Anyone questioning the need for more fiber or wireless backhaul, or even 4G wireless broadband, need only look at a recent survey from IDC that finds that a constant connection is becoming the expected norm for almost a fifth of the world’s population. Sure, the study was funded by Nortel Networks, a telecommunications gear maker, but I don’t doubt the general theme of hyperconnectivity at all.
Some findings include:
- 16 percent of the global workforce is hyperconnected today, a number that will grow to 40 percent in five years.
- 64 percent of the workforce in Latin America is either hyperconnected or increasingly connected, compared to 59 percent in the Asia-Pacific region, 50 percent in Europe, and 44 percent in North America
- Hyperconnectivity varies by industry, from 9 percent in health care to 25 percent in high tech and 21 percent in finance industries
Nortel CTO John Roese says improved capacity at the core of the Internet and an upgrade to 4G wireless will take care of the infrastructure requirements of hyperconencted individuals, but calls for software companies and enterprises to rethink enterprise software.
He envisions communications-from voice to social networking-built into always-on applications for the enterprise. While many companies may not view social networking or virtual worlds as integral to their corporate IT strategy, he points out that the younger generation of workers will demand this from employers.
The problem with professionally hyperconnected people is that work and personal life are getting mixed to the extent that personal life shrinks dangerously. Young people might demand permanent connections for now but I believe that in the future the majority will try to segregate the two. If that doesn’t happen then we will be talking about hyperfatigue in developed areas of the world. I think the post should make a clear distinction between work and personal connections and that it is necessary to specify what type of hyperconnectivity we are talking about.
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