An Agenda for Obama's CTO  President-elect Barack Obama has
promised to appoint the world's first governmental Chief
Technology Officer (CTO). On its transition Web site,, the
incoming Administration has published a list of goals for the
soon-to-be anointed CTO: broadband expansion, boosting
science/tech education, health-care computerization, patent
reform, and e-government.  The goals are well-intentioned. What
is missing is an effective and efficient strategy. So-called
"czars" have been appointed for drugs, the war in Iraq, the
financial industry, and the auto sector—none of them have worked
very well. The Obama team needs to be careful not to reinvent
the wheel, focusing instead on technology lessons from the
countries that have overtaken the U.S. already, the practices of
companies that have top CTOs, and a flexible strategy for
implementing policy across the sprawling federal government.
The U.S. may be the first country to have a CTO. That doesn't
mean other countries have not put in place effective