Obama enlists the help of experts to help prevent future tech disasters

The White House has hired a team of digital experts to overhaul US government websites and infrastructure in order to avoid future disasters similar to the HealthCare.gov scheme. The US government announced the creation of the team dubbed the “US Digital Service” on Monday, according to the Associated Press. The team, ran by ex-Googler Mikey Dickerson, will focus on upgrading government websites, underlying IT infrastructure and also making government websites more consumer friendly.

The White House on Monday announced the creation of a team of digital experts tasked with upgrading the government’s technology infrastructure and making its websites more consumer friendly. The move is aimed at avoiding a repeat of the website debacle that marred the rollout of President Barack Obama’s signature health care legislation last year. While the administration ultimately surpassed its enrollment targets, the opening weeks of sign-ups were riddled with website troubles that raised questions about the administration’s competence. The new digital team will be overseen by Mikey Dickerson, an engineer who took leave from Google in order to oversee fixes to the HealthCare.gov site. “I’m excited for the opportunity to shift the focus of government IT delivery from compliance to greater impact and meeting the needs of real citizens,” Dickerson said in a statement. “We can make services a lot more effective and cost efficient with better use of technology.”