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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?
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Free software as in free beer!
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Seems there's no job that can't be outsourced these days!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
They can only open government so much, as long as they keep a small cabal of leaders (i.e., President, Senate, House) in control of everything. Until we have true open source governance, we sould not consider government to be really open. No matter how many pretty websites they throw at us.
After all, the H1B are (allegedly) to import knowledge and skill that is not available locally. Is this to say that the US can't even make their own decisions anymore without foreign help?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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.
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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...
Almalexia and Sotha Sil? Don't they get positions too?
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).
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.
GNNA and support 'Yes' to any the 'community' guest and never get
Hmm... I wonder if he's on a H1-B visa? lol
Lord of the Binges.
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20081126_1117.php
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 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.
He will do just fine :)
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 ?