全球最顶级MBAwharton商学院最新文章(pdf45)英文版

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Supernova 2005: It's a Who le New, Connected World
Published: July 27, 2005
Coming Soon...A Single, Global, Collaborative Virtual IT World (Phew!)





"Something fundamentally big is happening that will profoundly affect the life of every person and every business over the next five to 15 years -- the collapsing of
everything into one single, global, ubiquitous, collaborative virtual IT world."
So said Hossein Eslambolchi, president of AT&T's Global Networking Technology Services, at the recent Supernova conference co-sponsored by Wharton in San Francisco. The conference, now in its fourth year, explores the forces in technology that are driving computing from a centralized model to a decentralized one, from the center to the 'edge.' These forces, which demand new systems and business models, represent both threat and opportunity, said conference organizer Kevin Werbach, a Wharton professor of legal studies and business ethics.
Eslambolchi was among those who focused on the opportunity: the benefits of a single, global, and collaborative information technology world. Imagine, he suggested,
a time when "the network will take over the headache of managing disparate technologies. It will be like having a conference call with four people, each speaking a
different language with the network rapidly translating everything into English."





Supporting such collaborative work will be an intelligent computer network in the center -- "the basis for everything" -- with equally 'smart' devices such as phones
and computers at the edge. Collaboration will dominate both the technology and the workplace. "You will really work on the network, not in the office," said Eslambolchi,
"and since the network could be anywhere, it constitutes a virtual office." Already 20% of U.S. workers, some 25 million people, are telecommuting, with 40 million
predicted to do so by year-end 2008. That trend will accelerate as a result of the convergence of voice, data and text in mobile devices -- laptops, PDAs, cell phones --
where they will operate based on software applications collaborating seamlessly, without effort on the user's part.
The biggest challenge? Security, say half of the corporate chief information officers in the U.S., who recognize that problems will grow exponentially in an increasingly
networked world. "This is the biggest challenge of the 21st century," said Eslambochi, "If we don't figure out security over the next few years, I think we will end up with a
problem of biblical proportions."
Participants, Not Receivers
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