Digital initiatives from MIT CIO Symposium: Be bold

At MIT, CIO Symposium attendees share transformative digital initiatives. Plus, change eBay passwords, ditch solo social and more in Searchlight.

Are you ready for the next digital revolution? Ready or not, a new set of digital priorities are on the horizon for enterprise organizations as the global trend toward digitization accelerates.

At the 11th annual MIT Sloan CIO Symposium Wednesday, IT industry thought leaders gathered in MIT's copper-plated Kresge Auditorium to discuss how to effectively navigate turbulent digital waters. SearchCIO attended the conference in full force to interview speakers and hop from session-to-session to ensure no ground-breaking example of digital-done-right was missed.

Searchlight

One of the last sessions, "CIO, CMO, CDO Perspectives on Digital Transformation," created quite the buzz outside the press room dungeon and on the Twitter-sphere. The panel discussion was headed by Thaddeus Arroyo, CIO at AT&T Services; George Westerman, research scientist at MIT Center for Digital Business; Robert Tas, chief marketing officer and SVP at Pegasystems; and Tanya Cordrey, chief digital officer at Guardian News & Media. The quartet gathered to discuss who is best positioned to handle digital transformation occurring in IT departments across industries: CIO, CMO or CDO.

The conversation was less of battle over who should be responsible for digital and more of potpourri of best-practice advice from the CIO, CMO and CDO -- much to the delight of the audience. Some of the most-tweeted advice came from Guardian CDO, Tanya Cordrey, who -- might we add -- has developed a number of award-winning digital products, grown a global audience to 84 million unique browsers per month and successfully executed a major global domain change at the Guardian:

If you couldn't attend Wednesday's MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, Senior News Writer Nicole Laskowski has you covered with five tips plucked straight from panel sessions.

Previously in Searchlight

IoT and wearables: Future is now

FCC net neutrality protests

  • What's this about the end of 'social'? According to an article posted by Oliver Marks on ZDNet, we are currently leaving the era of standalone social networks and making moves toward a far more interconnected world. Think digitally or bust.
  • Another Searchlight, another breach. eBay asked  users to change passwords Wednesday in light of a cyberattack that compromised a database containing encrypted passwords and other information. The bonus (sort of): It was all non-financial data.  
  • Are drones the next must-have home accent? Martha Stewart -- the reigning queen of all things home and garden -- revealed to Vanity Fair that she uses a drone to take aerial photographs of her elegant, 153-acre Westchester County estate. Other ways Martha could use this drone: To critique your outdoor patio furniture, steal your brilliant landscaping concept or criticize your child's 3rd birthday décor. Keep your eyes on the skies, everyone.
  • The same guy who brought us DIY X-Men Wolverine claws uploaded a video to his YouTube channel Thursday to debut his Magneto magnetic shoes -- also inspired by the X-Men saga. "Magnetic shoes, something it seems only NASA has done before me," says garage inventor Colin Furze. "Not even Sir Ian McKellen uses real ones in the X-Men films." Furze may not be displaying superhero magnetic powers here, but the shoes impressively hold his weight while upside down. Watch for yourself.
  • Here is you're weekly fluffy: A 15-month-old calf known as Hero was just fitted with high-tech prosthetics. Hero was rescued from an Augusta Country farm in Virginia by Kitty Martin last year after succumbing to frostbite that claimed two hooves. Animal surgeons at Texas A&M University treated Hero for several months and affixed initial prosthetics. The feel-good story doesn't end there. After outgrowing those, Hero was in need of a shiny upgrade -- painted with cow spots, of course.

Let us know what you think about the story; email Emily McLaughlin, associate site editor.

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