CTOvision - Latest Comments in The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

CTO Bob Gourley — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:40:48 -0000

Steven, Thanks much for the comment and the pointer to your post, which I enjoyed reading.
I'll see you on Twitter.
Cheers,
Bob

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

Steven Mandzik — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:35:31 -0000

Bob - great post and Im glad u called them megatrends. Im working the inside on this one and Im seeing the changes but only when i take the 30,000 foot view.
I really believe that strong leadership and modern views on our reality will make the biggest difference. I hope that either Obama can bring these elements to bear. Or, that economic troubles will force us to move forward.
I recently wrote that one of your megatrends UC is completely passing the intelligence community by.
http://www.swordplay.tv/2008/11/07/unified-communications-completely-useful-forgotten-in-intelligence/
It seems like mobile devices will too. We'll go right into the next one, cloud computing to see if we can get that one down.
Also, to Joe's point, I recently heard a former head of MI-5 talk and she mentioned the same exact thing. As our world vision becomes more linked and silo's are broken down, our allies will become all the more useful. Though, the real truth is they are already extremely useful as a lot of the latest worldwide successes to threats have shown.

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

CTO Bob Gourley — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:40:48 -0000

Steven, Thanks much for the comment and the pointer to your post, which I enjoyed reading.
I&#039ll see you on Twitter.
Cheers,
Bob

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

CTO Bob Gourley — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:40:48 -0000

Steven, Thanks much for the comment and the pointer to your post, which I enjoyed reading.
I&#039ll see you on Twitter.
Cheers,
Bob

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

Steven Mandzik — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:35:31 -0000

Bob - great post and Im glad u called them megatrends. Im working the inside on this one and Im seeing the changes but only when i take the 30,000 foot view.
I really believe that strong leadership and modern views on our reality will make the biggest difference. I hope that either Obama can bring these elements to bear. Or, that economic troubles will force us to move forward.
I recently wrote that one of your megatrends UC is completely passing the intelligence community by.
http://www.swordplay.tv/2008/11/07/unified-commun...
It seems like mobile devices will too. We&#039ll go right into the next one, cloud computing to see if we can get that one down.
Also, to Joe&#039s point, I recently heard a former head of MI-5 talk and she mentioned the same exact thing. As our world vision becomes more linked and silo&#039s are broken down, our allies will become all the more useful. Though, the real truth is they are already extremely useful as a lot of the latest worldwide successes to threats have shown.

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

Steven Mandzik — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:35:31 -0000

Bob - great post and Im glad u called them megatrends. Im working the inside on this one and Im seeing the changes but only when i take the 30,000 foot view.
I really believe that strong leadership and modern views on our reality will make the biggest difference. I hope that either Obama can bring these elements to bear. Or, that economic troubles will force us to move forward.
I recently wrote that one of your megatrends UC is completely passing the intelligence community by.
http://www.swordplay.tv/2008/11/07/unified-commun...
It seems like mobile devices will too. We&#039ll go right into the next one, cloud computing to see if we can get that one down.
Also, to Joe&#039s point, I recently heard a former head of MI-5 talk and she mentioned the same exact thing. As our world vision becomes more linked and silo&#039s are broken down, our allies will become all the more useful. Though, the real truth is they are already extremely useful as a lot of the latest worldwide successes to threats have shown.

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

Bob Gourley — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:04:02 -0000

Joe,
Thanks much-- as always I appreciate your comments and context. And I agree strongly with your observation of the convergence of foreign and domestic being enabled because of IT.
v/r,
Bob

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

Joseph Mazzafro — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:37:53 -0000

A couple of weeks ago one of then "candidate" Obama's intel advisers asked me what I thought the most important issue/trend was or would be in intelligence for a new administration. I sai without hesitation "convergence" but I did not mean IT convergence I meant the convergence of foreign and domestic intelligence, which our Intel Community is not well organized to deal with (i.e. the Wall Debate from the 9/11 Commission Hearings). Of course, this the convergence of foreign and domestic intelligence is possibility because it can be enabled by IT convergence
joemaz

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

Bob Gourley — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:10:43 -0000

Teri I have to agree and wish I would have commented on that. This could be a very virtuous approach because of the enhanced security, functionality and capability. Then you add in the fact that it could generate huge economies of scale and it just makes more sense.
Thanks,
Bob

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

tericee — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:41:08 -0000

Aside from the security aspect that's been commented on, I think there's a cost savings to be found. Numerous government agencies spend lots of money reinventing the wheel because there's no single organization that's keeping track of all the different projects. Within the DoD alone, there are several organizations that are trying to save money by thinking as "an enterprise." Imagine the economies of scale if the whole federal government the (only) enterprise.

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

CTO Bob Gourley — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:04:02 -0000

Joe,
Thanks much-- as always I appreciate your comments and context. And I agree strongly with your observation of the convergence of foreign and domestic being enabled because of IT.
v/r,
Bob

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

CTO Bob Gourley — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:04:02 -0000

Joe,
Thanks much-- as always I appreciate your comments and context. And I agree strongly with your observation of the convergence of foreign and domestic being enabled because of IT.
v/r,
Bob

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

Joseph Mazzafro — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 01:37:53 -0000

A couple of weeks ago one of then "candidate" Obama&#039s intel advisers asked me what I thought the most important issue/trend was or would be in intelligence for a new administration. I sai without hesitation "convergence" but I did not mean IT convergence I meant the convergence of foreign and domestic intelligence, which our Intel Community is not well organized to deal with (i.e. the Wall Debate from the 9/11 Commission Hearings). Of course, this the convergence of foreign and domestic intelligence is possibility because it can be enabled by IT convergence
joemaz

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

Joseph Mazzafro — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 01:37:53 -0000

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

CTO Bob Gourley — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:10:43 -0000

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

CTO Bob Gourley — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:10:43 -0000

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

tericee — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:41:08 -0000

Aside from the security aspect that&#039s been commented on, I think there&#039s a cost savings to be found. Numerous government agencies spend lots of money reinventing the wheel because there&#039s no single organization that&#039s keeping track of all the different projects. Within the DoD alone, there are several organizations that are trying to save money by thinking as "an enterprise." Imagine the economies of scale if the whole federal government the (only) enterprise.

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

Teri Centner — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:41:08 -0000

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

CTO Bob Gourley — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:12:16 -0000

Tim, thanks for the comments. I think we can make dramatic, order of magnitude (maybe even two order of magnitude) improvements in the state of IT security, if we have a strong federal CTO who can articulate and move out on this vision.
Cheers,
Bob

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

Tim Stewart — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:45:51 -0000

Here is a quite timely article pertinent to the security commentary.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Can-the-Air-Force-Change-the-Internet-Rules-of-Engagement/?kc=EWKNLSTE11062008STR1

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

Tim Stewart — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:41:06 -0000

Bob,
I'm teaching a graduate course in security this term (CIS 523 - Security in Distributed Systems). One of the papers I make the students author is an opinion/argument piece reacting the statement, "A Computer Network is NEVER secure."
I wish I had your optimism and faith in the bureaucratic condition, but the "perimeter skirmishes" would be harder to overcome than the security issues, which are largely reactive in nature due to how this game is played.
As always, I deeply enjoy reading your work.

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

CTO Bob Gourley — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:36:33 -0000

For David: Thanks much. Please keep the ideas coming. I'll keep noodling on them and I hope others do as well. I especially like your change comment. The fact is that our cheese is about to be moved. Or maybe we should be the guys moving it?
Cheers,
Bob

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

CTO Bob Gourley — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:34:12 -0000

For Lewis: That's a good point and I might be a bit optimistic on that point, the bad guys will always try to find a way, but this is not a time for you or anyone else to aim low. The goal should be zero unauthorized accesses to the federal enterprise. And a strong CTO who really knows her or his stuff can tackle that and should have the task, in my opinion.

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

David Simon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:11:48 -0000

IMHO...there are a lot of factors to look at and consider and of course in this town (DC that is) everyone has an angle.
1. I think his policy and being so instrumental in 'google for government' is a strong indication of the direction this administration will head. For companies that embrace UNIX based platforms I think this is a great opportunity. I also believe that the emerging business leaders / entrepreneurs of the world will have a shot at designing a lot of plug-ins and other apps that leverage the architecture.
2. I think another dynamic that has entered into play now is that young leaders and voters are both inspired and empowered. Over the next 2-4 years young leaders will run for political positions that they never would have considered before and because they are comfortable leveraging technology...they will quickly out run and out maneuver the old guards of the political system.
This dynamic opens the doors for those who embrace the youth and young leaders and dare I say it “CHANGE”.
3. Too many people are unaware that the current administration has poured a lot of money into energy initiatives so I will be interested to see if those dollars are reallocated to different initiatives or more money goes that direction. So P,C, and S ideas like what Cisco is proposing may do very well.
4. I think that the CNCI will make for an interesting dynamic and increased funding to support the IC’s Cyber Command.

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

lewis shepherd — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:56:18 -0000

Not sure I'd be as optimistic on this point: "Most, if not all, unauthorized intrusions into federal systems could be prevented with a strong CTO in place."
We'll sit down in 4 years and do a retrospective analysis on that score.