New D.C. CTO scraps ‘Apps for Democracy’

Instead Sivak hopes to engage the same private sector developers in creating applications that tackle the problems at the government’s core rather than on the fringes. But his comments are a stark contrast to federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and several other speakers at the Personal Democracy Forum last week who touted how opening data up to the public could save the government millions on software development.

The contest is just the latest of Kundra’s efforts as D.C. CTO to come under greater scrutiny since his departure. Kundra vaulted to prominence by touting his forward-thinking projects like the Apps contest, implementing Google Apps for civic employees and creating online dashboards that monitor D.C. technology investments, but none of his projects seem to have made a lasting impact on the District’s government.

Sivak told Hillicon Valley last week that he has significantly tightened security controls and oversight at the D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer in the wake of the bribery and kickback scandal that took place during on Kundra’s watch. Sources have also said very few employees make use of Google Apps.