November 25, 2008

A Great CTO and Pot Shots from the Peanut Gallery

My last blog post was on a guy a regard as one of the greatest CTOs: Vivek Kundra, CTO of the District of Columbia.  

Please see that post for a short summary of some of the great things he has been doing:

Vivek Kundra: Democratizing Data and Putting it in the Public Domain

There have been dozens of other reports on Vivek lately, all very much positive.  A recent one on the WTOPnews site at (District's top techie advises Obama transition) is one of many.  A comment from WTOP:

Kundra is credited with coining the phrase "The Digital Public Square." A place he describes as, "one in which technological advances now allow people from around the world unfettered access to their government. Through these advances, constituents can hold their government accountable from the privacy of their own homes."


But the point of this follow-on post is to talk about an article that runs Vivek Kundra down.  It was in the Washington Post.  I don't know why this guy wrote the piece slamming Vivek.  It was totally undeserved, in my opinion.   Maybe the author of the piece thinks it is cool to run people down for no reason?  I just don't have a clue.   I almost hate to draw your attention to what he said.  It is so childish and so stupid.  But I guess you should take a look.  In fact, I would encourage you to read it and comment on the site and let folks know what you think.   Check it out here:

Where's Firing Fenty When You Need Him?

Can you believe Marc Fisher actually suggests that mayor Fenty should fire Vivek?  He seems to want him fired for exercising world class best management techniques in a highly efficient, cost-effective way.   I think Fisher should issue an apology.   If you think so too, please comment on Fisher's drivel.

Nov 25, 2008 11:05:12 AM | Apps for Democracy, Barak Obama, chief technology officer, CTO, Disruptive IT, Enterprise, Great CTOs, ICES, Identity Management, Mashup, SOA, Technology Leadership, Vivek Kundra, WIRe

2 Comments

TM

My hesitation with the Kundramania resides solely in the results of all of his efforts. I see a lot of whiz and a lot of bang, but as a District of Columbia resident, I still not see any improvements in our city's technological infrastructure. I and many others do not use any of the Apps for Democracy (nor will I as they are not particularly useful). I think the idea was great, but there is room for improvement on the implementation and results side. To be blunt, we need CTOs that can get results.

The idea of the Digital Public Square is great idea - so now what? I would love to see how the DC government spends its money, leverages its resources in OCTO, etc., but I do not see these results yet. As technologists, a lot of us think of and have great ideas but then fail to follow through to see results. We need to start looking in that direction.

I think the press has been overwhelmingly cordial to Vivek, often providing no substantive attention to the products and the results. Why? Because they do not understand the details. Take for example the use of an internal stock mechanism to track the CTO's projects. The article does not examine the use of this system because they do not understand it. An internal systems that tracks projects like stocks is interesting, but isn't the common refrain from business leaders that stocks should be held over the long term. Vivek has been in DC only two years and picks up and trashes projects without this outlook. I cannot help but question his experience in technology and do not think it is adequate for his position. His speaking abilities and leadership qualities are incredible and he is adored by the press, but we really need to look at the results to understand how technology is helping to shape the city.

Frankly, I think one of best results coming out of OCTO was the revamped website and information architecture for the City Council. You can see the before and after picture and understand the results without the whiz and the bang.

Posted by: TM | January 07, 2009 at 03:40 PM

Bob Gourley

I think it is hard sometimes for people not in the enterprise to see the value being delivered by an enterprise CTO. I also think that non-technologists might sometimes have a hard time evaluating the contributions of CTOs. I hope that doesn't sound like I'm being arrogant, I know there are many ways for non technical people to evaluate technical people and their results and there are many ways for people from outside an enterprise to evaluate the work of enterprise technologists. But I'm trying to find a rational reason for how a variety of opinions could exist on this topic.

Maybe one thing to consider for non technologists is what it was like prior to Vivek taking the position. He has really delivered incredible new capabilities for the city's workforce. That is good for citizens. And he has not done that by busting the budget. He has been very good with the budget.

Your comments have made me think of several other points for future discussion, like how CTO-type folks should be picked, and how new generations of CTO's should be groomed and mentored. And how techies should be evaluated.

More later,
Bob

Posted by: Bob Gourley | January 08, 2009 at 06:30 PM

The comments to this entry are closed.

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Vivek Kundra: Democratizing Data and Putting it in the Public Domain I'm hoping most enterprise CTOs have had a chance to learn more about Vivek Kundra's Apps for Democracy initiative. I'm really impressed by this activity for many reasons, but primarily because it got results of use to the citizens and visitors of DC. This initiative proved yet again that Vivek Kundra is a CTO who gets things done. From his bio: Vivek Kundra was appointed by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on March 27, 2007 to the Cabinet post of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the District of Columbia. As CTO, Kundra leads the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), an organization of over 600 staff that provides technology services and leadership for 86 agencies, 38,000 employees, residents, businesses, and millions of visitors. Prior to this Vivek was getting things done in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the private sector, and in Arlington Virginia. In his current position he became an instant hero to an entire enterprise when he took the bold step of moving his enterprise to a Google Apps foundation. The video below provides some background on this move. An equally wise, and similarly bold move was Vivek's initiative called Apps For Democracy. This contest began with Vivek insuring that the DC government is being as open and transparent with data as possible, exposing data in a variety of common formats. This was no simple task, requiring vision, perseverance, and a dedication to plow through city hall obstacles that only a motivated leader could tackle. Vivek set the groundwork for success by working with a great thought leaders like Peter Corbett at iStrategyLabs and by coordinating with Internet enthusiasts like the crew at Mashable. The Strategy Labs team created a proposal for this project and brought this project to life in six days! created a page encouraging mashup entries, and the result was an incredible generation of capabilities that serve DC citizens and visitors to our Capital. 47 applications were created in a way that did not require long procurement processes or costly integration contracts. What do the apps do? Check them out yourself here: medal-winners My favorite: DC Historic Tours. This is really really cool. Thanks Vivek! For more see the video below: Apps for Democracy from Shaun Farrell on Vimeo. What else can I say about Vivek? He also has great models for internal program management. His approach is nothing like the one I learned from Gartner the everyone trys to implement. And it is better than the one I learned in the corporate world that worked very well for us at TRW and Northrop Grumman. His approach is nothing like the one we used at DIA. In fact, if I had it to do over again I would use his approach in my old enterprise. For more on his way, see the write up for his 2008 InfoWorld Top 25 CTO award. So hey, what's next? My hope is that the methods and models of Vivek (and iStrategylabs) are applied across the nation and up to state and federal levels. Think of the good that could be done.
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Three Events of Federal CTO Interest: Will You Be At These? FYI, in case your schedule will allow us to connect in person I wanted to update you on a few events I plan on being at over the next few weeks. The Advanced Technical Intelligence Association TECHINT conference will be held 9-11 Dec 2008. This conference focuses on the technical dimensions of intelligence, and has a theme of "integrated performance." The theme refers to the need to integrate capabilities from all the agencies engaged in national security to better perform in meeting our national security challenges. On 9 Dec I'll be speaking at a panel on the real and growing threat in cyber space. There will be no blogging or tweeting from the conference. But if you are going to be there please drop me a note and lets connect in person there. For info see http://masint.org The AFCEA Solutions conference on Cyberspace will be held 10-11 Dec 2008 at the Ronald Reagan Center in DC. This conference will be focusing on the challenges and solutions of cyberspace related to national security. Speakers include Secretary of Homeland Security the Honorable Michael Chertoff, The Deputy Secretary of Defense the Honorable Gordon England, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration the Honorable John Grimes, Ms. Melissa Hathaway, senior adviser and cyber coordination executive for the Director of National Intelligence, LTG Keith Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Information and Identity Assurance Mr. Bob Lentz and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Information Management Mr. David Wennergren. I'll be speaking on a panel on Wednesday at 1530 on formulating a common response. This unclas conference follows a model that AFCEA has been using for several similar events. They are actively seeking ways to enhance the value of these conferences by leveraging more Web2.0 capabilities before, during and after the formal presentations. Blogging and tweeting from the conference is encouraged. You can visit the site at: www.afceasolutions.org/group For the event schedule and program details can be found online here: www.afceasolutions.org The US Army Intelligence Warfighting Summit will be held 15-17 Dec 2008. This one will also be a conference where blogging and use of twitter is not appropriate due to the sensitivity of info discussed. However, I would appreciate knowing if you will be going so we can connect there in person. Speakers will include the most senior Army intelligence leadership, plus Vice Admiral Bob Murrett from NGA, LTG Alexander from NSA, and Scott McNealy from Sun Microsystems. For more on the event see: http://www.ncsi.com/iws08/index.shtml So, if you are going to any of these please let me know. And please follow me on Twitter so I can send you a few bursts from the AFCEA conference. I'm at http://www.twitter.com/bobgourley Cheers.