HICSS releases speech by U.S. Government CIO Vivek Kundra

The Hawai‘i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), sponsored by the Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, attracted approximately 1,000 of the world’s top academics, researchers, and practitioners in computer science and information technology to the Island of Maui in January.

 

The Conference featured keynote speaker Vivek Kundra, a visiting fellow from Harvard University and former chief information officer for the United States. At age 36, Kundra was the first person to hold the CIO position. He served under President Obama’s administration from 2009 – 2011 and was responsible for directing the policy and strategic planning of federal information technology investments as well as for oversight of federal technology spending. Kundra’s presentation entitled “Digital Fuel of the 21st Century: Innovation through Open Data Platforms,” can be viewed online.

 

For 45 years, HICSS has built a name as the premier forum for the interchange of ideas in the Information Systems (IS) industry. It is one of the longest continuously running scientific conferences in the world and recognized for its ability to bring together hundreds of top IS academics and professionals in an interactive environment. There were approximately 600 papers presented over the three main days of the conference. In addition, the first day was devoted to 30 full- and half-day sessions of symposia, workshops, and tutorials that featured in-depth review of the latest research in a particular area of technology.

According to Conference Chair and Shidler Emeritus Professor Ralph Sprague, a combination of several things makes HICSS popular among industry insiders. “The topics really cross academic boundaries bringing together people of different perspectives and expertise,” explained Sprague. “The other special thing is the interactions. Everybody says this, but at HICSS it’s true to the max. We have people gathering in clusters of two or three to work on projects while at the conference.”

 

The international nature of the symposium, workshops and tutorials is another unique aspect that drives the innovation edge of research. Approximately 50 percent of those who attend HICSS come from 40 different countries outside of the U.S. creating a truly global conference.

 

HICSS also featured Distinguished Lecturer Doug Cutting, Cloudera Architect and co-founder of Apache Hadoop. Cutting spoke about “Apache Hadoop and the Big Data Revolution.” Cutting remarks can also be viewed online at http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/HICSS_45/45highlights.htm.

 

There were ten tracks with 96 mini-tracks covering a wide variety of topics including cybercrime in the digital economy, secure cloud computing, and social media and e-business transformation.

 

For more highlights including Best Paper winners for each track, visit the HICSS website at www.hicss.hawaii.edu or email hicss@hawaii.edu.