Obama to name chief geek

Barack Obama

For months, techies from across the country have wondered who President-elect Barack Obama will choose as the country's first chief technology officer. Well, the wait appears to be over. BBC News reports that an announcement is set for Wednesday, which pretty much rules out Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer since he is expected to be on the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that day.

There's been some speculation that Google's Eric Schmidt or Vint Cerf might be in line for the job. They trailed Ballmer and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos in our informal CTO poll last November. (Ballmer leads with 22 percent of the vote).

The incoming CTO will have his or her hands full. The Obama Web site lists no fewer than two dozen bullet points on the tech agenda, from investing in university research to reforming the patent system. Seattle's Mike Mathieu also has a cool Web site called ObamaCTO.org where people can vote on the top tasks for the nation's CTO, and offer suggestions on how to get the job done.

Interestingly, the CTO position is one of the last cabinet level jobs still open. Does that mean Obama has found it tough to find someone to take it on?