New D.C. CTO scraps 'Apps for Democracy'

The District of Columbia's top technology official is scrapping his predecessor's contest that challenges software developers to find meaningful uses for government data.

The "Apps for Democracy" contest was the brainchild of current federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra during his tenure as D.C.'s chief technology officer; Kundra was roundly praised in technology circles for incentivizing the public to devise solutions that make use of government data. Several other communities and organizations have subsequently followed suit.

But Kundra's successor, Bryan Sivak, doesn't see as much value in the program, telling Governing magazine he doesn't plan on continuing the contests because the apps they produce are often more "cool" than practical for everyday use.

"If you look at the applications developed in both of the contests we ran, and actually in many of the contests being run in other states and localities," Sivak said, "you get a lot of applications that are designed for smartphones, that are designed for devices that aren't necessarily used by the large populations that might need to interact with these services on a regular basis."

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.