Obama promised technology initiatives in his inaugural speech setting the tone for his administration as tech focused. Obama later passed legislation that would revamp the aging power grid in America and allow for improvements in broadband access to rural communities and the poor.

Obama and private sector corporate CEOs have gathered to talk ideas for how the government can reform its aging IT systems and practices. President Obama said last Thursday that he would require the Office of Management and Budget to make sure federal agencies implement some of the best ideas to come from the meetings.

InformationWeek quotes Obama from a speech saying, "I want us to ask ourselves every day, how are we using technology to make a real difference in people's lives. Improving the technology our government uses isn't about having the fanciest bells and whistles on our websites -- it's about how we use the American people's hard-earned tax dollars to make government work better for them."

Among the topics being discussed at the meeting are the centralization of the governments IT budget, periodic IT investment reviews, and collecting feedback from U.S. citizens on government services. Other topics will include ways to break larger IT projects into smaller pieces, benchmarking, and methods for being more transparent with customer service information inside the government.

All of the ideas resulting from the meeting will be posted for public comment and citizens will also be able to submit their own ideas. InformationWeek reports that one example of an outdated system within the government that Obama cited was within the patent office. The patent applications are filed digitally, but the patent office prints them out, scans them, and enters the data into a different management system. Obama calls the system "embarrassing" and a clear example of government inefficiencies.