Over the past few months, I've had the pleasure of meeting and working with Vivek Kundra in his job as the CTO of Washington, DC. Today he was today he was appointed to the new position of CIO of the Federal Government. He's a visionary -- a leader in the field of eGovernment who understands that technology can be used to change the way government operates, can be used to save money, as a way to inform citizens -- all for the sake of our democracy for its citizens. From my interactions with him it is clear he believes in three things:<p>1. Using Alternative Market Models to Reduce Cost<p>A great example of an alternative market model is [Apps for Democracy](<a href="http://appsfordemocracy.org" rel="nofollow">http://appsfordemocracy.org</a>), the project that he did with [iStrategyLabs](<a href="http://istrategylabs.com" rel="nofollow">http://istrategylabs.com</a>) to get lots of ideas and applications developed for the District of Columbia for a pittance. While Kundra didn't invent the contest model, he was the first person inside the Government to use it, and it was a smart move. Not only does it reduce the cost of building early apps, it raises awareness and identifies talent. While I suspect the operations of the Government will not be supplanted by running a bunch of contests, I suspect we'll see some significant cost savings through contest models and open source development.<p>2. Data driven decisions<p>Kundra's into [using markets](<a href="http://www.nascio.org/awards/2008Awards/portfolioManagement.cfm" rel="nofollow">http://www.nascio.org/awards/2008Awards/portfolioManagement....</a>) to make data driven decisions. I took a tour of his DC CTO office a few months ago and he showed me his "trading floor" of Government projects. Flat panel screens of DC OCTO projects, their cost, their milestones, the teams associated with them and a big score. Scores were associated with names as well as projects, helping Kundra make decisions about how likely a project was to succeed, and find inefficiencies. Each project was given a "buy", "sell", or "hold" rating which helped Kundra make decisions on whether or not to continue projects.<p>3. Operational Data is Public Data<p>Perhaps his most profound move is to recognize that there should be no difference between the data that government useS to make decisions and the data available to the public. Government obviously needs to protect some information-- we all agree that, for instance, there shouldn't be a feed of everybody's social security numbers. But Kundra’s understanding that there is no sense in creating a "public data source" and an "operational data source" is revolutionary.<p>Another interesting thing about Kundra in his DC role is that unlike many government agencies, Kundra had developers working for him rather than contractors or outside firms. His research and development team in DC was led by [Dmitry Kachaev](<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/dmitrykachaev" rel="nofollow">http://www.linkedin.com/in/dmitrykachaev</a>) a man with real technical skill who worked full time for the Government.<p>If Kundra can push all three of these philosophies inside of the Government, we're in for a lot of change. It isn't exactly going to be easy. The federal government has a lot more inertia in it than the District of Columbia. But I suspect you can look for some strong shifts very soon. If I was a developer looking for a job, I'd be scouring USAJobs.gov for opportunities in Office of Management and Budget or perhaps the newly created Office of the Federal CIO. We'll see where the legal home is of this new position. Some very interesting things are about to happen.
Ok - this question isn't really related - but I noticed he has a Masters in Information Technology.<p>Now, there is a local public program offering that near where i live that offers a similar degree- the course offerings look pretty good - there are 2 business classes in there but the rest are CS related - Operating systems, AI, etc. It costs about $12k to get the degree.<p>There is another place, private, that offers CS degrees, but it costs about $40k and additionally doesn't offer graphics or AI, two topics I would like to learn about.<p>So, my dilema is, getting one or the other is clearly cheaper, but in the long run, how much difference does a Masters in Information Technology with a concentration in CS differ from a Masters in Computer Science? Will I forever be locked out of high end software engineering jobs with the former?
<i>Mr. Kundra has moved to post city contracts on YouTube and to make Twitter use common in his office and others. He hopes to allow drivers to pay parking tickets or renew their driver’s licenses on Facebook.</i><p>I'm all for technology and transparency, but this just sounds silly and gimmicky.
I'm sorry but from what (very) little I know about Kundra, some of the technology solutions he's recommended pale in comparison in scope to what this country needs to address regarding technology.<p>Tweeting from the town's snow plows is cute/trvial but what about broader issues?