Bush urged not to name federal CIO

President Bush should not name a chief information officer to preside over the federal government's technology endeavors, Jeremy Sharrard, an Internet policy analyst for Forrester Research said in a brief issued last week.

Sharrard said naming a CIO within the White House's Office of Management and Budget would be a "mistake" because the task is too big for one person, organizational problems are too deep and centralizing the CIO role is not progress.

Sharrard said Bush instead should "create cross-agency work groups charged with identifying potential activity-based offerings--such as studentloan.gov, taxes.gov and businessfilings.gov--and recommending budgeting structures to support their visions."

Sharrard also stressed the need for e-government strategies focused separately on transactions between government and consumers, government and businesses, and government and government.