Author: Peggy Smedley

Is our critical infrastructure secure? In a word, no. Consider this statistic: 99%. That is the percentage of U.S. critical organizations that say they have security challenges. Personally, I want to know who that other 1% is and have a conversation with them, but we generally see this is a wide sweeping trend that is impacting every organization. From utilities, to railways, to hospitals, our critical infrastructure needs to be secured. What Is Critical Infrastructure? Before we take a closer look at the state of cybersecurity and our critical infrastructure here in the United States, let’s start by defining our…

We’ve covered both hardware and software. And we’ve jumped deeper into software. So now let’s look closer at hardware. There’s no question when we talk about hardware, we want to explore speeds and feeds. Right out of the gate it is advisable to purchase computers that are powerful enough to handle the tasks at hand. Powerful usually means speed. Saving a few bucks now only ends up costing contractors more later. As the saying goes, why do you want to shoot yourself in the foot in the long run. View the full article here.

In industries like construction, training is of the utmost importance to ensure workers know how to use the tools to get the job done—and do it in a way that is both efficient and safe. Training is also important to upskill and reskill employees—something that is becoming a greater priority as the future of work continues to evolve. And, yet only 69% of construction people say their company has given them the job-skill training to upskill or reskill to advance their career. To be clear, 69% of construction workers is only slightly larger than the 67% of people across all…

For many, it is time to go back to school. Students are returning to academic life in droves. But how has education changed in the past five years—and how will it continue to change in the next five? Certainly, the pandemic shook things up, but there is another huge force at work that could completely transform how we teach at all levels: technology. One new report suggests digital technologies have completely transformed education in the past two decades, but the metaverse has taken it to a new level. Still in the early stages of adoption, when many refer to a…

This past week we started an in-depth discussion on both software and hardware. Today let’s explore software since it’s always a moving target. Back in the late-1990s companies were telling construction firms they had the software package construction companies could depend on for years to come. Balderdash. That pitch is as stale as yesterday’s garbage. Don’t buy into any company pitch that says we can do it all. Or we have all the answers. As industry observers note that once you have determined where you are going over the next three to five years, only then can you decide what…

Two things can be true at the same time: we can have a shortage of construction workers, and we can need a significant amount of new infrastructure to be built. Often, the two are incongruent, so what can be done if people did, perhaps, use that money to help fund a new effort? We have all read the construction labor numbers. The construction industry will need to attract an estimated 501,000 additional workers on top of the normal pace of hiring in 2024 to meet the demand for labor. At the same time, our nation’s infrastructure is crumbling and needs…

Can you trust what you are seeing online? We are headed into an election season, and I want to caution all my readers. Do not trust anything you read, see, or hear, especially online. This is perhaps one of the most contentious election seasons yet, and we have a new foe to deal with: deepfakes. Now, I try to stay away from politics on this blog, but I think there is a more pressing issue to contend with here. We need to become good discerners of truth. We need to know how to do good due diligence. We need to…

In the years since computers burst onto the scene, we have witnessed a plethora of software and hardware come and go. Computer software and hardware go together like peanut butter and jelly. They are inseparably linked. And it might force us to beg the question: Which is more important, the software or the hardware? Or for that matter which comes first, the chicken or the egg, in the world of technology? In our 10 tips, we gave some simple advice as you try to tackle this cloudy murky terrain. Some still debate whether it’s the OS (operating system). Whichever…

Are Americans pessimistic or optimistic about the country’s future? What are their thoughts on the state of infrastructure? Does our infrastructure represent intergenerational equity and how is our infrastructure shaping future communities? These are certainly some hefty questions. These questions and more were addressed in a recent survey and report. What’s more, the insights are even more enlightening. GHD released a report—CROSSROADS—on the perspectives of the role infrastructure plays in meeting the diverse needs of current and future generations. The organization compiled its research from the roughly 13,000 people it surveyed. It gathered data from 4,000 people in the United…

Data is the new oil, but how do we drill for it? This is the question that must be answered today, and it is something we are seeing play out at the Olympics. In fact, Kaveh Mehrabi from the Intl. Olympics Committee, says the challenge we have is the volume of information. “As much as information is good, it can also become overwhelming. It can be difficult to understand and be confident where is the source of truth,” he says. This is one of the reasons the Intl. Olympics Committee and Intel collaborated to create a custom-designed AI Chatbot—Athlete365—to help…