How Big Data Will Change East Coast Industries: Q&A with Alec Ross
Atlantic Canada’s economy was built on a foundation of industries like fishing, agriculture and forestry. But as we shift into a global and digital world, the future of those industries often seems uncertain.
But Alec Ross doesn’t think it has to be that way. He believes that by embracing big data, industries everywhere can continue to evolve. He might know, since he’s one of America’s leading experts on innovation and the author The Industries of the Future. He worked for four years as senior advisor for innovation to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and continues to advise investors, corporations and government leaders on the topic.
Luckily for us, he’s also giving a keynote address at the Big Data Congress taking place Oct. 17 to Oct. 19 in Saint John.
Huddle had a chat with Ross about how big data is changing our society and how it can help move old industries into a new age.
Q: Can you tell us a little about what you plan to talk about at the Big Data Congress?
A: The key thesis of my talk – it’s sort of a “big picture talk” – is that land was the material of the agricultural age, iron was the raw material of the industrial age and data is the raw material of the information age. Therefore, it’s the basis for the creation of the industry and the businesses of the future.
I really want to at once recognize the degree to which data analytics has transformed industries and information and communications, but then look out a little bit farther and say “alright, beyond those industries that we know that have been transformed by data analytics, what are some of industries that are really going to be shaped over the next 10 years by data analytics?” Ranging from agriculture, to mechanics and machinery, to a lot old economy businesses and industries being made new through the application of big data analytics.
Q: Can you describe some of the changes you see Big Data bringing to some of these more traditional industries in next 10 years?
A: Absolutely, I’ll use agriculture as an example. We are very quickly moving from a world with 7.2 billion people to a world of 9 billion people. Given the mass of that, if we do not produce 80 per cent more food, the world is going to grow ever hungrier. This at a time when water is becoming a more scarce resource.
The best solution in the face of that challenge is the application of new data analytics tools to completely transform agriculture, in the same way in which the green revolution did after WWII and literally added inches of height to bodies and decades to lives. I think the revolution brought on by big data to agriculture is going to have the biggest impact on agriculture since the revolution 70 years ago.
I’m also going to talk about the impact of big data in artificial intelligence, machine learning and in robotics. I think the robots of the cartoons and movies of the 1970’s are going to be the reality of the 2020’s. That’s because of a combination of cloud computing and big data. So I will also focus on a bit on artificial intelligence and about the promise and peril that it brings forward.
Speaking of promise and peril, one of the things I will be talking about is the responsibility that big data brings. Most people who research and write about big data do so in one of two frames. Either it’s utopian or [dystopian.] My perspective is a little more of the middle. I do think the application of big data to the industries of the future will inevitably make our lives better, but I also think that this calls for a whole lot of responsibilities and I’m going to speak to what some of the responsibilities should be and how we can arrive at policy frameworks and norms for the variants of data so we can maximize the positive aspects of it and minimize its negative externalities.
Q: What do we as a society need to do in order to prepare for and adapt to these huge changes big data will bring?
A: The first thing is to shape the norm, the same way in which land was regulated during the agricultural age and how industry was regulated during the industrial age. We need to make sure that however we regulate data practices facilitates economic growth in a way that doesn’t fundamentally undermine our rights.
I really thing there are four legs to this stool. I think there are four stakeholder groups that are most important in creating these norms. One is government, two is the private sector, three is academia and four is civil society. In the same way these four stakeholder groups really set the norms for Internet governance, they too I think are ideally suited to setting the norms for best practices in data.
Q: What are some of the challenges that could arise when trying figure how to regulate big data?
A: I think there are different incentives. The private sector has a incentive towards profit. Government has an incentive towards control. Civil society has an incentive toward maximizing rights irrespective of market forces and academia is interested in writing about it. They are coming from distinctly different perspectives and they’re going to measure success and wellbeing differently. So finding the common ground I think is really important.
Q: Do you have any thoughts on how businesses can adapt and profit from advances in big data?
A: I think that every business needs to have a data strategy. I don’t care if you’re a carpenter who makes chairs by hand. You should still have a data strategy for how you identify the people to whom you’re going to sell those chairs. You still should have a data strategy to figure out how you do price optimization. You should still have a data strategy to measure the quality of materials you are forging from the forest.
I really don’t care what you do for a living, there should be a data analytics component to it.
Q: I’m not sure how familiar you are with Atlantic Canada or New Brunswick, but we’re a region built on traditional industries like forestry and agriculture. Why do you think it’s important for a region like ours to start leveraging big data’s potential now?
A: Because it’s a way to maintain a way of life and it’s a way to preserve centuries old industries in a world that is growing evermore digital. It feels like agriculture can thrive if they modernize with the times and that doesn’t necessarily mean diminishing or demeaning what’s been done in the past, it simply means the oldest professions and the oldest industries remain resilient for the next 50 years if they just put the new tools in their toolbox.
I view data analytics as just the new set of tools to put in the toolbox. In the same way in which the creation of the internal combustion engine revolutionized farming, so too does data analytics. It’s just one more powerful tool that can be used by people in centuries old industries.
The choice of whether you use data analytics or not is like the choice of whether or not to use farming machines with engines in them after the invention of the internal combustion engine. Imagine if you said “no no no, we’re not going to plow our felids using tractors with engines in them. We’re just going to use mules or cattle with old harvesters behind them.”
This is the next step, this is the revolution in old industry.
Q: What’s the one thing you hope people take away from your keynote address at the big data congress?
A: That this isn’t scary stuff, that it’s doable. You don’t have to be a computer coder or a”techie” to able to use these tools and services for your business. You don’t have to be a computer coder to use these tools anymore than you don’t have to able to build your own engine from scratch to be able to use a machine with an engine on a farm field.