Andrew Hoppin

Andrew Hoppin was appointed as the first ever Chief Information Officer for the New York State Senate in February 2009 with a mission to dramatically improve government transparency, citizen participation, and operational efficiency for the Senate through technology. The CIO's Office works in three main realms: opening up the Senate's legislative and administrative data for public access (for transparency), overhauling the Senate's internal communications and collaboration infrastructure (for efficiency), and launching new Web 2.0 / social media technologies for the Senate (public participation). The new NYSenate.gov website, based on Drupal, launched in May, has been heralded as a leading example of the use of "Web 2.0" technologies by a legislature, inviting citizens to become creators of content on the site as well as consumers of content, and including interactive websites for every Senator and every Committee of the Senate. Previously, Andrew co–founded the NASA CoLab program at NASA Ames Research Center, which increased efficiency and transparency at NASA by building new collaborative relationships between NASA and external communities of practice such as the entrepreneurial technology community, the global open-source software movement, and constituents in the virtual world of "Second Life." Andrew has also founded several startup technology companies and has served as a strategy consultant, Advisor, or Board member for leading technology and political organizations such as the Craigslist Foundation, Netroots Nation, the Space Generation Advisory Council and the New Organizing Institute.