It’s about getting the right people involved

August comes to a close and we’re now entering the 9th month of the year. Hard to believe we’re already two-thirds of the way in 2018!

As we gear up for the third and final leg of 2018, I’d like to share some upcoming events and insights on what we’re up to.


GBA Meetup – Property, Land and Titling 

We’ll be hosting John Dean Markunas , who leads the Land and Registry Working Group from the Government Blockchain Association. John has explored blockchain technologies in addressing land title processes around the world and will share details on successful case studies and pilot projects, and provide recommendations based on the needs in Puerto Rico.

To understand those needs, we’ll open up with a conversation with Joaquin del Rio, General Administrator of the Property Registry and Alberto Lugo, CEO of INVID Group, who worked closely on the development, design, and launch of the Karibe platform which underpins the Registry’s operations.

Did you know that the modernization of the Property Registry was paid for with a special fund feeding off the income generated by the new digital services that it offers?  In a little over a year, the Registry recouped the entire investment, including the digitalization process, IT infrastructure, development, and implementation.

  • The Property Registry generates over $150,000 in MRR

Too often our Government (Fiscal Board included) fails to engage with the right researchers, academics, non-profits, community members and private industry across an array of disciplines, such as data science and user-centered design, to understand our current challenges and respond effectively to solve our most relevant needs. The Property Registry modernization proposal in the Fiscal Plan is one example.

Just what does “Modernize the property registry by leveraging the use of technology through a public-private partnership” really mean? Is there a clear understanding of where the pain points are and what the Property Registry really needs to address them?

Join us in a discussion with key stakeholders who will share stories on the Karibe development process, the challenges faced after Hurricane Maria and what is really needed to deliver a more effective service. It will be moderated by Miguel Marxuach, CEO of Microjuris.

Join us Wednesday, Septembrer 19th at 6.30pm @
Piloto 151

It’s about getting the right people involved

At our last GBA meetup, we covered the topic of Identity. Ryan Grant, from the W3C credentials community working group, spoke about the creation, storage, presentation, verification and user control of credentials.

Here is the testimony from Bryson Hill of Daplie.com, shown standing up on the right image, participating in the discussion on the last GBA Meetup focusing on the topic of Identity:

The Government Blockchain Association Event run by Giancarlo (and crew) is the real deal. I was very impressed by the quality of the content, the delicious hors d’oeuvres, and the powerful people in attendance. The insights delivered to the group were worth millions of dollars and incredibly spot on. And when I say worth millions I sincerely mean that. Had this presentation been given to me a couple years ago it would have dramatically impacted my business. I highly recommend anyone interested in government or the blockchain, or both, to attend and join this powerful group of professionals.

The Opportunity Project

Two weeks ago, Piloto 151 and Neeuko helped facilitate the Opportunity Project Ideation Session in Puerto Rico. A process for engaging government, communities, and the technology industry to create digital tools that address our greatest challenges as a nation. The goal is to empower and facilitate cross-sector collaboration to build new digital solutions for the public.

We participated in helping State, Local, and Tribal Governments with Local Address Data Collection

CHALLENGE: Develop resources that help state, local, and tribal governments to create and maintain open address point data, which is critical for emergency responders and Censuses and surveys that allocate billions of dollars in federal funding. These resources might include: (1) Tools that can be used in the field and in the office to collect, validate, maintain and share data. (2) “Seed” data that can serve as a starting point for data collection and can be shared openly (address lists, address point data, parcel data, structure outlines, imagery. (3) Linkages to open data sharing platforms.

APPLICATION TO PUERTO RICO: Puerto Rico faces unique challenges for maintaining free and open local address data. Collaborate with stakeholders from local government and community organizations to develop applications of data collection and technology tools that respond to local needs in PR.

Sponsored by:


Geographic Mapping Technologies

Testimony from Raul Rios, who participated in the Ideation Session:

Para nosotros la experiencia de colaborar en el “Opportunity Project” del Censo fue una gran oportunidad para concretizar esfuerzos que comenzamos a trabajar tras el paso de los huracanes Irma y María. Nuestra organización, Initiative for Civic Address System Assessment in Puerto Rico (iCASA PR), fue creada exclusivamente para identificar y mejorar los problemas de infraestructura de direcciones de la isla y atacar el problema de lo que llamamos “data invisibility” o esa invisibilidad que se produce cuando los sistemas electrónicos de las agencias federales o locales, las empresas privadas o los NGOs, no pueden identificar con certeza los datos geoespaciales de nuestra ciudadanía.
Uno de los mayores beneficios es que logramos añadir colegas a un esfuerzo técnico de revisión de estándares de direcciones que estábamos planificando y logramos formalizar un comité timón.

Esto nos va a permitir aportar un granito de arena en este proceso, y luego abrirlo a nuestros colegas de la industria de GIS, la industria postal, las organizaciones que trabajan iniciativas de “open data”, las agencias federales y locales y a todos aquellas empresas de este renglón.

Nuestro interés es crear espacios de punto de encuentro y colaborar en las múltiples iniciativas que se están creando en nuestra isla para trabajar este tema tan crucial, no sólo para los servicios de emergencia y entrega, si no también para el desarrollo socio económico de nuestra isla.

The Opportunity Project works through 12-week collaborative sprints that bring technology developers, communities, and government together to solve problems using open data. We will continue supporting throughout!