Bitcoin Dip
National headlines proclaimed a “crash” in the value of Bitcoin and other digital currencies last week.
Category: Government
Unemployment Upgrade
The Department of Labor & Industrial Relations recently announced a $10 million contract to upgrade the mainframe-based system to a cloud-based one, hiring an 11-month old Idaho company named Solid State Ops.
Open Data Day is Next Saturday
The seventh annual international “Open Data Day” is coming on Saturday, March 3, 2018, and Hawaii Open Data is working with the Civil Beat Law Center and other open-minded organizations to celebrate. “Open Data Day”...
Governor pushes for increased access, transparency
Hawaii Gov. David Ige has urged all state department heads to “strengthen efforts to increase access to public information, ensure that government business is conducted as openly as possible, and enhance government accountability.” The executive...
Videos: Freeway, Rail Construction Continues
Some Sunday errands gave me an opportunity to capture more video snapshots of some of the major construction projects unfolding in Leeward Oahu. First, after months of sometimes paralyzing traffic jams, we are days away...
Hawaii Film Industry Gets New Link to Hollywood
At one end, a group of state government officials, film industry leaders, and creative professionals were gathered at Honua Studios in Kona. At the other, a hundred of their Hollywood counterparts were assembled in Screening Room...
Conference Helps Companies “Make Stuff, Get Funded”
When people are asked to name the largest industries in Hawaii, the list usually stops after tourism and the military. But manufacturing is in the top five, producing over $4.5 billion in goods in...
Free Workshops to Explore Kakaako Development
A series of free, weekly workshops beginning this week will explore the many different faces of Kakaako. In the eyes of its majority landowners and deep-pocketed investors, Kakaako is Hawaii’s next great urban paradise,...
State Technology Office Gets New Name
The State Office of Information Management and Technology, created in 2011 in a public-private partnership funded largely by the Omidyar Ohana Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation, quietly became the Office of Enterprise Technology...
Parking Spaces to Become Tiny Parks on Friday
On Friday, about a dozen coveted parking spaces in urban Honolulu will be converted into tiny parks. The temporary takeover is part of PARK(ing) Day, designed to encourage communities to think differently about public spaces. If you...
Group Urges Boosting Bikes in Rail Planning
The state’s most expensive transportation system can be improved a great deal by integrating simple, human-powered technology that’s nearly 200 years old. The $6 billion Honolulu rail transit project easily dominates any conversation about the...
Hawaii Drone Operators Seek, Secure FAA Approval
While the media fans the flames of outrage prompted by drone pilots who are certainly behaving badly, there is some encouraging news this week for UAV enthusiasts committed to doing the right thing. Drone Services...
Sweeping California Drone Law Has Hawaii Roots
If California enacts one of the nation’s strictest regulations on drones, you can thank a quadcopter pilot in Hawaii. Both advocates and critics of drones across the country are watching a bill now sitting...
Honolulu Expands Options for Bicycle Riders
I was once an avid bicyclist. With my best friend Nate, we would regularly ride from Mililani to town and back. I wore a bicycle chain as a bracelet for years, airport security scanners...
Civic Hackers Chat with Open Government Guru
Civic hackers in Honolulu will have a chance to talk with and learn from a fellow open government advocate in California. Steve “Spike” Spiker, founder and executive director of Open Oakland, will share his story...
Video: Rail Guideway Reaches Waipahu
In the abstract, knowing that Honolulu’s rail transit line won’t be completed until 2019 makes the whole thing seem far off in the future. But with construction of the first three miles of elevated guideway now...
Hurricane Plan Updated in Midst of Storm Season
State and federal emergency management officials yesterday signed an updated Catastrophic Hurricane Plan for Hawaii, as Hurricane Hilda churns slowly toward the islands. Emergency preparedness is a common summer theme in Hawaii, with hurricane season...
New Maps, App Prepare Hawaii for Extreme Tsunami
Tsunami have crossed the ocean and hit Hawaii many times in the last century: in 1946, 1952, 1957, 1960, and 1964. But it was the Japan tsunami in 2011 that shook local emergency planners to the core....
Bikeshare Hawaii Pedaling Toward Reality
Plans to launch a bike sharing system in urban Honolulu took another step forward last week when both the city and state each committed $1 million in seed funding to Bikeshare Hawaii. Bikeshare Hawaii...
State Gets First Chief Innovation Officer
The man appointed by Gov. David Ige to upgrade the state’s technology infrastructure is apparently taking on a broader role, with a title change from Chief Information Officer to Chief Innovation Officer. Nacapuy heads the Office of...
