Obama's search for a national CTO

By naming technology executives to his transition team — especially former InterActiveCorp executive Julius Genachowski — president elect Barack Obama is signalling that he's likely to follow through with his proposal to appoint a chief technology officer to the White House.

The person in this new position — and possibly a new White House technology office staff — could be given the directive to create new levels of transparency and access to government agencies, or to guide policies that spur innovation and growth. However, the chief technology officer (CTO) would also have to avoid potential pitfalls, such as creating new spending for ineffectual projects, running into conflict with other agencies or simply becoming nothing more than a symbolic office.

Still, the creation of the position would generally be seen as a positive step.

"The fact that this is difficult is, in some ways, an example of why we might need a CTO," said Alan Davidson, head of Google's Washington office. "There is no one place for unified technology leadership in our executive branch right now."

A tech-friendly transition team
The overall composition of Obama's transition team indicates he may be serious about implementing new uses of technology in the executive branch and directing more cohesive policy making.

Genachowski was an adviser to two Federal Communications Commission chairmen during the Clinton administration — Reed Hundt and Bill Kennard — and is the founder of start-up incubator LaunchBox Digital. Genachowski chaired the group that helped shape Obama's 'Technology and innovation plan', in which Obama calls for a CTO.

Genachowski is considered to be a strong contender for the CTO position.

"Julius is an example of the kind of person who has both real-world technology and business experience and would be effective in Washington," Davidson said. "He's a good model of the type of person one might look for as a CTO or as another technology leader within the administration."

The transition team also includes Sonal Shah of Google.org and Donald Gips, vice president of corporate strategy and development for Level 3 Communications. Many Obama advisers worked in the Clinton administration, and Gips, among others, specifically served former vice president Al Gore. Given Gore's emphasis on the development of information technology, such advisers are well poised to integrate technology into the way the government functions and creates policy, some have said.

Gips served as Gore's chief domestic policy adviser in the late 1990s. William Daley, another member of the Obama transition team, served as secretary of commerce from 1997 to 2000 and was chairman of Gore's 2000 presidential campaign.

Obama's transition team is headed by John Podesta, the former Clinton White House chief of staff, considered in Washington to be a competent figure and comfortable with technology issues in his own right.

The team has already shown its commitment to embracing technology by launching a website for the transition.

"Because of the impact the internet had in the election, we're expecting to see the incoming administration embrace a lot of those tools, and that will be important for laying the groundwork once the administration takes office," Davidson said.

Beyond this transition team, Obama may look for advice on technology policy — or for a CTO — from the cadre of technology advisers he maintained during his campaign. Obama's technology advisers, both formal and informal, included government figures, academics and people from the hi-tech industry.

Former FCC chairs Hundt and Kennard serve as advisers, as do Michael Nelson, the former director of internet technology and strategy at IBM; Daniel Weitzner, an MIT computer scientist and a policy director for the World Wide Web Consortium; Craigslist founder Craig Newmark; Google chief executive Eric Schmidt; and a number of others.

Can a new cabinet position change anything?
Some inside Washington have said the Obama administration will be a vast improvement from the Bush administration, which has been criticised for neglecting technology as an issue and a tool.

President Bush has not completely ignored the issue, however. As part of its cybersecurity efforts, encouraged by the administration, the Department of Homeland Security is conducting a complete overhaul of government networks to make them more secure. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has also emphasised funding to keep information technology secure and up to date.

The OMB, through the Presidential E-Government Initiatives, has also served the public through sites like Grants.gov, which allows…