The Case for Digital Globish

The Case for Digital Globish

When a computer scientist and a CEO discuss how to harness the power of Big Data, how good is their understanding? The answer is limited, at best, even though they both speak English.

We are on the brink of learning how to exploit Big Data, those highly complex data sets which could yield huge benefits to our society. But there is a communication gap between the digital academics and data scientists on the one hand, and the psychologists and business community, who want to put the data to work, on the other.

This was highlighted recently when Future Care (UK) Ltd  was invited to take part in Data City Data Nation (DCDN), a world-class initiative by Digital Catapult, aimed at bringing Big Data communities together to: ‘develop smart solutions to real-life challenges’. The launch of DCDN’s healthcare and wellness challenge offered the opportunity to tackle challenges like finding commonalties within our data and other data sets, in order to identify reactive and preventative health algorithms and other innovations.

We formulated our DCDN challenge and described it to the data scientists, but found they could not see things from our point of view. There was a gulf between the way we saw things and the way the academics and psychologists did. They stuck to their proscriptive, linear methodology, while we wanted to take a freer, multi-dimensional approach, digging into the data and seeing where it could take us. They wanted a precise question while we wanted serendipitous discovery. We lacked a common language and understanding; we lacked Globish.

When a computer scientist and a CEO discuss how to harness the power of Big Data, how good is their understanding? The answer is limited, at best, even though they both speak English.

Globish is the term coined by Jean-Paul Nerrière, retired vice president of IBM in the US, for the pared-down version of English used in the business world to overcome language barriers. Nerrière points out that non-native English speakers can communicate more easily between themselves using Globish than native English speakers can with non-native speakers. 

And there is a parallel in the digital business world. We need a digital equivalent of Globish, to communicate what Big Data is in terms that business can understand. The concept of Big Data so innovative that we need new ways to describe it, which allow us to see the world in a totally different way. 

But the digital experts also need to learn to use a simpler, common language when we talk about Big Data and its applications. This new way of communicating, or digital Globish, could set Big Data free from universities and computer labs and allow business to harness its full potential to improve lives.

Media Contact Details:

Andrew Cowen, Founder & Chairman/CEO, +44 7905 756 769 info@futhurecareuk.com 
Technical queries: Bradford Rogers, MD, +44 7541 937385 Brad.Rogers@futurecareuk.com 
Blog: http://futurecareuk.blogspot.co.uk/