Trend 5: The global information economy will be transformed by new technologies

Library and information professionals have descended on Singapore for the 79th World Library & Information Congress, the opening session is behind us and the launch of the IFLA Trend Report is only a day away away!

If you haven’t already got it in your congress calendar, make sure you’re in the Plenary Session on tomorrow (Monday) morning to help IFLA President Ingrid Parent and Secretary-General Jennefer Nicholson launch the IFLA Trend Report. For those of you following along at home, join in the discussion on twitter using hashtag #iflatrends and get ready for the big unveil.

IFLA members will be able to sign up to the comprehensive web platform to explore the Trend Report in full from tomorrow. Details regarding how you can sign up will be included in a blog post tomorrow.

This is our last sneak peek at trends up for discussion in the IFLA Trend Report. Today, we’re up to:

Trend 5: The global information economy will be transformed by new technologies

This one may seem a little obvious, but trust us! There’s a lot of fascinating questions and collisions arising from the transformative nature of new technologies contained in the IFLA Trend Report.

The proliferation of hyper-connected mobile devices, networked sensors in appliances and infrastructure, 3D printing and language-translation technologies are profoundly transforming the information economy. Existing business models are facing creative disruption, new innovations are being developed and the ways we work, communicate with each other, seek out information and discover new things have been changed forever. Just a few questions up for consideration in the IFLA Trends Report:

  1. When your phone, your car and your wristwatch know where you are at all times – who runs your life?
  2. Ymmärrätkö minua? Will automated translation lead to greater multi-cultural understanding?
  3. Will individuals and businesses be able to be economically active from anywhere in the world?

About the IFLA Trend Report

In December 2011 the IFLA Governing Board set up a Steering Committee to commission a major Trend Report modelling the evolving digital information environment. The IFLA Trend Report is the result of twelve months’ consultation with experts and stakeholders from a range of disciplines to explore and discuss emerging trends in the information environment, before turning the discussion over to libraries.

Launch is almost here! Get involved on twitter at #iflatrends.

twitterGet involved on twitter at #iflatrends.