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White House Names Google's Megan Smith As CTO
itwbennett writes that, as expected, The White House has named long-time Google executive Megan Smith as the government's new CTO, in charge of improving technology and the use of data across agencies. Smith most recently served as vice president at Google's tech lab, Google[x]. She previously served as CEO of PlanetOut, helped design early smartphone technologies at General Magic and worked on multimedia products at Apple Japan in Tokyo. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT, and just might be, as noted in a previous Slashdot post, the first US CTO worthy of the title. Also on Thursday, the White House named Alexander Macgillivray, a former general counsel and head of public policy at Twitter, as deputy U.S. CTO.
improving technology and the use of data across agencies
That is the exact opposite of what we need right now.
improving technology and the use of data across agencies
That is the exact opposite of what we need right now.
The NSA and the security industrial complex don't need stinking laws and the approval of the public to aggregate and track you. They're already doing it. I doubt this role will help them (or hinder them). What integrated data could provide is more effective programs and less paperwork, and possibly more data.gov APIs.
Worrying about the CTO "improving things the wrong way" is the same as worrying about sharing your bank password with your spouse while storing your password file in cleartext on a malware infested desktop.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Do you really believe that it's working any differently? Look who funds him (the same big banks he promised to prosecute), look who he attacks (whistle blowers and liberty minded individuals), and look at his list of accomplishments (the US is a whole lot more fucked up today than it was when he was elected either time).
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Oftentimes, they do that when the candidate has little-to-no experience in the office.
Kind of odd in this case, but with most political appointees the press likes it's a means to hedge against cries of nepotism, favoritism, or suchlike. Gives them a means to shout "...see? Mr. So-and-So is qualified for the job!!!!11!!"
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
That position doesn't report to the President. It's under the Director of White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, under that Director. "CTO" is just a catchy name some consultant thought up, although it is a hell of a lot shorter than the alternatives.
God dammit. I hate not being able to edit posts. Let's try that again-
That position doesn't report to the President. It's under the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "CTO" is just a catchy name some consultant thought up, although it is a hell of a lot shorter than the alternatives.
Do you know anything about Mechanical Engineering? I have two degrees in it - all about Scientific Computing/Applied Computational Mathematics. Computational Fluid Dynamics, Finite Elements, Control Systems Engineering .... ringing any bells? Yup. All under the stunningly wide umbrella of mechanical engineering.
Control Theory is part of Mechanical Engineering.
And a position like this is all about "control".
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
As if we don't already have enough corporate executives running the white house.
You got that right. She's a Gorden Gekko in real life. Her activities involved managing buying other companies for the giant Google NOT the development of technology. She's into the acquisition side of Google's business, not the technical development or management side.
Also, understand that this is a BRAND NEW position. They just invented it. She will have no legislated authority, no budget, no staff, no legal mandate. Just an executive order. She can advise the administrative branch at the president's pleasure, but this position has no power of law. Not that this administration couldn't use some knowledgeable technical advice to avoid things like the HealthCare.gov mess. But why her? Why, politics of course.
The political angle is that she's a woman AND very prominent member of GLAAD. (Not that this matters to me, but it does to the left.)
She's not a horrible choice for this brand spanking new Federal Government's CTO position, but it's pretty obvious this is about political reality and not fixing anything in the government. We have an invented position, a politically expedient appointee in the face of a serious election challenge to the party in power. DC business as usual. This is about politics, and she's just a political hack appointee being used to throw a group of supporters a bone.
I wish her luck, but this whole thing is a waste. Government CTO? Why on earth do we need a CTO at the federal level?
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
She only fits this "job" as far as politics is concerned. There is no CTO of the federal government position, they just invented it, so they could appoint her to it so she fits as well as anybody could who has a position invented for them.
Take a look at her Wikipedia page and it's pretty clear what's going on here.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
We need pervasive American technical panopticon to keep Islamic extremism and resurgent Russian imperial aggression from destroying Oceania.
Remember, you need to doublethink plusgood if you think Snowden was good, the NSA is bad and ISIS is a threat.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
CTO of what is the question. You do understand that there is no CTO position in the Federal government right? They just invented this for her. She will have ZERO authority to make any day to day technology decisions.
Dig a bit and figure out why they are doing this. This is about politics, not fixing anything more than the next election.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
You have a very shallow well of historical knowledge if you believe it was started by Bush.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
I work as a computer engineer, and some of the software and hardware design people got mechanical engineering degrees a long time ago, but migrated to the CE side of things and do excellent work.
Wired describes her as "n addition to being a gifted programmer and technologist," and she helped make some of the first cellular technology for Apple.
I miss the days of hiring people with talents like running a horsey show. /snark
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
I have a degree in Geology but have been employed as an IT consultant for 15 years. Degrees are a wonderful foundation, but there is no substitute for work experience, and working you often learn more then you ever could in a classroom. Roughly 80% of my technical abilities came from self-study and on-the-job training and experiences. Look at her work history, and what she has done. She is the best qualified person we have seen coming in to this position by quite a large margin.
Even if she doesn't have the academic background (I agree with others that ME is close enough to CE/EE to pass muster), she certainly has the experience.
Finding God in a Dog
You got that right. She's a Gorden Gekko in real life. Her activities involved managing buying other companies for the giant Google NOT the development of technology. She's into the acquisition side of Google's business, not the technical development or management side.
Also, understand that this is a BRAND NEW position. They just invented it. She will have no legislated authority, no budget, no staff, no legal mandate. Just an executive order. She can advise the administrative branch at the president's pleasure, but this position has no power of law. Not that this administration couldn't use some knowledgeable technical advice to avoid things like the HealthCare.gov mess. But why her? Why, politics of course.
The political angle is that she's a woman AND very prominent member of GLAAD. (Not that this matters to me, but it does to the left.)
She's not a horrible choice for this brand spanking new Federal Government's CTO position, but it's pretty obvious this is about political reality and not fixing anything in the government. We have an invented position, a politically expedient appointee in the face of a serious election challenge to the party in power. DC business as usual. This is about politics, and she's just a political hack appointee being used to throw a group of supporters a bone.
I wish her luck, but this whole thing is a waste. Government CTO? Why on earth do we need a CTO at the federal level?
I love how your factual, informative, insightful posts got modded into oblivion.
Slashdot is useless.
"One nation, under Google+"
Google cozying up to a facilitator of murder, the world can't wait for the doodle.
Dig a bit and figure out why they are doing this. This is about politics, not fixing anything more than the next election.
I don't think anyone has the time to dig for every bit of information that someone on the internet insists exists. I don't suppose you have any links, do you? ...or perhaps you could just elaborate? Otherwise I think you're going to completely fail to spread whatever message it is you are trying to spread.
The comment moderation message on that was pretty interesting. It drew nearly 20 votes in both directions in the few hours it's been up, so I think I hit a hot button on that post. Opinion seems pretty divided, but so is the country...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Ah, so there has been an extreme bastardization of "mechanical engineering" in the US? My apologies then, the rest of the world has kept its sanity in that area.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Control Theory is part of Mechanical Engineering.
And part of Aero-Astro, and Applied Computer Science, and Theory of Computation, and Applied Mathematics, and ...
Personally, I'd put it in Signals and Systems, smack dab in the heart of EE.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
It's basically a second Treasurer of the United States ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasurer_of_the_United_States ). Just another useless position for the purpose of appointing minorities and women to positions within the government in order to score political points.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
Because Technology can NEVER be mechanical in nature. Never...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Of course it is - after all, the Obama Administration has been railing about the gender gap when it's leading the way in keeping the gender gap alive... Another case of our President being "do as I say, not as I do".
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
We usually refer to him as the "Crony Capitalist in Chief"
But creating a few sinecures will improve the numbers!
Since at least the 1970s we've had to spend a lot of time on computers to check designs, and whether it's patch cables, FORTRAN, python or even matlab, and even if they are short it's still writing programs to run on computers.
"No common ground" my arse. I moved into dealing with computers full time after I spent more time wrangling a cluster than simulating heat transfer on it.
First an inept CIO position now a CTO position. I don't want the US government smarter about systems and data. They're already fucking things up nicely right now as it is. Some agencies with better technology and training could really wreak havoc; like the IRS. Screw that.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
I have no problem giving the job to the most qualified person, even if that person is a woman. But she's not the most qualified person! You know how I know? Because she's a woman! She is clearly an AFFIRMATIVE ACTION pick. She's no good. All she knows about is mechanical engineering (aside from her years of IT experience)! I'm so sick of all this AFFIRMATIVE ACTION! Again, I'd love to give the job to a qualified woman. But every woman who gets any job gets it because of AFFIRMATIVE ACTION!
Thank you for this succinct recap of much of this Slashdot discussion thread.
You did forget to mention how the position was "just invented" for her. (And her two predecessors, err...)
Basically an M&A due diligence apparatchik. After all MOST patent lawyers also have technical degrees. Doesn't make them scientists though.
"Managing buying other companies for the giant Google" is a very incomplete description of her role there. It is also not incompatible with developing new technology. Sometimes you build a technical capability, sometimes you buy it in. Working out which capabilities are important to you, and how you can develop them, requires an understanding of both the commercial and technical sides of a business. People who can work well at this intersection have rare and important skills. The OP was doing her a disservice and doing so in a faux-objective voice.
So, do you deny the apparent political content of her appointment? Do you always wear rose colored glasses or is it a condition you where born with?
I'm not saying she's not qualified she is (I'd be qualified too, but that's not what we are debating), I'm saying that there are far more qualified people out there, folks who already are CTO's of large businesses so why did they choose her? Political Optics of course.
The choice was drive by the political reality of who she is in private life not her professional skills. I'm not trying to slight her professional experience in saying this though, she can do the job, but she fits the political profile, the desired optics, the media facade of this administration, but she's not the most qualified person available. She's a political appointee and her appointment is about politics, not who's the Chief Technology Officer of the Federal Government. Appointments for political reasons is a very common occurrence in Washington DC, please take off the rose colored glasses.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Stop covering for your closeted robosexual tendencies, transistor tweaker!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
There may or may not be more qualified folks out there, but they need to want to do the job and work with this administration, and that means that they in all likelihood will need to agree with the aims of the administration, so her politics being aligned with his is really not very surprising, is it? It is a feature of the US system of governance, not a bug. If you want a wholly impartial civil service, you need to move to a different country.
As for your claim that you'd also be qualified....I kinda doubt that anyone who writes "where" when they mean "were" and repeats the phrase "rose colored glasses" twice in the same post really is qualified. Are you the CTO or similarly senior executive of a multi-billion dollar company? That's the basic qualification here. I just don't believe you are. Vanishingly few super-senior executives make those sort of basic grammatical and syntactical errors. I wouldn't claim to be such an executive myself, but I've met plenty of them in my professional career.