 |
| UKTI event at the Residence of the British Ambassador in Paris |
On 19th March, I attended a very informative event at the Residence of the British Ambassador in Paris entitled:
"How Big
Data and Analytics are Energising Economic Growth - Accelerating Innovation,
Building Trust, Powering Performance".
UKTI's Lyon-based team planned the programme to explore the business,
social and technical challenges created by Big Data and analytics.
Sir Peter Ricketts, the British Ambassador to France, opened the day's
proceedings and underlined how both Britain and France are at the forefront in
the field.
The day comprised of 4 panel discussions in the morning and a series of
roundtables in the afternoon. The event was very successfully chaired by David
Reed of DataIQ and involved a well-selected blend of knowledgeable UK and
French panel speakers and roundtable hosts.
The 4V's
In his introduction, David Reed referred to the 4V's of Big Data:
· Velocity
· Volume
· Variety
· Veracity
He stressed the pace of change and the importance of unlocking the value in data. Unstructured data is of
no value whatsoever. We need to work out how to structure it. A new skillset
will be required.
Female caution
There were many knowledgeable female panellists. It was generally the
women who raised the main notes of caution and ethics in this new Big Data
"gold rush".
The event covered so much ground that it is impossible to do the subject
justice in a single blog. My main takeaways are summarised below:
1. Infrastructure will be key
Structuring huge amounts of data will be power-hungry.
2. Doubts over ability of
mature cities to expand
Global Switch datacenters commented that most mature cities are
struggling with ageing infrastructures. No additional capacity in London; tough
situation in Paris. You need a window of 3-5 years to get a reliable new
electricity supply. (Major financial centres cannot afford to lose even a day's
trading or want to risk resorting to back-up systems).
3. Structuring data
Data needs to be structured and segmented to unlock value for different
demographics, locations and requirements.
4. Right "TechCity"
location
Four key factors:
(i) TechCities need to be sited near universities producing graduates with
the right skills from data science courses with very current industry relevance.
(ii) Access to local staff with technical know-how (examples of
Barcelona, Toulouse and Montpellier given).
(iii) A supportive local Government
(iv) Must meet demanding bandwidth requirements (rural areas should not
be excluded. Reverse of UK trend to live in countryside in France).
4. Verifiable identity and
privacy
The ability currently exists to identify more than 50% of the world's population.
It was suggested that identifying the remaining 50% could be achieved within 5
years. Accessed via worldwide agreements, but dangers and concerns exist over
privacy.
5. Consumer at the heart of
regulation
Concern for the consumer needs to be at the heart of regulation. Only
the right people should have access to given data. Access rights need careful
segmentation.
6. Standards and good
governance
Standards are important - ISO/IEC 27001: Information
security management.
Significant numbers of organisations
are simply not doing enough on security protocols.
7. Data security breaches
US requires that data security breaches are reported within 72 hours.
Most companies do not realise that they have been attacked for 200 days. The
average cybercriminal only needs one day to succeed. In 69% of cases, a cyberattack
is detected by third parties - usually the customer with a fraud on his
account.
8. Hacking of health and
medical data
Major and powerful pharmaceutical companies are very keen to access data
relating to medicines. There is a major concern about the security of medical
data. Credit card details can be changed. Medical data cannot be changed if
hacked. French example given of hacked blood tests with extortion demands.
9. Potential role of
innovation centres
Example of TUBA in Lyon to capture local ideas. Aim for a bottom-up
rather than top-down approach. Success of the Lyon scheme should be unveiled in
October 2015.
10. SMEs for innovation
There is concern over private sector involvement in research. Often
findings do not make it into the public domain. Innovation needs to happen with
SMEs. Is FrenchTech competitive approach one to be copied? Tech clusters
already exist around the UK.
What next?
UKTI hopes to build a UK/French collaborative business campaign around
the Information Economy. Plans are already afoot in Big Data and IoT. The new Eurostars
scheme may offer French and British SMEs opportunities to collaborate.
Karen Andrews runs
Anglicity Ltd. She is a
If you would appreciate help with your technical communications, email karen@anglicity.com or call Karen on +44 (0)20 8581 9369.
Anglicity Ltd. She is a
technical writer and
translator with over
15 years' marketing
experience. Anglicity offers
marketing consultancy and
content marketing with a
particular focus on innovation.
No comments:
Post a Comment