Response to Luc Comeau:
True, but not in the case of Singapore, where it’s so small.

Response to Mark Gbur:
Agree with Mark that the scope is more towards the cause and effect style, of a bigger picture. Which i think that’s the reason why most of the scoring for the trends in terms of whether it’s inevitable and the impact is high, well at least initially.

If you are talking about Singapore’s context, the iN2015 is a vision that the government has for the nation. I believe there some very good reasons behind this. Firstly, as a regional hub in Southeast Asia, and probably Asia, we need to equip ourselves technologically as a nation, to continue to attract more talents and investments. Secondly, to be on par or to compete with our counterparts, our citizens need to be tech savvy. By tech savvy, I’m referring to how to engage technology to enhance our lifestyle, which is the primary reason of being for Technology.

In view of this, this vision has large implications affecting infrastructure, education, training and development of working adults. For infrastructure, for example, we aim to have wi-fi access readily available everywhere, 24/7. In response, TELCOs start offering data plans for full mobility. For education (and also in response to Nancy), primary schoolers are learning to use the internet to search for information. As compared to 12 years ago, I learnt how to surf and search for info as University freshman. Now, my students can attain the same information that I can online. Now is that fair? In the past, you need to be rich in order to own a set encyclopedia for you to “show off” your clever answers the next day to the class when your teacher sent you homework. Now, the competition is about who clicks the fastest, and whose answers are more reliable/ credible. The scope of teaching has shifted to content-based to more facilitation and on how to better make use of the vast information available. Most, if not all, schools/ institutes are fully wi-fi. The libraries are subscribing to more ejournals, than hardcopy periodicals. The list goes on. For training and development, let’s just say if you do not know how log on to the web, you’re less likely to be a white-collar worker. And in Singapore, almost all blue-collar jobs are taken up by foreigners. To support local citizens, the government also grants or funds companies for professional upgrading, for courses related to the IT industry.

My point is there are trends that are directly related to the rise of technology, and there are trends indirectly related but have a larger impact to our lives. The rise of technology is a movement, is a phenomenon that cannot be stop. However, what’s important is also to think about how can our lives be changed or affected 20, 30, 50 years down the road after the impact. Are we going to have a better lifestyle, or actually worse? Dave’s terminology of the post-digital reminded me of the movie Wall-E, where the humans are living completed “wasted” lifestyle on another planet, where everything is remotely controlled and use of muscles is almost redundant.