Washington, D.C. — Today, the Center for American Progress announced that Clay Johnson will be joining CAP as a Senior Fellow. In his new role, Johnson will focus on issues at the intersection of technology and government, including information technology, procurement reform, and open government data.
“Ever-advancing technology is drastically changing how the world works, and that includes the government. How government hires employees, awards contracts, and manages technology affects our lives on a daily basis—whether it’s the software behind our traffic lights or the software behind healthcare.gov,” said Carmel Martin, Executive Vice President for Policy at CAP. “It’s time for the great technology advancements that we have seen in politics to carry over into government.”
Johnson is the founder and current CEO of the Department of Better Technology, a company that provides consultation and construction of IT strategies and products for the government. Johnson is also the co-founder of Blue State Digital—the digital strategy agency best known for coordinating President Barack Obama’ s 2008 campaign website and online strategy—as well as Big Window Labs, which helps entrepreneurs create sustainable businesses. After leaving Blue State Digital in 2008, Johnson served as director of Sunlight Labs at the Sunlight Foundation, where he worked to improve transparency and accountability within the U.S. government by increasing accessibility of government data.
Named a presidential innovation fellow by President Obama, Johnson was integral in creating the RFP-EZ program that streamlines the process of small businesses selling to the U.S. government.
Johnson is also the author of the national bestseller, The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption, which goes below the surface of synthetically manufactured communications in order to seek out the truth from the source.
Johnson, who was named the Google/O’Reilly Open Source organizer of the year in 2009, has made multiple appearances on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Bloomberg, among many other outlets.
For more information, please contact Chelsea Kiene at [email protected] or 202.478.5328.
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