Obama's Tech Team

Techies now run much of government. And they're not the programmers in the IT shop.

President Obama's political appointees understand that the smart management of technology, not simply the tools themselves, can be a primary driver to improve how government operates--and even influence policy. Many inside and outside government say the Obama administration gets it, understanding that technology should be part of policy discussions because it powers innovation and performance, much like it does for businesses. While the first Internet president has contributed to this high-tech management strategy, other factors might be as integral to what has amounted to a tectonic mental shift in how the government operates, say former federal executives and corporate contractors. Budget cuts are forcing agencies to get creative, and a new generation of wired (and wireless) workers is pushing even unwilling Luddites to learn how to blog and Tweet. In addition, the Obama team tacitly recognizes that the Bush administration laid the groundwork for all this with its President's Management Agenda -- reforms that rated agencies on expanding electronic government, among other things. But Obama has given technology an even higher profile, pressuring agencies to be innovative and employ online tools to boost performance. Unlike past presidents, who rarely mentioned the word technology and frequently appointed nontechnologists to some of the most prominent CIO posts, Obama has placed in top-level executive positions people who have a management philosophy that is interwoven with technology.