From the Digital Commonwealth to the Digital Nation (Tim O’Reilly, Aneesh Chopra)

I’m listening to the nation’s first technology officer, Aneesh Chopra at the Gov 2.0 Summit. Mr. Chopra serves as an assistant to the President and he makes sure the President get the best advice about technology. He’s responsible for surfacing new ideas and making sure they’re brought to the table for discussion. He is responsible for getting feedback on technology from the American people and convening people within the government to analyze and use the feedback to make policy decisions.
The government has three main areas of influence with regard to technology: data standards, research and development, and procurement. (With 76 billion spent on info technology – the gov’t has a large influence on market outcomes!) Mr. Chopra and his team decided that they needed to embrace the spirit of open collaborative government, and act out the idea itself. The are approaching policy decisions by engaging the American people though brainstorming, online discussion, drafting policies in a collaborative manner. It’s almost like Wiki government.