In this episode of the Data Show, I spoke with Jerry Overton, senior principal and distinguished technologist at DXC Technology. I wanted the perspective of someone who works across industries and with a variety of companies. I specifically wanted to explore the current state of data science and AI within companies and public sector agencies. As much as we talk about use cases, technologies, and algorithms, there are also important issues that practitioners like Overton need to address, including privacy, security, and ethics. Overton has long been involved in teaching and mentoring new data scientists, so we also discussed some tips and best practices he shares with new members of his team.

Teaching and Implementing Data Science and AI in the Enterprise

O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators. At O’Reilly, a big part of our business is paying attention to what’s new and interesting in the world of technology. We have a pretty good record at having anticipated some of the big technology developments in recent history. For instance, we launched the first commercial Web site, GNN, in 1993; we organized the meeting at which the term “open source” was first adopted; we were early investors in Blogger, which helped launch the blogging revolution; and more recently, our Web 2.0 conference launched a world-wide meme. We call this predictive sense the “O’Reilly Radar.” And while we’re certainly not always right, we are, at least, good at making interesting guesses.

Our methodology is simple: we draw from the wisdom of the alpha geeks in our midst, paying attention to what’s interesting to them, amplifying these weak signals, and seeing where they fit into the innovation ecology. Add to that the original research conducted by our Research team, and you start to get a good picture of what the technology world is thinking about.

Teaching and Implementing Data Science and AI in the Enterprise

O'Reilly Radar