Living in a digital world

The digital world is growing up. Now well into its teens, it has succeeded in developing a more serious and reliable image, while retaining some of the playfulness and irreverence that characterised its younger years.

Parental guidance has played a strong role, with governments battling against copycats, fraudsters, spammers, hackers, data-sharks and all manner of malign influences that threatened its development.

Currently speeding down the information superhighway en route to the knowledge economy, the EU has adapted well to challenges presented by the digital world. The ability to digitalise sounds and images for conveyance over fixed and mobile communications networks to multi-functional devices with increased storage capacity has brought about previously unimaginable changes to the way citizens live and work. The expansion of the internet, the spread of broadband through satellite and fibre-optic technology and sharp price decreases promise greater digitalisation in the lives of EU citizens.

The evolution of virtual worlds, such as Second Life and World of Warcraft (essentially a bellicose version of Second Life, where gamers war over commodities) are, according to a recent review in the journal Science, generating substantial interest among social scientists intrigued by the changing boundaries of organis-ational and individual behaviour online. The possibilities offered by virtual lives may be overly hyped by commentators, but Second Life’s success at spinning itself into an online economy where people actually trade and invest for offline monetary gain suggests an interesting evolution. The internet, once seen as an unregulated jungle, is increasingly perceived as a place where the laws of the offline world still apply.

If increasing consumer confidence in e-commerce is a central tenet of the digital economy, ensuring that creators of digital content receive their dues is an equally important battleground. Piracy is especially worrying in areas of the world such as China where, according to industry figures, 82% of software is counterfeit. Last week, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation collared members of a Chinese counterfeiting syndicate which allegedly sold and distributed copycat software worth €1.5 billion worldwide. But organised scamsters, who are succeeding in making huge dents in the digital economy, are not the only source of a copying epidemic. The millions of tech-savvy individuals illegitimately making copies of films and music files in their homes are causing similar damage.

Away from cutting-edge developments in the digital world, the European Commission is trying to do its bit to help shape its evolution. The i2010 framework, a five-year strategy launched in 2005 as an offshoot of the Lisbon Agenda for jobs and growth, is its main vehicle for digital influence. Under i2010, EU research funds are being pumped into the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, which accounts for a growing proportion of productivity gains and overall economic growth in Europe. The social role of ICT in government services, healthcare, learning and environm-ental policy is also emphasised, as is the pressing need to bridge the digital divide to ensure fair and equal access to technology for all. Under i2010, the regulatory framework for electronic communications is being updated to cover convergence of telecoms and broadcast technologies in a high-bandwidth world.

The nitty-gritty of internet governance, covering architectural issues such as domain name structure, is dealt with by the i2020 framework, also launched in 2005. The Commission’s attempt to get involved in admin-istration of the worldwide web was seen as an attempt to muscle in on US control of cyberspace, maintained contractually through the California-based non-profit organisation Icann (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Icann has the right to decide who can run top-level domains, such as dot.cn, dot.fr and dot.uk and can veto the introduction of new domains. Controversy over an application for the dot.xxx adult domain highlighted the democratic deficit in internet governance. The application was rejected in March after intensive campaigning by states and pressure groups, which accused the US government of meddling in Icann’s decision-making processes.

The digital world is growing up. Now well into its teens, it has succeeded in developing a more serious and reliable image, while retaining some of the playfulness and irreverence that characterised its younger years.