DC Technology Office Welcomes Student Robotics Competition

Today the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) announced OCTO’s inaugural partnership in the regional FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition for high-school students.

FIRST, founded in 1989, designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. In the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), teams of students and their mentors build robots designed to solve a defined problem. Each team has six weeks to build its robot from a standard kit of parts. Then the teams test their robots in challenge matches that measure the effectiveness of each robot, the power of collaboration, and the determination of students.

This year, for the first time, the District of Columbia is hosting the regional FRC competition, scheduled for February 26-28 at the Washington Convention Center. OCTO employees will serve as volunteer mentors to the District teams. District Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Vivek Kundra will sit on the regional judges’ panel and has enlisted local business and community partners to support the regional competition. Winners of the regional competition will compete in the international FIRST Championship on April 16-18 in Atlanta, Georgia.

This year’s competition launched on Saturday, January 3 via an international satellite broadcast on the NASA channel. DC regional competitors and mentors viewed the kickoff from McKinley Technology High School in the District.

“Forty years ago, NASA fueled a generation’s imagination with the success of Apollo 11,” noted FIRST founder Dean Kamen in the kickoff broadcast. “Just as NASA scientists landed a man on the moon and returned him safely to earth in 1969, so too will these young people go on to explore new frontiers and develop breakthrough technologies that will change the world.”

The District will field 15 teams for the 2009 FRC, one from Friendship Public Charter Schools, one from the University of the District of Columbia’s Saturday Academy and 13 from the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS).

The DCPS teams include 200 students divided among five veteran teams that have entered at least one FRC before and eight rookie teams participating for the first time. The five veteran teams are Ballou Senior High School, Bell Multicultural High School, Roosevelt Senior High School, McKinley Technology High School and Francis L. Cardozo Senior High School. The eight rookie teams are School Without Walls High School, Calvin Coolidge Senior High School, Phelps Senior High School, Eastern Senior High School, Wilson Senior High School, Dunbar Pre-Engineering High School, Luke C. Moore Academy High School and Anacostia Senior High School.

District Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra welcomed the District teams to the January 3 kickoff broadcast at McKinley Tech. To cheers from the crowd, he congratulated McKinley Tech for helping lead a far-reaching “technology transformation” in the District’s public schools. Kundra recalled how a similar high school science competition sparked his lifelong fascination with science and math and set him on the path to an exciting technology career. “This competition will help you gain the skills you need to prosper in the global economy. It can really be a life-changing experience, leading to an exciting career in technology,” he said. “The science competition I entered in high school opened up the wonderful world of science, math and technology for me, as I know this competition will for you.”

To learn more about FIRST, visit http://www.usfirst.org/.

District of Columbia Opens New Window on Procurements

Today the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) announced the launch of two new sites that open major government procurement transactions to public view for the first time in District history. Now anyone can watch procurements unfold, step by step from start to finish.

The new procurement transparency portals represent another step in OCTO’s Digital Public Square initiative. The Digital Public Square brings citizens together and helps them hold government accountable through data catalogs, data feeds, mapping applications, transparency websites, social media tools and more. Anyone can discover and participate in the Digital Public Square by visiting dps.dc.gov.

One of the new procurement transparency sites is contracts.dc.gov. There visitors can see and participate in major current procurements conducted by OCTO and other District agencies. For example:

• The Smart Access and Attendance Solution (SAAS) site provides information on OCTO’s procurement of a turnkey state-of-the-art system that will become the main access, security, and attendance solution for the public schools and eventually, other DC government agencies;
• The Evidence Warehouse site tells visitors about the District’s procurement for a state-of-the-art Evidence Control and Storage Facility for the police department;
• The Information Technology Staff Augmentation (ITSA) site is a comprehensive source of information about OCTO’s innovative master contract for information technology staff augmentation.

Each of the sites reveals every major step in the procurement from beginning to end, including the Request for Proposal (RFP) and other documents, questions and answers, and videos of pre-bidding conferences, public announcements, and other live events.

In addition, OCTO has created a new data site that offers complete information on OCTO’s procurements of contract staff. The new site, http://data.octo.dc.gov, reveals details of every IT staff engagement, including position, hourly rate, start date, and subcontracting vendor. A map on the site shows virtual “pins” for every award at the business address of each subcontracting vendor. Site visitors can see at a glance which vendors have been most successful in competing for OCTO contract staff business.

“We are driving transparency by practicing government in the public square,” said District Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra. “With our new procurement sites, we’re opening a window on District procurement and inviting the public to examine and comment on the ways we spend taxpayer dollars.”

Mayor Fenty Announces Winners of Applications for Democracy Contest

Today District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Vivek Kundra announced the winners of the District’s “Applications for Democracy” technology contest. The contest launched on October 14, 2008, invited software developers to compete for the best new applications to make DC government data more accessible and useful for the public.

“My administration is committed to making government more accessible and more transparent, and through this contest we’ve gotten help from the most talented developers,” said Mayor Fenty. “I’m delighted with the responses. With these innovative applications, we can put government literally in the hands of the people.”

The competition, open to the general public, asked developers to create mashup applications (a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool) for the District's data using popular consumer technologies like the iPhone, Facebook, Google Maps and others. Contest entries were required to use open source programming. Entries were judged by an appointed jury based on criteria including usefulness to citizens, usefulness to government and originality.

The District collects and maintains vast stores of data on every aspect of government operations, from government contracts to crime statistics to economic development and much more. The District has already organized and published this data in a real-time data catalog with more than 200 data feeds at http://data.octo.dc.gov/. Applications for Democracy solicited the best and most cost-effective ways to package and present this data for easy viewing, analysis, and repurposing by the public.

“While the immediate goal of the Applications for Democracy contest is to develop innovative software to present District data, its long-term goals are broader,” said District CTO Vivek Kundra. “By making government data easy for everyone to access and use, the District hopes to foster citizen participation in government, drive private-sector technology innovation and growth, and build a new model for government-private sector collaboration that can help all governments address the technology challenges of today and tomorrow.”

The contest attracted more than 25 innovative applications, all licensed as open source and freely available to government and the public. Gold and Silver contest winners include:

Gold Prize Winners:

• Application: DC Historic Tours—a slick Google Maps mashup that combines custom walking tour creation with Flickr photo feeds and Wikipedia entries. Users can click through to create a custom map, save it and reference it later when they’re ready to tour the city.

o Agency—Boalt Interactive

• Application: iLive.at—presents users with information tailored to that exact location, cleanly organized into categories. The “Errands” category indicates how far the nearest shopping center, post office and convenience store are, among other things. “Crime” tabulates recently reported offenses in the area, and “The People” displays colorful pie charts giving demographic information. Users can also click on a category and the relevant items will be plotted on a map of their neighborhood.

o Independent Developers: Travis Hurant, Tim Koelkebeck and Brian Sobel.

Silver Prize Winners (6):

• Application: Park It—an application that allows you to check a specific area in The District for parking information. Allows users to check parking information before leaving the house and to see which streets are available for parking. Users can also check which meters cost money and which are free. Park It DC will even help users find out if they’re parking in a residential parking permit zone!

o Independent Developer: Shaun Farrell

• Application: Where’s My Money, DC?—a forum based Facebook application that encourages users to discuss procurements made by the DC government.

o Independent Developer: Keith Bradner

• Application: DC Crime Finder—Determines the user’s location and will return specific instances of various crimes based on a one-, two- or three-mile radius.

o Independent Developer: Mark Headd

• Application: Stumble Safely—an online application that helps users find the best bars and a safe path to stumble home on.

o Agency: Development Seed

• Application: Point About—a realtime, location-aware DC alerting tool for the iPhone, which includes crime reports, building permits and more.

o Agency: Point About

• Application: We the People—a peer-led community reference website that allows users to edit based on Washington, DC public data. We the People empowers everyone to make DC a more responsive community where all voices are heard and everyone can make a difference. Like Wikipedia, users can link any expression to its definition or another page.

o Agency: Chrys Tarvin

Bronze winners and honorable mentions are listed at appsfordemocracy.org. Votes are also being accepted for the People’s Choice Award.

A full list of submissions can be viewed at appsfordemocracy.org.

Maryland Tech Council Honors CTO Vivek Kundra for Outstanding Technology Leadership

Today District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced that District Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Vivek Kundra has been honored as the IT Executive of the Year by the Tech Council of Maryland (TCM).

TCM represents the advanced technology and biotechnology communities of Maryland, the nation’s second-largest technology hub. Its Government Sector IT Executive of the Year award honors government leaders whose achievements and vision have raised the bar on quality and innovation throughout the IT industry. Mr. Kundra competed for this year’s award in a field of outstanding technology leaders, such as CIO’s from the US Department of the Army, the National Institutes of Health and the Government Services Agency.

Mr. Kundra won the TCM award for his pioneering work in digital democracy—advancing government accessibility and transparency through technology. Mr. Kundra has thrown open the government’s vast data storehouse to the public at http://data.octo.dc.gov/with over 200 data feeds in real time. Now citizens can track contract awards, crime incidents, vacant properties, construction projects—and much more. Last month, Mr. Kundra launched a contest for the best applications that repurpose the data to make it even more useful to government and the general public, which resulted in 47 applications created by citizens, NGO’s and the private sector.

In honoring Mr. Kundra, TCM observed: “Under Mr. Kundra’s leadership, thousands of District residents now have access to government information and services…Mr. Kundra has made the District the model for interactive citizen engagement through live data feeds and datasets.”

“My administration has worked hard to attract top talent to government, and we’re committed to making government services more accessible and more transparent,” said Mayor Fenty. “Through his dedicated effort and innovative approach, Vivek Kundra has advanced both of these goals a great deal in a short time. He’s a tremendous asset to my administration and the nation’s capital.”

“I’m humbled to receive this award and to be chosen from such an outstanding field of candidates,” said Mr. Kundra. “The award recognizes the technology revolution we launched in the nation’s capital that led to a transparent, accountable and participatory government.”

District of Columbia Arms Public Safety Officers With New Technology

Today District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, District Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Vivek Kundra, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Cathy L. Lanier, Fire Department Chief Dennis Rubin, and Office of Unified Communications (OUC) Director Janice Quintana announced the deployment of 1,006 mobile data computers to fire, emergency medical, and police officers in the field.

“Our public safety officers work hard to keep District residents safe,” said Mayor Fenty. “We’re always pursuing new methods to make their work more efficient and keep them in the field helping people, not in the office shuffling paper."

MPD
The deployment represents the latest step in MPD’s ongoing campaign to incorporate technology into its operation and to improve public safety. Law enforcement personnel are now equipped for the first time with mobile technology that will allow them to automatically generate electronic reports. This electronic reporting function will greatly improve the timeliness and accuracy of data.

Recently, MPD deployed 812 units mounted in police cruisers and assigned to specialized units. With the new laptops, police officers can perform real-time inquiries on wanted persons, drivers, stolen property, weapons and vehicles.

In the future, MPD and the District will issue hand-held personal digital assistants (PDAs) providing the same functions as the mobile laptops to officers on foot patrol, Segways, bicycles and motorcycles.

“This technology makes us more efficient. Our officers are able to spend more time patrolling our neighborhoods and communities,” said Chief Lanier.

OUC
OUC, which is responsible for 911 and 311 operations, is also responsible for the District’s radio division. The radio division provides system maintenance and support for the 9,000 radios across 18 agencies with primary users being MPD and the Fire Department. OUC will also provide system maintenance and support for the mobile data computers initiative. “Our goal is to ensure that the first responders for Fire, EMS and MPD have the latest and most reliable communication technology so they can respond quickly and safely to those in an emergency,” said OUC Director, Janice Quintana.

“Our new technology investments give us a common operating view of public safety in the District,” said CTO Kundra. “By arming our front line officers with technology, we’re ensuring that they have the information they need to protect residents anytime, anywhere.”

Fire Department
The District has deployed the remaining 194 mobile data computers to the Fire Department’s trucks and ambulances. With their new vehicle-mounted laptops, firefighters and ambulance will receive not only dispatch orders, but also maps from the District’s GIS system to direct them to the exact locations identified in 911 calls. In addition, the computers in command vehicles utilize GIS technology to map the location of fire hydrants, along with the most current data from the Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) about which hydrants are working PDAs, complete with maps, help firefighters and WASA crews manage the hydrant inspections.

In the future, the Fire Department computers will be equipped with additional software, including patient care data and floor maps of the locations of fire emergencies.

“When fire strikes or someone has a heart attack, there’s not a minute to spare,” said Fire Chief Rubin. “This technology brings even more resources to bear for our first responders, who help people every day in our city.”

District of Columbia Launches Open Innovation Challenge

Today the District of Columbia Chief Technology Office of the Officer (OCTO) announced “Apps for Democracy,” an initiative to develop new software applications to make the DC government’s data more accessible and useful for the general public and the government. Register for the contest at http://apps08.eventbrite.com/.

The District collects and maintains vast stores of data on every aspect of government operations, from government contracts to crime statistics to economic development and much more. The District has already organized and published this data in a real-time data catalog at http://data.octo.dc.gov/. The new initiative will solicit the best and most cost-effective ways to package and present this data for easy viewing, analysis, and repurposing by the public.

Technology developers are invited to compete in creating applications for popular consumer technologies like iPhones, Facebook, Map Mashups and others. Developers must use open source programming.

The contest is open to the general public and will run for a month from October 14 through November 14, 2008. The District will host a kick-off on October 16 and will conduct five open “Innovation Labs” each weekend to help contestants find collaborators. The contest will conclude on November 13 with an awards ceremony to unveil the winning applications. Additional contest details and guidelines for entries can be found at http://www.appsfordemocracy.org/.

The contest will serve as a catalyst to visualize the District’s data so it will be useful to the citizens of DC, improving their quality of life; foster innovation in the DC technology community resulting in startup formation and growth; solve the technology challenges of OCTO through more cost effective open collaboration; and work towards a new model for government/private sector cross collaboration that can be utilized repeatedly to solve our challenges and serve as an example for other governments.

“The Apps for Democracy contest is part of our drive toward digital democracy in the nation’s capital,” said District CTO Vivek Kundra. “Especially in these difficult economic times, it’s crucial to the government’s mission to find more efficient and impactful methods for delivering an even higher level of service for a fraction of the cost. We are ushering in a new age of participatory democracy, one in which technology is developed by the people for the people.”

District of Columbia Opens Virtual Permit Center in Ward 5

Today District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty, Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) Director Linda Argo, and District Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Vivek Kundra announced the opening of the District’s first neighborhood online service center in Ward 5.

The new Virtual Permit Center offers a popular District online service, DCRA’s “Postcard Permit” for home improvements. The Center is located at a site that is a Mecca for home improvement professionals and do-it-yourselfers—the District’s The Home Depot store at 901 Rhode Island Ave NE. The Home Depot is highly Metro-accessible, right next to the Rhode Island Ave Metro station on the Red Line.

For the first time, District residents and licensed contractors planning home improvement projects can get both the materials they need, and the required permits, all in one trip. Permit applicants can also take advantage of Home Depot’s extended, seven-day-a-week service hours: 6 am-10 pm Monday-Saturday and 8 am-7 pm Sunday.

“We are always looking for ways to make District services more accessible and convenient for our residents,” said Mayor Fenty. Now residents can combine their permit application with their visit to Home Depot and skip the trip to DCRA.”

The Virtual Permit Center is easy to find in the front of The Home Depot store. There are two self-service kiosks each equipped with computers linked to the District’s Postcard Permit system. The online process for Postcard Permits at The Home Depot Virtual Permitting Center is exactly the same as from any other computer: The permit applicant submits the information required for the particular type of permit requested (e.g., plumbing, electrical, structural), pays the associated fee with a credit card, and prints out a paper permit for his or her records. The applicant can call the DCRA Permits Customer Service Center at (202) 442-4589 at any time for assistance in completing the process.

The new Virtual Permit Center is the latest in a series of enhancements to streamline and modernize DCRA’s building permitting process. Last year, DCRA unveiled a completely overhauled and innovative new permit center at 941 North Capitol Street, NE, Room 2300, offering customers a more efficient and pleasant environment, as well as accessibility for permit applicants with disabilities.

“We know how busy people are—and how much they’re paying for gas these days,” said DCRA Director Argo. “With the Virtual Permit Center, we aim to minimize time, expense, and hassle for every District resident who’s doing a home improvement project.”

The District’s central technology agency, the Office of the Technology Officer (OCTO), collaborated with DCRA and Home Depot to establish the new Virtual Permit Center.

“We thank our partners at The Home Depot for collaborating with us to bring District government services to our customers where it’s most convenient for them,” said CTO Kundra. “The Virtual Permit Center is one of many steps we’re taking to enable our customers to deal with government on their own time and their own terms.”

Mayor Fenty Announces Three National Awards for the Office of the Chief Technology Officer

NASCIO honors bring OCTO award count to 10 in 2008
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced today the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has honored the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) with three national information technology (IT) awards. The new honors bring the District’s total IT awards to 10 in 2008.

NASCIO named OCTO the winner of its Recognition Award in the IT Project and Portfolio Management Category, an award for state initiatives that develop governance processes, policies and systems for the efficient management of IT investments from concept, funding, implementation and operation to retirement.

The award-winning project was the “stock market model” developed by Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Vivek Kundra for managing the District’s IT investments. Kundra’s innovative idea was to manage IT projects as a portfolio of stocks, with each project as a company, its team as the management, its schedule and financial status captured in market reports and customer satisfaction as the market reaction. By applying these stock-market practices to government technology, Kundra was able to identify problem projects early and either switch managers or kill the projects, freeing resources for more promising initiatives. Earlier this year Kundra was honored for his ground-breaking stock market model by both the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, which recognized Kundra among outstanding IT innovators, and by InfoWorld Magazine, which named Kundra among the nation’s top 25 CTOs.

NASCIO also awarded OCTO its Recognition Award in the Government to Business Category. This award recognizes innovative applications that reduce business costs for regulatory compliance, help companies establish and grow a business, or improve day-to-day government-to-business interactions.

OCTO’s winning project was its Certified Business Enterprise (CBE) online Resource Center. District CBEs are businesses certified by the District’s Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD) to participate in the District's contracting program. The program directs spending to District-based businesses to create local jobs, strengthen the local economy, and increase the District’s tax base. To maximize participation and benefits from the program, DSLBD needed a user-friendly, comprehensive online certification and contract compliance application. OCTO developed the application in consultation with DSLBD, the District’s Office of Contracts and Procurement (OCP) and the Office of the City Administrator (OCA). The result was a application that:

• Allows qualified business owners to submit online applications for CBE certification;


• Enables DSLBD to process the applications via the District’s Intranet;


• Provides a transparent and efficient process to verify agency compliance with CBE participation requirements;

• Tracks prime contractor payments to subcontractors to verify compliance with CBE participation plans; and


• Provides outreach tools to inform the CBE community about upcoming business opportunities, training classes and DSLBD/District business events.

The site has enhanced agency and prime contractor compliance with District CBE requirements, it has dramatically increased the accuracy of DSLBD data and it has improved the efficiency of certification processing and compliance tracking.

The third NASCIO award OCTO won was the Recognition Award in the Government to Citizens category for governmental applications that provide innovative and/or more efficient services to citizens. OCTO won the award with its CapStat “Building A City That Works” website. The site supports CapStat, a cross-agency accountability program launched by District Mayor Fenty. The Mayor and City Administrator hold regular meetings with agency directors to review agency performance data, assign action items, and hold the managers accountable.

The CapStat website is central to the program. CapStat meetings are recorded by video and broadcast on the site. The site offers performance data from CapStat sessions as well as agency performance reports. It is updated after each session to provide links to full-length session videos, resulting action items, and a revised schedule of upcoming topics. The site offers data catalogs and live feeds on a wide variety of District performance measures, such as violent crimes, service requests, permits, and many more. An interactive map illustrates the reports and shows, for example, where each crime occurred or which buildings received permits. By providing the detailed data District leaders need to assess agency performance and hold managers accountable, and by creating a vehicle for the District to share all of this data with the public, the CapStat website has played a vital role in delivering on Mayor Fenty’s commitment to transparency and accountability in District government.

“For my administration, improving services for citizens and ensuring accountability and transparency in government are paramount goals,” said Mayor Fenty. “These important awards from NASCIO, along with many other recognitions OCTO has received in the past two years, testify to the key role technology plays in meeting our objectives for the District.”

“I’m honored by these awards that reflect the evaluation of our peers around the country,” said District CTO Kundra. “We have assembled some of the smartest and hardest working people at OCTO so the District can lead the nation in innovation and service delivery.”

Bring Your Resume! 50 Tech Openings at Mayor Fenty’s Job Fair

The District’s Chief Technology Officer, Vivek Kundra, will recruit and hire qualified candidates for District technology jobs at Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s 2008 Citywide Job Fair on September 23.

The Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) leads technology for the District of Columbia Government. Whether it’s creating technology solutions for our public schools, fitting police cruisers with 21st century tools, or using GIS to help rebuild city neighborhoods, OCTO is helping government serve citizens smarter, faster, and better, through technology.

“At OCTO, we have career opportunities in cutting-edge technology,” said Kundra. “We’re leveraging the power of technology to improve service delivery, drive innovation, and bridge the digital divide to build a world-class city.”

Kundra and his leadership team will be on hand at the Washington Convention Center from 10 am to 4 pm to interview candidates and make provisional offers for software developers, network engineers, IT security specialists, messaging and storage engineers, and project managers to work on core and emerging technologies.

“We want to expand our team of talented, innovative thinkers,” added Kundra. ”We’ll be hiring on the spot—so candidates should bring their resumes and be prepared to interview with me and my staff.”

More than 150 exhibitors are expected to participate in the Mayor’s Citywide Job Fair, including both District government agencies and private companies. Applicants can visit the Citywide Job Fair Information Center to learn more about the exhibitors.

• Find Current Job Opportunities With OCTO

District of Columbia Signs New Best-Practice Technology Staff Contract

The District of Columbia’s Office of Contracting and Procurement (OCP) and Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) today announced the execution of a new information technology (IT) staff augmentation contract that promises to transform the District’s IT staff augmentation (ITSA) process. The new contract will inaugurate an innovative method of procuring IT contract staff resources and save the District millions of dollars annually on technology spending.

OCP and OCTO developed the new ITSA structure after a six-month study of IT staff procurement in the District and other states. The study found the District’s process too costly and time consuming, and found 80 percent of vendors were dissatisfied based on lack of transparency, lack of opportunity, and slow payment. The study also found that at least 18 other states have solved similar problems through a new structure in which one or more prime contractors provide capped rates for IT staff positions and subcontract with other vendors to fill them. This best-practice structure formed the basis for the District’s ITSA Request for Proposal (RFP).

The new contract requires that 95 percent of the total spend go to District Certified Business Enterprises (CBEs). The new process also widens opportunity and transparency for all businesses by enabling all vendors to see all IT staff procurement opportunities--online and in real time--including, the winning bidder, the rates, and the program manager who selected the bidder.

The new ITSA contract will deliver major cost savings and other benefits for the District and its IT staffing vendors. These benefits include:

• An estimated $10 million in annual savings on IT staff costs alone;


• Increasing the speed of IT staff procurement from the FY 2007 average of 37 business days to a projected average of 10 business days;


• Freeing 60 percent of OCP’s technology procurement staff time and 16,000 hours annually in OCTO program manager time for more mission-critical initiatives;


• Improving the transparency of the IT staff procurement process; and


• Substantially increasing CBE participation in IT staffing contracts from 71 percent in FY 2007 to the 95 percent required under the contract.

Because the new ITSA contract represents a significant change in current ways of doing business, OCP and OCTO worked with the District Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD) and the District of Columbia Council to explain the new structure to stakeholders, and incorporate their views, well before contract execution. OCP, OCTO, and DSLBD held a two-hour pre-proposal conference for the business community on May 6, 2008 and included recommendations from attendees in the RFP. OCTO created a website, http://itsa.dc.gov/, dedicated to providing information about the proposed contract for vendors and the general public. Councilmember Carol Schwartz, Chair of the Committee on Workforce Development and Government Operations, held a five-hour hearing on August 7 and requested modifications in the contract based on the hearing. OCP and OCTO fulfilled all the requested modifications, and the contract parties executed them following DC Council approval of the contract.

The contract modifications:

• Reduce the contract cap from $150 million per year to $75 million per year;


• Clarify the relationship between the prime contractor and the CBE subcontractors;


• Require the prime contractor to create a dispute resolution and appeal process;


• Ensure that each subcontracting vendor is in good standing as to tax status;


• Require each subcontracting vendor to adopt the terms of the First Source Act; and


• Require OCP and OCTO to report to the Mayor and the DC Council semiannually on the usage of the contract by the District government.

This contract kicks off a new era of greater openness and broader opportunity in the District’s procurement of IT staff,” said District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. “I commend OCP and OCTO for their hard work. I thank the Council, and especially Councilmember Schwartz, for their leadership in making this excellent idea a reality.”

With this new contract, the District joins the ranks of states around the nation that are reforming procurement in the public interest,” added District Chief Procurement Officer David Gragan. “The new ITSA structure provides government efficiency, cost savings, and fairness.”

"We are always looking for ways to use technology to increase transparency and efficiency in government operations,” said District Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra. “With this new vehicle, we’ll bring highly qualified staff on board much faster and at lower rates. And finally technologists can focus on technology without having to continuously interrupt their work to conduct recurring and predictable procurement actions.”

To learn more about DC Government technology initiatives and resources, visit http://www.octo.dc.gov/. To learn more about DC Government procurement opportunities, visit http://www.ocp.dc.gov/.

District of Columbia Launches New Intranet

The District of Columbia’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) today announced the release of a new Intranet portal that will provide District employees a broad array of new tools and transform the ways they communicate and work together.

The new portal will open to a home page that presents both Mayoral news and up-to-date news releases from all District agencies. For the first time, employees will have instant access to all the breaking news that affects their jobs and their lives as residents of the District metropolitan area—everything from health advisories from the Department of Health to road work announcements from the Department of Transportation to tips on summer fun from the Department of Parks and Recreation.

Also available right from the homepage will be a brand-new video training center. The portal will now provide video of virtually every training class conducted in the District government—from management training required for MSS employees to Continuing Legal Education to computer classes. Now employees will be able to complete training requirements—and take all the elective job enrichment courses they want—on their own schedules. No longer will they have to miss critical classes because of meetings, illness or vacation.

The home page will also link to a fast and multi-faceted search capability. For example, employees will be able to search for any other District official and get a handy information page complete with agency, title, contact information and even a picture of the individual and a map to his or her office. Employees will also be able to search for any address or point of interest in the District and get a picture of the building along with a detailed map of its location.

Employees will also be able to use the new portal to obtain and provide information about themselves, their agencies, and important issues affecting the District government. The portal offers a "DCpedia" that is modeled on Wikipedia and uses the same technology. Like Wikipedia, DCpedia is a free, open-content online encyclopedia created through the collaborative effort of the user community—in this case, the more than 39,000 employees of the District government. Any user of the new Intranet can post information to DCpedia, and anyone can edit it. The system contains an automatic check against misleading information—each entry identifies the time, date, and individual submitting it.

Equally exciting is a new common platform for document review and editing. With this new feature, employees in different units, agencies, even buildings, will be able to collaborate on documents like contracts, MOUs, legislation, regulations, press releases and more, without the need for long meetings or extended email chains.

The new home page will be a gateway to a wide variety of other resources. It will connect directly to all agency Intranet websites and to frequently used information sources like the District Personnel Manual. The home page will also link to critical citywide applications like HR, the PASS procurement system, the citywide email system and more.

"With our new Intranet portal, we’re aiming to make work life in the District richer, more efficient, and also more exciting," said District of Columbia City Administrator Dan Tangherlini. "We’re creating a virtual community and an open market of ideas and resources to empower employees so that they can deliver better informed and higher quality service to our customers."

In building the new portal, OCTO used flexible, low-cost open-source technology to make the portal functionally versatile and reduce expenditures. The choice of open-source technology drove the total cost of the portal down from an original estimate of $10 million to a final total of only $500,000.

“The new Intranet is just one example of OCTO’s ongoing efforts to deploy the most cost-effective and innovative technologies to enhance all areas of District operations,” said District Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra. “We are leveraging the successes of consumer technology to create opportunities for collaboration and to impact productivity District-wide.”

Learn more about DC government technology initiatives and resources.

Vivek Kundra on Government Technology TV–Procurement 2.0

Vivek Kundra, chief technology officer for Washington D.C., describes how Web 2.0 tools are improving procurement for the city government.

Managing Government Technology Like Your Investments

When Mayor Adrian Fenty appointed me to his Cabinet as Chief Technology Officer for the District of Columbia, I asked a simple question: Why can I find the real-time stock price and performance of any publically traded company with a few keystrokes, but I can’t get solid information on the performance of technology projects in the government?

My answer was to create a “Wall Street” model to manage the $950-million-plus District technology portfolio as a portfolio of stocks. Each project is a “company,” its team is company management, its schedule and financial status are captured in market reports, and customer satisfaction is the market reaction. The model allows us to balance riskier strategic IT investments with more conservative ones and rebalance the portfolio whenever necessary. The model also fosters government transparency and accountability--we deliver accurate, real-time performance data to government officials and citizens using web reports, podcasts, and YouTube videos.

I built a team of five Portfolio Managers to run the Wall Street model according to three core principles:

Apply the Efficiency of the Stock Market to IT Governance
In an environment of shrinking budgets, rising energy costs, and growing citizen expectations of government, evaluating the performance and promise of IT projects continuously and accurately is critical. With the Wall Street model, we can make fast and sound decisions to “buy,” “hold,” or “sell” an IT project—i.e., invest more financial resources or change management to improve performance, maintain the current resource level, or cancel a failing initiative.

Capture Quantitative and Qualitative Data
The IT stock model incorporates both quantitative and qualitative analysis to provide a holistic picture of the investment. Quantitatively, the Portfolio Managers analyze vital project statistics including schedule, spend against budget, and return on investment. Qualitatively, the Portfolio Managers evaluate the management team, customer satisfaction, and current project-related events to ensure a deep, integrated understanding of the project’s drivers and results.

Treat Taxpayers like Investors
We define the Portfolio Managers’ roles as guardians of taxpayer funds. Ultimately, these managers must ensure that all District agencies spend taxpayer dollars wisely and well on technology investments.

Here are a few cases where we turned “Dogs” into “Stars” by rebalancing our IT investment portfolio:
District Intranet: The District planned to invest $4 million to develop a government-wide Intranet—but with outdated technology. I withdrew the $4 million and switched the technology to free, flexible open-source software. The only cost was $10,000 for a server. The result: a cost reduction of 97.5%.

Report card system: The District planned to build a costly new complete automated report card system for the DC Public Schools. But the holistic stock market evaluation revealed that secondary schools already had automated report cards. So I switched to a much smaller $160,000 investment to install a primary school report card system and integrate it with the existing secondary school software.

DC-Net: DC-Net is a state-of-the-art fiber-optic DC government network that delivers high-bandwidth, high-reliability voice and data services to District agencies. A year ago, the project was a perfect example of excellent technology badly managed. Every month it ran a deficit, it had not added new customers at the planned rate, and costly contract staff sat idle. I changed the management, dismissed the contract staff, and re-invested the funds in a smaller group of less costly, more focused District employees. The result: a consistent monthly surplus since June 2007, renewed customer growth from 15,800 phone numbers as of June 1, 2007 to 21,580 phone numbers as of June 5, 2008 (37% in a year), and high customer satisfaction.

The genius of the American stock market is to put capital to the most efficient use, continuously redirecting funds from low-performing companies to high performers. Our IT stock market model infuses the same efficiency in government, assuring citizens the highest and best use of the tax dollars they entrust to us.

District of Columbia Expands “DC One Card” ID to Summer Youth Program

The District of Columbia’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), in collaboration with the Department of Employment Services (DOES), today announced the expansion of the “DC One Card” to participants in the DC Summer Youth Employment Program. The new picture ID is a consolidated credential designed to provide access to many DC government facilities and programs in a single card.Today, the DC One Card grants borrowing privileges at DC libraries and provides access to recreation centers throughout the city. Eventually the DC One Card will also become a student ID and an access card for DC Government buildings and programs.“We want to make it easy for our summer youth to get to their jobs, and we want to give them more than just a job—a complete summer experience in the District,” said DOES Director Summer Spencer. “Now our summer youth can travel to and access their jobs, and they can enjoy all the resources of our parks, recreation centers, and libraries—with just one handy card.”

This fall the District will issue DC One Cards as IDs for students in DC Public Schools.

“Soon students and adults of all ages will have easier access to all DC government services,” said Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra. “We are leveraging technology to help District youth make a smooth transition into the workforce.”

To learn more about the One Card and other DC Government technology initiatives, visit www.octo.dc.gov.

For the over 18,000 participants in the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), the new card will include a bonus—immediate WMATA SmarTrip® capability to help them travel to and from their summer jobs. The new DC One Card provides SYEP participants SmarTrip® functionality without the standard $5 fee. In addition, the SYEP participants will be able to load the $10 already deposited in their SYEP debit cards onto the DC One Card for use on Metro, even before they receive their first paychecks.

District of Columbia CTO Recognized Among Nation's Best

Today District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced that District Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Vivek Kundra has been honored with two major national information technology (IT) awards.

IDG's InfoWorld named Kundra among the nation's top CTOs with its "CTO 25 for 2008" award. Each year the technology publisher honors 25 senior IT leaders from government, nonprofits, and private industry who apply creativity, tech savvy, and management skills to drive excellent results in their organizations. In addition, the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium recognized Kundra among outstanding IT innovators who use leadership skills, business-technology acumen, and out-of the-box thinking to address ever-increasing challenges facing their organizations.

Mayor Fenty appointed Kundra CTO for the District effective May 7, 2007. Kundra joined the District government after a technology career spanning government, private industry, and academia. As District CTO, Kundra leads the District's central technology organization, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO). Its mission is leveraging the power of technology to improve service delivery, drive innovation, and bridge the digital divide to build a world-class city.

The accomplishment that won recognition for Kundra from both InfoWorld and MIT Sloan was the introduction of a new model to manage technology investments in the District. Kundra's idea was to manage IT as a portfolio of stocks, with each project as a company, its team as the management, its schedule and financial status captured in market reports, and customer satisfaction as the market reaction. By applying these stock-market practices to government technology, Kundra was able to identify problem projects early and either switch managers or kill the projects, freeing resources for more promising initiatives.

"My administration has worked hard to attract top talent to government," said Mayor Fenty. "Vivek Kundra is one of the most dedicated,innovative, and people-savvy executives I've ever encountered-within government or outside it. Even with my administration's commitment to flat budget growth, he's been able to produce consistently outstanding results. He's a tremendous asset to my administration and the whole city."

"I'm humbled to receive this recognition," said Kundra. "The real driver of the work that won this award is the challenge and inspiration I get from serving the District of Columbia."

The InfoWorld CTO 25 and MIT Sloan awards are not the only national technology honors that Kundra and his organization, OCTO, have won this year. OCTO won two Public Technology Institute's 2007-2008 Technology Solutions Awards for local governments that use technology to enhance service delivery, lower operating costs, and open new revenue opportunities.

To learn more about DC Government technology initiatives, visit http://octo.dc.gov/

Statement From Mayor Adrian Fenty and CTO Vivek Kundra

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UEWNLGEHc0&eurl=http://octo.dc.gov/octo/cwp/view,a,1301,q,640349.asp&feature=player_embedded]

Mayor Fenty, Chancellor Rhee, and CTO Kundra Invite You to Attend Washington, DC Technology and Education Summit May 7

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, Chancellor Michelle Rhee, and DC Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra invite you to participate as a delegate in The First Annual Washington, DC Technology and Education Summit.

This first-of-its-kind conference for DC public schools is "A Global Exchange Designed to Transform Public Education." The conference agenda will offer local and international strategies for transforming public education.

The event will feature Mary Cullinane, Director of Innovation and Business Development from Microsoft. She will provide leadership insight into her work in building the School of the Future in Philadelphia, PA.

The Summit is complimentary for all public sector educators, and includes:

• VIP Reception


• EXPO Area


• Informational Sessions

WHERE:

The Renaissance M Street Hotel

1143 New Hampshire Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20037

(202) 775-0800

WHEN:

May 6, 2008 - Opening Reception
6:30 to 8 pm

May 7, 2008 - Conference
9 am to 3 pm

Register online now! Select from the following link to register for the conference:

• Washington, DC Technology & Education Summit Online Registration

For questions or to RSVP, please contact:

Katy Farrar
Registration Coordinator
(800) 940-6039 ext. 1306
kfarrar@centerdigitaled.com

District of Columbia Launches First-Ever "One Card" ID

The District of Columbia’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), in collaboration with the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) and DC Public Libraries (DCPL), today announced the launch of the DC government “One Card.” The new picture ID is a consolidated credential designed to give adults and children access to all the DC government facilities and programs they need to use.

Today, the One Card grants borrowing privileges at DC libraries and provides access to recreation centers throughout the city. Eventually the One Card will also become a student ID and an access card for all DC government buildings and programs.

“We all know the frustration of fishing in our wallets and purses for a multitude of cards,” said DC Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. “We want our customers to enjoy and benefit from our libraries, our recreation centers, our programs—and of course, our schools--as much as possible. Now the doors to everything will open with just one card.”

Beginning in June, participants in the Summer Youth program will receive One Cards. Later in the year, students in DC public schools will get One Cards to serve as student IDs. Eventually, One Cards will include Metro access capabilities as well.

The One Card will be much easier to replace than library cards and other DC government ID cards, because the cardholder can go to any District facility for a replacement. The citywide consolidation of cards will also yield long-term cost savings for government operations.

“Soon students and adults of all ages will have easier access to every District service—from signing out a library book to signing up for summer sports,” said Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra. “This is what technology is all about--giving people better, simpler tools to connect to services they need.”

To learn more about the One Card and other DC government technology initiatives, visit http://octo.dc.gov/.

Regional Wireless Broadband Network (RWBN)

The District of Columbia is home to the first wireless broadband network dedicated to public safety use. Against a national backdrop of interoperability problems, scarcity of spectrum resources, and the real threat of terrorist attack, the new Regional Wireless Broadband Network (RWBN) is a model for public safety communications.

The Challenge of Interoperability

The Challenge of Interoperability Interoperability is the ability of different government agencies or public safety officials to communicate within and across departmental and jurisdictional boundaries. It remains a top concern for first responders, especially in this era of terrorist attacks, natural disasters, school violence, domestic crime, and hazardous material incidents. This issue transcends the need to communicate verbally, and includes the ability to gather and share data quickly at the scene of the emergency. The need to share data among all responders at an incident continues to be recognized by public safety as a key factor in determining the success of any coordinated response.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently recognized the NCR as having one of the best voice interoperability arrangements in the country; however, the NCR, like many other regions, has not ensured interoperability of data communications. Understanding the criticality and the need to have interoperability with all forms of communications, the National Capital Region (NCR) created the National Capital Region Interoperability Program (NCRIP) to address data interoperability in the
NCR. The program provides a holistic, interoperability solution consisting of interconnection of government institutional fiber networks (NCRnet), a Regional Wireless Broadband Network (RWBN), and a Data Exchange Hub (DEH) that NCR government agencies and organizations across the region can use to share critical data and information during an emergency and during day-to-day operations.

In November 2007 the FCC issued a Special Temporary Authority (STA) to the District of Columbia, at the center of the National Capital Region, facilitating the first wireless broadband implementation in the nation specifically for Public Safety. This STA authorized the operation of the first section of the RWBN finally making public safety grade wireless broadband services a reality for first responders within the Nation’s Capital.

The Challenge of Spectrum

The Challenge of Spectrum Sufficient radio frequency spectrum is the foundation for unfettered and high-quality reliable public safety communications systems. Unfortunately, for many years, public safety agencies across the nation have faced a severe shortage of spectrum, even for narrowband land mobile radio voice services.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently issued a landmark Report and Order establishing the rules governing wireless licenses in the 700 MHz band, which has propagation characteristics that make it ideal for wide area public safety systems. These rules, the culmination of over ten years of work, specify that 10 MHz of the 24 MHz of spectrum already set aside for public safety must be used for broadband data communications and delineate an ambitious program to promote a nationwide public safety network.

Integral to this Report and Order, the Commission has established a single nationwide Public Safety Broadband Licensee (PSBL) for the 10 MHz (5 MHz paired) of public safety data spectrum rather than rely on the Regional Planning Committees which retain their traditional role of
managing and coordinating the utilization of the narrowband portion of the spectrum.

This is a critical milestone for local, state, regional and federal first responders to gain access to the same interoperable broadband communications capabilities and technologies as the commercial world. The nationwide broadband network will provide first responders with remote access to video, high-resolution chemical and biological sensor data, and other critical data.

On Demand, In Real Time, When Needed, and As Authorized Interoperable Communications

The District of Columbia has deployed the nation’s first public-safety regional wireless broadband network including the capacity to transmit video, data and voice communications for use by emergency units, first responders and other public safety and local government personnel. The program is funded in part by a Department of Homeland Security Urban Area Security Initiatives grant and began in 2005.

This new 700 MHz network is a high-speed, seamless, interoperable, public safety grade, and secure wireless data network. It is designed to supplement the Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems that public safety agencies in the District use today and replace the commercial services used by most today for wireless data. Using 1xEVDO Revision A, the same technology deployed commercially by carriers like Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, the RWBN is able to provide the same capabilities currently available from commercial services but with more reliability, flexibility, dedication and control, as required for public safety usage. In contrast to some commercial networks, the RWBN imposes no profit-driven restrictions or limitations on the applications that may operate on the network, such as streaming audio and video. Currently, the RWBN offers only PC Cards as end-user devices, but in the near future, when manufacturers begin to produce devices for the 700 MHz commercial market, the network expects to offer additional form factors such as Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) Modems, Embedded Modems for ruggedized computing devices, and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).

The threat of attacks on our country and region is real, but this solution also delivers capabilities that can save lives and properties every day. Broadband tools for remote surveillance, helicopter video transmission, mug shots to the field, chemical and biological weapons detection, bomb squad support, and other mobile uses are critical to preventing and responding swiftly and effectively both to the rare attack as well as the more frequent emergency incidents that are part of maintaining law and order on a daily basis. The RWBN and similar broadband The nationwide broadband network will provide first responders with remote access to video, high-resolution chemical and biological sensor data, and other critical data.

The RWBN and similar broadbandwireless networks are resources vital to enhance first responder communications, promote effective sharing of incident information and facilitate incident command and control to manage and mitigate the effects of the next attack, natural disaster or daily incident. The RWBN is paving the way for the next-generation public safety communications platform that will not only provide enormous capabilities and benefits to National Capital Region’s
first responder community, but also create a blueprint and a test bed for future public safety deployments in the rest of the country.

District Technology Chief Testifies on FY 2009 Budget

District of Columbia Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra today testified before the District Council on the FY 2009 budget of the District’s technology agency, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO). Mr. Kundra took office as District CTO on May 7, 2007.

Appearing before the Committee on Workforce Development and Government Operations, chaired by Councilmember Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), Mr. Kundra described OCTO’s budget practice improvements and outlined major agency initiatives planned for FY 2009.

Mr. Kundra described steps OCTO has taken to increase transparency and accountability in its budget. For example, he said, OCTO has created new operating accounts to distinguish operating from capital services and has separated some previously combined accounts to increase management accountability.

Mr. Kundra identified a series of key OCTO initiatives for FY 09. For example, OCTO will:

• Upgrade the DC STARS student information system so teachers, administrators, and eventually parents can track each student’s progress from the start of school to graduation;


• Deploy the "One Card" picture ID to provide 53,000 students a single card for entry to schools, libraries, and recreation centers—with Metro access to help them get there;


• Implement instructional applications such as Read 180, Accelerated Math, PLATO, and Leapfrog to help boost reading and math performance for students at all levels;


• Upgrade the WINSNAP nutrition system to ensure that DCPS has the data needed to recoup millions of dollars in National School Lunch Program reimbursement;


• Equip the mobile workforce so workers like police, fire/EMS, and building inspectors can spend more time serving customers in the field and less time in the office doing paperwork;


• Continue optimizing the pooling of wireless minutes District-wide to cut cellphone costs;


• Continue providing all District agencies with accessible, reliable IT utilities like email, Internet access, telecommunications, PDAs, and data processing; and


• Wage a “War on Paper” by digitizing millions of paper records, adding new modules to the District’s citywide procurement, HR, and payroll systems, and finding innovative new alternatives to paper processes.

Summarizing the FY 09 budget, Mr. Kundra said, “With the firm foundation it provides, we can carry out our citywide technology mission and help create a greener city and deliver more effective, more efficient government services for the District of Columbia.”