The Obama Administration has been called the most tech-savvy administration ever. Despite the lack of strength behind that statement (just look at the competition) it does seem that Mr. Obama’s administration is making strides to bridge the gap between technological efficiency and progressiveness in the private sector and that in government.
Even though growth in government spending on information technology is projected to drop from 7 percent annually to just 4 percent thanks to the current recession, the amount of effort being put into choosing the right IT spending might make up for the loss.
Execs at IT firms seem to share the sentiment that opportunities in government are not about the number of products sold or the size of the overall budget, Channelinsider.com reports. “The federal government is getting smarter about the money it does spend on IT,” writes Michael Vizard.
The results of this smarter spending approach range from the very noticeable to esoteric.
Numerous government websites have seen overhauls recently, starting with the new WhiteHouse.gov site launched on Obama’s inauguration day. The refurbished websites are equipped with “Web 2.0” features, as their developers hope to carry out Obama’s mission to use the Internet to establish transparent, two-way conversation between the government and the public.
The success rate of these has yet to become clear. Dan Olds, founder of the Gabriel Consulting Group, has indicated that the public response on MySpace and Facebook pages for the White House usually consists of adoring comments from fans or simple pleas to legalize weed, rather than constructive discussion. But the infrastructure is there.
The less obvious uses of Web 2.0 have to do with increasing efficiency and reducing overhead in government technology. On May 2, the giant government portal USA.gov converted from conventional servers to “cloud” technology, which could cut infrastructure costs by 90 percent, says Martha Dorris of the GSA. Pending the success of this switch, the USA.gov move is intended to be an example for other government agencies that can similarly reduce costs and improve efficiency by using cutting edge information technology. It is notable that the government has jumped on top of cloud technology, albeit tentatively, before the technology even became part of the public consciousness outside of IT circles.
All this reform is in accordance with the general provisions set up by President Obama: transparency, collaboration, and participation. Conforming with those provisions results in IT spending having more constraints than it used to. The increased control on where the IT money goes has, and should continue to, improve how the money is spent. For their part, private-sector tech providers are finding that they no longer need to sell the government on general technology concepts, as Washington is already on top of them. To that we say terrific and it’s about time!
If President George H.W. Bush was memorably astounded by supermarket barcode readers back in the ’80s, Mr. Obama will likely be remembered for using a Blackberry at the same time the smart phones were popular in the private sector. But anecdotes aside, if technological progress in Washington continues on the pace it has for the first five months of his presidency, Obama may be remembered for reforming IT in government as we know it.
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