White House names first CIO.(INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)

The Obama administration has named Vivek Kundra as the first White House chief information officer, where he is expected to expand uses of cutting-edge technology.

Kundra will have wide powers over federal technology spending, information sharing between agencies, greater public access to government information, and security and privacy issues. The White House said he will also look for ways to "lower the cost of government operations" through technology.

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In 19 months as chief technology officer (CTO) for Washington, D.C., Kundra posted city contracts on YouTube and made Twitter use common in his office. He also worked to allow drivers to renew their driver's licenses and pay parking tickets via Facebook.

Kundra, who was named one of the top-25 CTOs in the United States by InfoWorld, said he intends to extend the use of cloud computing in the federal government and create a data.gov website for posting vast amounts of government data online.

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