Knowledge, conduct, governance – issues pushed to the front by the ubiquitous use of limitless connectivity
By Natasja Beyleveld, Managing Director of NaMedia.
Although transformed in the age of digital, we are still morally obliged to deal with three challenges; the issue of knowledge, the issue of conduct, and the issue of governance.
The more one knows, the less frightening the world, and the less fear we harbour. Digital and its predictability is one thing, but the speed of implementation and the required skill upgrades are to some, fear provoking. In order to survive, we have a quest to know. It has become the norm to stay updated via social media, traditional media, tra-digital media, online news (local, global), and to find ‘what is true’ and what is relevant in guiding our perceptions about the political, economic, and corporate identity and reality that our sphere of influence must dance in.
Already confronted with the future of mobile communications which is multimedia based and reliant on wireless access to broadband fixed networks with continuous roaming among different systems, the requirements for big data analysis toward strategic implementation is of high grade. The IEEE Communications Magazine reported on The Quest for Information-Centric Networking in Next-Generation Communication Scenarios, aptly illustrated by Alessandro Morelli in the image above.
To-the-drawing-board:- accessing information suggests the opportunity to optimize the local consumption of information. Informed citizens are less likely to endorse fake news or damaging perceptions. We’re in need of a solution-based economy, with the blame-game not providing any resolution. Enhancing productivity via access to information is what builds information-centric networking models. We’re not going to engage with machines, but with humans (for the near future). Rather AI and IQ in a system that allows for the best of both. A company or person can not rely on digital success without good internal and external communications.
In essence, digital should assist the process ‘of breaking down silos’, so that the top-bottom approach is replaced with intra-leadership conversations. Quick fact; digital natives will make up 75% of the workforce by 2025 (fowmedia.com), so we’re actively dealing with this transformation as we speak.
On the other side, this also means that we’re dealing with hypra-connected customers (the ‘Digital Hiccups), that feel empowered to challenge us across varied areas of expertise. Mobile-first is the way to go. The average smart phone user touches their phone up to 2,600 times per day (networkworld.com). The efficiency of this has not been measured effectively but it tells us where the ‘connecting needs’ are. It also (if not restricted) competes with any professional or personal time of our day, and at any premises where we have connectivity.
Customers have become entitled to ask for loans, jobs, sponsorships, professional advice and cash-back via WhatsApp messages or Facebook. From experience, I would say this is done unprofessionally and on the wrong platform about 90% of the time. Literally a sentence or three with little context, reference, or information, observed for various companies across different industries.
The expectations for service delivery have increased just as much as the perception of the technology, intelligence and workforce that drive these “social media machines” operated by companies, which by the way, in Namibia, might be one or two staff or extended support via the call centre. We’re spoilt with instant gratification and being able to talk to a bank or chairperson of a holding company on social media, knowing their response rate is an hour or so from now. I dare you not to respond, and the emoji’s or GIF’s will start streaming in.
Yes, we’re perhaps feeding a beast eager to connect, open to sharing, and willing to combine the best technology with human intelligence, to enhance productivity and lifestyle but the process has many by-products. Not all of these should be encouraged in my opinion.
We are still morally obliged to deal with three challenges; the issue of knowledge, the issue of conduct, and the issue of governance. Perhaps we should spend more time on the latter two as food for thought.
Love,
Natasja
