New Boss of US Digital Service: Mina Hsiang (axios.com) 36
Mina Hsiang will lead the U.S. Digital Service, the Office of Management and Budget told Axios Thursday, as the Biden administration beefs up its cadre of technological special forces tasked with solving problems across the federal government. From the report: Washington is preparing to spend trillions in infrastructure money allocated by the president's top-priority legislation, and building and tuning the digital systems for those programs will demand know-how. Hsiang will be the first woman and first Asian-American to be the administrator of USDS, which was launched in 2014 in the aftermath of the troubled rollout of the HealthCare.gov website.
Hsiang is a USDS veteran from the Obama administration and worked on the HealthCare.gov rescue team. More recently, she helped the Biden administration with the launch of the Vaccines.gov website to help Americans find COVID-19 vaccines. She will fill the vacancy left by the April departure of Matt Cutts, the Google veteran who led the service from 2017.
USDS teams are deployed for crisis work that needs a quick response -- such as assisting at the southern border or helping with the Afghanistan evacuation. They also help implement new programs like those created by the American Rescue Plan. "Government services -- and helping people access those services via many channels, including digitally -- are more critical now than ever," Hsiang told Axios. "The pandemic has been a catalyst to our country's collective awareness of this truth and has mobilized people to step up and act." Earlier this week, the Biden administration announced a new program, the U.S. Digital Corps, aimed at bringing software engineers, data scientists and others into federal agencies for two-year fellowships.
Hsiang is a USDS veteran from the Obama administration and worked on the HealthCare.gov rescue team. More recently, she helped the Biden administration with the launch of the Vaccines.gov website to help Americans find COVID-19 vaccines. She will fill the vacancy left by the April departure of Matt Cutts, the Google veteran who led the service from 2017.
USDS teams are deployed for crisis work that needs a quick response -- such as assisting at the southern border or helping with the Afghanistan evacuation. They also help implement new programs like those created by the American Rescue Plan. "Government services -- and helping people access those services via many channels, including digitally -- are more critical now than ever," Hsiang told Axios. "The pandemic has been a catalyst to our country's collective awareness of this truth and has mobilized people to step up and act." Earlier this week, the Biden administration announced a new program, the U.S. Digital Corps, aimed at bringing software engineers, data scientists and others into federal agencies for two-year fellowships.
Some actual competency! (Score:2)
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First Asian-American woman .. (Score:3, Insightful)
What has any of this got to do with shoring up the technology against remote networking attack.
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Nothing, so why do you care? (Score:5, Insightful)
“Hsiang will be the first woman and first Asian-American to be the administrator of USDS” What has any of this got to do with shoring up the technology against remote networking attack.
Is it worth getting bothered over? Her legacy will be defined by her performance in office, not her ethnic background. Yeah, I don't about her race or gender either, but if you're getting upset over it, it says things about you. Either you get upset at every unnecessary sentence in an unremarkable press release or there's something very specifically triggering about that for you and it's probably not a positive thing.
Live and let live, dude. You'll live longer. If "wokeness" bothers you, there are much more egregious things going on in the world than axios highlighting her race. Pick your battles.
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According to Axios, it's "driving the news".
It's shameless and meaningless pandering, and demonstrates serious conceptual problems in the Federal government as this is treated as a key part of the announcement. The agency is only 7 years old, and she is only the third person to run it.
Still, who cares? (Score:2)
It's shameless and meaningless pandering, and demonstrates serious conceptual problems in the Federal government as this is treated as a key part of the announcement.
Dude, our last hire had a bio about his stupid fucking cats. They say stupid shit about you when you start a job..."Bob enjoys windsurfing and board games when he's not spending time with his two beloved cats. He's also a skilled guitarist and huge Harry Potter fan." It's meaningless. Her race is meaningless. Talk about diversity is largely noise. I've worked in the Federal gov as well as state governments for 2 different states. It's not a haven for the diverse and underqualified. Everywhere I go,
Re: First Asian-American woman .. (Score:1)
Nothing in reality, but in leftie fantasy land where the stereotypes of the group define the individual, I'm sure they think she's good at coding or something solely by virtue of her last name.
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She is mixed race, so only half Asian.
But still smart: She has an EE degree from MIT.
She is also hot [google.com].
Re: First Asian-American woman .. (Score:1)
President Joe? Is that you behind that username?
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She is mixed race, so only half Asian.
That's what they said: Asian-American.
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That's what they said: Asian-American.
That is no more correct than calling her a European-American.
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That is no more correct than calling her a European-American.
None of it is consistent. I hads to google what "Asian-American" means, and according to Wikipedia it covers Indians and well as Mongoloid races, but not Afghans or Persians, who apparently are too White to qualify.
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Nothing in reality, but in leftie fantasy land where the stereotypes of the group define the individual,
That's rich coming from you. You have made egregious assumptions about what I think/day/do based on you thinking I'm a leftie or a liberal or whatever. If you are actually doing the thing you accuse others of then you are a massive hypocrite.
Re: First Asian-American woman .. (Score:2)
Cupcake, I have no idea who or what or where you are, nor do I care. When I talk to you personally, I am basing my inferences almost entirely on things you've actually written.
If you make snide remarks about capitalism and wealth and the wealthy, so I infer you've got a soft spot for socialism, even if you're not an avowed socialist.
If you repeat batshit crazy conspiracy theories about Mike Pence rounding up the gays, for example, then I'll assume you live in a bubble and have never really met anyone outsid
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I have no idea who or what or where you are
I'm serviscope_minor, on slashdot. Duh. Do you need everything explained to you?
When I talk to you personally, I am basing my inferences almost entirely on things you've actually written.
Nope!
Re: First Asian-American woman .. (Score:2)
I'm serviscope_minor, on slashdot. Duh. Do you need everything explained to you?
We got ourselves a funny man!
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You're wrong. The summary is a political statement. Sorry if it bothers some people, but for a politician (in this case her boss) political statements are important.
OTOH, she does appear to be qualified. So they didn't stop with the political statement.
If you want to object to something, object that Slashdot didn't emphasize her qualifications. Don't object that the PR flack didn't.
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Nothing, but firstism will continue to be a thing in the media and the Democratic Party until they run out of firsts. This might take some time, as there are many combinations of gender/sex/ethnicity and many offices that receive attention. It will, however, happen and on that grand day we will instead see a lead-in like:
Hsiang has a degree from MIT, two years of experience at the organization during the Obama/Biden administration, and experience developing healthcare software in private industry.
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And how the f- did that get to be framed as historic when the damn agency is only 7 years old?
Because she's the first non-white, non-male to head the agency. Something the overwhelming number of government agencies usually hire.