Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Obama Takes Step to Improve Government Technology

posted by azrael on Tuesday August 12 2014, @02:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the even-bigger-government dept.

AnonTechie writes:

On Monday the White House announced the creation of a team of digital experts tasked with upgrading the government's technology infrastructure and making its websites more consumer friendly.

The move is aimed at avoiding a repeat of the website debacle that marred the rollout of President Barack Obama's signature health care legislation last year. While the administration ultimately surpassed its enrollment targets, the opening weeks of sign-ups were riddled with website troubles that raised questions about the administration's competence.

The new digital team will be overseen by Mikey Dickerson, an engineer who took leave from Google in order to oversee fixes to the HealthCare.gov site. 

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Obama Takes Step to Improve Government Technology | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 19 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday August 12 2014, @02:50PM

    by Thexalon (636) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 12 2014, @02:50PM (#80471)

    And I sincerely mean that. The UK government created an in-house team not too different from this one, and the end result was that their websites and their government ministries actually ran much better. And by "better", I mean gave out better service (as measured by citizen satisfaction surveys an the like) at the same or lower costs.

    It would certainly be an improvement over hiring an overpriced politically-connected IT firm on a no-bid contract like they did when building healthcare.gov.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Insightful=3, Total=3
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   5  

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Tuesday August 12 2014, @04:43PM

    by Freeman (732) on Tuesday August 12 2014, @04:43PM (#80512) Journal

    What, are you actually saying that just because it costs more that doesn't make it better? Horror of horrors, now they might actually re-think a few things. Oh wait, this is the government we are talking about, accidentally getting one thing right doesn't mean they will apply that knowledge elsewhere.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"