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May 17, the inescapable anniversary

May 17, the inescapable anniversary

May 2, 2021 in Open Forum

A certain global crisis, unparalleled, which still strikes all countries, has revealed the essential role of information and communication technologies (ICTs). It also revealed the great disparities, between poor and rich countries, and differences locally, within the same countries, between rural and urban areas. Faced with this unprecedented crisis, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is working tirelessly for ICTs development and for the acceleration of the digital transition. And to emphasis the importance of the digital society, this body of the United Nations (UN), celebrates May 17 of each year, the World Telecommunications and Information Society Day.

Hot news, and in connection with the Covid crisis, the theme chosen for the 2021 edition will deal with support for “Accelerating digital transformation in these difficult times”. The objective of choosing this theme is to make all UN member countries aware of the importance of digital technology. This theme will also be an opportunity to remind these countries of the role of telecom technologies as essential levers of economic growth and competitiveness of countries, particularly in this critical period. It is obvious that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are now an asset that can help accelerate the achievement of each of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially that there are less than ten years left to achieve these 17 goals. For more information on this interaction between the 17 SDGs and digital technology see the following link https://lte.ma/les-technologies-dinformation-et-de-communication-tic-au-service-des-objectifs-de-developpement-durable-odd-fixes-par-lonu/ .

Digital transformation is not a simple switch from one technology to another, it is above all a change in mindsets and a cultural evolution. And digital technology is not a personal or an optional option, it is strategic for both States and companies. It helps States to control their revenues and expenditures, to make services transparent to citizens, to dematerialize and simplify administrative procedures, to improve the productivity of the various services including health, etc.

For Africa, for example, even if the internet is not yet accessible to all citizens, and even if digital trust is still to be built like what is currently being done in Europe, the digital revolution is on its way. With more than 40 countries already equipped with 4G technology and others ready to launch 5G, African countries could access to their international market shares, thanks to the digitization. Our continent, whose digital economy is growing, has more than 500 million smartphone users in 2021.

So that Africa does not miss the train of this new digital revolution, and so that digital transformation to succeed, skills’ learning must be better provided. In order to understand these technological revolutions and to better adopt them, it is necessary to strengthen digital culture among African citizens, or actually to reinforce it among all Africans: Decision-makers, politicians, elected officials and youth.

On the other hand, Africa has been successful in mobile money, a model that is being extended, with some improvements, to other continents. And to multiply successes, the time has come to review the school programs which should aim to introduce our young people, from secondary school, to computer programming. It is also important to promote digital applications in dedicated incubation centers, to support the 300 billion dollars of investments planned for new digital technologies in the next ten years in our continent, as affirmed recently Mr. Hamadoun Touré ex Secretary General of the ITU.

A successful digital transformation requires a vision and a good strategy with upstream prerequisites and actions during and after this change. First of all, it requires a clear vision, which must be instilled in a concrete and recurrent manner to all the actors concerned. The reason behind this, is to clarify to them all the aspects of such a big scale project, and consequently to help them assimilate its stake and its added value, and thus motivate them to prepare themselves to face this new paradigm.

In addition, this vision must be accompanied by a planned and active strategy. Also, the time, budget and human resources sufficient for such a project will have to be well scheduled. Moreover, even if it is based on collaborative work and the effort of all, digital transformation remains human-centered and at the same time requires the redefinition of everyone’s role. To overcome people’s resistance to this major change and make this transition lucid, specific trainings and developments prior and during this phase should be planned. Whether it is a public institution, a ministry or a company, the success of the digital transformation is based on the 5 generic pillars of change which are developed in the Knoster model. In this guide to digital transformation, whose references are mentioned below, we measure the importance of each parameter and the serious consequences for the entire project if a single parameter is neglected.

The 5 pillars of digital transformation according to Knoster

The guide to digital transformation Vincent DUCREY and Emmanuel VIVIER at Eyrolles: ISBN 2212570791

By Ahmed Khaouja Director of PTT Maroc and ITU expert

In the metaverse world, designed using several technologies, each user will have their own avatar, a kind of digital "self", that is to say, an imaginary character they will choose to represent them in this virtual place. Let us recall in passing that the word "metaverse" is made up of "meta" which means transcendent and "vers" which implies "to turn" that has produced several words such as universe, conversation and many more... The metaverse or web 3.0 revolution comes down to the fact that we will not be content, as usual, to look at the screen of our computers, but we will also be completely immersed in the Internet via headsets. Even if the real metaverse networks are, for the moment, at the development stage, several sectors are already rushing to invest in them because, they believe, the metaverse constitutes a new Eldorado to conquer. Thus, brands are already there, such as the “Carrefour” chain, which recently organized virtual job interviews via the Sandbox platform. All the major American firms in the ICT industry crave these new metaverse markets; the GAFAMs (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) as well as their Chinese counterparts, the BATXs (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi) are working hard to conquer a market that is barely emerging. Each giant, American or Chinese, wants to grab a good share of this great and very promising business, since the Bloomberg Intelligence forecasts, that this brand-new activity will attain a turnover of over 800 billion dollars by 2024. For metaverse to function properly at the global level, it is necessary to implement a standardization of the various processes. The metaverse will also require powerful computer processing and sophisticated electronic hardware. Intel, for example, estimates that metaverse requires a 1000-fold increase in the computing power of current computers. Is it already in quantum computing? Metaverse will have, among other advantages, the possibility of offering distance training of such quality that it will be difficult to distinguish the virtual from face-to-face. On the other hand, because of their helmets, metaverse users will have to master the geometric space where they operate. This will be the great challenge for the "metaversers" not to increase the number of accidents as the statistics are beginning to point to serious and real risks. Without neglecting some psychological aspects of this new revolution, such as attachment to one's digital "self" and preferring the virtual world to the detriment of reality and living in society. Several studies have already raised the possibility of users becoming irrationally attached to their avatars, as what it happened to a journalist from the British Times, who spent several hours on a metaverse platform, thus, concluded that the metaverse seems to encourage anti-social behavior. The other drawback, which is not negligible and which will be the subject of Lte magazine next publication, is the environmental impact of the metaverse. In short, metaverse technology seems to be well engaged on the right path, unless the supply of the electronic elements necessary for the metaverse networks is also, being impacted by the current crisis in the global supply chain of electronic components. This file will therefore be simple and complete, starting with this first article which deals with the metaverse in seven points and which will help to better understand everything related to this new technology, and will also propose some expected applications of the metaverse. Furthermore, the legal aspect will be presented as a necessity for the regulation of the metaverse world, and finally, this file will be closed by an interview carried out with Guillaume, an expert in the field of metaverse at Digitevent in France. In the free forum, Ata-ilah Khaouja will review the burning energy news around "Textual sobriety, energetic intoxication". In the telecom section, we will offer you an exceptionally rich article on the history of telecoms, which will retrace, more precisely, the emergence of Moroccan telecoms within the medina of Rabat. And as always, other relevant reading awaits you in the other sections, notably in “events” and “media library”. Ahmed Khaouja ITU expert and director Lte magazine.

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