Federal CTO: IT Is Part Of 'Federal Government Fabric'

Aneesh Chopra, the nation's first CTO last August, spoke at the National Association of State CIOs conference in Austin, Texas, to challenge state CIOs to work more innovatively and collaboratively in an effort to create a more standards-based data reporting structure. The idea is to rethink the traditional processes used to solve problems, integrate technology and to help develop new ways of interaction.

Accordingly to ChannelWeb, "The president has elevated IT into the fabric of how we run federal government. We want to collaborate with state and local governments," Chopra said.

President Barack Obama has challenged Chopra and his staff to solve IT problems in 90-day turnarounds.

Clearly, there is a sense of urgency from the government to embrace open communities in a time like this to thoughtfully stake out ambitious agendas for access, openness and transparency. And even for government, the message remains the same: IT is now a business strategy to help deliver solutions more quickly and less expensively.