The GVF Webinar Series has been an innovative response to the dictates of a variously locked down world and its various themes have been well received by a global audience. Whilst, as noted in my previous column, 69 has been the least number of countries dialing-in to any one individual Zoom event, the total number of nations reached across the series to date has now exceeded 120.
Last time, I referenced our ninth webinar which, to put it succinctly, was all about the money. Our tenth event will already have taken place by the time you read these words but, like the many hundreds of others who will already have done so, you can access the video recording of this event, and all previous webinars in the series, at https://gvf.org/webinars/.
Global Transitions: Digital Economy, Digital Infrastructure, Connected Communities, Digital Planet was broadcast live at 3:00pm London time on 24 September, a good time for the moderator and panelists located in the UK, Switzerland and the USA, but somewhat more challenging for the contributor speaking from Australia, representing GVF member, Telstra. From the UK the webinar’s moderator represented the Satellite Applications Catapult; from Switzerland the speaker represented the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Digital Transformation Task Force; and from the USA we featured another GVF member, Isotropic Networks.
The train of thoughts which originally led to formulating the theme of this webinar originated out of the social distancing, working from home and travel restriction imperatives of the pandemic lockdown. Over time the initial thoughts greatly expanded to the concept of “Digital Planet”, heavily influenced by ideas emanating from the UNEP.
The importance of the enabling communications technologies behind our now having been forced to realize the full potential of “virtual” business meetings/events – greater inclusiveness, fewer international travel frustrations, lower greenhouse gas emissions, more efficient utilization of working time and associated improved work-life balance – has been boldly underscored. This change in the human experience, seemingly only an incidental consequence of a (hopefully) limited phenomenon – in the form of the SARS-Cov2 virus – is an illustration of something which has a deeply rooted strategic significance. It illustrates that we have the potential to increasingly and more accurately understand the complexities of the world around us – natural disaster causes and consequences, manifestations and effects of climate change, monitoring environmental degradation throughout the biosphere, human action and inaction with consequences including refugee population migrations – because of our ability to gather, analyze and disseminate that which can be digitized.
“Lockdown” necessitated new (digitized) ways of working to enable many people still to do their jobs; there is also a profoundly deeper focus on extending digitization to facilitate recovery from the economic recession engendered by pandemic. Notions about, and gearing-up for, ‘Digital Economy’ and ‘Digital Infrastructure’, are not new, but a global socio-economic crisis has most certainly energized debate about the necessity, and the advantages, of far greater changes than were previously conceived.
The fact that economies and communities will all be more deeply and widely enabled by the growing digital infrastructure that will be built on the integration of 5G and satellite technologies into a single network of networks has now assumed a greater significance. Industries, businesses, people and governments worldwide, facing unprecedented challenge, will accelerate in their adoption of digitization to both adjust to the new normal and to improve preparedness to minimize the impact of the next crisis – an impact that may again be equally as serious for, and equally intertwining of, people’s economic well-being and their health.
Digitization is not an end in itself. Whilst data gathered from a massively expanded – 5G + satellite enabled – communications infrastructure will be the vital raw material of a digitized economy and society, what matters is the mechanism and processes by which it is turned into what is today commonly called “Actionable Intelligence”, often represented in the form of “dashboards”.
Data in the Zettabyte Age will flow in vast volumes from the tap of the Internet of Things (IoT), of course including the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), but also encompassing so many more devices from our own personal wireless communications (i.e., smartphones with social media, plus increasing biometrics-based data generation) to our Wi-Fi-enabled domestic appliances. However, all this data will really only be of use when it is determined exactly what it is for. Data may be just measurement, quanta, of things, but when data is analyzed it becomes information, and information is the building block of the knowledge that facilitates effective decisions and enables positive and productive action.
Data maintains financial liquidity in markets, improves creativity in maintaining and evolving supply chains, makes production of “things” more efficient using latest manufacturing technology advances, takes ideas and develops them, and builds more robust cyber security to sit alongside machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).
A digital infrastructure comprising, in 5G terminology, Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), and Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC), may be expanded into not just a global digital ecosystem, but a global digital ecosystem, as suggested in dialogues within the United Nations Development and Environment Programs. In this we will potentially see a world wherein data is gathered from all conceivable sources by all available technologies and processed by all available tools:
- satellites, drones & sensors
- artificial & virtual reality
- smartphone apps
- open source software
- blockchain & distributed databases
- social media feeds
- IoT
- AI & machine learning
- cloud & edge computing
- and, others!
The “product” of this global digital ecosystem will enable more than just the formulation of Actionable Intelligence, but foster a culture of Sustainable Decision-Making that, in the context of trying to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and of trying to stem climate change, will be the indispensable currency of the future Digital Planet.
This webinar dialog between the Satellite Applications Catapult, Isotropic Networks, Telstra, and the UNEP initially examined what it really means to be digitally connected in an urban center in an industrial region as well as in a remote community in a developing region. Moderator questions covered the implications for manufacturing and transport of AI and IoT; societal trends engendered by wireless devices; media consumption; digital payment systems; and national & regional policies affecting ways in which services will be delivered to citizens.
This video recording of this discussion is not to be missed if you want to grow your understanding of what the future of the digital Earth may be, how satellites might be contributing to it 10 years from now, and understanding the steps needed now to create a pathway to this future.
Don’t forget to note the next three webinars in this series, with more information available at: https://gvf.org/webinars/:
• 8 October 2020
A Regional Perspective on C-Band – The Next Battleground?
• 22 October 2020
The Regional Satellite Operators’ Voice
• 5 November 2020
Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Response: The Evolving Role of Satellites in Disaster Response
These, and later online events, are GVF’s continuing contribution to the Webinar Epoch!
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Martin Jarrold is Vice-President of International Program Development of GVF. He can be reached at: martin.jarold@gvf.org
