Keynote presentation at the WEBIST 2010, Valncia, Spain, April 7-10,2010.

1. Communication Revolutions change
Civilizations: What to expect from
the current one?
prof. dr. Žiga Turk
University of Ljubljana
@ WEBIST 2010,
Valencia, Spain, 8.4.2010

2. “The Essence of Technology is
Nothing Technical”
Martin Heidegger

3. Contents
• We live during 2nd Communication Revolution
– revolutionary communication technology available to the masses
– this is one of the historic disruptions occurring today
• Impact
– It empowers people
– It is an amplifier of their potential
– It changes the very fabric of society (because society is created by communication)
• Consequences
– Open innovation, creativity
– Open politics
– Politics of the open
• The people (make the best out of everyone, equal opportunities)
• The market (create an innovation, creativity and digital economy friendly market)
• The goods (protect intellectual property so that more of it will be created)

4. The ABCDE disruptions of today
• A – abundance of agricultural, industrial and
information products and services in
developed economies
• B – BRICS, globalization
• C – climate change
• D – demography
• E – electronic communication revolution

5. The ABCDE are historic
• A – end of agricultural, industrial, information
age, dawn of conceptual, meaning economy
• B – end of the dominance of the west
• C – end of below ground energy and fossil
fuels
• D – end of paradigm where GDP growth was
linked to population growth
• E – end of society based on paper

6. Communication Revolutions

7. Industrial revolutions
• agricultural - Neolithic
– domesticated animals
– planting and harvesting
• industrial
– machine replaces
muscle power
• information
– computer replaces brain
power

8. AD500, Istanbul:
Hagia Sophia, 31m
31m

9. AD 1500, Istanbul: Süleymaniye
Mosque, 26m
26m

10. AD1600: St. Peters in Rome, 42 m
42m

11. Tripple size, 100 years! Why?
year500 1000 1500 2000
complexity
0
? discovered
America?
end of the
middle ages?

12. parchment available to few

13. Euclid’s description of the
Pythagorean theorem
Source: Dan Collins

14. cheap paper technology
from China

15. paper, available for anything …

16. … including engineering drawings !

17. Brunelleschi
 Devised a method of
perspective for
architectural
purposes
 he is said by Manetti
to have made a
ground plan for the
Church of Santo
Spirito in Florence on
the basis of which he
produced a
perspective drawing
to show his clients
how it would look
after it was built.
Source: Dan Collins

18. The Renaissance follows.
Europe takes the lead.

19. and provided the basis for the scientific
and technological monopoly of the west

20. De-materialization of communication
in early 20th century

21. … available for very special purposes

22. well, not quite so special, but not to
each and everyone

23. until communication revolution #2 kicks in
the INTERNET

24. and communication is available to
everyone

25. In Summary
year500 1000 1500 2000
complexity
0
paper for some
1st communication
revolution -
paper for all
electronic for some
2nd communication
revolution: electronic
communication for all

26. Impact of Both Communication
Revolutions
• flattening of society
• science, technology, innovation
– increasing number of people can be creative and innovative
– open innovation, education
• governments
– increasing number of educated, informed people are outside
government offices
– open government
• business
– anyone is a few clicks away
– open world, globalization
• politics of the open

27. Technology as Equalizer

28. 1984
28

29. 1994 - VSL

30. 1994 - VSL

31. Footnote: Technology continuing as
social equalizer ???

32. Open Innovation and Creativity

33. Innovation to address demand for what?
Function or meaning?

34. 10.000€ 20.000€
Provides mobility

35. No fruit. Has Apple logo!
Plays MP3 music

36. Plain Design Award
Boils water

37. 50c 1€
Quenches thirst

38. It’s also about the good stuff:

39. GMO BIO
Feeds you

40. Plain Fair
Wakes you up

41. No child labor!

42. Low Carbon!

43. Function vs. Meaning
Useful vs. Meaningful
Rational vs. Emotional
Left Brain vs. Right Brain
Argument vs. Animal Spirit
Innovation vs. Creativity

44. “Meaning is created by
communicating information in a
social context”

45. Open politics

46. Oral communication

47. Oral + some paper: agora style
democracy

48. Paper communication broadly available:
representative democracy (revolution)

49. Electronic communication available to
some: More power to those “some”

50. Electronic communication available to
all (revolution)

51. Throughout History ICTs were
empowering
• exclusive technologies were empowering the
centre
• democratic technologies empowered masses
– paper in the renaissance
– paper based democracy
– Benjamin Franklin (CTO of the American
Revolution)
51

52. Politics of the open

53. Never before today
• had people access to so much information
• had people access to so much processing
power
• had people access to so many other smart
people to work with
53

54. As the ICT 2020 report claims:
• purpose-driven online collaboration takes us
beyond the domain of enabling technology
into the domain of public policy, politics, and
politicians
• what are the key messages to politicians?
54

55. Never before
• … such a small percentage of innovators
worked for your company
• … such a small percentage of intellectuals
worked at the universities
• … such a small percentage of writers worked
for the newspapers and book publishers
• … such a small percentage of people
empowered with knowledge, worked for the
government
55

56. e.g. Jurij Vega
• was a Slovene
mathematician, physicist
and artillery officer
• published first 4 digit
logarithms, very precise
• worked for the
government, published!
• internet started as a
defense project too!

57. The challenge of all these actors
• is how to adapt to the disruptions
• how to make use of the “outside”
• how to restructure at the time where
connecting people and transmitting
information is free
57

58. The challenge of politics
• … is how to make use of all these people.
• not only for their economic contribution
– entrepreneurship, free markets
• but also in handling public affairs
– in politics!
58

59. Current Policies in Europe
• Documents
– Lisbon Strategy 2000-
2010
– Europe 2010-2020
– Reflection Group
(Gonzalez Wise Men
Group) Report 2020-
2030
• Policies
– broadband penetration
– importance of eSkills
– rethinking IPR, patents
– common digital market
• the last two are in fact
global

60. Empowering is the key
• “As we look ahead into the next century,
leaders will be those who empower others.“
• Bill Gates, late 1990s
60

61. Conclusion
• Researchers in ICT and Web technologies are
those creating technologies that empower
others
• Teachers of ICT, teachers using ICT are those
that teach what empowers
• It is the best field to be in!

62. The End
www.zTURK.com
ziga.turk@gmail.com