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Given the level of criticism for what the SEC failed to do under Chairman Christopher Cox, he may never get credit for what he did do, which paves the way for unprecedented transparency in business information. Mary Shapiro inherits the new infrastructure and people to support her mandate for change. The Obama administration is emphasizing the use of technology to improve all types of government agency processes, and plans to appoint a new cabinet-level Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to “ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies, and services for the 21st century.” This is exactly the challenge the SEC was addressing in its switch to XBRL.

Shapiro inherits 1) a completely modernized technology infrastructure for the exchange of enhanced business data 2) a new rule that companies must report in this new data format 3) a new department for leveraging the technology, and 4) people who know how to do just that. Specifically, she starts her chairmanship with:

• A new, $50 million technical infrastructure. Accessible and usable by all levels of investors, the IDEA system (Interactive Data Electronics Applications) replaces the EDGAR system, which will be phased into a valuable archive of historical company reports.

• A new XBRL reporting rule. All public companies and mutual funds must report their financial statements with interactive data. Starting in July 2009 the XBRL requirement rule phases in over three years until even small public companies report in this more accurate and transparent format.

• A new Office of Interactive Disclosure. The office was created just six months ago to lead a global transformation to interactive financial reporting, and is headed by XBRL pioneer Walter Hamscher. Hamscher is a member of the XBRL International Board of Directors, Past Chair of XBRL International, and consultant to XBRL US contributing to the XBRL US GAAP Taxonomies.

Although Cox put these tools in place to improve business reporting, XBRL has implications for an entire e-Gov approach. Shapiro may be in the perfect position to take over where Cox left off, extending the benefits of this data format to address Obama’s plans to reform healthcare reporting, and much more.

We hope she gets the “XBRL bug,” just like Cox did. If not her, then we wish the happy infection on Gary Gensler, who is President Obama’s pick to head the Commodity Futures Trade Commission. There are proposals for the CFTC to merge with the SEC, so they will be working together very closely. If the agencies do merge, then one of them may soon be looking for a new career challenge. Schapiro has already served as an SEC commissioner and as Chair of the CFTC, so maybe she’d be interested in taking the tools she’s inheriting from Christopher Cox to build an even larger solution for sharing data across government silos—both federal and state.