IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

• Connected networks of sensors and communication devices make management of resources and services more efficient and effective
• Cities are adopting advanced technologies and innovative approaches to urban planning and management

At some new subway stations in Beijing, Guangzhou and a number of other Chinese cities, people no longer need to swipe a card or scan their phone to catch a train. The gate opens following a quick scan of their face, with the process taking less than two seconds.

“Big Data has almost got to the point where the term puts people off,” admits Vivek Puthucode, General Manager of Public Services, Asia Pacific Japan, SAP. “So it is really important to focus on the immense opportunity, using technology that’s available today, to share information within and between agencies and significantly improve their operational decision-making.”

Some businesses are now starting to take big data more seriously, while others have still barely heard of the two words in the same sentence. There's a schism developing between the data haves and have nots, and that will soon translate into commercial success for the early adopters, and a missed opportunity for the laggards.

These are some of the findings from Computing's latest research into the topic, in preparation for the Big Data and Analytics Summit on the 17 March.

Many organisations are continuing to struggle with major recruitment gaps in their big data skillsets. While the very largest and best known firms attract the top candidates, most are finding it almost impossible to find appropriately skilled staff.

This is one of the findings of Computing's latest research into big data, which will be revealed at the upcoming Big Data and Analytics Summit at the Hilton Tower Bridge in central London on 17 March.

Yet, no matter what the industry, creating the type of intelligent discovery environment required to generate competitive advantage from big data is often less than straightforward.

While in most instances, traditional analytics and methodologies are fairly robust, in big data projects, the introduction of new analytics technologies will inevitably create a learning curve. In many cases, this is compounded by the use of previously unfamiliar open source data storage tools such as Hadoop that historically have never existed in the organisation.

Alibaba signed a framework agreement with the Provincial Government of Guizhou on April 17 to use the province as its industrial base for the development of cloud computing and big data.

Speaking to over a hundred senior IT decision makers from some of Asia’s fastest growing cities, Quek highlighted how GIS technology is the glue of Big Data for city planning.

Big data is the big buzzword these days. Big data refers to a collection of data sets or information too large and complex to be processed by standard tools. It is the art and science of combining enterprise data, social data and machine data to derive new insights, which it otherwise would not be possible to derive. It is also about combining past data with real time data to predict or suggest outcomes in a current or future context.

The digital footprint is progressively expanding world over, into fragmented mediums (blogs, tweets, reviews etc.) and technologies (mobile, web, cloud/SaaS etc.).

The growing needs of a rapidly urbanizing world had already ensured that technology takes centre stage. However, an important outcome of the COVID – 19 outbreak is the realization of how much of a significant role technology is set to play in the overall progress of a nation. Due to the global pandemic, the accelerated adoption of technology has become the writing on the wall, clear to economies across the world highly impacted by its advent and in its aftermath. The completely unprecedented unexpected crisis threw the world off-kilter awakening the need to have a digital universe in place that can withstand and weather any such future challenges while protecting the socio-economic factors.

Recent times have witnessed an explosion of data as users started leaving a huge data footprint everywhere they go. Interestingly, this period has seen a phenomenal increase in computing power couple by a drop in costs of storage. India is now sitting on the data so generated and subjecting it to data analytics for uses in various sectors like insurance, education, healthcare, governance, so on and so forth.

According to Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), in 2015, the Government of Narendra Modi launched Digital India Programme to ensure availability of government services to citizens electronically by improving online infrastructure and Internet connectivity.

Over the last few years, India has travelled the path of rapid digitalization. Not only has the current crisis failed to stop this process, on the contrary, it has served to accelerate it in many areas and make some trends more evident.

Government efforts, active work of India’s business and joint steps undertaken by India’s public bodies and private entrepreneurs who are equally cognizant of the digital transformation’s significance, difficulties and prospects for India’s economy and society as a whole have advanced the process of shaping India’s new digital realities.

The Indian government has been proactively taking initiatives to boost big data education in India. Taking cognizance of the imperativeness of big data, the Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Education have taken relevant steps that can foster big data and artificial intelligence in higher education. These steps have been formulated to sustain and accelerate the digital transformation process across India. Meanwhile, several initiatives have been started, to support the education of big data and data analytics.

The Ministry of Science and Technology under the Big Data Initiatives Division has started a Big Data Initiatives Programme, under which financial aid will be provided to support the research and development of big data across India. Financial aid will also be provided for support to establish a Center for Excellence in Big data analytics, predictive technologies, cybersecurity, etc. Additionally, the programme supports national level conferences/workshops/seminars/brainstorming sessions, etc financially and will support the In-house programmes for Faculty and UG/PG/Doctoral students. The programme focuses to enhance the 5V i.e. Volume, Velocity, Variety, Value and Veracity, of big data education amongst students.

Setiaji shared with over 100 city leaders at the Summit how Jakarta is using open government and Big Data to help its city managers make more informed decisions. HackJakarta, which Setiaji is leading, is the first time that the city is opening up over 50 datasets in machine readable format and a crucial initiative as Indonesia is co-chairing the Open Government Partnership.

Building on cloud computing to provide Big Data services, the International Telecommunications Union, ITU, members have approved the first ITU standard on Big Data.

Big Data is a paradigm for enabling the collection, storage, management, analysis and visualization, potentially under real-time constraints, of extensive datasets with heterogeneous characteristics.

Lab testing whether social media data can be used to gauge the public mood on tax, flooding.

Malaysia today officially launched a government lab to analyse data from across agencies and to test new ways of using the data to improve public services.

The Digital Government Lab will “facilitate various ministries and agencies to have a greater level of analytics of the collected data, in strict adherence to the government’s data security, integrity and sovereignty guidelines”, said Datuk Abdul Wahab Abdullah, Chief Executive of MIMOS, the country’s national ICT research agency.

Speaking to over 100 city leaders across Asia Pacific, Sjostrom highlights the three phases cities generally undergo in leveraging technology to transform citizens’ lives and solve urban challenges.

The Communications And Multimedia Ministry (KKMM) is committed to ensure the development and comprehensive use of the big data in the country to enhance the government's ability to provide best service to the people.

Deputy secretary-general (operations), Datuk Dr Mohd Ali Mohamad Nor said the government''s ability, especially in decision-making based on facts and information, could also be enhanced with the implementation of the big data pilot project.

Centre to develop and test ideas for government, commercial use.

Malaysia has signed a new deal with a private sector analytics firm to help achieve its goal of becoming a regional Big Data hub.

The Malaysian Development Corporation (MDeC) and SAS have signed an agreement to set up a Centre of Excellence that will build and test Big Data proofs of concepts for government and commercial use.

Using the Personal Genome Project (PGP) as an example, Leonard illustrates how complete anonymity is a required ‘sacrifice’ to participate in the Big Data community.

In an effort to effectively reach the initiative's objectives, the ITA has launched the 'Big Data Idea' to encourage the public to make use of this online data and to exploit the potential to generate new businesses and stimulate growth.