Today I participated in the inaugural meeting of the Chief Data Officers Community in the Fourth Industrial Revolution of the World Economic Forum in San Francisco.
Here’s how they framed the workshop:
Data is often recognized as the fundamental fuel
for development and innovation that can propel
change in society. Yet, discussion about the
innovative uses of data is often limited to ensuring
regulatory compliance and the restriction of global
data flows.
Data is a means to an end and not an end in itself.
It needs to be more effectively used to deliver
impact and shared outcomes, particularly in the
domains of environmental sustainability, public
health, freedom of mobility and access to
knowledge.
This workshop will bring together professionals
responsible for the trustworthy and innovative use
of data within their organization to create a
community focused on using data to deliver
positive social change. The near-term goal of the
workshop is for participants to share their top datarelated
challenges, identify how they have
operationally addressed them, and provide
insights on their approaches for balancing
competing risks and benefits in the optimal use of
data. The intent is for this community to evolve
and play an active role in developing consensus
frameworks and guiding real-world pilots through
the complexities of public-private data
collaboration.
