A New Year Announcement

Let me start the New Year by announcing that I have a new job as the CTO of the US Social Security Administration. I am in an appointed position, part of the President’s administration, but with a technical, not a political or policy charter.  It is daunting and exciting… The SSA IT staff are switched on and extremely competent… the idea that government IT staff are zombies is just bunk… and I expect we’ll do some good work together over the next two years.

Part of my confidence comes from the momentum generated by the healthcare.gov program. While the public discussion about the rollout was political… both parties, and especially the President, recognized that the Silicon Valley team led by Mikey Dickerson, managed to turn it around very quickly… and that maybe there were more opportunities in other programs to move things along.

So wish me luck.

Rob