Surprisingly, this isn’t a safety-critical activity since engines undergo thorough inspections before flying. The data is processed in three minutes, and any anomalies are flagged for an engineer.

This engineer will then assess the data and inform the airline if any action — a fuel filter that needs changing, for instance — could prevent a flight.

The data analytics service operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.

From day one of an engine’s lifecycle, Rolls-Royce runs more than 150 algorithms to assess it. These operate in tandem with simulation software and the engineering team to determine what insights are required.

There is also a separate monthly assessment by the Rolls-Royce team for safety reasons, according to Lee Glazier, the engineering firm’s head of digital integrity, who spoke during last month’s AI Summit in London.

Due to the complexity of the data and the need to look at it across more than two dimensions, Rolls-Royce turned to AI and machine learning to support its engineers.

“If you are looking at trace data, by definition, you are looking across two dimensions and can create clever plotting to see a wider picture,” he explained in his keynote case study. “But beyond that, humans really can’t cope.”

AI, he added, is not limited by its dimensions, enabling it to offer a more rounded picture from all sensors at once.

Glazier confirmed that Rolls-Royce adopted the 2.0 version of AI around two years ago, which does indeed look at all the sensors at once.

“We look across all the dimensions in one go. That is too complex for humans to even program into the system. The AI learns from the engineers and uses the 155 algorithms that are already there to learn what a ‘good’ engine is over various first flights.”

The AI then looks for anomalies, and if it spots one, it alerts an engineer, who can react in a way the AI cannot.

“That is why I call it the perfect marriage,” added Glazier. “We have engineers doing what they are fantastic at and like doing, while the AI does the bits that humans don’t really enjoy doing – going through a load of traces.”

Cross-domain usage

The tool has now gone beyond just Rolls-Royce’s Aerospace division. It is being implemented on projects including power packs used on Hitachi trains, power generation on Royal Navy carriers, and wider manufacturing operations.

“AI doesn’t care where the data comes from,” he explained. “To AI, it is just data.”

This prompted Rolls-Royce to examine how AI could benefit its safety-critical areas while appeasing regulators concerned about trusting AI.

One area the engine testing sensors can identify, using AI analytics tools, is whether specific components need to be switched out due to usage.

Traditionally, this would be judged by the number of flights an engine had been used on. Once you reach X number of flights, you replace component A.

AI modelling improves accuracy by considering actual stress levels on the component, allowing for later replacement if used for shorter flights or under less pressure. This increases the amount of time the plane can be “on wing” and reduces downtime.

“This is a safety critical activity,” Glazier said. “So, it had to be approved by regulation and certification.”

Aletheia

To address this, Rolls-Royce has developed a framework of five tests to show that the analytics tool meets all the criteria necessary to be regarded as ‘safe’ by regulators.

The first is simply a sense check: does the output look like it should?

Then, a continuous testing system processes data from half a million flights every 12 minutes.

“We know what the answer to this should be, adjusted to 10 decimal places. Statistically, it is almost impossible for the system to be malfunctioning and give the right answer to 10 decimal places,” says Glazier.

There is also an independent check, where the same data is run through different algorithms to see if it returns the same answer.

Finally, the data is checked for its integrity.

These five checks form the foundation of the Rolls-Royce AI safety framework, the Aletheia Framework, which the manufacturer has made available for free to industries.

“The Aletheia Framework is our toolkit for ethics and trustworthiness in artificial intelligence that we believe is too useful to keep to ourselves. So, we’ve made it freely available to everyone,” Rolls-Royce explains on its website.

The framework aims to promote trust and transparency in AI systems so they can be used for safety-critical functions. The toolkit is a practical one-page guide for developers, executives, and boards looking to deploy AI.

It asks them to consider 32 facets of social impact, governance, trust, and transparency and provide evidence that can then be used to engage with approvers, stakeholders, or auditors.

Subsequently, Rolls-Royce has published further frameworks based on Aletheia for other sectors, including music, oncology, and education.

“It’s very accessible and includes an area on trust. So, how can you trust your AI? It also goes beyond the ethics into how we can realise ethics,” he said.

“We took all the guidance and condensed it onto a single page — whether you were looking at the Good Cooperation, the EU, European Parliament — all recognised bodies producing fantastic guidance, but it was generally 100 pages long, and no data scientist is going to read all 100 pages.”

The post “Perfect marriage” between AI & humans: Rolls-Royce’s safety framework appeared first on TechInformed.

According to Mike Capone, CEO of data analytics giant Qlik, success in AI begins and ends with data mastery: “Today, with the unlimited computing power and advances in generative AI available, we have the ability to spit out garbage at a breathtaking rate,” he warned.

Capone spoke in Florida last week at Qlik Connect, a gathering of industry leaders and developers from the vendor’s vast customer base. The key message at the event was the critical need to implement AI ethically and responsibly.

He explained that data quality determines any future ability to harness value from AI and analytics but recognised that managing data quality is one of the key challenges that his customers face and one that was preventing many of them from scaling AI use cases.

Capone underscored his point with a recent McKinsey survey that found over 70% of leading organisations said that managing data was one of their top growth inhibitors.

Establishing AI governance

How can businesses adopt AI responsibly? According to Meredith Whalen, chief research officer at market analyst IDC, who spoke at the event, companies can start by establishing an AI governance framework to help them balance pursuing new AI technologies with responsible development.

Whalen also suggested forming an AI council composed of diverse experts to provide guidance and develop practices for model transparency and data integrity.

“Our data shows that organisations are focused right now on model transparency guidelines and data integrity practices. That’s important because transparency and explainability are going to build trust among your users and among your stakeholders,” she said.

Whalen also highlighted the importance of regular employee training on ethics and responsible AI use, especially regarding security, which she recognises as everybody’s responsibility.

AI councils assemble

What are AI councils? Internally, it transpires that Qlik is hot on AI councils, essentially a group of diverse experts that provide guidance on AI implementation, focusing on model transparency and data integrity.

A council can also help ensure that AI development aligns with ethical standards and builds trust among users and stakeholders.

Tech entrepreneur and proclaimed AI expert Nina Schick, a member of Qlik’s very own AI Council, suggested that an AI council could also help verify AI-generated content to guarantee its integrity.

This kind of body could also facilitate discussions between industry and government to establish policies that balance innovation with fairness and societal impact.

According to Schick, AI councils can also bring together experts from various sectors to discuss AI’s future and identify necessary actions to promote responsible development and adoption.

Emphasising that computing power and data are the two essential resources driving the AI revolution, Schick believes that while computing power has increased exponentially, data is now the “new oil” that powers AI.

She argued that companies must optimise, codify, and consolidate their data to build sovereign AI and own the production of their proprietary intelligence. Schick claimed this would be critical to success in the age of AI: “All companies of the future, in my view, will be AI-first companies who build their sovereign AI.”

Implementing AI: 5 practical stages

The consensus at Qlik Connect around implementing AI responsibly and effectively boiled down to five practical steps.

The first involves assuring data Integration and quality control. To maintain high quality, all data needs to be integrated, transformed, and governed. Businesses also need to consolidate data from diverse sources, ensuring its integrity through rigorous quality control measures.

Only with high-quality data can AI yield reliable results. As Mayer said: “You can’t have an AI strategy without having a good data strategy.”

The second step is to form an AI council (as mentioned previously) to develop transparency and data integrity practices and provide regular ethics training for employees.

Understanding data provenance and maintaining rigorous governance are crucial. Transparency builds trust among users and stakeholders, who know that the data driving AI decisions is well-vetted.

The third step is to foster transparency and accountability, using metrics to build trust in AI systems. Equitable access to comprehensive, trusted data is essential. All stakeholders should rely on the same data pool to ensure consistency and reliability in AI outcomes. As Capone said: “You need access to complete and trusted data for everybody.”

Adopting an agile approach was the fourth key learning from this event. Companies need to ensure that they continuously learn and adapt policies as AI technology evolves.

This includes experimenting with new techniques while maintaining alignment with ethical and market needs.

“If you are in an organisation that’s risk-averse or hesitant to get started because you’re concerned about the risks of AI, the biggest risk is to do nothing. Your competition is out there experimenting,” warns IDC’s Whalen.

The final piece of advice, more of a prediction, comes from Qlik’s VP of market readiness, Martin Tombs. He suggested focusing on AI for specific business applications rather than generic AI models. These models, he added, will need to be validated continuously to build trust over time.

“Achieving trust in unstructured data is about keeping your blast radius short and focussing on your business. I predict we will start with more generic LLMs and then evolve into domain-specific LLMs. There’ll be ones specific to call centres, support teams, salespeople, etc. And trust will come when it’s an accurate answer.”

The post Trust in AI: getting your house in order appeared first on TechInformed.

Of course, Apple has always had this power to capture the public’s imagination. Prior to its entry into the smartphone market, most mobile models still had buttons. The US tech giant also took tablets from being a vague idea on Star Trek into millions of households.

Six months on, however, and the zeitgeist seems to have moved back towards artificial intelligence and Vision Pro sales have reportedly underwhelmed. But businesses are still highly interested in the opportunities afforded by immersive technology, according to an expert from French telecoms giant Orange.

Morgan Bouchet is Orange’s global head of immersive and gen AI marketing, and he tells TI the French company has already began exploring the opportunities offered by the Vision Pro, even though it has (yet) to launch in Europe.

“We are exploring the Vision OS with our partners and our internal developers to be sure of all the opportunities and capabilities offered by this device,” he says when I ask him if Apple has moved the dial on immersive.

“We are working to explore what can be done for our own business clients. Large enterprises are already exploring use cases around digital twins, such as city management and factories, but also our own internal needs to connect spatial computing with our own offering.”

With Apple due to hold its Worldwide Developers Conference next week, rumours abound that the iPhone-maker will announce a global version of its spatial computer, likely to go on sale before the end of the year.

Orange has long been a partner of Apple’s having been one of the first European carriers to offer the first-generation iPhone in 2007. But Bouchet wouldn’t be drawn on what Apple is set to announce – only praising the doors that the Apple device opens for the future of VR/XR.

“We are very excited by it, it is a high-quality device, even if the price is very expensive,” he says. “But it is also the OS – we want to understand all the possibilities and opportunities presented by this platform.”

Big enterprises, according to Bouchet, are already working with Orange to develop solutions that can operate with the Vision Pro, but his interest goes beyond just the Californian vendor.

Training itself for others

Not only is Orange a technology supplier, but it is also one of France’s biggest employers, and its reach can be seen across the globe, serving around 287 million customers.

Before offering immersive technologies to b2b customers, Orange started using it internally – most notably as a way of training staff.

In its domestic market, the telco wanted to train its staff to better deal with uncivility and conflict on calls or in-store. It turned to VR service provider Pitchboy to train staff in how to validate appointments with customers and refine them.

Bouchet says: “Training is also an important use case. For example, we partnered with Belgium’s PitchBoy. We started working with this startup four years ago for our own employees to improve sales, training and to train staff on generative AI.

“This exploration internally is also a way for us to get an understanding of the different possibilities offered by the technology, so we can then help our clients to adopt these kinds of use cases.”

Another project that Orange has led on is the opening its first virtual store through its op-co in Spain, which has now merged with MasMovil.

The virtual metaverse store – which was opened in September 2022 – displays products from its handset vendor partners, as well as offering a 3D visualisation, accessing demos, promotions and the online store.

“VR commerce could be a way to minimise travel when going to one place or another,” notes Bouchet. “We are exploring this use-case in other countries, because when we discuss immersive products, we are looking beyond just VR and XR at other platforms, such as Fortnite and Roblox.”

These gaming platforms will be at the forefront of the metaverse, Bouchet claims, because gaming environments are “very advanced” in offering new kinds of experiences.

The fact that these platforms are already home to digitally native generations means they will play an integral role in metaverse adoption.

Bouchet also highlighted VR experiences, including its location-based Notre Dame experience, which Bouchet guided TechInformed around last year. It has since began offering a version of this experience through Meta Quest, meaning those who want to tour the Old Lady of Paris no longer need to visit  the French capital to learn about its history or the current restoration project.

Twins and data

One building block of the metaverse that Bouchet thinks will be vital for businesses is digital twins. Industries such as construction, healthcare, manufacturing, and transport have all led the way with digital twin adoption, leading Orange Business to launch its digital twin platform aimed at supporting Industry 4.0.

“More and more, we are seeing interest in digital twins,” he explains. “It is very valuable for the future and a key area of focus for Orange Innovation.”

Companies already using 3D models – he pointed to firms such as Airbus – will find it easier to move to the metaverse, he adds, because “they already have assets in 3D”.

Orange has already launched a digital twin platform that has seen success, especially in manufacturing. Here, the digital twin platform has been designed to address several use cases and it fits industry 4.0 use cases, such as tracking, recycling materials, predictive maintenance.

The Thing’in research platform is a data platform which, Orange claims,  maintains a thorough structural and semantic description of the environments, such as cities or buildings, that are leveraging connected devices (internet of things).

The platform produces a graph that plots data about people, objects (connected or unconnected), physical entities and relevant systems that, in the case of manufacturing, help create new business applications or streamline processes.

It is integrated into Orange’s digital twin platform – one example of this in action in a fabrication factory can be read here.

So why should a telco like Orange be driving this change? Are they just the connectivity provider, or is there a greater role for a business currently undergoing its own digital transformation journey?

“Collaborations are vital in the metaverse,” he answers. “Big companies are willing to develop metaverse projects, but it is on the telcos to provide the connectivity, security, and identity as well, to support these experiences.

“At the moment much of it is showcasing the possibilities, but we need to be able to scale these projects. It is very important for us to connect our enablers to every part of the wider metaverse vision. And we bring more than a 30-year legacy of doing that – integrating security and connectivity with technology.”

So, will the metaverse and spatial computing finally replace the mobile/ cell phones that have been a core part of Orange’s offering for the past three decades?

Taking a “long-term vision” is “necessary” he says coyly. “We see the real impact of the network and cloud solutions here, but it is a long-term vision to have everything in the cloud.”

The mobile will continue to be at the middle for “the next few years at least” though this could remain the same for a long time, he adds, due to latency and the need to process some things locally.

The post Apples and Oranges: the role of spatial computing in the industrial metaverse appeared first on TechInformed.

Now director of technology strategy at Qt Group, Miao has spent the last 20 years working at various positions from product management and sales to software engineering. He even co-founded a successful startup in the flight simulation market (Simsoft).

At Qt, he’s been largely responsible for managing teams UI/UX designers, advanced engineering teams, and product managers in building solutions for Human Machine Interfaces.

TechInformed met up with Miao to delve into the challenges software developers and designers face, what challenges lie ahead for wider tech industry, as well as the importance of simplifying software development processes in today’s turbulent economy.

What are the biggest challenges facing your industry?

One of the biggest challenges in the software technology landscape is developing solid user interfaces (UI) or Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) – basically a UI or dashboard that connects the human user to a machine, system, or device. Many of our customers talk about not having the professional designers for the HMI solutions they need today, from creating the right design asset to testing the UI assets, etc.

I still see a huge gap between designers and developers – a lot of siloing and disconnect going on between those two camps when building software. particularly user interfaces. Traditionally, ‘design’ and ‘UI’ have been created separately. So, it would mean a designer drawing up an asset using their favourite designer’s tool, passing it on to the developer, and then the developer has to somehow magically build a UI that recreates that design using code. And that UI would typically be delivered two or three months down the line. It’s just a very error-prone and time consuming process.

That’s where we come in at Qt as a software framework vendor. One of the promises we have made is we want to accelerate productivity and collaboration between designers and developers. So, for example, we’re putting ‘designer tool-friendly bridges’ in the hands of designers that give them the power to generate code based on their design assets, without the need to rewrite code.

What’s your top tip for finding tech talent?

If you’re hiring young graduates, it does matter what they’ve studied. You need to know they’ve invested time in some ‘popular’ skills that are foundational to what they’re going to build for you. If you know you’re building a product on C++, you probably want someone who’s experienced in low-level programming languages.

If you look at industrial enterprises that depend on embedded engineers, for example, some knowledge of higher language frameworks is important for building HMIs. Fortunately, I’ve been quite impressed to see that many of the graduates going into these enterprises already have some working knowledge of frameworks like Qt. That’s the kind of natural synergy you want to look for when hiring tech talent.

Why is it important to simplify software development processes?

I think it’s clear to many tech companies now that we’re stuck with a tough economy for the foreseeable future. What that means is every business has to scrutinise costs extra hard. There are other and much better ways to cut more cost than headcount: streamlining software development workflows is a significant one.

Time is money, and lots of inefficient workflows can impact your bottom line in ways you might not expect. How much time does your software compilation take? How long do you spend adapting hardware for bespoke purposes? How long does it take for an asset made by a designer to appear in a finalised UI? All these things impact productivity when working in teams. If you fix productivity, you increase your throughput. More throughput means less cost, improved time-to-market, and more competitiveness, especially in today’s economic climate.

How do you take your coffee?

“It’s an interesting question. Personally, my coffee tasting evolution has been evolving over the years, starting with an instant coffee bag with cream powder (when coffee culture initially entered Chinese households in the late 90s), to later variety range of coffee with complex shots and flavours, to nowadays only medium/dark roasted black coffee. Sometimes I find coffee tasting can be a good indicator for one’s philosophy in building a product, where initially you could be testing all possible product idea hypothesis, then experiment to find out what works, and gather the learnings to build something that people love, and quite often less is more.”

If you could have a coffee with any leader, who would it be and why?

“Oh gosh, there are many.

I would love to have a coffee chat with Steve Jobs (Although I am not sure if he drinks coffee at all). I would like to know his creative process, and how he was able to combine the arts with technology in such a harmonious way. I would also be curious to hear his thoughts in his classic story-telling style, on the current technology landscape and how he would approach to the potential next wave of industrial revolution and paradigm shift in productivity.

I would also love to chat with John D Rockefeller, to learn more about his business acumen, determination, and decision making, especially facing challenges in an era of rapidly changing industrial revolution in his time.

I would also love to chat with Jensen Huang, to learn about how he was able to discover and navigate through heaps of unobvious market signals over the past 31 years and was able to place the right bets that accentuate what was essentially a dedicated GPU for games at the beginning, to nowadays the fundamental compute power that could change every aspect of our lives through productivity with AI.”

If you were given a grant for £500,000 what would you spend it on?

I would want to create some kind of new technology stack that breaks the paradigm of today’s software engineering. To this day, I still see workflows in the space broken up into this stilted, sequential model of design, development, testing and deployment, with each requiring special personnel and resourcing. It’s kind of an old-fashioned and boring model, almost like a car production line. I’d want to invest in a solution that allows more functions to happen in parallel – something that inspires better collaboration between these camps.

What does 2024 hold for Qt?

No surprises here – AI is impacting almost everything we do at Qt. So, one big focus for us will be iterating on the ways we can use AI to improve the Qt experience for designers and developers.

We’re also prioritising new ways to help customers improve their productivity. In some ways, I feel the economic downturn has drawn more to Qt than ever because virtually all enterprises are trying to raise productivity and lower cost. That fills me with a great sense of responsibility and pride to help those companies solve that challenge – and I know we can because we’ve already been supporting over 70 industries.

What can we expect from tech this year?

I don’t think we’ve even touched the surface of the AI-enabled applications that businesses will deploy. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing some real advancements in generating UIs using AI, without any design or coding expertise – one mouse click at a time. You could envision AI-assisted quality assurance tools evolving too in such a way that coding doesn’t have to go through a time-consuming testing phase. A lot of this is already happening right in front of apps. The question is just who’s going to have the killer app.

The post A coffee with… Miao Luo, director of technology strategy, QT appeared first on TechInformed.

So having the right procurement system in place to manage all these functions is vital to a giant construction firm such as ISG Ltd. The construction specialist has offices on three continents, but it was facing challenges when its previous pre-qualification system for procurement began to reach its end of life.

ISG head of supply chain Robert Scriven explains: “As we began to look at our pre-qualification system, we realised that the platform could in fact be a transparent view for the entire supply chain, offering access to all that data.”

In other words, the entire business and its partners could have access to one system that allows oversight of invoicing, purchase orders, subcontracts, and audits.

“We started to see that a unified system was the best way of communicating with our supply chain,” he adds. “Rather than having to speak to accounts about an invoice being paid, we could put all of the information into one place that showcases their KPIs, highlights potential risks, and allows us to work closer on ESG goals. Our aim is for those partners to grow with us.”

Speak to most of the tech world about procurement and they will say it is all about the dollar – how much can you shave off the cost off buying and where can efficiencies be found. That was the previous model many companies – including ISG – operated on. But in the sector, core goals have changed, and new technologies are being used to support this shift.

Now, heads of procurement aren’t just tasked with finding amazing deals on supplies and services, they also need to consider ESG targets. Not just their own, either, but how these are impacted by supply partners.

“There is always that pressure to get things cheaper,” agrees Scriven, “but we’ve got to build things. Sometimes you must take the hits on costs to do the right thing. But if we can make savings in how we approach procurement, that allows us to focus on hitting those other goals.”

For ISG, its supply line and partner profile is as wide and complex as the portfolio of properties it builds. It has over 7,500 supply chain partners, and 94% of these are SMEs, with over 1,000 of these comprising companies with less than ten employees. Many of these partners themselves sub-contract work, often to even smaller firms or sole traders.

ISG is a $2.5 billion turnover company and spends around $1.8 billion per year, much of which is spent down the supply chain.

“We need to know how we can watch the material flow, so we have looked at technologies like blockchain to do this. The problem is those sole traders are operating on a cash model – so there is little-to-no transactional data.

“We are in a world where we have to rely upon the data from our supply chain and the data in our systems and make sure they are aligned, so we have got a single version of truth for everything.”

Laying the first bricks

Overhauling the procurement system is the first step in a wider tech transformation at ISG, but as is often the case, the first step was one of the most difficult to take.

Starting in 2019, ISG execs identified the need to overhaul its procurement workflow system, and, after a tender process, turned to French unicorn Ivalua the following year, and launched its “Smartsource” supply chain tool.

For Scriven, that meant getting everyone in the room and convincing them that the “worst thing you can do is stay still”.

He identified several key areas that needed work including KPI modules, performance modules, subcontractor modules, and transparency along the supply chain, that needed work. This involved a massive analysis of data sets and a huge consolidation of vendor listings onto the Ivalua platform.

“If I was to offer advice to anyone about to transform their procurement system, it would be to try and understand your data first,” the former data analyst explains. “Most data probably is clean to some extent. Eventually you need to create a unique ID for your suppliers, but once you’ve created that unique ID out of any number of fields, you can start to utilise it, whether you use AI or not.”

This means linking unique ID codes to different providers, so they become much easier to track, to issue tenders to, and to pay, without duplication.

The initial adoption was “challenging” said Scriven, because it was one of the biggest IT upgrades implemented at ISG in over a decade. His team also found it challenging to determine what parts of Ivalua’s platform it needed, given the scope of the service available.

“The Ivalua solution can do a lot of things, but there is a question of how much you want to use it for and how much you want to pay for it,” he explains. “There are certain things we configured which we probably didn’t need to.”

This, he adds, was one of the biggest challenges of building out ISG’s procurement system – piecing together how each part fitted was as complex as laying out the bricks on a massive building project.

“When you’re building out complex services – from terms and conditions to verification, to integration with the relevant tax authorities, and much more – it can be a minefield.

“Now we have the foundations to build out all those workflows and make it as easy as possible for our stakeholders and our partners to use. We can push companies on to the platform and get them through pre-qualification in record time.”

Cementing ESG success

One function key to the Ivalua platform for ISG is the ability to measure risk to the supply chain. It uses nine data points from integrity to construction industry schemes with the UK government, and gives project managers a red, amber or green measurement for each part of the project. This helps the team mitigate risks and, since launch, more than 1,000 members of staff have been trained to use this.

ISG’s partnership with Ivalua is set to enter “phase three” later this year which will allow the platform to manage all subcontracts under governance rules implemented by Scriven’s team.

This means that, rather than supply partners manually discussing invoicing or payments with ISG’s accounts team, there will be one, simple system they can access for contracts, data, payments, KPIs and any other interactions with the company.

This will also benefit ISG because it allows project managers to identify which partners carry the most risk in terms of delivery, or if suppliers may face problems further down the chain, so this can be pre-empted.

“It means we can be really open with them and show them their KPIs or risks,” adds Scriven. “Often in a supply chain you don’t know exactly where the risks lie, whether it comes to ESG or companies further in the chain. Our aim is to get companies to grow with us.

“It also means we can be much more selective as to who we go out to tender with.”

It also allows ISG to manage other functions, such more controls over site access. Project managers can determine which suppliers need access to the site when and manage that through the platform, as opposed to manually checking each time.

The other key benefit will be in hitting ESG goals. The firm has committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2030, and is set to introduce a carbon ‘tax’ this year which will fund sustainable innovation projects across its business.

Improving the datasets used across its supply chain will help meet this goal, explains Scriven, because it is easier for the firm to track site-by-site ESG data and put it all in one place.

“Next, we will look at what problems we’re facing in engagement with our ESG goals across the supply chain and look at the trigger points for failures, and identify these earlier,” he adds.

“If we can run an algorithm behind the scenes to identify when this might happen, we can help support our partners through early payments, or look at moving them to a different plan, or even just have a frank conversation with them, as they might not realise some of the challenges they face down the road. And that helps the industry.”

The post How ISG is using data to lay the foundations for the future of construction appeared first on TechInformed.

In today’s fast-paced digital world, you might ask such a question. The right connectivity choice can be the difference between thriving and merely surviving. Choosing the right technology is crucial for ensuring seamless operations, regardless of geographical constraints.

Drawing on insights from industry experts at Mobile World Congress 2024, this guide aims to help businesses navigate these choices and ensure they leverage the optimal connectivity solution for their needs.

5G vs WiFi: In the ring

Understanding the connectivity spectrum

If you run a business, chances are the endless question about who would win in a fight out of 5G or WiFi plagues you to no end. But, before placing your bets, it’s probably best you get to know the major players:

5G: The Speedster — In the red corner, known for its high speeds and low latency, coming straight in to connect all your mobile devices, we have the reigning champion of the Telecoms Title, 5G. According to its advocates, 5G is vital for enabling real-time data transfer needed for applications such as IoT and AI. But critics claim its rollout — which kicked off in 2019 — was lacklustre, requiring significant investment.

WiFi: The Ubiquitous Connector — In the blue corner, we have ubiquitous, convenient, and ever-reliable WiFi. It’s a collaborative effort, mostly running on wired broadband networks. WiFi has evolved and adapted over the years, with WiFi 6 and beyond providing greater speeds and more efficient data handling.

Wired: The Workhorse — Perched just outside the ring, puffing on a cigar, is the old, grizzled figure of Wired connectivity (Ethernet/fibre). While offering one of the most stable and reliable forms of connectivity, ideal for high-speed transfer in fixed locations, wired connectivity is limited by its static nature.

Satellite (NTNs): The Overseer — Finally, live-streaming from space (or perhaps just the upper atmosphere) is Satellite connectivity. While certainly not new, satcomms have seen rapid changes in recent years thanks to the launch of Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Traditionally a key supplier for remote or underserved locations where traditional infrastructure isn’t feasible, could satellites be making a comeback?

The case for 5G

5G technology is distinguished by its high-speed, low-latency capabilities. It’s ideal for scenarios requiring high mobility and real-time data access, such as logistics tracking or field services, where real-time data access and transfer are crucial.

Chris Keone, a director at BT’s Division X, champions 5G for its transformative potential in fields requiring meticulous precision and real-time oversight. He states:

There are specific use cases related to things like asset tracking capability, surveillance, and so on. We’re able to use a private 5G network to provide full coverage across that area.”

The capacity of 5G to support a dense network of devices within a square kilometre makes it the go-to choice for deploying IoT solutions at scale.

“Think about vast geographical open spaces, for example — there’s another good use case here within ports and airports where you’ve got very wide coverage,” Keone adds.

However, the fifth generation of mobile connectivity has faced challenges.

After being significantly hyped by the telecoms industry and politicians, take-up has been positive. Forecasts by Statista anticipate mobile data traffic will reach almost 330 exabytes per month by 2028. However, according to a report from the industry body of the TM Forum, it has failed to offer the return on investment that most telcos were hoping it would bring.

Regional disparities in 5G adoption also highlight the importance of finding alternative solutions. Statista’s data says, “The North America, Developed Asia Pacific, and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) regions are set to have surpassed 90% adoption by 2030, while adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to remain below 20%.”

Nonetheless, 5G is seen as a potential solution to narrow the digital gap through Fixed Wireless Access (FWA). FWA can provide high-speed broadband in regions without fixed broadband, bridging the digital divide for consumers and businesses in otherwise difficult-to-connect locations.

Why-Fi? 

WiFi technology remains a cornerstone of digital connectivity, offering reliable, high-speed access — primarily inside buildings. Its widespread adoption in homes, businesses, and public spaces underlines its importance in the current connectivity landscape.

WiFi is indispensable in office environments. It facilitates everything from email communication and access to cloud services to video conferencing and collaborative online workspaces. It allows flexible work arrangements, including hot-desking and remote access within the office perimeter.

Cities worldwide also deploy public WiFi networks to provide residents and visitors free internet access, enhancing the urban experience and supporting smart city initiatives like real-time traffic monitoring and public transportation updates.

Nabil Bukhari, CTPO at Extreme Networks, suggests that WiFi is often the most economical option. “It’s built into pretty much everything, and everybody has it. As an enterprise, your first thought should be ‘Can I do it on WiFi?”

“If you can do it and already have the infrastructure for it, the economics would be better.”

But he acknowledges its drawbacks, “When you need connectivity outside, not in a building, or you need it on long ranges, or ultra-low latency, for it to be very deterministic, that’s a use for 5G.

“We’ve all seen videos of demonstrations of things like a surgeon doing remote surgery, for example. Don’t do that on WiFi!”

Panch Chandrasekaran, head and director of ARM’s 5G carrier infrastructure segment, supports this by saying:

In a factory environment, things are moving towards wirelessly connected factory equipment. There are no more cables.

“If you’re sitting at home, WiFi is perfectly fine. Reliability and security of your connectivity are less of a concern.”

He adds, “WiFi has definite problems in terms of reach, different access points interfering with each other, and security is a concern.”

The future of connectivity 

For telecom companies, enterprise has long been seen as the “golden goose”, but there is an unspoken fear within the industry that they will be limited to providing just connectivity – something that would significantly undermine profits.

That’s why France’s incumbent telco Orange revealed an overhaul of its enterprise division last year, then named Orange Business Services (now just Orange Business) to offer digital services on top.

Telco vendors are also getting involved in the act. Finnish equipment provider Nokia has been developing products specifically for enterprises for years, explains Rafael De Fermín, senior vice president of Network Infrastructure RBC Europe at Nokia

“We have an ambition to play increasingly significant roles with enterprises. We’ve been doing that for quite a while,” he adds.

“We sell a lot of routers and optical communications to enterprises. That business is growing significantly for us, and we’ve doubled down in our efforts. We have products that are specifically built for the enterprise market.”

Read all about Orange’s shift to enterprises here

Reach for the skies

Even with 5G’s reach growing and more backbone cables being built than ever before, some places just cannot be connected by a terrestrial network.

Take, for example, an oil rig out at sea or parts of the Arctic, where the landscape changes drastically every year.

Non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) are emerging as a pivotal part of the enterprise connectivity landscape. Satellite has long been the dominant player for NTNs, but new technology is promising to extend the reach of network services far beyond the confines of terrestrial and traditional infrastructure.

Peter Kibutu, TTP‘s 5G NTN lead, explains in more detail. “Although satellite connectivity is not new, satellite services are now provided for niche markets and more prominent companies. It’s become revitalised because of this non-terrestrial component, which means services provided via the terrestrial network can now also be provided via satellite.

“One satellite can see a huge region from the sky. So, it can provide coverage in all those spots that are not economically viable for the use of standard terrestrial mobile networks,” he adds.

“So, the technology offers ubiquitous coverage. From an enterprise point of view, good connectivity anywhere means you can receive a Teams call in the desert, for example. It can open economic activity in areas it has never been before.”

NTNs go beyond satellites, too. Google previously trialled balloon-supported connections through its (now defunct) Google Loon project, while several companies are trialling unmanned aerial vehicles, such as drones, that can provide connectivity.

Place your bets!

The landscape might be more complex than 5G or WiFi, but Bukhari suggests this isn’t the right question.

“The future is not about choosing between 5G and WiFi, but about how these technologies can work together to meet business needs,” he says.

“WiFi and 5G are not the only ways to provide connectivity. Most devices are still connected via Ethernet, for example.

Ethernet is still one of the best technologies in the industrial sector. Not only can it provide all the bandwidth that you want, but it’s also very deterministic and can deliver power to your devices as well.

BT’s Keone agrees, “Crucially, the answer is not always plain to see. There’s a lot of testing and learning. Customers don’t really care or understand the technology; they’re most focused on the outcome the technology can bring them.”

So, what should business leaders do?

If you’re still struggling to keep your head in the game, Bukhari explains how businesses should decide between 5G and WiFi.

Step One: “You should really look at if you have a use case today that is important to you and cannot be done on existing technology — be it on WiFi or Ethernet, etc. Then, pick the technology that you need for that. If that happens to be 5G, then absolutely do that; that’s the first step!”

“If you do end up selecting 5G, the next question is, are you going to end up having to create an entire team in a silo that only works on 5G? If the answer is yes, then rethink. That’s a very costly way of doing things.”

Step Two: “Ask yourself, what operating model will help me run 5G and WiFi together simultaneously? Then, you will need to find a vendor that can provide that.”

He concludes, “In the end, if you invest in any new technology without knowing the outcome, you will struggle with determining the ROI. If you can’t determine and clearly show the ROI, then the economics will not make sense.

“There are exceptions to that rule. But I think an enterprise that follows that way of thinking will find itself in a better position.”

The post 5G vs WiFi showdown: which to bet on for your business appeared first on TechInformed.

According to McQuaid, if you work on a Mac operating system, you are likely to source many of your open-source tools in Homebrew, which is maintained by a team of just 30 people.

For the last fifteen years, McQuaid has balanced his voluntary maintainer role with various software engineer roles and was one of GitHub’s early employees (#232).

Last year, the software engineer cofounded Workbrew, which develops paid-for bespoke features that companies have requested from Homebrew, which it didn’t want to build, supply, or support.

TechInformed met McQuaid at last month’s annual State of Open Conference in East London, following a keynote by open-source software guru Bruce Perens, who declared that the economics of open source were “broken”.

Perens proposed creating a third-party non-profit body to distribute funds to voluntary developers and maintainers like McQuaid based on contributions to GitHub and other OS code repositories.

For the uninitiated: what is an open-source maintainer?

There are three groups of people working in open source. The biggest group is the users, which, with the state of technology now, is essentially everyone, whether they realise it or not.

Some who know they are using it might ask for help or support if something’s broken.

Then there are the contributors, who are a step above that. They’ve sent their own code, documentation, or design work into a repository such as GitHub, and that’s been included in the project.

However, these people need someone else to check their work to make sure it’s okay, and they agree to the terms and conditions. Those people are called the maintainers. They are essentially the gatekeepers.

Do you ever get paid for ‘maintaining’?

It depends on what the relationship is. I guess I’ve been indirectly paid in the past. I’ve done work in paid hours on open source.

Homebrew has now grown to the point where we can pay people a stipend. If you are active enough in a project and involved, we put money aside to pay you monthly.

I’ve taken that money in the past. It’s nowhere close to a market rate for the hours put in. It’s more like a ‘thank you’ and an acknowledgement.

Do the economics involved in open source worry you?

This is a pet subject of mine because my father-in-law is a professor of economics. We often talk about economics versus time.

We are in a capitalist country. He says it’s not necessarily about money but the allocation of scarce resources. In open source, the scarce resource isn’t money; it’s the time of the people who are working on it.

Putting money in my pocket doesn’t give me more hours to do things. The economics of open source that concern me are how we protect the time of the people involved and how we stop them from burning out.

OpenUK CEO: Why it’s time to stamp out open-source myths

My father-in-law’s other point is that ‘free’ is a special thing. I remember the first time someone offered to pay me for an open-source project: I spent four hours sorting a problem out, and then they offered to PayPal me $10.

When it’s free, I’m happier than when it’s $2 an hour. When you throw money into the equation, it always becomes more ‘quid pro quo’.

Have any of the companies you’ve worked for in your paid roles objected to your voluntary ‘maintaining’?

Homebrew work has always been a very small part of my main job. Most of the time, it’s not been part of my job at all. Most of my employers have treated it as a ‘don’t’ ask, don’t tell’ kind of situation: if you are getting your work done.

It gets you through the door. They really like to see that stuff on your CV.

Did you agree with Bruce Perens’s earlier points about open source no longer being sustainable and creating a collection body?

We’re at a point in open source where there’s this kind of tricky middle ground. I strongly identify with what Bruce said about the problems; I somewhat identify with his proposed solutions.

But more specifically, the idea that you’d have one central body that takes money from everyone and allocates it to everyone seems unrealistic. To get that to happen across borders through the entire world, I don’t think it could happen.

I’m not a huge fan of free market economics, but when it comes to open source, there’s been this explosion of ideas that wouldn’t have happened had a centralised authority been in force.

How is Workbrew enabling you to make your open-source endeavours more sustainable?

We’re building stuff that, over the years, Homebrew has refused to do. We build things that are a bit more involved, require support contracts, and are specific for industries and companies.

We’re making a version of Homebrew that works much better for them but doesn’t dilute the Homebrew offering for everyone else. Everything in Homebrew is free; in Workbrew, we build the stuff on top that costs money.

It feels to me the most natural way of commercialising open-source projects.

As a maintainer, you’ve blogged about the importance of saying ‘no’…

That’s been a life lesson: saying no and setting boundaries. In open source, you constantly get people asking you for stuff, and you always get more people who want more from you than you can give.

For me, it’s the power to try to be kind to myself and the people around me.

Another way for maintainers to avoid burnout is therapy. Men aren’t always great about talking about their mental health and admitting when they’re struggling or going to someone else for help, but I’ve found that there really are benefits.

The post A coffee with… Mike McQuaid, CTO, Workbrew & Homebrew project leader appeared first on TechInformed.

Lindmark previously worked as CIO at Nordic insurance company SPP for eight years. There, she led a successful digital transformation project that involved creating a common platform for data and applications.

TechInformed spoke with Lindmark in Stockholm at Sweden’s largest tech show, The Tech Arena, where she participated in a panel discussion on quantum AI and future security threats.

Why did you make the leap from fintech to telecoms?

I think exploring a new industry, while leveraging experience from similar industries, is good for your brain synapses.

What have been the biggest challenges in this career transition?

In many ways, things are similar; there’s a lot of legacy tech, and they’re both highly regulated industries. There’s also a lot of outside digital pressure forcing change.

There are differences, too. In telcos, technology is the core, so being an engineer [she holds an MEng] is exciting for me.

What are your priorities now at Telenor?

We’re exploring new use cases in terms of 5G — both business and consumer applications.

At this point, it’s mostly B2B, but we will see what happens; it’s still hard to predict.

Autonomous vehicles and transportation are one focus for us [using very low latency via 5G to retrieve information from the environment to identify queues, speeds, traffic lights, etc].

What are the biggest tech challenges for you as CIO?

Things are getting more expensive. It’s harder to get Capex investment, and we’re still dealing with a lot of legacy technology in this industry and at Telenor.

So, modernising; moving to cloud. Most of our IT applications are on public cloud now. With that change, we see improvements in the speed of development and overall performance working in a more cloud-native way.

We’re also investing in data analytics — to be more productive and more precise in customer interactions.

How are you using AI?

We have a lot of pilot cases running. And then more traditional machine learning.

With generative AI, we’re piloting speech-to-text for next-level customer service. We are also using genAI in the IT department for productivity and code generation, developer tooling, and testing and documentation.

We’re also working closely with several hyperscalers using their language models for various use cases.

We’re forming some good partnerships in that space. I’d say we are entering a trial period in our relationships with the hyperscalers.

Now that Sweden has joined NATO, what impact does that have on your organisation in terms of cyber security?

Sweden joining NATO is obviously extremely important for us from a security perspective. It brings us even closer to our Nordic neighbours, and the Nordic cluster is stronger than it has been for centuries.

For a company like Telenor, which has operations in Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden, this should present opportunities to work even closer with our sister companies to serve customers on a Nordic level and develop services and technologies together.

Telecoms still comprise a predominately male workforce. How can the sector encourage more women into tech roles?

When I left SPP, 45% of the IT staff was women, so I know it can be done. It can change if you work persistently at it.

Do you ever wonder what sort of products might be developed if there was more of an even gender split?

Yes. The sad part is the innovation and product development, as well as perspectives on security, that we may be missing out on.

When you get only half the population’s viewpoint on a problem, you do not see the whole picture.

What do you do to switch off from work?

I go to the stables. My daughter has a horse, that’s the best way of relaxing — putting on some ugly clothes and doing some physical work!

Did you miss: A coffee with…Vanessa O’Mahony, SVP SMB, Slack

The post A coffee with…Kristin Lindmark, CIO, Telenor appeared first on TechInformed.

The green leader, who has also worked for Deloitte and the Royal Bank of Canada, argues that the more firms become transparent with their sustainable, social, and governance efforts, the bigger the competitive advantage.

Over a coffee, Sandin breaks down what companies need to do to meet their ESG goals over the next year and explains how digital transformation can help as well as mapping out the measures he takes to reduce his own carbon footprint.

What does transparency in ESG data mean in 2024 for sustainability?

The first wave of corporate sustainability reporting directive disclosures will be required in early 2025 for this year’s reporting. The goal of these new measures is to bring transparency to a firm’s position across environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. This includes what it is planning to do to improve on and meet the targets and goals it has set itself.

It’s crucial that firms have access to accurate data with the right level of detail. Without this data, it’s hard to make relevant, transparent sustainability disclosures, and to build trust with stakeholders. There’s a bit of a ‘chicken or the egg’ issue right now. Companies will need to source new data to be able to report in line with new disclosure requirements.

There may be gaps in available data, but this shouldn’t deter businesses from being ambitious in their disclosures. It’s critical that this is seen as an incremental process, where quality and availability will become better over the coming years.

How can companies benefit from transparent reporting?

With increased transparency, evidenced through assurance and sufficient processes and controls, stakeholders will be more willing to trust what is being disclosed by businesses. This will allow for greater investments, the possibility of discounted funding and ultimately a more favourable position in the market.

In addition to favourable funding, another example is employee engagement — the workforce is already taking these topics into account when choosing where they want to work. Fully transparent sustainability disclosures that can be supported with data-backed evidence means firms can attract and retain talent.

Does digital transformation help with environmental reporting?

It’s no longer possible to manage the sheer volume of ESG-related data through a disjointed process. Technology needs to be front and centre for companies to help them manage the whole process from data sourcing through to audit and disclosure. It’s critical that firms’ IT and data departments are key contributors to parts of any transformation projects currently being undertaken.

Without robust technology aiding businesses’ disclosure process, there will be far more room for unnecessary errors, inaccurate calculations, and misstatements. Gone are the days where one can send around single documents across the organisation to gather input from multiple sources that later gets manually consolidated into the final report.

How can firms use digital technologies such as AI and IoT to ensure transparency?

Internet of Things (IoT) can help with accurate on time data sourcing, giving firms the comfort in their ability to track their current standings against targets and limits continuously.

For artificial intelligence (AI), there are great use cases for it to help companies in their report writing. Indeed, generative AI has the potential to revolutionise the business reporting market by boosting productivity and efficiency and enabling insights that lead to better and faster data-driven decisions. AI can help those who produce complex reports, essentially shifting the job from being that of a content producer to a content editor.

It’s equally important that the output from such processes is subject to human oversight and scrutinised internally before anything is published.

What steps do you take in your day-to-day life to be more environmentally friendly?

I am committed to recycling; it is such an easy step everyone can take to help minimise landfills. My wife and I try to find furniture and similar items second-hand before purchasing something new. I’ve limited my actual purchases quite a lot over the years, which might just be due to getting older and not feeling that I need as much, but this surely helps reduce my footprint as well.

Finally, I also try to take the Eurostar as much as possible, instead of flying and I drive an electric car.

What hopes do you have for the future of the environment?

To help elevate society’s quality of life. By helping companies report on their impact to the environment and society — not just their own operations, but also that of their supply chains — we can gain a better understanding of where governments, innovation, and investments can help further the cause. We can’t completely get away from our reliance on gas, coal, or oil, but by pushing towards greener processes, we can mitigate our environmental impact.

I also believe the social aspect of sustainability is important and deserves more attention. For example, ensuring that people have living wages, identifying when companies are not treating their workforce fairly, and eliminating discrimination to ensure everyone can be themselves, without risk. This will help elevate society, which will, in turn, help elevate the environment.

To read a coffee with series click here

The post A coffee with…Henrik Sandin, director & principal ESG specialist, Workiva appeared first on TechInformed.

After building, growing, leading, and buying high-growth digital companies, he now heads Liminal Ventures, a market intelligence and strategic advisory firm serving the digital identity, fintech, cybersecurity and VC communities.

Crowe is also about to launch a new podcast at the end of this month, The Corporate Ape, which, he claims, will explore ‘the contradiction of human irrationality and the corporate struggle to balance that primate factor with logic, process and technology’.

How have you driven business growth?

Unforeseen external forces can drive unexpected business growth. But being in the right position to take advantage of the hand you’re being dealt takes planning and foresight. I know this from my experience at [used online car retailer] cinch.

Back in 2018, we were stealth — building what would eventually become cinch — a platform for buying cars. At the time, there was no competition in the market. In fact, the thought of buying a car fully online was an alien concept.

You might buy the little things in life online, but you want to look into a person’s eyes and shake hands for the big things, right? Well, we ignored that generally accepted truism and launched in July 2019, and by June 2021 it had become the UK’s number one online B2C marketplace for automobiles, selling 45,000 cars a year.

We made a calculated bet years before the pandemic in 2020, that the car market was ready for disruption. The pandemic accelerated the consumer’s consideration of a new, online way to buy a car — but that consideration was going to happen anyway. And that’s why consumers haven’t switched back to their old purchase habits.

What are some of the challenges you’ve come up against?

Humans tend to resist change. When coaching CEOs and management teams, I often find myself explaining that going against your self-preservation instincts and stepping out of your comfort zone is what transformation and management is all about.

Fostering the right environment for innovation to grow, giving the team both the autonomy and the support needed to experiment safely, incentivising them to refrain from playing it too safe by having them participate in the value of the upside they will create.

Do firms need digital transformation specialists now, or is it just a matter of seeking out a competent software developer with a fistful of APIs?

This is one of the topics I talk about in my upcoming podcast. In terms of whether digital transformation specialists are needed, we need changemakers to marry critical thinking with an ability to manage the technology that holds our knowledge base, and the employees who are working with it.

Critical thinking is still something that I coach to this day, and it is something I observe to still be lacking in many environments.

However, it’s true that the first phase of digital transformation is over. In my experience, too many business leaders approach DT initiatives as something that is project-based and siloed, but that ship has long sailed. I would add that too much digital transformation has been tokenistic, half-hearted and ‘quick fix’ minded.

Digital transformation should involve every department in your organisation — if AI, APIs and automation software is empowering products to deliver results or services to customers five times faster, then all groups need to be prepared for that change.

How do you navigate the balance between wading through the AI hype and setting your business up for success?

There is understandably a lot of trepidation surrounding AI. The reality is that it isn’t going anyway anytime soon — so don’t keep your head in the sand. Bringing AI adoption up in open conversations with your employees is a sure-fire way to bring the entire business along for the ride on how these disruptive technologies will start to bring value.

When integrating AI into actual business workflows, be sure to create guard rails. Try it in a certain part of the business first, limit its access, and connect via trusted (or even better, trustless) APIs to keep safety and security at its core. If you start empowering your workforce to see the benefits that narrow applications of AI can bring to your company, your company will be in a prime position to utilise tomorrow’s technologies today.

What’s been your biggest learning curve in your career to date?

Having led big transformations for over a decade, change is not a technology problem, it’s a people problem. So many hours are spent in boardrooms discussing change. Even when leadership teams agree, not everyone will want to go in the same direction or speed.

Whether this is introducing a new piece of tech, new workflows, or completely restructuring a business — transformations can feel confusing and chaotic to the humans required to let go of the old and adapt to the new.

When we introduce change into someone else’s working life, we need to be prepared for their reaction and attuned to where they are on the journey to acceptance and support. Until we take time to understand human emotions in response to change, our people won’t unlock the power of their adaptability and our transformation efforts will fail.

What lessons do you think technology leaders and digital transformation specialists can learn from the Horizon/ Post Office IT scandal?

This is a much more complicated and layered story than many people may think. My heart goes out to everyone who has been affected by it. I don’t think I know enough, in enough detail, to comment properly. However, there are certainly lots of lessons to learn for sure, but I feel we need to be patient and thorough in understanding the full enquiry rather than picking one conclusion.

Fujitsu awaits fate in Post Office scandal

What do you know for sure?

I’m not convinced I know anything for absolute certain. I’m still pleasantly surprised each year when the days start getting longer again after December 21. I’m not sure I’d want to lose that simple joy and take it for granted.

I’m pretty much convinced my kids are smarter, or at least more together than I was at their age. I am confident that future generations will look back on our current obsession with projecting an imagined life through social media with a sort of semi-affectionate disdain. Maybe at best. I’d be ready to bet a lot of money that lots of music is better live with others, which isn’t to say that there isn’t some music that’s for being on your own with great headphones.

To read the full coffee with series click here

The post A coffee with… Jonny Crowe, transformation CEO, Liminal Ventures appeared first on TechInformed.