The Nation's New Chief Information Officer Speaks

Vivek Kundra wants to reform the government's computer systems. As the Federal government's Chief Information Officer, Kundra will be part of the Office of Management and Budget and will oversee $71 billion in annual technology spending across the government and set standards for the design of federal systems. He has a long list of what is wrong with the way the government runs its computers today and what he wants to do to change it. A central theme is that the government needs to stop thinking it is special. Instead of designing custom systems for each problem, it should use off-the-shelf software and approaches whenever possible. Kundra wants to use technology to open government records and invite the public to participate in decision making, which has been among the promises President Obama has made. Another initiative will be to create a new site, Data.gov, that will become a repository for all the information the government collects.