by eco CEO Harald A. Summa
The people who work with the Internet are as multi-faceted as the Internet itself. Everyone is different. But as diverse as we may be, we all seem to be more or less united when it comes to one question. What is the most important resource in the digital ecosystem?
Whenever this question is asked, I would bet that the unanimous answer would be: data.
But in the meantime, I have developed a different opinion.
It’s not that I don’t consider data to be important. Quite the contrary. Much depends on the global data streams. The topography of the Internet reflects prosperity and future viability, if it doesn’t already determine them.
But even so, I still consider the suggestion that data is the most important resource to be wrong. More to the point, I consider it to be too modest. I believe namely that the one resource upon which everything else depends is you.
The Internet may well be made up of cables, connectors, and servers. But it is driven by people like you and me. Who want to know something. Or can do something. Who communicate with one another, have something to offer, enjoy quietly, or entertain one another.
The Internet creates connections between people.
For this reason, I am also not of the opinion that the Internet is encouraging the individualization of society and is even distancing us from each other. Many people see this differently. For a lot of people, the most clearly visible sign of digitalization, the smartphone owner fused to his or her smartphone, is a depiction of our withdrawal from the world. That we stare into our screens rather than interacting with one another.
Anyone who believes this has presumably never earned money while being out and about. Or organized care for their sick child. Or simply stayed in contact with someone who, despite living hundreds of kilometers away, is closer to the smartphone owner than the culturally pessimistic critic.
The Internet creates connectedness. Nowhere is this clearer than a few levels under the shiny surface of our smartphones, in the machine rooms of the Internet, even though there it’s not called connectedness, it’s called connectivity.
The digital ecosystem is a shared habitat of diverse companies. In our shared habitat, the better each member is interconnected with others, the better it is for them. The more diverse the ecosystem, the better. The more options exist for partnerships, the better. Competition enlivens business. But it’s partnership that really get us going.
These partnerships are not entered into from one connector to another, but between people who hold the connector in their hand and make everything that users want and need to do on their digital devices possible. Some use it, and others make it possible. And more and more often, those who use it are also those who make it possible.
Wherever you see your place in our digital ecosystem, you are a part of this important resource.
We’re in this together.
