Coach Adam - Comments

Disagree a bit...they really need to understand the technology from a big picture perspective. Need someone that wears both hats. - Alex Scoble

21 more comments

Can walk the walk, but can also figure out how much it's going to cost and how to help businesses prosper in the new economy. - Alex Scoble

I was thinking someone with an extremely strong business background. Pretty much the same thing as "economics" in my book. Problem is that someone of this caliber would have to be retired or close to it. Most people in tech I'd consider for the job are well connected on corporate boards and extremely well compensated raising concern about conflict of interest. Not sure how that end of... more... - Jim Goldstein

If they don't "get" technology, they need not apply. Also we need someone willing to take risks to get things done. - Alex Scoble

The ability to merge FriendFeed threads, especially on the USA CTO topic. - Anthony Citrano

Business background & a hobbyist interest towards technology. Someone who can see where things will go, not just how they work. - Roger Kondrat

I think the CTO of America needs a strong education background. Technology and its applications start and end with education. - Nate Westheimer

@anthony, howzibout the ability to merge friendfeed and twitter data - Jeremiah Owyang

I commented 2x on Scoble's blog and both are still in moderation. What do I need to do to be heard? @scobleizer - Andrea Baker

They need to understand tech, but not be too tied to the industry. Look at Fortune 50 CTOs from non-tech companies. Preferably from companies who have very broad technology deployments and use both commercial and Open Source systems - Chris Garrigues

Totally disagree. That would be a Chief Financial Officer, not a Chier Technical Officer - there are more than enough number pushers around Washington - but the true geeks are few and far between in Government. - Lucretia Pruitt

@Jeremiah that might be asking too much. ;p - Anthony Citrano

Lucretia It's not so much a numbers thing, as this person would know how technology will impact the economy. - Jeremiah Owyang

But they also need to understand where we need to go big picture wise...something which cannot always be put into numbers. You can't quantify why businesses should blog, for instance. You can't push for one laptop per child in every home in America with any real certainty of the future impact to the economy. - Alex Scoble

I don't think any one has every *really* had their finger on the pulse of how technology will impact the economy. But I'm more of a mind that an American CTO needs to be more about how economy will shape the society, not the economy. I'm just having a hard time articulating what I mean at the moment. So going to concede that it's likely that we'll end up with a 'business guy' rather than a 'tech guy'. - Lucretia Pruitt

I disagree that a tech focused only CTO. The value of a Fed level CTO is to modernize govt, increase productivity, creatively apply new tech, educate the exec branch and provide guidance to the legislative branch like the Federal Reserve for economics. - Jim Goldstein

A governmental CTO position would help shape the government's policy and role on the tech infrastructure. In many respects, the CTO is defined by the President. But, the president's views are also shaped by the CTO if it's a cabinet-level position. With technology playing such a large role in government, the nation's economy, etc., the individual filling the role would not only have to... more... - Pratik Patel

I think they need to be in an early majority mindset - figure out what tech is sustainable and what needs more time. - Erica Toelle

Um.. I don't really believe there is a such thing as an "American" company anymore, beyond the pre- IPO period. As for "governmental" a CTO must understand that To have this kind of closed economical mindset is not beneficial in todays increasingly global economy and to the States. A CTO who is hired should understand this and be able to work on a broader basis, or we risk further economical issues. A smart person uses all talent available and markets that talent depending on the world we live in. - InPerpetualMotion(Gina k)

Can't answer until I see the detailed job description. - Bill Sanders

yeah! I have much better things to do - like drink beer and FriendFeed! - Bill Sanders

drunk twitted experiment over - just posted on the wrong thread. ;-) - Bill Sanders

Gina is spot on, a CTO must be able to answer one main question "How does our technology strategy support our value adding activities in a cost efficient manner while still providing us enough flexibility to respond/take advantage of changing conditions and customer needs?" At SAPPHIRE most middle IT managers had no idea what their org's strategy was and only focused on being measured on building to spec in the right time for the right cost. They therefore had no idea what were the value adding processes. - Coach Adam

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