Amid all the current concern over our economic downturn, it's important to remember that in the most recent decade the U.S. economy has gone through a productivity revolution. Amidst all the news about rapid economic growth in places like China and India, there is still no country that can approach the productivity of the U.S. economy.
And according to Harvard economist Dale Jorgenson, this recent U.S. productivity increase is almost entirely due to the impact of information technology (IT) on business functions throughout the economy.
Indeed, IT has transformed almost every sector of the U.S. economy, with one glaring exception--government, and those sectors dominated by government, such as health care and education.
It's widely understood that government agencies are still using outdated technology as they attempt to do their missions. And government spending on IT has often simply been a waste of taxpayer dollars. Remember the $4 billion the IRS spent in 1999 on a computer system that simply didn't work. And the $170 million the FBI spent in 2005 on a new case file system that had to be scrapped?
And not only is government technology often outdated, but frequently government agencies which interact regularly use incompatible technologies.
One result is that government agencies that disburse billions of dollars, such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, are simply unable to detect fraud.
Yet, in the private sector, there are IT solutions to all of these problems. Government has simply failed to adopt, or failed to implement the IT solutions that could potentially make government a bit more efficient, and perhaps a bit more responsible with taxpayer dollars.
That's why it's encouraging that the incoming administration has promised to appoint an executive branch Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the federal government.
But the temptation for this position will be for it to become a policy-making position, rather than a position that focuses on solving IT problems and implementing IT solutions.
Indeed, already a website has been set up to gather suggestions for the new government CTO. It's a clever use of the web, but the suggestions so far are for changes in policy, such as implementing network neutrality, or weakening copyright--in other words, standard left-leaning policy positions.
This is NOT what a government CTO should be about. There are already plenty of people inside and outside of government with ideas and suggestions for technology policy. But the real potential impact for a government CTO is the same as the role of a CTO in the private sector--solving problems and improving efficiency through sensible application of information technology.
Here's hoping the new Obama administration follows through on the promise of a practical, pragmatic government CTO that works for the benefit of taxpayers and better, more efficient government.