Digital Lifescapes

The Economic Recovery Corps (ERC) is a new, collaborative initiative designed to accelerate recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in communities and regions throughout the U.S. by connecting organizations with the talent and capacity needed to advance new ways of doing economic development. However, it's unknown if new technology will be a key component. For example, less than 25 percent of government organizations will have Generative Artificial Intelligence ( GenAI ) enabled citizen-facing services by 2027, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Furthermore, fear of public failure and a lack of community trust in government use of the technology will slow adoption for external use by a nation's citizens. Government GenAI Market Development Like many organizations over the past 15 months, federal and regional governments have been exploring the opportunities and risks associated with the emergence of GenAI tools. Gartner’s annual global survey of over 2,400 C...

Green public policy is about the commitment to sustainability and environmental management. Having a formal policy shows the world that managing environmental issues is a high priority to address climate change. The global public and private investment levels in green urban infrastructure are expected to increase from $606 billion in 2022 to $978 billion in 2030, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. Growth will evolve across a wide range of Green assets, including city parks, urban forests, blue spaces such as ponds and lakes, rooftop gardens, green walls and buildings, and pedestrianized green streets as part of new urban concepts. Green Technology Market Development Example projects include the Green makeover of the Champs Élysées in Paris for the 2024 Olympics (€250 million), the redevelopment of the former Athens International Airport into the Metropolitan Park and Coastal Front (€8 billion), and the NEOM Regreening and Saudi Green Initiatives ($187 billi...

Nothing can stop the continued growth of global wireless communications. Despite a slight decline in the worldwide mobile subscriber base resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, mobile network operators across different markets continue to expand fifth-generation (5G) infrastructure deployments. By the end of 2020, 264 million subscriptions were achieved. According to the worldwide market study by ABI Research, the 5G market will continue to accelerate and reach 2.6 billion subscriptions -- that's a significant contribution to mobile network operator revenue of $942 billion in 2026. 5G Wireless Network Market Development Driven by the investment of local network operators, China is a leader of the 5G market, holding more than two-thirds of worldwide 5G subscriptions at present. The United States is second in 5G adoption with more than 50 million subscribers, followed by the leading markets in Japan and South Korea. "Operators' effort to expand 5G networks, combined with qui...

It's inevitable, the Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO) and Chief Information Officer (CIO) must now work together more closely to deliver the progressive employment policies, flexible business processes, and adaptable IT platforms that enable the work-from-anywhere economy. The American mobile worker population will grow over the next four years, increasing from 78.5 million in 2020 to 93.5 million mobile workers in 2024, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). By the end of the forecast period, IDC expects mobile workers will account for nearly 60 percent of the total U.S. workforce. "COVID-19's disruption of the U.S. labor force has had a dramatic impact on how large businesses operate and will continue to shape how and where people work in the months to come," said Bryan Bassett, senior research analyst at IDC . Mobile Worker Market Development The ability to quickly mobilize different segments of a company's workforce wi...

Being first-to-market with the latest wireless infrastructure can help drive local economic development. That said, according to industry analysts, the introduction and deployment of 5G communication services will take a different path to market. Therefore, mobile network operators cannot rely on previous methods of implementing 4G networks. 5G needs ultra-low latency at the edge. A reduction in network power consumption is also a key requirement. 5G M2M Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the total number of cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) connections will reach 1.3 billion by 2022 -- that's a 220 percent increase from an estimated 400 million in 2017. The new research found that emerging cellular networks -- including NB-IoT, LTE-M and 5G -- will grow together to account for just under 10 percent of all cellular M2M connections by 2022. Mobile network operators are now racing to provide the underlying connectivity for...

The global networked economy thrives on new ideas and innovation. Across the globe, more nations are making technology-centered strategies the focal point of their economic development. Amid ongoing digital transformation, the world is entering the era of the digital economy, a trend that is very evident in China. Against this backdrop, the definition of the Four New Concepts, namely "new era, new balance, new way of thinking, and new grand goals" was proposed at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in October 2017, outlining the direction for China's future economic development. Five key terms were also mentioned in the report: "Cultural Revitalization, Digital Transformation, Innovation-driven Development, Globalization, and People's Well-being," serving as guidelines to the development of China’s digital economy for the years to come. China's Digital Transformation Agenda IDC predicts that in the next 3 to 4 years, a...

While China has been viewed as a nation that's focused on economic growth via manufacturing, the forward-looking view is evolving -- digital growth is key to their ongoing success. Moreover, China has a limited amount of legacy IT infrastructure, so much of their current capabilities are very modern. CIOs in China are investing their fast-growing IT budgets in digital technologies, according to the latest market study by Gartner. Their survey of CIOs found that success of the leading internet commerce companies in China is encouraging more enterprises to build or participate in digital ecosystems. Digital Growth Investment within China "The survey results show that Chinese CIOs are firmly focused on digital priorities, rather than on traditional IT, and want their businesses to reap the benefits of digitalization," said Owen Chen, research director at Gartner . Chinese enterprises currently spend, on average, 28 percent of their IT budget on digitalization, which ...

Technology industry analysts have shared their initial view on the impact from the political and social unrest that's sweeping across Europe. In particular, concerns about the outcome of the United Kingdom (UK) European Union (EU) membership referendum has added to the region's volatility. After 7 percent growth in 2015, European technology spending will remain flat at €707 billion this year and grow by just 0.8 percent next year, according to the Forrester Research midyear forecast. Business and political uncertainties after the decision by UK citizens to leave the European Union (Brexit) on top of already slow economic growth have led Forrester to reduce its original projection for EU tech market growth for 2016 and 2017 by about 2 percent. At a country level, UK tech spending will see the sharpest slowdown, growing by just 1.3 percent in pounds in 2016, with no growth in 2017 -- representing a drop of 4.2 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively, compared with Forrester’...

Community services within the world's major metropolitan areas are under stress as more people from rural areas continue to migrate toward inner-cities. Local government leaders are responding by making detailed space optimization plans to accommodate the population growth. One approach that has gained momentum over the last decade is the adoption of smart technologies that ease urban expansion by automating routine support services. This approach is empowered by the utilization of Internet of Things (IoT) methodologies and the associated vendor ecosystem. It's now estimated that 1.6 billion connected things will be used by smart cities in 2016 -- that's an increase of 39 percent from 2015, according to the latest worldwide study by Gartner, Inc. Automation in Commercial Real Estate "Smart commercial buildings will be the highest user of IoT applications until 2017, after which smart homes will take the lead with just over 1 billion connected things in 2018,...

As national governments release their plans to decrease carbon dependency and adapt to the ongoing challenges of climate change, regional and local energy policies represent one of the most effective vehicles for achieving these new goals. Meanwhile, municipal leaders across the globe are assuming a more proactive role in the process of creating sustainable energy policies, by developing their own comprehensive energy efficiency and carbon reduction goals. According to the latest worldwide market study by Navigant Research, the result has been a number of ambitious energy projects supported by innovations in smart grid technology, demand management, alternative or renewable generation, and distributed energy resources. For cities and utilities, developing an effective cross-agency smart energy and smart city strategy enables the optimal use of energy resources and reduces redundant investments in infrastructure. According to the Navigant assessment, such a strategy also improve...

Overall worldwide international Internet capacity growth continues to slow, falling from 41 percent in 2011 to 31 percent in 2015. However, even with the declining pace of growth, backbone telecom network operators deployed 43 Tbps of new capacity in the past year alone. According to the latest global market study by TeleGeography , new growth in international Internet capacity connected to Africa continues to outpace that of any other region. Internet access continues to drive local economic development across the African continent. African Internet bandwidth grew 41 percent between 2014 and 2015, and 51 percent compounded annually over the last five years, to reach 2.9 Tbps. Oceania saw the second fastest growth rate of 47 percent per year between 2011 and 2015 to reach 2.1 Tbps, and capacity in Latin America and the Middle East grew 44 percent per year to 20.6 Tbps and 8.4 Tbps, respectively. While international Internet capacity in each of these regions has doubled every tw...