By Chris Slater, WV News
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Part two of Focus Forward’s “Beyond the Cloud” series Thursday morning focused on adapting and strengthening West Virginia’s ability to become the epicenter of a multi-billion-dollar expansion of the nation’s private weather industry.
“The goal of Focus Forward is to bring together business, government and education leaders to explore forward-thinking ideas and discuss how we can be adapting our economy in West Virginia to strengthen our workforce,” said Donna Peduto, executive director of the West Virginia Public Education Collaborative.
The Focus Forward series began three years ago by addressing artificial intelligence and its impact on West Virginia’s economy, followed by the second year focusing on the big data movement — a collection of data that is so huge in volume, and growing exponentially with time, that no traditional data management tools can store it or process it efficiently.
“This year’s Focus Forward builds on previous years to take us beyond the cloud,” Peduto said. “Many of you joined us on March 17 for a wonderful session, where we addressed how West Virginia can address these vast climate datasets through (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and create numerous opportunities to launch startups and develop new technologies in the private climate market.” …
