Enable Participatory Democracy by Launching Apps for Democracy Contest

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.

Shift Technology Investments to the Field by Providing Mobile Technology to Police Officers

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.”

Help Government Work Better, Faster by Switching to Cloud Services

Build Applications Faster, Cheaper by Leveraging Cloud Computing

Streamline Procurement by Innovating IT Staff Augmentation

Grow District's Tech Economy by Transforming Staffing Procurement

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/.

Build the 21st Century Classroom by Building a Modern Network Infrastructure

Save Taxpayer Dollars by Negotiating Reduced Cellular Rates

District of Columbia Signs Contract Providing Significant Cost Savings on Telecom Services

The District of Columbia Government (District) has signed a three-year contract with Verizon Business under which the company will provide local telecommunications voice, data and voice mail services at more than 200 District offices.

Over 20,000 District employees including police, fire and administrative personnel will receive those services. The new agreement, announced today, continues a long history of serving the evolving communications needs of the District through Verizon and its legacy companies.

“This three-year discount contract represents a new and improved business partnership for the District and Verizon,” said Vivek Kundra, Chief Technology Officer for the District of Columbia. “The Mayor, the Attorney General, Councilmembers Schwartz, Gray, and the entire Council all played critical roles in taking it to final approval. I want to thank everyone involved in this important effort on behalf of the taxpayers and employees of the District.”

According to the District Office of Planning data, at the end of 2006, DCG serves 581,530 residents, and had 26,951 “full-time equivalent” employees in the nation’s capital.

Alex Coleman, senior vice president for Verizon Business’ government and education organization, said: “Our more than 100 years of serving the District of Columbia gives us a unique perspective on its current and future needs. We look forward to working with the District as it begins to implement advanced Internet protocol services that will help improve the experience for customers in the years to come.’’

This innovative contract makes it easier for the District to both buy smarter and to save money. The agreement is projected to save between $6 million and $12 million on basic services and will allow the District to address most of the products and services that it buys from Verizon.

Kundra said: “The contract will help the District contain costs for landline and data services while taking advantage of emerging technologies. Negotiators on both sides worked hard and in good faith to draft the contract.”

The Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) identifies and implements technologies that systematically support the business process needs and requirements of District agencies. OCTO also develops and enforces policies and standards for information technology throughout the District government. OCTO’s overall mission is to leverage technology investments to increase efficiency, transparency, and accountability throughout the District.

Telecom Transformation and Cost-savings

Today the Mayor held a CapStat session on the state of telecommunications in the District. The DC Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) was cited for restructuring its fiber optic telecommunications network (DC-Net) and making the program solvent, enabling continued growth without additional capital investment. Since May 2007, DC-Net has added 5100 telephone lines, 183 data circuits, and connected 51 schools citywide.

OCTO also pooled minutes across cell-phone carriers to simplify administration and gain cost savings. The plan will allow the District to share unused minutes within agencies and across the District.