Government Software should be produced by a startup design and engineering studio

Hello Mr. Obama,

Healthcare.gov is a symptom of a major problem, which is that we lack a major vision and initiative to build software worthy of the American people.

We need government programmers and artists.  Modern software is not something that can be delivered on a CD.

Great modern software is a service that learns from it's users to empower and enrich them.  This service can only be driven by a dedicated staff of artists and engineers on the scale of a google or facebook and in the spirit of a startup.

Partly, we lack this now because congress has blocked the hiring of government software engineers through laws forbidden government to build software when it can be provided by private contractors with the lowest bid, but there also just does not exist any initiative to hire programmers and artists simply for the goal of creating great software that Americans need and can rely on.

Healthcare.gov has shown that in fact private contractors are not able to deliver what a dedicated, full-time engineering, art and production team could deliver.  This is partly because of contracting regulations that affect development flexibility of contractors and partly because software development is an art form that requires dedicated and focused artists and engineers who care about nothing other than making great software for America.

The government should pass a bill to immediately hire at least 2000 engineers and pair them with 100 visual designers, 100 interaction designers and 100 project managers.

Task the team with the job of creating great software that represents the true talents of American engineers and artists, dedicated to the cause of delivering cutting edge access to information and services that empower and enrich our nation.  We should allow the talent of the crew to drive what emerges with a vision to revolutionize access to information, deliver government services across all pc and mobile platforms and decrease the long-term cost and risk of managing the growing complexities of governance.