This year, “Hackea por Una Causa” will have three main challenges.
By 2020 there will be 1 million more computing jobs in the United States than students graduating in those fields, the latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show.
Puerto Rico’s current financial crisis might just be the opportunity for the government to stay on track with its strategy of collaborating with private-sector technology companies to find solutions to its problems and improve services to citizens.
In the past year, Puerto Rico’s “hacker community” has created 31 solutions to address 12 government challenges aiming to increase effectiveness between agencies and the quality of services to citizens. Expectations are running high for the development of more applications during the second edition of the Tech Summit.
The first “Hackers Boot Camp” held in Puerto Rico last month produced more than two dozen applications and solutions to improve services within agencies and with island residents, of which the government has chosen five to follow up on, Chief Information Officer Giancarlo González announced.
Solutions to address challenges such as providing secure access to government databases, managing the mass transit system routes and developing an app to facilitate hydrants location for the Fire Department to use in case of emergency, were just some of the many applications that came out of the 1st Puerto Rico Tech Summit held Thursday.
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 government announced Monday it will host the first Puerto Rico Tech Summit, a one-day event that brings together leading technological gurus, cabinet members, NGOs and academia for a discussion on the transformation of traditional government services through scalable product development.
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