I just read a fun article from MIT’s Technology Review (Mitch Kapor: A pioneer of personal computing says the U.S. needs a CTO.) In the article, Lotus founder, Mitch Kapor talks about how the country should have a CTO.

The CTO would be able to help coordinate technology efforts among other departments. He proposes that the CTO be a soft leader, that he not have power over other departments but could act as a resource and influence for other departments and policy. I liked the idea but something in his article made me think beyond a CTO.

I used to do IT assessments with nonprofit organizations through an organization called MAP for Nonprofits. One of my favorite stories was of a large nonprofit that had a technology championing board. They got CTO and others from the private sector to sit on the board and to offer advice on technology decisions. The board wasn’t in charge, they didn’t make any final decisions – but they wielded a lot of soft power.

I would love the idea of a technology championing board for the US. OK, I know there’s probably too much corruption for the board work – but in theory I still love it. There are a lot of smart people out there. And the US could use a lot of smart people to help coordinate the technology and get us back to at least medal-winning position as far as broadband ranking (and other tech ranking) goes.

We need a board that is well respected – a group that the head of any IT department would be happy to contact for advice and consultation. We need a board that can look at the whole picture as well as who knows how the individual applications and deployments work.

We’d need to get board members who put the country’s long term health in front of their personal and corporate ambitions. We need people who firmly believe that a rising tide lifts all boats and who doesn’t care if someone else’s boats rises higher – just so long we we’re all afloat.