Industry CTOs want government to lead on identity, standards

In late September, a group of chief technology officers and strategists from the world's leading software-makers met in Washington in part to discuss the implications behind President Barack Obama's innovation agenda. Their interests and concerns include creating the next generation of innovators, making sure the right incentives for intellectual property protection are in place to foster innovation, figuring out how the IT industry can help lead the US economy out of the recession, and determining the extent to which the federal government should engage in those issues. Those and other topics were among the points the CTOs discussed with the Obama administration and legislative officials organized by the Business Software Alliance and its president and CEO, Robert Holleyman II. Between meetings with federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra, chief technology officer Aneesh Chopra, the House Science and Technology Committee, and others, these corporate CTOs talked with GCN Editor-in-Chief Wyatt Kash and senior editor Rutrell Yasin about some of their critical concerns — and what messages they felt were important to convey to federal officials.