Obama Taps D.C. CTO Who Opened Up City Data

Posted by: Nate Berg

15 March 2009 - 7:00am

Vivek Kundra, the Washington D.C. chief technology officer who created an innovative publicly accessible database of city information, will be heading to a new office in D.C. -- at the White House.

"A leap ahead of any other city government in the nation, Kundra began to break the “we know best” attitudes of the bureaucracy by providing the public with 240 real-time data feeds, focused on areas as varied as zoning permits, health care, potholes and crime incidents."

"For a municipal government once disparaged as one of America’s worst, Kundra’s energy and purpose has symbolized a dramatic turnaround."

"President Obama has just appointed him to a White House post as the federal government’s Chief Information Officer. His task: to direct federal technology investments to improve the performance and lower the cost of government operations."

Full Story: City High Tech Czar Switches to White House

Source: Citiwire, March 12, 2009