What should the CTO do?

As we've discussed already, the web is buzzing over who might be chosen to be our nation's first chief technology officer. But perhaps more important is the question, what should he or she do?

We're still not sure whether the first national CTO is supposed to be a CIO-in-chief, tasked with successfully carrying out existing federal IT programs or something entirely different, a position in charge of creating new ways for the government to use the Internet to interact with citizens.

But either way, if you've got any ideas about what the CTO's priorities should be, head over to ObamaCTO.org where you can submit your suggestions and vote for up to 10 issues you think he or she should address. Right now the leading vote-getter is "Ensuring the Internet is widely accessible & network neutral." Other popular measures include opening up government data as well as repealing the Patriot and Digital Millenium Copyright Acts.

Something tells me most of the folks doing the voting aren't exactly members of the federal IT community.

One side note: We're going to be blogging regularly about the transition and the Obama administration's plans for IT in the federal government over the coming months. If you've heard anything from within your agency, or you've come across any tips, links or information that you think might be of interest to readers, you can send them along to gnagesh@nextgov.com. Anonymity is available by request.