Agencies Still Struggling To Innovate
The longstanding belief that the U.S. government cannot fail continues to propagate a low tolerance of risk among agency Web managers despite the Obama administration's ambitious high-tech agenda, the team leader for a unit of USA.gov that provides online training and tools told a crowd at the Personal Democracy Forum's annual conference Monday. "We're told don't screw up because it will get on front page of Washington Post. That underlies everything you do," Sheila Campbell said. That culture of hesitancy paired with a personnel system that lets poorly performing employees stay in jobs without adequate tech training for many years, is impeding innovation, she added.
At the same time, watchdog groups that criticize the U.S. government for being slow to improve its Web presence need to realize that federal Web managers are drowning in data. Campbell acknowledged that no one truly knows how many government Web sites actually exist but said a good estimate is around 24,000 -- and some have more than one million pages apiece. Adding to the complexity is the fact that outdated content on those pages is not taken down in a timely fashion and laws like the Paperwork Reduction Act have not kept pace with the Internet era. Campbell said a variety efforts are underway to overhaul aging rules and recruit innovative people. President Obama has led by example, hiring Aneesh Chopra, Vivek Kundra, Beth Noveck and others.
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