Obama Names Kundra Chief Information Officer

Vivek Kundra officially has been named the federal government's CIO by President Barack Obama, reports NetworkWorld.

As CIO, Kundra will have the momentous task of overseeing a $71 billion information technology budget and ensuring IT interoperability between government departments. According to InfoWorld, Kundra says he will look into how the government can improve its technology investments and make more information available to citizens through the Internet. As for the latter goal, Kundra said a Web site called data.gov would soon be launched that would serve as a public data feed.

Kundra also is interested in moving the government away from big IT contracts, notes Computerworld. He's interested in cloud-based services, and says Facebook could serve as a good model for information sharing.

There's no doubt Kundra has the background for the job. As Washington, D.C.'s CTO, TheStreet.com reports that he was responsible for technology operations across 86 D.C. agencies. Before that, Kundra served as assistant secretary of commerce and technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia. He has experience in the private sector, as well. He was vice president of marketing for Evincible Software and CEO of Creostar.