First in Asia: Dextra Unifies Data from Private and Government Sectors

Dextra, also known as the Data Innovation Challenge, launches last Wednesday as the first platform in Asia to help enterprises solve real-world challenges by crowdsourcing from data providers, startups, data scientists, and schools. It’s a joint initiative by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and Newton Circus

Dextra will help IDA prepare Singapore for a growing market of business intelligence and data expertise. According to IDC, the business analytics global market is expected to reach an astonishing US$123 billion by 2015. ‘Business Intelligence’ and analytics is also ranked as a top priority for CIOs in Asia and worldwide by Gartner’s 2012 Executive Programs CIO Agenda.

IDA’s partnership with Newton Circus is targeted to increase available data sets from the private sector. This launch event alone features data sets from various sectors that include Singapore’s Health Promotion Board, National Environment Agency, Land Transport Authority, Metro Parking, United World College, BuuuK, and others.

Dextra is set to to include a data marketplace and collaboration platforms, with ongoing ‘Innovation Challenges’, Dextra Hackathons, and workshops.