Gov’t CIO, programmers discuss solutions, apps
From left: Tourism Co. Deputy Director, Luis D. Muñiz and CIO Giancarlo González.
Less than two weeks away from the first “Puerto Rico Tech Summit,” the Government Information Office met Tuesday with programmers participating in the Hackers Boot Camp to discuss the possible areas, or challenges, for which they will be developing solutions and applications.
The Hackers Boot Camp is part of the 2013 Tech Summit, a meeting between developers, entrepreneurs and technology experts who will be handed particular challenges faced by government agencies and will have to propose and develop technological solutions using the agencies’ public databases.
Through the Boot Camp, the government is looking for innovative ways to identify opportunities for government interoperability and thus increase effectiveness among agencies that will translate into better citizen service quality.
“We are sharing ten challenges and those are activities that we describe as ‘low hanging fruits’ because they represent opportunities that can be addressed quickly, efficiently and with very minimal or no investment,” said CIO Giancarlo González, during the meeting that took place at the Science and Technology Trust Offices in San Juan.
A few of the challenges include defining service routes maps for Metropolitan Bus Authority, the Urban Train and First Transit, so that times, stops and average trips per day can be determined. This would allow for other routes to be included — along with improved services efficiencies.
Another challenge, the “Lean Tech,” aims to establish a synchronized resource planning system and technology projects with the annual Office of Management and Budget process, while the “Oversight” challenge seeks to create an application to computerize online monitoring of content that is of government interest. Click here for more information on other challenges.
Opportunities in tourism
Meanwhile, Puerto Rico Tourism Company Deputy Director, Luis D. Muñiz, said the event also presents opportunities for mobile workers interested in creating solutions for the tourism industry.
“Mobile workers are a new niche market with a lot of growth potential for the tourism industry. Although they are not your traditional tourist, they do have a similar economic impact because they take advantage of their stay and enjoy the tourist attractions our island has to offer,” he said, noting Tourism is working on specific initiatives to attract the mobile worker market.
The Puerto Rico Tech Summit is a one-day event taking place June 6 gathering technological gurus, administration officials members, the private sector and academia for a discussion on the transformation of traditional government services through scalable product development.
Some of the speakers include Evan Henshaw-Plat, co founder of Twitter; Hugo Troche- experienced consultant specializing in open code solutions design for implementing Service Oriented Architectures; Christopher Herndon, co-founder of Apartment List, the fastest growth search engine in the U.S.; Doug Robinson, executive director for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers; and Peter Shanley, business development director of Neo Innovation Inc.
