May 01, 2017•Update: May 01, 2017
By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO
United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at modernizing the federal government’s technology, the White House announced Monday.
The order creates a new body called the American Technology Council (ATC), a group of still-unnamed tech industry leaders, that is charged with creating policies that update the government’s digital communication.
"Americans deserve better digital services from their government," the executive order said. "The Federal Government must transform and modernize its information technology and how it uses and delivers digital services.”
Beyond Trump and several members of his cabinet, the other members of the ATC have not yet been announced. Trump met with a coterie of high-profile Silicon Valley leaders, including Apple chief executive Tim Cook and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, soon after he was elected, but the overall tech industry has been fairly cold to Trump’s policies.
The executive order also did not clarify any concrete goals for the ATC.
Several important technology-related positions in Trump’s administration remain unfilled more than 100 days after he took office. Trump has yet to appoint a U.S. chief technology officer as well as a chief data scientist, both positions created by his predecessor, former President Barack Obama.
