Johnson joins CAP as a senior fellow

The former presidential innovation fellow's work at the progressive think tank will focus on federal IT, procurement reform and open data.

Clay Johnson

Clay Johnson has no shortage of either fans or critics in the federal IT community -- and now both camps are likely to be hearing a lot more from him.

The Center for American Progress announced on April 15 that Johnson -- the outspoken technologist, author and former presidential innovation fellow -- will be coming aboard as a senior fellow. Johnson is also the founder and CEO of the Department of Better Technology, which focuses on developing government IT solutions. Johnson said the fellowship "has no implications" for DBT.

"A commercial social venture isn't the right home for a lot of the policy and reform work that I do with the federal government," Johnson said, according to CAP. "The Center for American Progress is."

Johnson has been critical of government IT and federal contracting in the wake of the HealthCare.gov launch, saying that the federal procurement system is broken. In his role as a 2012 presidential innovation fellow, he worked on the RFP-EZ procurement system, which continues to be used for certain acquisition efforts. In 2010, Johnson was a Federal 100 Winner for his work as director of Sunlight Labs.

Unsurprisingly, Johnson's work at CAP will focus on issues concerning government technology, including procurement reform and open government data. His fellowship will be based in Atlanta.