WEBVTT

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Technology today pervades our lives;

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It gives us instant access to information,

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it provides us with
very personalized recommendations

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on what to buy, what movies to watch,

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and for good and for bad,

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connects us with people
all over the planet.

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People that we would
never have otherwise met.

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The companies behind these technologies

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make them super easy to use,
accessible to everyone

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so that everyone can participate,

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everyone can be part
of these technological advances.

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They also make them
accessible from everywhere;

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from your cell phone,

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from your laptop, your machine at work.

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And these companies
make them free for us to use.

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Or do they?

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It turns out that we're actually paying
these companies to use their services;

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the Facebooks, the Amazons,
the Googles of the world.

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We're not paying in dollars, however,

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we're paying in data.

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Every time you use your apps
on your phone, or on your computer,

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every time you access the Internet,

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these companies are collecting
personal information about you.

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You buy diapers?

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They know you have kids.

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You search for directions?

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They know not only where you're going,
but where you've been.

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These companies collect information
like where you live, where you work,

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what you like and what you don't like,

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where your kids go to school.

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And they don't just collect a little data.

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They collect lots and lots of data.

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This is what you are paying
for Amazon's free shipping.

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Do you know what they do with this?

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They take all this data
and they put it on a bunch of computers.

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They take some really sophisicated
mathematics and statistics,

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and they apply it to the data.

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They don't apply it manually,
they rely on computers to do it for them,

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so they have to turn the map
and the stats into code.

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You hear the president talk about code,
and everyone should be doing it;

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this is what he is talking about.

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You apply code to data
and what you get out is insights:

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inferences about your life,

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about what you like and don't like,

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and even better, what you're going to buy,

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and what you are going
to want in the future.

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It is predictive.

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These insights allow these companies

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to give us the apps and websites
that we know and love,

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but they also provide these companies
with other types of value.

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Because they are predictive,

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they can tell what you will buy,

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who will you vote for,
and where you will travel,

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and that, they can monetize.

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And they do.

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Have you ever wondered

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whether we could use
this exact same technology

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to do something for the world?

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To solve a really hard problem,
say, like feeding the planet?

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There are seven billion people
on the Earth today,

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and we can barely feed them.

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Our arable lands
and our resources like water

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are shrinking, not growing.

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And by 2050, there are going to be
nine billion people on the planet.

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So, what we need to do,
what we need to ask is:

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can we use these technologies

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to make farmers more efficient,

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to provide them with decision support?

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Think of it!

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It's like Amazon for Ag,
Google for growers.

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Not sure what I'm going to do
about milk producers out there,

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but maybe we'll call it "Moogle".

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(Laughter)

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The problem is similar.

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You take data,

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- farmers have lots of it -

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historical records,

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all farm implements today
come instrumented with sensors.

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But you can buy sensors on devices now,

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and collect lots and lots of information
about the property, the processes,

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that the farmers undertaking.

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You can then apply the same code,

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very similar code, to this data,
and extract insights.

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Only these insights can be
targeted for the problems,

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- and there are many - that farmers have.

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Things like when to water,
how much to water, and where to water;

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things like, "How are we going
to optimize the yields

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to get the most out of the little bit
of land that we have?"

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And just like Amazon knows
what shoes you're going to buy next week,

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we can make predictions
about diseases and pests

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before they become a problem,
so that we can address them.

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It turns out that some of this technology
already exists today.

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Some really innovative, pioneering
companies have developed some of this,

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and the model they use is this:

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the farmers buy a product, or a service

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from a company, or a farm implement,

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and in return, they ship all of their data

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over the Internet,
to a company, constantly.

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The company takes that data,
applies the code, and gets the insights.

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Some insights they share
with the farmers, some they don't,

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just like Amazon, Google,
and Facebook, it's all monetizable.

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And they can make good money from this.

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But if we're going to take this model

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and use it to solve a really hard problem,

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like feeding the planet,

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we can't just have the code,
- what's most valuable here -

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owned and controlled by a few.

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We need to make the code,
the ability to extract insights

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and make predictions
of the future that are accurate,

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available to everyone.

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Like the services of Facebook
and Amazon.com.

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And that is what I work on.

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I work on the problem of taking the code
and making it available for everyone,

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and in making it possible
to execute it everywhere.

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Because some farmers
don't even have the Internet.

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So instead of moving all that data
to a company over the intermet,

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how about we move the code,
- which is tiny - once,

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and move that to the data,
move it to the farm?

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Execute the code
on a computer at the farm,

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and the farmer can extract
his or her own insights from it,

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and profit from it, and become
more productive because of it.

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They can even give or sell their data
and their insights to industry.

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These companies can still make
a profit with their own insights,

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or the insights that farmers
have extracted with the code.

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They can still make money from this,
just perhaps a little less.

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The problem with this model is that,
first of all, this code is complex.

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It is mathematics and statistics
that are well understood however.

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And technology has a precedent
for taking complex things

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and making them ubiquitous.

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Think about the Internet.

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The Internet at one time
was thought of as rocket science.

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A bunch of researchers
got together, developed it,

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put it out there;
everyone was afraid of it.

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A few companies could take
advantage of it, and did.

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And today, it's everywhere.

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And for most of us, it's free.

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We have commoditized the internet.

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The time is now to commoditize
this type of code.

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It is possible, and we can do it.

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The second big problem
is industry is not going to do it for us.

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What company
would develop intellectual property

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and then give it away
to their competitors?

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Not many.

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So the second problem
that we have to deal with

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is how are we are going to get this done?

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How are we going to make
this accessible to all farmers,

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so that all people can prosper from it?

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Technology has a precedent
for that as well.

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It's called "open source."

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It's where a bunch
of researches get together,

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in computer science or technology,

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and they build the building blocks,

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and they give them away for free,

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so that everyone has access,
so that everyone can use them.

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You work hard at making them
as easy to use as possible.

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And then we build a community;

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a community of innovators, and developers,

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and researchers, and students;
of all ages, of all backgrounds,

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and in our case, farmers and growers.

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And this community
is what creates the innovation

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that really can be brought
to bear on hard problems

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that individual companies
just aren't going to.

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They're going to participate,
but they can't do it alone.

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None of us can do it alone, it turns out.

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So I encourage you to think about this,

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and to come join us
in making farms smarter.

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Come join the "Smart Farm" community

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because only together
are we going to able to feed the planet.

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Thank you for listening.

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(Applause)