OMB Releases IT Dashboard, TechStat Code Amid Program Funding Uncertainty

The Office of Management and Budget has released the open source software code behind the IT Dashboard. According to a March 31 OMB blog post from Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, the code was released in order to leverage OSS developers for site enhancements and provide a framework for other government CIOs to lead similar efforts. OBM released the code, which can be downloaded here, with the help of code-sharing non-profit Civic Commons.

"CIOs from across the country and around the world such as Maarten Hillenaar of the Netherlands, Kyle Schafer in West Virginia and Jason DeHaan of the City of Chicago are all interested in implementing these platforms in their respective organizations," wrote Kundra.

Some speculate another reason for the code release, which was not outlined in Kundra's blog post, is that funding for the dashboard is at risk of a significant decrease. While Congress appropriated $34 million in fiscal 2010 for the e-government fund--which also funds sites such as data.gov, paymentaccuracy.gov, usaspending.gov and apps.gov in addition to the IT dashboard--the Republican-led House of Representatives wants to appropriate the fund just $2 million for the current fiscal year.