5 ms·
10 contenders (and one real long shot) for Obama's CTO
- bprater 18y agoWhere is Cringely?!
- henning 18y agoWhere's RMS? Where's Fake Steve Jobs?!
- jeremyw 18y agoMore interestingly, where is John Doerr's other recommendation: Danny Hillis -- another broad thinker about society and technology.
- fourlittlebees 18y agoHopefully nowhere near any kind of shortlist for any position that would drive tech in this country.
- tptacek 18y agoI would be shocked if they hired a celebrity for this post. That said, because it's fun, I'll handicap: * Lessig and Felten are dead in the water; while I mostly agree with them, they're ideologues on topics that will make them Senate-unconfirmable (is this position Senate-confirmable?). Also, neither of them have applicable management experience. * Schmidt isn't leaving Google. * Bill Joy doesn't have any management experience, although he's clearly campaigning for the spot. * Ballmer and Bezos seems plausible; Ballmer might take it as life raft from Microsoft, and Bezos seems open to random ventures. By the way, I'd be thrilled to see it be Bezos. * The three non-celebs (Genachowski, Shah, Gips) seem like they're shortlisted. I think we're probably paying a lot more attention to this CTO title than the transition team is, given our biases.
- ilamont 18y agoI wrote the article, and I found your comment about the three non-celebs to be quite interesting. Do you think their government/Washington experience be seen as an asset, or a hindrance in an Obama administration? I also wonder how sharp billionaire tech entrepreneurs would fare running a federal bureaucracy and dealing with Congress. Anyone?
- gaius 18y agoWhy did you not consider Burt Rutan? He is a genuine pioneer (i.e. he doesn't just do stuff with computers, he's out there risking his life) and he has plenty of experience of working with government.
- ilamont 18y agoI hadn't heard or read that he was being considered, or that others had recommended him/think he would be a good choice. Since I wrote this, I've heard three new names. It might warrant a follow-up ...
- ilamont 18y agoSome more names: http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/08/078245 http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/08/078245
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- nickb 18y agoWhat a horrible list.