White House Asks Tech Leaders How to Modernize Government

Many of the U.S. government's IT systems hinder the ability of government workers to serve residents, Obama said during a speech on modernizing government. His speech was part of an afternoon summit during which Obama administration officials sought advice on improving government effectiveness from leaders of more than 50 companies.

"Our government employees are some of the hardest working, most dedicated, most competent people I know," Obama said. "Government workers get a bad rap. All too often their best efforts are thwarted because the technological revolution that has transformed our society over the past two decades has yet to reach many parts of our government.

"Many of these folks will tell you that their kids have better technology in their backpacks and in their bedrooms than they have at their work," Obama added.

Some government agencies still don't have internal files online, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has to print out electronic patent applications and scan them to enter them into an old case-management system, Obama said.

Obama also suggested that many government IT projects take too long to implement, although he didn't provide many examples. "Too often, when we've attempted to update or replace outdated technology, we end up spending exorbitant amounts of money on technologies that don't meet our needs, or that took so long to implement, that they were obsolete before we even started using them," Obama said.

Administration officials said they hoped Thursday's summit was just the start of a dialog with business leaders about how to modernize government.