Geoscience Data Mining and Visualisation Brainstorming Weekend

Early 2016 New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) have put out calls for interested parties for a business to govt (B2G) data innovation challenge, one "opportunity" in particular is about "Geoscience Data management" - thought that I have some strengths and competency to contribute and was keen to have a say.

The Challenge: 

This so called R9 Accelerator brings the public and private sectors together to make it easier for business to interact with New Zealand government.

http://www.r9accelerator.co.nz/opportunities/opportunity14/

A prototype model could be applied to a range of other large databases managed by government, businesses and science institutions across the country. Data management issues are common internationally, so the model could have applications overseas.

On 29th Jan to 31st Jan 2016 was a full weekend information workshop in Miramar, Wellington. Subsequently, if interested, one would have to apply for the 3 months accelerator programme (either as team member or as mentor/domain expert).

http://www.r9accelerator.co.nz/apply/

http://www.r9accelerator.co.nz/timeline/

If teams would get elected to the full programme they would take part in the three month Accelerator starting 1st of March, then pitch to investors. This could be an opportunity to learn how private sector could better interact with govt data.

Alternatively, one could to consider to be involved on higher level into the process, which would be sort of part-time mentorship govt navigator or domain expert type participation.

http://www.r9accelerator.co.nz/take-part/support-a-team/

http://www.r9accelerator.co.nz/take-part/invest-in-a-team/

The plan was to show up and try to form a team and develop an idea and basic plan over the weekend, which will then be pitched on Sunday in a two minute presentation. This apparently would have the most impact on a team's chance of being accepted into the 3 months intense programme, where a real prototype is supposed to be developed by the team. The official application via an online form is then only a formal act to be completed subsequently for an already consistent and focussed team from the weekend).

The Geoscience Data Management opportunity was only one out of 14 or 15, and it's not obvious how many teams tackle each opportunity and how many applications are thought to go forward.

The Team Brainstorming Weekend:

There was a wild crowd of young and old, but only the team around the geodata challenge seemed to be high profile.

Katalyst / KDM Spectrum Data from Australia, Schlumberger, and the NZ agencies MBIE, LINZ, NIWA, GNS (Guy Maslen / Globe Claritas) had representatives there. So we were locked away over the weekend to brainstorm ideas to address MBIE's and NZPM immediate problem of nicer representation/delivery/visualisation of prospectivity data for possible investors in oil&gas and minerals.

From Dave Darby pitching the challenge...

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - January 29: R9 Accelerator Day 1: January 29, 2016 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Mark Tantrum/ http://mark tantrum.com, COPYRIGHT:2016 Mark Tantrum)

over group discussions...

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - January 30: R9 Accelerator Day 2. January 30, 2016 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Elias Rodriguez/ eliasrodriguez.co.nz) COPYRIGHT:2015 Elias Rodriguez

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - January 30: R9 Accelerator Day 2. January 30, 2016 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Elias Rodriguez/ eliasrodriguez.co.nz) COPYRIGHT:2015 Elias Rodriguez

.. toward the final pitch of what a team could possibly achieve if funded (respectively participate in this accelerator program):

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - January 31: R9 Accelerator Day 3. January 31, 2016 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Elias Rodriguez/ eliasrodriguez.co.nz) COPYRIGHT:2015 Elias Rodriguez

The (preliminary) Summary:

It could have been a great set-up for creating specific start-up type business solutions for MBIE across their departments.

We came up with designated/suggested team members , e.g. Guy Holmes and Tony Duffy(KDM Spectrum Data), Marielle Lange, a developer, Gavin Chapman, geodata management team at MBIE and I. We also suggested an advisory group, as far as I get it together: Dave Darby (MBIE), James Johnson (MBIE), Richard Garlick (MBIE), Jochen Schmidt (NIWA), Guy Maslen (GNS / Globe Claritas), Grep Byrom (LINZ).

If the proposal would have been accepted then the team would have had to develop a prototype with a little funding type stipend, and present that prototype to MBIE and other possible investors by June. Based on that further commercialization/contracting may arise. However, the professional team members were mainly supposed to support themselves (presumably KDM as big business, MBIE seconding their participant), and few of us would have to go full in and see if we'd be eligible for a part of the team stipend to basically live the start-up work life for the coming three months.

However, while the team, the idea, and the pitch were great, my situation would of course complicate my personal setting my PhD and within SMART programme. Eventually, I had to make a decision and withdrew to wrap up my PhD first. After all, it was a great opportunity to meet fascinating people and talk about possibly disruptive ways of re-shaping geoscience data management, visualization at governmental and even global scale.