Talking Telework with OPM Director John Berry and CTO Aneesh Chopra

I'm at the Telework Exchange Town Hall Meeting in downtown Washington, DC today, where Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry and Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra are both speaking about the importance of telework today. Each of them has had what I think are key takeaway points in their remarks this morning. From Berry:

When you think about it, the president is really the teleworker in chief. He's connected wherever he goes. Yesterday's a good example: New York City in the morning, Pittsburgh in the afternoon, and Washington at night. While the president has a little bit of a unique position, and everyone can't have all of his communications gear, the technology is catching up to that.

And from Chopra:

What I do not wish to accept is that the conversation ends at "we have security concerns, let's not proceed further on discussions of telework." Let's go about our business to find solution to those problems. We are hungry to bring the private sector's best practices into our operations, to as much as possible remove the barriers. There are a wide range of technologies both existing and emerging that would help to move the ball forward in many of these circumstances.

In other words, lack of technology shouldn't be a barrier. If agencies need to upgrade, they need to upgrade. But that's a fact of life (and in fact, something federal agencies have an opportunity to do through regularly-scheduled computer upgrades), not an insurmountable hurdle.