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White House Names Ed Felten As Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer

Posted by samzenpus on from the putting-a-team-together dept.

New submitter bird writes: Ed Felton, Director of Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) and well-known and outspoken consumer advocate, has been appointed deputy US chief technology officer. His is a voice of reason that needs to be heard when tech policy is made. The press release says: "We are excited to announce that Dr. Ed Felten is joining the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer. Ed joins a growing number of techies at the White House working to further President Obama’s vision to ensure policy decisions are informed by our best understanding of state-of-the-art technology and innovation, to quickly and efficiently deliver great services for the American people, and to broaden and deepen the American people’s engagement with their government."

7 of 27 comments (clear)

  1. Riiiiiiiiight by sexconker · · Score: 4, Funny

    White House Press Goons:
    "Ed joins a growing number of techies at the White House working to further President Obama’s vision to ensure policy decisions are informed by our best understanding of state-of-the-art technology and innovation, to quickly and efficiently deliver great services for the American people, and to broaden and deepen the American people’s engagement with their government."

    Dr. Evil:
    "Riiiiiiiiight."

  2. April 1st comes again?!?!? by rsborg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm more amazed that Ed signed up.

    But seriously between this, and the moves that the FCC will actually implement Title 2 protections to uphold Net Neutrality, my hopes for humanity (and the US Govt in general) have gone up a bit.

    Fingers crossed...

    --
    Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
    1. Re:April 1st comes again?!?!? by Frobnicator · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm more amazed that Ed signed up.

      But seriously between this, and the moves that the FCC will actually implement Title 2 protections to uphold Net Neutrality, my hopes for humanity (and the US Govt in general) have gone up a bit.

      Since it is an opportunity to hopefully make some improvements, I cannot imagine him turning it down.

      I'm not exactly sure what a Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer does, other than that he would be #4 or #5 down the pecking order (at least) in the CTO list, below Megan Smith and the others.

      I'd be interested in knowing how much he worked to get the job. Some of these require quite a lot of politicking to get the position, other positions are recommended by external groups.

      I also was slightly surprised by the announcement, but considering just how low my hopes are for the federal government, I don't imagine much change. I can imagine Ed Felton getting frustrated with just how little power the position actually has. Mr Obama has gone through three CTOs already, and most of them can list their biggest achievements as "making web sites for the government". Mr Chopra basically made web-accessible veterans health records, Mr Park built healthcare.gov, and Ms Smith is mostly just trying to clean up messes on their web sites.

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      //TODO: Think of witty sig statement
  3. Re:short-term by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Also, if Ed is holding this position, then there's suddenly a lot of stuff he's not allowed to say to the public. It's probably in his best interests for this to be a short-term gig.

  4. Good News by Etherwalk · · Score: 2

    I'm more amazed that Ed signed up.

    But seriously between this, and the moves that the FCC will actually implement Title 2 protections to uphold Net Neutrality, my hopes for humanity (and the US Govt in general) have gone up a bit.

    Fingers crossed...

    It's basically the time post-second-election when the Pres starts to worry less about election of his party in the future and more about doing the right thing. So we're had more DoJ civil rights investigations, more support for net neutrality, etc...

  5. Lyndon B. Johnson by Tokolosh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    “It's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”

    --
    Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
  6. Watermark by tepples · · Score: 2

    The Obama administration's US Trade Representative is negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, yet another treaty to export copyright provisions friendly to the RIAA and MPAA to other countries. So it hires Ed Felten, the guy who cracked the RIAA's Secure Digital Music Initiative watermark scheme, as its deputy CTO. The left hand knows not what the right hand does.