Navigare necesse est! Does IT make it obsolete!?

The Romans claimed that sailing was necessary, and it certainly was for them in order to build and maintain an empire, but how about us? Are travelling and transportation as necessary with telecommunications expanding?

In a global word, nothing has changed since Roman times. We need to meet and move things, maybe even more so. The question is how we do it.

In the past week there have been two reports launched with the same basic message: IT will enable us to be much smarter. The keyword, though, is 'enable'. Will we rise to this ability?

Graphics from article in The Economist

Future IT requires more energy, but will save even more

One of the reports came from the IT-industry itself and says that by 2020, 7.8 billion tonnes of carbon-dioxide can be saved. The other one comes from WWF and is surprisingly more modest since it only (!) aims for a billion tonnes.

Both, however, have very much the same focus:

• Smart grids
• Smart buildings
• Smart logistics
• Smart Industry-processes
• Smart working (less travel and more cyber-contacts)

Both also have the same recipes for change: rethink the way you work and take IT into account at every step. Still, we must remember that enabling does not guarantee results, even if the odds look good. WWF pictures a 50 fold carbon payback from the IT sector.

The EU-Commission has also discovered this opportunity and announced its intention to specifically promote the ICT sector for its promises to be a driver for green actions.