Microsoft MVP for a third year

During such a life changing time, I am over the moon with joy to be honoured with my third Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award in recognition of exceptional technical community leadership for Data Platform for 2020-2021. How amazing to receive this. Thank you @MVPAward #MVPBuzz . There are so many amazing MVP's who help the community improve and grow their data platform knowledge. I am passionate about helping share the knowledge and experience I have gained.

This has been a strange period with many events cancelled and turned into virtual events. As an organizer of  Data Relay this year we cancelled our event to make way for SQLBits to move into the only viable slot this year. As things are still ongoing I think it is unlikely any in person conferences will continue this year.  However there are some amazing free online events to attend. My thoughts have been on helping and supporting the local community as well as the data community. 

Introduction of Power BI

More and more people are using Power BI in their everyday roles. Understanding the different deployment types and basics of the product helps with the adoption of self service data and digital migration. Not every organization has the appetite or capability to use Power BI in the cloud.  The cloud and on premises capabilities do have some differences but it is a great place to engage with dashboards and paginated reports.  The presentations I have given covered these areas.  

STEM Role Models - 1 Million Women In STEM

This is women in STEM. They are celebrating 1000 real role models that are kicking ass,smashing stereotypes & breaking barriers. This is an amazing chance to help share women STEM role models for the future generations. Read more and join us http://1mwis.com

#womenintech #womeninmaths #WomenInScience #womeninengineering #AcademicTwitter #WomenWhoCode

Planning a PowerBI Enterprise Deployment

There is an updated version of the Planning a Power BI Enterprise Deployment whitepaper. Deploying Power BI in a large enterprise is a complex task that requires a lot of thought and planning.

The paper includes these areas for consideration.

Section 1: Introduction Section 2: Power BI Usage Scenarios Section 3: Power BI Architectural Choices Section 4: Power BI Licensing and User Management Section 5: Power BI Source Data Considerations Section 6: Power BI Dataset Storage Options Section 7: Power BI Data Refresh and Data Gateway Section 8: Power BI Dataset and Report Development Considerations Section 9: Power BI Collaboration, Sharing and Distribution Section 10: Power BI Administration Section 11: Power BI Security and Data Protection Section 12: Power BI Deprecated Items Section 13: Support, Learning, and Third-Party Tools

There is a summary of some of the changes at https://coatesdatastrategies.com/blog/updated-whitepaper-planning-a-power-bi-enterprise-deployment

Ethical Data Handling Strategy

As a part of the Ethical Data Handling Strategy in my Data Quality Framework there are various things to consider. A good place to start is with The Data Ethics Canvas which can help you identify and manage ethical data issues. 

ODI have produced a clear definition of what data ethics is

“Data ethics is a branch of ethics that evaluates data practices with the potential to adversely impact on people and society – in data collection, sharing and use” The Open Data Institute, 2018.

Data Ethics is important to consider and embed in your data system now. With the use of data in AI expanding it is important to obtain create an Ethical Data Handling Strategy.

The Future of Tech

I enjoyed watching this The Future of Tech session, with Kevin Scott and guests at Microsoft Build. The session discusses advances in large scale models for natural language generation and AI on the intelligent edge among other things. Watch it here

Build Book of News 2020

What an amazing inspiring conference, where it is possible to make dreams become reality. The world is changing, reimagine tomorrow.

The Book of News 2020 shares some amazing advances to help shape the world to come.

The Microsoft Build 2020 Book of News is the guide to the key news items that were announced at Build.