Group items tagged

The Internet significantly affects OECD economies at different levels and in numerous different / impact areas. In particular the Internet impacts firms in various sectors, individuals and governments. It / also has some observable general macro-economic effects. /  At the firm level, the restructuring of business models in association with use of the Internet has / led to improved efficiencies./ 1/  The impact of the Internet can also be seen in the rapid growth of new firms / founding their businesses on the Internet. The Internet's enhanced communication capabilities are affecting / nearly all sectors of the economy in ways that may be as subtle as making previously hard-to-find data / available online or as profound as transforming an entire market such as is occurring with music, video, / software, books and news.  /  The Internet is reshaping the way individuals live. It brings benefits of higher consumer welfare / (through a larger variety of digital goods and services, lower prices, improved information gathering, more / distribution channels and so forth). In addition, individuals benefit from a more efficient labour market/ 2/ and, on a broader level, from positive impacts on the environment/ 3/  and in education. /  For governments, Internet development enables better communication with citizens, industry and / other organisations. The Internet has also helped governments run more efficiently via improved / information sharing, increased transparency and the automation of various resource-intensive services.  /  The impacts of the Internet on the individual, firm and government level can be also observed at / the aggregated, macroeconomic scale. Existing empirical studies, including ongoing OECD work, suggest / a positive link between increasing Internet adoption and use and economic growth. Even though the / aggregated effects are still preliminary, the relationship between Internet development and economic / growth, as well as microeconomic ev

"August and September, in partnership with the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), I conducted a national survey of IEDC members and others affiliated with IEDC. The primary goal was to get a snapshot of how broadband impacts local economic outcomes. A secondary goal was to gather some insights to leveraging broadband as an economic development asset. This is the only survey that goes directly to the people who work in the trenches daily impacting local economic outcomes. Here is where I separate some of the hype surrounding broadband's power to transform local economies with some reality checks. Some of the findings from this year's survey include: only 11% of economic developers believe broadband's biggest economic benefit to individuals is helping them find jobs; 18% of respondents have insufficient speeds to produce economic outcomes listed and have given up hope for a solution; another 13% do not have enough speed to get the job done, but are actively trying to find or create a solution; 43.5% of respondents' jurisdictions exist under duopoly conditions, 15.5% are in communities that live with a broadband monopoly; about 12% of respondent' say their communities plan to start building broadband networks in the next 18 months, another 22% hope to build a network at some point in the future; 64% of respondents reject convention broadband remedies for urban areas to say "faster speeds, cheaper services" will have the biggest impact on economic development (value of computing centers compromised by crappy infrastructure in poor communities); fiber continues to outshine wireless in terms of expected impact on economic outcomes, with the biggest gap in expectations in the areas of attracting businesses to a community and making local companies more competitive; and 41% - 48% of respondents believe broadband can increase the number of home-based businesses; and significant percentages of respondents say broadband adoption doesn't mean j

"The use of broadband for many everyday activities has a huge cumulative impact on the economic welfare of a nation. It is difficult to get an exact read on how great the impact is. A few things are certain, however: The impact indeed is large, it is growing and nations that don't deploy broadband will be left behind."

In 2001, when the World Economic Forum first published  The Global Information and Technology Report (GITR),  the dot-com bubble had just burst; there were fewer than  20 million mobile phone users in all of Africa; and Apple  Inc.'s product line was confined to Macintosh computers.  That Report presented an optimistic view of the future,  highlighting the transformational potential of information  and communication technologies (ICT) in advancing the  progress of global society and business. In the decade  that followed, Booz & Company has witnessed firsthand  the realization of that potential in its work with clients and  communities worldwide and through its long-standing  involvement with the GITR. Today there are more than  500 million mobile phone subscribers in Africa, and  Apple is the world's largest company in market capitalization, producing iPhones, iPods, and iPads along with  Mac computers. Despite the strides the sector has made  since the technology bust in 2001, however, we believe  we are only just beginning to feel the impact of digitization-the mass adoption by consumers, businesses, and  governments of smart and connected ICT. Success in the digitization world-where competitors from Shenzhen to Schengen can emerge seemingly  overnight-requires policymakers and business leaders  to go back to the drawing board to identify and build  "right-to-win" capabilities in their spheres of influence.  Digitization is more than a matter of access. Our recent  research shows that digitization multiplies the impact of  connectivity, creating substantial incremental value in  terms not only of job creation and economic growth, but  also of societal well-being and government transparency.  Today, more than 70 percent of the world's citizens live in  societies that have just begun their digitization journeys.  As the individuals and enterprises in these societies  continue to progress in developing their own digitiza

About a week ago the FTTH Council run a webinar presenting research findings on the socio-economic impact of fiber broadband in Bulgaria. Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch it live so I found it, kudos to Pauline, on vimeo. You can watch the presentation at the end of the post, but before that, here's a quick summary of what is going down in the country: New regulatory measures and stricter requirements for operating a telecommunications networks brings to the fore a growing trend of consolidations among ISPs. Internet impact is highlighted especially in terms of access to information, working conditions and practical life Percentage of satisfied broadband customers: 85% of all FTTB users, 75% of cable users and 60% of all DSL users. FTTB encourages tele-working 66% of the Bulgarians consider that the availability of a broadband connection influences the selection of residence

es jeux à impact social sont des jeux de sensibilisation à une cause qui peuvent véhiculer un message et grâce auxquels le joueur peut potentiellement avoir une action concrète sur le monde réel. Contrairement à la précédente édition, ce type de jeu a été particulièrement mis en avant cette année. Parmi ces jeux, la Knight Foundation a financé Macon Money, déjà présenté l'année dernière à la GDC. Ce jeu répond à deux problèmes : le manque de communication entre les différentes communautés de Macon (en Georgie) et la perte de vitesse de l'économie locale. Leur solution est à la fois simple et efficace : ils ont distribué des moitiés de billets de banque (crées exprès pour le jeu) à la population avec pour consigne de retrouver les autres moitiés et de dépenser la somme gagnée dans les boutiques locales. Au final, entre 20 et 25% des joueurs ont gardé contact avec les personnes qui possédaient l'autre moitié de billet : ce qui est énorme en soi !

Adoption, Usage, and Global Impact of Broadband Technologies: Diffusion, Practice and Policy

"BT is investing £2.5bn to roll-out superfast broadband to two-thirds of UK consumer and business premises by the end of 2014. Regeneris Consulting was commissioned to assess the potential economic benefits of BT's investment in superfast broadband for businesses and focussed on four case study areas: A rural area in the UK: Norfolk and Suffolk A UK town: Caerphilly A UK city: Sunderland The capital city: London The report and its observations builds on Regeneris' experience in the production of number of studies assessing the economic impact of broadband investments throughout the UK. Their work has informed business planning and bid development, including a number of the current crop of BDUK projects and projects to help secure investment from European funding sources. The 'Key Facts regarding BT's investment in Broadband' and the 'Summary of key observations' from the report are below. "

This study calculates the impact of investment in broadband technology on employment and output of Germany's economy. Two sequential investment scenarios are analyzed: the first one is based on the Government's "National Broadband Strategy" aimed at ensuring that 75 percent of German households have broadband access of at least 50 Mbps by 2014. The second scenario, covering 2015-2020, is labeled "ultra-broadband", and ensures that 50 percent of German households have access to at least 100 Mbps and another 30 percent to 50 Mbps by 2020. 

This is a great clip created by Novay for the positive implications of a high-speed broadband, connected world. Have a look, you'll like it:

The TR10 represents the 10 most important technological milestones reached in the last 12 months. To compile the list, Technology Review selects the technologies we believe will have the greatest impact on the shape of innovation in years to come. This impact can take very different forms: one technology points toward a method of discovering better battery materials for mobile devices and electric vehicles; another offers a new way for entrepreneurs to fund the commercialization of emerging technologies. But in all cases, these are breakthroughs with the potential to transform the world.

"Designed and produced by the World Wide Web Foundation, the Web Index is the world's first multi-dimensional measure of the Web's growth, utility and impact on people and nations. It covers 61 developed and developing countries, incorporating indicators that assess the political, economic and social impact of the Web, as well as indicators of Web connectivity and infrastructure."

Mobile broadband has a higher positive impact than fixed broadband on economic growth, particularly in developing nations, according to a new report from the World Bank and infoDev, its technology entrepreneurship and innovation program. The report recommended a number of supply- and demand-side policies to foster increased adoption of mobile broadband in markets worldwide.

The impact of Gartner's top 10 strategic technologies will not center only on the business - their capabilities will also increasingly become integral to future generations of management architecture, according to Gartner, Inc. "We are already seeing the adoption of 'big data' within the IT and operations management [ITOM] industry. In particular, software-as-service [SaaS] management providers now have to collect and synthesize large volumes of data," said Milind Govekar, managing vice president at Gartner. "We also expect more next-generation analytics to come to the forefront to address an increasingly hybrid cloud environment. On the social front, IT service desk social management tools will establish an interactive relationship with end users, enhance end-user productivity, provide a platform to share information and ideas, and market the value of IT to the business." In the fourth quarter of 2011, Gartner identified the 10 technologies and trends that will have the biggest impact for most organizations in 2012. They are: 1. Media tablets and beyond, 2. Mobile-centric applications and interfaces, 3. Contextual and social user experience, 4. The Internet of things, 5. App stores and marketplaces, 6. Next-generation analytics, 7. Big data, 8. In-memory computing, 9. Extreme low-energy servers and 10. Cloud computing.

"If you're interested in human development, the opportunity set has never been more interesting. Search in the browser marked the beginning of anywhere/anytime learning opportunities, but the official beginning of the new era was a decade ago with the Wikipedia launch. As noted in the Lessons from SkillShare blog, anywhere, anytime learning sites have been popping up at an increasing rate. You can learn about rate of change and differential calculus on Khan Academy. Academic Earth was an early source of college knowledge. Udemy let anyone teach anything. Saylor.org and P2PU.org made it all free. Anya Kamenetz outlined the expanded post-sec landscape in DIY U last year. This year, massively open online courses (MOOC) from Coursera, Udacity, and Edx are all the rage. The aggregate impact is a dramatic increase in access to great content and great teachers."

Comment le numérique transforme nos cerveaux ? Nos enfants ces mutants est le titre d'un passionnant dossier du Nouvel Observateur (version papier) du 25 octobre 2012. La journaliste Sophie des Déserts montre comment les enfants d'aujourd'hui qui passent pour une grande part, une partie de leur vie devant un écran a un impact sur la manière d'apprendre, de comprend le monde… Une révolution numérique qui est en train de façonner une autre jeunesse « peut-être même une autre humanité ».

In the coming years, mHealth-the provision of health services enabled by mobile  communications-will revolutionize the way healthcare is delivered. From text  message campaigns disseminating information on healthy lifestyles to the use of  smartphones as medical devices capable of diagnostics and remote monitoring,  mobile technology will permeate every aspect of global health systems. In the  process, this technology will cut the costs associated with provision while  maintaining and improving quality of care and reaching patients for whom access to  healthcare has until now been limited.   However, a number of barriers need to be broken down before mHealth can begin to  transform health systems and service delivery. Moreover, a diverse range of  stakeholders must collaborate in order for mHealth applications to be adopted on a  wide scale.  For this reason, Telenor Group commissioned The Boston Consulting Group to study  the potential impact of mobile services on healthcare over the coming years. This  report summarizes the findings of the study, which focused on 12 markets that  Telenor serves

"The economic impact of the Internet is getting bigger-just about everywhere-and it already has an enormous base. In the U.K., for example, the Internet's contribution to 2010 GDP is more than that of construction and education. In the U.S., it exceeds the federal government's percentage of GDP. The Internet economy would rank among the top six industry sectors in China and South Korea."

Over the past several decades, the globalization of the  manufacturing ecosystem has driven more change and impacted  the prosperity of more companies, nations and people than at any  time since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Nations around the  world have taken part in and benefited from the rapid globalization of  industry and expansion of manufacturing. Globalization of  manufacturing has been a key driver of higher-value job creation and  a rising standard of living for the growing middle class in emerging  nation economies. This has dramatically changed the nature of  competition between emerging and developed nations as well as  between companies. Recent research confirms manufacturing has  been immensely important to the prosperity of nations, with over  70% of the income variations of 128 nations explained by differences  in manufactured product export data alone. 

"Data Centers have come under attack as terminally wasteful and "dirty" enterprises that offer little in the way of jobs. Joe Weinman, senior VP at Telx, disputes that, and says in fact they indirectly employee countless thousands across many industries."