Todd Park (Photo credit: jdlasica)
At a recent NY Tech Meetup, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park outlined the Obama Administration’s plans to work more closely with tech startups.
A majority of Park’s work has been with five projects aimed at harnessing technology to improve government services. Before becoming CTO in March, Park co-founded two health IT companies. According to Inc, he said, “The most exciting and entrepreneurial experience I’ve ever had has been working in the U.S. government for the past three years. I’ve been functioning as a tech entrepreneur-in-residence inside the government.” The five projects include the following:
- The Open Data Initiative- an effort to make government data machine-readable and accessible to all citizens.
- RFP-EZ- a campaign to streamline the contracting process for tech start-ups which makes it easier to sell to the government. The federal IT market is about $80 billion.
- MyGov- a system that will allow citizens to access government services more easily online.
- Better Than Cash (formerly the 20% Initiative)- a program to introduce electronic and mobile payment systems to developing countries to facilitate the distribution of aid resources.
- Blue Button for America- an effort to boost the portability of health data by enabling citizens to download their information online.
Additionally, Park encouraged Tech Meetup attendees to contribute to the Presidential Innovation Fellows. Park believes that government data will help innovation across a variety of sectors.
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