OPEN V's CLOSED Technology Event
London -
October 27th
On a mild Thursday evening at the end of October more than 130 Technology Industry leaders bore down on the Soho Hotel London to hear some market leading experts discuss technology issues. The theme of the event was “Open vs. Closed: is this still a question?”
After a quick drink the guests were lead into a private cinema, complete with popcorn, to hear a fantastic line up of speakers start the evening of discussions.
Jason Hart who is a leading figure globally in the Information Security space and the current CEO of Cryptocard opened proceedings by demonstrating the huge risks we are all under with our unrelenting and ever-increasing use of technology in our personal and business lives. Initially Jason showed the audience how easy it is to get hold of people’s private passwords and the many ways that this can be done. Jason shared with us some of the free and easily accessible tools there are online for people with hacking aspirations to get hold of and how these can be used.
It was an eye-opening presentation that ended with the conclusion that be it Open or Closed we are all at a risk because our security is based on password protection and this is, apparently, as easy to bypass as anything.
James Christian who works as the innovation Lead for the Net-A-Porter Group followed on from Jason by talking about why Net-A-Porter, once a company that used closed systems and has since moved into using Open source tools had done so, what the benefits had been and how critical open-source web standards are and will be going forward.
James offered a hands-on technical perspective on the Open vs. Closed debate, discussing what the future holds and how best to move forward as a true open source community.
Peter Barron, the Director of External Relations EMEA for Google looked at the Open vs. Closed debate from a broader perspective, focusing more around the free flow of information and how important it is. Peter offered insights into how many, and perhaps more importantly, which Governments put pressure on Google to remove content from its search results.
He touched on the part that technology has played in the uprisings in the Middle East, how Google approaches complicated political situations and how critical it is that we do not allow countries or governments to control the information that we give or receive.
We were treated to a Q+A session hosted by Albert Ellis the CEO of the Harvey Nash Group, Mortimer Spinks’ parent company, where there were some fascinating questions put to the panel, including a few poignant questions to Peter Barron about if and where the free flow of information can become a negative thing with no benefits, and how to manage situations where there may not be a government in place therefore the legal system of a certain country may be at the very least unclear.
The presentations were finished with James Hallahan the Managing Director of Mortimer Spinks launching the 2012 Technology Industry Survey that they have done in partnership with ComputerWeekly.com. James offered us a couple of key findings from the survey – how people within the industry view some of the big consumer brands (93% say Google is “good for the world” vs. 53% for Facebook).
How people view their careers - 81% of people working in the industry think that in order to progress their careers they need to leave their current company. We were given copies to take home and the insights, I can tell you, don’t stop there…
The evening concluded with an amazing array of food, drinks and excellent conversation with a room full of like-minded people.
