On behalf of ABCO Technology’s staff, faculty and students, we want to congratulate Michael Alexander who has completed 50% of his program in cyber-security.  Michael  found a great job at a company located in Culver City. The new job allows him to use all of the skills he learned at ABCO Technology.  Michael is receiving an excellent salary along with benefits.

Michael’s success was based upon the fact he is an excellent student who attended 90% of all classes, completed all lab assignments and past three important vender certification exams.

Cyber-security and network administration are areas of high demand in the field of information technology.  If you work hard and take your studies in a serious manner, a success like Michael’s will be yours.

The United States Department of Labor reports 7.8 million open jobs available for the month of March in 2019.  That’s a large number of unfilled working opportunities.  Approximately three million of the unfilled jobs are in the information technology field.  The report issued by the US Department of Labor is known as the Job openings Labor Turn Over statistics or JOLTS.

Our focus is on those three million unfilled information technology positions.  Close to 400,000 of the technical positions are in California with about 35,000 of these jobs being located in and around Los Angeles County.

The key question to ask is what fields of information technology can a new employee find a job?  The following fields will be discussed below.

Cyber-security & network administration.  Both areas report 15,000 available jobs in Los Angeles County.  The jobs are in the areas of computer technician, junior network administrator, network analyst, cyber-security specialist and Linux network administrators.

The certifications needed to qualify for these jobs include:

CompTIA A+ for computer repair

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert for network administration

Cisco Certified Network Associate to handle commercial network routers

CompTIA Network + to provide a strong overview of network server operation

CompTIA Security +, which introduces a network administrator to cyber-security

Linux fundamentals, which covers the fundamentals and use of Linux

Certified Ethical Hacker, which provides all of the tools for cyber offense and defense.

Either all or a portion of the certifications mentioned in this post will produce a solid career in either network administration or cyber-security.

Other fields producing jobs include software development.

The software development field is reporting close to 8,000 available jobs in Los Angeles.  The jobs are with both game development and application development firms.

The Son Java certification, Microsoft Certified Associate for software and a strong working knowledge of Python will bring a good job in this field. Search engine optimization and social media strategist also qualify under this category.  Companies are turning to search engine and social media experts to handle online marketing.

The database administrator field is reporting close to 8,000 available jobs.  The two dominant database certification software’s operating in Los Angeles are Microsoft and Oracle.  Oracle with its Oracle database administrator is producing the most jobs.  Most large companies including Amazon, Google, the US Department of Home Land Security and the US Department of Defense are Oracle users.

The keys to a solid career rest in the paths to vendor certification.  Companies through  legal, leasing and insurance contracts are required to only hire certified employees to work on or change equipment.  Certification takes the place of experience.

Candidates who become certified soon learn that two different planets exist in the work environment.  The non-certified world where candidates struggle for employment and the certified career planet where good jobs are plentiful.

Each person will make the best informed decision of the correct career path.  The important take away from this article is to understand that certifications hold the key to a good job in the field of information technology.

Need More Info: Contact with ABCO Technology

If you are someone who wants to hold a job as a computer repair technician, there are 11,978 open jobs in California waiting for you. This information was extracted fromIndeed.com.

Computer technicians are in demand.  All jobs require a strong ability, interest and a willingness to work.  In the profession of computer repair, companies are looking for tech savvy individuals who want to learn and enjoy fixing broken equipment.

The CompTIA A+ is the ideal certification for that person who decides to take that deep dive into a new information technology oriented career.

The CompTIA A+ is completed at ABCO Technology in six weeks.  Students who strive to complete this training are required by CompTIA to pass two exams.  These exams consists of hardware and operating systems. The hardware portion teaches the student how to build and take a computer apart.  The software portion or operating systems portion teaches the student how to install software, troubleshoot for viruses and install small networks.  The A+ exam is the perfect training for someone who enjoys being a technician.

After the student completes the training, labs and exams, they are ready to apply for a job.  The job title, which Indeed states has 11,978 job openings in California as of May 6, 2019 is the computer technician.

We went deeper in to this research and found that 5,000 of these computer technician jobs are located in Los Angeles County.

The CompTIA A+ is ideal for a graduating high school senior or a student who is in college and doesn’t feel at home.

Other types of workers who have been laid off from a job can also train and certify for the position of computer technician.

Computers need work.  They will either become infected with a virus or break down.  The person we call when these problems occur is that CompTIA A+ certified computer technician.

Publishing Duplicate Content to your website is a critical factor for building your audience and boosting your search engine page rank.

The benefits of unique and original content are twofold:

list of 2 items

1. Original content delivers a superior user experience to your audience.
2. Original content helps ensure that search engines aren’t forced to choose between multiple pages of yours that have the same content. Having to make this choice slows down the indexing process. Website owners pay for this in reduced page rank.

list end

However, when content is duplicated either accidentally or on purpose, search engines will not be duped and may penalize a site with lower search rankings

accordingly. Unfortunately, many businesses often publish repeated content without being aware that they’re doing so. This is why

auditing your site

with a duplicate content checker is so valuable in helping sites to recognize and replace such content as necessary.

This article will help you better understand what is considered duplicate content, and steps you can take to make sure it doesn’t hamper your SEO efforts.

How does Google define “duplicate content”?

Duplicate content is

described by Google

as content “within or across domains that either completely matches other content or are appreciably similar”. Content fitting this description can be

repeated either on more than one page within your site, or across different websites. Common places where this duplicate content might be hiding include

duplicated copy across landing pages or blog posts, or harder-to-detect areas such as meta descriptions that are repeated in a webpage’s code.

Duplicate content

can be produced erroneously in a number of ways, from simply reposting existing content by mistake to allowing the same page content to be accessible

via multiple URLs.

When visitors come to your page and begin reading what seems to be newly posted content only to realize they’ve read it before, that experience can reduce

their trust in your site and likeliness that they’ll seek out your content in the future. Search engines have an equally confusing experience when faced

with multiple pages with similar or identical content and often respond to the challenge by assigning lower search rankings across the board.

At the same time, there are sites that intentionally duplicate content for malicious purposes, scraping content from other sites that don’t belong to them

or duplicating content known to deliver successful SEO in an attempt to game search engine algorithms. However, most commonly, duplicated content is simply

published by mistake. There are also scenarios where republishing existing content is acceptable, such as guest blogs, syndicated content, intentional

variations on the copy, and more. These techniques should only be used in tandem with best practices that help search engines understand that this content

is being republished on purpose (described below).

SEO audit report that helps spot and rectify duplicate content

Source: Alexa.com SEO Audit

An automated duplicate content checker tool can quickly and easily help you determine where such content exists on your site, even if hidden in the site

code. Such tools should display each URL and meta description containing duplicate content so that you can methodically perform the work of addressing

these issues. While the most obvious practice is to either remove repeated content or add original copy as a replacement, there are several other approaches

you might find valuable.

How to check for duplicate content

1. Using the

rel=canonical <link> tag

These tags can tell search engines which specific URL should be viewed as the master copy of a page, thus solving any duplicate content confusion from

the search engines’ standpoint.

2. Using 301 redirects

These offer a simple and search engine-friendly method of sending visitors to the correct URL when a duplicate page needs to be removed.

Three ideas to create a high-converting product page

3. Using the “noindex” meta tags

These will simply tell search engines not to index pages, which can be advantageous in certain circumstances.

4. Using

Google’s URL Parameters tool

This tool helps you tell Google not to crawl pages with specific parameters. This might be a good solution if your site uses parameters as a way to deliver

content to the visitor that is mostly the same content with minor changes (i.e. headline changes, color changes, etc.). This tool makes it simple to let

Google know that your

duplicated content is intentional and should not be considered for SEO purposes.

Example of resolving duplication of meta tag descriptions

Source: Alexa.com SEO Audit

By actively checking your site for duplicated content and addressing any issues satisfactorily, you can improve not only the search rankings of your site’s

pages but also ensure that your site visitors are directed to fresh content that keeps them coming back for more.

Do you have any tips of how you deal with on-site content duplication? Share them in our comments section.

Further reading:

list of 4 items

■ How to optimize your local business for voice search

■ How to take advantage of the latest updates to Google Search Console

■ Buyers Guide: Enterprise SEO Tools

■ SEO case study: How Venngage turned search into their primary lead source

list end

Duplicate content is known as the silent killer of website ranking.  The suggestions in this article will help you to ensure you are not unintentionally publishing duplications, which the search engines don’t want to index.

DuckDuckGo could be your new default search engine if you want to focus on privacy and security. Here’s the experience of using   the search engine in 2019.

You might have heard of DuckDuckGo in the past? Our first class about it was  in 2016

I had class members try out the new search engine for a week.

Three years later, many things have changed. More users are losing trust in big tech companies. Online  privacy and security are more important than ever. How

does DuckDuckGo fit in this change in sentiment?

And how is the experience of switching into a new search engine different from what we’ve been using?

DuckDuckGo in numbers

search engine market share US march 2018 to 2019

Over the last few months, DuckDuckGo has seen increased media coverage. Its growing stats among a rising conversation around online privacy make it more relevant than ever.

There are more than 30 million searches happening on DuckDuckGo every day. Its data indicates a constant growth. It’s currently the fourth largest search

engine in the U.S. counting more than 1 billion searches every month all over the world.

Google is holding the reins of the market share with 88.5% of online searches traffic, Bing is following with 6.12%, Yahoo! is third with 4.11% and DuckDuckGo is forthwith

0.99% of the market share.

It clearly has a long way to go to stand out as a serious competitor in overall market share. However, it has already paved the way for a new kind of search engine that is serious about security and privacy. In fact, its mission is to set a new standard of trust online.

The search engine that doesn’t track you

duckduckgo’s homepage

One of the first things you notice when visiting DuckDuckGo, except for the search box, is the subheading “the search engine that doesn’t track you”.

DuckDuckGo was built as an alternative to Google and the large search engines that use tracking data to improve personalization. DuckDuckGo reassures its

users that they don’t store their personal information. They don’t collect or share personal data. They are not storing your search history, which means

that they are not able to sell this data to advertisers. Moreover, there’s no tracking in the private browsing mode, which sounds encouraging for everyone

who is interested in a search engine that won’t track every single search they make.

duckduckgo privacy information

What’s interesting is that DuckDuckGo wants to prove that they take privacy seriously. A click on their menu button at the homepage on ‘privacy simplified’

allows you to:

list of 4 items

■ Protect your data on every device

■ Subscribe to their Privacy Crash Course to improve your understanding of online privacy

■ Protect your devices by reading privacy guides

■ Find out more about the importance of reduced tracking

list end

Just recently, Google announced an expanded number of default search engines for users including DuckDuckGo for the first time. This was certainly a small

win for DuckDuckGo and also for people who want to focus on private searches.

It’s not surprising that more users are interested in learning more about their online privacy.

duckduckgo traffic from 2010 to 2019, now experiencing more than 30 million searches

A closer look at DuckDuckGo’s stats indicates this growing interest in security and privacy. DuckDuckGo reached 10 million searches in one day back in

2015. It managed to reach 20 million searches in October 2018. In

April 2019 it counts 38 million searches.

Making the most of DuckDuckGo

I’ve decided to try out DuckDuckGo as a class experiment after many years of using Google. The focus on online privacy along with the growing number of people switching to DuckDuckGo

made it an interesting choice.

The first impression seemed familiar. Simplicity and a minimal interface made the transition easy.

The fact that your searches are not personalized means that everyone can access the same results in a similar search. This seems to be a relief in the

common pattern of the online filter bubbles that we’re used to be part of.

search on duckduckgo for “social media trends”

Another relief was the lack of endless ads before the actual search results. I’ve been used to the series of ads before the actual search results and the

science of PPC from a professional perspective, but it was still a nice experience to find the direct results of my query. There was only one ad at the

top of the search results, which I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing a similar limit to my Google results.

duckduckgo shortcuts to other sites

In addition to these, you can also save time from your searches by making the most of DuckDuckGo’s bangs. Bangs are shortcuts that allow you to search

results on other sites. If you want to

search for “SEO”

on Search Engine Watch and you’re actually on DuckDuckGo’s homepage, all you need to do is to type ‘!search engine watch see’

There are currently more than 12k bangs so you can search any of the big sites without visiting them in a different tab.

Finding the best search results — not everything is perfect

I must admit that the lack of personalization has its pros and cons. It is obviously reassuring to feel that you’re in control of your own data. However,

you should also be prepared for the additional queries you might need to find the best results.

Forget queries like “cinemas near me” and “what’s playing”

duckduckgo query for “cinemas near me”

The search results will be the same for everyone all over the world without detailed queries that could possibly help you get more personalized results.

Moreover, the actual search cannot compete with Google’s sophisticated search. After years of serving as the biggest search engine, there is a learning

of semantics that leads to far better results compared to all other search engines.

This shouldn’t be a surprise and it should be clear when you’re jumping into DuckDuckGo that not everything will be the same.

There will also be an initial phase of learning the ropes of a new search experience, which is expected in every new tool and site.

Are these reasons enough to abandon DuckDuckGo? Not yet. It’s easy to understand that it won’t replace Google anytime soon but this doesn’t mean that it

doesn’t deserve a chance, especially if you’re serious about your online privacy when searching. I’ll personally give it a go knowing that if I can’t find

a specific result, I can still use Google. I also enjoy their curated stories around privacy on their Twitter feed so it was an easy decision to follow

them and stay up-to-date.

The choice is yours

duckduckgo query for “alternatives to google search”

The online world is changing. And we’re faced with numerous dilemmas when it comes to staying loyal to the big tech companies. As more data breaches and

scandals show up, it’s up to us to decide whether we want to keep personalization or not.

There’s no right or wrong answer.

Google is certainly enjoying the success of the big search giant with a large index and search features that keep us hooked with the numerous services we use on a daily basis. However, it’s refreshing to feel that we still have alternative options. Whether we use them or not, it’s up to us.

What’s important is to be conscious of your decision and your online privacy. The more informed we are, the better our online experience.

Vendor certification

It is a critical factor for any candidate to consider when looking for employment in the information technology industry.  The reasons why will be explained in this article.

1 In the late 1980s as technology began to change in the work place, no standards existed to properly measure the skill level for employees who applied for information technology jobs.  The new technology required countless hours of technical support.  Many employees who were hired to fill those positions in the 1980s did not have the skills necessary to maintain or properly operate the equipment.  Companies who supplied the equipment were forced to spend countless hours providing technical support.  Something had to be done to save these companies time and money.  The solution agreed upon by all vendors was to establish a body of certifications, or operating standards companies could use to determine if a candidate met a competent skill level to complete a specific job. Vendors and technical training providers including CompTIA filled the need by providing up-to-date training material for equipment and systems.

2 As certifications gained popularity, leasing and insurance companies began to take note.

3 By the early 2000s, both computer leasing companies and network insurance companies began to demand certification for equipment and systems as a condition of leasing equipment or insuring a network.

4 The certification solution worked much better than anyone expected.  Countless hours of technical support were saved.  New employees who were hired from networking, to cyber-security, for database administration and computer programming worked with greatly improved levels of skill.

5 By the year 2010, vendor certification began to challenge many college degree positions.

6 In 2018 several fortune 500 companies including IBM, Raytheon, AT&T, Electronic arts and General Motors dropped college degree requirements for many jobs, which previously required them.

7 The key certifications, which will make a difference for your career will be listed below.

A CompTIA A+ for computer or workstation repair

B Network + for server repair, back up and instillation

C Microsoft Certified Systems Expert for Microsoft Network server instillation, backup, recovery and basic security.

D Cisco Certified Network Associate to handle commercial router instillation, repair, backup and recovery.

E Linux Fundamentals to handle Linux servers for instillation, backup and recovery

F Certified Ethical Hacker, which is needed for a career in cyber-security.

G Oracle Database Administrator, which is a valuable certificate for those who want to administrate a database.

H Son Java certification, which is important for a computer programmer to have.

I Certified Internet Webmaster Associate or Professional, which will open the doors to candidates who want a webmaster or internet marketing career.

J Microsoft Office certification, which will help candidates obtain a great office job with countless firms large and small.

All of the certifications listed in this article are directly attached to a specific job category.  If you are interested in learning more details about the types of careers a certification can provide, contact ABCO Technology.  You can reach our campus between 9 A. M. and 6 P. M. Monday through Friday.  Call us today at: (310) 216-3067.

More and more businesses are preparing for voice search.

One key question facing most companies is has this knowledge actually helped them optimize  for those customers who talk into their smartphone when looking for a product or service?”

An interesting report recently released by Uberall sought to address that exact question. For as much as we talk about the importance of voice search,

and even

how to optimize for it

— are people actually doing it?

In this report, researchers analyzed 73,000 business locations (using the Boston Metro area as their sample set), across 37 different voice search directories,

as well as across SMBs, mid-market, and enterprise.

They looked at a number of factors including accuracy of address, business hours, phone number, name, website, and zip code, as well as accuracy across

various voice search directories.

In order, this was how they weighted the importance of a listing’s information:

the most important business information to optimize for voice search

Uberall analysts did note, however, that Google (search + maps), Yelp, and Bing together represent about 90% of the score’s weight.

the 37 most important voice search directories

How ready are businesses for voice search?

The ultimate question. Here, we’ll dive into a few key findings from this report.

1. Over 96% of all business locations fail to list their business information correctly

When looking just at the three primary listings locations (Google, Yelp, Bing), Overall found that only 3.82% of business locations had no critical errors.

In other words, more than 96% of all business locations failed to list their business information correctly.

Breaking down those 3.82% of perfect business location listings, they were somewhat evenly split across enterprise, mid-market, and SMB, with enterprise

having the largest share as one might expect.

only 3.82% of business locations had no critical errors, breakdown according to size

2. The four most common types of listing errors

In their analysis, here’s the breakdown of most common types of missing or incorrect information:

list of 4 items

■ Opening hours: 978,305 errors (almost half of all listings)

■ Website: 710,113 errors (almost one-third of all listings)

■ Location name: 510,010 errors (almost one-quarter of all listings)

■ Street: 421,048 errors (almost one-fifth of all listings)

list end

the most glaring business listing errors and missing data

3. Which types of businesses are most likely to be optimized for voice search?

industries that are most voice search ready

Industries that were found to be most voice search ready included:

list of 5 items

■ Dentists

■ Health food

■ Home improvement

■ Criminal attorneys

■ Dollar stores

list end

Industries that were found to be least voice search ready included:

list of 5 items

■ Consumer protection organizations

■ Congressional representatives

■ Business attorneys

■ Art galleries

■ Wedding services

list end

Not much surprise on the most-prepared industries relying heavily on people being able to find their physical locations. Perhaps a bit impressed that criminal

attorneys landed so high on the list. Surprising that art galleries ranked second to last, but

perhaps this helps explain decline in traffic of late.

And as ever, we can be expectedly disappointed by the technological savvy of congressional representatives.

What’s the cost of businesses not being optimized for voice search?

The next question, of course, is: how much should we care? Uberall spent a nice bit of their report discussing statistics about the history of voice search,

how much it’s used, and its predicted growth.

Interestingly, they also take a moment to fact check that popular “voice will be 50% of all searches by 2020” statistic. Apparently, this was taken from

an interview with Andrew Ng

(co-founder of Coursera, formerly lead at both Google Brain and Baidu) and was originally referring to the growth of a combined voice and image search,

specifically via Baidu in China.

1. On average, adults spend 10x more hours on their phones than they did in 2018

This data was compiled from a number of charts from eMarketer, showing overall increase in digital media use from 2008 to 2017 (and we can imagine is even

higher now). Specifically, we see how most all of the growth is driven just from mobile.

The connection here, of course, is that mobile devices are one of the most popular devices for voice search, second only perhaps to smart home devices.

graph daily hours spent with digital media per adult user 2008-2017

2. About 21% of respondents were using voice search every week

According to this study, 21% of respondents were using voice search every week. 57% of respondents said they never used voice search. And about 14% seem

to have tried it once or twice and not looked back.

In general, it seems people are a bit polarized — either it’s a habit or it’s not.

over the last year, how often have you used voice search?

Regardless, 21% is a sizable number of consumers (though we don’t have information about how many of those searches convert to purchases).

And it seems the number is on the rise: the

recent report from voicebot.ai

showed that smart speaker ownership grew by nearly 40% from 2018 to 2019, among US adults.

Overall, the cost of not being optimized for voice search may not be sky high yet. But at the same time, it’s probably never too soon to get your location

listings in order and provide accurate information to consumers.

You might also like:

list of 6 items

■ Voice search optimization guide: Six steps for 2019

■ Yext Brain and the future of conversational AI: Q&A with CMO Jeff Rohrs

(ClickZ)

■ What can we learn from voice search in 2018?

■ How to optimize your local business for voice search

■ Voice search and local SEO: How to get started?

■ The comprehensive guide to voice search keyword research

list end

ABCO Technology includes optimizing for voice search in its latest search engine course.  Call our campus for more information between 9 A. M. and 5 P. M.

Guideline for webmaster:

New webmasters often have difficulty finding work after they have completed training.  The reason for this problem is that   95% of new webmasters lack   the proper website skills.  This article will provide a brief summary of the employable skills a webmaster needs when they begin their search for new clients.

List of Webmaster Skills

1 writing content for a webpage. In order to write that great content, a webmaster needs a solid knowledge of HTML(5). Knowing HTML opens the door to learning more advanced programming skills.

2 Formatting a webpage so the look and feel invites customers to buy the product or service. Formatting is accomplished using CSS or cascading style sheets version III, which is in common use today.

3 Installation of  interactive software so clients can enter orders directly from your constructed website. The programming language, which accomplishes this task is JavaScript.  JavaScript is easy to learn after a knowledge of HTML(5) is mastered.

4 Implementation of images, which involves  changing the look and feel of pictures on your site. The program widely known as Photoshop accomplishes this task.

5 Using powerful templates, which will save countless hours of coding. Two important website building templates need to be mastered.  These are WordPress and Dream Weaver.

6 Social media strategy, which enables you to engage customers on all major platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn and others. A comprehensive course on social media strategy will accomplish this important learning step.

7 Search Engine optimization, which will help you get your created pages indexed at the top of your chosen category. Google has published 162 ranking signals.  A good search engine course will provide more ranking markers.

8 Project management, which instructs you how to plan a website and communicate your value to the client. Several books and articles exist on this subject.  CIW Certified has excellent material in their Certified Internet Webmasters Foundation course about project management.

9 How to bill clients, what to charge and to ensure you get paid for the work you do. A Web developer who has worked in this industry for some time is the best person to communicate these lessons.

10 Certification from CIW, which is directly owned by Oracle.  Certification opens the door so large companies can hire you to work on their insured web properties.

11 How to handle scope creep, which occurs when clients want to add extra functions after a price has been agreed upon. A web developer who has been practicing this craft will provide information about how to handle this problem.

12 You will build at least three sites to ensure you have a portfolio of designs before you contact your first client. Practice makes perfect.  A good school will ensure you have a portfolio of websites built before you hit the pavement.

ABCO Technology teaches the skills outlined in this article.  Call our campus today to learn more about the Certified Internet Webmaster course.

ABCO Technology offers a comprehensive curriculum for software development. 

We offer this course because in Los Angeles, approximately 10,000 jobs are available for software developers.  In Los Angeles, companies including Electronic Arts and Teen-Safe are constantly looking for candidates who have software development skills. Facebook, Google and Yahoo have offices in Los Angeles where people with software development skills can find employment.

Jobs are available in application development, game development and web page development both on the front and back ends.

The curriculum proposed by ABCO Technology includes the following classes.

1 We begin learning the craft of programming with HTML(5), which is used to write content on web pages.

2 The next step is to learn cascading style sheets or CSS, which is used to format or change the look and feel of a web page.

3 The student after learning CSS is introduced to JavaScript, which is used to input data to forms.

4 The next area of this curriculum teaches Python, which provides the best foundation for learning Java.  Many computer games are designed in Python.

5 After Python, the student learns Son Java.  Son java is used to write applications for all Android phones.

6 The last part of this curriculum is to learn the Android operating system.

7 Along the way, students will become certified in Java, which will open the door to many jobs at large companies.

ABCO Technology’s Software program is completed in 7 months.  Job placement assistance is available.

If financial aid is needed, it’s available to all students who qualify for funding.

Information technology jobs

Smart cities, which Los Angeles is in the lead are creating countless new information technology jobs.  Los Angeles for example, through its artificial intelligence efforts is creating 20,000 new information technology jobs for 2019.

Smart cities—municipalities that use data and technology, such as IoT, to connect city resources and enhance the lives of its citizens—are popping up all

over the world, and for good reason.

According to a McKinsey research

report,

the smart city industry is expected to skyrocket to $400 billion by 2020, and by 2025, 600 cities around the globe are projected to generate 60 percent

of the world’s GDP. In the U.S., this is due, at least in part, to the

$160 million

federal grant signed by the Obama Administration in 2015 to help foster smart city development.

One of those standout cities is Los Angeles. The second largest American metropolis, the City of Los Angeles is committed to using IoT to boost environmental

awareness, livability, and mobility. As a founding partner of the

Intelligent IoT Integrator I3 consortium

with USC and other major tech companies, the city has taken a leadership role across many fronts in the smart city landscape.

Seeing (and Counting) Green

For the last two consecutive years, Government Technology Magazine named Los Angeles

the #1 Digital City in the U.S.

at the annual League of Cities conference for city mayors and council members. The city’s initiatives apply IoT to improving its citizens’ safety and

lifestyle, the environment, and saving people time.

Los Angeles’

Internet of Trees

project, for example, a collaboration with Google and Caltech, uses a machine learning (ML) algorithm to identify and count the city’s trees and helps

city officials better understand its urban forestation inventory (currently around 700,000 trees scattered over 469 square miles). The intention is not

only to maintain the health of the current green space, but also to expand it over time.

“How you manage and maintain that urban forest is extremely important,” said Ted Ross, the city of Los Angeles’s CIO in the mayor’s office. “Trees remind

us of what was here before all the buildings were here. So when you live in a dense urban environment, trees are our connection to nature and the natural

world. Besides, they beautify and purify the environment.”

The question of whether the city can increase the amount of land devoted to parks, community gardens, and more trees, comes down to smart technology. Today,

Los Angeles has over

1,500 intelligent signal controllers

on its traffic lights, allowing the city to improve safety by illuminating crosswalks and adding specific signals for bicycle traffic. The technology

is expected to address traffic flow, decrease emissions and eventually, according to Ross, communicate with driverless vehicles.

“When you have a city with a large urban environment like Los Angeles, you have many competing forces,” Ross explained. “We look toward the improvement

in technology, such as the autonomous vehicle, which allows us to reimagine the cityscape to reduce the number of car lanes and promote bicycles and alternative

methods of mobility.”

By minimizing the volume of vehicles on the road, Ross forecasted a change in urban landscape, particularly for parking. As demand for parking declines,

traffic created by drivers looking for parking spots will go down too, and the city can identify opportunities to install more green spaces.

Machine Talking

Located on an earthquake fault-line, Los Angeles is hyper-vigilant about how to protect its citizens from this type of natural disaster. To quell fears,

the city plans to launch an earthquake early warning app, called

Quake Alert,

for smartphone users.

Based on

earlier findings,

the city knows there is a 12- to 60-second window (depending on the epicenter) to warn residents before an earthquake hits. According to Ross, 420 IoT

sensors — internet-connected seismometers, to be specific — measure the shaking which travels through the earth at the speed of sound. By sensing the shaking

at the epicenter and transmitting the signal through communication networks (operating at the speed of light), that data is sent to servers that rapidly

run through complex algorithms to identify the earthquake’s epicenter, the estimated magnitude, and the expected area of impact. From there, a message

can be sent to all app users that varies depending on their location.

Since approximately

80 percent

of urban and suburban Americans own a smartphone, many Angelinos could, through this technology, be warned to drop and take cover in the case of an earthquake.

But Ross said the true beauty of this IoT endeavor lies in its

machine-to-machine

application. “We [can] start a conversation with vendors who can shut off your gas,” said Ross, “since the majority of damage from earthquakes comes from

fire.”

Ross anticipates many powerful use cases for the upcoming app. For example, the application also has an API that connects to factories that can shut down

the production line. Hospitals, too, could be warned to move patients safely in the middle of surgery, and elevators could stop at the next floor to let

people out safely. In these machine-to-machine scenarios, data from servers originating from the U.S. Geological Survey speedily transmits information

to networks and servers to public and private institutions participating in the program.

With $5 million dedicated toward investment in earthquake sensors, the city plans to unveil this transformative project by the year’s end. What’s more,

data from the project’s sensors, implanted across Southern California, will feed into the U.S. Geological Survey.

“We now have a powerful IoT use case,” Ross said. “We can take sensor data and move it quickly over the network to smartphones, and even machine-to-machine.”

With safety on its mind, leaders in Los Angeles are already envisioning new ways IoT can make the city more environmentally sustainable, safe, and equitable.

And with smart cities set to save enterprises, governments, and people over

$5 trillion

annually by 2022, this city is only one example of the way government municipalities can transform the world.

If you want to join the smart city technical revolution, call ABCO Technology at: (310) 216-3067.  You can reach our campus from 9 A. M.  to 6 P. M. Monday through Friday.  We have five major training programs, which will help you compete for jobs in the smart city environment.  Financial aid is available to all who qualify.