Features December 2021

Over the years, Barry MacTavish admits he’s driven his wife Sandy crazy with his hobby. Spoiler alert: it’s not betting on the ponies, or buying exotic cars. Often, when dinner’s being served or when it’s late enough to be in bed, he’s tearing apart his computer, testing programs and reading the latest technology research. “I’ve […]

Prior to taking over strategy and architecture within IT, Christine Vanderpool would receive requests for similar programs or systems from multiple departments. For example, some of Florida Crystals’s workforce wasn’t part of the company email system and often was left out of important communications. Around the same time Vanderpool began setting up their email accounts, […]

Leading up to the 2020 election, IT staff from each of Colorado’s 64 counties had weekly calls to ensure they had strong technology to support processes such as voter registration, vote tallying and the dissemination of results. The calls allowed everyone to share best practices and current threats, and they allowed staff to talk through […]

Her primary responsibility may be ensuring reliable and secure infotech at a Canadian school district, but Darlene Clapham isn’t one to silo herself in education. IT being such an evolving subject, she’s always looking for new insight while sharing her own. “I’ve always had this philosophy that if you want to learn about other industries, […]

Like most government agencies, the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Planning and Development held its community meetings in person. But with this structure, not everyone could participate. The planning meetings were held at night and would often go late, which meant residents who worked the third shift or who had young children were left out […]

When the IT department at Duval County Public Schools made a remote learning platform seven years ago, it was intended to be used in case there was a hurricane and students couldn’t come in. With the help of Microsoft, the platform had custom coding and was used to send emails or post on message boards. […]

Playing orchestral music is a demanding, nuanced task, involving dozens of musicians to stay on-time and on-tune. But doing that remotely? With the added difficulty of poor internet connections and Zoom awkwardness? Katrina Biscay admits she hasn’t yet discovered how University of Cincinnati students and music professors can bridge the gap between virtual and real […]

This was no ordinary day in the classes at a Baltimore County family life center. Not with 100 students and their parents learning how to build a PC and writing code. Not with IT professionals from the public and private sector volunteering to teach and share their experiences about careers in IT. The event was […]

If pipes burst in your building, you’d want to be insured yesterday, not tomorrow. Time is of the essence, says Martín Vera, who the past eight years has led digital transformations in the financial and insurance industries. He’s also helped generate new digital sales channels and enhanced the relationship of customers to self-service channels—think websites, […]

It’s Dec. 31 and the clock just struck midnight, ringing in the new year—and the opening of State of Alaska’s online form to purchase a state fish and game license. Since 2011, except for 2019 and the pandemic, Alaska has annually issued well over 800,000 licenses to residents, non-residents, professionals and commercial crews. The thousands […]