In a poll last week, nearly 400 Internet Evolution readers weighed in on whom they'd like to see President-elect Barack Obama appoint as his Chief Technical Officer (CTO), throwing the plurality of their weight behind a candidate who is, allegedly, not interested.
According to 32 percent of our readers, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), who had endorsed Obama during the general election, should be the new CTO.
Well. Bad news, boys and girls. Aside from the fact that Obama didn't actually ask you for input (aww... sorry), Eric Schmidt is not even interested in the job. In an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer Schmidt rejected the prospect, calling Google its "own exciting opportunity."
Yeah and, if all goes well, someday soon its own country! Bwahaha...
Creeping up behind Schmidt with 20 percent of the vote was yet another face at Google, Vint Cerf, an Internet father (and ThinkerNet contributor), who also publicized his support for B.O. in the late stage of the election.
Obama has yet to make an obvious offer to someone -- as he's a little too busy filling real positions in his cabinet -- but it's worth it to follow this poll up with a rather provocative question: What exactly is this CTO character going to do, anyway?
One site where you can weigh in on the subject is ObamaCTO.org, a Website where average, lipstick-wearing, Joe-the-plumbing hockey moms like yourselves can vote on issues you think the up-and-coming CTO should handle. Some action items at the top of the list include "ensure the Internet is widely accessible and network neutral," "ensure our privacy and repeal the Patriot Act," and "open government data." Whether Obama will hear about these suggestions and/or care is anyone's guess, but it's always fun to play interactive government in an Internet age.
And while some of those suggestions sound interesting, I'm casting my vote for the widget that hurls sheep at the secretary of state... whoever that may be.
No matter who ends up being chosen, I think the approach Barack Obama has given to this new cabinet-level CTO is a big move.
The CEO of Google, the CEO of Amazon, the Father of the Internet, ex CEO of Microsoft?... any of those probably will do a good job! the position itself will have more power, now that it has a space in the cabinet.
I have to agree with you, Chris: Being public changes the game entirely. We must remember that Yang was in business for his shareholders, and he let them down.
escd, If Yang, as you so aptly put it, chose to keep some semblance of a person oriented business- then he and David Filo should have kept Yahoo! PRIVATE. When you launch an IPO and secure $100's of millions, you no longer own that entity. Based on your thought process, everything should remain private, therefore the founders can control the direction of the compnay .
In some utopian society that would be wonderful. However, start-ups need funding and that funding leads to technological advancements not relized at the private level. That said, even if the founder retains a controlling interest in their company, the company belongs to the shareholders. The Corporate Governance states, creating shareholder wealth is the number one priority of the Board of Directors and its officers.
Since Jerry Yang came back, Yahoo! has lost 56% of its value. Now, I am not blaming Yang entirely, given market circumstances and all. But a $33 buyout offer from MSFT seems better the YHOO $9.14 price tag. Yang could taken all that money MSFT was throwing at him, and started a company on some esoteric level.
Yes, Mr. Roques. That's what I was trying to point out. If someone from the Internet giants would become CTO then there would be a probability of bias to his or her own company or group.
Certainly, it won't be an easy pick. Highly technical CTO has to be able not just to manage the technical team but also (and most importantly) to speak the language that can be understood by the non-technical people in the Whitehouse. Not much point appointing some geek who has a brilliant brain full of technical terms but can't communicate well with the President or any of his cabinet members.
I wonder when the CTO pick will be made... probably we'll have to wait for awhile to find out.
Yang it seems to me wanted to keep some semblance of a
person-oriented business and that got him kicked out. Calling someone
who cares about preserving the nature of their company incompetent only
shows how sick the economic logic of this country is.
Any jackass
with dollars can play the money-power-pyramid game. But it's a really
STUPID game, and it's not a USEFUL one for us to watch being played.
EVERYTHING
that was good or felt good, gets bought out and reBRANDED, commodified
and turned into instant trash, if we are to "believe in" "competent
CEOs". They've progressively ruined or co-opted almost anything of
value to the public as a matter of their personal philosophies - the
public be ignored, the public be damned.
In a saner world, Yahoo
might be kept alive as a "nice place to visit based on the attitude of
the site operators" - no, they didn't have to seek that one formula to
maximize "clickthroughs" because businesses would be free to be better,
rather than richer.
If you agree with Sam Walton that "the only
thing that matters is price", you're on the same side as the people
willing to flatten all society and all culture to make profits, and
such people are DEAD WRONG.
Firing Wang, what, to sell Yahoo out
to Microsoft? Then WHY IN THE WORLD should anyone want to do business
with "MS yahoo"? I already boycott Yahoo, but if MS buys them I would
get a tattoo to remind me: 'YAHOO' TOXIC, DO NOT APPROACH.
==
You
know, I hope Google buys Microsoft AND Sun AND Apple AND Intel AND AND
AND, and then I hope THAT company fails totally, collapses in 24 hours,
with no buyers. Then we could start over and do it right next time. How
about that?
I voted for "someone else" but didn't know where to go to follow up.
Right, a CEO is not going to make a good CTO.
How
many of the people offered for us to vote for were known to the public
for their concern for the public's welfare? None of them except
possibly Vint Cerf, and as I said, once anyone hooks themselves to a
monopolistic star, their advice is no longer of interest.
I really don't care how rich someone is or how many kudos they
get from the likes of Forbes and Barron's. In fact I rather think those
things disqualify someone for public office.
Not necessarily being serious, how about RICHARD STALLMAN?
How about whosit who got the Nobel for microfinance and the Grameen bank?
Schmidt as CTO? well, there goes the plan for network neutrality, competitive markets and an even playing field.
I agree that we don't really need someone that 'invented' something, he's probably the worst person for the job - since we all know how elocuent and social those guys are. We needsomeone that understands the problem andhas enough strings to solve them - he doesn't need to know how to fix Vista.
Who? well Bush is going to be free - he can help fix the 'series of tubes'.
Jerry Yang, is being dubbed the Yahoo! villiage idiot. Stealthy negociator, I think not. The job of CEO is to enhance shareholder wealth, not single handedly destroy it. A CEO should never allow ones'ego and emotions to rule the day. Just because Yang was co-founder of Yahoo! doesn't make him a capable CEO.
The role of the CTO is not to run the country, but to give advise to
the president in things related to technology and its new orientation.
Jerry Yang may be a stealthy negociator, but his experiences at yahoo!
can "fit in" for the job. Disagree?
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
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