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Obama bypasses Net stars, names Va. official Chief Technology Officer

10:24 AM Sat, Apr 18, 2009 | Permalink |

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By Sheila Lennon |

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The White House, previewing today's Presidential radio address:

Aneesh Paul Chopra Chopra serves as Virginia's Secretary of Technology. He leads the Commonwealth's strategy to effectively leverage technology in government reform, to promote Virginia's innovation agenda, and to foster technology-related economic development. Previously, he worked as Managing Director with the Advisory Board Company, leading the firm's Financial Leadership Council and the Working Council for Health Plan Executives.

Anita Kumar, a Washington Post reporter covering vVirginia politics, broke the story last night: Chopra to White House:

Chopra had put in long hours in Washington helping Obama's transition team get him ready for his first day as president job Jan. 20. He was one of about 50 volunteers from across the nation serving on the transition's technology, innovation and government reform policy working group.
...Chopra, former managing director with the Advisory Board Company, a publicly-traded health care think tank serving nearly 2,500 hospitals and health systems, has considered running for office himself.

TechCrunch thinks Obama spurned Silicon Valley -- Eric Schmidt of Google was among the names floated, among other net luminaries (Obama may tap 'Father of Net' for top tech post). It sounds as though Obama is reaching for someone to implement the tech behind the new healthcare initiatives rather than tap a brains trust.

Aneesh Paul Chopra keynotes the 5th Annual State of the Net Conference 2009, hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee.

Blogger Sean Garrett of The 463: Inside Tech Policy kindly broke out the timeline of this video so you can view Chopra's thoughts on the issues that most interest you:

Some speech highlights:
3:50: Open government
11:10: Discovering/searching for govt data
16:00: Open stem education
19:50: A very cool "open textbook" program
22:30: "The iPhone is my life"
24:00: Health care IT
35.15: Broadband policy
44:00: Open education (Q&A)