DC CTO Vivek Kundra Named To Top Federal IT Job 105
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."
Anyone know more info about this guy (Score:2)
Interesting that they're trying to open up the government more via the internet, however does he have any plans to do anything else?
Re:Anyone know more info about this guy (Score:5, Interesting)
Yup, he's like all CTO's...
Takes credit for what his people did.
"He deployed" my ass he deployed. He did not do shit other than approve the research and work his people did.
He sat on his ass and took the credit, I did not see him pulling any cable, setting up the servers and working on the application deployment.
Posting Anon to keep from getting fired. A DC IT worker.
i grew up in DC (Score:3, Informative)
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.
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Re:Anyone know more info about this guy (Score:5, Interesting)
In a previous Slashdot posting, some DC residents commented that he was the real deal. He knows his stuff, and gets things done.
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1097003&cid=26519833 [slashdot.org]
There's also a Washington Post article about Kundra linked to in the comments:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010401235.html [washingtonpost.com]
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Did you really think anyone was stupid enough to believe he went and plugged in all the cables by himself? and would you really want your CTO to spend his time doing that instead of organizing the project like he is supposed to be doing?
But congrats on posting the silliest complaint i have heard all week.
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1. After Richardson and Geither were caught with pant's down, Obama's ppl started hard core vetting EVERYONE. The other 2 were suggested before either Richardson or Geither debacles.
You said this before but it's false. See recent and speedy withdrawal of the appointment of Tom Daschle for not paying all of his taxes. That was only last week.
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Daschle was not appointed last week.
Well of course not as his official nomination was only submitted to the Senate back on the 20th of January, but that was not what I was talking about when I said "last week".
Obama picked him in Dec. That would be BEFORE Geither's and richardson's debacle.
And his tax scandal just came out 6 days ago on the 30th of last month which would be LAST WEEK just as I said... I know you think you got some big gotcha on me, but you really didn't.
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You're missing the point. Possibly on purpose. You're counter-arguments are invalid, they don't even apply to what he was saying. Read it again, he says Daschle was "nominated" in DEC before they really started scrutinizing people. As in Obama wanted Daschle before they found out other picks had tax issues and started checking on that.
Geither's deal was found out about on Jan 13. That Daschle's was nominated within a week of that leads me to suspect they didn't have time to find out right away about hi
The real problem (Score:2)
Kiri-kin-tha's First Law of Metaphysics (Score:2)
Nothing unreal exists.
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Why is it so hard to find Democrat appointees who pay their taxes? Didn't Joe Biden say that paying taxes was a form of patriotism?
No, he said that paying your taxes is a form of patriotism if you're one of the little people who isn't on welfare.
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If that's what happens with a "hardcore" vetting process, I'd hate to see who'd they nominate if they were going at it willy nilly.
They'd nominate Jimmy Carter, Lyndon Johnson, Usama Bin Laden, and Michael Vick.
Re:Anyone know more info about this guy (Score:5, Funny)
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I don't know. The majority of people are stupid. Do you really want them in charge?
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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.
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Treat the people like morons, and surprise: they act like morons.
Treat the people with respect and gradually [metagovernment.org] let them work into a position of responsibility, and you may be pleasantly surprised by the "wisdom of crowds [wikipedia.org]."
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?
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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 i
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too bad this was subverted by direct election of senators and the rise to power of the opinion poll and focus group
So any guesses... (Score:2, Funny)
As to how many thousands of unpaid back taxes this appointment has?
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No. He was sent to the senate on Dec 11th.
No, it wasn't. December 11th was when Obama announced that he would be nominating Daschle, that wasn't when the nomination was submitted. It was submitted on the 20th of January and the official records back me up. From: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/nomis.html [loc.gov]
Nomination: PN64-03-111 Date Received: January 20, 2009 (111st Congress) Nominee: Thomas Andrew Daschle, of South Dakota, to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. Referred to: Senate Finance Legislative Actions Committee Action: January 08, 2009 - Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Hearings held prior to introduction and/or referral. Floor Action: January 20, 2009 - Received in the Senate and referred to the Committee on Finance. Organization: Department of Health and Human Services Control Number: 111PN0006403
Make sure to read the bolded sections.
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You need to realize that the Vetting process started way before his nomination was received in the Senate.
Also, if Tom Dashel didn't tell anyone, how would they know?
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Re:I wonder if that's the right message (Score:4, Informative)
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Please dig up some facts about this fella (Score:3, Insightful)
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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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivek_Kundra [wikipedia.org]
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He's responsible for for shifting D.C. gov to use cloud computing. (Google Apps for instance)
I think it will be safe to say (Score:3, Informative)
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= [google.com]
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I saw him deliver a keynote address at the Government Open Source Conference in October: http://goscon.org/node/150 [goscon.org]
He and his counterpart across the river in Virginia, Aneesh Chopra, are both very open source friendly. Both of them spoke at the conference advocating for open source and open standards, arguing that our government should be as open and transparent as possible.
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But what about... (Score:1)
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Heretic!
The true Divines are Tiber Septim, Boethia, and Mara!
But seriously, I thought the corprus religions in the caves were the single most badass thing about that game. Well, that and being a legally sanctioned hitman.
Thats my boss! (Score:2, Interesting)
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If by 'vision' you mean jumps on the latest gimmick.
Piece of advice: Watch your ass and have an exit strategy.
I'd think "D.C." alone is a title of doom. (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:I'd think "D.C." alone is a title of doom. (Score:5, Informative)
I happen to live in DC and have done consulting with Mr. Kundra. While you are correct that we have no real rights, DC has one of the highest standards of living. The city is divided into 4 quadrants and 2 of them are incredibly rich, one is lower and middle class, and yes, one is ghetto.
You are also incorrect that DC is made of several states. Originally, Maryland and Virginia gave land, but the current city is entirely from Maryland land. As such, becoming part of Maryland or at least being attached somehow to Maryland and its laws has been proposed before as alternatives to statehood.
Instead of slamming a city you know nothing about, you should criticize the man himself. Having worked with him, I can tell you he creates a culture of fear in his office. None of his clients or employees I have met seem to enjoy him. He also is quite ignorant of IT and DC IT for important services is next to useless. The whole google apps thing is more or less a joke here and not useful in any meaningful way. Instead of focusing on critical services, this man has forced the adoption of gimmicks for the sake of things that "look cool."
As for people who think this man supports open source, I am sure he does, but know that he also supports Microsoft as well. I happen to be involved with several Microsoft projects with DC and I know a great deal of their systems are MS, so the whole open source thing is just fluff PR.
Our government here is run so poorly and Vivek is just another part of the problem. He should be working as a junior programmer or help desk at best and not as a CIO/CTO. The man has no charisma whatsoever and is no way qualified to the country. Certainly the scope of DC government far dwarfs many major cities as well and does not translate on the national level. Shame on Obama for such an ill advised appointment. I suppose I should take solace in the fact that like all Vivek's positions and experience, it is meaningless cruft and he can't do any real damage because no one likes him.
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Not entirely Maryland land: the boundaries which anyone can see are a square encompassing originally Arlington and Alexandria. You can still see the boundary markers in Alexandria near the train station.
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>or making DC a state
Two senators for 400k people? No thanks. Its bad enough places like Wyoming get two senators. Why should I have two senators split between 12 million people and they get two senators for so few? This leads to an unequal situation in the senate.
Just make it part of Virginia and call it a day, but its so poor and crime ridden, no one wants it.
Re:I'd think "D.C." alone is a title of doom. (Score:4, Interesting)
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>or making DC a state
Two senators for 400k people? No thanks. Its bad enough places like Wyoming get two senators. Why should I have two senators split between 12 million people and they get two senators for so few? This leads to an unequal situation in the senate.
Just make it part of Virginia and call it a day, but its so poor and crime ridden, no one wants it.
God bless our insightful forefathers that made sure places like Wyoming would always have as many senators as everybody else.
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You obviously have no comprehension of our system of checks and balances. The senate was designed to give equal representation weight amongst all states while the house gives representation proportionate to their population.
Taxation without representation is the issue that led to our independence. Our nation's capital deserves some sort of voting representation.
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Two senators for 400k people? No thanks. Its bad enough places like Wyoming get two senators.
If there wasn't a bicameral Congress, or an electoral college, then, there would be no small states in the United States. The USA would basically look like New York, PA, Ohio, California, and Florida, populated but lacking farmland or natural resources and as a consequence, national wealth. In particular, until you build a lot of windmills, I wouldn't be ripping Wyoming too much, as, the vast majority of coal for
Re:I'd think "D.C." alone is a title of doom. (Score:4, Informative)
And, once he got out of jail, was promptly re-elected. Smoking crack is one thing, and can be attributed to a specific person or small group, but then you have a majority vote to put this person back in office; this is much more telling of the state of D.C.
I've not been to D.C., but I hear all the horror stories, and I hope that if I ever do have to go there it's as an elected official so I can avoid driving myself around. It mixes the country's elite with tons of urban poor, both fighting within the city for their own views. That, and it houses the majority of lobbyists in the country.
That said, I won't apply the nastiness of D.C. to one guy I know nothing about. He may well be a proper individual for the job, and highly accomplished in his previous one.
Even crap has peanuts in it sometimes.
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well, if Obama doesn't know about the issues, I can't see how he is at fault.
Ass one who has an IRS issue in my past, I do give annyone the benefit of the doubt. My problem was complatly my responsibility, and completly accidental.
I paid up and it was over. I fail to see why a mistake that was immediatly rectified matters.
Sure, if it was hiding donations or accepting gift repeatedly. But one time?
And it's till not the presidents fault if he wasn't told....no matter who is the president.
They're going to announce it! (Score:3, Funny)
The administration could announce Kundra's appointment as soon as Thursday.
I'd better get ready to find out then!
Morrowind? (Score:3, Funny)
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.)
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not US Government CTO (Score:3, Informative)
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.
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Vivek's work is great, very useful (Score:2)
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.
His name is Vivek (Score:2)
He will do just fine :)