Posts Tagged ‘2011 Global Information Technology Report’

Social, Local, Intelligent, and Mobile- Oh My!

Posted: May 11, 2011 in Academics, Industry Research, Mobile Technology
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The theme of this 10th edition of the Global Information Technology Report is “Transformations 2.0.” And a large theme of this report every year- and the basis for why it is relevant- are the connections it draws between economic development and information and communication technologies (ICT). Namely,

“The next decade will see the global Internet transformed from an arena dominated by advanced countries, their businesses, and citizens, to one where emerging economies will become predominant. As more citizens in these economies go online and connectivity levels approach those of advanced markets, the global shares of Internet activity and transactions will increasingly shift toward the former.” (page x)

As the report repeats (ad nauseum) in each of its otherwise excellent, guest-authored chapters, increased traction and penetration of ICT in developing countries and emerging economies is dependent upon two factors:

1)       “the availability of personal computers (PCs),” and

2)       “the density of pre-existing phone lines and cable”

Which is interesting on its own, because as Chapter 2, authored by Enrique Rueda-Sabater and John Garrity of Cisco Systems, Inc. asserts, the adoption or existence of PCs isn’t necessarily a precondition to the use of ICT. In fact, many emerging economies in Africa have leapfrogged PC ownership and moved straight into robust mobile internet access with limited or no access to PCs.

Each of these chapters seeks to answer deeper questions provoked by this positive correlation between ICT and economic development.

“we continue to be challenged by questions that were raised by John Gage of Sun Microsystems in the first edition of the GITR: “Can we apply ICT to improve the condition of each individual? Can ICT, designed for one-to- one links in telephone networks, or for one-to-many links in radio and television networks, serve to bond us all? And how can new forms of ICT—peer-to-peer, edge-to-edge, many-to-many networks—change the relationship between each one of us and all of us?” (page 3)

It is the new forms of ICT that this report largely focuses on, and in so doing introduces an interesting subset of factors to consider in evaluating new communications media:

 “Transformations 2.0 are difficult to accurately envisage, evolving technology trends are pointing to the most likely directions they will take over the next few years—what we term as the move toward SLIM ICT:

• S for social: ICT is becoming more intricately linked to people’s behaviors and social networks. The horizons of ICT are expanding from traditional processes and automation themes to include a human and social focus.

• L for local: Geography and local context are becoming important. ICT provides an effective medium for linking people and objects (and processes) with local environments. This will allow differentiation across local contexts and the provision of tailored services.

• I for intelligent: ICT will become even more intelligent. People’s behaviors, individual preferences, and object interactions among other elements will be more easily stored, analyzed, and used to provide intelligent insights for action.

• M for mobile: The wide adoption of the mobile phone has already brought ICT to the masses. Advances in hardware (screens, batteries, and so on), software (e.g., natural language interfaces), and communications (e.g., broadband wireless) will continue to make computing more mobile and more accessible.” (page 29)

There’s nothing absolutely groundbreaking here, or even new, really. But it is an interesting subset within which to view evolving and emerging economies.

I can already think of a number of people who would say that these lenses are actually partially contradictory- for instance, “mobile” and “local” seem at odds with each other from one vantage point, since mobile access allows anyone to reach out globally across previously restrictive limits of space and time, contradicting the notion that geography and context are becoming increasingly important.

Still, one of the most exciting things about emerging communications technology and media is that they can develop and burst on the scene in initially contradictory ways, later settling into their deeper contexts in a web of compatibility we would have earlier thought impossible. I think the social, local, intelligent and mobile aspects are good ones to zero in on as a platform for analysis.

The 2011 Global Information Technology Report- Not As Dry As it Sounds!

Posted: May 9, 2011 in Academics, Industry Research
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(Full disclosure: While living in France, I worked with Soumitra Dutta and INSEAD’s eLab on a social media marketing project for a book he co-authored with Professor and Social Media Strategist Matthew Fraser.)

Happy Monday, all.

A few weeks ago I received links to the “2011 Global information Technology Report” from Soumitra Dutta, one of the co-authors of the annual report and Academic Director of INSEAD’s  eLab, an academic division of the university that pursues “thought leadership, community outreach and value creation in the global knowledge economy.” The report is published annually by the World Economic Forum in partnership with INSEAD, and this year marks the report’s 10th anniversary.

For those unfamiliar with the report (as I had been), it centers around the analysis of the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (which is refers to as ICT) on the global landscape. Perhaps most notably, the WEF created an index called the “Networked Readiness Index” or NRI through which to glance at the progression of ICT throughout the world, and to gauge its expansion on a quantifiable level. As the 2011 Global Information Technology Report states, the NRI “has mapped out the enabling forces driving networked readiness, which is the capacity of countries to fully benefit from new technologies in their competitiveness strategies and their citizens’ daily lives.”

While this is also the first edition I have read, I’ve found that the report touches on some highly pertinent and evocative information. In fact, the NRI’s stated goal touches on a point I heard during a recent conference I had the privilege to attend.

During his presentation, one of the featured speakers made the point that, in terms of disruptive innovation, often technologies are first invented and introduced to the mass public, where early adoption of those technologies then occurs. However, after the initial release of the new technology and relative levels of user traction occur the really outstanding leaps in innovation come from subsequent innovators in the space- in plainer terms, the guys who came second.

When those leaps of innovation occur, often they occur to such an extent, that the full range of technological capabilities contained within that new technology are not actually utilized by their users. In other words, the range of innovation often significantly outpaces the rate of user adoption and mastery of that technology.

I believe the same could be said for the relative rates of disruptive innovation and the global adoption of new technologies. For instance, much in the 2011 Global Information Technology Report (henceforth GITR) centers on the adoption of mobile technologies and their use in emerging economies- while smartphones get ever smarter in Asia, with mindboggling new capabilities introduced to Japanese, Korean and Chinese populations on a near daily basis, basic mobile networks and mobile phone adoption has only just begun to really soar across Africa.

I’m still making my way through the reports chapters which are guest-authored by various tech and economics luminaries, but in subsequent entries I’m hoping to tie some of these chapters back to trends I’ve observed in recent days and days still to come.

Wanted to give you all the head’s up, and invite you to read the report if you so desire. It can be found here: “2011 Global information Technology Report”.