Category: Public Sector

Recalling back to when he was a teacher, Andy Wolfenbarger, Supervisor of Student Information Systems at the Department of Information Technology Services at Prince William County Public Schools, was pulling triple duty – coaching football and tennis on top of teaching his four high school classes. With grades due, Andy had a small block of time after school to get them in. But unbeknownst to him, the switch in the network closet next to him needed to be upgraded. In the middle of inputting his grades, the system went dark.

At AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas, Compassion International participated in the Nonprofit Hackathon for Social Good. People don’t usually connect the dots between cutting-edge technology and nonprofits, but this is where it’s needed most. Hackers were challenged to bridge the communication gap between those in need and empathetic people who want to help. No matter your origin or the language you speak, you can connect and meet the needs of a child in poverty.

Governments face stiff competition with the private sector when it comes to recruiting civil servants with digital skills. As they look to innovate and make their services more citizen-centric, government leaders can benefit from bold strategies to recruit diverse, digitally savvy talent. Dr. Wendy Cukier, Director of the Diversity Institute at Ryerson University, explores the challenges facing the Canadian public service and recommendations to develop the federal workforce, in a new paper produced in collaboration with Public Policy Forum and the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Institute. While the paper focuses on Canada, the strategies offered are relevant to leaders around the world.

Early in your career it is important to find individuals that you respect and admire to act as mentors. I still have mentors, and I still ask questions. You need to remember that the onus is on you to use your mentor’s time. You need to be prescriptive when it comes to asking for their help. Come to them with specific questions and give them perspective on where you need guidance. Approaching a mentor with a clear understanding of where you need guidance is key to respecting their time and getting the most of yours.

There is no one-size-fits-all profile of the ideal artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) customer, user, or developer. AWS is making AI and ML technologies more accessible with managed services that let anyone embed intelligence into their applications. It is why some of the most exciting uses for AI and ML are coming from unexpected places – public sector organizations with a mission to make the world a better place. Learn from some of the many public sector customers re-defining what it means to use AI to solve big challenges.

Innovate Peru, an agency of the Ministry of Production in Peru, is collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS) CloudStart program to develop solutions to promote the growth of the startups and local businesses. Innovate Peru has helped more than 250 businesses in Peru grow since it began its Startup Peru competition in 2014. Startup Peru is a program that encourages innovation and diversifies the country’s economy that invests over S/5 million annually into startups through competitions held twice each year.

Imagine this scenario: two people are on a date, and they each bring something else along – their phones. Society is beginning to tolerate, and even accept, the influence of digital technology into our worlds. But voice technology may have people looking away from their phones and talking to each other (and to Amazon Alexa).

February passed us by in a flurry. Here are five blog posts you won’t want to miss from the month prior.

We announced the expansion of Amazon Translate in the AWS GovCloud (US-West) Region, Amazon’s isolated cloud region built for sensitive data and regulated workloads. This service allows our government customers and organizations in government-regulated industries to connect with constituents and customers in different languages.

AWS Educate launched the AWS Educate Cloud Ambassador Program, a two-tiered offering to recognize leading educators around the world who use cloud and distributed computing in their classrooms. “Cloud and distributed computing” has been the #1 LinkedIn skill for the past four years in a row, and these leading educators are preparing students for careers in the modern technology workforce.