I am honored to have been asked to speak at this year’s Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference in Grand Rapids, MI on April 16. I also excited to be able to give my talk entitled “Sailing on the Ocean of 1′s and 0′s” covering what I think is a huge topic that most technologists do not see or understand: the lack of great tools to validate, analyze, visualize, store, and curate the huge amount of data Scientists and Information Workers in the world create.

Did you know that most radio telescopes collect multiple petabytes of data each day and most of that data is lost since we do not have the storage or tools to work with such large amounts created so fast? What other data is being lost or cannot be curated that would be a value to business, science or medicine?

Abstract

When the development of theory out-paces data, Researchers and Information Workers often find that new ideas cannot be tested for lack of tools or technology. Researchers in active areas of science in addition to corporate Information Workers face a different challenge: Gathering data is so easy and quick that it exceeds our capacity to validate, analyze, visualize, store, and curate the information. This talk addresses this challenge and the opportunity it presents.

We as technologists, software engineers and database experts need to recognize these new challenges and allow researchers and Information Workers to facilitate what we might call open source innovation, in which advances have a sociotechnical component. Individual labs and projects will routinely reach beyond their walls, and organizations will strive to create and sustain collaborative, distributed networks of investigators. In this talk we will look at what are the challenges and possible paths that can lead to fostering innovation that will be needed as a core organizational value.

The Fourth Paradigm book which the talk will draw from is dedicated to and reflects the vision of the late Jim Gray of Microsoft Research, who envisioned a world of scholarly resources text, databases, and any other associated materials that were seamlessly navigable and interoperable. Gray loved sailing. Sailors, of course, guide a vessel by reacting to the nearest swell and wave. But the ocean also affords a chance to scan the horizon in anticipation of the future, to see what’s ahead and imagine what’s just out of view. The talk will give attendees a glimpse of the horizon for all technologists and, at their best, a peek at what lies beyond. It’s a journey well worth taking.