• Today, data science, big data and spatial data analytics are redefining how things are done.
• Opportunities presented override the challenges associated with technology.
Technology is quickly changing, influencing how we relate with each other, what we do and how we do it.
There is no doubt this development presents a battery of opportunities and challenges alike; but by any metric, opportunities presented override the challenges.
In his much detailed analysis on the future of technology in the 1930s, economist Joseph Schumpeter observes that technology will continuously present improved ways of doing things that will be shortlived by even more innovative technologies and that the cycle will remain in what he called ‘creative destruction’. Today, we call it ‘disruptive technology.’
As it constantly evolves, there are gaps that are created in its adoption. These gaps are occasioned by a range of issues that are not limited to the cost aspect, availability or accessibility, but by lack of training and capacity development especially where technology presents more technical ways of analysing various aspects that can influence an ordinary workplace.
Today, data science, big data and spatial data analytics are redefining how things are done. The world is fast adopting these emergent skills that will influence the workplace environment and how policies are implemented. In response to these changes, there is an incessant need for universities and other institutions to incessantly develop and review existing programmes because there are high expectations that come with technology.
For instance, training of farmers, community-based groups, county and national government officials on how to extract spatial data to suit their managerial practices, has the propensity to increase farm yields and will go a long way in meeting the aspirations of the Big Four agenda on food security.
Economist