Today in Tech: BBC's Mark Thompson; Analytics & Replacing stuff with information

BBC, Mark Thompson and the digital push

The outgoing BBC head moving to New York Times as CEO might not appear to be a news for this blog, but Mark Thompson will be remembered most for the big digital push he gave to BBC. It became evident in its coverage of London Olympic Games. From India, it was not possible to see the extent to which BBC went in covering the events. But, I spoke to a few friends who experienced it in UK and they were amazed at the way they could keep track of the events irrespective of where they were. They caught the games on TV, on their mobiles and iPads. When BBC looked at the data after the event, that's pretty much what they found too across the country. "An analysis by the BBC of the nation’s viewing habits concluded that people kept track of the action throughout the day, from using the PC while at work to settling down with their iPads as they went to bed," Telegraph reported.  If you think about it, Olympics merely threw a spotlight on how we consume information everyday. We are not merely newspaper readers, or television audience, or netizens - we are all of these rolled into one. And we will be as willing to know something new if someone is shouting it out in a marketplace as we would be to get it through, say, Google Glasses. Mark Thompson understood this, and pushed the organisation towards this new digital world. Thompson had a big advantage while he was at BBC: there was a guatanteed cash flow. New York Times doesn't have that advantage. It will be a closely watched second act.

Here's a good interview with Mark Thompson by Charlie Rose

Analytics - where are the people?

Business Standard has a story on Mu Sigma, a data analytics firm with a $100 million revenues and an offshore presence in India. Its recruitment process - which includes a four part interview and a three part training programme - not only highlights differences between what a traditional IT services company looks for and what an analytics firm looks for in a candidate but also the kind of investment that needs to go into training. IT Services companies invest a lot on training too. Infosys has a huge training centre in Mysore. Even its competitors heap praise on it. But, education system has more or less adapted to growth of software sector, thanks in part to the intense lobbying and support from the IT companies themselves. But big data and analytics demand a different set of skills. As far as I know, only a couple of educational institutions have designed programmes specifically for this. By all indicators, the business is set to grow, and so will the demand for people. It will be interesting to see how the ecosystem evolves for this emerging technology.

Replacing stuff with information

Two news items - one on Cisco's margins getting threatened by software helping data traffic with fewer switches and routers and the other on how some companies are using analytics and IT to boost battery life - underline not just the capabilities of software, but a very critical approach to problem solving.

At his creative thinking workshops, Edward de Bono, likes to provoke the participants into thinking hard by giving problems such as: 'what if an aircraft lands upside down', or 'what if cars have square wheels'. Questions like these lead to interesting solutions. For example, thinking about cars with square wheels forced a researcher to think of a better suspension system.

Again, product companies that started to think of themselves as services companies started seeing more revenue opportunities. In this 1997 interview to HBR, Monsanto's Robert Shapiro spoke about  the advantages of 'replacing stuff with information'

Finding solutions in software for problems in hardware is essentially that, and could open up new opportunities. If you know of companies that are doing us, let us know.

Also of interest:

• Google pledges $2 million in prizes to hackers who exploit Chrome: Arstechnica
• Khan Academy launches computer science course.  (via Fast Company)
• Scientists develop 'bionic eye' that could restore sight to the blind: Business Insider
• Two weeks after launch, Outlook.com obtains over 10 million users: The Verge
• Microsoft's Surface Rumored To Cost Only $199: Forbes
• IT workers prefer the office to working remotely: ZDNet

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.