The new deputy chief technology officer for government innovation is already receiving high marks, with many expressing high hopes for the tech official tasked with open government innovation, according to a Nextgov report.
Previously, the chief information officer of San Francisco’s technology department, Chris Vein, worked on a clearinghouse of municipal data, akin to a  micro version of Data.gov, an online repository of federal datasets and a cornerstone of the administration’s open gov efforts.
San Francisco is a “major proponent of open data at the city-government level,†InformationWeek reports. The site has hundreds of data sets online, and his past experiences could propel Vein to better implement the administration’s open gov goals.
“[Vein] thinks outside the box and doesn’t let the typical government kind of restrictions or lack of resources, such as funding” impede his work, Ron Vinson, a colleague from San Francisco’s technology department said, according to Nextgov.  “He thinks of innovative ways to do more with less.”
Nextgov also reports that, according to his LinkedIn page, Vein worked in the White House starting in the late 1980s as a director of financial and administrative services.
“He does have a financial background, which is a very big plus when it comes to trying to sell IT initiatives,†Vinson told Nextgov.
Vein takes over for Beth Noveck, who left her post as deputy CTO in January to teach at New York Law School. Vein will have big shoes to fill; Noveck, the author of Wiki Government, a book on social media and democracy, led the government’s Open Government Initiative.
