Convergence: bring all our ICT together to create new innovation and opportunities; now lets do the same for urban-rural

As part of my research manager duties at Brandon University, I was fortunate enough to attend the TRLabs Convergence conference in Winnipeg. The topic of convergence refers to the coming together of media, merging ICT experience and activities into a seamless experience. The day was spent looking at this convergence in ICT and exploring how it is going to impact our lives in the next 5-10 years. Many ideas and directions were discussed, revealing how the integration of technology in our lives is going to continue to increase. It's an exciting time and all of the speakers agreed that we are moving towards a society with more wireless devices that are used more and more throughout our lives, making existing activities easier and more efficient while letting us do completely new activities and interactions as well.

Wireless devices are already transforming how we work, play and communicate and this will continue with further integration of wireless devices into our lives. Many of the presenters talked about how blended or seamless experiences will continue to improve work, play and communication with networks working effortlessly to transfer content and data between devices and locations whether it be on our computers, smartphones, televisions or tablets. From working on documents to taking phone calls to watching movies or reading the news, our lives are going to increasingly get easier and easier as we are able configure how and where we want to do these activities. Presenters also agreed that many of these innovations are already here and that they will just continue to improve and become more widespread.

In addition to further integration and innovation around our current mobile devices, trends indicate that we are going to see a proliferation of wireless devices in our lives, from smart cars, smart appliances and smart apparel to RFID stickers that can be put on anything such as furnaces, pets and even toothbrushes. One presenter indicated that Ford is showcasing automobiles with monitored driver seats that can help control the car in the event of a driver heart attack. Another example provided home communication solutions that let families talk and video effortlessly with each other no matter where they were or what device they were using.

The unifying factor in all of these innovations and trends was the need for a strong connection to the Internet as the data demand from our devices grow. Not only will these innovations and devices require a strong Internet connection, there are is going to be an explosion of wireless devices putting further demand on our Internet infrastructure. A CISCO study was cited which predicted there will be more than 50 billion Internet connected devices by the year 2020, an average of 6.6 devices per person, far beyond the current average of 1.5 devices per person globally today. To put the speed of wireless device growth in perspective, it was only 5 years ago that there were more people than wireless devices and in 8 years from now there will be more than 6 times the number of devices as people.

As I listened throughout the day and as I thought about what I had learned, one question kept coming back to me: how do rural communities fit into this? I'm fortunate enough to have a solid Internet connection in my rural city of Portage la Prairie and I will be able to participate and enjoy society's increasing innovation and blended experience. Like many people, I already do some of these things; I use my smartphone as my alarm clock and to track exercise, I use a tablet for work and entertainment and we use our TV for watching movies from Netflix as often as watching regular TV.

I look forward to what's next in further integrating technology into our lives, but again I am fortunate enough to have the Internet connection to be able to participate in our changing reality. Just 10 or even 5 kilometers outside of my city though, people do not necessarily have the same ability. Having just recently explored the differences in broadband speeds, I know that just 5 km away, people can have difficulty accessing 5Mbps high speed, speeds that are 5 times slower than what myself and other urban residents in Manitoba are able to access.

As the Convergence conference illustrated, all indications are that we are going to increase our connectedness exponentially, both through our existing devices and by the explosion of new devices that become integrated into our lives. While the merits of being able to watch TV seamlessly on all our devices can be debated, the benefits to areas like health and education are exciting and promise to continue improving society. The unfortunate reality though is that not all rural communities and residents are currently able to realize the benefits of those innovations. As demands on Internet connections increase, those without Internet or with slower connections will be the first to miss out on the potential benefits. Ironically, rural communities are some of those places that would benefit the most from health, education and communication innovations, helping to address both geographic and demographic challenges. It will be important for Manitoba and Canada as a whole to think about and plan for this increasing connectedness and to increase efforts to make sure that all rural communities and residents are able to benefit from the related improvements and opportunities along with their urban neighbours.