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DC CTO Vivek Kundra Named To Top Federal IT Job
DCTechCzar writes "The Obama administration plans to announce it has appointed Vivek Kundra, the District of Columbia's chief technology officer, to take the top information technology post in the federal government, according to a source. Kundra, who has deployed advanced applications to improve the performance of public services during his nearly two years as CTO for the District, will replace Karen Evans as administrator for e-government and information technology in the Office of Management and Budget. The position effectively serves as the federal government's chief information officer. The administration could announce Kundra's appointment as soon as Thursday."
Interesting that they're trying to open up the government more via the internet, however does he have any plans to do anything else?
As to how many thousands of unpaid back taxes this appointment has?
Is qualification optional for chief * officer jobs these days?
Seems there's no job that can't be outsourced these days!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I know he's a very accomplished person, but would like to know whether the new appointee is friendly to Open Source Software and Linux in particular. I am optimistic though because he's been "more open" as compared to the typical government official.
Now get us the facts about this man.
The man moved here when he was 11. He IS an American by upbringing. And watching my wife (a first generation American of Indian descent) it is obvious that they try hard to assimilate here while at home being a bit more Indian.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Since DC is running so efficiently now I can't wait for this guy to bring his success to the rest of the nation! Cough-cough Cough-cough Cough-cough Cough-cough Cough-cough Cough-cough Cough-cough Cough-cough Cough-cough...
I don't know. The majority of people are stupid. Do you really want them in charge?
Almalexia and Sotha Sil? Don't they get positions too?
You do realize that the United States Government wasn't set up as a pure democracy, right? It was purposefully structured with a layer of abstraction specifically to keep the ignorant masses from having a direct say. The founding fathers were well aware of what they were doing.
Well, I only started here (Office of the CTO) a few days ago, but around here he's very highly regarded and seen as man of vision. Either way congratulations to Vivek and I hope his replacement will be equally qualified.
Our non-American friends need to know that as far as cities go, Washington D.C., as a city, is probably the -worst- run city in the USA. Because it is the capitol, not only are they subject to their own local authority, but they are also subject to the whims of the US Congress. The existence of the whole thing is a joke because when the country was founded, the states squabbled even over who would have the honor of the national capitol, such that, eventually a few states kicked in a tiny plot of land, formed the "District of Columbia", and thus, the capitol is its own little piece of land under direct federal jurisdiction, whose habitants actually have no constitutional rights. Since that time, there's been a lot of talk about moving the capitol, or making DC a state, or doing something with it. But right now, we have a total screwed up mess of a city that has really no industry besides government, and the result is that, outside the museums, and government offices, the place is pretty much a big stinking ghetto whose most famous mayor was busted for smoking crack.
From this, comes our national CIO.
I'm like, not jumping for joy.
This is my sig.
For Obama's sake, this guy better be squeaky clean. God help Obama if Kundra has tax issues with the IRS. Obama has already had 3 appointees shot down over this, and Geithner is under attack by critics for the same issues. The last thing he needs is a fourth confirmed kill (technically a fifth confirmed kill if you consider his decision to drop his original candidate for the CIA chief over some comments vaguely in favor of torture in limited circumstances).
I'm confused, shouldn't the GP post be the one modded troll?
The administration could announce Kundra's appointment as soon as Thursday.
I'd better get ready to find out then!
Mr. Period: Nine is the one that's right by ten!
Nine: One day I will kill him. Then, I will be Ten.
that this nominee paid his taxes on time.
Still, if you want, you can research through most papers using their online facilities.
for the most part he walked into a mess at the DC school system back in 2007 and worked to upgrade them to something respectable. That and investigating people using government systems to surf porn. Apparently before him most of the record keeping was still in paper form.
http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=vivek+kundra&hl=en&um=1&sa=N&sugg=d&as_user_ldate=2008&as_user_hdate=2009&lnav=h0&ldrange=2003,2006
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Anyone else have a Morrowind flashback or 2?
Naming a god to the post of IT advisor is certainly a newsworthy move, at any rate. (For the unintiated, Vivek is a god in the Elder Scrolls universe, as well as a city that was named after him.)
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
The headline says "Top Federal IT Job", but won't that be the new CTO position? Kundra's (reportedly) being named as Office of Management and Budget administrator for e-government and information technology, not Chief Technology Officer.
too bad this was subverted by direct election of senators and the rise to power of the opinion poll and focus group
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
They are. They vote.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20081126_1117.php
stfu you racist cunt
The problem is huge, old, creaky applications processing millions of paychecks, bills, shipments, etc. day-in, day out. Written in languages no longer taught and with inner workings understood only by an already old workforce.
FBI, SSA, OPM, IRS are examples of where these truly nasty problems exist, dropping the latest buzzwords on them ain't no kind of solution, folks.
is that Taxes are un-real. We need to move to a simplified system. I would love to see us change to a flat or even progressive tax with NO tax breaks. NADA. THe only items that should be changed would be when the tax kicks in, and what percentage.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
hooray for me. however, it did give me the opportunity to see just how bassackwards DC is w.r.t. IT. They got federal money to improve IT in schools, so they spent much of it on a contractor to "study" the current state of IT in the schools. (Hint: 8086 PC XTs and PC Jrs if anything) It was a complete boondoggle.
And the leader of this farcical group is now one of our nation's fearless leaders. fandamntastic.
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
Nothing unreal exists.
Well, his laundry list seemed a bit longer than a "driver" issue...
It was also revealed that he earned about $200K from speaking fees and consulting services from companies that HHS would likely negociate and regulate: America's Health Insurance Plans, CSL Behring, National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, Principal Life Insurance Co, among others.
I don't think it was just the "driver" issue that did him in, although it must be nice to be able to rack up $250K in charges over 3 year for a driver service to be at your beckon call (paid for personally by one Leo Hindery, democratic bigwig and founder of a private equity firm InterMedia Advisors a company where Daschle earned $1M/year in consulting fees). In addition to the driver issue, apparently he also forgot one month's payment of $83K from IMA and didn't pay taxes on that either.
Basically, he'd have to read the paperwork every month and noticed that $83K was missing but not notice the car service fees, or not read the paperwork and paid tax on the $1M of income based on the year end summary and claim that he didn't know the car service needed to be considered as income. Basically, what he did was show that he was trying to finesse it based on fancy interpretation of the paperwork and he got caught. Too bad he has to go back to his $1M/year consulting job.
I don't know why a prejudiced comment such as this is being modded as "interesting." It's quite ignorant. Then again after seeing how Obama not participating in tit-for-tat arms race in space is seen as childish, it looks as though Slashdot has been overwhelmed with Republicans.
I saw this guy's work regarding customer service for local government, he's doing a great job.
It would be cool to find a way for slashdotters to help reproduce this, everywhere.
And I wonder if you are a total retard?
I see what you're saying there. But as a counterpoint, they don't really set legislation do they? Voters have a once-every-few-years opportunity to voice their opinion. That's not a lot of scope for molding the direction of government.
He will do just fine :)
Treat the people like morons, and surprise: they act like morons.
Treat the people with respect and gradually let them work into a position of responsibility, and you may be pleasantly surprised by the "wisdom of crowds."
Or do you really think that handful of corrupt politicians in charge of each government are really better than an open, carefully thought out, modern governance structure?
Yeah...they vote. They vote for tweedle dee or tweedle dum. Give me a break. The fact that 90 percent are idiots are why we suffer under the two mafia system. They can't conceive of voting for anyone who is not part of one of the two parties. Thus they get a choice between the nut cases from the left or the nut cases from the right. Less and less moderates every day in government and more and more extremists.
Got a better idea? Are you advocating totalitarianism?
Which is better: rule by a big bunch of idiots or rule by a single, power-hungry, corrupt idiot?
Suggest you read the link above to "open source governance." Especially if you want to see a reduction in the fringe.
If everyone has equal say, you get majority rule. People in large numbers are basically selfish or emotionally distanced from others anyway. Your average guy on the street finds it very hard to put himself in someone else's shows. So, you're going to be screwed if you find yourself in the minority in some debate where there is a polarisation between disparate interests. The outcome might not necessarily be the just or morally correct option.
Think about two groups pulling in opposite directions where there is clear line of divide across groups of age, race, sex, religion, disability, class, wealth, sexual orientation, polical views age and so on. I'm sure you can think of lots of examples where the will of the masses would infringe upon the rights of the individuals in the minority.
Think about your own life if you must. Is there any cause, interest, past-time or behaviour that is part of your life that would be squashed by this new consensus-state, just becuase it's different from what the masses see as right? You better hope the majority is as tolerant as you are in this new world order. Wisdom of the crowds indeed...
Majority rule is not a necessary corollary of open governance. Especially if there are too many issues for everyone to participate in every decision. Please see the source site.
The founding fathers were not aware of Web 2.0 technologies.
And anyway, Metagovernment is not about the United States. It is about every governance structure in the world.
So then in an ideal world, we would just have a single dictator, right? Then we wouldnt have to worry about what the people think at all!
Given that opinion, I think the idea of open source government makes a hell of a lot more sense.
Flag 'poster is biased'
I've worked with Vivek - and I know of a few contracts that Vivek didnt' renew because of bad or no implementation of Software. Basically, he cut down corruption. [look for that $25mn HRMS contract Vivek shut down]
Were you among those Vivek fired for incompetency ?