SOME USEFUL TOOLS FOR ACTUARIES Trevor Maynard and Nigel De Silva 33 rd ANNUAL GIRO CONVENTION Hilton Vienna Hotel, Am Stadtpark I PREFER THE NEXT TITLE SLIDE!

“If you limit your tools, you limit your horizons” Trevor Maynard and Nigel De Silva 33 rd ANNUAL GIRO CONVENTION Hilton Vienna Hotel, Am Stadtpark

Agenda  The need for change  Some useful tools  The Toolkit Wiki  Some Examples  Discussion

Change: do we need to? Operates in a rapidly changing environment  driven from within  forced by regulators  demanded by clients  wider fields Morris Review  Profession too insular  Needs greater focus on CPD

Change: for the Profession The Profession’s strategy:  Develop skills for the evolving financial sector  Knowledge development  Share information  Thought leadership

Change: Actuary 2.0 The Toolkit Manifesto:  Pick the best tool for the job  Search out and use Prior Art  If you find a useful tool, post it and tell the World  Harness collective intelligence  We need a new relationship with IT

Web 2.0  The era of personal- or participatory media  Aims to harness collective intelligence  Useful tools: Wikis – The Toolkit Wiki RSS Feeds del.icio.us Blogs Open source software – R

Web 2.0: are we ready?  Discussion forums already exist on our professions’ websites. UKSAUS AreaInsuranceAllInsurance Last postSep 04Dec 05Jun 06 (current) Number of posts Actuarial Educational-110,966 Other--87,011 Total41298,570

 Forum for sharing knowledge  Great for working parties  Easy to edit/create pages – have a go in the Sandbox!  Password: GIRO

The Toolkit Wiki  DEMO  INCLUDING CREATION OF AN EXAMPLE PAGE

Some Examples  DEMO SOME EXAMPLES IN R  ZEHNWIRTH?  GRAPHS?  CURVE FITTING?

Discussion FOR EXAMPLE:  Is there a need for change?  Is the Toolkit Wiki a good idea?  Would you use the Toolkit Wiki?  How can we get people to share online?  Is there a conflict with consultants?