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Most people in Industry that have an interest in Big Data are aware that MDeC was given the mandate create and deliver the Nation’s Framework for Big Data Analytics (BDA). My team and I worked hard to develop the framework which was approved by the Government two years ago. Our work with Big Data however does not end there. We are also busy thinking of initiatives and activities to build the BDA ecosystem and help further Big Data Capabilities in Malaysia and amongst Malaysians.

I firmly believe and support the views of MDeC CEO Dato’ Yasmin when she talks about MDeC’s role to be build a “dance floor” to allow people interested in Big Data to come and dance together. This means that MDeC can’t do everything, but we can help to build an environment or platform that supports people desire to learn and contribute in Big Data.

That’s where Big Community comes to play. It is one of many initiatives that we support and get involved in that contribute to building that dance floor.

Last year we organised a fantastic flagship event for Big Data week at Sunway Convention Centre. Over 2000 people attended that event and nearly 4000 registered for it.  We solicited the help of AOPG to assist us in organizing that event and the idea for Big Community came out of our post mortem sessions where we analysed what we did well and what could be improved when and if we organized similar events in the future.

We realized that with 4000 people registered we have built a database of largely Malaysian people who are interest in Big Data, and we wanted to find a way to continue to communicate and support those people. Big Community was the result.

MDeC are not in the business of running news portals but that is the main business of AOPG. So it made perfect sense to allow AOPG to build and run the portal and support them in those efforts.

Now the Portal is live what do I hope it will achieve?

Well first and most important, it will be a way for MDeC to keep interested people informed about all the initiatives, events and activities we run through the year. It will also be a one stop shop for anyone that wants to further their own Big Data ambitions as it will publish details on Big Data events, jobs, educational courses and news all updated on a daily basis. We expect that this will attract more people to join the Big Community from all over ASEAN.

More than that I truly hope it will become an online meeting place where like-minded people can share ideas and even collaborate together. To encourage this, we have solicited the support of Malaysian Big Data company Fusionex who will be helping us launch the “Big Project” later in the year, but more about that in another blog!

Dr Karl, Director of Innovation Capital, MDEC

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