Established by President Obama himself as the first Federal Chief Information Officer in the land, Vivek Kundra is striving to renew IT in the public sector. His prior efforts in Information Technology made him acknowledgment from InfoWorld as the 2008 IT Executive of the Year and he was recently named Chief of the Year by Information Week. With prior know how as CTO for Washington, D.C., Vivek Kundra has the experience to match the Information Technology challenges that he now has before him.
Vivek Kundra is responsible for assuring that the public has user-friendly access to government info. He is also responsible for rethinking the way the public interacts with the government in this information age and economy. His model for fulfilling all of this is with the employment of off-the-shelf applications, cloud computing, open-source technology, and concepts such as Facebook and the like, that motivate American citizens to self-organize on the Internet.
High-priced technology contracts that do not bring about significant return on investment are an area where Vivek Kundra also thinks the Federal government can save money. To that end, he recently launched the Federal IT Dashboard. He is also working to ensure the government is serious and tough on contractors that do not deliver. His ultimate end result is to retain consultants and contractors that are adding value to the Federal government so the government can serve the country better. Born in Delhi, India, and raised in Tanzania, Vivek Kundra has a versatile educational and work background. He is employing his knowledge and experience in IT to achieve these aforementioned goals.
It seems as though for Vivek Kundra, the time is now for accomplishing innovative IT initiatives. His desire is to disseminate more information to the public and to facilitate effective communication between government authorities. He is leading a Federal government technology system that is using cloud computing, open source, and other ways to aid the Federal government achieve its challenging Web 2.0 goals.
