The new principal technology officer position held by Matthew Fraser comes with more authority. On Tuesday this week, Eric Adams, the NYC Mayor-elect rolled out his administration appointments, and Matthew Fraser became the chief technology commissioner. However, the office does not bear sufficient authority, but Matthew will have advanced responsibilities unlike the present holder John Paul Farmer, whose scope is limited by policies. Fraser described the job and said that it included making tech strategy and policy recommendations.
The office lacks the power to execute changes based on how the city uses technology. The novel coronavirus crisis has demonstrated the city’s limitations in offering virtual services to the citizens. For instance, the launch of vaccine websites infuriated the citizens who spent more time traversing different options amid glitches. The websites were not user-friendly, and they had confusing messaging.
Currently, Matthew Fraser is the IT deputy commissioner at NYCPD. Before that, he was the IT services assistant commissioner. Jessica Tisch is the city’s DoITT commissioner and was appointed to become the IT deputy commissioner at NYPD, an organization that created a digital platform for filing criminal complaints. Matthew Fraser joined Adam’s technology committee as part of his transition team.
Andrew Rasiej, a co-leader of the committee described Matthew as a respectable individual and one who bears tremendous exposure to government technology. Andrew added that Fraser is the best option to guide Adam’s objective of using technology to serve the businesses and New Yorkers, and ensuring that equity and diversity constitute NYC’s technological future.
However, during the Tuesday briefing, Matt Fraser’s duties are unclearly defined, but he confirmed that the different IT and tech offices could be managed by one authority. Therefore, all the technology conventional lines in the IT and Telecommunications department were fragmented and put under one office. Matthew added that DoITT, an agency that maintains NYC’s IT infrastructure would be under him.
Nevertheless, more details regarding how the new CTO position will turn out are limited. The Adams team’s spokespersons did not welcome more interviews on the news, but Matthew’s appointment demonstrates how NYC will organize its IT and technology functions.
For instance, Fraser highlighted cybersecurity among the priorities because they are working to ensure public safety, workforce efficiency, and benefits coordination. Matthew added that they intend to assemble all those things to have a robust entity that addresses technology landscape issues accordingly. Also, the team will focus on bettering the city services and bridging the digital divide.
