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Is The Federal CTO Job Too Much For One Person?Is The Federal CTO Job Too Much For One Person?
When Candidate Obama promised to create a national Chief Technology Officer, it was part of his campaign to bring change and new ways of governing to the White House. But what will the CTO job entail? What will the responsibilities be? Now that Obama is president, he has a lot of work to do to define the parameters of the job, even before the new CTO starts work. The job could entail many different responsibilities, some different enough that they might be better split into different positions.
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When Candidate Obama promised to create a national Chief Technology Officer, it was part of his campaign to bring change and new ways of governing to the White House. But what will the CTO job entail? What will the responsibilities be? Now that Obama is president, he has a lot of work to do to define the parameters of the job, even before the new CTO starts work. The job could entail many different responsibilities, some different enough that they might be better split into different positions.The U.S. Congressional Research Service, a federal office that provides shared services to congressional committees and members, prepared a brief but comprehensive report (PDF) on the CTO position, which looks at all the various options available and underscores the dearth of specifics in Obama's campaign promise.
The report lays out several areas of responsibility for the position:
• Traditional CIO: Responsible for rationalizing the government's entire IT infrastructure, simplifying and achieving greater interoperability where it's needed -- for example, in the emergency response system.
• Traditional CTO: Often reporting to the CIO in many organizations, the CTO would be focused on implementing emerging technologies.
• Technology evangelist: Responsible for accelerating growth in the technology industry in the United States, improving the industry's standing worldwide, and promoting Obama's agenda for technology policy.
• White House CTO: The narrowest option available; this position would be responsible for overseeing the IT infrastructure of the White House and the executive branch of government.
The Congressional Research Service writes:
A fundamental question related to a CTO position is: What would be the scope of duties and authorities given to this position? Two potential broad roles for a CTO appear to have emerged. The first role, explicitly articulated on President Obama's earlier campaign and transition Web sites, might be described as a supra-chief information officer with the mission of using information technology to improve the delivery of government services, increasing transparency of government policymaking, and opening channels for increased citizen participation in government, as well as ensuring that the nation's information and communications (ICT) infrastructure is robust and secure. In this capacity, a CTO would also ensure that "best practices" are identified, shared, and implemented across agencies.
The second role for a CTO might be described as an advocate for technological innovation in support of national interests such as economic growth, job creation, improvements to quality of life, national defense, and homeland security. Some have speculated that President Obama might charge a CTO with a wider scope of responsibilities, including development and advocacy of national ICT policies (e.g., net neutrality, broadband access), technology policies intended to spur innovation and economic growth, intellectual property enforcement, and oversight of a federally-backed venture capital fund to support deployment of "clean" technologies -- technologies with less environmental impact than ones currently in use -- that President Obama proposed during the campaign.
The scope of responsibilities might require too many talents for one person, writes Joe Hall on the blog Freedom to Tinker. "There seem to be at least two positions involved: one visionary and one fixer. That is, one person to push the envelope in a grounded-but-futurist style in terms of what is possible and then one person to negotiate the myriad of agencies and bureaucratic parameters to get things done," Hall says.
A couple of major factors that would affect the scope of the job: Will it be funded by Congress, or will the CTO serve at the pleasure of the President? And the appointee will likely shape the job to fit his own talents and directions.
What do you think? What should be the responsibilities of the federal CTO? Let us know.
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