SymSoft efforts recognized by the White House

On June 6, Savita Farooqui from SymSoft received a surprise invitation to the White House for national recognition at the Champions of Change event on June 10. The email from the Executive Office of the President read "You have been selected by United States Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra to be highlighted as a Champion of Change, which is part of President Obama’s Winning the Future initiative.  As the White House executes President Obama’s plan to 'out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world,' entrepreneurs like you are being recognized for the innovative work you have undertaken in your community."

The Champions of Change event was held on Friday, June 10, 2011 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House. The gathering was aimed to demonstrate the diverse potential of Web apps utilizing data sets made available by federal, state and local agencies. The event featured top names in federal government IT, including national CTO Aneesh Chopra and national CIO Vivek Kundra. Chopra used the activity as a platform to promote the Obama administration’s ongoing push to make government data sets increasingly available and more usable through Data.gov. 

SymSoft made it in the list by virtue of its commitment to open-data and linked-data, and use of open data in "California Cage Fight." Winner of “Apps for Californians,” California Cage Fight enables users to visualize side-by-side data comparisons of local governments.  Users can compare populations, income levels, legal immigration rates and numerous other datasets.  SymSoft is using California Cage Fight’s competition-themed concept to attract more attention to open data’s possibilities, and hopes to use Semantic Web functionality for creating automated, real-time mashups making the Government Data more and more accessible. With SymSoft's focus on 'Creation through Collaboration', the linked data and semantic web technologies enable collaboration at data level, creating powerful data solutions.

Refer to Government Technology Article about "Champions of Change" event, also read Savita's blog on the whitehouse website.