Vivek Kundra, the man behind Data.gov, the government IT Dashboard and the federal initiative to reduce data centers and move to the cloud, will leave his post in August, according to Politico. He is reported to be going to Harvard to join the Kennedy School and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, according to Federal News Radio. President Obama had tapped Kundra to be the first federal CIO in 2009 after he had been the chief technology officer of Washington, D.C.

While the personal moves may be on the verge of becoming a trend, there is no doubt that the part of the reason behind them stems from the lack of innovation and technological adoption in government. The best way to think of the federal government is that it is a large enterprise operation that is perpetually three to five years behind the times. On aggregate, that is true, though there are a few examples of agencies that operate with present or cutting edge technology, such as NASA, many of the armed forces (which is much more device driven than IT infrastructure driven) and executive level agencies like the State Department and Internal Revenue Service (that is not an oxymoron, the IRS spends nearly $14 billion dollars on IT infrastructure and tax systems ... yet, the Treasury Department as a whole is not incredibly innovative).

Kundra was part of the first technology team ever to work as a C-suite at the executive level within the Office of Management and Budget. Aneesh Chopra is the first federal CTO and Jeffrey Zients the first chief performance officer.

Kundra most lasting legacy on the federal government will probably be his "25 Point Plan" [PDF] outlining how the government can streamline the IT infrastructure, grow to be more technologically forward and cut wasteful IT spending.

[Picture: Wikipedia]

"We've got to recognize that we can't treat the American people as subjects but as a co-creator of ideas," Kundra was quoted as saying by Government Computer News writer Wyatt Kash today. "We need to tap into the vast amounts of knowledge...in communities across the country. The federal government doesn't have a monopoly on the best ideas." That's exciting, if it's more than just words.

Can They Do It?

Collaboration is best built on a foundation of trust and transparency, something the technology players in the new administration have had a mixed record on in its first few months in office.

Transparency advocates celebrated the launch in March of a Digg-like social voting site to bring up key issues for the White House to tackle. Last month's unveiling of the new data.gov central repository for public data was less exciting in its execution. The congressional hearing on the confirmation of Kundra's co-worker to be, Chief Technology Officer nominee, Aneesh Chopra, was outright appalling in its failure to address issues of transparency.

Thus, when Kundra says that "we can't treat the American people as subjects but as a co-creator of ideas," we hope that co-creation will be recognized as an active collaboration between equally valid parties - not only as an opportunity to "mine" or "crowdsource" the public for ideas in bulk.

Concerns aside, it is certainly interesting to live at a time when the US Federal Government calls using the kinds of online tools that geeks in their parents' basements came up with, co-creation of ideas with the American people.

Thanks to leading Enterprise 2.0 consultant Dion Hinchcliffe for catching and spreading the word about this news.