Monthly Archives: April 2017

Big Data: Separating Hype from Reality.

Brett MacLaren – Vice president, Enterprise analytics of Sharp HealthCare writing in CIOReview documents the complexities involved in the adaption of Big Data in his attempt to separate the hype from reality   created among with executive boardrooms. As according to Brett MacLaren  data  has enormous business value and helps enterprises embark on the digital transformation of their enterprises.

As Brett MacLaren puts it, this journey from analog processes and workflows to digital domain starts quite simply with enterprises using the data created in all its attributes to derive business advantage leading to data- driven decision making and this adaption is successful in a few limited and much published cases where the companies are digital from the start helped by massive investments in enabling technologies and human resources adept in leveraging them.

The challenge for most other enterprises is not only to invest in tools and hardware which vendors claim to be proficient in  ROI but to get people who can leverage these tools and deliver value, and most critically this should happen when the enterprise is focused  the meeting the existing business demands. The compulsion to juggle these two crucial activities becomes too demanding for many of the enterprises. And to realize the promise of Big Data enterprises should work on solutions involving several critical components some technological along with one critical aspect – corporate culture.

When it comes to addressing the role of corporate culture in harnessing the benefits of Big Data, Brett MacLaren suggests creation of a high profile leadership position to lead the enterprises thrust to data reorganization. The mandate for this leadership which many enterprises designate as Chief data Officer is to drive home the business value of data and be the pivotal point between business and IT and helping both to recognize the strategic role of data.

Enterprises hoping to realize the benefits of Big Data must spread the culture of data awareness and data competency across enterprise. Big Data and other related tools and technologies are clearly cutting edge and are kind of starting points for adaption of machine learning, deep learning and other parallel processes that can deliver tremendous value to enterprises by bringing the data to the point of decision making.

For more, please visit: http://bigdata.cioreview.com/cxoinsight/big-data-separating-the-hype-from-reality-in-corporate-culture-nid-24174-cid-15.html

Are we ready for Augmented Intelligence?

The recent article by Hannah Williams in CBRonline.com – portal delivering news, reports and analysis on global technology industry, makes for interesting reading,  it reports on how two technologies which many consider to be in their infancy is coming together to create a new class of technology -  Artificial Sensors. This development is a consequence of two technologies namely IoT and Artificial Intelligence spinning off innovations in various industries which in turn is pushing technologists to seek newer horizons.

In this article, Hannah Williams documents the keynote address of Neil Harbisson – artist and cyborg activist at the annual SAS global forum, in this address Neil Harbisson deliberates on the cyborg project which made possible the development of artificial sensors which were then implanted in humans to transmit senses.

This project started with Neil Harbisson himself getting implanted with  antennae in the skull to overcome his inability to identify color, this antennae enabled him to hear the frequencies of light in colors.  As Neil elaborates in his address his aim was not to wear or use technology which propelled him to go for a new sensory organ, a sensory organ to sense color, a third eye for color implanted, but then this would have limited his perception of color to what was in front of him. Observing nature made him to create a antennae limited for color perception which enabled to sense colors both in the front and behind just by moving the antennae. This antennae along with its ability to perceive colors was also developed with a feature to send internet transmissions to Neil Harbisson‘s brain facilitating him to receive color from external devices from around the world.

As Neil tells in his address, he sees this as a use of internet as a sense organ or a sensory extension which he feels  will become more prevalent in 2020′s and  the internet  will not limited to be used only as a tool or   for communication but also as an extension of senses to perceive colors and other bodies.

And as with everything else nowadays, the aspect of security is one big questions for which answers need to be found since according to Gartner study, 25% of security attacks in enterprises will be from IoTs and as another HP study discovered an average IoT device has around 25 security flaws most of which the enterprises and users are unaware of. And with internet connected sensory devices built to be implanted in human bodies the security fears raises to different level altogether.

Hannah William in this article cites another example of attempt to merge technology with human brain, this one coming from Elon Musk of Tesla fame, launching a company – Neuralink, where the focus is on the development of neural lace with embedding of string of small electrodes in human brain. The company is working on the concept of merging human brain with computer technology.

Accompanying these examples of artificial  sensory  devices , is the concern about security , since internet as a stand- alone is not secure and how can one be sure when it is paired with human brain.

For more on this please visit  : http://www.cbronline.com/news/internet-of-things/cognitive-computing/rise-cyborg-ready-augmented-humans/