There was a great article in the Washington Post on Monday that talks about DC’s Chief Technology Officer (yep, we’re one of the first cities to get one) Vivek Kundra and some of the innovative and game changing ideas he’s bringing to the DC government, particularly regarding government data and transparency. This of course has us excited.

One of his creations was the Apps for Democracy contest, which was a call for people to use recently opened up government data streams in web apps that would be useful to DC residents – with the best ones winning cash prizes. We entered two apps in the contest: StumbleSafely, which overlays crime data with bar hot spots (we’ve heard the cops are now using this to better time patrols to coincide with crime increases around bar hours), and Outside in DC, which plots bike lanes and bike theft on a map. We thought the contest was a great idea, and we were also impressed with Kundra’s follow up on it. He had all the contest winners come to his office, asked us for feedback on the government data and how it could be better opened up, and picked our brains about ideas for other web apps that would benefit the city – and what data we needed to make them happen. In fact, here’s a picture of Jeff and I with Kundra : )

I also got a peak at his war room, which the Post article talks about, and his system to track tech projects and their value. The article gives some great details on his system, which is pretty amazing, and some of Kundra’s other ideas about using technology to make the government more transparent and efficient. It’s good to know he has Obama’s ear : )