Vivek Kundra Rearing New Era of Experimentation to Boost IT Initiatives
As the first Federal CIO, Vivek Kundra supervises government tech investments. He uses his distinct IT expertise in government, the private sector, and academia to ensure the government spends sensibly when it comes to tech initiatives. With a Masters Degree in MIS, Vivek Kundra has a extreme understanding of IT and all its complexities.
Vivek Kundra is responsible for aligning Information Technology operations across government authorities. In accomplishing his duties, he sees value in the Federal government embracing cloud computing. Cloud computing involves the utilize of hundreds of thousands of computers to store information online. This means not using devoted and costly physical servers. As an example of his endeavors in this area, he converted an entire office to Google documents for spreadsheets, word processing and email while working for the District of Columbia.
In 2008, as CTO of the District of Columbia, he furthered the use of government information. He created a contest called Apps for Democracy, which invited developers to come up with groundbreaking ways to use feeds. Washington, D.C. makes information available to the people, and they offer approximately 240 feeds. These feeds offer a spectrum of data from the local government bureaus. These include building permits and crime reports and more. Vivek Kundra wanted to move away from a model of hiring a pricey government contractor to build technologies based on the feeds. His goal was to encourage citizens in Washington, D.C. area, nationally, and internationally with the contest. Therefore, the contest resulted in Web and mobile applications used to help people find parking and to help tourists explore the city. This is among other applications created because of this contest.
Vivek Kundra continues to work to ensure the government’s Information Technology efforts deliver quality information to United States citizens. His loyalty is to the smart use of taxpayer dollars. He envisions a technology culture that consistently embraces new platforms that make government accessible to all. He is continually looking for new ways to help government agencies adapt superb private sector technologies that help them save money.