Asia-Pacific II 2010 (15)

Theme: The cost of connectivity

Technology has its costs - and they are not all easily measurable. A new technology might do more, and do it more cheaply, but the cost of capital, of transition and the social costs might well break fragile businesses, disrupt the business models of large and small companies alike and burden society by widening the social and economic gap between those that can access the new technologies and those that cannot. The growth of ICT has also, for example, increased power usage to the point that energy costs can, over time, dominate the total cost of ownership. This alarmingly high-energy usage contributes to global warming and makes the use of power saving - green - technologies increasingly important. This issue will take a hard look at the real, often hidden, costs of connectivity - including social, economic, political, educational and other ‘soft’ costs of connectivity - and their inevitability or avoidability.