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FTC Taps Ed Felten As First Chief Technologist
An anonymous reader contributes this snippet from Digital Daily: "Looks like the Federal Trade Commission got its first choice of Chief Technologist, because it's hard to think of anyone better to serve in that capacity than Princeton computer science professor Ed Felten, a guy whose CV makes everyone from Microsoft to Diebold shudder in embarrassment."
So he's the FTC's FCT?
I always think of it in the magic: the gathering term, as in you're "tapping" them to use their resources.
or like a beer tap on a keg.
take your pick.
+++ great commenter, would tap again
He and that criminal piracy organization that he works for, Princeton, should be locked up!
He and Princeton only works to provide tools to pirates and to destroy the movie and music industries.
How dare he support piracy and takes the food out of the mouthes of deserving industry executives! Without the repeated extensions of the copyright periods, there will be no incentive to produce new versions of Snow White. 75 years is just not enough time to make back the money invested in making a song or a movie!
Fight Spammers!
Hopefully not like this.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Be sure to have a Dwarf or a Beer Elf on hand after taking a pick to the keg.
First article ever contributed by Ed Felten's mom.
Anyone else get the feeling that these ivory tower intellectual types are looking down their noses at us? I'd much rather we have someone like CowboyNeal as national CTO. Now there's a guy I could have an e-beer with.
"I will Chief Technologist at the Federal Trade Comission"
http://twitter.com/#!/EdFelten/status/29679614884
It's borrowed from the use of the term to refer to selecting someone for a fraternity.
IIRC, it's something the Skull and Bones came up with, which is probably another reason to outlaw them.
Princeton is a private university known for it's research. Just sayin.
And researchers are noted for a certain disconnect from reality... Just Sayin'.
Although personally I think he seems like a good pick, we'll have to see what he actually does or recommendations he makes.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why would someone's CV make you shudder in embarrassment?
Just because he's quite talented and has a strong background, why would that cause Microsoft to shudder?
Jealousy maybe, But embarrassment? Are there pictures of Ballmer dancing, on his CV?
And what advantage would private sector experience give him in this position? Other than industry ties that would be used to manipulate him?
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Yeah, it should be Carli, because she did such a great job~
We really don't want people who think in 3 month blocks advising on decsions that will impact every citizens. That's smart.
The government caters to all citizens, business caters to only those people who want/afford there good and/or services.
Running the government like a business will fail. Every time some one tries it, it fails. Why? because they MUST cater to everyone. Regardless of income. Plus, they can never maintain the high level of service the government provides cheaper then the government does it.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It'd be great if we had someone who truly understood "eVoting" advising the folks who mandate/monitor election activity.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Researchers are noted for a certain disconnect from triviality, not reality.
True, most businesses have a luxury of excluding unwanted customers, something the government cannot do. That said, the government can learn a lot from private business. For example there's little to no incentive for government employees to be better or more efficient at their jobs. All compensation is determined entirely by tenure and job title. Imagine if the DMV awarded quarterly bonuses for superior performance, better results, or cost-cutting efficiencies. The department would operate completely differently than it does now, there would be real incentives for having usable online customer/citizen tools, and good customer/citizen service could be a real valued, measured goal instead of simply a minimum job requirement to get a guaranteed paycheck.
Some school districts have started experimenting with these sorts of techniques, much to the chagrin of their teacher's unions, and real improvements in students are being seen without raising funding levels. The teachers are motivated by more than just personality to better themselves and improve their skills. The students rightly reap the benefits of having better teachers.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Just sayin.
This expression needs to die already.
There's also the issue of accountability. However you feel about efficiency, governments are fulfilling a social role and private industry is trying to make the most money it can. My biggest gripe with privatization is how we're handing off social interests to parties with priorities that are not those of the electorate; e.g. the privatized prison industrial complex lobbying politicians to get more people arrested rather than actually solving the illegal immigration problem.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Why? Just askin'.
Well if your phone line has been tapped you are indeed pretty well F*cked...
- Dan.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
The use of "tap" to select a person for a job probably comes from the use of the word in tapping trees for sap, or the device that you get beer or water from. The analogy might be that you're extracting knowledge, experience, etc. in the same way that you extract sap from a tree or beer from a keg (hopefully without the leaving-them-empty part).
> we're handing off social interests to parties with priorities that are not those of the electorate
I hear what you're saying, totally agree with you.
But I do want to point out that this "handing off social interests" is met with wild enthusiasm from half of the electorate. Our electorate consists largely of tens of millions of proudly ignorant schmucks who have no idea what they want and will passionately fight against their own interests if a tv show tells them to.
...and, unlike most/all businesses, the government gets in a shitstorm when it tries to raise its prices, er, fees...er, taxes.
Visa/Mastercard up their merchant fees? Well, that's good business, all right!
You can't stop me, I'm a Saiyan.
...when he realizes that he has no decision making power, and all the decisions are made on politically basis with his job being to justify them.
They invented it? The idea is you get the first tap when you take up a certain level of responsibility, and a double if you drop it. Do a good job and you can skip the double and act like you own the whole bar for the rest of your life.
FTC and GAO are two of those agencies the country really really needs when things get rough. Their missions are as core to what the citizenry cries out for at every election as anything done by the CIA. Not more important, but just as important.
Maybe those Princeton guys found an old-timey patron or something... they seem to be getting noisier by the day.
Hey, what's going on here? Do you know what you have just done? Praised a government decision, that's what! I mean, surely the man is corrupt or something...
It's getting there. Once upon a time, it was the provenance of the correct, used to punctuate a pithy, incisive attack. In recent months, it has become the equivalent of 'your mom', an over-used bit of drivel at the end of proclamations by minor douchebags (Hi! My name is Snarkalicious. Just sayin). Soon it will fall into disuse, only beeing brought up occasionally by Freepers and the like who came across it for the first time in 2-4 year old comments and find it to be horribly charming.