WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab gestures during a news
conference in 2013. This year’s forum started on Wednesday. AFP
The world’s political and economic elite are in
Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum (WEF) amid most
confusing set of conditions. This year’s theme is The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business.
While the focus is always on the geo- and
socio-political component, I usually celebrate technological
breakthroughs and the companies behind them.
Covering a diverse range of industries and
opportunities — green tech, education, health care, information services
to name a few —I will share some personal favourites out of the 36 from
across the globe that made the list.
Big Data: We churn copious
amounts of data daily, leaving digital footprints as we go along.
Leveraged for good, these data points have immense potential in crafting
services we can never do without in the future from the sheer value
added to our lives.
But where would one begin? Enter Kaggle, a
platform that brings together data scientists from across the globe to
compete and improve analysis by working on efficient algorithms to solve
business challenges and help companies extract value from data.
Education: I have issues with the
positioning and model of delivery in the current systems of education,
having a skewed focus on examination and grading as opposed to knowledge
transfer whose measurement should be in the application of the acquired
skill.
Coursera and Codecademy democratise the knowledge
transfer process while taking into account the nuances of learning such
as not everyone picks up concepts at the same rate. A certain level of
knowledge has historically been positioned as a reserve for the
privileged; not anymore.
Green energy
Healthcare: There are amazing things happening on this front with applications focused on more refined and targeted healthcare delivery.
Agios is crafting enzymes that starved diseased
cells of nutrients and Bluebird bio is taking bold steps using viruses
to “rewrite” DNA to stem effects and spread of genetic diseases.
There are robotics and green energy plays, but I feel we are not in that opportunity zone yet.
Beyond the roundtables, keynotes, breakout
sessions and the inevitable partying that happen at Davos, some
actionable and commendable good achievable in both short and medium
term is output by way of identifying standout technologies , whether in
production or already deployed.
Mr Njihia is CEO of Symbiotic | Twitter - @mbuguanjihia.
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