America's First CTO?

Micah Sifry, Editor of the Personal Democracy Forum

There has been, rightfully, a great deal of attention paid so far to President-elect Barack Obama's choices for top-level Cabinet posts and his emerging approach to the economic crisis. But we shouldn't forget the potential embedded in a new position he has promised to create: the country's first chief technology officer (CTO).

How we as a country make use of new communications technologies like the Internet and broadband can make a big difference for future economic development, global competitiveness, transparency, citizen engagement and saving money on government operations from the national to the local level. Mr. Obama has already signaled that he recognizes the importance of improving our technological infrastructure by including a call for universal, affordable, high-speed Internet access and for emphasizing, in his radio address last week, that it is unacceptable for the US to be 15th in the world in broadband access.

"Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online," Mr. Obama said, "and they'll get that chance when I'm President -- because that's how we'll strengthen America's competitiveness in the world."

Along with my colleague Andrew Rasiej, who co-founded Personal Democracy Forum with me nearly five years ago, I have a piece in the Ideas section of Politico.com looking at this important initiative. We take a closer look at how the CTO could help fulfill this vision-especially if he or she is given something like Cabinet-level status and real access to the President . Among our suggestions:

* The CTO should be, first and foremost, an evangelist for the Internet as a public good as vital to civic life as making sure everyone has a working phone line. High-speed Internet access is the dial tone of the 21st Century.

* The CTO, along with the Council of Economic Advisors, should identify all the potential information technology dividends to be achieved through economic and environmental efficiencies, improvements in transportation, health care and safety.

* The CTO should lead the development of a consolidated government-wide online platform-call it "Citizen.gov"-to connect citizens to their government and to each other. If you can have an online banking account, why not an "online citizenship account" where you can get basic voter information, links to useful government services, a personal track of the taxes you've paid and how they've been spent, and so on.

* The CTO can insure that the new Administration is the most transparent of any in history, by creating a government "data commons" pulling together all the lobbying and ethics reports required under law, and by insuring that all government agencies make maximum use of new technologies to be more accessible and participatory.

* The CTO should lead a review of all the legislative and regulatory obstacles that prevent government officials from using existing open source and off-the-shelf tools, and recommend immediate and lasting changes in existing laws and rules governing their use. The savings alone from such a process would amount to billions.

These are just some of the ways that the CTO can be a big part of making "change" a reality in the incoming Obama Administration.