Saturday, March 04, 2006
Story clarification
Had dinner on Thursday with two good friends, Kevin Smith and Danny Proko. At dinner, Kevin said that he had read an article on me and that I had "slammed my CIO" (CIO is Chief Information Officer). Being that Kevin is a really smart guy, if he misread the article entitled "Metadata Dreams Adrift", than I am sure many others have also.
Of course, the misunderstanding comes from the pullout quote where I say, "The Homeland Security Department’s cross-cutting mission will not be successful without cross-cutting IT. ... the way you get that is with a strong CIO". Of course, that is only part of the story. So, let me add the 'rest of the story' here to clear this up. First, I was absolutely NOT slamming my CIO. The comment was made about the position of CIO and not the person who is the CIO. I was asserting, as many others have asserted, that in order for DHS to be successfully integrated, in this case specifically Information Technology integration, the CIO should have the component CIOs directly reporting to him in order to successfully carry-out the numerous cross-cutting missions of the department. While that decision is way above my former paygrade, I said it because I believe that is what it will take to be effective. But don't get me wrong... I am proud of the work DHS is currently doing and the fine group of people working hard under extreme pressure and public scrutiny.
At a later time, I will address the reasons why I left DHS in more detail ...
Hope that clears things up... for those interested... In this blog, I will be dissecting the role of metadata within the federal goverment and what changes need to be made, both in industry and goverment, to have it fulfill its promise. Believe me, there are many, many changes that need to be made and us techies are a big part of the problem. The way we explain metadata and the current raft of products that support it lack the necessary focus and value proposition to go mainstream. I hope to change that.
- Mike
Of course, the misunderstanding comes from the pullout quote where I say, "The Homeland Security Department’s cross-cutting mission will not be successful without cross-cutting IT. ... the way you get that is with a strong CIO". Of course, that is only part of the story. So, let me add the 'rest of the story' here to clear this up. First, I was absolutely NOT slamming my CIO. The comment was made about the position of CIO and not the person who is the CIO. I was asserting, as many others have asserted, that in order for DHS to be successfully integrated, in this case specifically Information Technology integration, the CIO should have the component CIOs directly reporting to him in order to successfully carry-out the numerous cross-cutting missions of the department. While that decision is way above my former paygrade, I said it because I believe that is what it will take to be effective. But don't get me wrong... I am proud of the work DHS is currently doing and the fine group of people working hard under extreme pressure and public scrutiny.
At a later time, I will address the reasons why I left DHS in more detail ...
Hope that clears things up... for those interested... In this blog, I will be dissecting the role of metadata within the federal goverment and what changes need to be made, both in industry and goverment, to have it fulfill its promise. Believe me, there are many, many changes that need to be made and us techies are a big part of the problem. The way we explain metadata and the current raft of products that support it lack the necessary focus and value proposition to go mainstream. I hope to change that.
- Mike
