Power at the Edges: Among DC's Lesser Known CTOs and CIOs
BY Nancy Scola | Thursday, September 10 2009
At an informal press gaggle of sorts that took place after he left the ballroom stage at the Gov 2.0 Summit, U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra was eager to take the spotlight off of himself and make a point that you often hear in conversations around DC. Being the first official Chief Technology Officer of the United States comes with a relatively high-profile, in certain circles at least. That said, much of the innovation, experimentation, and ultimately success or failure of technology in Obama's Washington will depend not on him, but on the CTOs and CIOs with operational authority and hefty budgets stationed in the agencies and departments throughout the federal government.
Without a budget or much staff, Chopra's role is to advise the president from his perch at the Office of Technology and Science Policy while also creating space for federal CIOs, CTOs, and other senior technologist to flourish. "My priority is creating a culture of innovation at the agencies," said Chopra. While hardly household names, those technologists and managers have the day-to-day management responsibility over whether federal IT projects succeed. That point was echoed by U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, who deflected a question during a session this morning about the multi-million dollar price tag on the redesign of the Recovery.gov site. Despite OMB's role in overseeing the recovery process, said Kundra, officials with independent Recovery Accountability and Transparency are the ones ultimately responsible for Recovery.gov.
Chopra called out for particular praise a handful of his fellow technologists working at agencies and departments, including Todd Park and Peter Levin, the newly appointed CTOs at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs respectively, as well as Alec Ross, senior technologist and advisor at the State Department.