Obama appoints technology team

By Iain Thomson on Nov 20, 2008 3:15 PM
Filed under Strategy

President-elect Barack Obama has named the three person technology team who will decide on the priorities for the new administration - including a senior Google employee.

The technology, innovation and government reform policy working group will consist of ex-FCC staffer Blair Levin, Julius Genachowski (formerly chief council to the FCC) and Sonal Shah, the head of Google’s philanthropic arm Google.org.

The team will formulate the priorities of the new government and decide on policy issues to be addressed. Chief among these is likely to be net neutrality, as a bill on the issue has already been promised.

Another campaign pledge was greater transparency in government, with more data being published for businesses and individuals to examine.

The team will also have input into the choice for the new role of chief technology officer of the country. Genachowski has been mentioned as a possible candidate in some circles but no statement is expected on the role soon.