Friday, June 03, 2011

Ideas and Innovation

In the tail of the Government's National Digital Economy Strategy launch comes an ad for an Economist conference Information: Making sense of the deluge.

This is part of their series on the Ideas Economy. The conference is described as;

The world now contains unimaginably vast amounts of digital information, which is growing exponentially. The era of big data presents incredible opportunities—smarter cities, stronger companies, faster medicine—but just as many challenges. Storage is scarce, systems overloaded and governments and businesses know too much.

Managed well, data can be used to unlock new sources of economic value, provide fresh insights into science and hold governments to account. Managed poorly, it can cause great harm.

Ideas Economy: Information will tackle these issues and more. It will examine the data revolution from a range of perspectives, seeking solutions to big problems. The event will bring together theorists, strategists, and innovators who understand how to harness data to create value and advance individual, corporate, and social good.


There are two aspects of this conference that I particularly like.

The first is focussing on the Digital Economy as a problem not a promise....there are choices to be made here, not just a nirvana to be reached by peddling faster (I plan to write more on this shortly).

The second is that the conference looks like it is structured to have speakers and discussants - that is, there is real engagement with the ideas not just a blurting forth of positions. The Communications Alliance Broadband and Beyond series could benefit from this approach.

Anyhow, I'd like to know if ANY Australian is proposing to attend the conference in the US. If not, is anyone in my wider circle able to provide feedback.





Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est

No comments: