Tech could ease the presidential transition

One benefit of cloud-based collaboration tools that have been implemented during the Obama administration is their information stores may provide valuable insight and context for a rush of new employees during a Romney administration or even a second Obama term, government watchers said Thursday.

“What I see happening now with the new tools that are out there for workforce development and new people coming in is a more deliberate process to try to capture knowledge, so when new people come in there’s a sense of knowing where things are,” said Alan Shark, executive director of the Public Technology Institute.

Technologically -enabled training programs for new appointees could also help ease the strain of future presidential transitions, he said.

Shark is co-author of a "Memo to National Leaders" focused on IT and transparency commissioned by the National Academy of Public Administration. He was speaking during a NAPA event introducing the memo.

Another of the memo’s authors, Dan Chenok, led a portion of the Obama transition team focused on technology in government in 2008. He noted that was the first time technology had been pulled out as a cross-government priority during a presidential transition.