Spend a minute reviewing government websites (see USA.gov) and it is apparent how un-dynamic, un-collaborative, and behind the curve government websites are. So, the Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative, which aims to use contemporary tools and technologies to bring transparency, participation, and collaboration to government, is a welcome effort.
The challenge of seeing this effort to fruition, however, is immense. Last week, the White House held a Forum on Modernizing Government to discuss this challenge with the nation’s leading business executives. Among those who attended was Ping Fu, the founding chief executive of Geomagic, a company that makes 3-D imaging software to aid designers and manufacturers.
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Ms. Fu was interviewed about the event by the New York Times reporter Robb Mandelbaum. Two of Ms. Fu’s responses are of particular interest:
Q. What did the Obama administration officials say they wanted to hear from you?
A. On Obama’s first day in office, he signed an open government, modernizing government initiative, and this meeting was almost one year from that time. He talked about how the government systems are so backwards, and many of them are not off-the-shelf products but rather custom-developed legacy systems that cost a lot of money to maintain. He wants to bring government to the 21st century, and he wanted us to give him feedback on using technology to modernize the government — not just make it more efficient but make it also work for the people.
Q. You had a chance to speak at a break-out session on return on investment — what did you say?
A. …They’re also really interested in when to terminate a failure. And I said that with I.T. projects, a failure has intangible value. If you put all the smart people together and you couldn’t solve that problem, you really should look at what’s the problem, rather than just terminate the project. The failure itself crystallizes the problem.
Government custom develops far too many applications. And government too often throws good money after bad on failed projects. It is encouraging that the Administration at least recognizes these problems.
It should also be noted that the release of Apps.gov (GSA’s cloud computing effort) should go a long way towards enabling agencies to utilize more best-of-breed, off-the-shelf tools and technologies.