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The Elephant In The Room – Software Risk & Digital Resilience
Webinar

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Recent events – the pandemic, global supply chain disruption, extreme weather – have strained the UK to breaking point. No one can fail to be aware of the consequences of lack of resilience in our economy and society. Digital systems are already a critical part of society and the economy – we all depend on services supplied by digital systems. Their range is wide – there are very few people who do not use digital services – whether it's bus arrival information or satnavs, credit cards or bank accounts, self-check out in the supermarket, staff scheduling in service industries. This is great, as it provides people with information and services they did not have before.

But.

There is growing evidence that service breaches are increasing in scale and duration. Some are due to network failures but increasingly they are caused by software failures. Systems are increasingly complex and interconnected. Organisations are increasingly dependent on systems built out of a myriad of software components from a multiplicity of sources. This means that failure causes and modes are harder to predict. The risks are similar to those from global warming or pandemics, in that major shocks are certain, but not their location or timing.

This webinar will explore the impact of software failure on the economy and society, and why this is set to increase. We will conclude with summarising the output from a recent Roundtable organised by the BCS with the National Preparedness Commission.

Speakers:

Gill Ringland's books on Scenario Planning and strategy are used at Business Schools including Harvard. Her most recent book, the 9th, with Patricia Lustig, is New Shoots – people making fresh choices in a changing world.

Gill’s early career included the Universities of Bristol (B. Sc.), Edinburgh, Newcastle (M.Sc.), California at Berkeley, and Oxford. She did pioneering work in IT on systems and data architecture, at CAP, Inmos and Modcomp. She has been active in seven start-ups and built a £3bn new business at computer firm ICL. She was CEO, Director and a Fellow of SAMI Consulting (Strategy with a view of the future) from 2002 to 2017, with clients in the public, private and NGO sector from Mexico to Malaysia. From September 2017 to February 2021 she was a Director of Ethical Reading. She is now a trustee of u3a in Newbury.

She is a Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS), an Emeritus Fellow Emeritus of SAMI and ICL, and a Fellow of the World Academy of Art & Science. She is a graduate of Stanford University's Senior Executive Program; and a Liveryman of the City of London. She has been co-opted for various UK and EC advisory roles.

She writes often for Long Finance Pamphleteers, and writing Global Risks – Is Software The Vlieg In De Soep*? With Patricia Lustig prompted her to think about software again. She is co-chair of the BCS’s IT Leaders Forum’s Software Risk and Resilience Working Group, which has developed the work described in this webinar.

Professor Ed Steinmueller has been Professorial Fellow at SPRU since 1997.

He began his studies in the areas of computer science, mathematics, economics, and Chinese language and history at the University of Oregon and Stanford University. He has a BA, University of Oregon, PhD Stanford University (economics). At Stanford (1974-1994), he was engaged in teaching, research, consulting while being a Deputy Director of what is now the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He was selected for a chair at MERIT at the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands where he developed a Doctoral training school.

He has published widely in the field of the industrial economics of information and communication technology industries including integrated circuits, computers, telecommunications, software and the economic, social and policy issues of the Information Society. He has also contributed to research in science policy and the economics of basic research. He has been an advisor to several Directorates at the European Commission, the National Academies of Science and Engineering (US), and the Department of Trade and Industry and Office of Telecommunications (UK). His current research is aimed at systemic change aiming at environmental sustainability and social justice.

He is co-chair of the BCS’s IT Leaders Forum’s Software Risk and Resilience Working Group, which has developed the work described in this webinar.

Date
Wednesday, 23 November 2022

Time
11:00 - 11:45 GMT

Cost
Free