Vivek Kundra Vindicated

Just a quick update from my previous post about Vivek Kundra being accused of being a phony. Turns out he's not and the only person who is looking like a phony is John C. Dvorak for not doing his homework.

In some quick detective work Om Malik said,

Dvorak is just flat-out wrong — or at least that was the gist of the conversation I just had with Kundra. He called back and said that it was clear that “someone was spinning partial truths.” He welcomed anyone to check with University of Maryland’s University College and said they will find that not only did he graduate from the University College, but also that he was adjunct faculty member.

Nextgov.com writer Gautham Nagesh goes further

However, after a few phone calls I was able to verify that Kundra did receive a Master's degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland University College in 2001. That seems to conform with his official bio, where it states he "holds a MS in Information Technology from the University of Maryland. -- Dvorak obviously doesn't think too highly about Kundra's qualifications for his job, or those of federal chief technology officer Aneesh Chopra. But I was able to verify Kundra's degree with just a few phone calls in under two hours. Dvorak's arguments for why Kundra and Chopra are not qualified for their posts would be more compelling if he didn't resort to unverified accusations to support them."

I'm glad this story turned out for the best. But I'm not sure if I'll ever believe anything Dvorak writes going forward.