gov2.0

U.S. CIO Kundra bets on SOA, cloud computing, agile, data-based policy

U.S. CIO Vivek Kundra, appearing Friday as the keynote speaker at the University of Maryland’s CIO Forum, touched on a number of topics affecting both public- and private-sector CIOs. Some of his comments follow:

“We found that the role of CIOs in the federal government is very much focused on data centers, networking and technology, not on how we can transform the function of the public sector itself.” He explained that he wants to “leverage tech to fundamentally change the way the public sector operates.” Now, as the federal government works to account for each of the $787 billion in spending from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and publishes more data from its agencies, Kundra said, “we’re shifting away from democratizing data to thinking about how public policy can be powered by that information.”

Cloud computing, SOA and agile development

In tracing the path of technology from agrarian to industrial to the current information revolution, Kundra noted the transformative effect of both cell phones and social networking platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. “We’re seeing the impact that Twitter has on the geopolitical climate of the world,” he said. “Information is far more liquid than it has been in the history of civilization.” The disruptive effects of the online revolution in user-generated content are steadily filtering into government. The “Darwinian pressures” exerted upon real estate, real estate, consumer products and the automotive industry haven’t hit government yet, Kundra observed. “It’s easy to go online and compare consumer products, but it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to get information to make intelligent decisions.” In launching the contest Apps for Democracy, in fact, Kundra found a way to introduce an element of competition and innovation into an government IT ecosystem that was underserved in both areas.

Kundra has been a proponent of cloud computing for years, going back to his position as the CTO of the District of Columbia, where he signed a contract with Google for business services. Today, he emphasized the need for security, interoperability and data portability in federal government use of cloud computing. “As we make the shift towards cloud computing, security threats need to be addressed. Solutions cannot be bolted on afterwards. Data portability is central, so that as we move from Vendor A to Vendor B we architect this with interoperability and standards so that we don’t spend billions later.”

Questioned on whether service-oriented architecture still is an emphasis in a federal cloud computing paradigm, Kundra said SOA “absolutely” still matters. “Look at the Social Security Administration and what it’s done with SOA and local government,” he said. “They can build lightweight applications to interact with databases elsewhere.” That embrace of modern development practices extends beyond just SOA or upgrading programmers’ skills from COBOL. “How do we move towards an agile procurement or agile development methodology?” asked Kundra.

In some areas, the government is moving to make systems more interoperable. Kundra pointed to what what’s happening between the IRS and Department of Education in student aid. “Before, if you wanted to apply and get aid, you had to fill out a FAFSA,” said Kundra. “That form is more complex than a 1040.” Starting in January, there will be a brand new online way to fill out a Free Application for Student Aid, according to Kundra, which will eliminate 70 questions and 20 Web screens. “Students will be able to get IRS data and autopopulate it in the form for student aid.”

Government 2.0 and data-driven policy

As he grows into the U.S. CIO role, Kundra has continued to add to the areas where government IT spending and management has been and where he’d like it to go. IT systems were “not invested where they should be, which is at the intersection of the American people and government,” he said. As he put it, it’s a “simple change in default setting to being that of secretive, opaque and closed to transparent, open and participatory.”

The old mode involved the management of $70 billion of federal IT investments through a “closed, opaque, checklist-driven process,” Kundra said. Now USAspending.gov, the federal IT dashboard, tracks spending. The website has received more than 56 million hits since launch, according to Kundra. In the old way of thinking, there was a “presumption that the government has a monopoly on the best ideas,” said Kundra. Now, Data.gov provides machine-readable data for developers to mash up. Historically, there’s been a “complex, time-consuming, paper-based acquisition process,” said Kundra. Now, there’s Apps.gov.

Cybersecurity and FISMA reform

Kundra sees the same transition toward more flexible systems in cybersecurity. “We’re moving from a manual, reporting-based, compliance-focused approach to a real-time measurement of actual cybersecurity,” said Kundra, referring to the new “Cyberscope” system for online reporting of cybersecurity threats that launched in October. “You cannot address real-time threats with a solution that’s focused on reporting requirements on a quarterly basis.”

White House launches GreenGov Challenge: Carbon compliance at hand?

On Monday, the White House announced a “bottom up” initiative to “green government,” launching a new initiative for federal employees to contribute ideas for energy efficiency. The GreenGov Challenge follows up on an Executive Order that President Barack Obama signed on Oct. 5 that directed federal agencies to appoint a sustainability officer and set emissions reductions targets for 2010.

Watch: Video of President Obama signing the Executive Order

In other words, so-called “carbon compliance” is now officially on the horizon line for the IT staff at federal agencies. If Congress decides to move forward with regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, CIOs at businesses in the private sector will also be faced with meeting new requirements.

Asking more than 1.8 million civilian employees and armed service members for their ideas on saving energy is bound to yield a good idea or three. Larger questions around implementation and measurement of enforcement of carbon emissions will be thornier and may not lend themselves to crowdsourcing.

As I wrote in today’s story, the role of sustainability software in carbon compliance is likely to be substantial. Another issue to be aware of is nascent competition in the market for electric metering in the smart grid. Google PowerMeter might run right up against the entrenched leader in smart metering software, a certain business software company located in Germany: SAP. As reported last year by SearchSAP.com, SAP is positioned for utility transformation as the smart grid develops. To be fair, Google is positioned at the consumer and small business level, while SAP is the definition of an enterprise software provider.

Given the pressure for homeowners, businesses and data center operators to become more sustainable in the years ahead, however, there’s likely to be room in the carbon compliance software market for both companies for some time to come.

U.S. CTO Chopra on transparency and governing by outcomes at Gov 2.0

Aneesh Chopra is in a unique position. As the first chief technology officer (CTO) for the United States, he’s defining the role as he goes. During an interview with tech publisher Tim O’Reilly at the Government 2.0 Summit in Washington, D.C., the U.S. CTO provided more perspective on what he does and what citizens and businesses alike might expect from the current administration.

The role of the U.S. CTO

Chopra describes himself as an assistant to the president, where he focuses on providing advice on technology policy. In his words, “my role is to bring tech innovation and advocate for policy,” where his “unit of output” is policy recommendations.

Chopra offered the example of hearing in Silicon Valley that “some of our public policies weren’t market-oriented or innovative.” In response, he convened a roundtable to rethink that approach. O’Reilly commented that it sounded like the role of the U.S. CTO was “a lot like a diplomat or ambassador.” Chopra says he’s a convener, pulling together officials in the government to address needs and using digital tools to gather feedback from citizens, businesses.

O’Reilly asked about his relationship with Vivek Kundra, the U.S. CIO. The dynamic between CIO and CTO is a point of interest in most large enterprises — the federal government brings that to a new level.

Chopra pointed to Kundra’s influence on procurement. “If we have influence on standards, research and development (with $150 billion in R&D spend), the third lever is procurement.” As Chopra observed, spending trends of billions on technology has an effect on market outcomes, citing $76 billion dollars spent on IT alone.

Transparency

One of the buzzwords for in the new administration has been transparency. Chopra stated that “there should be accountability for each agency” and that “every agency will be directed to publish their open government plans” in response to the president’s open government directive. Chopra says that “there should be structured approach that is not tied to any particular White House.”

Governing by outcomes

O’Reilly pushed Chopra to look beyond social media or transparency, however, and consider “the bones of the government operating system,” citing the role that the federal government has already played in location technologies and the Internet backbone itself. Chopra said policy priorities include securing and improving the energy grid and cybersecurity. He said he sees “potential in government as a platform” but was clear “we will make investments based upon whether the platform will be utilized.”

He offered as examples the systems of incentives for physicians and electronic health record conversion, where healthcare entities “will get an incentive payment if they can demonstrate they are using the technology in a meaningful way.”

Chopra provided an example of how healthcare IT is being applied, explaining that research data is being gathered from “every single veteran who receives a procedure in a cath lab” in a veterans’ administration hospital. “Less than 10 minutes later, the physician gets a handheld device to draw what he did in each of the 70 VA hospitals. That’s then sent to a database at the American Institute of Cardiology.” Chopra says such data is protected under appropriate privacy and anonymity provisions. “That database probably submits the lion’s share of the digital data that can be mined by cardiologists,” says Chopra.

Preparing for “business” continuity

Chopra also focused on education and the upcoming flu season, reflecting the concerns of the CIO of the CDC about swine flu. “We’ve been invested heavily in digital learning,” said Chopra. “There’s now a healthy debate — especially in light of H1N1 concerns — what would happen if a school had to close for two or three weeks?” He referred to the H1N1 “Continuity of Learning” memo issued by HHS and the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. Providing virtual means for students and teachers to continue education efforts in the event of a healthcare disaster is clearly in play.

In other words, the U.S. CTO is worried about disaster recovery, getting the most from technology investments and remaining accountable to customers and clients -– not so different from the role of the classic enterprise CTO at all.