Ayesha and Parag Khanna have some useful and original thoughts on the CTO position. Forget about who it will be: what form should the position take? As the Khannas point out, "So-called 'czars' have been appointed for drugs, the war in Iraq, the financial industry, and the auto sector—none of them have worked very well." Instead, the CTO should focus "on technology lessons from the countries that have overtaken the U.S. already, the practices of companies that have top CTOs, and a flexible strategy for implementing policy across the sprawling federal government."

I agree: the CTO should not be in charge of yet another piece of government, akin to a "Secretary of Technology," but a coordinator. What I hear them saying is: When it comes to government operations, don't take on individual projects like revamping health care IT or improving the homeland security watchlist. Instead, just help the agencies responsible for those missions do a better job at managing their information. Enforce government-wide standards for data structure and availability. Of course, the end goal of this coordination is to have better health care and security IT, but the means of achieving those goals should be different from how we've done things in the past.

PDF Founder Andrew Rasiej has hit on this point before: "Technology is not a slice of the pie. It's the pan."