
I understand the critically IT plays in advancing the government mission, even more so than commercial concerns. Yet, I do not believe the appointment of one person as the CTO deserves the attention it is getting.
We should be focusing on the real challenge facing government today, and that is the IT Acquisition Process. It does not follow commercial best practices nor has been streamlined as required by the Clinger Cohen Act, and some 80% of these major programs fail to deliver, costing the tax payer over $15B/year.
The IT Acquisition is both broken and compromised by conflicts of interest. This is what the press should be covering.
john
John Weiler 01/21/09 06:39 am ET