BNCOD 2010 - the 27th International Information Systems Conference

Keynote Speakers

Opening Keynote - Professor Ken Barker

Title - Valuing Privacy While Exposing Data Utility

Abstract: Data privacy and the protection of personal information stored in modern computing environments have emerged as a critical challenges for the research community. Trust in modern system to protect individual privacy is extremely low and many users do not believe that privacy can be protected any longer. Conversely, many users understand that their private information has value and are willing to make tradeoffs between the provision of a service and the sacrifice of their privacy. Unfortunately, most users do not really understand the cost of the sacrifice or the value they should have returned for the private information they provide. Recent work has indicated that uses are much more likely to provide accurate information about themselves if they can do so at with a level of specificity that they find comfortable. This may mean that data collected is not as precise but it will be more accurate. This will result in data of higher value.
This talk explores the idea of defining privacy with sufficient breadth to allow for it to be assigned a value in a clear way. We then consider possible models to determine a value for private data that allow for data provider preferences while negotiating with the collector. It is argued that similar techniques could be applied to how the collector might re-sell or use that data to extract maximal data value while honouring the privacy preferences of the providers.

Ken Barker is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Calgary with particular expertise in the area of database management systems. He is the Head of the Department of Computer Science. In addition to holding a Ph.D. in Computing Science from the University of Alberta (1990) he has nearly 25 years of experience working with industrial computer systems, fifteen years of consulting experience in the design of commercial databases, and a particular interest in system integration and distributed systems. Dr. Barker has published in excess of 225 peer reviewed publications in areas as diverse as distributed systems, software engineering, transaction systems, simulations and security. His current interests are on developing data repository systems that provide privacy protection for data suppliers while allowing collectors to utilize the data within the guidelines explicitly agreed to by the provider at the time it was acquired. The research objectives include developing a privacy preserving database system and privacy preserving data mining strategies.

Closing Keynote - Panel

Title - Whither BNCOD - the future of Database and Information Systems Research.

Speakers: Alasdair Gray, Keith Jeffery & Lachlan MacKinnon.

Abstract:

Following on from the retrospective event at BNCOD in Cardiff, this panel seeks to address two major and related topics: What is the future for database and information systems research, in particular in the UK, but also in the wider world; and, given declining numbers attending the BNCOD conference each year, do we need to revise the conference substantially to make it relevant to a future database and information systems research audience?

To attempt to put some flesh on the bones of these two topics, we have selected a panel to represent the sweep of the current BNCOD community: Alasdair Gray represents the young researchers, and therefore by definition the future of the BNCOD community; Keith Jeffery is one of the senior researchers in the UK, and world, database community, with specific interests in research issues within databases and information systems; Lachlan MacKinnon is both the Chair of the current conference, and Chair of the BNCOD national executive committee, and his interests focus on the application of database and information systems research in other domains, as well as multidisciplinary and interdiscilinary research. The panel will attempt to be challenging and controversial, and will invite the BNCOD delegates to join in a lively debate, to end the conference with a bang!