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S1Ep04. An Inflection Point in Data with Chris Wilson Episode 4

S1Ep04. An Inflection Point in Data with Chris Wilson

In today’s episode of Data Reveal, we speak with Chris Wilson, an analyst with a long history in the Special Operations community, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, US Strategic Command, and Missile Defense Agency. As a weapon of mass destruction expert who has recently joined the acquisition world, he shares his story and his vast knowledge. During our conversation, we concluded that we're at an inflection point with data, specifically, data used in decision-making. As a result, leadership is needed now, maybe more than ever. Finding the balance between individual and social rights is the key, and there is a long way to go. We dive deeper into this and interoperability, making systems and people come together, leadership, and building teams around data.

· 50:59

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Welcome, Chris. 02:20
Chris’s career journey: Joined the army, his time in active duty, and his work with the Threat Reduction Agenecy.03:29
Going to Stratcom, the Missile Defense Agency, USSTRATCOM, and the Qlick Federal team.06:12
Defense industrial base manufacturers ensure supply chains because any issue can cause an immediate impact on real-world missions.  08:36
Experiencing 9/11 at a Superfund site and his unit’s work.10:26
Impactful things after 9/11: the communication expedition for data and communication between federal agencies and across different systems. 15:19
How do you measure interoperability: being able to communicate with the data in different mission sets. 19:51
Having everyone operating from a single source of truth is crucial. 21:50
How do we protect individual rights while protecting the sovereignty of the nation and society as a collective? 24:07
Importance of leadership in bringing data across the multitude of agencies systems and operational domains 30:32
Are we at a point where we can visualize information in these sort of ‘war rooms’ like in the movies? 34:05
Two driving forces are the functionals leading up by highlighting what we don't know and top parts of government leading down by saying, ‘This is where we have to get to.’ 36:30
Suicide and sexual harassment prevention examples. 39:13
Building teams around data and the role of the translator who sits between the data scientist and the business or mission owner. 44:21
From a leadership standpoint if you're going to lead up you want translators on your team. 46:18
Define success: what are you looking to achieve? 47:39
Chris’ AHA moment: Key thing to touch on in the future is data literacy. 49:39

Connect with Chris Wilson


Connect with Mark, Andrew, and Courtney.
 
Mark Fedeli
Twitter: @markfedeli
 
Andrew Churchill
Twitter: @FAChurchill
 
Courtney Hastings:
Twitter: @chatrhstrategic



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