2008 Rising Star Christopher Traver

Christopher Traver helps frame information exchange at all levels of government

• By Richard Walker
• Aug 14, 2008

Christopher Traver, 27, is a leader in the development of the National Information Exchange Model, an Extensible Markup Language-based information exchange framework that represents a collaborative partnership among agencies and organizations across all levels of government ' federal, state, tribal and local. Its ultimate goal is to share critical data throughout justice, public safety, emergency and disaster management, intelligence, and homeland security organizations.

It's Traver's job to assess and forecast the needs of agencies in the field, identify promising practices and develop strategies to support those practices.

'What we're trying to do is foster a consensus around what are the essential data components that need to be shared between agencies,' Traver said.

Communications skills are crucial to attaining that consensus. 'I think you really have to have that kind of ability ' to understand the right partners to have at the table and also the right level of expertise, whether they're policymakers or technologists,' he said. 'It has to be a situation where it's not just the federal government telling state and locals, 'This is the standard we're going to use, this is how it's going to be.' It's really the opposite, where we're asking them what kind of things they need to have.'

James Patrick McCreary, associate deputy director at Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), said that Traver's collaboration and listening skills have enabled him to stand out among his peers, most of whom have more experience. 'He has developed at a pace that is absolutely astounding for someone his age and number of years out of school,' he said.

Traver, a former software engineer, spent two years working as a contractor at the BJA on similar projects before becoming a federal employee. 'When a position opened on the federal side, I jumped on it,' he said. 'I knew it was an area I wanted to focus on for the foreseeable future.'

About Rising Stars 2008

Turnover among information technology leaders is a fact of life in government circles. Who's there to take the baton? The 2008 Rising Stars exemplify the strengths of the emerging generation of IT leaders, mixing technical savvy and innovative thinking with an instinct for collaboration and a commitment to the government's mission. Government Computer News is joining Federal Computer Week and Washington Technology in making the awards an 1105 Government Information Group 360-degree special report. For a look at all the Rising Stars, click here.