Coders, come to the aid of your country

Cloud computing is an emerging computing model by which users can gain access to their applications from anywhere, through any connected device. Thanks to a strong service management platform, the management costs of adding more IT resources to the cloud can be significantly lower than those associated with alternate infrastructures more

The Teach for America model

Based on the Teach for America model, Code for America helps civic-minded developers and designers channel their efforts into improving the way city governments work using Web research. Such as Teach for America trains and sends capable teachers to underserved schools, Code for America recruits talented developers, designers, and product managers; gives them a crash course in municipal government; and sets them to work developing Web applications for selected cities.

The 11-month Code for America fellowship program sounds like a fantastic way for young talent to gain experience. Fellows get a living-wage stipend, health care, and expenses-paid travel to their assigned city to network face-to-face and learn how that city's government functions. For 2011, the first year of the program, 20 fellows were selected from 362 applicants to work on projects for four cities: Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

Big believer in open government --

I'm a big believer in open government -- and in the idea that research can improve both the delivery of government services and help revive the democratic process. I'm tired of the patronizing notion that ordinary citizens are either too dumb or too anti-government to participate. If people understand the real issues and have the means to connect, they will engage and help find solutions. Code for America is providing a key part of the research platform upon which that engagement can occur at a local level.

Today's smart CIOs are assessing their workloads against business needs and analyzing where each should run?locally or in the public cloud. Read on to learn about the benefits of cloud computing, and why its success or failure is often dependent on WAN optimization.

See why Nemertes awarded their PilotHouse award to Google Postini messaging security service. Their decisive win over AT&T, Cisco, Symantec and others for superior innovation, customer service and value are worth noting.