TOBY SHAPSHAK: Lessons from the Nordic countries
If SA could switch from crisis response to future challenges, we could truly embrace the fourth industrial revolution
SA — especially Eskom and the SABC — could learn a lot from Finland. I was in Helsinki last week, speaking at a conference about the Internet of Things (IoT), and several talks resonated with the problems we have in SA. IoT hasn’t really hit the public consciousness yet but it holds enormous potential for the automated new world of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). Cameras, sensors and autonomous cars and robots will increasingly be put to work for business. Connecting them and understanding the data they supply will be a huge growth industry. Of particular interest to Eskom was an example of an Israeli power utility which has IoT sensors that can tell if a turbine will break down. But it only gives a 30-minute warning, said Colin Shearer, the UK chief strategy officer of Houston Analytics. Combined with data analytics from artificial intelligence (AI), this warning can be increased to 30 hours. Imagine how helpful that could be to Eskom. There are also sensors that provide us...
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