Federal Tech Talk

Data literacy in the federal government

This week on Federal Tech Talk, Andrew Churchill, vice president of Federal Sales at Qlik, joins host John Gilroy to talk about data literacy and how federal ag...

October 27, 2020 8:06 am

1 min read

This week on Federal Tech Talk, host John Gilroy spoke with Andrew Churchill, vice president of Federal Sales at Qlik. The interview focused on understanding data and the topic of data literacy.

It is an important concept because leaders are now realizing that they may not be using the mountains of data that has been collected effectively. In the commercial world, the IDC has written that 90% of data is wasted.

Head shot of Andrew Churchill — Andrew Churchill, VP, Sales, Qlik

How can federal agencies effectively use data to accomplish goals?

That concern has been addressed by civilian agencies who have the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act. In fact, agencies have indicated a realization that this problem exists by introducing the concept of a chief data evaluation officer.

The military has the Defense Authorization Act, which attempts to make data usable across the DoD by making it a mandate to share. DoD also recently named David Spirk as chief data officer.

Churchill explained two concepts that will increase data literacy in the federal government. They are the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) and Advana. JAIC allows leaders to bring data together as a cloud enabled platform, while Advana provides a central hub for audit and business data analytics.