Kundra and Chopra: Friends in deed

Aneesh Chopra, President Obama's chief technology officer, and Vivek Kundra, the nation's first chief information officer, are working in tandem to turn the federal government into a tech-centric organization. The two men have known each other for a decade as part of Northern Virginia's Indian American business community. They worked together in Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine's administration, and then as tech advisers on President Obama's transition team.

Now, the two longtime friends have a chance to make a major impact on Obama's plans to embed technology into government; they will attempt to use it to help increase jobs, expand broadband services, build a modern electric grid and make e-health records a reality. That's a long to-do list, but one that the administration is confident these two are capable of achieving.

The two positions are evenly split. The CTO will focus on overall technology policy and innovation strategies across departments. The CIO will oversee information technology spending and operations within agencies, according to the Washington Post.

It's likely your job description, and those of everyone in an IT shop, will change as these two work their way through government's IT problems and possibilities.

"They face huge challenges of inertia and ramping up new staff...but they know how to bring the potential of technology to government," said Blair Levin, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus who was also an adviser on the transition team. "Silicon Valley has a vested interest in not so much having their own person in the job, but in someone who can hear what they have to say and translate that into government."

For more on these two tech execs:
- check out this Washington Post article