[LINK] web: 'We are failing': Digital Transformation Office CEO Paul Shetler warns publ ...

[Glen Turner]

It's just another "CTO as saviour" article, with a good salting of 
"overseas experience".  All a bit less rosy if you search 
theregister.co.uk for "government data service".

The article didn't ask many non-fluff questions: budget, 
responsibility[1], deliverables, timelines, measurable benefits to people.

I dislike statements which say government should benchmark itself against 
private enterprise without first checking to see they are doing comparable 
things. And even then. I can tell you that although both take your money 
and give you goods and services in return, people will report a poorer 
experience with the ATO than with Amazon no matter how good a job the ATO 
did.

The GDS experience was that everything had to be shoehorned into a common 
presentation, and that this lead to a substantial dumbing-down (or even 
removal) where there was complex content used by professional 
practitioners. I would have hoped a reporter would have asked about that.

-glen

 [1] You'll remember that responsibility for government IT belongs to Dept
     of Finance (minister Cormann, dept secretary Halton) not to 
     Communications (minister Turnbull, dept secretary Clarke).

-- 
Glen Turner <http://www.gdt.id.au/~gdt/>