There have been many reports previously that have given us a glimpse into Trump administration’s desire to modernize the government. According to a new report from Recode, Jared Kushner announced new efforts to President Trump, as well as major tech companies.
Amazon, Qualcomm, Oracle, and Apple are some of the companies Kushner’s “Office of American Innovation” has been working with to increase and assist with efforts. According to Kushner, the White House will form “small centers of excellence.” Basically, these will be teams focused on reducing regulation and embracing cloud computing. The teams will work to make more of their data available for private-sector use.
Kushner hopes to have leading tech engineer do “tours of duty” for the U.S. government. In these “tours of duty,” they will advise officials on digital challenges:
As part of those centers, Kushner and his aides with the Office of American Innovation asked the tech industry for its help — potentially through a system where leading tech engineers can do brief “tours of duty” advising the U.S. government on some of its digital challenges.
In today’s call, Kushner and Trump spoke to company officials from Google, IBM, Intel, Amazon, Apple, Mastercard, Oracle, and several others. Kushner’s efforts are continuously being pushed further by Reed Cordish, one of Trump’s top tech aides, stating that the White House will continue to increase their computer science education.
From Recode’s report, it’s clear the direction Kushner’s efforts are headed, as well as the fact that these efforts are in early stages. There is no set timetable or a list of goals. But the first steps have been taken by both sides.