Younger Generation in Government and Technology

There's no doubt that technology is influencing the goals and ideas of the future. As the federal government adopts more and more technology, a younger generation is stepping up to play in integral part of the management and creation of these programs.

An article was released recently which listed the top 25 most influential people under 40 in government and technology. The breadth of roles and responsibilities described in the article really caught my attention. Most of these jobs didn't exist a few years ago. Now they are making significant impacts on the role technology plays in the government.

Some people on the list I want to note are Erie Meyer, Tim Fullerton, Kori Schulman, and Daniel Schuman.

Erie Meyer is the editorial director for the digital team at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. By day she works at the CFPB to protect consumers from harmful debt practices, and supervise banks and other financial companies to enforce federal consumer financial laws, as well as managing the website content. By night she is the co-founder of Tech LadyMafia, which is a network of women in tech. The listserv provides resources, networking opportunities, and inspiration for women in the technology field.

Tim Fullerton is the director of digital strategy for the Interior Department. His role in this position is to create the department's plan to engage the public using new media. Fullerton is also responsible for the digital portion of a White House Initiative to promote tourism and travel to the U.S. That sounds like a really exciting job to me! It shows the power of using social media, like Twitter, and how a beautifully designed digital platform can be used to market a country to the rest of the world.

^{Image Credit: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism}

Kori Schulman is the director of online engagement in the Office of Digital Strategy for the White House. This also sounds like a really fun job. The Office of Digital Strategy uses digital platforms to express the President's message and engage with citizens around the country online. They are responsible for the White House social media presences on sites, including Twitter and Facebook. An online presence allows for so many more people to be informed about and engaged with the government, and now you know that there is a real person there who is reading and responding to the White House's social media.

Daniel Schuman is the policy directory at the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. CREW's mission is to "use high-impact legal actions to target government officials who sacrifice the common good to special interests." Schuman describes his job as a translator between law, technology, and policy with a goal of increasing the transparency in government.

These leaders provide new perspective to the best way to use technology to spread the word about the goals of the federal government and respond to the needs of the public.

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