From transport to entertainment, work to education, our lives are already being transformed by high-speed internet that will help create the fully wired city. Within 10 years, faster, comprehensive, wired and wireless networks will not only become the norm, they will become free, says Gerd Leonhard, chief executive of the business thinktank The Futures Agency. The reason? The enormous benefits to government and education.
Many of us are familiar with the internet telephony tool Skype. But an even more advanced, 3D and interactive virtual version of the technology could revolutionise education and business (among other areas), putting anyone, anywhere in the world, in visual touch with anyone else.
"The telepresence business is going to become huge and it will be standard for people in workplaces to connect over screens," says Leonhard. "There will be virtual schools for education and training you can access anywhere, especially in developing countries." He predicts business travel will be substantially reduced, saving money and the environment.
Retail will be revolutionised by 3D printing, technology that is already making it possible to "print" clothes. And while the debate about appropriate use of our personal data will continue, consensual services could be to our benefit.
"You'll walk past a department store and the window will show a personalised display with your size and preferences," says Leonhard. "We'll also be able to download and make things at home, including electronic devices – it will just be a question of downloading the blueprint."
For travel, our behavioural patterns will be studied and utilised by tools which then advise us of delays in realtime and suggest alternative routes. While some mobile phone applications already do this, the system will become more comprehensive, connecting trains with buses, planes and road information according to our schedules.
By 2020, 26m UK homes will be fitted with a smart meter that monitors energy use and encourages homeowners to be more efficient. At IBM, Andy Stanford-Clark, the company's chief technology officer for smart energy, has been exploring how wiring our homes to the web could make them more efficient.
"The autonomous homes of the future can monitor everything on our behalf," he says. "The dishwasher, tumble dryer and washing machine will talk to the electricity grid so they could turn on in half an hour at a cheaper rate." High definition
For the media industry, faster internet means faster download and streaming speeds, so content can be delivered in high definition, ultra-high definition, 3D and eventually even holographic media. But it also means media businesses will be more vulnerable.
"Piracy will be impossible to sort out unless companies develop properly compelling services," says Dan Cryan, head of broadband at the analysts Screen Digest. "And there's a good chance ultra-fast broadband will be the death knell for anyone clinging to the vestiges of a traditional entertainment business model," he adds.
Cryan says it is the ubiquity of ultra-fast broadband, rather than the speed, which will transform our lives, from adverts that track you in the street to the bespoke digital newspaper that follows you from your mobile device to your desk to your audio player.
The foundations for e-government are already there, offering us online tax returns or driving licence applications. But more needs to be done to make these interfaces easy to use and accessible for everyone. "Applications need to be designed to be usable, rather than expecting people to become geeks to use them," says Stanford-Clark, who points to the booming industry in user-interface design.
Hospitals could offer an interactive appointments service that allows patients to pick the most convenient slot for them, rather than being told an appointment time. Anything "queue orientated", suggests Stanford-Clark, can be better managed online.
In short, says Leonhard, anything that can be digitised will be digitised. The real achievement will be when we can learn not to be overwhelmed by the technology and develop the skill to identify only what we really need.
Ultimately, argues Leonhard, the more digitised our lives become, the more we will value real experiences. "The landscape of the cities of the future will be a huge place to do the things that don't work in digital form – food, culture, contemplation. Digital tools drive us to want to have the actual experience much more than before. But at the moment, we're a little overwhelmed with what we have at our disposal."
Wired living Seoul
By some distance, the 12 million inhabitants of the South Korean capital of Seoul can boast they are living in the world's most wired city.
Every single home boasts internet connection speeds that average 100Mbps, compared to the average of 4Mbps in the UK. By 2012, Seoul's network will be 10 times faster, with an upgrade to 1Gbps – fast enough to download an entire high-definition feature film in just a few minutes.
This advanced internet network has delivered significant economic benefits by enabling the development of technology giants Samsung and LG as well as an online games industry which is on track to generate $2bn annually by 2011.
For the ordinary consumer, all South Korean banks now offer fast online and mobile banking services, while the government itself provides payroll management, tax and accountancy services online and heavily promotes government-to-business services. Subsidised connections and training are available to low-income households, the elderly and housewives.
Seoul's many tower blocks have made cabling much easier, though the city has also rolled out innovative wireless connections, making it almost impossible to be offline, even on the subway and on high speed trains. More than 27 million people regularly watch TV on their mobile phones, while 15 million are registered for online games – 30% of the entire South Korean population.
Such rapid technological development has presented several social problems, with unlimited, pervasive internet use creating serious national internet addiction among some people.
Gerd Leonhard, chief executive of the Futures Agency, says the problem of addiction is a symptom of South Korea's rapid learning curve.
"The internet we dreamed of is finally here," says Leonhard, "but the technology is so cool, quick and new that we have trouble keeping up with it. However, these kind of changes don't happen every five years and, once we're over this wave, we'll get used to being hyper connected."
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Jemima Kiss
Quelle/Source: The Guardian, 07.09.2010
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