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Obama Names New Chief Information Office for White House

by Terrence O'Brien on March 6, 2009 at 04:33 PM

Obama Names New Chief Information Office for White House
Vivek Kundra has been named the first Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) by President Obama. The CIO for the White House is a newly created post that will carry a variety of responsibilities, not the least of which is overseeing how the technology budget is spent by the federal government.

Kundra will be responsible for making sure that federal agencies are able to communicate and share information, as well as for ensuring that data is secure in the face of hackers, leaks, and other cyber threats. The CIO will also work closely with a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to develop and implement technology policy for the administration. That will include furthering Obama's pledge of governmental transparency through the use of tools like WhiteHouse.gov and Recovery.gov, as well as deciding how money should be invested to spur new technological developments like clean, renewable power sources.

The new CIO will be in charge of the entire federal government's $71 billion IT budget and will hopefully prevent future administrations from having to deal with the technological mess the Obama transition team encountered when it moved into the White House.

Check out this profile from the Washington Post to find out how Kundra's use of YouTube, Wiki's and Twitter -- as the Chief Technology Officer of Washington D.C. -- caught Obama's eye. [From: WhiteHouse.gov]

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Tags: barack obama, BarackObama, chief information officer, chief technology officer, ChiefInformationOfficer, ChiefTechnologyOfficer, federal government, FederalGovernment, government, obama, president obama, PresidentObama, vivek kundra, VivekKundra, white house, WhiteHouse

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