Obama's New Tech Czar May Need Body Armor

President Obama has appointed a new Technology Czar, Vivek Kundra.

O'Reilly's site has the transcript of the Federal CIO in his own words.  Business Week also published a nice article today, Obama's New Techn Czar.

Both articles talk about Kundra's experience bringing YouTube, Wikipedia and Twitter to DC government while in his old job. Can he bring these tools to the federal government?

Can Mr. Kundra get federal agencies to start sharing computers and information? Can he use his influence over their budgets to get them to play nicely in the sandbox? A former CIO of the Dept. of Defense seems to think it will be tough, drawing the analogy of an "orchestra without a director."

I went to read the comments to find out what others thought about the BW piece.  Big mistake.

Of the 34 comments posted at that time, 23 had absolutely nothing to say about technoloy and government. Heck, they had nothing to say about technology. Instead, these nay-sayers focused their criticism on Kundra's Indian ethnicity. They muse about whether he is here on an H1-B visa; whether he is a US citizen. Some offered nasty-gram references to outsourcing. Others were just plain derogatory.

I spend my time working with organizations who are wrestling with all sorts of challenges related to Web 2.o. Private industry faces many of the same issues as the government.  They are not prepared for what comes with Web 2.0: transparency, agility, user centricity, loss of control, collaboration, openess, information sharing. These are not things most managers are comfortable with.  They know they have to adapt, pressured by the millenials and the marketplace.

If the comments on the BW piece are any indication, apparently we have our work  cut out for us.

Having started my career at the New York State Division of Human Rights and  to have spent 25 years as a corporate champion for diversity, perhaps I'm overly sensitive.

But the reality is that the challenges we faced working through organizational change brought about the introduction of the p.c., globalization, workplace flexibility and diversity are very similiar to the challenges we face today with Web 2.0.

The derisive reaction to the BW piece on Kundra shows just how difficult this transformation is.  Our new tech czar doesn't have an army.  He comes armed with innovative thinking, a willingness to experiment ,and a technology vision his boss can believe in.  

Let's give the new maestro a chance to make some beautiful music. 

Comments

[Anne Pauker Kreitzberg]

Thanks, Ruth. It will take a while, but we'll get there!

[RuthHoward]

Hi Anne I located you through the 21st Century Skills org education link. Oh I' m urked at the thought of those comments (for you especially!), however I loved how you spoke of industry unreadyness for transparency and collaboration.It' s so exciting that Web 2.0 is a revolution without the politicians and industrialists! Exactly what you said is pertinant to educators and education. What a revolution is upon us! Youth lead and that is just how it should be each generation building higher upon the last.
We should be so proud.