Who Will Be Obama's Technology Czar?



(image via abcnews)

The news that Obama may appoint a technology czar is one sign that the times are changing politically. On Change.gov, President-elect Obama's website promises to "appoint the nation's first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to ensure the safety of our networks and lead an interagency effort, working with chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices."

Newsweek's startling post-election report that both the Obama and McCain campaigns were victims of a cyberattack by an unknown "foreign entity" has brought bipartisan attention to the gap in policy thinking at the cabinet level. "It would be very difficult to find people on the other side of the aisle to oppose this," TechRepublican blogger David Kralik, director of Internet strategy American Solutions for Winning the Future, told Fox News.

Cyberattack is now on our national security radar. But there is also the policy angle and the leverage that a cabinet-level appointment can bring. From The National Journal's Lost In Translation:

"Craig Newmark, the founder of classifieds giant Craigslist, has some advice for President-elect Barack Obama as he searches for a chief technology officer: Find someone who can foster public-private sector partnerships and 'crack the whip' to bring about necessary reforms in tech policy.

"'The government isn't ready in some respects to use these new technologies,' Newmark said. 'When it comes to computer technology, there are some really smart people who can do something in a month that it would take the government a year to do.'"

Silicon Alley veteran Andrew Rasiej, who unsuccessfully ran for Public Advocate in 2005 (Full Disclosure: Rasiej advertised his campaign on The Corsair)and Micah L. Sifry have written a thoughtful essay on Politico last week about the mandates that the nation's first CTO should follow. Among the names being bandied about the beltway for this position are Bill Gates, Current TV's Al Gore, Julius Genachowski (who helped draft Obama's tech platform), former FCC chairman and information industry advisor Reed Hundt, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Sun Microsystems founder Bill Joy, Google Vice President and so-called "Father of the Internet" Vint Cerf, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Andrew Rasiej, who has publicly said that he does not think he would be qualified for such a position, that it should go to someone with more of an IT background. Larry Lessig, the founder of Creative Commons and newly-minted Harvard faculty member, has also been mentioned but has said that he is not interested in the position.