MaSSSoftech

John C. Dvorak, who is an columnist and broadcaster in the areas of technology and computing has written a column making some pretty serious allegations about Vivek Kundra, new US CIO and ex-DC CTO, well known locally for DC's first Apps for Democracy (which was later picked up by New York, San Francisco and others).

Dvorak has questioned Kundra's degree, the area he got the degree in, the school he went to, and the statement he made on his DC CTO page about being the CEO at Creostar (apparently he was the only employee there). Dvorak also brings up older stories such as Kundra's 1997 bust for stealing shirts from JC Penny’s (which Kundra has been quite open about, and said was a youthful mistake) and the later bust of his former staff by the FBI at the DC office during a bribery investigation. Dvorak has said in his blog:

Is US Chief Information Officer (CIO) Vivek Kundra a Phony?

This is the sort of question you might ask after trying to actually verify his supposed MS in Information Technology from the University of Maryland, College Park campus. The registrar has no record of it".


After Dvorak's report came out, bloggers and others started investigating the matter and Nextgov.com writer Gautham Nagesh said that


However, after a few phone calls I was able to verify that Kundra did receive a Master's degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland University College in 2001. That seems to conform with his official bio, where it states he "holds a MS in Information Technology from the University of Maryland."

Although UMUC is different from UMD, as other bloggers have pointed out, this is a much smaller charge than trumping up an entire degree. There is no news on whether he did have a Bachelors degree in biology, although people did find proof of a degree in psychology, as Kundra had stated he possessed on his DC CTO page.

Another writer Om Malik says,


Dvorak is just flat-out wrong — or at least that was the gist of the conversation I just had with Kundra. He called back and said that it was clear that “someone was spinning partial truths.” He welcomed anyone to check with University of Maryland’s University College and said they will find that not only did he graduate from the University College, but also that he was adjunct faculty member.

Om also called the White House, and a spokesman said, the article as “a gross smear” on Kundra and called it “highly inaccurate.” With the active blogosphere and media we have, I suspect we will have the whole truth very soon.



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