Has anyone laid claim to the email address barack@gmail.gov yet?
The company refuses to comment, but as the NYT is reporting, and we have confirmed, Andrew McLaughlin, Google’s director of public policy and government affairs, is moving to the White House as deputy chief technology officer.
He won’t be involved in policy decisions on the sort of issues he’s been advocating on behalf of Google. But along with boss Aneesh Chopra, McLaughlin will play an important role in government procurement of technology.
Does that mean the federal government is about to junk its software and move onto Google Apps?
That is the spectre raised by LawMedia, a lobbying firm working for Microsoft, which claims Chopra was “famous for his support of Google Apps” in his last job, as secretary of technology for Virginia. We can’t find any evidence either way on that, but Chopra has certainly been a big fan of all things open source and Web 2.0 (which drew this glowing profile from Tim O’Reilly at the time of his appointment).
Should representatives of big tech companies be allowed to take up jobs like this? Whatever stance you take on this issue, it’s the way Washington has always worked. As Google told the NYT:
We understand that in order to be successful in Washington we need relationships on both sides of the aisle, and we have worked over the past few years to strengthen those relationships. As for a small handful of Googlers leaving the company to join the administration, we respect their decision to work in public service and wish them all the best in their new and exciting jobs.
