IBM Opens Advanced Analytics Center in Washington, D.C.
IBM announced the opening of the sixth in a network of analytics solution centers - this one dedicated to helping federal agencies and other public sector organizations extract actionable insights from their data.
The new IBM Analytics Solution Center in Washington, D.C., will draw on the expertise of more than 400 IBM professionals. These will include IBM researchers, experts in advanced software platforms, and consultants with deep industry knowledge in areas such as transportation, social services, public safety, customs and border management, revenue management, defense, logistics, healthcare and education
The emergence of new smarter systems which are interconnected and streaming real time information are presenting business and governments with a unique opportunity to transform decision making. New opportunities to use this data to predict business outcomes, optimize old systems and spot trends before they happen are actually a reality. IBM’s new service line, IBM Business Analytics and Optimization Services will draw on the company’s deep expertise in vertical industries, research, mathematics and information management to help clients both improve the speed and quality of business decisions while better understanding the consequences and business outcomes of those decisions.
See the Interactive Press Kit
Editor’s note: The following guest post is by Tim O’Reilly, the founder and CEO of computer book publisher O’Reilly Media and a conference organizer. O’Reilly coined the term Web 2.0 five years ago. Now he is arguing it is time for Gov 2.0, and has helped organize a summit next week to talk about what that might mean.
…But as with Web 2.0, the real secret of success in Government 2.0 is thinking about government as a platform. If there’s one thing we learn from the technology industry, it’s that every big winner has been a platform company: someone whose success has enabled others, who’ve built on their work and multiplied its impact. Microsoft put “a PC on every desk and in every home,” the internet connected those PCs, Google enabled a generation of ad-supported startups, Apple turned the phone market upside down by letting developers loose to invent applications no phone company would ever have thought of. In each case, the platform provider raised the bar, and created opportunities for others to exploit. There are signs that government is starting to adopt this kind of platform thinking. Behind Federal CIO Vivek Kundra’s data.gov site is the idea that government agencies shouldn’t just provide web sites, they should provide web services. These services, in effect, become the government’s SDK (software development kit).
via Techcrunch
Many districts receiving these funds are looking beyond simply equipping classrooms with the latest gadgetry, such as Smart Boards and video equipment, in favor of rethinking the way education is delivered. In some tech-equipped schools, teachers are playing a less-dominant role in the classroom, group work and problem-solving are emphasized, and technology is infused into every lesson, whether that means dissecting a frog with a software program or predicting the weather using real-time information
