A CTO’s views on the new Fed CTO

I’m very pleased with the pick of Aneesh Chopra as the Federal Government’s CTO.  I wish I could add more context than that, and was thinking of a quick biographical sketch of Aneesh and some ideas on why this is great news.  Then I read Tim O’Reilly’s post at OReilly Radar, and frankly I just totally agree with everything Tim said.  Please check out his post at:

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/04/aneesh-chopra-great-federal-cto.html

Here is an excerpt that particullarly resonated with me:

   “Chopra has been focused for the past three years on the specific technology challenges of government. Industry experience does little to prepare you for the additional complexities of working within the bounds of government policy, competing constituencies, budgets that often contain legislative mandates, regulations that may no longer be relevant but are still in force, and many other unique constraints. In his three year tenure as Secretary for Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, Chopra has demonstrated that he has these skills. In fact, last year, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers ranked Virginia #1 in technology management. “

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I’m very pleased with the pick of Aneesh Chopra as the Federal Government’s CTO.  I wish I could add more context than that, and was thinking of a quick biographical sketch of Aneesh and some ideas on why this is great news.  Then I read Tim O’Reilly’s post at OReilly Radar, and frankly I just totally agree with everything Tim said.  Please check out his post at:

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/04/aneesh-chopra-great-federal-cto.html

Here is an excerpt that particullarly resonated with me:

   “Chopra has been focused for the past three years on the specific technology challenges of government. Industry experience does little to prepare you for the additional complexities of working within the bounds of government policy, competing constituencies, budgets that often contain legislative mandates, regulations that may no longer be relevant but are still in force, and many other unique constraints. In his three year tenure as Secretary for Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, Chopra has demonstrated that he has these skills. In fact, last year, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers ranked Virginia #1 in technology management. “

To me that points to the number one quality you want in a CTO.  A CTO must get results.  A CTO in any large organization has a tough time getting things done, so when you find someone who has gotten results the way Aneesh Chopra has you have found a real champion.

I used to call Vivek Kundra “the Alpha CTO” because of his open collaboration with other CTOs and the leadership by example he gave all of us during his time as CTO of DC.  But now what do I do?  Vivek is still a great guy who will get results, but now there is another great guy who will get results who has the title CTO.   Anyway, it is good to see Aneesh Chopra in place and I know all of us CTOs wish him well.  
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