Geospatial tracking can be a real benefit to society – for mapping such things as fire risks and water systems, for climate change monitoring, for simply getting from place to place – but it is also an area fraught with risk. What personal freedoms should we trade for convenience? Are mapping technologies understood by policy makers and appropriately legislated for? Join BCS as a panel of experts discuss the issues and answer your questions.
Host:
Brian Runciman, Head of Content and Insight, BCS
Panellists:
Charles Kennelly, Chief Technology Officer, Esri UK
Charles has been Esri UK’s CTO since 2008, bringing 25 years of experience delivering projects of all scales across multiple sectors. Charles’ deep understanding of the application of geography helps him find ways of making GIS accessible to ordinary users and he is committed to reducing barriers to the use of geospatial techniques across society.
Bill Mitchell FBCS CITP OBE, Director of Policy, BCS The Chartered Institute for IT.
Bill leads BCS’ policy and parliamentary engagement. He previously spent 20 years in research into the mathematical foundations of computer science and was awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to computing and artificial intelligence education.
Chris Yapp MBCS, Futurist
Chris is a widely experienced futurist and a contributor to BCS, writing the long running BCS Future Blog.
Discussion outline:
- Recent news coverage on geospatial tech – what was wrong with the track and trace approach?
- Proximity alone is not enough.
- What – perhaps lesser known - great stuff do we already get from location services?
- Virus watch
- If we need much more detail to enable health location services, for example, what are we as individuals willing to give up for convenience and safety?
- Ethics and personal liberty
- What are the implications for policy makers and legislators?
- What is their current understanding level?
- How can we help policy makers?
- Could a DRM style end-to-end encryption solution fulfil most location needs safely?
- The road ahead – what should happen next?
