Digital Ecosystem : Convergence between IT, Telecoms, Media and Entertainment

This is a critical time for the Information Technology, Telecommunications, and Media and Entertainment industries. They are in a period of great flux as they converge to form a space we can call the "Digital Ecosystem". In this new space, users evolve from mere consumers to active participants and governments face major policy and regulatory challenges. Those who live and work in this space must be prepared for a variety of futures. To gain a better understanding of the possible outcomes, along with key trends and events that might shape them over the coming years, a series of scenarios on the future of the Digital Ecosystem to 2015 were developed as a part one of a two-year project run by the World Economic Forum’s joint Industry Partners from IT, Telecoms and Media & Entertainement Industries.

The ‘Digital Ecosystem – Convergence between IT, Telecom, Media and Entertainment: Scenarios to 2015’ were developed over a period of one year through discussions and workshops in Boston, Davos, Geneva, London, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, and Tokyo. They synthesize the perspectives of many leaders in business, society, government and academia from Asia, Europe, and North America.
The Digital Ecosystem scenarios were developed around two critical questions:

1. Will social and economic value creation be industry controlled and led, or organic and community-led?
   
   
2. Will the digital business environment evolve toward a more open or closed system? 

Guided by these key questions, three scenarios of the Digital Ecosystem emerge:

Safe Havens describes a digital world in which online security concerns create a clamour from consumers, businesses and governments for virtual safe havens. Industry responds by vertically integrating to create secure walled environments that provide all digital services. Because they operate on closed standards, growing numbers of users start to feel constrained by the walls of their safe havens.

Middle Kingdoms describes a digital world in which consumers, governments and forward-looking businesses push for interoperability, enabling a bewilderingly wide array of niche offerings to become viable propositions – and a Digital Ecosystem dominated by intermediaries that effectively connect users to like-minded individuals and to the highly specialized suppliers that can best meet their needs. In the middle of the space between consumers and suppliers lie the kingdoms where the power lies.

Youniverse describes a digital world in which the rise of organic grassroots communities as powerhouses of economic value creation turns traditional business thinking on its head.This leads to the rise of new organizational structures and to digital experiences that are highly personalized. Some companies find ways to capitalize on this distributed innovation – they survive the period of uncertainty and change to see a new day dawn in the digital world; on others the sun sets for good.

These scenarios were launched at the Annual Meeting in Davos in 2007 and formed the basis for the World Economic Forum’s second-year engagement with Information Technology, Telecommunications, Media and Entertainment industries on the Digital Ecosystem that aims to transform the key outcomes into cross-industry collaboration.

Learn more about on-going engagement by visiting the Digital Ecosystem Community site (www.decommunity.net), and become a member.

Contact info:
For more information please contact the Scenario Planning team or the Industry Partnership Programme