State challenges code writers, offers cash for solutions
Gov. David Ige’s administration is offering some quick cash to up-and-coming software code writers who think they can develop solutions for some of the state’s vexing computer challenges.
In a new event dubbed the Hawaii Annual Code Challenge, or HACC, the state administration is hosting a gathering of amateur and professional code writers at Aloha Tower this weekend to compete for $10,000 in prize money to be awarded to the authors of the best solutions.
Ige said the event is designed to encourage growth in Hawaii’s high-tech sector while also making improvements in the information technology systems the state uses to do business or offer services.
A number of state computer systems are old and creaky and are nearing the end of their useful lives. In some cases the replacement systems the state purchased have encountered problems or failed to function the way they were supposed to, Ige said.
Those solutions “are really being developed and implemented out of state, and we live with the consequences when the contractor can’t deliver on all the features that they promised, and there’s no software development jobs in state that are tied to that,” Ige said.
“In the big picture, we are trying to encourage more software development for the companies that do business here in Hawaii, because we think it’s so much better for the state if the people who are actually working on the software actually live here,” he said.
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The competition will be broken down into elementary school, middle school, high school, college and open categories; registration will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday at Aloha Tower Multipurpose Room 3. The event will be live-streamed for neighbor island coders, and off-island participants will be able to interact remotely.
The state is proposing nine “challenge ideas” mostly involving state functions, such as scheduling and tracking family visitations for prison and jail inmates; tracking political campaign donations; locating farmers markets around the state; and providing outreach and services for the homeless.
Staff from state departments will make presentations Saturday on the challenges and will also offer training and workshops.
Teams of code writers will then use their skills over the next several weeks to develop programs to modernize or improve state efforts in each of those areas.
“With more than 100 participants already registered, we’re impressed by the great interest shown by the tech community,” said state Chief Information Officer Todd Nacapuy in a written statement.
Ige said he speaks to students with an interest in computers, and he tells them that “working for the state in IT should be the best job they can find in Hawaii. There’s no other IT shop that has the breadth and depth of experiences that anybody could want, from taxes to financial management to budgeting to insurance.”
The Office of Enterprise Technology Services joined with the Hawaii Technology Development Corp., DevLeague, Hawaii Open Data, Blue Startups, Sultan Ventures and XLR8UH to stage the event.
Prizes for the competition are being underwritten by sponsors such as Hawaiian Electric Co. and Verizon. Additional support is being provided by DataHouse, eWorld Enterprise Solutions, Socrata, Uber, Unisys, DRFortress and Hawaiian Telcom.
While an ordinary “hackathon” usually involves teams that briefly work on a problem for a day or a weekend, the HACC will allow participants to work for a month on the issues they select.
Participants will return Sept. 24 to present their solutions for judging and winner selection. For more information visit HACC. hawaii.gov. Registration is available online or onsite at the kickoff.
16 responses to “State challenges code writers, offers cash for solutions”
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Great idea as long as we do not provide the kind of access to State systems that would lead to security breaches or hacks.
Kudos to Governor Ige’s team for coming up with an imaginative, creative, practical, cost-effective, and inspiring solution to the problem of coding in state agencies. This is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that generates excitement and endless possibilities for cost-saving solutions. Continuing to pour huge sums of money into traditional solutions that don’t work is insane. I’m not sure what it took to break out of the rut, but whatever it is, consider doing more of it. Hana hou! I wouldn’t be surprised if winning solutions come from students in schools and colleges. If this program is successful, prize money should be increased tenfold or more, and winners should be spotlighted and honored.
finding ways to make end runs around stubborn staus quo obstacles is our biggest challenge. congrats david and your team for doing it. I think you had some excellent help and pray it produces.
Good for the Governor for acknowledging that innovation comes from outside of the civil service bureaucracy, not from within. But will the unions complain about this work being performed by unpaid and underage interns?
It’s not work. It’s a contest.
Ok sounds fun for the kids but lets get SERIOUS about this problem. WHY can they not hire competent people ? Flying here is only 5 hours and pretty simple to get a computer system running correctly. And put it out there for people already working across the world in code not living in Hawaii to compete in this challenge. Encourage some of the smart ones to come back here and help us out.
We seem to be lacking brains in the upper management of this city/state.
It’s PR. The state wants to hire people. Think of this as recruitment.
My kids will not return to this tax hell.
Windward, will they live in California?
Nice idea but it’s not going to address the problems of creaky infrastructure, multiple systems that don’t speak to each other, and really poor IT decision making. One small but glaring example is the HIDOE maybe the only organization left on earth that still uses Lotus Notes as a communication system.
From reading about the past problems in the City and State departments, many civil service managers or influential employees create their own silos that demand they keep their obsolete systems like Lotus Notes so that they remain relevant and their job secure. Once new more efficient systems are in place they feel they will become irrelevant and lose their power. This is not a new problem nor a unique situation. The solution cannot be solved solely by a top down, outside in technical solution, rather from an entity with high level technical and people skills to propose and guide the transition to more modern systems, yet be mindful of these silo minded managers\office bosses wanting to keep the status quo and assure improvements will not relegate them to obsolescence. Of course if that don’t work and the obstacle refuses to budge, if you cannot go through an obstacle, you have to find away around it.
Perhaps lotus notes supports old hardware they have? In that case, many new systems wont suit their needs.
These programmers could write stuff to make them more compatible with the rest of the state.
As long as old mainframe computers are well maintained and meet the needs of their clients why pay more money just to do the same thing?
I used to have a main frame monitor, a workstation and a PC on my desktop in my cubicle. Hey if private enterprise can do that, so can the city and state.
Based on the information provided in this article, it’s not clear what the primary issues are, such as existing IT infrastructure, why it is not working as originally planned, etc.
But development of apps could work for specific issues they are trying to address.
Generally speaking, the IT infrastructure would require a much larger coordinated effort.
It’s all working fine. It’s just not intergrated.
The state has decided the price of $900 million too much to replace everything.
They’re going to take the best of everything that they have and integrate accross the board.
They called this continual process improvement.
“working for the state in IT should be the best job they can find in Hawaii” – If a person is lazy and uninspired it could be. All they do is write contracts to mainland companies to supply IT equipment and software. Then, they find out that the contracts are so botched up that what they get doesn’t work.
In some cases the replacement systems the state purchased have encountered problems or failed to function the way they were supposed to, Ige said. – That’s what happens when you direct state contracts to only campaign donors. Hawaii politicians are so corrupt that taxpayers generally end up paying twice for any IT work. Once to the campaign donor and again to correct the poor work done by the first guy.
The Hawaii Health connector was a prime example of how Ige and his crew waste taxpayer money to enrich their friends/donors at the expense of everyone else. You can’t believe a thing this guy says, he’s corrupt and highly incompetent, as are most of his political patronage appointees.