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Already leaders are talking about investing in large amounts of infrastructure to kick-start the economy, It should include digital infrastructure that will set the next generation up.
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If there is one thing that COVID-19 has done, it has been to accelerate changes that had already been coming to the way we use technology.
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Some of the risk can be offset by combining digital with more traditional infrastructure, It ranges from filling-in connectivity gaps through to solving identity and trust issues.
If there is one thing that COVID-19 has done, it has been to accelerate changes that had already been coming to the way we use technology. As a result of months of disruption, millions of Australians are much more digitally savvy. We are comfortably engaging with each other through video, we are buying online at levels that we expected to be years in the future and, most importantly, we are engaging with education virtually and learning as much about digital learning as we are about the subjects themselves. There have been more subtle changes too. Worldwide, business and government has been learning to work virtually. The future of work has arrived unexpectedly quickly and we’re not likely to go back to how things were. Jobs that can be done remotely are likely to continue to be more flexible than ever before.
The change means that instead of staffing with the best person available onsite, jobs will be available to the best person anywhere. While working virtually, new opportunities for innovation, automation and simplification are being created which will boost productivity and allow for new products and services in the longer term. The move to virtual work means the possibility of accessing new export opportunities. We have a highly skilled workforce who are well regarded across the globe. Contributions that were too hard to make through the tyranny of distance are suddenly open to us. To lock-in the myriad of social, inclusion, education, export and economic benefits that these new digital skills create requires new infrastructure. Digital infrastructure. It ranges from filling-in connectivity gaps through to solving identity and trust issues.
Learn more: ARE COMPANIES INVESTING TOO MUCH IN DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE?
“It is now the moment for countries to fast-track the construction of new digital infrastructure, such as IoT along with AI, in addition to the hastening of vital projects and major infrastructure construction that’s already included in countries.”
Challenges included: instructors not properly trained and prepared to deliver online courses. Difficulties in adapting TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) curricula and training to online formats. Lack of access to the internet or ICT (Information and communications technology) equipment to carry out learning or training. Apprentices ready for assessment but who couldn’t be assessed due to COVID-19 issues. Students unable to access the resources necessary to continue their training because they were not familiar with online platforms. Yet, despite these challenges, students, apprentices, providers of TVET, and policy-makers are making the important changes needed when it comes to learning and acquiring skills in times of crisis.
” Our future is a hybrid of physical and digital and needs to include advanced manufacturing which is rich in IP which can be exported to identical fabrication technology in seconds and in production in minutes.”
It is a world where learning is supported by digital tools curating the best content from teachers across the country supported by dynamic coaching in-person and digitally. And it is a world where cyber security infrastructure is as pervasive as our defence and police forces.The challenge with investing in digital infrastructure is that it is sometimes hard to see the progress. If a government invests in roads, bridges and buildings then even if there is a cost blowout, there is something useful at the end of it. Technology, on the other hand, is notorious for missed budgets combined with architectural missteps or even obsolescence. However, just because these investments are hard and carry risk, we cannot shy away from them. Nationally important digital infrastructure will disproportionately set up for the future we want to have in the 2030s. After all, history has shown that the most significant investments of the past in the nation’s interests have come with commensurate risk.
Digital infrastructure plays a pivotal role in predicting and modelling outbreaks. Take AI-supported services for a lung CT scan: the AI is premeditated to quickly detect lesions of likely coronavirus pneumonia; to measure its volume, shape and density; and to compare changes of multiple lung lesions from the image. This provides a quantitative report to assist doctors in making fast judgements and thus helps expedite the health evaluation of patients. That the government could respond as quickly and in the way it did with JobKeeper, JobSeeker and small business boosts was because of investments made in complex IT systems over the past decade. These systems are examples of critical infrastructure that provide resilience to support the economy and its people. Some of the risk can be offset by combining digital with more traditional infrastructure.
Learn more:
AS COVID-19 EXACERBATES IT INFRASTRUCTURE CHALLENGES, DBAS EMERGE AS THE UNSUNG HEROES
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