Benefits And Challenges Of Global Connectivity
Global connectivity is a phenomenon through which the internet offers the prospective for smooth and coherent communication around each and every part of the world. “Connectivity is not a one-way road, nor a concept to benefit only one’s interests. If cooperation is the natural way of an increasingly interdependent world, it should be built on a strong basis to preserve and promote universal values”, says Jean-François Cautain. As far as Pakistan is concerned, it currently ranks 77th on the Global Connectivity Index (GCI) in 2018. Huawei’s GCI measures how nations are moving ahead with digital revolution using Information and Communications Technology (ICT). It is a quantitative assessment that broadly evaluates connectivity from both a national and industrial perspective.
The lower ranking is largely due to the fact that information technology is not efficient and the internet dispersion remains low, with the volume of mobile broadband services exceeding the fixed broadband sector of the market. However, this sector of the market is finally starting to expand, having been given a massive boost with the arrival of mobile broadband. The country has been on the lookout for an aggressive IT policy, intended to boost its drive for economic modernization. Special significance has been the administration’s provisioning of e-government services.
The Huawei GCI report also focuses on the opportunities that are available in Pakistan. The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has finalized the “Digital Pakistan Policy 2017”, which envisions Pakistan to become the facilitator for an accelerated digitization ecosystem that enlarges the knowledge-based economy and encourage socio-economic growth. The key goals of the proposal will be to generate a digital ecosystem supported by infrastructure and institutional frameworks for rapid delivery of innovative digital services, applications and content. Not only this, but it will also promote the use of technology in education, health, agriculture and other key socio-economic sectors. Enhancing the existing market size of e-commerce will also be another focal point as the market is estimated to carry a massive growth potential due to exponential growth in broadband subscribers over the years. There are ample of advantages of global connectivity. On the individual level, it enables people, who love to keep moving and travel, to keep in touch with their friends and family and they are more connected from before no matter wherever they reside. Formerly, somebody in a foreign country would only be able to contact family members or loved ones through expensive phone calls but nowadays, as technology has advanced, it has made it possible for many other options and tools in making it easier for anyone to be in contact with somebody in other parts of the world. However, it is more beneficial to those who don’t travel because they can connect with their peers through varying social media applications including Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter etc. These social media networks has allowed users to stay up-to-date with people from all across the globe, as they can easily communicate with and follow their friends’ important posts and updates. Photo documentation and file sharing have also become increasingly available with the rise of these social networking sites since many of these sites allow for fairly large files and data to be stored and shared. Eventually, this platform has made it extremely easy for friends and loved ones to communicate, regardless of the distance between them. With the growth of various file sharing, social networking sites and online collaboration platforms, global connectivity will only continue to benefit users on a global scale. It also helps scholars and scientists share information much more quickly and efficiently than was previously possible. Besides, as science is increasingly becoming universal and collaborative, researchers' reliance on fast and reliable data and communication links grows. Research and Education networks are designed to meet these demands, providing high-speed and reliable internet links to support applications and experiments crucial to the researcher’s research. Seamless global connectivity is important as it allows virtual communities of researchers to work together across continents as if they are physically together. "Today, research is increasingly collaborative - across institutions but also countries and even continents - and it relies on ever growing amounts of data, " said Torsten Reimer, who works for Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), a UK body.
Moreover, the increase of global connectivity has also made a considerable advancement in the business world, allowing businesses with many different locations across different cities and countries the ability to communicate through the internet, with tools such as Skype, instead of having to take costly flights in order to have a meeting with the head of the company in another part of the world. Not only this but it also enable companies conducting business with people in other locations, as meetings can be quickly and easily held over video conferencing on the Internet. In addition to, the media has also benefited from global connectivity, as it is much easier for information to flow. People can access all types of information from everywhere and at anytime using the Internet. Newscasts, web articles, films and TV episodes can also be easily shared and discussed over social media websites and online communities, granting the media a wider audience reach.
Furthermore, global integration has brought extraordinary development, not least through the exchange of resources, skills, talent and ideas that it enables. It has cultivated global economic growth, alleviated many of the world’s poorest out of poverty, and has facilitated access to knowledge and education around the globe. It has also contributed to global democratization, playing a vital role in limiting and eliminating some of the world’s most deadly diseases. Global connectivity has promoted, and feeds off, global migration, which throughout history has been a key element for innovation and progress, and an escape from poverty, conflict and climatic and other disasters. It has enriched everyone’s’ lives by providing access to varying opportunities, people, cultures, and traditions. However, along with the benefits that global connectivity brings in, it has also been built upon the concerns of performance and security for all users, whether personal or business-related, who conduct online collaboration platforms and social networking sites over the internet.
The protection of businesses in an online setting has been a growing concern, with the growth and development of global connectivity over the past decade. For almost all the companies, data is a valuable asset, especially if it includes sensitive financial information, proprietary formulas and algorithms or secret research and such information can give any company an edge in the marketplace. It is certainly not the kind of information people would want to share with everyone. Furthermore, dependence of online platforms to store a company’s vital information is a disadvantage to the corporation, as the performance of certain file sharing and video conferencing sites are still relatively unpredictable. Businesses run at the risk of scamming and hacking by losing valuable documents, dropping important calls or videos with clients or dealing with unethical online business practices.
Another concern is when people are involved with social networking sites, such as Facebook or Twitter; they are able to create their own online identity that may contain much of their personal information. This puts users at threat of having their personal and private information stolen or hacked for another user’s own benefit. Information including phone numbers, credit card numbers, images and location information can make their way into the wrong hands, thus jeopardizing the safety and privacy of others. Hence, if the users are not careful about what information they disclose on the web, everything put online is immediately at risk of being exploited by others. These securities, privacy and performance issues certainly make the users think twice about total global connectivity in the digital age. Furthermore, there is intrinsically also a great danger in mismanaged global connectivity. Along with more proficiently produced goods, more diversely skillful individuals and more innovative ideas, global connectivity also contributes to the building up and spreading of a long list of risks. These risks arise within and across domains such as the physical and virtual global infrastructure, the ecosystem, the global financial sector, the web of global supply chains, social inequality, and the realm of pandemics and public health.
His Highness the Aga Khan IV stated: “Greater ‘connectivity’ does not necessarily mean greater ‘connection. ’ More information at our fingertips can mean more knowledge and understanding. But it can also mean more fleeting attention-spans, more impulsive judgments, and more dependence on superficial snapshots of events. Communicating more often and more easily can bring people closer together, but it can also tempt us to live more of our lives inside smaller information bubbles, in more intense but often more isolated groupings. The incalculable multiplication of information can also mean more error, more exaggeration, more misinformation, more disinformation, and more propaganda. The world may be right there on our laptops, but the truth about the world may be further and further away. ” On the other instance, Ian Goldin and Mike Mariathasan, in their book ‘The Butterfly Defect’ argue that globalization has been an influential force that has promoted sustained periods of peace and lifted many of the world’s poorest out of poverty, however, to preserve the benefits of globalization, more global policy coordination to promote resilience, encourage transparent communication and prepare for contingencies, are necessary. Although global connectivity is the cause of systemic risk, it is also its solution; provided that it is carefully managed. More connectivity and ingenuousness, rapid change, growing populations, and higher incomes bring greater complications and higher potential for systemic risk. The nurturing of a resilient global connection, however, is also the best means available to us to manage it. Sustainability will be vital through building of firms and societies.
