Tech Week at the White House

On Monday, the Trump Administrations met with leaders in the technology industry.Here is what we learned.

The American Technology Council, run by Jared Kushner, falls under The White House Office of American Innovation. The mission of this council is to”promote the secure, efficient, and economical use of information technology”.

This meeting was intended to bring the government’s “IT infrastructure, websites and apps to the same level of excellence associated with the country’s leading tech companies” such as Apple, Google and Amazon.

Some federal systems have been described by insiders as being “10 to 20 years out of date”. For reference,twenty years ago flip phones were all the rage. (we’ll let that sink in for a second) The Washington Post reported that Kushner himself said  “some of the government’s oldest systems are 39-56 years old” and he confirmed that the Defense Department “still uses eight-inch floppy disks on some of its legacy systems”.

Some of the individuals invited to participate in Mondays meeting had been outspoken in oposition of a number of the Trump Administration policies. Many wondered if this would derail the meetings proposed agenda but inital coverage reports that leaders from all sides kept their eyes on the $1 Trillion dollar prize.