ICT World Forum: The Future is Web-Enabling Objects[1]

World leaders from government and the ICT industry flew in to Hannover two days before CeBIT to speak at the first ICT World Forum. More than 38 speakers from 27 countries came to the Congress Center in Hannover with one message: the IT industry will bounce back.

As the industry gathers to shake off the dark clouds of economy and industry recession, most speakers agreed: in the next few years, as an industry, we will accomplish more to change the world than we did over the past decade.

Some empty seats in the audience symbolized an industry that has endured its worst economic setback, as a number of pre-registered attendees[2] failed to show. Still more than 300 guests, many of them industry leaders, came to hear the IT visionaries describe their concept of the future.

Deutsche Messe board member Ernst Raue opened the conference with a call for optimism. Although industry recession has reduced this year's CeBIT to 6,500 exhibitors and about 600,000 visitors, CeBIT undisputedly still is the world's largest IT show. "All of us are waiting for new signals for an industry take-off," said Raue. "CeBIT has the power to bring markets up."

Leading ICT visionaries, James Hall research chief of Accenture Labs and George Colony, CEO of Forrester Research both outlined the next decade as one where IT leads the world economy to revolution through web-enabled change.

The rapid acceptance of the web (when compared to the take-up[3] of electricity, radio, TV) has always impressed commentators. Objects – talking to each other, to their owners, to their suppliers, to their users – will outnumber all of us who use the web within this decade.

As a starting point, today companies like Gillette and Nokia will embed RFIDs[4] in their products to track their routes to market. Some gambling casinos in USA now place RFIDs in uniforms to track their employees’ whereabouts. Heart devices now adopt more intricate sensors that communicate the reactions of the device to the heart doctor in real time.

This vision means a re-shaping of IT infrastructures and a totally different way to give general business an ROI[5] for their IT expenditures.

This same web vision, the one that will re-shape industry, also re-shapes the consumer market. The home becomes a place where objects are intelligent and the consumer can take advantage of refrigerators, furnaces, and appliances that can add value.

Comprehension  -  Text: ICT World Forum ( Cebit-ICTWF – the bold text)

True or false or not in the text

true

false

not.i.t.

1.       The participants of the ICT Forum arrived too early.

2.       The main message was that the industry would fall behind.

3.       There was a record number of 6,500 exhibitors.

4.       The CEBIT has no influence on the development of the industry.

5.       The CEBIT was the world's largest IT show.

6.       The future of the industry lies in the web and web-enabled devices.

7.       The public accepted radio and electricity more quickly than the web.

8.       One day there will be more web-based devices than users.

9.       Devices will communicate with each other.

10.   Nokia plans to embed RFIDs in its products to track their routes.

11.   Heart devices will be able to communicate with doctors in real time.

12.   After the installation of RFIDs the IT infrastructures will be different.

13.   The consumer market will not be influenced by this vision.

14.   Homes with intelligent devices will be uncomfortable places.

15.   Nokia mobiles are the market leaders.