Information management

Top science journal faced secret attacks from Covid conspiracy theory group

A conspiratorial group of extreme Brexit lobbyists mounted an extraordinary campaign against one of the world’s most prestigious science journals – part of a series of joint investigations between Byline Times and Computer Weekly Continue Reading

By

• Computer Weekly and Byline Times

CDO interview: Lalo Luna, global head of strategy and insights, Heineken

The brewing giant is building a data ecosystem to bring new insights to the business and to make the most of emerging developments in artificial intelligence capabilities Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

Versity targets Exabyte volumes in data archiving

Versity builds archiving for Exabyte data volumes on tape and in object storage. It has built its own S3 and transitioned to a GPL licence for supercomputing archives Continue Reading

By

• Pierre Berlemont
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How the Australian government is approaching AI

The Australian government is experimenting with AI use cases in a safe environment while it figures out ways to harness the technology to benefit citizens and businesses Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

Scottish watchdog urges wider biometric oversight

Scotland’s biometrics watchdog urges Scottish Parliament to extend oversight of biometric information to include the entire criminal justice system, not just police Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

US lawmakers write to AI firms about ‘gruelling’ work conditions

Lawmakers have written to nine tech companies – including Amazon, Google and Microsoft – about the working conditions of those they employ to train and maintain their artificial intelligence systems, giving them until 11 October 2023 to respond Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

GenAI: Boffins in clover

When Larry Ellison gave his keynote speech at Oracle Cloud World in Las Vegas last week, it would not have been shocking if he had expressed some scepticism about the hype generated by Generative ... Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

IBM reorients to offset historic storage hardware decline

Storage profile: We look at IBM and the strategic shifts it has made towards the cloud, cloud-native and as-a-service offerings that aim to reverse a long-term decline in revenues Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

UK government quietly disbands data ethics advisory board

The government has disbanded its Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation’s advisory board in favour of pulling the relevant artificial intelligence (AI) and data knowledge from a pool of external experts Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

business process mapping

Business process mapping is the visual display of the steps within a business process showing how it's done from start to finish. Continue Reading

By

• Mary K. Pratt

How Liverpool FC is tapping cloud and data analytics

Liverpool Football Club is leveraging data analytics and cloud technology to improve fan engagement and enable its media production team to work more efficiently Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

How Confluent is tapping the groundswell in data streaming

Confluent CEO Jay Kreps talks up the misconceptions of Kafka and what the company is doing to help customers better leverage the capabilities of the technology Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

Lords begin inquiry into large language models

Lords will examine the risks and opportunities of large language models and look at how government can effectively manage them in the coming years Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Oracle CloudWorld 2023: Ellison heralds dawn of generative AI era

Oracle’s founder and chief technology officer, Larry Ellison, lends his heft to the generative AI vogue Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

business process improvement (BPI)

Business process improvement (BPI) is a practice in which enterprise leaders analyze their business processes to identify areas where they can improve accuracy, effectiveness and efficiency and then make changes within the processes to realize these improvements. Continue Reading

By

• Mary K. Pratt

business process

A business process is an activity or set of activities that accomplish a specific organizational goal. Business processes should have purposeful goals, be as specific as possible and produce consistent outcomes. Continue Reading

By

• Mary K. Pratt
• Mekhala Roy
• Emily McLaughlin, Coravin

Microsoft to offer Oracle cloud database on Azure

Oracle and Microsoft have trumpeted an expansion of their joint activity with the launch of Oracle Database@Azure. Microsoft will be the only other hyperscaler to offer OCI services Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

How India is driving tech developments at G20

India’s G20 presidency marks an important stride towards establishing a global regulatory framework for the crypto industry, among other tech developments discussed at the global forum in New Delhi this year Continue Reading

By

• Pratima Harigunani

A straightforward look at SAP master data automation

If you're knee-deep in the world of SAP and data management, you almost certainly know the pain of dirty data. It's inaccurate, inconsistent, and a real headache when you're trying to make ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

Singapore firefighters don smartglasses for equipment inspections

Firefighters from the Singapore Civil Defence Force will employ smartglasses equipped with computer vision and 5G capabilities to perform visual inspections of their equipment Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

How DocuSign is extending its capabilities beyond e-signatures

DocuSign is harnessing large language models to help individuals make sense of agreements and employing AI-based biometrics to verify the identity of signers, as part of its broader efforts to expand its capabilities beyond electronic signatures Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

Podcast: ‘Data first’ a key principle of digital transformation

Chris Gorton of Syniti says organisations should put data first during digital transformation projects, and that means getting data quality, access rights and governance right Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

University of Glasgow launches Centre for data science and AI

Scottish university will apply artificial intelligence and data science to help solve some of the world's biggest challenges Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

KPMG finds growing demand for emerging tech

KPMG’s latest global tech report reveals an increase in the number of businesses adopting emerging technologies Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Government AI taskforce appoints new advisory board members

An initial progress report published by the Taskforce provides detail on new appointments to its external advisory board as well as rebrand to focus on “frontier” artificial intelligence Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Singapore taps Lidar and laser scanning in remote building inspections

With the 3D data generated reality capture technologies, detailed inspections can be conducted remotely, eliminating the need for inspectors from technical authorities to be present onsite Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

French supreme court dismisses legal challenge to EncroChat cryptophone evidence

Defence lawyers plan to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights after the French supreme court disallowed an appeal over the legality of EncroChat evidence Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Investigations Editor

German court unclear whether intercepted EncroChat cryptophone messages are legally admissible

Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court is waiting to hear five complaints that could decide whether data from the hacked EncroChat phone network can be lawfully used in German courts, but situation remains unclear for now Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Investigations Editor

CIO interview: Cynthia Stoddard, Adobe

Adobe's IT chief is looking to build on its cloud migration with widespread adoption of AI, machine learning and robotic process automation – as well as low-code/no-code software development tools Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

Ryder Cup testbed to feature tech firsts in Rome

This year’s Ryder Cup will test out technology to improve how fans digitally consume the event while reducing the workload on IT teams Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

TUC launches AI taskforce for workers’ rights and societal benefit

The Trades Union Congress has launched what it calls an AI ‘taskforce’ to draft an AI and Employment Bill, aimed at safeguarding workers’ rights, early in 2024 Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

The challenges of integrating SaaS applications

SaaS has grown from a handful of applications to a vast market covering almost every type of business task. We look at the integration challenges Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Police Scotland five-year digital strategy approved

Police Scotland’s new strategy outlines how the force will approach and invest in its digital transformation over the next five years, but notes its ability to achieve its ambitions is subject to the availability of funding Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

The companies set to win using LLMs are the responsible ones

This is a guest blogpost by Triveni Gandhi, Responsible AI Lead, Dataiku Large Language Models (LLMs) including ChatGPT have seemingly moved from hype, to hot seat, to hazard. In the midst of the ... Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Home Office and MoD seeking new facial-recognition tech

The UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator is running a ‘market exploration’ exercise on behalf of the Home Office to identify new facial-recognition capabilities for security and policing bodies in the UK Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

GenAI outranks cloud as business IT strategic priority

Enterprise Strategy Group research on the use cases for generative AI shows it as strategic for corporate IT, with impacts on customer experience, software development and IT Ops Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Met police data platform deployed with data protection issues

Met Police deploys integrated record management system despite data protection ‘compliance issues' that would inhibit its ability to retrieve data, meet its statutory logging requirements, and respond to subject access requests Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

change request

A change request is a formal proposal for an alteration to some product or system. Continue Reading

By

• Paul Kirvan

Is the data guardian hinting that Palantir should be ousted from NHS IT?

Nicola Byrne, the National Data Guardian, published a blogpost on the Gov.uk site on 24 August that seems to suggest Palantir should be excluded from the technology involved in the NHS Federated ... Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

heat map (heatmap)

A heat map is a two-dimensional representation of data in which various values are represented by colors. Continue Reading

By

• Rahul Awati

Met Police data platform £64m over budget

A freedom of information request has revealed that the Met’s Connect integrated record management system is running tens of millions over budget, and has already generated more than 25,000 support requests so far Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

BSI launches sustainability-focused startup accelerator

Startups selected to participate in the BSI and Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership’s joint sustainability startup accelerator are working in a diverse range of areas and using a variety of technologies to positively affect society Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

NUHS taps LLM to boost productivity, patient care

Healthcare professionals at Singapore’s National University Health System can now summarise patient case notes and predict patient healthcare journeys using a large language model trained by a supercomputer Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

Biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner resigns

Dual biometrics and surveillance camera watchdog will step down at the end of October 2023, noting that while he agreed to stay on until the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill received royal assent, continuing delays to its passage means he will not be able to effectively discharge his functions Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Nutanix GPT-in-a-Box aims hyper-converged at AI/ML use cases

Nutanix targets a pre-configured bundle of AI/ML and GPT software with hyper-converged infrastructure and GPT to help organisations safely take advantage of learning networks Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How Qualtrics is driving experience management

Qualtrics’ global and regional leaders outline the company’s product directions, including its work in AI, its traction in the region and the future of experience management Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

Network Rail uses Google AI to assess trackside biodiversity

The rail network company has worked with London Zoo to monitor trackside bird and bat activity Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

MoD embarks on cloud-based push to digitise data protection request service

After previously finding itself on the receiving end of a reprimand from the UK data protection watchdog for taking too long to respond to subject access requests, the Ministry of Defence sets out how its turned the situation around with the help of cloud-based system eCase Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

AI interview: Krystal Kauffman, lead organiser, Turkopticon

Remote Mechanical Turk workers are responsible for training artificial intelligence algorithms and completing other data-related business processes - we hear about the workplace issues they face Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

dimension

In data warehousing, a dimension is a collection of reference information that supports a measurable event, such as a customer transaction. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

Pentland Brands marshals Google BigQuery to improve customer insight

The name behind Speedo, Berghaus, Canterbury of New Zealand and Kickers turns to Google BigQuery to improve customer data understanding Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

disambiguation

Disambiguation is the process of determining a word's meaning -- or sense -- within its specific context. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

Workplace monitoring needs worker consent, says select committee

Employers looking to monitor their employees through connected devices should only to so with the consent of those affected due to negative impacts such surveillance can have on work intensification and mental health Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

How to improve developer productivity

In this week’s Computer Weekly, our latest buyer’s guide examines the developer experience and looks at how critical it can be for productivity. The tech sector still struggles with diversity and inclusion – we ask what’s standing in the way of ethnic minorities making it to the top. And Goldman Sachs’ CDO tells us how a ‘tech-nerd’ built a career in financial IT. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Wirral Council set to deploy Microsoft Fabric data platform

The platform, which is being developed in collaboration with Simpson Associates, will be used to aid decision-making and improve operations Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

change management strategy

A change management strategy is a plan for or systematic approach to dealing with a transition or transformation in an organization. Continue Reading

By

• Paul Kirvan

Vast Data Platform aims at storage everywhere for AI/ML workloads

Vast Data to offer storage with data lake and warehouse functionality built in natively, in anticipation of a huge surge in AI/ML workloads and a need for ever-larger data stores Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

We’re doing AI all wrong

In this week’s Computer Weekly, AI is being imposed upon society from the top down and the socio-economic implications will cause problems – we talk to an expert who says there is a better way. We find out how hackers – the good kind – are turning to AI to make their work more effective. And we examine how generative AI will affect the datacentre. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

What does a knowledge champion do?

Knowledge champions use communication and leadership skills to encourage their department or group members to adopt knowledge management best practices. Continue Reading

By

• Tim Murphy, Site editor

Large language models harnessed for education

Large language models are being used to teach, support and assess students, enhancing education rather than impairing it Continue Reading

By

• SA Mathieson

Chief data officer interview: Neema Raphael, Goldman Sachs

After two decades at Goldman Sachs, Neema Raphael tells Computer Weekly about his tech journey at one of the world’s biggest banks Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Gartner: Steps to improving test data management

Product teams face issues around poor practices in test data management and failure to comply with data regulations – we look at ways to address those issues Continue Reading

By

• Alys Woodward

How generative AI fuels customer experience programmes

Generative AI could be a game-changer for CX if firms think use case and not tech. What do recent AI developments mean for customer experience programmes? Continue Reading

By

• Madeline Bennett, Mowser Media

Risks of opening up AI

Meta has annouced that its Llama 2 large language model will be freely available under a community licence with certain restrictions Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

ServiceNow Q2 2023: 23% year-on-year growth with GenAI to fore

ServiceNow has announced second-quarter 2023 revenue of $2.15bn, up 23% on the same quarter in 2022. The digital workflows automation supplier stressed GenAI developments and partnerships Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability)

In transaction processing, ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability) is an acronym and mnemonic device used to refer to the four essential properties a transaction should possess to ensure the integrity and reliability of the data involved in the transaction. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

Inside Cloudera’s data platform strategy

Cloudera executives outline their business and technology strategy to help enterprises harness generative AI and other capabilities through its work in the open source community and other areas Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

Artificial intelligence puts Microsoft Azure in top gear

Microsoft’s latest quarterly earnings results show the company’s public cloud business was the largest contributor to revenue Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

How the high street gains from advanced data analytics

This is a guest blog post by Phillip Sewell, CEO at Predyktable. The high street is finally back in business, with customers flocking back to stores, restaurants and pubs. To fuel and sustain this ... Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Small satellite testing gets funding boost

A new facility has been established as part of the government’s £200m funding for Earth Observation Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

CDO interview: Robert Michael, group head of data, DFS

‘Data Bob’ is transforming data strategy at furniture retailer DFS, aiming to build a digital twin of the company to improve business modelling – but his first task is to make sure people can trust data. Continue Reading

Getting comfortable with data

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to ‘Data Bob’ – the head of IT at furniture retailer DFS – about building trust in data. The vulnerabilities in MOVEit software continue to attract new victims – we assess the impact of the widespread breaches. And we find out how online investigators are trawling social media to gather evidence of war crimes. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

snowflaking (snowflake schema)

In data warehousing, snowflaking is a form of dimensional modeling in which dimensions are stored in multiple related dimension tables. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

Privacy and participation – technologies to open data for innovation

The Open Data Institute has launched Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) and participatory data programmes. The ODI’s Calum Inverarity explains why they matter Continue Reading

By

• Calum Inverarity

conformed dimension

In data warehousing, a conformed dimension is a dimension that has the same meaning to every fact with which it relates. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

HR software and strategies to combat staff attrition

While there is no simple technological solution to the problem of staff attrition, a combination of management strategies and business applications can improve engagement and retention Continue Reading

By

• Cath Everett

dimension table

In data warehousing, a dimension table is a database table that stores attributes describing the facts in a fact table. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

Online Safety Bill screening measures amount to ‘prior restraint’

The Open Rights Group is calling on Parliament to reform the Online Safety Bill, on the basis that its content-screening measures would amount to “prior restraint” on freedom of expression Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Time to sound the alarm as AI hype catches fire

One of the most worrying things that’s coming out of recent research, both ours and other people’s, is just how wildly different attitudes to AI – and especially generative AI – can be between ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

Microsoft’s Nadella sees massive growth opportunity in AI

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella uses his keynote at the company’s Inspire partner conference to discuss the economic potential of artificial intelligence Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

‘Significant gaps’ in UK AI regulation, says Ada Lovelace Institute

UK government’s plans to diffuse regulatory responsibility for AI among existing regulators will mean the tech is “only partially regulated”, while its data reforms will undercut already-limited existing protections, says Ada Lovelace Institute Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Computer Weekly: Soaring ahead with data at Rolls-Royce

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out how aerospace giant Rolls-Royce is using data science, machine learning and internet of things to improve its competitive advantage. We examine the benefits and best practices in software-defined storage. And we analyse calls for a review of laws around the use of computer evidence prompted by the Post Office IT scandal. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Police Scotland use cloud for biometric data despite clear risks

Police Scotland confirms it has stored significant volumes of biometric data on a cloud-based digital evidence sharing system despite major ongoing data protection concerns, bringing into question the effectiveness of the current regulatory approach and the overall legality of using hyperscale public cloud technologies in a policing context Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

UCLH uses machine learning to cope with emergency beds demand

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has deployed a machine learning tool which uses real-time data to predict how many emergency beds will be needed Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Improve business outcomes by managing data and analytics risk

An effective data and analytics risk and control environment requires a full understanding of data, analytics and AI risks, related risk decisions and their impact on business outcomes Continue Reading

By

• Saul Judah

Civil society groups call on EU to put human rights at centre of AI Act

Dozens of civil society groups are calling on EU institutions to prioritise people and human rights in AI legislation as secretive negotiations begin Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

MPs launch inquiry into government use of data

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee is to investigate the possibility of reforming the way government collects and analyses data, and whether the UK census could be scrapped Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

CaixaBank adds hundreds more IT professionals to support digital transformation

CaixaBank is recruiting 200 more IT professionals in Spain to support its ongoing digital transformation Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Digital public services ‘riddled’ with problems, says TUC

The UK’s increasingly digitised public services are plagued by design, governance and workplace issues that are undermining the government’s stated goal of improving efficiency, but can be alleviated by giving public sector workers a greater say in how new technologies are being developed, deployed and controlled Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

EU formally grants data adequacy to US

The European Commission has formally granted the US data adequacy, allowing companies and organisations to freely transfer personal data across the Atlantic via the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. But privacy activist Max Schrems has already committed to legally challenging the decision Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

How to assess and stem digital transformation failures

Digital transformation projects have bred a litany of failure. How can this tendency be reversed? Continue Reading

By

• Cath Everett

Finland’s VTT partners Nokia on data market

Finish state’s involvement in Nokia project will add weight and capital to work on creating a market for data Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Met Office bids to make climate data more accessible with Esri

The Met Office is offering a new data portal, built on Esri’s geographic information systems technology, to enable users to understand local and national impacts of climate change Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

How Confluent is maintaining its edge in event streaming

Confluent co-founder Jun Rao talks up the company’s business and how it competes with hyperscalers and other suppliers of managed Kafka services Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

Biometrics watchdog calls for public space surveillance review

The biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner is calling for a review of public space surveillance to gain a clearer picture about the proliferation of Chinese surveillance technology across the public sector, but warns against applying double standards on companies just because they are from China Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Privacy campaigners call for UK data adequacy to be revoked

The European Commission should revoke the UK’s data adequacy if its Data Protection and Digital Information Bill passes, which campaigners argue ‘flies in the face’ of the decision Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

An AI crash is coming: don’t let it drag you down

All the signs are there that an AI crash is coming: overinflated claims and dodgy hype, a serious lack of expectation management, fears around privacy, ethics and fairness, over-enthusiastic ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

Germany: European Court of Justice hears arguments on lawfulness of EncroChat cryptophone evidence

The European Court of Justice will decide whether the collection and sharing of data intercepted by law enforcement from EncroChat crypto phone network is compatible with European law Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Investigations Editor

Allo Bank taps Tencent Cloud in digital banking

Indonesia’s largest digital lender is tapping Tencent Cloud’s TDSQL database management system and cloud infrastructure to provide digital banking services for six million customers Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

How should global companies respond to the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act?

This is a guest blogpost by Greg Hanson, GVP, platform sales specialist, Informatica. The impact of EU regulations does not stop at the borders of Europe. We saw this with the General Data ... Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor