Federal Government's CIO Vivek Kundra Explains How 'Sunshine = Savings'

Federal CIO Vivek Kundra takes to the White House White Board to talk about Good Government. He uses this video to explain how the IT Dashboard website helped save $3 billion in taxpayer funds through transparency.







Have any BETF-Blog Readers found value in the IT Dashboard?

Can BDPA IT Showcase Winners Join White House Science Fair Next Year?

Last month, President Obama hosted the first ever White House Science Fair, bringing together middle school and high school students from around the country and their award winning science, engineering and technology projects. The White House Science Fair was a part of the President’s Educate to Innovate initiative to move American students from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math achievement over the next decade.

Check out this behind the scenes video from the White House Science Fair, including Bill Nye the Science Guy and hosts of the show Mythbusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage.





How cool would it be for the winners of the high school division of the BDPA IT Showcase to be able to participate in the 2011 White House Science Fair? Anyone know how we can 'make it so'?

President Obama Nominates BDPA Member Malcolm Jackson to EPA Post

President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Malcolm D. Jackson, a Senior IT executive, as the incoming Assistant Administrator for Environmental Information, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Jackson was one of two people nominated on April 28th by President Obama. President Obama said,

“The American people will be well-served by the skill and experience these two exceptional individuals will bring to their roles. I am confident that they will be tremendous assets to my administration, and I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years.”

Mr. Jackson recently served as the Senior IT Business Unit Director of CIGNA Insurance Disability Management Business, where he managed all IT aspects that supported short term disability, long term disability, life and accident insurance products and services. From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Jackson also served as the Senior IT Business Unit Director for CIGNA Insurance Corporate Business Functions. During this tenure, Mr. Jackson directed the development of IT applications for Human Resources, Finance, Legal and Public Affairs, and Investments. In addition, Mr. Jackson had IT oversight for Corporate Owned Life Insurance, Reinsurance, and Settlement Annuities.

Prior to joining CIGNA Insurance, Mr. Jackson held various positions in the areas of IT, engineering, marketing and general business management at Monsanto, Quaker Oats, General Dynamics, and Shell Oil Company.

Throughout his career, Mr. Jackson has developed expertise in IT strategy, development of large scale enterprise resource planning, establishing performance metrics, and business process re-engineering.

Mr. Jackson is a member of NBDPA’s Chapter of The Year, the Philadelphia Chapter; a Board member of the Children’s Literacy Initiative in Philadelphia, and a Board member of the Jackson State University National Alumni Association, where he chairs the membership committee. Mr. Jackson holds a B.S. from Jackson State.

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) joins the entire BDPA-nation in our joy and admiration of Malcom for this remarkable career opportunity!   I hope that we see him later this year at the 2010 National BDPA Technology Conference in Philadelphia PA.

Nominate a Teacher for the 2010 Presidential Awards

The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching is the highest award a K–12 math or science teacher may receive for outstanding teaching in the U.S. The President officially names up to 108 teachers annually (award winners from 2007 shown in the above photo). Awards alternate between elementary and secondary teachers -- with elementary teachers eligible in 2010 -- and are given to teachers from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the outlying territories, and Department of Defense schools.

Since 1983, more than 4,000 teachers have been recognized for their contributions to mathematics and science education. If you know great teachers, nominate them to join this prestigious network of professionals. It would be great to see teachers that support BDPA nominated this time!

The deadline for 2010 award nominations is May 1, 2010.

Barack Obama Challenges BDPA: 'Educate to Innovate'

President Obama has launched an “Educate to Innovate” campaign to improve the participation and performance of America’s students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This campaign will include efforts not only from the Federal Government but also from leading companies, foundations (e.g., BDPA Education and Technology Foundation), non-profits (e.g., BDPA), and science and engineering societies to work with young people across America to excel in science and math.

As part of the campaign, this Administration hopes to do a series of events, announcements and other activities that build upon the President’s “call to action” and address the key components of national priority.

Why This is Important

We have many great schools, excellent teachers, and successful students in America. But there are also troubling signs that, overall, our students should be doing better in math and science.

• In the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) comparison, American students ranked 21st out of 30 in science literacy among students from developed countries, and 25th out of 30 in math literacy.
• On the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math tests, 4th graders showed no signs of progress for the first time in many years, and 8th graders tallied only modest evidence of progress. We are not advancing as we must.

What We Must Do

Through “Educate to Innovate” and other efforts, we must:

• Increase STEM literacy so that all students can learn deeply and think critically in science, math, engineering, and technology.
• Move American students from the middle of the pack to top in the next decade.
• Expand STEM education and career opportunities for underrepresented groups, including women and girls.

The First Steps

America is already stepping forward to meet these challenges. As part of the “Educate to Innovate” effort, five major public-private partnerships are harnessing the power of media, interactive games, hands-on learning, and community volunteers to reach millions of students over the next four years, inspiring them to be the next generation of inventors and innovators.

• Time-Warner Cable, Discovery Communications, Sesame Street, and other partners will get the message to kids and students about the wonder of invention and discovery.
• National Lab Day will help build communities of support around teachers across the country, culminating in a day of civic participation.
• National STEM design competitions will develop game options to engage kids in scientific inquiry and challenging designs.
• Five leading business and thought leaders (Sally Ride, Craig Barrett, Ursula Burns, Glen Britt, and Antonio Perez) will head an effort to increase private and philanthropic involvement in support of STEM teaching and learning.

Admittedly, my blog title is not entirely accurate. President Obama laid out a challenge to all students, teachers, parents, corporations, organizations and communities. He wasn't speaking directly to BDPA...

However, the question begs to be answered...

...what is BDPA going to do in response to our president's call for action. What SPECIFIC action will BDPA take to 'educate to innovate'?

What say u?

White House Appoints Head of Social Innovation Office

It’s now official: Sonal Shah, former head of global development at Google.org, the search-engine company’s philanthropic arm, is head of the new White House Office of Social Innovation.

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Help Bridge the Achievement Gap: Join Us for Our Historic March to the White House -May 16, 2009

CIVIL RIGHTS COALITION TO GATHER AT THE WHITE HOUSE FOR 55TH ANNIVERSARY OF BROWN V. B.O.E.

If you would like to organize a Bus from your city to join this Event, please give all of your contact information, the City you wish to organize including how many people you can guarantee to accommodate. The Buses will be free of charge if you can gather enough people from your city.

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Obama Unveils New WhiteHouse.gov Website

President Obama wasted no time showing how things will change in his administration. He launched the new WhiteHouse.gov website at noon today.

In addition, the White House also has an official twitter feed. I hope that all BDPA members are getting with the future. Are you on Twitter yet?