Global Information Technology

1. Global Information Technology Living in a Hyperconnected World

2. The impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on each industry has become more far reaching as its transformational effects spread to several sectors of the economy and society via innovations, the emergence of new industries, and the arrival of the era of hyperconnectivity. • In this new era of hyperconnectivity, ICT will begin a new chapter, and will be closely linked to continued economic growth worldwide. • ICT will significantly reduce geographic or other limitations, allowing people around the globe to communicate and share information and ideas freely. • ICT will contribute greatly to a variety of fields such as medical care and environmental protection. • ICT and relevant technological innovations will push global economic growth further than ever before. • The convergence of information technology (IT) and communications technology (CT) will be an important part of technological innovations.

3. Converged ICT technologies will bring dramatic changes to our lives. • For individuals, smart devices and cloud services will have far-reaching effects and become an essential part of daily life and work. • Ubiquitous super-broadband will make almost everything faster and better while delivering an improved user experience. • The benefits will also make people’s lives much more convenient as ICT technologies are applied to building e-government models and improving e-commerce, e-learning, and online medical services, as well as other web-based intelligent services.

4. Following improvements in broadband, current IT systems are migrating from fairly independent platforms to collaboration across a wide range of arenas, and the standardisation of capabilities in the CT industry have the potential to improve interoperability in IT. • The convergence between IT and CT will become a major trend and one of the main driving forces behind the rapid development of the ICT industry.

5. Obstacles to this integration: • insufficient openness in the ICT industry; • a lack of unified technical standards; and • a lack of connection among cloud computing, telecommunications networks, and smart devices. • Overcoming these obstacles and unifying ICT’s technical standards is a top priority if we are to improve interoperability within the industry. • e.g. • Research has shown that the ICT industry contributes 25 percent of the European Union’s growth in GDP and 40 percent of its productivity growth.

6. Networked Readiness Index 2012 map

7. The Networked Readiness Index (NRI) 2012

8. Hyperconnectivity • The result of increasingly accelerated communications evolution is that today we are faced with the phenomenon of hyperconnectivity. • Hyperconnectivityis a relatively new term that was coined in response to the rapid availability and broad assimilation of entirely new ways to communicate. • Hyperconnectivityrefers not only to the means of communication and interaction, but also to the impact this phenomenon has on both personal and organisational behaviour. • Hyperconnectivity results from a combination of broadband expansion, the increase of mobile devices and wireless access, the dominance of social media in daily life and, most recently, the use of the cloud for data and applications access. • Hyperconnectedcommunication includes not only people-to-people formats (as individuals and as members of groups, and using a vast array of media), but also communication between people and machines, and between machines themselves without any direct human involvement.

9. CHARACTERISTICS OF HYPERCONNECTIVITY • Hyperconnectivity has several key attributes. It is: • Always on: Broadband and ubiquitous mobile devices enable people to be connected to family, work, friends, and more 24/7. • Readily accessible: A universe of mobile devices and personal computers links people and organisations together; these connections are increasingly available at any time and in any location. • Information rich: Websites, search engines, social media, and 24-hour news and entertainment channels ensure that information is always on hand. • Interactive: Hyperconnectivity ensures that everyone can offer input on just about everything. • Not just about people: Hyperconnectivity includes people-to-machine and machine-to-machine communications, supporting the development of what has been termed the Internet of Things. • Always recording: Service records, virtually unlimited storage capacities, miniaturised video cameras, global positioning systems, sensors, and more - combined with people’s desire to document their own activities - ensure that a large portion of everyone’s daily activities and communications are part of a semi-permanent record.

10. Impacts of hyperconnectivity on individuals, businesses, and governments relate to: • (1) the convergence of information technologies and communication technologies; • (2) issues in a hyperconnected world, with a specific focus on the role of regulation; • (3) network neutrality; • (4) the increasing importance of mobile broadband to empower individuals; • (5) the cost of broadband; • (6) the role of in-memory technology and analytics to control the power of big data; • (7) the role of real-time analytics to make good sense of big data; • (8) the value of digital traces for commercial strategy and public policy; • (9) the promise and perils of hyperconnectivity for organisations and societies; • (10) maximizing the impact of digitisation; and • (11) the effect of technology in education.

11. The cumulative effect of hyperconnectivity is that the limitations of time and space have largely been overcome. • Experience is virtualised. You no longer need to be in the same room, or even the same country, as your colleague, your teacher, or your doctor to accomplish what used to require face-to-face contact. • Hyperconnectivity confronts us with both benefits and challenges. It can be a powerful tool for collaboration that drives global alignment, increased efficiency, and material development. At the same time it has very rapidly changed the way many tasks are performed, and people are expected to accommodate those changes. • All of that information and all of that access also present risks of misuse.

12. HOW CAN WE SHAPE AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HYPERCONNECTIVITY? • Hyperconnectivity is the single most important trend in today’s world, as communication technologies are changing so many facets of life and opening so many new possibilities across individual, social, and business spectra. • The global communications service providers and their networks, supported by an ecosystem of researchers, developers, and consumer electronics and equipment manufacturers and service people, have been the primary builders and maintainers of the infrastructure that has enabled hyperconnectivity to grow and develop. • For organisations, hyperconnectivity is likely to be a key component of their business now and will almost certainly be central to the products and services they offer in the future. Although the free enterprise model must be at the core of the evolution of hyperconnectivity, the service providers and their commercial partners alone cannot be expected to bring it to success. • Hyperconnectivity in public-private partnerships, as well as the involvement of nongovernmental organisations, will be needed to ensure that, as a global community, we are taking the broadest possible view of hyperconnectivity so that it can deliver on its promise of economic development, more efficient healthcare, greater sustainability, and increased educational benefits. This broad view is necessary to make the coordinated plans necessary to take full advantage of these opportunities.

13. Although hyperconnectivity is clearly a 21st-century phenomenon, the drive behind it - to share information and create a community with like-minded people - is as old as humankind. • But the tools to fulfill that drive have never been so broad in scope or so widely available to so many people; therein lies both the promise and the challenge.