Washington, January 15: President Obama met with numerous CEOs at a White House Forum Thursday to discuss a platform to modernize the U.S. Government.
President Obama organized the forum to hear from those “[…] on the frontlines – from those far removed from Washington – who are using technology to save money and improve performance.” The White House stated that “[…] information technology transformed how the private sector operates by revolutionizing the ease, convenience, and effectiveness by which it serves its customers. The government has a lot to learn from the private sector.”
“I want us to ask ourselves every day, how are we using technology to make a real difference in people’s lives,” said President Obama. “Improving the technology our government uses isn’t about having the fanciest bells and whistles on our websites – it’s about how we use the American people’s hard-earned tax dollars to make government work better for them.”
A specifically cited source of ineffective and inefficient government function that separates the public and private sectors by wasting billions of dollars is slow and inadequate customer service, and a lack of transparency about how tax payers’ money is spent.
“Twenty years ago, people who came to work in the federal government had better technology at work than at home. Now, that’s no longer the case,” White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Peter Orszag explained. “The American people deserve better service from their government, and better return for their tax dollars. It’s time to bring government into the 21st century.”
The White House Forum on Modernizing Government will begin with statements and remarks by the President, and then the CEOs, government and labor officials, and government leaders will split up into smaller discussion groups organized around numerous topics including: streamlining government operations, improving customer service, and maximizing return on IT investments. The forum is a part of a larger effort to streamline solutions in the federal government and weed out ideas that don’t work. Last year, the President launched an effort to save $40 billion by ending wasteful contracting practices and ordered a line-by-line review of the budget to make sure the administration invests in what works.
Among those who attended the forum are Shantanu Narayen of Adobe Technology, Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Craig Newmark of Craigslist, John Riccitello of Electronic Arts, Inc., Chris Hughes of Facebook, and a handful of others.
President Obama first proposed the idea for the forum in his weekly address on April 25, 2009.
–Agencies–