Changing the World, One Continent at a Time

The TED Institute micro-documentary on Project SyNAPSE gave us a look at the future of cognitive computing, with glimpses at some possible practical applications. Those exciting possibilities become positively exhilarating in the Project Lucy micro-documentary, which gives us an idea of the potential for cognitive computing to transform a continent.

The project is a collaboration between IBM researchers in Africa and the company’s business and academic partners to bring to bear the full power of IBM Watson on the continent’s biggest challenges. The goal is to use Watson to discover insights from big data and develop commercially viable solutions in the areas of energy, healthcare, water and sanitation, agriculture, human mobility and education.

It is this last area that is the particular focus of IBM researcher Dr. Charity Wayua. In the film, the Kenya-based Wayua lays out the ambitions for cognitive computing to give teachers greater ability to deal with crowded classrooms. Armed with data-based insights, teachers can address needs and situations on a student-by-student basis.

While Africa’s challenges are daunting, it is far from the only place where classrooms are overcrowded, teachers are overstretched and children are underserved. The potential impact on Africa’s education systems is awesome to contemplate, and it’s easy to see how the benefits could be replicated around the globe. Add in the other challenges Project Lucy is tackling and the potential for cognitive computing to improve the lives of millions becomes even greater.

“For the African continent,” says Wayua, “I think this is going to be our 'big bet' on transformation.” If that big bet pays off, it won’t just transform Africa, it will transform the world.

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#20Questions with Erick Brethenoux

Meet Erick , Director of Business Analytics and Decision Management Strategy at IBM, curious connectionist, unconventional thinker, and soon-to-be TED speaker!

Get ready to be inspired by Erick as he Reimagines Our World at TED@IBM with his talk on emotional analytics.

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#20Questions with Bryan Kramer

Meet Bryan , CEO of PureMatter, an award winning global digital agency, social strategist, author of the acclaimed book: Human to Human #H2H, and soon-to-be TED speaker!

Get ready to be inspired by Bryan as he Reimagines Our World at TED@IBM with his talk on the importance of sharing.

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Brand Image and Security Concerns – All the More Reason to Become a Social Business

A new post on SocializeMe:To get the full benefit of social business, you must inject it into your key business processes for stronger customer engagement and workforce collaboration. But many enterprises are afraid to fully embrace social business, with 30 percent of them citing security concerns and perceived risk as major adoption barriers, according to IBM's 2014 Business Tech Trends report.

But these fearful enterprises need to realize the true nature of social business. At its core, social business is a grassroots movement. Your customers have already embraced social. They’re online, on multiple channels, multiple platforms, talking about your business and reviewing your products and solutions. In other words, there’s no such thing as ‘opting out’ of social business.



In fact, the real risks of security and brand perception are increased when you don’t engage in social business. If you're struggling to integrate social into the core of your business internally and externally, IBM can help.



For example, IBM Connections can help you reorganize, restructure and transform your enterprise into an effective social business with social guidelines and policies set into place to optimize both customer engagement and your internal workforce communication.



When social business is done right, the possibilities are endless. In fact, Pacesetters engaging in social business have reported an 87 percent stronger competitive advantage in their respective markets.



To read the full IBM 2014 Business Tech Trends report, click here.



To watch the webcast replay of the Business Tech Trends announcement, click here.

After you’ve read the report, join us for a Bluemix app JAM! Simply download the report's data in an IBM Bluemix app and start discovering new insights! Share with us and IBM will highlight our favorites!

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Engaging Employees to Drive the Business: The Smarter Workforce ebook

“The Smarter Workforce story is the story of how we work.” So begins the new ebook “Engaging Employees to Drive the Business: How IBM uses workforce science, analytics and collaboration tools to build its Smarter Workforce” (available here). This story starts with IBM’s recognition that we have entered the era of the empowered individual, and this new era requires a new HR strategy encompassing work, talent and culture.

Core to the strategy and its three tent poles is the need to engage employees. Empowered employees can be a company’s greatest asset, but only if the company puts people at the center. Employees who aren’t engaged will be underutilized and unproductive – until ultimately they leave for greener pastures, typically at a competitor. Organizations which don’t want to suffer this fate must transform their workforce accordingly.

In chapters on work, talent and culture, the ebook explains how IBM implemented its Smarter Workforce initiative to transform its HR operations. The company approached those three core components not as separate but as interdependent, and it brought to bear all of its expertise and experience in the tools and the organization necessary to achieve a robust and meaningful workforce transformation.

IBM’s own HR transformation holds lessons for other companies undertaking a strategic approach to aligning work, talent and culture to put employees at the center. Big data and analytics, for example, are giving companies unprecedented insight into human behavior, including what makes people good at what they do. That insight is absolutely fundamental to finding, attracting and retaining top talent.

Mobile and cloud give people the anywhere, anytime access to the information and expertise that allow them to perform to their fullest potential, while social business lets employees connect and collaborate to achieve a collective impact far greater than that of any individual. Social is also a key to transforming culture, creating the interactions needed for learning, sharing, innovation and much more.

Like all good stories, the Smarter Workforce story is still being written. Business conditions will continue to evolve, and with that will come evolutions in how we work. “Engaging Employees to Drive the Business” presents critical insights on what companies need to consider when designing their workforce strategy, with plenty of food for thought about the road ahead.

You can access the ebook here, and be sure to share it on your social channels!

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