DailyPost 2850
DATA SILOS TO DATA TOMBS – WHAT WE REALLY DO WITH DATA?
We live in a world of high tech and hyper connectivity, a product of the first quarter of the 21st century, with 20th century institutions and enterprises and the mindset of the 19th century. Super tech and super speed is not the challenge, the challenge are our institutions and our mindsets. Cyber / digital is still supposed to be the replica of our physical activities and we imagine and plan from that prism, while the world has reached a milestone, where physical has become a distant past. Understanding databases is a must. Our decision makers do not understand this transformational reality and are missing out on the digital woods for simple mechanically transactional digital gains.
The war cry has to be only one, digital first and digital last. Creation, validation, authentication; individual or from enterprise, needs to happen instantaneously based on the business logic factored in the operational software and also based on permissions and approvals, required on a case to case basis. At the present juncture we live in a data siloed world, the databases pertain to mostly one single activity or a group of activities or at the max of the whole enterprise, that is exceptional. Its availability for any other purpose but for what was prescribed in the physical world generally is not possible.
Data silos have brought us to a level, where most of the data remains unused. The other proposition is also true, that only a small share of our requirements are met with the databases, which together, have the capability to take care of nearly all our issues. We have thus learnt to live with data tombs. We have the data and we do not know how to use it. Based on huge databases of the government, China is forging ahead forcefully in AI. Few run of the mill usages of our databases will make things clear; for passport application, one should be in a position to get police verification by directly tapping into the national database of crime and criminals. Or on a prompt it can go automatically to the concerned authority.
Conversely, the passport authorities can directly access the criminal antecedents or the lack of it, based on strict digital access and privileges mechanism. Take a very plausible scenario, with some efforts, all questions asked in the parliament get replied in an automated manner. It is a doable proposition, it would cut down preparation time for government departments considerably and there would be sufficient time to quality debates, which lies at the core of our democracy. As the source of the data can be provided near instantaneously, there would be no battle on the veracity of data. If the concerned authorities could officially access documents based on an official / digital protocol, the case of an IAS trainee currently under enquiry, could have surfaced a long time back. In such a scenario there can be provisions of all connected records to be viewed. Additionally, the person issuing a new certificate could at least know what all certificates have been issued to the applicant earlier. Based on a new digital regime, an audit of such certificates is a must.
DIGITAL WORLD NOT ENABLED FOR THE PURPOSES IT SHOULD SERVE, EFFICIENTLY AND INSTANTANEOUSLY, IS THE OUTCOME OF OUTDATED MINDSETS AND CONFUSED UNDERSTANDING OF THE CYBER WORLD.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.