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2012 - The Year of Opportunity - DNI2020
2012 will undoubtedly be a year of significant challenges for businesses and our citizens, as the effects of the financial crisis continue to weigh down on both activity and also self belief. In this short blog, to mark the first day of 2012, I...
So the pipes are now in the ground and a lot of investment has and continues to be made to connect “our wee country” together.
Northern Ireland now has the opportunity to become one of the leading digital platforms anywhere in the world. Along with our other marketable features, we have the credentials to attract FDI with superfast broadband with low levels of latency. We also have the potential to empower local businesses, schools and citizens with tools and services that will maximise economic growth, improve our quality of life and achieve social uplift. We have already made tremendous progress in some areas, with lots of examples of innovative companies and technologies harnessing technology to make them leaders in their field. Superfast broadband is now being delivered to businesses and homes across Northern Ireland that will enable services that were previously just a pipedream. Cloud computing has opened up limitless opportunities for everyone with a simple web browser to tap into powerful resources that were previously only available to multinational organisations.
We are now beyond the simple web-site / Dot com culture. We have now moved on to back-end value add services to send and receive information via web-portals, to access vast quantities of time sensitive data quickly and securely, to stream applications in real-time.
But how do we harness it all? How do we focus our efforts to make this happen and leverage the potential that Northern Ireland plc currently has? How will our ICT strategy and implementation be shaped over the next ten years, how will it impact everyone in Northern Ireland? Where are the gaps? Who is going to fill the voids? How do we get government, businesses, communities, service providers and all the other stakeholders to agree on the best way forward to make all this happen.
Digital Northern Ireland 2020 (DNI2020) goal is to engage with stakeholders and focus the energy of key players and influencers to transform Northern Ireland into an exemplar of the 21st Century global knowledge economy.
DNI2020’s Virtual ICT Week from 28th November to 2nd December 2011, sponsored by Eircom Northern Ireland and with support from Cisco and Microsoft. It will be a series of lunchtime webinars on a range of issues that will impact Northern Ireland stakeholders. We encourage anyone with an interest in our collective future to attend and participate, and to ask the question “what does all this mean for me?”
| Date | Webinar theme | Speakers / panel |
| Monday 28th November, 1-2pm | 21st Century Digital Economy – Northern Ireland – Stretching for Excellence | Dr Peter Cochrane and Dr Sinclair Stockman |
| Tuesday 29th November, 1-2pm | Smart Cities and Communities | Robert McCarthy, IBM Mark Nagurski, Digital Derry Jeff Peel, Quadriga Consulting |
| Wednesday 30th November, 1-2pm | Building the Cloud | Denis Murphy, Whisple Mark Cawley, eircom NI |
| Thursday 1st December, 1-2pm | Business Opportunities – exploiting the digital platform to grow business | Stephen Brennan , Digital Hub Dr Sinclair Stockman Exemplar business leads: James Scott, Jamport; David Cunningham, Cunningham Covers; |
| Friday 2nd December, 1-2pm | Digital benefits to our citizens | Chris Chant, Cabinet Office Mark Feeney, eSkills NI |
