Outgoing Federal CTO Talks Transparency, Bottom-Up Change

Staff | Nextgov | February 7, 2012

As the first ever federal chief technology officer, Aneesh Chopra, who steps down this week, was responsible for advising the President on technology and innovation. In a lengthy interview published earlier this week, Chopra spoke with The Atlantic's Nancy Scola: 

What is the elevator pitch on what you've been doing since you were named U.S. Chief Technology Officer?

What I do is advance the president's innovation agenda by incorporating his bottom-up theory of change. To be very specific about it, I execute the president's innovation strategy in a manner that taps into the expertise of the American people to solve big problems. The White House's Open Government Initiative focuses on three areas: transparency, participation, and collaboration. Can you rate the progress that has been made on each thus far?..