Topics
|
Number of times covered
|
Cybersecurity
|
4
|
Drones
|
4
|
New vehicles
|
3
|
Policy issues
|
3
|
Nanotechnology
|
2
|
Digital
|
2
|
Uber
|
2
|
Mining
|
1
|
Labour markets
|
1
|
Bitcoin
|
1
|
So Cybersecurity and drones were tied for equal place. I think with recent high profile cases such as the Sony hacking this is completely appropriate, perhaps even a little under covered here.
Drones may have been a bit of surprise for some readers, but it seems important, coming up again in the Economist Technology Quarterly in December 2014.
My reading of the velocity of the relevant technologies is depicted here.
So to analyse...
Direction of change
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Rate of change
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Policy Implications
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New vehicles
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There is no doubt that the new vehicle transport represents a discontinuous
change. For example look at where it is implemented already – the Australian
mining industry.
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However the rate of change is slow.
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There is time to develop appropriate policies but it needs to be
taken seriously now.
|
Mining
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The mining industry has been on the track to reduce labour and
replace it with capital for decades, although the new technologies will speed
this up. The possibility of remote mining control is not a new direction as
such but it will be disruptive.
|
The rate of change is slow but technologies will often be adopted in
large industrial contexts such as mining first.
|
Mining should be understood as a great laboratory for policy experiments.
What policies will and won’t work in other context – autonomous vehicles/
drones etc.
|
Drones
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The technology obviously offers new possibilities but the degree to
which the technology can deliver on the current hype is open to question.
|
The pace of change is certainly there, it is not slow but neither is
it terribly fast. Some extraordinary capabilities obviously exist – just about
any aircraft can be automated. However, the drones which are getting the
media attention do not yet have the power capabilities to really ‘deliver’.
|
If this analysis is accurate then governments have some time to play
at new policies – more perhaps than the news reporting. But neither do they
have a long time to sit back and ‘see what happens’. It is happening.
|
Digital policy
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It takes no reinforcing here that the general trend of digital
technology is definitely disruptive.
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Similarly, the rate of change is fast.
|
I am often surprised that governments around the world are not
devoting more brain power to the topic.
|
Cybersecurity
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We have been seriously fighting cybersecurity issues for more than a
decade and a half. The direction seems no different.
|
The rate of change seems to be picking up, however. It seems that NO
system is safe from hacking.
|
This URGENT – what more can be said.
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Bitcoin
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True possibilities for disruption – destabilising currencies is
always a big deal. It is not yet delivering on that promise, but if bitcoin
gets linked with tax havens and there will be important issues for tax
agencies around the world.
|
Bitcoin, is just the first cybercurrency. Others exist and more will
come.
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The announcement by the Bank of Canada is really important policy
step forward.
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Uber
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How much more disruptive can change be than Uber. With the prospect
of quickly disrupting thousands of jobs in the near future needs to be
understood.
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The rate of change for this technology is potentially very fast.
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This topic requires economic, sociological, policy, legal, labour
market analysis amongst others. Debates over Uber desperately need facts not
rhetoric and pure politics.
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