Wired profiles former U.S. CTO Todd Park in an excellent piece that absolutely nails the issues with stagnation in federal tech: procurement and inertia.

Park knows the problem is systemic—a mindset that locks federal IT into obsolete practices—“a lot of people in government are, like, suspended in amber,” he said to the crowd at Mozilla. In the rest of the tech world, nimbleness, speed, risk-taking and relentless testing are second nature, essential to surviving in a competitive landscape that works to the benefit of consumers. But the federal government’s IT mentality is still rooted in caution, as if the digital transformation that has changed our lives is to be regarded with the utmost suspicion. It favors security over experimentation and adherence to bureaucratic procedure over agile problem-solving. That has led to an inherently sclerotic and corruptible system that doesn’t just hamper innovation, it leaves government IT permanently lagging, unable to perform even the most basic functions we expect.

Reading the full description brought me right back to my time at GAO, navigating wary and skeptical bureaucrats (mostly attorneys) to the point that it took us two years to create a *Facebook page.*

The article also outlines great opportunities that are coming about for government to actually learn to innovate. It’s inspiring, but more than that — it’s necessary, if government stands a chance of being useful to all of us citizens who need it to work.