When for the first time news about the takeover of Elon Musk’s technology by the United States, many people who spent years, trying to transform federal IT practices, were surprisingly full of hope. Perhaps they dreamed, Elon Musk and his team in the Department of Government (Doge) will provide long -lasting shock in a inattentive and antediluvian bureaucracy.
“It is beyond the debate that a more aggressive approach was necessary, if we had ever made any progress in our lives,” says Mikey Dickerson, who was the founder of the United States Digital Services Administrator, which was converted into an American musk dog. (He left in 2017, before Trump was inaugurated for the first time.) Dickerson says Dickerson says executive order The fact that Trump issued the first day of his second term, which established Doge as a ephemeral organization in the government, was actually something that he would like to see in the Obama founding card for the agency. He particularly liked the paragraph, which forced the agencies to provide USDS teams access to systems and registers. “It would not be a magical ball, but it would create a strong presumption that they would have to cooperate,” he says. “We didn’t really have it, so it was almost optional if anyone wanted to work with us.”
Some of the outgoing leaders of the Government Technology Team who were proud of their achievements, as well as frustrated by their inability to real transformation of the foggy Federal Clutter of IT, shared similar hope. The outgoing director of USDS Mina Hsiang called the Doge power “a huge opportunity.” The former Federal Information Director, Clare Martorana, expressed emotions that the order would force the agencies to share budget data from Doge, perceiving them as an opportunity to withdraw the shroud and finally determine where these agencies hide the waste. This information can inform about wise decisions about what requires cutting, while the northern star is a value for the American people. “I try to be optimistic in this matter,” she told me.
Before the inauguration of Jennifer Pahlka, a former deputy director of technology under Obama and one of the founders of the USDS, wrote an essay entitled “Bringing Elon to fight the knife“, Which summarizes this feeling:” A lot of government technology community … Do not perceive Doge as your Savior, but they feel justified after years of screaming at the void. “
If one of these former officials really believed that Musk would act with the possibility of constructive reform of the government, these fantasies have now been broken. Musk and Doge brought a team of newborn technicians and experienced management staff who could focus on improving government work. But so far they have used their access and power to uncritically empty federal work programs and Develop for ideological reasons, apparently not thinking about the consequences. Yes, musk claims that he is a champion of people against the bureaucratic state: “If bureaucracy is responsible, then what does democracy really matter?” he asked during A strange appearance oval office This week, while Trump was looking and the 4-year-old son Musk X Fideted. But the actions actually taken by Doge do not synchronize with this sentiment, especially when the movements seem contrary to the means adopted by the Congress and signed. This is not very democratic. “I think the government is a good thing and needed a huge transformation, much faster than anyone in political leadership for which he had an appetite,” says Pahlka. “Because we didn’t do it, it seems that we are receiving.”
Ann Lewis, who until the end of last year managed technology transformation services, an agency devoted to the utilize of state-of-the-art technology, so that the government was available to its citizens, also tried to see the takeover of dog in a positive airy first. It did not take this airy to darken for a long time. “The model of bringing people in the private sector who have a fresh perspective and skills and who want to help, is a great idea,” he tells me. “But we don’t see people from the private sector with extensive experience who want to understand how everything works.”