now before I begin I’d like to place a
perspective on the topic at hand so will
those of you with an iPhone 5 or 5s
please raise your hand what about an
iPhone 6 or 6s what about the iPhone 7
okay now those of you without the latest
and greatest or experiencing what can be
defined as a technology gap you’re in
essence lagging from what’s available
and from what those around you have
maybe your phone’s camera isn’t it sharp
or maybe your phone’s 25 percent slower
but for many people this is not a case
of opening their email slower no take
that feeling and place it in the
perspective of the millions of people
each and every day affected by a
technology gap out of two or three years
but 20 to 30 years around three years
ago I saw my opportunity to fix the
technology gap in an industry most
people don’t even know exists I began to
build software for prisons now this was
not an industry with technology 25%
slower no this was an entire industry
functioning as if we’re still in 1990s I
remember the first time I walked into my
facilities of course you imagine it to
be different but this was unlike
anything I could have imagined the
processes and actions they took look
straight out of the Green Mile or the
Shawshank Redemption they were trying to
solve the problems of today with
technology either non-existent or so
antiquated it created more problems than
it solves
as I got the tour of the offices and the
workstations the problems were a clear
sight the ramifications that cover our
news headlines you’ll see another inmate
committed suicide or our recidivism rate
higher than it’s ever been or the wrong
inmate was released because he was able
to fake his identity these are not
problems to be taken lightly but what
struck me the most came at the end of
this meeting in the turn of any other
project I done I asked them well what
are you looking for
hoping the software solves and provides
but their response was astonishing we
don’t know they said we don’t know now I
want you to sit back and really think
about this you see we have progressed so
far that there are people who don’t even
know what’s available who don’t even
know the questions to ask who don’t even
know what is possible with the
technologies of today and ever since
this I’ve been working to solve this for
every correctional facility with fast
and reliable systems we took data and
move it from the file cabinet to the
cloud you’ve had fingerprinting
technology in your iPhones for years but
it’s time to stop worrying if we’re
unlocking our phone faster but if we’re
unlock in the wrong cell so we implement
a biometric verification for inmates we
implement an innovative alerting and
classification techniques to ensure
medications and suicide watches we’re at
the alert attention the staff we brought
in tablets for inmates free of use –
hope one day reduce or even eliminate
the thought of recidivism by closing
this technology gap where we have we
have drastically changed the lives of
both the staff and the inmates for the
better but the thing is correctional
facilities are just one example of the
many technology gaps these same types of
problems are occurring in situations all
around our society with many not being
addressed at all it’s time to stop
holding this off and it’s time to start
working to eliminate these areas where
technology has been abandoned because we
can solve these problems and everyone
can play a part if you’re entrepreneur
looking for ideas instead of looking to
build another social network or video
game or mobile app build the solutions
that bridge technology gaps build the
next solution that brings opportunity to
the unemployed or helps deliver
healthcare efficiently to millions or
brings together the public and private
sector to solve some of our biggest
social issues of today the possibilities
are endless
and the best part there’s a huge
opportunity for positive impact because
due to such a large gap a single person
can take an entire
industry and move it from here to here
and for everyone else there are
opportunities everywhere that may not
affect a million people but maybe just
one maybe just one person who ends up
changing the world because of your
efforts and the goal the goal is to make
those unaware of what’s possible with
technology I’ll wear a friend of mine
last year helped a small business in his
town implement a website and ordering
system I was surprised he didn’t know
how to code all he did was point them in
the right direction and he
single-handedly changed the lives and
landscape of this business and all that
had to be done was removed that we don’t
know from these people by simply
pointing the finger towards what is
possible with the technologies of today
we all have a test now so whether you’re
building the next solutions to bridge
technology gaps or making those who need
it most aware strive each and every day
to solve these gaps in our world and in
those around you because if we can
accomplish this in the prisons if we can
achieve success in the most restricted
and static industry why can’t we do this anywhere thank you very much