I was at Yearly Kos, and attended Governor Warner's sky-high bash, with strawberries, pineapple, and chicken on a stick (the shrimp weren't on sticks--they were individual fried breaded pucks). I don't drink, so the open bar held no appeal. It was a shrewd move on his part, to wow people with a real treat, seen by some as a down payment (an extravagant, old school, schmooze fest), and by others as a reward (acknowledgement of the arrival of a new force in political discourse). When confronted with an either-or choice, I usually select the both-and answer. He was of course both acknowledging us and courting more attention.
Lost in the blog-chatter of whether Warner really "gets" the internet (and blogs, and IT) is the question of what kind of policies he'd pursue if he achieves the presidency. Would he regulate blogs, would he support net neutrality, would he create a national technology policy?
Gov. Warner's time in the statehouse provides some hints. He clearly thinks big, but can he think outside the corporatist box? I often think that big executives need big levers to pull. To the extent Warner grasps people-powered politics, he may see us as enablers of corporate efficiencies.
Don't get me wrong. I like Warner, and he was very good for Virginia. I'm grateful he helped elect Tim Kaine, and if his strategist "Mudcat" Saunders, who is running Jim Webb's Senatorial campaign, continues to win, it's another feather in his cap. He has an eye for talent. I submit this in the spirit of anticipatory oppo research. What is really going on here?
Early in his tenure as Governor, Warner created the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, which aimed to consolidate IT infrastructure from about 90 executive branch agencies. Some of the projected benefits were compelling. State agencies used many different email systems, and even more IT procurement protocols. Economies of scale in purchasing were being missed, and redundant and inefficient server farms were scattered throughout downtown Richmond.
Warner installed George Newstrom, from EDS, Ross Perot's former company, Asian division, as Secretary of Technology. Newstrom's Deputy was Eugene Huang, a brilliant young technologist, marathoner, scholar, and Warner acolyte. Huang ascended to the top spot after Newstrom left for a private sector job, and stayed until new Governor Kaine appointed Aneesh Chopra (also connected to Warner's business circles).
Over the course of several years, the justification for this state IT consolidation has shifted, and not at all subtly. In the beginning, this ambitious undertaking was billed as a way for state government to rein in spiraling costs and achieve efficiencies. In the end, the job has turned into a $2 billion contract for Northrop Grumman, a defense contractor moving into enterprise IT management, an "evergreen" business.
The question we're left with is: were the initial estimates of cost savings wildly off the mark, and completely out of reach for a state work force, or was this always conceived as a project that would ultimately end in a giant outsourcing contract? To give this the benefit of a both-and answer, it may be that the attempt was made to achieve the transition in-house. But given the state's inability to pay top dollar for truly top talent (and this level of integration is virtually unprecedented), the writing may have been on the wall from the beginning.
Warner was a Governor who initiated a major IT restructuring with all the populist fanfare of using home-grown talent to achieve ambitious goals, Yet it resulted in another huge government give-away to a giant corporate defense contractor.
Where is the people power?
VITA http://www.vita.virginia.gov/
Chopra http://www.technology.virginia.gov/... http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Huang http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Warner and VITA http://govtech.public-cio.com/... http://www.informationweek.com/...
Northrop http://www.it.northropgrumman.com/...
EDS http://www.eds.com/...
VITA CIO http://osc.input.com/...
Newstrom http://www.cio.com/... http://www.fcw.com/...