Welcome to the Wired World: Key Strategic Agendas for Commerce in the Digital Age [Hardcover]

Anne Leer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 1999

Examines the strategic issues executives need to know to take their business forward in the digital age.

Editorial Reviews

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Preface

The long-heralded global village is upon us. The arrival of digital communication networks is having a profound impact upon societies around the world, forever changing the way we do business and live our lives.Yet we have scarcely begun to exploit what today's communication technology is capable of, let alone plan for future developments, which will bring new discoveries and intelligent technology far beyond our current imagination.

The development of wireless communications is racing ahead and will eventually supersede and replace the fixed communication networks some time into the 21st century. It is starting now, with cellular networks, mobile phones and pagers, wearable computing devices, wristwatch communicators, etc.

During the coming decade, more and more people, business executives and journalists will be carrying communication devices that permit direct two-way communication with their homes or off~ces, via the most convenient satellite. These will provide voice, data, video and Internet facilities as well as satellite TV links. Imagine what this means for business as well as personal communications.

Consider the opportunity this brings to further democracy and freedom. No government or organisation will be able to conceal, at least for very long, evidence of crimes or atrocities. The existence of widely accessible information channels, operating in real time and across all frontiers, will be a powerful influence encouraging civilised behaviour. If you are arranging a massacre, it will be useless to shoot the cameraperson who has so inconveniently appeared on the scene. His or her picture will already be safe in the studio 5000 kilometres away; and those images may hang you.

Technology is exciting and provides us with endless opportunities to break new boundaries and achieve new accomplishments. However, technology itself is merely a tool and a vehicle for development. Man is still the master. It is up to the human race to determine the purpose and the outcome of its use. The same technology can of course be used for both good and bad purposes. Anne Leer calls this the challenging paradox of technological invention - with technology we can destroy or create, waste or preserve, lose or win.The choice is ours.

Modern warfare is based on communication technology, but so is the fight for peace and prosperity. Those who control the access to communication tech- t nology and the content of global media can exercise a new kind of electronic cultural imperialism which has the potential to eradicate local culture, change national identity and destroy much that is good. Yet the same media and communication technology is also making it possible to preserve for future generations the customs, performing arts and ceremonies of our time, in a way that was not possible in the past.

Of course, there are a great many present-day customs, which should not be i preserved, except as a warning to future generations: slavery, torture, racial and religious persecution, treatment of women as chattels, mutilation of children because of ancient superstition, cruelty to animals - the list is endless and no country can proclaim total innocence. I wish I could claim that improved communications capabilities would inevitably lead to peace, but the matter is not as simple as that. Such an aspiration requires the use of far more uniquely human qualities such as empathy, tolerance, understanding. Nevertheless, good communications of every type, and at all levels, are essential if we are ever to establish t peace on this planet.

As the century which saw the birth of both electronics and optronics draws to a close, it would seem that virtually everything we would wish to do in the field of communications is now technically possible. The only limitations are financial, legal, or political. In time, I am sure, most of these will disappear, leaving us with only the limitations of our own morality. There will always be those who seek to abuse any technology for their own ends but I can only hope that they will remain, as throughout history, in the minority. In any event, the surest answer to such profiteers is for society to remove the need on which they depend for their survival.

The next millennium will be, I am sure, even more amazing than the last. Never before in our history have we been able to enjoy such a tremendous amount of a simple human freedom - choice. We are now faced with the responsibility of discernment. As we begin to learn how to cope with massive amounts of information and rapidly changing technology we also understand that it is not the information itself nor technology that determines our future; only the use we can make of it.Sir Arthur C Clarke
Columbo, September 1999

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Financial Times/Prentice Hall (October 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0273635603
• ISBN-13: 978-0273635604
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,127,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)