Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra was on the West Coast last week, where his schedule included meetings with Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Mozilla, and other tech companies. According to "InformationWeek Government Blogs" (http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2010/03/federal_cio_se...), he says that U.S. government employees are at a disadvantage when it comes to the technology they use, and he's looking for better ways of working.

Kundra was named federal CIO by President Obama a year ago this month, and closing the technology gap between the private sector and the public sector has been a pursuit of his since day one, the article adds. In a recent blog post, Kundra makes reference to Apple's Apps Store, which served as a model for the government's Apps.gov site (https://www.apps.gov/cloud/advantage/main/start_page.do), launched in September.

It's a source for cloud computing applications. Among other things, Apps.Gov will allow third-party developers create and offer apps that make use of government data.