GovTV: Mikey Dickerson's first day
A White House video sheds some light on the U.S. Digital Service head's orientation -- and his wardrobe choices.
Not many federal IT leaders get day-in-the-life videos with cameos from the president, but the White House is making sure that Mikey Dickerson makes a splash.
Dickerson, the former Google employee who was a key member of the HealthCare.gov rescue team, joined the Office of Management and Budget on Aug. 11 as deputy federal CIO and administrator of the new U.S. Digital Service. He has already been the subject of a New York Times profile, and on Aug. 20 the White House released a short video chronicling Dickerson's first day on the job.
The video covers everything from government-issue smartphones to USDS ambitions, but a surprising amount of time is spent on Dickerson's wardrobe. "I made some slight concessions," he says at one point. "I'm wearing actual shirts with buttons and collars, but that’s about where we’re at right now."
Flexibility on the suit-and-tie question, Dickerson claims, is a shorthand way of gauging whether USDS is "the same old business as usual or are they actually going to listen?" If he says so. But for the record, Dickerson wears two different rumpled casual shirts in his first-day video -- as well as a suit and tie.
Watch the full video below:
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