Archive for November 2nd, 2008
Most read posts for the past 7 days… and CJD recommendations
So I launched the DorobekInsider somewhat quietly in September — I was between jobs at the time — and it has been growing well, thank you very much. Actually, thanks to you. This site has been growing by double-digit percentages week after week. So… thanks for reading.
Most read items on the DorobekInsider for the last week of October 2008:
- Navy out with one of the first Web 2.0 policy memos — I should note that on Tuesday, we will have Robert Carey, the CIO of the Department of Navy, on Federal News Radio’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris
- Dee Lee wins ACT/IAC’s prestigious ACT/IAC Mendenhall award
- Worth watching — A National Dialogue: OMB taps into the power of us
- Mintz’s daughter on The Daily Show — DOT CIO Dan Mintz’s daughter played an undecided voter on The Daily Show. Too funny!
- ELC 2008 — the year without Marty… but in the 10.28 update — real progress
- Happy birthday to… Karen Evans
- IAC’s ELC 2008 — Sunday night: political analyst Charlie Cook
- The food of ELC 2008 — Sunday night, Oct. 26
- What are the big issues for state and local CIOs — and Web 2.0
- Another Oracle buy… this time Haley
- Celebrating a happy new (fiscal) year with the next generation
- More food from ELC — Monday lunch
- A correction… and a even bigger congratulation to Microsoft’s Teresa Carlson
- USCG’s Adm. Thad Allen talks government 2.0
- Evans offers details on the coming memo defining the CIO
- Happy Halloween… by the numbers (Thanks Census)
- Oprah thinks the Kindle is great too!
I often list the CJD favorite items for the past week — but, to be honest, you selected most of them too…
- Navy out with one of the first Web 2.0 policy memos
- Worth watching — A National Dialogue: OMB taps into the power of us… I should note that we have been following this on Federal News Radio’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris. Hear Lena Trudeau of the National Academy of Public Administration here. [MP3]
- Oprah thinks the Kindle is great too! …And I recommend taking a step out to check out the Amazon.com Kindle e-book. I had dinner with my co-anchor Amy Morris and her husband last night and he said, ‘I read a computer screen all day. I can’t imagine reading a book that way.’ You need to check out the Kindle because this sure doesn’t look like a computer screen — and you can upload your own documents right on it. And, thanks to Oprah, you can get $50 off the price right now.
Also culling from a week of interviews on Federal News Radio’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris… a few CJD-favorites.
- Ron Sanders, ODNI’s chief human capital officer, talking about changes in hiring policies that can let intelligence agencies to hire first generation Americans. Hear that interview here. [MP3]
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center CIO Linda Cureton… I posted about Cureton’s wonderful blog post about why she blogs. We had her on the show this week talking about it. Here that interview here. [MP3]
- The National Dialogue’s Lena Trudeau… I have been watching The National Dialogue on health IT and privacy… I have been following it carefully because I think there is a lot of opportunity here. We spoke to Trudeau this past week about how it was going… You can hear that interview here. [MP3]
- Cloud computing… I’ve been fascinated by cloud computing — it sounds so mystical. It is a pretty significant change to the way we use our computers. Suddenly, data wouldn’t be stored on your PC — or even on your own networks. Instead, it is stored over the Internet by big data centers. If you use Yahoo Web mail or Gmail — cloud computing. That was something I was going to post about in and of itself but… there just isn’t time for everything. This week, Federal News Radio’s Jason Miller attended a session on the government and cloud computing — feds are still wary. Hear our conversation here. [MP3] And you can find his full report here. I should also note that The Economist had an excellent report on cloud computing in a recent issue. You can read it here. BusinessWeek also has one of its CEO Tech Guides on cloud computing.
Coming up this week on Federal News Radio’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris… There is a little event coming up on Tuesday that you may have heard about. We’re going to continue covering those issues… and Federal News Radio’s tracking the transition series kicks into high gear.
Other conversations in the days ahead:
- The Navy’s government 2.0 policy… We’ll talk to the Navy CIO Robert Carey on Tuesday
- Transition… We’ll talk to John Kaminsky of the IBM Center for the Business of Government and a blogger about the transition… what will he be watching for? We’ll talk to him Monday.
- A Salute to the Troops… we’ll talk to Microsoft’s Curt Kolcun, who has been heading up A Salute to the Troops.
- Oracle’s government view… We’re going to talk to Oracle exec Anthony Lye — who is also my brother-in-law. As I posted here earlier, Oracle recently had another company purchase — this time in the government world. But Lye is also been in the forefront of evolving role of customer relationship management software. Any guess who is the biggest user of CRM software out there?
- And ongoing coverage of the election and transition… and what it will mean for you. As we say, stay tuned.
The first take at leadership in a new Obama or McCain administration
We’re in the final hours of the 2008 vote — a campaign that seems to have gone on and on and on… Much of my family lives in California, and they often say, ‘It must be so exciting to be ground zero of this election.’ Of course, as DC people know, the election actually is an outside the beltway event — very little of it happens here. But come Wednesday, Nov. 5, that’s when it gets very busy here in DC and for months to come as all the preparations for “transition” come to fruition.
Federal News Radio has been “tracking the transition” for months — and we will for months more. And there are others who are now covering the transition more actively. DC journalism blog Fishbowl DC got their hands on a memo from the WP saying that the paper is going to step up its coverage of the transition and feds. It would be a thrilling change. That being said, the Washington Post used to own Government Computer News and, in my humble opinion, just never got it. That being said, I think it is a very important topic — it’s my career — so I welcome the Post stepping up its coverage.
Politico.com, the start-up Hill newspaper which has become one of my favorite reads, has done two pieces looking at who might be the big cheeses in the new administrations. I’ve picked the ones that I found interesting, but… I have links to Politico’s full lists for Obama and McCain.
The big seats to fill — and quickly — are the jobs of chief of staff, Treasury Secretary — there is a slight economic issue going on — and Defense Secretary — there are two wars going on.
An Obama administration
OK, I know there seems to be some push back with people feeling almost ticked that the projections seems to indicate that we’ll wake up Wednesday morning to President-elect Barack Obama. The fact is that McCain has a much more much more complex path to the White House then Obama does. To me, the fact that McCain is as close as he is… that is just remarkable. Polls won’t matter any more come Tuesday. We’ll know for sure.
So… what might the leadership of an Obama administration look like?
From Politico:
White House chief of staff: Former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.); Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.); or dark horse candidate Bill Daley, commerce secretary under President Bill Clinton and now an executive with JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Defense secretary : Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.); Richard Danzig, Navy secretary under Clinton; John Hamre, president and CEO of CSIS and former deputy secretary of defense; President Bush’s incumbent, Robert Gates — would be for at least a year so he wasn’t a lame duck
Treasury secretary: Former Clinton treasury secretaries Larry Summers and Robert Rubin; FDIC Chairwoman Sheila C. Bair; New York Fed President Timothy Geithner, former Treasury under secretary and assistant secretary; former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker
Homeland Security secretary: Former Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.); William Bratton, Los Angeles police chief and former New York police commissioner; former Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Ind.), a member of the 9/11 Commission; Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.); Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)
and one just fun one…
Secretary of Energy: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.)… My comment — not theirs — the energy Terminator?
A McCain administration
Again, from Politico.com:
Previous reports have indicated that McCain’s transition team, headed by former Navy Secretary John Lehman
White House chief of staff: Lehman or longtime McCain aide and speechwriter Mark Salter
Treasury secretary: FedEx founder Fred Smith; former eBay CEO Meg Whitman; Bain Capital co-founder and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney; John Thain, former Merrill Lynch CEO and now president of Global Banking, Securities and Wealth Management at Bank of America
Secretary of defense: Lehman; Lieberman; Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.); current Defense Secretary Robert Gates
Secretary of state: World Bank President and former deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick; Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.); former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage
Office of Management and Budget: Former Congressional Budget Office director and campaign adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin