It’s The Technology, Stupid!

Wordle of President Obama's Inaugural Address

There was a lot of press last week about the horrid conditions in which the new administration found the White House.  Of course, all the floors were mopped and clean, the windows sparkling, the gardens perfectly maintained, the Oval Office tidy and ready for its new occupant.  There is one part of the White House, however, that was left in utter disarray.  To the naked eye it is invisible and mostly buried under the floors, hidden inside the walls, or tucked away in closets.  Yet it is decrepit, neglected to the point of near disfunction.  I’m talking about (surprise!) the technology.

Now don’t get me wrong — I didn’t expect very much.  A Washington Post article describes the surprise of incoming White House staffers who seem to have been expecting to show up with their MacBook Air laptops, hop on a wireless network, and update their Facebook status to “OMFG I’m at my desk in the West Wing, feeling like such a n00b, LOL!  Top secret clearance, FTW!”  That would just be silly.

Yet while I had low expectations, the conditions still managed to shock me.  New members of the administration showed up to find no computers at all.  No loaner laptops.  On the few computers that were there and worked, the e-mail system was broken to the point of forcing staffers to route messages through their personal Gmail accounts.  Maybe it was because they were using Windows 2000.  Even some of the phone lines were down.  I mean, really?  I wouldn’t have expected this in 2001, let alone in 2009.

But as I mentioned, there’s been a lot of press and blogging done about this already.  What I want to talk about is how this situation is symptomatic of a much larger problem — and, as with any large problem, a very large opportunity as well.

The problem is that our government is not using the cutting edge tools that have made the most successful businesses in America rise to the top.  And often, it is not for lack of trying.  It seems to have taken an act of God (or at least the threat of an Executive hissy fit) to convince the NSA to outfit President Obama with a secure Blackberry for his personal use.  New West Wingers want to harness the collaborative power of instant messaging and the community-building utility of social networking, as they did to great success during the campaign.  Unfortunately, serious legal questions remain as to whether logs of such activity would have to be preserved under the Presidential Records Act.  This act, it should be noted, was passed in 1978.

Obviously, the concerns about security, politicization, and transparency are very real and very important.  And there are also bigger problems that need the administration’s full attention first.  But what is equally imperative is ensuring that government serves the people efficiently and fully, using any and every tool available to it.

Among all the reasons to be excited about President Obama is the fact that he leads a corps of young, forward-thinking people who are dying to connect with America, to engage it and take its pulse and respond quickly with measures to help it.  On the other side, there is a country full of people hungry for change, who want to feel like their government listens to them and understands their problems and concerns.  The best medium through which this dialog and interaction can occur is the Internet.  We cannot allow the ambition of this new administration, and the thirst of the American people for a government that they can literally connect with, to be hindered (for example) by a thirty year old act that predates the digital era.

I generally try to steer clear of making prescriptions, but I’m going to buck that habit here and provide my recommendations for how President Obama and his administration can gain some ground on this front.

1. Issue an Executive Memorandum to the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies calling for transparency and open government

Hey lookie here, looks like you’ve already done this Mr. President!  Nice work, it’s like I already knew you had done this you read my mind!  Though this memo is not as binding as an Executive Order would be, it shows your new subordinates and the rest country that you’re serious about this.  You might not have time to dream up the best way to implement a Facebook for government, what with the economy falling apart and everything, but at least we know you weren’t full of hot air during the campaign.  I especially like this paragraph from your memo, which cuts through the fluff to the meat:

I direct the Chief Technology Officer, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Administrator of General Services, to coordinate the development by appropriate executive departments and agencies, within 120 days, of recommendations for an Open Government Directive, to be issued by the Director of OMB, that instructs executive departments and agencies to take specific actions implementing the principles set forth in this memorandum. The independent agencies should comply with the Open Government Directive.

Oh but hey, who’s this Chief Technoloy Officer?

2.  Appoint your Chief Technology Officer already!

Seriously, Mr. President.  I don’t know if I should be happy that you’re giving the choice for Chief Technology Officer so much thought, and that there are so many splendid candidates for the job, that you’re already a week into your new job and haven’t made a decision yet… or if I should be concerned because you’re stalling.  It would be nice to have an update.

Appointing a CTO will let you hand this whole transparency and openness portfolio over to someone else.  You’ve got enough on your plate, man.  Once you’ve made your choice, this new member of your administration can start putting the pieces in place for a government that communicates more effectively internally and externally.

3.  In collaboration with your new CTO, revisit the Presidential Records Act of 1978.

You’ve already issued an Executive Order rolling back a previous change by former President Bush.  Why not let your CTO and his staff take a crack at crafting an amended act that joins us here in the 21st century?  Bring in the intelligence agencies, the Justice Department, Congress, think tanks, and other stakeholders to strike the right balance between security and ethics on one hand, and openness and flexibility on the other.  Do everything you can to let your staff use cutting edge technologies to communicate and collaborate with each other, and with the people.

4.  Modernize the electric grid and expand broadband access.

As you mentioned in your inaugural address, we need bold initiatives for the modernization of the electric grid and the expansion of broadband access.  Not only will this stimulate economic growth (both in the building out of the resources and in the eventual use of them by businesses and consumers), but it will also give people in rural and other areas without good web access now a way to connect to the new “connected” government resources that your CTO will be rolling out.

5.  Go further with WhiteHouse.gov.

The new WhiteHouse.gov site is, in a word, gorgeous.  I love the design, the Weekly Address via YouTube, the blog… all of it.  You’ve really outdone yourself.  Now outdo yourself again.  At techPresident, Tom Watson thinks you could do a better job of posting content faster, and David Weinberger wants to make sure your blog avoids the stuffy PR tone and instead becomes a forum for citizen participation.  If this is really our White House, as you said it would be during the campaign, then give us a way to really connect.  Maybe take a cue from the State Department?

Meg Roberts makes the excellent point that the government officials already “using” social tools don’t really get it yet.  They’re using it to broadcast a one-way stream of noise.  It’s not surprising; I can easily see how older people see the Internet as just another channel of the “bully pulpit”.  When FDR sat down for his fireside chats over the radio, it brought the President closer to the people than ever.  The web is different.  It enables a conversation.  It enables feedback.

This isn’t some touchy feely point I’m getting at.  If you had a way to see what people were saying, to see what they needed to make them happier, to see what they weren’t understanding about your policies… how could you not seize upon that?  Isn’t that the ultimate political tool?  The “Open for Questions” initiative on your transition website was an excellent start.  As we say at Google, “launch and iterate.”  You’ve launched.  Now iterate.

Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of Wordle.net.