Data has always fascinated me.
The world took notice when Google’s AlphaGo supercomputer defeated Lee Sedol, an 18-time world Go champion, in a five-game match in 2016. Many corporate executives were excited about the prospect of gaining competitive advantages through early adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies; they made new investment in data technologies and created new teams of data scientists and engineers to implement new “data science” initiatives. These initiatives, however, rarely delivered the immediate impacts the executives had hoped.
I was fortunate enough to be part of the transformation teams that championed, envisioned, designed, implemented, and deployed digital analytics strategy for two very different companies. Through my colleagues and my professional connections, I had the opportunities to analyze and learn from other partitioners who shared similar challenges. Our struggles were not uncommon; it was not the lack of corporate champion or executive support. It was not the lack of talent and desire. It was not the lack of availability of data. It was, often, the lack of a strong data foundation and infrastructure, disciplined data governance framework and process, and a data-driven corporate culture. In short, it was not a simple one-off project for the information technology or analytics department, but an initiative, or a journey, that the entire corporate needed to embrace to succeed.
The rigorous, interdisciplinary MLIS program at UBC would be the perfect education to help me learn and apply disciplined frameworks and best practices to help my future internal and external clients build a strong data foundation and infrastructure. The program, combined with my experience and education in information systems, content creation and delivery, data science and analytics and general business administration, will help groom me into a respected leader and advocate in knowledge and information assets management. Data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence technology in recent years will create lots of opportunities in knowledge management and data governance, and I am confident that a MLIS degree from UBC will allow me to stay ahead.
When I told my family about potentially pursuing a degree in Library and Information Studies, my mother thought I wanted to a librarian. She commented, “I could see why as you love to read.”
Disruption technologies such as the internet, search engines, mobile phone, and social media, etc. have changed how we seek and consume knowledge. Knowledge is no longer restricted to physical books. I see Library and Information Studies as the study of ecosystem of information systems connecting content consumers with content publishers.
Search engines and videos training have been vital in knowledge sharing in the last decade. Future disruptive technologies could potentially create another paradigm shift. Development in Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Blockchain technologies will likely offer tremendous opportunities in the field.
NLP technologies will help information systems to better understand the knowledge consumers and their queries so that these systems would provide more relevant information. Machine learning algorithms would improve accuracy and relevancy of the query results, and predictive modeling techniques would help offer relevant and related research suggestions proactively.
ML and AI technologies would also help knowledge publishers and curators to simplify the classification of information (e.g., taxonomy, etc.) so that the contents are more discoverable. Publishers and curators would then spend more time on producing and curating content. Crypto and Blockchain technologies would potentially create a platform to offer credits or other incentives for content creators and curators (such as NFT, etc.).
For information management systems, blockchain technology could improve regulatory and compliance enforcement by improving the authenticity, traceability, and auditability of knowledge in the systems. It can also help enforcing privacy compliance and facilitate retraction and recalls as required.
After graduation, I would like to continue to pursue my interest in the research, analysis, and implementation of information systems and platforms, especially in the marketing field. I would like to pursue a career as an academic researcher, a business consultant, or a product development manager (for information exchange platform or products such as Data Management Platform (DMP)) so that I can apply my understanding in information systems to help businesses leverage data as corporate assets and foster a data-driven corporate culture. I believe that Library and Information Studies program help me design, implement, deploy, and manage solid data foundations and data governance process for my internal and external clients.
I am confident that the interdisciplinary MLIS program at UBC will help me to stay ahead.
