Trump is Launching a New Tech Group To 'Transform and Modernize' the US Govt (recode.net)

President Donald Trump announced on Monday he has signed an executive order creating a new technology council to "transfer and modernize" the U.S. government's IT systems. From a report: The gathering is part of a new effort, called the American Technology Council, commissioned by Trump in an executive order signed this morning. The effort seeks to bring leading government officials together with Silicon Valley's top minds in order to "transform and modernize" the aging federal bureaucracy "and how it uses and delivers information." Trump isn't the first sitting U.S. president to look to Silicon Valley in an attempt to bring government into the digital age. His predecessor, former President Barack Obama, similarly launched efforts like the U.S. Digital Service, which the administration billed at the time as a "startup at the White House" that sought to pair tech experts with federal agencies that needed help. Over 20 technology chief executives will attend meetings at the White House in early June to talk about improving government information technology, the report adds.

Comments

Let the filling of the Feeding Trough begin

[gtall]

Said the CEO of Oracle: what ya need there is a collection of giant databases...and cloud, let there be cloud
Said the CEO of Microsoft: what ya need there is a PC or MS compatible computing thing on every desk...and cloud, let there be cloud
Said the CEO of Apple: what ya need there is a collection of iThings for instant communication...errr..with the cloud, let there be cloud
Said the CEO of IBM: what ya need there is a Watson AI Cloudy Thingy in every agency...more cloud for every one
etc.
etc.
etc.

Coincidence? Probably not.

[OmniGeek]

The story immediately preceding this one is titled "There's No Good Way To Kill a Bad Idea." I see a theme emerging here, and feel like running for cover. Very fast.

Re:Coincidence? Probably not.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, that whole healthcare thing was clearly just the left chanting "racist, sexist, misogyny."

Ditto for pulling the US economy out of the real estate crash. And repealing "don't ask, don't tell." And banning enhanced interrogation. And opening diplomatic relations with Cuba after 50 years. And the Opening Doors program that reduced homelessness among veterans by almost 50%. And putting ITT out of business and ending decades of exploitation of students. And improving school food nutrition standards.

Yes, the left spends a lot of time chanting about racism, sexism and misogyny. Perhaps if the right stopped being a bunch of racist, sexist, misogynists, the left would have time to tackle other issues. Until then, we aren't going to shut up and we will keep calling you out and exposing your behavior.

Re:Coincidence? Probably not.

[Gr8Apes]

TBH, this is another "Trump is evil" post

Nah, nothing of the sort. I see no use of polarizing terms, even.

This is why 1/2 of America doesn't take the whiny left seriously any more. The left has no ideas left, and all they have is "RACIST, SEXIST, MISOGYNY" chants and rioting.

I think this is why more than 1/2 of america strongly dislikes Trump (and his blind supporters) Being divisive and using polarizing terms and assigning imaginary actions to those not marching to the cliff with you does not make for a conversation starter. You might want to check your meds.

A "royal" regime

[evolutionary]

Trump's idea of a "modern government" is medieval: put all your family and friends into key positions as much as possible and hope you can run it like a monarchy. problem is the family has no real qualifications in national or international politics. So this will be fun, fun, fun.

Re:A "royal" regime

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of Trump's other ways to "modernize" government, based on recent statements and actions:

1. Libel laws should be adjusted making it illegal to mock or contradict the US President.

2. Laws on disclosure, conflicts of interest, or dealings with foreign powers should be repealed.

3. Any news organization determined to be promulgating Fake News as determined by the Chief Executive or the Ministry of Truth should be shut down. In the spirit of item #1, this includes annoying venues such as the Onion or Saturday Night Live.

4. Any scientifically-measured data that does not uphold the statements of the President or his duly appointed relatives/cronies should be tagged as Fake News and treated as outlined in item #3.

5. Any laws of nature deemed inconvenient to the President or his duly appointed relatives/cronies should be summarily repealed.

Re:A "royal" regime

[__aaclcg7560]

So you're whining about two positions, his daughter and son-in-law, that could be questionable out of five million? It's really hard to take you people seriously.

Congress passed an anti-nepotism law after JFK appointed his brother to attorney general to prevent future administrations from appointing family members to positions in the government. Just like most reform laws from the last 50 years, Trump is ignoring that one too.

http://time.com/4574971/donald-trump-transition-jared-kushner-legal-anti-nepotism-law/

It's really hard to take you people seriously.

If Hillary was POTUS and she appointed Chelsea as a special adviser, the Republicans would be screaming for impeachment.

Re:Jared?

[Joce640k]

Yep. The problem isn't that the government isn't "digital" enough, the problem is that it's run by people who wouldn't recognize the scientific method if it was served to them on a plate with a sprig of parsley on top.

If he goes to Silicon Valley all he'll find is a bunch of people who want to sell him a lot of useless new computers+software under a lucrative government contract.

It should be easy

[Rastl]

Just like fixing healthcare and the tax code revising the entire IT infrastructure for the federal government should be easy right?

Re: Please don't move to public cloud.

[networkBoy]

Um...
I believe the NSA is rather good at this. (I'm being serious)
Maybe they can redeem themselves and put some of that internal cloud capability they have up for general government usage?
They have the following skills/assets already in-house:
* Security
* Archiving
* Indexing
* Infrastructure
* Scalability
* Tons of other crap.

I'll give bonus points for re-using the existing equipment and drop table-ing the meta data they have on US citizens.

The Cyber

[Arkham]

And I quote:

So we have to get very, very tough on cyber and cyber warfare. It is a, it is a huge problem. I have a son.

He's 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it's unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it's hardly do-able. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing, but that's true throughout our whole governmental society.

What a fucking moron.

Misread that

[AdamThor]

Uh, "Transform and Modernize", or "Transfer and Monetize"?