Whether you like Barack Obama or not, he's been our most digital president. In addition to the aggressive use of data and analytics in his campaigns and his positive relationship with Silicon Valley, the list of digital accomplishments during his administration has been impressive. They include the following:
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Data.gov open data initiative;
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First Chief Information Officer of the U.S.;
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First Chief Technology Officer in the White House;
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First Chief Data Scientist;
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U.S. Digital Service create new digital offerings;
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18F elite digital services group in the General Services Administration;
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Healthcare.gov for Obamacare enrollment (oops...nobody's perfect).
It's not entirely a fair competition--Millard Fillmore, for example, didn't have much of a shot. But I think it's safe to say that Barack Obama is the most digital leader the U.S. has ever had. We're still not at the top of the INSEAD "most digital" list--Singapore gets the nod there--but I think we've improving, and it's been nice to have a president who gets it.
But Obama's tenure is ending soon. What are the chances his successor will also be digitally minded? And if you care about this, for whom should you vote? You may be thinking that the digital orientation of the candidates is a minor issue compared to their leadership styles, honesty, experience in government, and foreign affairs acumen. And I agree with you. But a candidate's relationship to information technology offers a good indication of how connected they are to modern ways of living, working, and governing. A strong digital orientation not only improves campaigning--as most of the candidates have discovered--but also makes the federal government more efficient and effective. And as the Apple-FBI brouhaha proves, understanding the digital world is critical to national security. On the subjective side, many U.S. citizens would like to feel that our leader is not out of touch with reality. (Remember the scorn for then-President George H.W. Bush when he belatedly discovered the supermarket scanner in 1992?)
The one candidate who regularly mentioned technology and its impact on jobs, Marco Rubio, is no longer in the race. But I will give him credit for at least mentioning the term "automation" while he was still a candidate.
Hillary Clinton--Clinton is no propellerhead, but she does regularly mention the Internet and mobile technologies and appears to be an ardent user of them. Unfortunately, one of the most notable aspects of her candidacy involves IT. I'm referring, of course, to her use of a private email server when she was Secretary of State. Even she admits that was a mistake, but at least it shows she pays some attention to digital issues in her life. Another big boo-boo was running a major digital ad campaign on AOL in an attempt to reach millennials (who, in case you are Rip Van Winkle, don't use AOL much). Her pronouncements about digital matters tend to be liberal platitudes about the digital divide, limiting screen time for kids, and how China shouldn't censor Internet usage. For the most part, she seems to get the importance of digital matters, and her campaign makes extensive use of data and analytics. But she's got a long way to go to match Obama in this regard.