US CTO Aneesh Chopra stepping down | Hacker News Reader

US CTO Aneesh Chopra stepping down

washingtonpost.com

20 pointscarbocation10 comments

I was initially a bit dubious about the role of CTO for the government, but Aneesh Chopra did a great job -- now I'm sold on the need for someone to fill that role, and hopefully the next CTO will be as good as Chopra.

He came up with a coherent cloud strategy for the government (much better than a lot of large enterprises), hopefully a source of substantial savings (and opportunity for startups).

He has some interesting answers on Quora: http://www.quora.com/Aneesh-Chopra-1?q=Aneesh+Chopra

I met Aneesh twice, and while I fully agree with your assessment that we need a CTO for the government, and I also liked the cloud strategy [1] document put together - I found him to be very "politician"; i.e. very slimy.

While talking to him - he made very little real effort to listen and was very "wink wink, point-gun-hand-and-shoot used car salesman like"

I was completely turned off by his demeanor and utterly drained by his responses.

There were a lot of people vying for his attention though - so that could have really been it - but it was such a lame experience I had no faith in his being real.

His responses were very canned and far too buzz-wordy to be meaningful I totally wrote him off as a poser.

[1]: http://www.cio.gov/documents/federal-cloud-computing-strateg...

Most CIOs in large enterprises are more politician than tech, too, unfortunately.

I am very familiar with the CIO role.

If you have any technical chops you can spot bullshit a mile a way - especially when it comes to non-trivial highly complex systems.

This guy was snow job "dazzle them with details, baffle them with bullshit" to the core.

As someone who has been in silicon valley for 17 years I feel comfortable with my evaluation of him.

So what's your assessment of what he actually accomplished (or didn't) while in office? Agree or disagree with rdl on that?

Note that this follows former US CIO Vivek Kundra's resignation last year (he's now an EVP at Salesforce).

I wonder if this is just the typical cabinet exodus for more lucrative private jobs or more endemic of a difficult time advancing tech issues under Obama.

Not necessarily trying to take anything away from Mr. Chopra here, but the article is (unfortunately, amazingly) light on noting his accomplishments. They didn't even try to summarize or link to news stories documenting what he accomplished as CTO.

What is the function of this role? Is it to define the administration's technology strategy? Is the CTO involved in policy and legislative discussions?

While I see the need to have someone in charge of the nation's IT infrastructure, I sort of cringe at the idea of calling that position 'CTO'. It brings all of the expectations of corporate america to the position that I don't think belong there. As much as I think companies are one of the best ways to innovate and compete in the world I don't think government should be run like a company.

CTO is a top down position where you get to call the shots. This government position is just doesn't have that kind of power (nor should it) and I think the name should reflect that. Just one example: this CTO probably can't fire or persuade the president to oust the people that he has to work with that are compromising his vision. That means that one of the tools a CTO has at their disposal is totally removed.

Perhaps a small detail but one that I think is important.

Not a great vindication of the new CIO/CTO roles created within governments, if the 2 of them only lasted a couple of years in what should have been the most exciting and challenging phase of their careers.

Sad but true. But more a testament to the difficulty, and frustration, of getting things done in government rather than the lack of an intrinsic need for the CTO/CIO positions.

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