All right, I am going to call the meeting to order the out here to thunder. Okay, first of all, is there anyone uncomfortable being on the call during the storm back in the day, my grandmother said cut everything off, but I have an iPad so I'm not connected to anything so I feel safe. Everybody okay.  We cut everything out. All right, so we're going to call the meeting to order and has everyone had the opportunity to look through the minutes and look for any corrections if y'all see me look to the side is only because the lightning is getting my attention. Does anyone have any corrections or suggestions for the minutes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes from May 10 2022. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor of approving the minutes of May 10 2020 as submitted. Please say aye. Any opposed. All right, the maintenance are approved. Next, I want to thank y'all for working with the questionnaire. I thought it was pretty. I didn't want to reinvent anything that had already been done so I really pulled from some of the stuff that you had already done and got the impediments that were listed but I kind of figure we needed to narrow those down a little bit. And so, did everyone get a copy of it and get a chance to review it. Anything shocking. Before we go through it anything any shockers. Okay, so first question dealt with serving on committees. One thing I did notice is that we have a lot of committees. That's one thing I'll notice but and we didn't have anyone on the finance committee, but then we also had six people who were on committees at all. Does that sound about right now. Okay. So I will tell you all that I do have some suggestions once we go through this of maybe a different committee structure based on the findings and here that may help us navigate a little bit better. But I want your input of course. The next question was rank the top five impediments or challenges. Erica, Erica and I were looking through this trying to figure it out. Oh, look at there. So one thing you have to look at you have to look at. Well one of the things that I looked at was first of all the number of people who responded. You look at, you know, where the ranking was, and then the percentage of the percent that it got. So the ones that I saw as, and y'all can correct me if I'm missing anything but I saw that capital for developers. So three percent, eight people ranked it 1.5 so that sounds like that's of all of these things appears to be one of the most critical things. We also had further down, they ranked in the threes, but a lot of people responded to so 10 people said accessibility affordability safety equality units. A lot of people said having supportive services for residents of affordable housing and then eight people education addressing the stigma of affordable housing. Does all of that kind of sound consistent with you all. Yeah, I can't make you all the time. I don't like to talk. Okay. And then we had seven people responded to zoning where you can build and high fees and taxes for affordable housing. And then we had not in my backyard with six people. So those are kind of what I would think that we, we should narrow our focus down to, does that make sense, and those. I just said capital for in order be capital for developers zoning, high fees and taxes for affordable housing. I will say that we have an entire committee, the tax modernization committee that's addressing that as well. Not in my backyard, I think is similar to addressing the stigma or the same thing. And then accessibility affordability safety units and then having supportive services for residents of affordable accounting, affordable housing. So I want to. I'm still getting six though I won't we won't have five is it okay to have a job. And am I, am I leaving out something that both that someone thinks really should be listed. You like maybe sometimes these surveys don't don't get everything but is there's something that y'all think I haven't listed that should. Okay, can you take the screen down because I can't see faces. Is there a way for me to see faces. Okay. Can you can you list one more time you want for those five because there is an issue that I know that we're going to be pushed forward that I think would be helpful for this task force. Okay. Capital for developers. We have the sheet in front of your capital for developers zoning where you can build. I'm going to say hi fees and taxes, but that's really going to be another committee that we have a separate committee that will address that. Not in my backyard, which I believe I am cup. I'm adding that to education and addressing the stigma so that I think those are both the same. Accessibility, affordability, safety of quality units, and then having supportive services for residents of affordable housing. And again that's just based on the rankings and that's why I want to make sure is there's something else that we want to submit one to 345. So the five will be capital zoning, accessibility, supportive services and education. My question is, I do think that there's a need to be dealing with the eviction crisis, which is, you know, keeping people there existing homes and I don't know if there's a way to fold that into one of the suggestions that that you've made. I think it will be soon. Once I get to the committee structure. Okay. I guess I'll just go ahead and tell y'all what I was kind of thinking as it may help as a part of this discussion, changing the committee structure to maybe two committees. And they may have cells but one that focuses purely on anything dealing with development and putting up buildings. That's one side, you know just, and we have some people that that's how they think they just, you know that that's their thought that's what they do they in and out. How do we get these buildings these homes built. And then we have advocacy and accessibility issues, which is totally different than it's more or less acknowledging the need and making sure people know the need, but it's not necessarily building the buildings that makes sense. Any comment, any thoughts on that that kind of structure for our committees, as opposed to the current ones. I think, I think you nailed it. Because it does it seems I'm sorry. In the car with the rain. Wait, wait, hold on for a second. I'm not driving. I'm riding. But I think very much because we fall on both sides. And when I hear zoning, I think it's only pieces of zoning. So to have a committee based on zoning, you don't want to waste the committee and to suit point the eviction crisis wraps around into programs and services. So I think by bifurcating just to your you're going to see a natural, you're going to fall, usually one way or the other, they're going to be some of us that kind of crisscross over. So full support. Again, where's the thumbs up. Any other thoughts on pros and cons of maybe changing the committee structure to development. And then accessibility and advocacy. You are about this is so cute. It just said you are about to raise your hand. I'm sorry. My iPad just said you're about to raise your hand. Julie Ann. Yeah. The only concern I have with that is when we're looking at the development side and that's where you're considering zoning and fees and taxes and stuff that really is going to be hard to take that out from from NIMBY and advocacy because I mean, like, you know, right now we've got a project that's been stalled for over a year because of NIMBY and the Board of Zoning Appeals deciding that we build ghettos. So I'm fighting in circuit court right now and I would say that zoning and advocacy very much go together. Okay. But and okay, I'm going to make the point of that because I guess what I'm does depend on what you're advocating for. Whether you're advocating for or against zoning. Yeah, because well I think that they're going to be several different things because I mean an advocacy can be what first of all it's going to be decided by the next page which is some of the things that we think we can do. But I'm assuming that the committee would decide what the appropriate side would be of the issue. But I don't think it prevents maybe what it means is that zoning falls up under both. But I don't want to get that detailed in it. Are you suggesting that you need a separate, we need a separate committee for zoning. You know what I'm suggesting is that we can't say that zoning is about development. It's also about advocacy. Oh, okay. You know for 20 years we've been advocating for inclusionary zoning and we don't have it. Right. And we still don't have for certain types of affordable housing with supportive services we have absolutely no zoning where we can build that housing. We have to request an exception from those up and be subject to all the members of them that exist here. So I don't, I think it's got to be a part of zoning has to be. Yeah, I attended a meeting recently. It always makes always enjoy telling my story when people are just so we can't have that. We wouldn't have me, you know, and so, but I think that's a part of the, you know, the educational process. But, and I'm trying to think of okay. I got to Sue's because I got Sue I got you on the mind too but it looks like the five areas are because that to me that would be accessibility. I'm just making sure I got my mind wrapped around it so capital zoning accessibility, supportive services and education. That's the NIMBY. Anybody have any, any, any heart heart issues on those five. Okay, so the next thing that we looked at is of course we got all of those issues but dear Lord what can we do because we can't solve everything. So, based on the report we had 81% education and addressing the stigma of affordable housing and NIMBY which I'm still combining same thing I should have listed together capital for developers streamline educational process for development, zoning, high fees and taxes for affordable housing and an accessibility. So, this is what I was thinking that we would do. Maybe choose the top. 12345678. Maybe choose so specifically for today but just to know what they are as we look at what we can do I think in the next the next one is what can we do in the next year. And Erica can you take us to please identify your top three suggestions for the work plan. So, exclusionary zoning which has already been mentioned today, training and equipping community navigators financing a housing trust fund adopting universal accessibility and design standards. And this is my question adopting universal accessibility and design standards. Do I'll say that's more development or no thoughts on that one. I would say development. Development. Thank you. tax modernization reform mitigating evictions accessible housing for individuals in prison, home builder education, vertical development. I didn't have anyone to say implementing storytellers bureau. So, this is kind of what my thought process was, and I really need input y'all. I was thinking that we look at our two committees and kind of take these tasks that are included here and divide them between the two committees. Any thoughts on that. Yeah, no, I was, I'm sorry. I was going to say, I think that's a great idea. I think the problem was we had so many committees. And so few people that it was hard to really have a critical mass and if we, if we have combined committees. We can bring issues to the committee to the larger committee and folks can work on things and not be as isolated. I think it'll help with the with us working together as a group. Okay, and what I'm thinking too is, I mean, if, if they're different people who have different interests, then they would, you know, because under development, their five or six different things we're talking about and under accessibility their five or six things that we're talking about. But that's kind of my thought process. Anybody, does anybody have any real heartburn about that. Okay, so Erica, I need you to take the screen off, because Oh, Anita. Sorry. I just wanted to suggest that we not take on too much, because if you see how many people responded to the survey, you know, maybe we'll be working with people here 101112 and just inclusionary zoning would be tremendous lift. So, if we're developing a plan, that's one thing. But if we're going to be working on this stuff for the year coming up, I would just say we need to be pretty narrow and what we tackle. And we might not have decided that yet. But I don't I just, I don't think we're going to do 15 things. Well, and I agree. That's because what I would anticipate is, well, first of all, that's why I also sent you all the link to the Columbia compass, because the city in fact, you know, our city staff and I'm hoping I got some city staff folks. I don't know if I can see you do. Yes, ma'am. Okay, Kristen we are here. Okay, so the other part of it is, some of these things we have city staff that are working on these. And so we're trying to help fill the gaps, maybe. And so, if y'all look through, I know that you all had the presentation before but under the Columbia compass with respect to affordable housing they've identified establish incentives to encourage developers to construct affordable housing. And that has been assigned to our community development department. And so what I am imagining is, we get some, I don't want us doing duplicate work does that make sense. So when I read through this, I asked staff I said so how do we complement or how do we help fill the gaps. But I will say a lot of times with our staff. And nothing just to be honest dealing with the flood and other emergencies. Community development really gets pulled into that you know I'm saying and so they haven't really had time to just work on the normal run of the meal. And so we're trying to get some of these other things passed so is Chris, does that am I explaining my goal, right. Yeah, absolutely I mean and just having the committee support and that that's the continued direction. And yeah and Lee is putting a link to the document as well in the chat. And I will, if I may just piggyback on to the inclusionary zoning that is going to take more than staff because it's going to require State House to act. So you know there's going to need to be some advocacy on that part for sure. Love it because I think we already have, we already have ordinance or a draft ordinance correct. It was very long time ago but it was determined that we are preempted from that that we need, and there has been state legislation introduced a number of times but it's not passed. So we need to have that. We need to get that back. And so what it sounds like to me is, and now this is the thing y'all have to educate me on is, is there no is is on the state level is there no desire to do it or there have been other priorities. I think there's been now I'll let anyone else jump in I don't have but I think there's been a lobbying effort on the other side. Who's a little bit more successful. But it's had real trouble getting any traction, because they're the interests that be who have the resources are fighting it. So I think what we would have to do is both figure out as a as a committee but also if there are others that we would want to coordinate with so that there can be more voices to support this Marvin and Darvis I believe it was his bill each year. And I'm sorry. So, I'm just just so y'all know I'm not the most tech savvy and I see things coming up in the chat so let me see Jeff and then I see Dylan 100%. Okay, so Councilwoman Herbert Lee dropped the link to the Columbia Compass housing report and the previous presentation that was made to the task force. Larry Moore responded that the item you were considering whether or not it was more of a advocacy issue he noted that it is a development issue, and he said that the that the priorities have been defined. So we should allocate the top three to five issues in order to get started. Okay. And he's talking about under the top three suggestions. Is that what you're talking about like Jeff. I missed the latter one. Yeah, no, that's fine. Thank you. My, you, you had 15 or so items you have taken six, three to five to six of those items that it seemed to be clearly the majority of the respondents. The point said have been made by others such as Anita you, there are certain ones that probably have to have very defined challenges and more stakeholders engaged to get progress as you have noted. But some of the items that can be integrated into the existing committees, you know, define those three top three items for each of those new or redefine committees so that they have a target to get started in 2022 and 2023. I think once there's traction developed in the reorganization of the committees, then you begin to filter in some of the other supplemental subject matters that complement the defined tasks of those new subgroups, so that they're not overwhelmed in trying to then prioritize another new loop, another new group of challenges or tasks so because there's abundance. I think through the use of the survey you've kind of got a sense of phases of what are the top three items to develop in phase one and two and then how to those implement some of the other ancillary challenges that are recognized, but still need more time and energy and resources to develop a clear structural strategic plan as it relates to very high end very difficult multi engage, not only in the city of the local county and state level because we know that there are some aspects of what we're trying to engage with locally needs input from state stakeholders to make, you know, as inclusionary zoning being one subject to move the needle on. Okay, so how about this, I was thinking that maybe we set up those the new committee structure, and then folks can decide which committee they want to be in based on their interest, and you all come back to us with like a specific gold or do you think we should do that in a group setting, it just seems like a group setting would be a lot, but that's kind of what I was thinking, we, we have this information, we take these two committees, and you all have a subcommittee meeting in July because it's going to be as a group in July, and then in August we kind of have this is what this committee thinks we can get done and this is what this committee wants to get done. And then we can kind of fill in the gaps like you were saying going from there, or do you want to go ahead and narrow those things down as a group right now. Jennifer, could we also have I don't, I don't know that it needs to be a presentation, but maybe a briefing document related back to the Columbia Compass and the efforts of staff specifically that maybe we could figure out how we could leverage the work of staff or supplement that kind of things that we're not duplicating efforts as well. Right, what I'll do is I'll try and get just pull the specific parts that deal with affordable housing, because there are five areas in here establish incentives, update the city's policy for affordable housing locational standards to with to allow community goals, leverage public land and develop and funding to develop affordable housing and then just one more work with the regional partners to establish a regional housing land trust that can manage affordable units. So I think because I again, I want to make sure we'll assign a city staff person to to both of the committees. And then what I also wanted to do was to get city staff probably I didn't think we were going to have time but we may have had time to do it today. But I do want you all to see currently this is what city staff is working on. But if we have a city staff person that's working with the committee, it'll be someone that's knowledgeable to say, Yeah, we've already done that. No, we haven't touched that but I did touch with staff to make sure that these are all ongoing goals. And that they still need they still need tons of work. I think the good thing about this committee is, you can help us as the city keep, keep this front of mind, does that make sense, because in the city. I declare it just depends on when we wake up that morning what has happened. And you know we get, you know, we get pulled into different areas, or different issues. But this task force, I kind of see you all as making sure that we're keeping this issue front of mind and actually delivering on our goals. And so I'm not expecting you all to do the heavy lifting, but I do expect you all to help us with accountability, give us great ideas, because of your backgrounds, you can give us some input. I don't necessarily expect you all to have to. Well, no, I'm sorry, except for two people. Two people said that they had all of the time in the world with 13% we had 17 people who responded. And 13% said I have all the time in the world for the city. And so I wanted whoever those two people are. This might be three people but did my numbers right. Y'all let me know offline who you are. And we'll kind of look at that. So any thoughts, any thoughts about proceeding that way. I think it's a good idea. I think gives off some months to meet in committee and determine where where we've been where we're headed and how to develop those three priorities and how to move forward. I think it's a great idea. Does it, does it do you all feel comfortable that it encompasses, because again, I think the main one of the main things I wanted to make sure was that the work you've done last year is not doesn't fall to the wayside like I want to feel like it, you are, we're just we're changing it, but we still are building on what you already been doing. Is that fair to say. I look through what the priorities were. I think those priorities came from the presentations we heard from various people. I think they focused to the top. I think we heard what the problem was and we said okay here's the priorities as we saw over the last year. So yeah, I think they did. And any heartburn about getting any no heartburn about changing the committee structure, because I don't want, you know, somebody to say Tina change the committee structure. And you have to forgive me I'm learning, I'm working on my formality for these meetings. Not quite there yet, but I'm working on it. Well, so our next meeting is August nine. And so, ideally what the plan would be is that you all meet as a committee sometime in July, so you know whenever you want to but it gives you two months, pretty much two months to meet and kind of, you know, narrow down some goals. And I'll make sure that you have the information from city staff. I did have one. Something just popped in my head and I can't remember what it was. Oh, did you all want to sign up for committees today or do you want to let us know because we can do that now. And Erica can have that in the minutes. Otherwise we might get out a little bit a little bit early and I know y'all don't want to get out early. So go through the list. I'm going to be on both committees. That's the easy one. Julie and which one, which committee do you want to work on. I'm not certain. Okay. Can you be on both committees. You can. Yeah, you definitely can. I just think that some there are some people who are just more in line with one of the other, but there is nothing that prevents you from being on both. Okay. I'd like to be on both. I think for our work, it's important for me to be on both. They're equally important. This is Yvonne. I'm sorry. I got you. Now, Julianne does that mean you want to be on both. No. It's not certain which one I want to be. Okay, what about you Jeffrey. The accessibility and advocacy. Oh, and if y'all want to come up with jazzy or names that's perfectly fine. I'm not a jazzy person but you know sometimes keep creatives can come up with cooler names. Jim, you're next on my screen. I would choose development I have a soft spot for trust funds. So that's right. And then miss Jennifer development, please. And miss Anita probably the advocacy but I'd love for you to send us stuff to finalize. Okay. And Jeff. element please. And next is miss Regina accessibility and advocacy with the focus on support supportive services. Next I have miss Sue advocacy. I kind of figured that one. Miss Brenna. Good to see you Brenna. Thank you the accessibility and advocacy. Oh, and then Chris forget I got more people. Dylan gunnels. I would prefer accessibility and advocacy, but willing to be flexible if we're getting a little heavy on that side. So once we go through, once we get all the numbers out, I mean all the list and I'll see Chris Zimmer, are you. Who are you with a truest bank. Okay, yes, yes. One guess development. We'll see I was trying to that's why I was asked I was like wait I'm trying. I'm trying to figure out what to do with this. And then Miss Brenna. She is probably driving I think she said so I will check with her later. Gregory Sprouse. I'll fall under development. Sorry. We have council woman, I'm out of the bussles joining us. Hey, I did he. Hello, just. I'm not at my desk, so I don't have my full screen. And so I'm just seeing you as y'all know that the plus is over our homeless task force. And so she is joining us for information. And I think advocacy might be where she is, and she can also kind of give us updates on what's going on with. That committee. Let me make sure. Okay, that's all I have. So if I do the numbers. Since some Anita's going to serve on the advocacy committee, I'll take development for mercy side. Thank you. Wait, who was that council woman Harvard quick question. It's Evonda. Yes. Is it possible to have someone from my team. Join the task force to serve on one of the committees. The development in particular. I will have to think about that. That is my honest answer. Okay. Okay. Send me an email because now I'm leaning towards a no, and I'm only going to tell you why, because they have been a lot of recommendations and I want to be consistent. The one thing that we do know that we need is more private developers at least one or two, but I don't want to just start expanding and expanding at this point. Not at this point because I've gotten a lot of a lot of I'm trying to be consistent. I understand and respect that completely. Accounts. That was miss Avan who said that she would be on the development committee so that gives you a total of seven individuals, eight with it, including you and on accessibility and advocacy I have a total of eight. So Erica, thank you because I was struggling with my numbers on my paper. So yeah, look Dylan it worked out perfectly. That worked out really good to have eight and eight. And that's considering was seen as on you have been on to right. I do. Mm hmm. Okay. All right. I'll have three at least three people that I can think of that I'll have to reach out to you to see which committees they're going to serve on but it'll probably still be balanced once we get the rest of the individuals set up on a committee. Okay. And what I what I would suggest to as a part of that and Eric, if you could make note that as the committee's form I have just said development but it may be just a one or two sentences of what, you know what we consider development, and then advocacy what we consider advocacy. And that would be based on, you know who's in the group and in the goals that y'all choose. And that note of private developers. Did anyone on this committee have any recommendations, I realized I had some names but I did not want to just pick people myself, I wanted to get input, any input on some private developers. And are you talking to us. Okay, we got you. Okay, I recommended Kevin Connelly. He's a private developer that's done a good bit of affordable health and work. If you have this contact information would you email it to me please. And it seems like I am. So I listened out. I listened to the meetings. I haven't listened to them again but as you all were having them. And I heard his name referred to a couple of times by Miss divine. So I think maybe I assumed he might have been a part of the committee. Any other recommendations. I'm not on the development committee but I'm thinking, do we want to have somebody from state housing finance authority since you know all of this is about leveraging dollars and complicated tests. Availments and everything maybe it would be good to have, see if there's somebody from the housing finance authority who might want to be on this, this committee, just if all else for advising and assistance. I did. If there's no objection I can act. I have the interim chair he works in my office. Maybe I'll ask him to appoint someone because I want to make sure everything is asking for a reference or name for that. That's a good idea. All right, folks, would you all be terribly disappointed if we didn't make it to a full hour. Well, are there any other issues or any, anything I'm not thinking about as far as our setup so we know when our next big meeting is. You all the committees can meet how everything want to but please let us know. Because I want to, I want to attend. Do you I think you need us to help you coordinate those dates. Maybe do like the doodle. Okay, all right. Yeah, I think for the first meeting, if you could set it up so we know when and where to be and then we can carry on from there. Okay, do you all prefer for me just to set a meeting or send a doodle out. I think I'm saying it right so that you all can choose when you want to meet. I think doodle polls always helpful so we can try to make sure we get a critical mass from each each group. Okay. Erica is that doable. Yes ma'am. Okay, because yeah I'm not tech savvy so somebody has to, I'm gonna learn it before the end of the year but I'm not too tech savvy. All right. So here we go. Have I covered everything. Am I missing anything. I did want that the muscles did you want to introduce yourself or say anything. Well I think most people here know me. I'm sorry I don't have power. So I'm currently trying to preserve as much battery as possible before we come into City Hall but as Councilman Herbert mentioned. I think there is a lot of parallels between some of the work that we will be doing around homelessness as well as affordable housing. And so really in hoping to make our committee and task force structures efficient. Looking forward to working with you all and providing updates. Thank you for the opportunity to share that we had our first meeting on in May. And that was really an opportunity I think for people to share their kind of perspectives and kind of set a mutual kind of foundation for how we're going to move our conversation forward. And so our next meeting which is open to the public and I encourage you all to attend if you are able to. Two two Wednesdays from now June 29 I believe from four to 6pm at the Busby Center. So we are meeting in person and we're in the very initial stages I know y'all have been meeting for a little bit just really trying to figure out our goals and outcomes and how that kind of folds into current work and future work that needs to happen around helping and addressing, you know, a very complex problem so looking forward to working with you all if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to reach out to me. Thank you. I was wondering if this group could get anything that's been developed by the homeless group, because I think it would be important to be sharing visions and seeing where, you know who's making decisions and and all of that would be really helpful for all of us. Yeah, what we I what I can do is all forward along we sent a series of reading material as well as the 2013 report thank you to Laila Anna for sharing that, because there was homeless efforts from a task force perspective in 2013 and there were some recommendations that came out of there. So Erica maybe we could forward that email or reading along to this committee as well so that they get an idea of kind of the information that we've had the task force review. And that I think also includes the notes from the last meeting. This afternoon. And that was so so you missed the beginning where I said back in the day by grandmother said that when it was storm and she cut everything off. And it looks like your stuff got cut off, we had, we've heard big booms up here. Be careful and save your battery. Thank you all, if all hearts and minds are clear, we will help set up the committee member committee meetings via doodle. And we will send you information on where the city is with Columbia compass so you have that in hand in mind for your meetings I'm going to try and attend the meetings when you have them. And you all choose how you want to meet in person or in zoom, and we will send you Dr bustles information from the homeless task force. And then I will contact. It's not like Erica volunteer, but we're going to make contact with some private developers, so that we can make sure we have state housing and private developer to make sure we have all the people around the table that would be critical. Anything else. Well y'all have the y'all by the way last question, do y'all have a desire to meet in person. Do you all. I was. I like the time efficiency of zoom, so I would vote zoom. Any. So, is there anybody on here who is desperately seeking personal contact. Maybe we'll schedule. Maybe quarterly or something, you know every. That's a good question. And that's good enough to be patient too, but you do miss something with personal contact. Dylan gunnels that agree with zoom for room decides so we will continue to monitor it maybe we can plan. I think we do need to at least sit down once. Every so often so will consider that but this is this is kind of the vision. mind's a player, I'm thinking I'm a church. Almost. Is there a second? Second. All right, thanks you all. I look forward to seeing you on August 9th, when we come back together as a big group again. Enjoy your summer. Not that I'm saying we're off at a summer, but y'all be careful and hopefully go on some vacations and have some fun. All right, bye-bye.


So about a month ago, I asked a question about regrets on Linux. And I wanted to make a video about this because there are some situations when it comes to my daily Linux usage that I have regrets over. And some of them are I would say, in fact, most of them are personal failings. So these are things that I could have or should do better on a daily basis. I have regrets that I don't or haven't done so, at least up till now. So that's what I'm going to talk about today. I don't really particularly expect this video to do all that well, but we'll see how it goes. So let's go ahead and jump in. So to answer the overarching question that I asked in that poll, do I have any regrets of actually installing Linux to answer that? It's absolutely not. I love Linux. I don't foresee a future where I would ever not use Linux as my main distro. Perhaps if I got a job where I had to use Windows, I would use Windows at the job, but I'd still use Linux at home. But I don't foresee that ever happening simply because I'd probably not choose an employer that wouldn't allow me to use Linux.  And I'm obviously lucky enough to have that option available to me. So overarching, I don't have regrets over Linux itself, but there are certain things that I wish over the past five or so years of actually using Linux that I would have done. So the first one is that I wish I would have learned bash a little bit better. So I have some bash scripts that I've written myself. They are not good bash scripts. They're just not. They're very pedestrian, very amateurish. So the scripts that I have just aren't very good. And I wish that I had done a better job of learning that. And it's still one of my goals to become a better bash scripter, a scripter of bash scripts, a user of bash, however you want to put it, you know, I want to be better at that. I wish as I started getting into Linux that I would have focused more on that aspect, because there's so much in terms of automation that you can do with a script that you would normally have to do manually, right? And the fact that I don't know as much about scripting as I would like to kind of closes those doors off to me. So that's one of my regrets. Another one of my regrets is that I didn't try arch Linux sooner. So along my Linux journey, I started with Solus Linux in 2017. It was a very brief encounter with Solus. I meet almost immediately moved to Ubuntu and then moved to 12 other distros within like the first three weeks, it was a nuts two or three weeks of me trying literally every Linux distribution out there, except arch, I was very scared of installing arch Linux. At that point, there was no arch install. There were very few arch based distros at that time that were going to give you a good arch install experience. There were a couple and I did eventually try them. But at the beginning, I was very much a focused on Ubuntu based distros. I moved from mental, elementary to Ubuntu, all the flavors of Ubuntu I tried. It was really I was just basically installing Ubuntu over and over again, but with a different desktop environment. So I really wish that I would have tried vanilla arch sooner, because eventually I did move to like Antrigos. And Antrigos was a arch based distro that is no longer with us. And it was good. And it was my first interaction with the you are and how good the you are was. And it kind of set me on the path of always relying on an arch based distro instead of arch itself. So it took me a good, probably two years before I decided to finally install arch Linux, the vanilla way, the traditional vanilla way. And I regret not doing it sooner simply because of two things. One, when you install arch Linux, the vanilla way, you'll learn a lot. You might not learn as much as you do if you install gentoo, but you do learn a lot. You learn how to use CLI partition managers, you learn how to install grub and manage grub and create an FS tab and all this stuff, where you don't ever really have that experience when you install Ubuntu over and over and over again. So I think that I would have been much further along in learning more stuff about Linux, if I had installed arch sooner. Now, I did eventually get there. But I still kind of regret not doing it sooner. So that's the second one. The third one is that I regret not being active in the community sooner. So when I first started using Linux, I did start a podcast. And I did a little bit of podcasting with my friend Ricky, but that kind of fell by the wayside, but I continued to use Linux, even though the podcast kind of took a two year hiatus. But even past that, I didn't really get involved in anything. When I had a problem, maybe I'd go ask on Reddit, but I would always expect to have somebody help me, and then I would carry on with my day. Hopefully somebody helped me if they didn't, I would distro hop because obviously, I wasn't going to go searching for any answers. I was a horrible member of the Linux community at that point. I was the definition of the person who needs to read the effing manual. I didn't read the manual. Most of the time I just went and asked questions and expected them to get answers. If I even bothered to ask the question to begin with, most of the time I would just distro hop if I had a problem. So I regret now not being a better member of the community there at the beginning for multiple reasons. One, when you are an active participant in a forum of some sort, you tend to get better answers simply because you have a history of asking and answering questions, but also I regret it simply because if you get involved in the community, you tend to make good and lasting friendships and relationships and stuff. So you meet people and you talk to people and they become good online friends. So I regret not doing that earlier and I probably would have met even more people if I had started off as a better citizen of the Linux community. So that's my third regret. So my fourth one on the list is going to be related to one that I just talked about a couple of minutes ago and that it's kind of the opposite. So once I tried an ArchBase distribution and I was very much entrenched in, first it was Antergos and then it was Manjaro and then it was Arco. That's basically my transition into Arch. I was very much an Arch fanboy, but I wouldn't call myself an Arch fanboy. I would call myself an AUR fanboy and I was very, for a long period of time, even fairly recently, very much a proponent of the AUR. I still think the AUR is fantastic and I will still preach it to everyone as much as possible. However, there was a time where I was a elitist. I'll just go out and say this. I was an elitist when it came, comes to the AUR.  I don't know why you'd not want to use the AUR because it was absolutely amazing and like I said, if you didn't use it, I was definitely looking down on you. I was judging you and I found you lacking. There was a long period of time and like I said, that was even up till recently. I was very much an AUR fanboy. Now, I no longer use Arch. I'm a Fedora user and now I would say I'm a Fedora fanboy, but I've tried to dial back the enthusiasm when it comes to things that I personally use, especially over the last few months. I've tried to be better at when I make a recommendation for something to kind of understand that maybe the things that I use that I enjoy aren't necessarily going to be good for everyone. So I try to keep that in mind. There are still things that I would say are just way better than anything else and I would fight anyone who says otherwise. So I'm still in the elitist in some places, specifically when it comes to Linux. I mean, I still think that Linux is the best operating system out there and I would be very tempted to go fisticuffs with anybody who said otherwise. So there are places where I'm still that elitist and I try not to be, but it's kind of hard. So I regret a little bit.  So I looked down on them. I judged them and I was a bad, bad person. Luckily, I'm somewhat over it. I'm not completely over it, but I'm somewhat over. I try. I'm much more self-aware now when it comes to my own recommendations and my own likes and dislikes than I was a year ago or so. So that's an improvement, I suppose. So my last regret has to do a little bit with the channel and that regret is that I regret not installing more of the distros that I reviewed on hardware. I have many videos on this channel where I do a first look of a distro and I do those videos not because I think that they're really interesting or whatever, but because they're popular. People really like them and I'm I aim to please. So I do those videos fairly often. I've tried over the last two years since I started this to innovate a little bit on those and try to do a little bit so that they're at least a little bit more interesting for me because sometimes they're kind of boring. That includes doing things like the WTF series where I kind of ridicule or roast a distro, but even that kind of Peter off into that kind of mess area. So I think that if I were to start a channel now and focus on Linux like I did in 2020, one of the things that I had promised myself is that I would always install whatever distro I was going to review or do a first look of on hardware. And the reason why I think that that is important is because you get a much better sense of how a distro runs, how a distro installs, and all that stuff when you install on actual hardware, you don't get that when you install on a VM. Everything will install in a VM. If you have the right parameters, you can install every single Ubuntu version ever in a VM, you can install Windows 3.1 in a VM. Good luck installing it on hardware nowadays, right? So the point I'm trying to make is that if I again, we're starting it over again, all of my distro reviews and first looks would be on hardware and I've started to do that. I haven't been always been successful simply because I was installing to a hard drive that was going bonky. But I have at least for the most part over the last couple of months tried to do all of them as on hardware. And I think that it does at least somewhat improve those videos. So I wish I would have started doing that a little bit earlier. And I think that as I go forward and kind of improve my setup a little bit more, where maybe I get like a mini PC or something that and a KVM switch and a capture card, maybe I'll be able to do even more where I kind of do some work with the installation and stuff like that, those kinds of videos where it's a little bit different. And it's not just, Hey, here's a distro, here are all the apps that come on the distro. Here's how much memory uses it boot the end, you know, I mean, those videos are, they're popular, but they're beginning to be kind of boring. So I wish I had done more on hardware and I'm going to do that definitely going forward. So those are my Linux regrets. And I know that they're kind of all over the place. And they're probably more. That's it for this video. If you have Linux regrets, I'd love to hear about them in the comment section below. You can follow me on Twitter at the Linux cast, you can follow me on Mastodon or Odyssey, those links will be in the video description. You can support me on Patreon at patreon.com slash the link to the cast is to go to these fine people. Thanks to everybody who does support me on Patreon YouTube, you guys are all absolutely amazing people. Without you, the channel just would not be anywhere near close to where it is right now. So thank you so much for your support. Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you next time.


Okay where did you where did we leave off shall we continue okay I was talking about community building and we just saw a perfect example of community building that collaborative effort of our community members are getting the sound back on that was awesome that's what part of community building is all about whatever it takes working together this community to get things done that's gonna benefit the community networking I'm a network weaver I like networking with people I like chatting with people I like sharing information quite often I I will find try to find out what a group is doing so I can share the information when I do send my social media broadcast out and I'm not sure if you caught it before but you see this illustration here on this slide this is my so this is my professional network there's a program called in maps you can link to it through your LinkedIn.com the green there that's you that is my virtual based networks that I am connected to through LinkedIn.com networking I cannot say enough of networking networking that allows you to foster partnerships it allows you to link public health services and allows you to share capacity building resources my my whole program of capacity buildings came out of my real to virtual virtual real it's my feeling my vision that whatever goes on in the real world can be brought into a virtual setting that be a 3d or 2d non-profit social service providers of people who I target my share project to but this can benefit any other industry organization only your imagination stops you from doing what you need to do in real life and this is why I try to compare in real life you have your meetings you have your counseling sessions you have your conferencing you're training your networking you can just simply get it into the virtual setting one thing when you get into the virtual setting you have expanded your your your your reach your reach and a whole lot more people than you can right in a room I had a colleague who told me she has an individual who drives three hours for a one hour meeting so this is the perfect sample a perfect use of virtual worlds she could just come on board and do her meeting right from her computer meetings counseling networking same thing goes on in the real life goes on in the virtual worlds many you know training is ideal and that goes without saying before the educators that are using that I applaud you and it's just I plan to embrace it to continue doing laboratory training because quite often when you work with medical personnel they cannot return to yours training site to do training so we can do field training using the virtual world capacity building that's what it's all about capacity building using virtual worlds whatever it takes to help that nonprofit to enhance or to reach their mission that's what the capacity building my definition capacity building is virtual world social media is ideal platform to help them reach their missions we do have some issues when we talk about the virtual worlds usability I believe is the main issue is the challenge was also the focus and that's one of the parts of capacity building that share project extends making sure that these not in the nonprofits and organizations has the systems that is needed to for systems requirements the technology a lot of times a matter of upgrading sometimes this matter bring the whole system into their program and quite often we bring those systems to the program it expands of the services that they can provide to the community user training workshops I have a real to virtual virtual ongoing workshop series here in Baltimore and hopefully be able to care at other places where we do hands-on training going back to that 2009 skills building Institute that is dot gov pause magazine and the National Association people living with AIDS conducted that's what got me interested hands-on help me that's what I gear my workshops to be hands-on that basic boot camp type training so when the individuals organizations leave that workshop they're ready to go and only would need some mentoring or coaching once they got back to your facility and because to all organizations don't have a time to do go do a whole lot of training workshop what have you but we like to do some real hands-on training so they can understand what's going on so they can get the things working beyond this this whole workshop was called such presentation called beyond the beyond is basically beyond the second life I started this share project in second life but we want to expand so we can't be on second life so we can't to the open Sims and the first location we had our share project was in jacada grid and jacada grid is an awesome pro awesome grid and like I was saying before I had a care to introduce a local nonprofit who has a AIDS awareness youth program into jacada grid and this is where they set their program up because of this family friendly and youth friendly so also budget friendly was and a great community support there but when I went to expand even great in to another arena this is when I my vision was to set up the awareness of an awareness village and this is where the share village came into place and this was has been started in I'm sorry in Kiteley why in Kiteley because I can add and have unlimited number of virtual worlds there and the whole ideal is to set up a complex where I can have other areas for the individuals or social service providers can go to and can meet what if they want to leave the on share project sir share village excuse me one of those things we have like a business we have a business world we have a retreat area as well but the share village in Kiteley which is sponsored by share pros consultant network provides space for AIDS service providers organizations awareness campaigns and programs and it also is linked into having retreats and conversing which is an ideal set up we can also have it as open and could have it as a private setup if we need to have a private setup and these this is just showing some the collaborative efforts of some the collaborative components of share village because we work with non-profits set up a partnership the picture you have we have here at the top and I'm not for sure if I do this little pointer but the pictures we have here at the top where you see the row of houses that is a non-profit row nonprofits will be invited to set up an office right there on that in that particular community where they can get their information out about their organization so that therefore their organization is not just located in their local community but it's located in their worldwide virtual community the tall white building that's our wellness center within our wellness center we're gonna have a spa but we also have a our campaigns a lot of the campaigns and you see the picture to the your lower lower right I guess your lower left my lower right is our room that is showing one of the campaigns that centers of disease control has put out which has been very very helpful it's one of our favorite campaigns it's about working together to stop a sister stop HIV and that's the thing sharing those campaigns in this environment and we will mention Pinterest early and then one of the things of Pinterest I use Pinterest to link my various social media projects of works the first one you hear it's our HR or H share project our HIV related Pinterest pages as we were talking before you want to use images that are not copyrighted if you're gonna use a copyright image you need to contact the owner of that copyright to get their permission that's just where I operate I like to use of government campaigns or such as the CDC campaigns or will be for HHS campaigns though a lot of their pro images are public domain you with some are covered with a lot of my public domain but regardless of which ones you're using you want to make sure those images are connected to the or the source you don't want to use so for instance a share project image and you can connect it to jack gem.com it doesn't work it's all about that collaborative interaction using these social media and the virtual world in a collaborative responsible fashion the second board here and this is what we refer to as our Pinterest board it has these pins on these pins are related to open sims activities another thing about that community building whatever things are going on in open sims we try to put it up on the boards in the on our Pinterest page and it's all about connecting using the virtual worlds to connect there's a lot of nonprofits who do a lot of things but they just don't have the time to meet physically or they're not situated in the same country state or whatever to even meet physically so we I really see myself using the virtual worlds connect these people what you see here as I meet up and we usually have a meet-up in the kite league or get to meet the diverse community members also get these get ideas and share information we have our partners show our role our A's awareness videos and one thing about the virtual worlds you can scream in your YouTube videos which works very nicely one of the biggest challenges in addition to the technical challenges which always gets resolved when the biggest challenges is educating potential users that virtual worlds integration is not a game recently I had a colleague to talk to tell me oh yeah you're doing that 3d stuff I play that game all the time no this is not a game it's not a game to disable individuals it's not a game to deploy military personnel it's not a game to researchers it's not a game to so many people in the industry and because it's not a game that's why I'm very passionate about getting introduced in virtual worlds to nonprofits who are trying to do something about HIV A's in the United States as well as worldwide the United States that are not the national HIV A strategy for the United States is to reduce the number of new HIV infections increase access to health care and to reduce HIV related health disparities now it's at a point now that we have to start thinking out of the box I cannot see a better way to think out of boxes to think out the box virtually that's why virtual worlds will always be a key part of my HIV A's awareness promotion and training programs sometime ago Jeff Crawley from the White House Office of Policy said we're gonna have to really start thinking out of the box it's not business as usual definitely virtual worlds make it not business as usual so like I was saying before health care or any other social component of social way you're reaching out to the community virtual worlds and social media is keep it it's a channel of communication you want to get that information out there one another big big big challenge it's been funding because and I think it's because a lot of people do not understand I'm sure a lot of you have the same experience because a lot of people do not understand and instead of say some of those people are funders do not understand what or how the virtual worlds can benefit a program too often the funding is not there from for some awesome initiatives so hopefully by educating the general public and this is one reason I'll come to put things up on my Facebook business page to keep it unfurrent keep it out there I've been broadcasting this conference throughout the week throughout the past couple months letting people understand that this is a valuable tool this is a seamless tool so hopefully the funding will come for programs that's out there that's helping the community this shared project is a self-funded capacity-building training program and we're always looking for funding because it gets really challenging it gets very challenging but the passion to use virtual worlds just keeps keeps the program going it might sounds a little Pollyanna but the passion is just too great not to pursue the particular of the particular channel of communication and that's what it is it's a channel communication that is to that is excellent for capacity-building for awareness and for training as you'll see on the slide here I've left my put up my contact information and the links to some of my pages I'm a big tweeter tweet me share the information I love feedback if you're in Kiteley or you when you're in the ring in the area drop in the share of village or you can also visit our face our Facebook business page which is shared project and then that thing will gain that that concludes my presentation and I'm open for any questions sometimes it takes them a minute to format those questions out okay wait a few minutes you're still here wait a minute or so it takes a while for formulate those questions audience do you have any questions or Sally there's one now have you seen a lot of traffic in Kiteley the traffic is starting to pick up I've been in Kiteley I was look for the past what since 2012 believe it is the traffic is starting to pick up and I was I think yesterday many of you heard Ian was talking about the marketplace they've just opened up that shoot I'm looking forward to that generate that even more traffic as a matter of fact we're using we have a store there because we're using as a fundraiser for our program so the question came up yesterday you know why how the residents and I'm one of those residents see that as a benefit of being a resident in Kiteley like I said it is serving as a fundraiser to help defer some of our costs any other question I don't see anybody typing so I'm gonna take that as a no what I want to do with this time then is thank Sally for go ahead for I would like to ask if any of you are using social media for your programs what I would like for you to special for your Twitter if you put your Twitter ID and if you just type your Twitter ID in your chat those who are online appreciate it our look me up on Twitter Facebook and come to an our fate our website I'm done okay we'll have a few more questions after we go off air in the meantime I want to thank you for what a wonderful and informative presentation that you gave and thank our audience for the questions and when you do get up be careful don't all leave it once and please if you will turn to your website web page at the HTTP colon slash conference dot open simulator dot com or got org 2013 to continue looking at the information to schedule have a great day at the conference thank you for your time so you're taking me to lunch now


Live from Washington DC, it's Cube Conversations with John Furrier. Hello everyone, welcome to the special exclusive Cube Conversation, I'm John Furrier here, the heart of Amazon Web Services headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, the heart of Washington DC. I'm here with Teresa Carlson, the chief of the Amazon Web Services Public Sector team. Great to see you again. Welcome to Washington DC, John. A lot of action, having the cubes on the ground all day yesterday, we got interviews all day this afternoon. Really getting the top stories and the big story is the cloud computing impact to government. You've been leading the team on the public sector worldwide for Amazon Web Services, really had great success since the CIA deal four years ago, which was a watershed moment to this gestation period of Amazon infiltrating into all the different systems of the government and worldwide. Congratulations. Thank you, it's been a great seven and a half years, it's gone by so fast, but I still feel like every day is day one. One of the things I'm most impressed with you and I want to get your take on it is, you've been very passionate about the mission of the public sector from nonprofits, education, inclusion and diversity, women in tech, a variety of things, as almost a higher level mission, but Amazon has been real enabler for the change as well. So what is your official role now at Amazon? It's now global, it's always been global. How has it changed over the past few years? Well, in the early days, even though when I started here, Andy and I always agreed it was worldwide, but what ended up happening was the fact that it went from really just focusing on the U.S. to actually focusing on worldwide, because if we couldn't really win business here in the U.S., it was gonna be hard to win business worldwide. You're one of the most powerful women in Washington, D.C. has voted recently one of the magazines. Been doing great work here in D.C., but also globally. But one of the things that you're doing, I wanted to explore with you, is you're changing the game, not just with technology and government, but in society. There's a lot of entrepreneurship that you're enabling. You've kinda cracked the code on this formula with the work with Amazon, where there's now the silos are being broken down and the blurring lines between the different sectors are all cross-pollinating. We're seeing that with entrepreneurship, nonprofits, education. What's going on there? What's your view on this? Well, when you're really gonna drive change globally, and when you're doing such a transformational change and shift with technology, you can't just look at it as a shift of technology. It's gotta be a shift of the sectors of what's happening. And also, you can't just educate one group. You have to go and educate the society and have real societal change. Everything from ensuring that the community colleges have the right kind of programs for computer science, K through 12, that they have access, because if you miss one group, you're gonna miss a whole generation of something. And the realities are, there's millions of jobs worldwide that are needed for cloud computing in a variety of roles, including new ones for AI and machine learning, which we almost have no individuals that are as qualified as we want them. So to drive real change, you have to start at the policy level and ensure policymakers and regulators around the world are aware of what they need to put in place so that these tools and technologies are enabled, that they're promoting and budgeting for things like educational programs. And then they're very focused on not just old tech companies, but actual new tech companies that are driving forward to startups, entrepreneurs, and social engineers, I'll call them. And that's really where we are trying to drive toward social change or societal change, starting at the policy and going all the way down to educational and diversity issues around the world. One of the things that you guys have done here in Washington has been successful. You've done the hard work, you put the time in, you paid your dues, you did the brute force work you need to do in security and cloud. Now it's up and running successful. Now you have a elevated responsibility with the cloud to enable wealth creation, value creation, change in society. So you're steward of a change agent at the same time you have to create value across those sectors. What does that responsibility mean to you and how are you leading the team to continue to up the bar on the innovation in that area? Well, it does mean a lot to me and it is super important because if you again get one element wrong, it's almost like you misstep something. So we are like, my entire team is really gritty. Like every day we're sort of challenging each other. Do we have it right? The whole concept of the ability to dive deep and really understand your customers and what they need to do. But an example of that would be is we really have sort of a model we've developed as a team for going in and creating digital innovation or digital footprints for countries. So if you think about this, if you walk into a country and they have zero idea how to become a digital nation, you have to through your influence and your experience really educate them on what are the elements. And again, that goes through everything through how do they set up policies? How do they have acquisition vehicles? How are the regulators working? Everything through financial regulators, telecommunication providers, through the educational systems of how you operate. But then not only that, but the entrepreneurs. How do they actually set up a group teach and train sometimes in societies that really have not had zero training in entrepreneurship? You know, you think about the United States. I could call you up, John, and say, hey, I have a question about something I'm doing in media. Can you like give me some suggestions? You would help me. If you go to countries like that, they don't have the same network we even have here. So really establishing, helping them establish what is their blueprint? And I will tell you it's working. And the reason I think it's working is because we go in very humbly. We begin to, we're very patient. We have a long-term view of what we're doing. And we really demonstrate for them, and not just demonstrate, but help them ensure that they're getting there. And that's the customer obsession side of us. In the old way, the old competitive landscape used to be, hey, our price and our product performance is the best, therefore you should buy it. And make as much money as possible and provide some customer support and some maintenance. Okay, done. Now you guys have hit the form. That's just one element of a successful formula, mission-driven, but also ecosystem and community. That's right. Talk about the dynamics between those three things. Having a mission, the right price performance, and also community, and how does that formula work for you guys, and how do you make that successful? Yeah, well, so here's a really interesting fact. When we decide to go in and build a new region, we could, the realities are, we could go anywhere in the world and build a region. But will that region be successful? And there's many elements to that being a success. And one of the things, as an example, is price. So in order to have a region that is priced in a manner that individuals can buy for cloud computing, you've got to ensure that the elements that you need to build that region are in place. So you've got to think about things like utilities, power, water, land, networking, telecommunications, and then education. Are the people there that can actually respond and take the jobs that are required? So you have to look at each and every element and go in and really make those changes. And an example that I'll share is telecommunication providers around the world. We're the most advanced in the world in the United States on telecommunications.  And for a company like ours, of course, we're a big networking company. And if you go in and if a customer pays 100% more, then they would pay in a region that was right next door, they're probably not gonna want to use that cloud. So when I say that we're going in and driving real change, we really feel like it's our obligation to go in and ensure that we put all the pieces and parts in place with that country and those officials to ensure that they understand. And then the added element, if we're gonna do that to telecommunications provider that maybe had part of their revenues toward government or it's all they know, then we need to teach them how they set up new business models because there are fantastic business models for telecommunication providers with cloud computing, managed service offerings. They can do a lot more mobility, gaming. There's so much stuff, but many of them have been so used to an old business model. We really have to help them transform in order for that entire community and region to be successful. Would it be safe to say that you guys are enabling value creation and that you guys are allowing others to take advantage of that? It's not just your profit, you're enabling them to profit and or win. How are they see value? It could be for social good, but also it could be for making more money. I mean, you can't lose by helping people make more money or achieving their objective. We love that. And if you think about Amazon Web Services, where we started was with startups and entrepreneurs. The ones that loved us first were the developers and engineers. They came in, they started using AWS, and then those developers and engineers turned into small companies and startups and then large companies. And so we really have a soft spot for entrepreneurs and startups. So we talk about all the time in all parts of our business that we really need to be focused on those young entrepreneurs that are creating value and wealth. And if you do that, you really see, you see a lot of change. And even if you come back to the United States, you're starting to see in small communities. I'm from Kentucky. We have agri-entrepreneurs. We have individuals that are looking at new farming techniques. They're taking healthcare startups in Kentucky. I mean, it's great because you don't need to be respectful in Silicon Valley anymore to have a startup and do really great work.   You're one of the most powerful people in Washington, D.C. You're from a small town. How does that make you feel?  I'm very humbled. I'm super humbled. My parents were both teachers. My dad was a high school basketball coach. Love coaching. I'm a huge Kentucky basketball fan. But, you know, humble, I feel blessed every day that I get to do this role and that I've been able to work for such an amazing company who believes in this because, you know, Andy Jassy, myself, always said from day one, the first day I met him, I was like, wow, he is gonna be such a champion of this because we talked about paving the way for disruptive innovation and making the world a better place. And in order to do that, there's multiple aspects of those things. And again, the technology is the bridge-builder. It really helps take the divided and pull them together. But it's gotta be all these other elements that really make it work completely. With this power you have, and you are humble, I will say that that's true, comes great responsibility. How are you using this opportunity to go the next level at a higher level? Not just help Amazon achieve their business objectives. Within DC, you're involved in some things. What's your mission on that level? If you go the higher level, what is that? And what are you doing with this opportunity that you have? Well, it's really about helping drive social entrepreneurship. And then I would say the second one is diversity and ensuring that we are really getting more women in tech and a more diverse work environment for tech. And I'll just start on the social entrepreneurship side. It really interacts nicely with all of our goals. But the thing that's really changed about social entrepreneurship, in the early days, people thought of that just as a not-for-profit kind of, and people were like, that's not so cool. Well, today, social entrepreneurship is cool. Many young men and women, if you talk to them, they wanna be involved in something, they wanna make money, but they wanna be involved in something that's really doing good things. And we've sort of, again, been able to bridge how we're doing things at AWS through social entrepreneurship. So an example, we talked about Bahrain a little bit. We have a scalerator in Bahrain where we take these groups in. But we have also one here in Washington, D.C. at the US Institute of Peace for PeaceTech, which we're looking at technologies that help push down corruption and improve peace around the world. And then we have Halcyon House, which we support. And Halcyon is just this beautiful, and Georgetown is such a lovely place that Dr. Sachi Okuno started, where we support, but it's all social entrepreneurs that live there for five months in residency. And they're helped through some of the most amazing minds here in Washington become social entrepreneurs, and they have technology enablement, legal enablement, venture capital access, and that's good. And then the last one that we've done is in Cal Poly Tech, where with the president there, President Armstrong, who's another gentleman from Kentucky, we started there, he left what we were doing, and he said, I want to go all in on AWS, and I wanna start an innovation center where right here on campus, we can bring our talented students, we can also merge it with the community and solve real government issues. So there they're doing areas of justice and public safety, they're looking at healthcare issues, they're looking at also child exploitation issues, and they're bringing all those things together to try to solve real problems, and we're helping. So it's really... How about the women in tech? You're involved in, so you are a women tech leader, again, one of the most powerful women in DC, powerful people in DC. Well, women in tech is such an important issue because again, we're a fairly significant part of the population and pretty underrepresented in tech. And one of the things that we've done, we started a program at AWS called We Power Tech, where it's really about diversity and overall, but we go out into communities, we work with the schools, we have coding days on campuses, we help start coding clubs, we have empowerment days where we teach women how do you interview, how do you understand the roles in tech? We do sort of early, what is cloud and how do you get involved with cloud? And then we talk about other jobs. You and I have had this conversation before about tech is great in the coding part, but also there's so many other jobs in tech, like it's finance, it's operations, it sells, you know, PR, name marketing, and you have to be pretty talented in tech to do any of those. It's not again, I'll say for the faint of heart. So we are making progress, but we still have a long way to go. And tech is super fun. What's your secret of success? I think I learned very early on how to operate in a very diverse world. My dad was a basketball coach. During my time growing up, I had a lot of young men basketball players in our home. We were always cooking, and I had to stand toe-to-toe with them all the time. And every aspect, I could not, you know, I just really, I was like, oh, you know, I'm going to win this argument. One on one, let's take it to the court. And so I don't like to lose for sure, but I really once, I guess once I set my mind to something I really believe in it, there's passion in me. I just keep going. I don't know, no is not the right answer. How do we get there? Blockers are just something that can be removed in my mind. And I think Amazon is the kind of culture that, you know, obviously, the way the whole company has been created and how it's driven, nothing has gotten in the way. You just sort of learn from those things. And if you say every day, we may not have gotten to where we want to be today, but we learned from the failure that we had today and that experience. And you take that in each day, you sort of evolve and say, okay, now we learned from that, let's adjust. And the other thing I tell my team because we're such a young company, you don't really know what you know. So don't get tied to the ways that you're doing things because we need to adjust very quickly. So I try to promote an environment where that we don't, we maybe don't know the right, yeah, we don't know the right answer every day. And we need to constantly be looking at, did we get that right and how do we adjust? So, you know, getting that agility in your business because a lot of the hiring that we do today, there's so many that we bring in that are from sort of an old school mindset because these companies did not grow as fast as we're growing. We are in a hyper growth mode. And when you're in a hyper growth mode, you have to constantly look for leaders that can scale. And so that's the other sort of thing really. So the pace, kind of can you hang with the pace?  Here's some oxygen for some people. They need it. Yeah, it really is. Team oriented. So culturally you feel that you're a good fit for Amazon given your personality, that's a key to success. I love it. I mean, I love it because of the pace. I love it because of the change we're driving. And the other thing, after years of working in tech, it's so fun to see your customers be successful. I mean, I can't, that high of seeing customers actually drive results and young entrepreneurs be able to create a company. I had a young girl in Brazil, I was in Brazil at the embassy and we had actually a women's panel and she was on it, she was like 23 years old. And we got to talking and she said, I just, she said I created my first gaming company at 16 and sold it at 18 for some millions. And she was like in our third company. She said all built on AWS. I mean, that is like so cool. Like those stories, you're just like, wow. And wouldn't be possible if you went through the old gatekeepers and other ways. Well, I mean, and I was part of all that. I mean, you spent so much of your money on just building out the tech, the servers, and the early days, entrepreneurs spent so much of their early capital on that. And now I think that's why, you know, private equity and venture capitalists, we are involved with them so much because they see the value that cloud computing can have in their portfolio. Faster time to value. Very much. And then the entrepreneurs, you'll see seven, they'll have two or three companies going at once. You know, and it's like, it's a good thing. And because that cost of creating a business is a lot less, they can focus on their real talent, not just, you know, buying servers and stacking them. Final question for you, talk about the impact that you've had with AWS Public Sector here in town. Your event that you started, the Public Sector Summit, early days, conference room in a hotel, ballroom in a hotel. Last year was at the major convention center. It looks like reinvent. So you had an impact. And this year probably gonna be bigger. That is an indicator that something's going right there. Well, I'm very proud of my team for helping us build this thing out. But it was the early days. I do think we, I say, I've told a certain friend, I think we have maybe 50, 55 people. And I think last year we had about eight or 9,000 and growing and it is like a little reinvent. We have it over a two day period. It'll be June 20th and 21st this year. Please come, we want to have you back. We will be there. But we're doing something a little bit unique this year. We're gonna have a space day on the 19th. And what, you know, obviously at AWS and Amazon, we really, we like space as in like, you know, the moon, Mars. Yeah, like SpaceX, Blue Origin. Not like a comfortable space, safe space. No, no, like true space in the clouds and way beyond. And this is a really interesting area because, you know, space, I remember as a young girl, you know, seeing, seeing, you know, the first, the whole videos of walking on the moon and it makes you feel so good, you know, that science and technology emerging. But there's a lot of that that needs to be updated and modernized now. And we work with a lot of partners now, you know, like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, groups that are building tools, Blue Origin, SpaceX, NASA, Air Force. There's been a huge robotics surge. Huge. People love robotics and software involved. Machine learning. I mean, you think about, so ground stations and if you think about ground and satellite stations, a lot of that is very outdated technology. And that's where cloud computing and the new tools that, you know, that we are driving in our AI and machine learning space are really going to help as well as the storage and compute and do more things at the edge with that. So that's going to be a really fun day and we're going to have folks from all those companies. Is it going to be open to the public? It is, it's going to be open to the public. So it's like a precursor day to our mini reinvent, all kind of our public sector mini reinvent. So we're really excited about that. And it's something new. We're going to try this year and see what kind of momentum, but we wanted to add that and we had a lot of requests. We said, let's just do it. What's your goals next couple of months? We're going to see you at Public Sector Summit. Your event in June, the Cube will be there. What's on your radar right now? I have a big agenda for global traveling. I'm going to be in Australia, Singapore, Argentina. I've got a couple of trips to Canada. I'm going to be doing very shortly here in London. I'm going to be doing a girls in tech conference and I have one out in San Francisco. I'm going to be key noting that. So I have a big agenda this year of travel.  We have a lot of great things going on this year. Worldwide public sector. Congratulations on your success. Thanks for spending the time with me. Thank you, John. It's a Cube conversation here in Washington DC. We're in Arlington, Virginia, Amazon, web services, headquarters here in Washington. Thanks for watching.


Alabama is number one in freshwater biodiversity and that may or may not resonate with people but what that means is the the streams, our rivers, our lakes they are alive and we're all connected to that freshwater biodiversity. So how do we use our streams? How do we use our rivers and lakes? Well we can think about recreation, transportation, drinking water. That diversity that's in there means that we also have a stewardship responsibility. We also have a lot of streams and rivers, more than 132,000 miles of streams and rivers which we like to say you could circle the earth five times with all the streams and rivers that we have in our state. With extension and with the Water Resources Center we like to look at ways that we can be positive working together to improve our water resources in Alabama. The main threat to water in Alabama and in the United States is polluted stormwater runoff. When it rains and rain washes over the landscape it picks up the litter, the oils and gases and it rushes it forward to the nearest water body. It could be a direct discharge into a stream or it could go into a local storm sewer. Good news is we have control over how we can minimize those impacts to streams, to rivers and to our lakes. What we've learned from farmers who are the first conservationists is we can take actions, we can change our behaviors, we can put things in place to slow down the movement of these pollutants and to really improve not only soil quality but that direct benefit to water quality. With 132,000 miles of streams and rivers it's really difficult to have eyes and water monitoring on every mile of stream. Our quality assured quality trained citizen scientists help us in pinpointing priority areas. Is there a concern that we can get to before it becomes a large problem? Are there areas that are doing really well and we need to make sure that we maintain and protect those waterways. I've been fortunate that my career path led me this way. Growing up I was always out in the woods and I just feel really lucky that I'm able to hopefully inspire others to catch that spark and to work on projects like I've been able to work on.


Thank you to our JSA family, this great embrace, this creativity, and this industry-leading results led to an award-winning year here at JSA. Thank you to our JSA clients and our community for their trust and continued support. From our JSA family to yours, happy holidays!