Steven VanRoekel Keynote at Joint Cloud and Big Data Workshop

Steve Vanroekel discusses his background and shares anecdotes from his time at Microsoft. He highlights the technological inflection point we are at, emphasizing the role of government data in fostering innovation and public benefit. He discusses the use of health data and applications, the government's cloud strategy, and digital initiatives. He concludes with a call to action for collaboration to shape the future.

What role did Steve Vanroekel hold before becoming the US Chief Information Officer?

• Head of the Federal Reserve

• Executive Director at the US Agency for International Development

• CEO of Microsoft

• Director of the National Weather Service

During his time at Microsoft, what was one of Steve Vanroekel's responsibilities?

• Managing the Xbox division

• Leading the marketing team

• Speech writing for Bill Gates

• Developing new software languages

What is a key factor that Steve Vanroekel believes leads to innovation?

• High consumer demand

• Stable government policies

• Disruption in the marketplace

• Economic prosperity

What significant impact did the opening of the Global Positioning System have?

• It led to the development of new military technologies

• It created $100 billion in economic value

• It reduced government spending

• It improved international relations

What is one example of government data that has been opened to the public?

• Social security numbers

• Weather data

• Military strategies

• Tax records

What is the primary goal of the cloud-first policy mentioned by Steve Vanroekel?

• To eliminate the use of traditional data centers

• To privatize government data

• To promote the use of cloud computing in government

• To increase government spending

What does the digital strategy aim to achieve in terms of data?

• Make machine-readable data the default

• Restrict access to government data

• Increase data storage costs

• Eliminate the use of APIs

Which two real estate sites were mentioned as examples of companies using government data?

• Century 21 and Coldwell Banker

• Homes.com and Movoto

• Trulia and Zillow

• Redfin and Realtor

What is a significant benefit of opening government data, according to Steve Vanroekel?

• Increased government control

• Enhanced public safety and economic benefit

• Higher taxes

• Reduced innovation

What is the expected outcome of the government's digital strategy?

• A new default for data accessibility

• Decreased public engagement

• Increased data privacy issues

• Higher costs for data management