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September 29, 2009 By Steve Towns, Editor
Chris Willey became Washington, D.C.'s interim chief technology officer in March, filling the vacancy left by Vivek Kundra's appointment as federal CIO. Government Technology spoke to Willey as the district wrapped up its second annual Apps for Democracy contest, which challenges local software developers to create useful applications for government and pays cash prizes for the best ones. Willey discussed the possibility of routinely using the Apps for Democracy model to acquire applications needed by the district government.
Why is it important for Washington, D.C., to continue Apps for Democracy?
We're starting to create a groundswell of interest around social government, around people who want to help with issues that the government faces in the development sphere. Now we suddenly have this community of developers who have done both contests and are kind of looking for the next thing. We're looking to tap into that as a resource. The idea - and this is very new - so I can't talk much about it, but we're saying, "What is a way that we can create a marketplace where that community can respond to the needs of government in ways that are inexpensive to us, but are fruitful for citizens and government agencies?"
So you're looking for ways to formalize that process?
Exactly. Rather than it being a once-a-year thing, now it can be an ongoing thing, and we can leverage the [developer] community to help make the government better.
Video: Chris Willey, interim CTO for Washington D.C., says the District may try to create a new model for acquiring software.
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