SiliconGrassland.com

I’m blessed to live in one of most beautiful places in the country. The Dakotas are home to serene prairies, the beautiful black hills, a winding Missouri river, and wide open spaces. We have world class pheasant and big game hunting that draws gaming enthusiasts from around the world.

The world turns slower here – the agriculture lifestyle that the Dakotas are built on stays strong, and farming remains very successful. The bottom line is this: our quality of life is outstanding. I’ve lived here for a dozen or so years, and I’ve grown to love the place.

I also happen to love technology. Many have asked me why I’m not in Silicon Valley. It’s a simple reason: technology thrives where great minds thrive, not just in San Jose. I love Silicon Valley, and I travel there every year. However there is so much untapped potential right here in the Dakotas. DataSync has thrived on amazing people who have either grown up here, or enjoy the lifestyle outside of work that this area offers. We’re a web software company, so working outside the office in beautiful weather is an option for us. Although we’re very driven at DataSync, productivity is enhanced by an active, healthy lifestyle. The uncrowded, open environment of the Dakotas enhances this balanced lifestyle.

The high-tech community here is small, a benefit I’ve grown to appreciate. As I sat at Monk’s with a collection of innovators last week, I again appreciated the small, tight-knit community of people who are passionate about building the future of technology. Competition for great talent is reduced here, so it’s easier to find great people. We live in a small state, so people’s reputation guides hiring decisions. Cost of living is lower, so building a startup is less expensive.

As I look out my window onto the untamed prairie, I’m thankful that I’ve landed in this wild land. Silicon Grassland is a great place to build a company that will change the world in it’s own small way.

The election results are officially in, and Barack Obama will soon be at the helm of our great nation. He’s built “change” into his mantra, a theme that’s also closely tied to technology. Indeed, Obama built the largest internet-driven grassroots campaign movement in history, has 2.5 million Facebook friends, and is frequently seen typing on his Blackberry. However Obama faces a daunting challenge to  modernize our government’s IT systems.

It disturbs me how many manual “paper pushing” processes still confront me when I deal with our government; processes that have long been fully automated in the business world. For instance, when I voted yesterday, my name was crossed off a paper list and I filled out a paper ballot. Databases and computer terminals have been around for 30+ years, why aren’t we using them for voting? The savings of a fully automated system would be in the tens of millions!

Technology has the potential to help our government become drastically more flexible and responsive. Leveraging technology can also help our government become much more efficient, saving taxpayers money and cutting deficit spending.

What are Obama’s tech claims? According to Obama’s campaign website, he intends to appoint our nation’s first CTO (Chief Technology Officer). The federal government is currently plagued with a highly proprietary and legacy technology system that isn’t connected. In the past, each government agency has chosen their own tech infrastructure, making many systems incompatible and isolated. Creating a centralized decision making body for IT in the US makes sense.

The challenges facing Obama and his administration are immense. In our experience working with government entities, the problems inherit in integrating highly customized and proprietary systems are daunting. Convincing highly opinionated technical people to work together on a national information system will be a frustrating to leaders as well. Technical people like myself are known to society as inflexible and focused on pushing our opinions on implementation, not on moving forward. Technical leaders throughout government must shed this attitude and work together closely to implement a stable, integrated, secure, and flexible government IT architecture. Obama must also deal with “old school” government officials that do not understand or embrace technology. The United States is now competing in a global economy, and to compete taking advantage of efficient systems is a must.

If successful, these changes will eliminate paper forms, standing in lines to register vehicles, voting registration and many other manual tasks. This could all be done online from a single secure interface. Disasters could be quickly assessed and responded to with unified communication, asset allocation, and satellite driven systems. Vast information pools that are stored today in isolated data centers could be connected, organized, and accessible by all areas of government. Intelligence could be gained on-demand through properly networked law enforcement and submitted by qualified individuals.

Although our government today is at the dawn of these capabilities, a properly designed and managed system could give America the edge to win in the long-term global economy. I hope Obama and his new administration will follow through with promises to use tech to improve our economy and government. The benefits to America both financially and to the lives of its citizens are immense. Achieving success will be daunting. Good luck, President-elect Obama!