1.
sharing
innovation and ideas
The technology and business
landscape has been changing at an
unprecedented speed. As one of
the world’s leading IT companies,
our Business Technologists have
the responsibility to think one
step ahead, to anticipate coming
social, business and technology
challenges, and to work with our
clients and society at large to
reinvent their growth models in the
post-crisis economic environment
Thought leadership from Atos
How your car
will help you
drive better
Five jobs your
kids will do
The end of
shopping as
we know it
Meet the
technophile
leading
Sochi 2014
Interested in our Ascent - Thought
Leadership publications?
Stay connected with the latest
forward-looking and inspirational
publications on business & technology
www.atos.net/ascent
Winter/Spring 2014
Promises of a
converging
world

2.
Contents
Foreword
The explosion of data generated
by smartphones and social
networks is already beginning
to blur the divide between once
very separate spheres
DEMOGRAPHICS
ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY
What does a
cashless world
look like?
4
Check out
tomorrow’s
stores
6
8
23
GLOBALIZATION
Sochi 2014: Lessons from
remotest Russia
Big Data
2 Ascent magazine | Atos
20
30
Cloud forecast
32
Cloud
26
Dimitri
Chernyshenko:
Gatekeeper
to the future
No future
without trust
24
18
The People vs Big Brother:
who wins?
Meet the man
driving Renault
into multi-sided
markets
Data protection:
The big debate
gets big
14
TRUST
Fake facts:
The risks
of online
reviews
Big Data
16
The car gets
connected
12
2020: When
Why your
10-year-old won’t
be a recruitment
consultant
Mobility
34
Security
The
office
20
.
Social
Thierry Breton,
Chairman and CEO, Atos
W
elcome to this new
Ascent magazine,
which provides a
glimpse into the
future of our evermore connected planet.
At Atos, our responsibility is to stay
one step ahead of change – and to help
our clients do the same.
Our Ascent program is designed
to share with our partners and
customers advance innovation and
thought leadership on emerging
trends in many areas.
Ascent magazine is a collaborative
forum, which combines key insights
from our Atos business technologists
with the views and ideas of outside
experts from academia and industry.
This Ascent magazine explores the
‘revolution of a connected universe’
and our core premise is that the
current technology revolution is truly
disruptive, affecting us all.
The years ahead will see eradefining change in the global
technology landscape, further
impacting the way we all connect, live
and do business.
The explosion of data generated by
smartphones and social networks is
already beginning to blur the divide
between once very separate spheres.
Entities once as distinct
as enterprise and consumer,
government and citizen, and
indeed different sovereign nations
are starting to come together – to
converge – in unprecedented ways.
Our mission in this magazine is
to explore this future from a range
of perspectives – and to understand
what the revolution will mean for the
daily life of billions.
Around all of these connected endusers are critical points of interaction
where business is required to further
power progress.
We want to help you understand
how business can benefit from
these new technology enablers and
navigate the emerging trends.
In particular, we focus on four key
trends that we believe will shape the
coming years:
• The emergence of new business
models offering Economic
Sustainability;
• Changes in Demographics with the
coming-of-age of ‘digital natives’;
• Increasing Globalization, which
together will trigger a new demand
for technology; and finally
• Trust, which will become a
prerequisite for the greater
cooperation required.
But what is certain is that humans
will remain at the center of all this
technological change.
Each of the stories in this magazine
can tell us something about the world
that awaits us all.
I hope you will enjoy exploring this
future with us.
Ascent magazine | Atos 3

3.
Economic sustainability
M-commerce
Buying and selling of goods and services
through wireless handheld devices such as
mobile phones.
Countries re-scaled according to their use of mobile payment
P2P (Peer-to-peer)
An online technology that allows customers
to transfer funds from their bank account or
credit card to another individual’s account via
a mobile phone.
3%
4%
POLAND
RUSSIA
14%
5%
CANADA
UK
1%
4%
FRANCE
GERMANY
USA
W
JAPAN
TAIWAN
1%
TURKEY
2%
INDIA
13%
Mobile payment
solutions are
attractive in an
economy where
90 per cent of
transactions are
cash-based
8%
BRAZIL
1%
ARGENTINA
6%
SOUTH AFRICA
22%
SAUDI ARABIA
38%
THE PHILIPPINES
Kenya
1%
VIETNAM
INDONESIA
THAILAND
7%
SINGAPORE
5%
MALAYSIA
HONG KONG
14%
15%
NIGERIA
6%
Use of mobile
payments across
the board is
double that in
the UK
PoS mobile
payments are
currently running
at twice the
average
6%
4%
11%
it into the top ten. Instead it is
the likes of Kenya, Vietnam and
the Philippines that are setting
the pace. Of the three categories
of mobile payment – peer-topeer (P2P), point-of-sale (PoS)
and m-commerce – it is the last,
where transactions are carried
out using a mobile device,
that is currently enjoying the
greatest popularity.
SOUTH KOREA
UAE
EGYPT
COLOMBIA
hile traditional
powerhouses
like the
United States,
France, United
Kingdom and Japan lead the
way in terms of technological
and economic readiness, when
it comes to actual consumer
adoption, not one country in
Europe or North America makes
3%
16%
4%
MEXICO
HUNGARY
ITALY
A high degree of
familiarity and
willingness is already
seeing double the
average usage of
mobile payments
6%
4%
5%
2%
While uptake to
m-commerce is
above average, P2P
and PoS mobile
payments are
lagging behind
13%
CHINA
7%
A highly
advanced mobile
environment is
not being matched
by consumer
willingness
PoS (Point of sale)
Mobile point-of-sale systems that enable a
smartphone to act as a mini-cash register,
capable of processing credit card transactions.
7%
AUSTRALIA
5%
NEW ZEALAND
This illustration is based on findings from MasterCard’s Mobile Payment Readiness Index (MPRI)
Ascent has re-scaled the leading adopters according to their use of mobile payment — and there are some surprises. Could cash-free really change the face of the earth?
The world — cashless
4 Ascent magazine | Atos
Ascent magazine | Atos 5

4.
Economic sustainability
Introducing Worldline...
...an Atos subsidiary, global player and
the European leader in business and
payments transactional services. It
provides business enabling IT services
to support customers’ top line growth
through an innovative, new and
seamless user experience designed
for engagement. With an unrivalled 40
years of experience and strong local
Shopping
list
Cashless and
connected
Santi Ristol outlines
what the new
consumer means
for your business
Santi Ristol and Guy Lidbetter
of the Atos Scientific Community
anticipate a radical retail shift as
online and offline converge
D
oes anyone enjoy
shopping any more?
Speak to customers
and they’ll say you
can’t get decent
service, it’s hard to find what
you’re looking for and, when
you do, it’s cheaper online.
Meanwhile, retailers complain
that shoppers are rude, always
expect something for nothing
and are driving shops out of
business by using them as
mere showrooms before
buying online.
Earlier this year, a specialist
food shop in Brisbane, Australia,
caused outrage around the
world when it started charging
$5 just to browse. The owner
was fed up with people coming
in, getting the benefit of her time
and knowledge and then leaving
without buying anything. “The
$5 thing was never a campaign,”
she insisted, “it was just a local
thing out of desperation to
reclaim my business.”
She claims business has
improved as a result, but do
retailers need to take such
strong and potentially selfharming action to safeguard
their livelihood? Or can the
Internet be harnessed for the
benefit of shop owners and
customers alike? Our experts
pick out 10 positive changes that
6 Ascent magazine | Atos
the convergence of online and
offline could make for shoppers
and shopkeepers alike.
1. Bespoke customer service
Customers will no longer be
anonymous. As you enter the shop
you will ‘check in’ via your mobile
device, sharing information about
yourself and gaining access to
useful apps, enabling the shop
staff to personalise their service
and enhance your shopping
experience, thereby selling more
to regular customers. Don’t think
of it as Big Brother, but Big Mother:
the more you explain to your
mother, the more she will take
care of you.
2. No more queues
Standing in line at the checkout
while the person at the front of
the queue digs in their pockets
for cash will be a thing of the
past. As you shop you’ll be able
to scan each purchase on your
smartphone and then make a
mobile payment when you’re
ready to leave. This improves
the customer experience whilst
reducing the retailer’s cost of sale
and shortening checkout lines.
3. Less annoying marketing
As customers share their
personal preferences in return
for greater convenience,
links, Worldline is ideally positioned
to support businesses of all sizes and
contribute to their success in today’s
fast growing and constantly evolving
market landscape. [ worldline.com ]
shopkeepers will be able to target
their marketing much more
effectively, both to attract people
into the store and then to capture
their business once they’re inside.
Customers will be informed by
dynamic displays that change
according to who’s standing in
front of them, and enticed by
offers that appeal to their specific
tastes and preferences.
5. No more aimless
wandering
4. Know what you’re buying
6. Does my butt look big
in this?
Not sure whether that cake
you’re about to buy suits your
dietary requirements? Take your
smartphone, scan the label and
pull down all the information
you need. Similarly, if they
haven’t got that hat in the colour
you want, just scan the label and
find out who has.
Keying your shopping list into
your smartphone can help ensure
you don’t forget anything, but
you can go one better. When you
check into the store, a mobile app
will read your list and give you a
plan showing where everything is,
mapping out your most efficient
route around the shop.
If you’re shopping solo, who do
you ask for a second opinion? A
pair of augmented reality glasses
could offer the honest answer
you’re looking for and provide
a more immersive shopping
experience, even replacing the
smartphone altogether.
7. Ditch those heavy bags
You love shopping trips but hate
having to lug your bags from shop
to shop. No problem. Just scan
the items you want to buy, choose
the delivery option when making
your mobile payment and the
goods are delivered to your home,
leaving you free to continue your
shopping spree unburdened.
8. No more lost receipts
How many different cards do
you keep in your wallet and how
many times have you wanted to
return an item but couldn’t find
the receipt? Now your payment
processing and loyalty schemes can
all be managed from your smart
device with records kept in the
Cloud, accessible any time, meaning
returns and refunds are a formality.
9. Putting the fun back
Online shopping will become a
more tactile experience, so you can
move through the store as if you’re
there. Just drag the goods you want
to your basket, making it quicker
and more relaxing than it is now to
shop online. Gaming techniques
will enhance both the shopping
and loyalty experience, making it
more immersive and enjoyable.
10. More than just a shop
Don’t be surprised to find your
local pet shop selling pet care
insurance, as access to vast
amounts of customer data opens
up multi-sided markets, with
traditional shops becoming
platforms between other service
industries and consumers, creating
a seamless shopping experience.
“Don’t think
of it as Big
Brother, but
Big Mother:
the more
you explain
to your
mother, the
more she
will take
care of you”
Traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ retailers
today are faced with a simple choice:
embrace the mobile internet and use
its tools to fight back against online
retailers, or die. We are fast approaching
a time when people will consider it
almost a right to be connected at all
times, wherever they are. The successful
retailers will be the ones who recognise
the potential in this situation and use it
to get closer to their customers.
The mobile internet will mean
consumers expect more from
their shopping experience: more
information, more convenience, more
care; but the personal data they will be
required to share in order to get all that
will make it easier for the shopkeeper
to give it to them, and to get more back.
The opportunity can be divided into
two parts. First, away from the point of
sale: anything a store can do to motivate
customers to come to the shop, such
as sending personalized messages
and coupons, positioning themselves
by entertainment and leisure outlets,
and enhancing their online presence.
Second, inside the shop: improving the
customer experience, devoting more
shelf space to leading items by storing
more stock off-site, enabling customers
to interact and then facilitating payment
at the end.
The possibilities are as boundless
as imagination, all leading to a closer
relationship between retailer
and customer and a better experience
all round.
Ascent magazine | Atos 7

5.
Economic sustainability
Cars get
connected
TV, smartphone, tablet and now
car: the latest channel for Internet
connectivity offers exciting
possibilities for the motorist in
terms of safety, performance and
convenience, and also creates
a vital new revenue opportunity
for manufacturers
5
Sensors
1
4
Control centre
Mobile wallet
A clear, simple
interface with head-up
display, gesture and
voice recognition
and steering wheel
remote control will
cause minimal driver
disturbance.
As well as buying
your apps and
entertainments, you’ll
be able to order
anything you need
for the car, such as
replacement parts or
accessories such as
head and tail lights.
3
In Car
Entertainment
Stream music, videos
and games from the
Internet or share
with and from other
vehicles.
6
2
Predictive
maintenance
Range
When fuel or battery
charge drops below
a set level, the car will
notify you of refuelling/
recharging locations
up ahead, together
with their prices and
any special offers.
8 Ascent magazine | Atos
Keeping a constant
watch on the health of
the car, your predictive
maintenance program
will notify you when
parts are falling due for
replacement, and will
source and order those
parts or tyres.
As well as sensing the
presence of obstacles,
the connected car will
‘talk’ to the vehicles
around it and will be
able to react to their
movements faster than
a human driver. This
networking will also
play a key role in the
car staying connected
on the move.
“
“No technology alone will
be able to deliver what is
needed for a connected
car because as the car
moves, the network
changes topology
continually. So you need
to take advantage of
whatever opportunities
you have to communicate:
for example with other
connected cars and with
connected roadside
devices such as traffic
lights and speed-cams.”
Professor Giovanni Pau, Smart Mobility Chair
holder at University of Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris
Ascent magazine | Atos 9

6.
Economic sustainability
Atos and Samsung
Connected vehicles and their integrated display
devices will be a key strand in a new strategic
partnership between Atos and electronics
manufacturer Samsung. The partnership,
10
“Connected car apps are being
designed with the aim of
helping you drive better and
not disturbing you, but car
makers are already working on
apps for a time when the
motorist doesn’t have to drive.”
Pascal Pediroda, Worldline Connected Vehicles
Offering Manager, member of Atos Scientific Community
“
Breakdown
9
In case of a fault,
the car will notify
your manufacturer’s
breakdown service and
generate a thorough
diagnosis of the
problem, which will
enable a quick repair.
Pull up, turn off, plug in
Udo Sebald of the Atos
Scientific Community asks
whether there is a future for
the electric car
Mileage
Personal use data such
as mileage will be a
valuable commodity
for sale to third parties;
for example, insurance
companies.
T
7
Local flavour
The personality
of the connected
environment will be
important for user
experience, with
everything down
to the accent of the
computer voice being
tailored to the user.
10 Ascent magazine | Atos
announced in June 2013, aims to develop and
market advanced IT solutions for B2B markets,
including end-to-end retail, digital signage,
connected vehicles, end user computing,
printing and mobile solutions.
8
Performance
Every driver drives
differently. Gathering
data on revs, gearchanges, braking etc
will help manufacturers
to adapt their designs
to be most efficient
for most people, to
lengthen car life and
save fuel.
here are two
main incentives
for switching to
electric powered
vehicles: one is
the environment, the other
is cost – and ultimately cost
will be the deciding factor.
Governments committed
to hitting low emissions
targets are already issuing
legislation and offering
subsidies in favour of
electric vehicles; and as
fuel costs continue to rise,
car owners – and fleet
operators in particular –
are finding that the total
cost of ownership (TCO) of
electric vehicles is looking
increasingly attractive.
Mobility and car sharing
providers such as DriveNow,
Cambio and Multicity
now offer electric vehicles
and a battery charging
infrastructure to their
growing client base.
A further incentive for
the future is the possibility
of using electric vehicles
as cells within a ‘smart
grid’, helping to maintain
an efficient and agile
distribution of energy, and
potentially allowing the
owners of electric vehicles
to have their own energy
storage system for increased
independence from a central
energy supply.
Obstacles to overcome
At present, however, there
are three major obstacles that
need to be overcome. The
first is the cost of batteries – as
much as €15,000 for a midrange car – which currently
makes the price of private
ownership prohibitively
high. The second is the lack
of infrastructure. While
charging poles are beginning
to appear in some cities, there
are nowhere near enough
to support a significant
transition to electric vehicles.
And third, while it takes
about five minutes to refuel
your petrol car, a full recharge
of an electric vehicle
takes several hours using
traditional charging.
Yet we are seeing a
genuine commitment
to an electric vehicle future.
Governments have taken a very
positive attitude, as have owners
of highly utilised, short-range
fleets, including delivery services
FedEx, La Poste in France and the
German mail service Deutsche
Post DHL, which recently piloted
a fleet of electric vehicles in Bonn.
Automotive manufacturers and
their suppliers are divided: some
have much to lose, some much
to gain, but they all have electric
vehicles or research programmes
now in place.
Reducing costs
The question is, will the problems
facing the electric vehicle be
overcome before another power
source comes along to usurp it?
I think the answer is yes. Battery
technology is developing, with
the example of the Fraunhofer
Institute for Materials and
Radiation Technology in Dresden
having recently announced a
breakthrough in the lifecycle of
lithium-sulphur batteries. These
batteries are more powerful and
cost-effective than the current
lithium-ion ones and could help
to bring costs right down. More
widespread use will also lead
to better economies and more
infrastructure suppliers will
follow the lead of Tesla Motors
in expanding the charging
infrastructure (Tesla is aiming
to connect every major city in the
US and Canada by the end
of the year) and developing
fast-charging technologies.
There is also evidence of
a changing attitude to car
ownership: no longer will we want
our own pride and joy, sitting in
the garage for most of the day,
but we’ll hire vehicles as we need
them from conveniently placed
collection points, fully charged and
ready to go.
In the short term, hybrid
vehicles represent a good entry
point to the benefits of electric
vehicles, but by 2030 or 2035, I
believe the majority of vehicles on
the road will be fully electric and
any new fuel source will supply
that system.
Ascent magazine | Atos 11

7.
Economic sustainability
Driving new
revenues
While most car manufacturers continue to ponder the viability of the
connected car, Ascent asks Renault’s François Gayral what it was that
convinced his company to press ahead with its pioneering R-Link system
T
here’s a major conundrum
facing car manufacturers right
now. As the ubiquity of the
connected vehicle becomes
more and more inevitable, the
challenge is on to find a business case that
enables manufacturers to offer customers
this convenience at a price they’re
prepared to pay. “My bet is that two years,
three years from now, none of us will
want to buy a car which is not connected,”
says Hubert Tardieu, of the Atos Scientific
Community. Time is of the essence.
At Renault, they’re not waiting for
others to take the lead. In the same spirit
of ‘innovation for all’ that saw the French
manufacturer pioneer steering wheel
mounted controls and in-car navigation,
Renault has forged ahead with R-Link, an
integrated system that is connected to the
Cloud, your smartphone and the vehicle’s
own network. With over 50 apps available
at launch, its primary aim, according
to François Gayral, Cross Carline VP
Marketing, was to extend the availability
of Renault’s existing connectivity
services, such as the acclaimed Carminat
TomTom LIVE built-in navigation system,
to as many customers as possible.
But Renault R-Link opens up a whole
new world of potential benefits, for
Renault, its customers, and also for third
parties. And here the business case
begins to add up.
Added value
“We’re ready to sell services to our fleet
customers that will use data from the
way their vehicles are used to help them
manage their fleets more efficiently,”
says Gayral. “We could also sell that data.
For example, we’re investigating pay-asyou-drive insurance services, where a
customer could reduce their monthly
premium by selling data about the
number of kilometers they drive.”
Quick CV
Date of birth: June 21, 1956
Place of birth: Pau, France
Qualifications: Engineering degree from INSA Lyon
Career milestones: 34 years in the automotive sector. Started at Valeo heading several
customer accounts then joined PPG as PSA WW Account Director. 13 years at Renault.
Was Aftersales Director for Renault France and Cross Carline VP Marketing since 2009.
Home town: Sceaux, France
Family: Married with two children and grandchildren
Car: Renault Espace
Favourite R-Link app: Email with text to speech, Pages Jaunes (YellowPages)
12 Ascent magazine | Atos
What Gayral is describing is the
economic principle of the multi-sided
market, whereby a business provides
added value services to its customers
in exchange for personal information,
which it can then sell to third parties. For
Renault, or any other car manufacturer,
the proposition is very exciting: collect
enough data from enough connected
vehicles and you could generate sufficient
revenue to make the business case fly. In
this respect, Renault’s policy of installing
such innovations democratically across
the range is tailor-made for achieving that
key requisite of the multi-sided market:
a high number of subscribers.
But there are pitfalls. The one thing that
will undermine this model, and already
has in some instances, is the irresponsible
use of consumers’ personal data. How will
Renault safeguard consumer trust?
“It’s obviously at stake,” accepts
Gayral. “In the services that we’re
ready to sell to our fleet customers, all
those issues are already covered. The
data is not nominative but it’s sensitive
and obviously we’re making sure
we follow the rules in each country.
We have to be compliant with the
regulations in terms of nominative
protection, so in the insurance case
I mentioned, certainly we’d have to
go through a contract between the
insurance company and the driver.”
Contact with customers
Does he agree that consumers,
especially the young generation,
are becoming less reluctant to share
personal information?
“That all depends on the added
value that the service provides. Let me
give you the example of the HD Traffic
service, which we’re using daily on
Carminat TomTom LIVE and now on
R-Link. I think everybody recognises
that in order to get extremely precise
traffic information in real time, it
needs to be fed by information from
users. They’re not nominative but
you know that somewhere all that
information is compiled and stored
in order to provide services that are
extremely valued by customers.”
There is one further respect in which
R-Link is set to give Renault a significant
advantage. Thanks to R-Link, Renault
can stay close to its customers and
gather all the information it needs to
ensure it’s their first choice when it
comes to after-sales.
“This is the key,” says Gayral.
“How do we keep in contact with
our customers? Our website has
a My Renault link, which enables
them to keep connected to us, but
R-Link will allow us to go a step
further and push specific offers to
them for maintenance, accessories
or whatever. It is a significant
cornerstone in customer relations
management – a real opportunity.”
Does he feel Renault has stolen a
valuable march over its competitors
with the launch of R-Link?
“It’s more important for us to prove
it by concrete evidence than to say we
are the first,” says Gayral sagely. “Our
customer will be the judge. I would say
we are now in the middle of the battle.”
Getting the
green light
“A customer
could
reduce their
premium by
selling data Ascent meets the winner of the Atos 2013
about the
Global IT Challenge for connected cars
number of
kilometers
What were your biggest
they drive ” The winning app, Evergreen,
was developed by a team from
the University of Hagenberg in
Austria. It calculates the phasing
of traffic lights across a city and
enables motorists to drive at a
speed that, in a perfect scenario,
spares them from ever having
to stop at a light. Impressing
the judges with the clarity and
usability of its display, the app will
be embedded in Renault’s R-Link
development process.
Why did you choose traffic lights?
[Rainhard Findling, developer:]
We were stumbling around the
problem that if you stop at a light
you may want to know how long
you have to wait there. It’s a routine
problem that we all have and we simply
wanted this problem to be solved.
What were your key criteria?
[RF:] We wanted to give the driver
the information, how long they
would wait at the lights; and we
wanted to save them money on
fuel costs and things like brakes
because they had to accelerate and
decelerate less; and as a side-effect
we wanted to make the cities happy
by reducing emissions.
challenges?
[RF:] We wanted to prove that
it works, so we carried out a
simulation of cars with the city
structure of Linz, the third largest
city in Austria, measured the
outcome and showed that cars using
Evergreen undergo less acceleration
and deceleration; therefore, less
costs and emissions, and less time
at lights.
Why were the judges so impressed
with the user interface?
[RF:] The screen is perfectly
integrated into your car, so you can
touch it just as you are used to doing
with existing software in cars. It’s
very specifically adapted to what
you need to see when you’re in the
car; you immediately understand
what the device wants from you.
How long before it’s
implemented?
[RF:] That’s really down to cities
because they have to know about
their own traffic lights so we can get
that information into our system.
We’re in talks with some cities and
will see if there is a need for some
place to test our system.
Ascent magazine | Atos 13

8.
Demographics
T
he first two decades of the World
Wide Web provided the ordinary
man and woman in the street
with numerous opportunities
for autonomy. Any kid could
become a pop star, any writer a best-selling
author. Even cats and dogs got in on the act.
Then crowd funding enabled bright new
businesses to start up and challenge the
status quo.
In 2007 Fulham FC supporter Will Brooks
launched MyFootballClub.co.uk.
He wanted to give soccer fans the chance
to run their own club, even down to picking
the team. Over 30,000 people signed up
from all around the world, put in £35 each
and bought Ebbsfleet United, in the fifth tier
of the English leagues. The takeover was
covered by broadcasters from more than
50 countries around the world and sparked
similar initiatives in Italy and Germany.
“Football chairmen and managers, as a
whole, didn’t believe football fans could
organise themselves or make rational
decisions as a group,” says Brooks. “They
thought it would be bedlam.” But it wasn’t. In
their first season in charge, MyFootballClub.
co.uk took 25,000 fans to Wembley to
watch Ebbsfleet United win the FA Trophy.
Average attendance before the takeover
had been about 900. Unsurprisingly, the
sight of mere fans proving that they could
run the game caused considerable unease
among football’s traditional elite, but the
Internet’s potential to spark a revolution was
soon to take on a whole new dimension.
“Before 2011, in Egypt under Hosni
Mubarak, anti-assembly laws made it
illegal for more than five Egyptians to
just be together, period. In that kind of
environment, the normal, organic, slow
growing demonstration cannot work. But
if 500,000 people show up at once, there’s
nothing you can do about it. And that’s
Power
to the
people?
The Internet has so
far enabled some
significant power shifts
away from Big Industry
and Big Government,
but what does the long
term hold?
where Facebook came in.” So speaks Reza
Aslan, author, commentator and expert on
the Arab Spring. “The force that probably
played the greatest role in the Arab Spring
was actually Al Jazeera,” he points out, “but
without the social networking sites, it would
have been impossible to get organised
enough to succeed in bringing down these
governments.”
But was this the shape of things to come?
Were we witnessing a seismic shift in the
balance of power between governments
and people, businesses and consumers?
Or was it all a mere blip, a brief honeymoon
period in which the people stole a march, but
ultimately signed up to a new way of yielding
control? As Aslan points out, the genie is
already back in the bottle in the Middle East.
“Iran has an entire department of its national
security apparatus whose sole function is
to remain on social networking sites, try to
feed insurrectionist behaviour and to bait
people into responding. Once they respond,
it’s a very easy step from that computer to a
knock on your door.”
So is it already game over for the
online empowerment of the people? Not
according to Jan Krans of the Atos Scientific
Community. For one thing, there are plenty
of examples every day of social networking
forcing businesses to sit up and listen to their
customers.
But there are bigger issues than social
networking going on. “People will use their
mobile phone not only for social networking
but as their lifeline to the world,” predicts
Krans. He cites IBM’s Watson computer,
which beat two humans to win the American
general knowledge game show Jeopardy, as
proof that automated knowledge will soon
be at the disposal of everyone.
In fields such as healthcare, agriculture
and environmental control, people are
already finding their own solutions, by
Left Humans were
no match for IBM’s
Watson computer
Far left Facebook
empowered protesters
in 2012’s Arab Spring
sourcing and sharing information online,
from anywhere in the world, forming groups
around certain issues and, like a flock of
starlings, choosing their direction without
the need for government departments or
research groups. “Thanks to the mobile
Internet, you’ve got more power to challenge
the status quo,” says Krans.
He acknowledges that government
infiltration and cyber crime will always be
present, and that businesses will inevitably
try to ‘buy’ the key influencers who drive
social opinion, but he believes that people
are developing a sharp sense of what is
authentic and what is not and that becoming
“a more networked society” ultimately
means more freedom.
Aslan agrees that we are witnessing
a power shift of sorts. He describes it as
“breaking the monopoly that the gatekeepers
once had over the free flow of news,
information and opinion.”
In other words, state controlled news
channels can no longer pull the wool over
people’s eyes.
Information is out there and the means to
access it will soon be in the pocket of one in
every two people on Earth.
Five ways to
harness the new
people power
Jan Krans of the Atos Scientific
Community gives his advice to
businesses faced with a newly
empowered clientele
“The old
advertising
just won’t
wash”
Embrace open innovation
There’s a great opportunity for
large companies to open up their
borders and to create fertile
ground for working together on
innovations with partners or the
crowd. You have to become a
part of the ecosystem.
Know your customer
and keep them interested
Gather all the data you can
about your customers: the
different segments, where they
are, how to engage them. Get
their attention with experience
and with flow, not with
traditional advertising.
can easily spot a fake nowadays.
Trust is paramount.
Build social engines
Don’t have just one person
speaking for you on social
media, you need most of your
employees to connect with the
social experience of the brand
in the outside world. What you
do internally has to be reflected
outside.
Try to be authentic and honest
The old advertising just won’t
wash. Connected customers
Be a network broker
Open new doors for customers
to engage with one another.
Create platforms for people
with shared interests to connect;
for example, a hospital could
connect people with the same
ailment so they can share
experiences and knowledge.
Near future
The connected TV
brings the world
into your living room
Future
Internet of
things does
it all for you
Hypersapien: the evolution of connected man
1960s
First computer
networks
14 Ascent magazine | Atos
Early 1990s
W3 brings
connectivity
to the desktop
Late 1990s
Wi-Fi laptop takes
connectivity out
of the office
Early 2000s
The smartphone
puts connectivity
in your pocket
Late 2000s
Tablets inspire
new ways to get
connected
Present day
The connected car
takes the strain
out of motoring
Ascent magazine | Atos 15

9.
Demographics
Five jobs
your kids
will do...
Today’s schools are preparing young people
for jobs that don’t yet even exist, as the IT
revolution looks set to change the face of
the employment market. Here’s a sample of
the sort of careers that lie in store...
Business technologist
Tomorrow’s dynamic business
environment will require a
unique type of professional –
one who doesn’t presume to
know the answers; a person
who really listens and comes
up with innovative answers to
clients’ business challenges.
Business technologists will
be more than just techies, or
consultants who aren’t truly
accountable for delivery. They
will consider the entire value
chain with the sole purpose of
delivering on business strategy.
Their role will be to orchestrate
ecosystems, providing teams of
skilled consultants and industry
experts to define and deliver an
end-to-end blueprint that meets
business objectives.
16 Ascent magazine | Atos
Social media concierge
Medical cyborg specialist
Individuals, just like organizations,
are increasingly using social
media to publicize themselves
to their peers and clients. But
how, in such a time-pressured
world, are people to keep their
profiles up-to-date and show
themselves to be truly at the
‘bleeding edge’? Step forward
the social media concierge, who
will act as the gatekeeper to
your online profile, providing
regular, brilliant content to your
network in your name.
A whole new branch of medicine
will develop to deal with the
rise of implanted technology, as
the possibilities of the ‘Internet
of things’ encourage more
and more of us to have nano
sensors and chips embedded in
our bodies. This new group of
doctors can expect to be in high
demand. Where else are people
to turn when their stomachs stop
talking to their microwaves?
Digital agriculturalist
The demand on food production
from a burgeoning global
population will force the emphasis
onto more efficient, productive
forms of farming. Smartphone
capability is already enabling
farmers in developing countries
to group together in digitally
connected cooperatives, using
their mobility to buy and sell
more economically and to share
resources. On a global scale, the
ability to use mobile technology to
micro-manage food production in
order to establish an agricultural
synergy across the world will
be a valuable skill that will help
to reduce shortages and gluts
and ensure minimum waste and
maximum supply.
Personal environment
designer
The first smart glasses are only
months away from commercial
release, offering us all the
possibility to experience the
virtual and physical worlds
as one. By the time today’s
10-year-olds are adults, facemounted second screens will
be commonplace with a whole
new industry developed around
them. A personal environment
designer could facilitate a health
examination by a consultant on
the opposite side of the world;
enable remote management
of equipment; and visualise
imaginary environments as
downloadable themes, enabling
the customer to experience
the world as they would like to
see it. We feel like an art deco
makeover today…
...and the
one they
won’t
Recruitment consultant
Ironically, while recruitment
agencies try to predict the sort
of jobs and skills that will be in
highest demand in the future,
one position that looks unlikely
to survive the IT revolution is
their own. Social networks like
LinkedIn are already beginning to
automate the pairing of suitable
candidates with suitable jobs, and
as our personal data becomes
more transparent and starts to
include performance measures,
it will become quicker and
easier for employers to carry out
rapid online searches for ideal
candidates at the push of a button,
without having to engage a
recruitment consultant.
Ascent magazine | Atos 17

10.
Demographics
Big
100
In the first 24 hours of a baby’s
life, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data
are produced worldwide. That’s
the equivalent of every US citizen
tweeting once a minute for 222
years. And if those numbers sound
big, get ready to be shocked. By
2020, when our baby is seven, the
amount of daily data produced
will top 100 quintillion bytes.
quintillion bytes of
data will be produced
per day by the
year 2020
Every person going about
their day-to-day business
leaves a digital trail behind
them, consisting of GPS
data, texts, social media
posts, credit card payments
and much more. But
that’s nothing compared
to the trail we will create
in coming years, as our
fridges, cars, microwaves
and even our clothes start
transmitting data.
Sustainable
Industrial applications of Big
Data will include many of
environmental benefit. For instance,
the aggregation of meteorological
and geographic data will make it
possible to analyze the optimum
position of wind turbines for
maximum energy output.
Fast
Companies will use Big Data to
deliver a more personalised service
to customers and prevent churn.
Imagine being able to carry out detailed
sentiment analysis on 500 million
daily customer calls in real time. Now
imagine being able to combine that
data with social media records and
transaction information, so that a call
centre operator will receive an accurate
‘churn risk indicator’ and information
enabling them to tailor their response.
18 Ascent magazine | Atos
During the 2012 US Presidential
elections, both parties used social
sentiment analysis tools to track public
opinion online. A media agency even
managed to correctly predict the results
in each of the 50 US states using Twitter
data alone. By 2020, politicians will be
able to gage in real time how campaign
promises and policy decisions are
playing with the electorate.
g
Big Data
Personal
Industrial
applications of
Big Data will
include many of
environmental
benefit
Emotional
2020
Snapshots from a day in the life of Big Data in a very near future
500
million customer
calls analysed in
real time
Safe
Security agencies will be able to aggregate
input from a much broader field than
before, with many benefits for society.
For example, police forces will be able
to combine historical crime data with
data from social networks, psychological
input and personal location context
information from smartphones and
other devices. This will create the
possibility to predict crime patterns
and anticipate events.
Scientific
Bigger, cheaper processing power
will make it possible to unravel
an individual’s DNA sequence
for as little as €70, paving the
way for ‘anonymized’ mass DNA
databases that could be used by
medical researchers to detect a
vast range of health patterns and
so help identify those genetically
at risk of certain diseases.
Reliable
Thanks to the rapid spread of
sensors and satellites, and to
the great increase in computing
speeds, it will be possible to forecast
weather changes more accurately
and in much greater detail. New
models will aggregate hundreds
of thousands of atmospheric
variables with decades of historical
data, delivering reliable, in-depth
forecasts weeks ahead of time.
It will be possible
to forecast
weather changes
more accurately
and in much
greater detail
Ascent magazine | Atos 19

11.
Trust
85%
S
ecurity breaches
involving some of the
world’s most high-profile
organizations have
seen data protection
making headline news. We want
our IT applications to be easily
accessible, but we also expect
confidentiality and integrity to
be the norm.
This places trust at the
heart of every relationship. A
breakdown in user trust around
privacy and data security can
have a serious impact on digital
progress – with potentially
damaging implications for
business relationships with
colleagues, customers and
stakeholders.
Technology is now all
pervasive in our lives. We rarely
think about how much we trust
technology – and when a new
platform emerges, we rush to
be an early adopter. Yet the
rapidly changing ways in which
we use IT systems, and the
often unmanaged distribution
of the data they hold, mean
established security approaches
can quickly become inadequate.
Take the blurring of the
boundary between our
personal and professional lives.
Not so many years ago, we went
to work and used IT equipment
that was much better than we
could afford personally. Now,
many of us have devices with
higher specifications than those
provided by our employers.
Inevitably, we want to manage
corporate data using our own
superior equipment.
Digital natives
Organizations are not unhappy
with this scenario, because it
can reduce costs and boost
productivity. However, it
means an end to the clearly
defined operational borders
that previously supported
security governance and
control. It also demands a
greater degree of trust in
users to manage their devices
responsibly. We are careful
with our physical wallets, so
20 Ascent magazine | Atos
No future
without
trust
Data security concerns pose a real
threat to future technological progress.
Might we really be cast back into a preInternet age? Jose Esteban of the Atos
Scientific Community investigates
we must be equally careful
with our mobile devices.
Too many people fail to
recognise just how much
communication power they hold
in their hands – and the risks
inherent in the devices that are
now part of our everyday lives.
A mobile phone is no longer
just for speaking, or even for
browsing; it can now be used
to make payments, with direct
access to our bank data.
There is a tendency
among some user groups
to trust technology blindly
and fail to think through the
potential privacy issues. This
is particularly true of ‘digital
natives’, those aged under 25
who have always lived with
mobile phones and the internet.
Young people are willing to make
concessions in terms of privacy
if they see a benefit for them.
Likewise, people over 50
who had previously been slow
to adopt digital technologies
have been the highest growth
segment for Facebook in recent
years. When they find they can
speak to their grandson half a
world away, the computer is no
longer a strange device. They
drop their guard; scepticism
turns quickly into trust.
Greater risks
Each segment brings its issues.
Young people don’t realise
how much personal data
they expose because they
have always lived with the
technology. Older people are
prone to suffer from phishing
attempts and scams through
lack of caution. Common to all
is the greater risk of misuse or
unintentional exposure through
the increased portability of data
from cloud services and on
user-owned devices.
Data that previously could
only be accessed through
a device controlled by an
organization can now be
accessed by a device that also
supports our personal life. Our
extended network of contacts,
both personal and professional,
is all in one place. A decade
ago, if you lost your phone you
were cut off from the people
you knew. Now you are not only
disconnected, someone else
potentially has the means to
know everything about you.
In response, the US’s National
Institute of Technology has
recently revised its ‘Guidelines
for Managing the Security
of Mobile Devices in the
Enterprise’. These bluntly state
that in planning IT security,
‘organizations should assume
that mobile devices will be
acquired by malicious parties’.
The challenge for retaining
trust is that even if an
unauthorised person gets
access to a device, only an
authorised person should
be able to use the data on
it. Separating personal and
corporate data will help
maintain confidentiality;
automated data obsolescence
or data wiping when no
longer required should be
the norm; and advances in
identity management such as
biometrics and cryptography
should be used to protect data
in the component sub-systems.
Sustainable business
Online banking is an area of
our lives where trust between
individuals and organizations
is imperative. Many of us
chose our bank in the predigital era, and it has kept our
trust for many years. Now, for
convenience, we are prepared
to trust our bank in the online
sphere – leaving every bank
with the challenge of balancing
the need for robust security
with consumer demand for
convenient access.
A recent survey by transaction
security specialist Entersekt
found that 85 per cent of US
adults with a bank account are
at least somewhat concerned
about online banking fraud, and
71 per cent would be at least
somewhat likely to switch to a
different bank if they fell victim
to online fraud.
of US adults with a
bank account are
at least somewhat
concerned about
online banking fraud
71%
would be at least
somewhat likely to
switch to a different
bank if they fell victim
to online fraud.
“Plan on the
assumption
that mobile
devices
will be lost,
hacked or
stolen”
Lessons for
your business
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Breaking down the barriers
New business models rely on organizations
collaborating in order to add value. Those which are
not ready for that scenario and don’t place trust at the
heart of all business interactions risk failure.
Border control
Plan on the assumption that mobile devices will be lost,
hacked or stolen. Then develop a security approach
that segments data so that even if an unauthorised
person gains access to a device, only an authorised
person can actually use the data on it.
All in it together
Data security must be an organization-wide
responsibility rather than the concern of one
department. A central plan rather than ad hoc
solutions will build a trusted reputation.
Stuff happens
It’s how you react that’s the most important thing.
Too many organizations focus on fire-fighting rather
than implementing effective, long-term data security
strategies. Trust is a matter of perception – and public
disclosures can be very damaging.
Keep the noise down!
You can build the most sophisticated data security
systems but one of the biggest risks is resolutely
old-school: careless talk. On the street, in a lift or on
a train, an overheard phone conversation can leak
sensitive information.
Ascent magazine | Atos 21

12.
Trust
Each user login is a potential
opportunity for a hacker – but
also a potential opportunity
for a bank to reinforce the
confidence of its customers.
Secure multi-channel
operations will meet the
demand for easy access and
also enhance user trust.
Information security is a pillar
of sustainable business. And
confidence in that security is
essential if organizations are
to capitalise on the potential
offered by data sharing, open
innovation and the dissolution
of physical boundaries. After
all, globalization is not going to
halt. An organization that cannot
show effective data governance
will start to lose credibility, trust –
and money.
A key feature at the heart of
online transactions is the digital
certificate, used to identify and
assure users and digitally sign
software. However, a number of
breaches employing fraudulent
“An organization
that cannot
show effective
data governance
will start to lose
credibility, trust
— and money”
certificates have damaged trust.
With servers and applications
such as web browsers relying
on automated digital certificates
without the direct involvement
of individual users, analysis of
some Certificate Authorities
revealed surprisingly lax
security controls on computer
systems and networks.
Proactive strategies
This highlights the need for data
security not only to be part of an
organization’s security model,
but part of its overall business
model. Trust is dependent on
perception: you can develop the
most stringent security systems
but lack of central control
and poor communication
can have a massive impact
on perceived reputation. Too
many organizations tend to
be reactive when it comes
to data security, responding
with ad hoc solutions rather
than developing long-term
proactive strategies. In contrast,
a well-managed response to
a data security threat may in
fact enhance trust. Incidents
happen; what matters most is
how you deal with them.
Technology now has the power
to create communities. We are
introducing social networks
into companies to facilitate
collaboration. We have the
means to find others with similar
interests and communicate
across borders and boundaries.
Who would have predicted the
growth of open innovation?
We no longer instinctively
see people we don’t know
as strangers but as potential
collaborators, and we are
willing to seek the middle
ground between blind faith and
absolute caution in our digital
interactions. What is for certain is
that without prioritizing trust, no
organization will be able truly to
capitalise on digital innovation
and achieve sustainable growth.
W
hat makes you
decide to buy
a particular
new washing
machine, or stay
in a certain hotel?
A glowing online review, blog
or post can be hugely influential.
Research last year by Nielsen
showed that online reviews are
the second most trusted source
of brand information after word
of mouth.
Yet how genuinely
trustworthy are these reviews
and comments? A recent report
by the Guardian newspaper in
the UK uncovered a number of
recommendation sites carrying
reviews written using aliases
and false addresses.
“Anonymity has empowered
users but it has also been
exploited,” says João Baptista,
Associate Professor of
Information Systems at
Warwick Business School.
“Higher trust environments
are associated with better
experiences and more
effective exchanges. Improving
trustworthiness requires
higher levels of competence
or professionalism;
benevolence – by which
I mean having good
intentions; integrity; and
fairness.”
Self-policing
A possible way forward
is self-policing, and the
Association Française de
Normalisation (AFNOR) has
published the world’s first
voluntary standard defining
rules and procedures for review
sites on the Internet (see right).
Forty-three organizations involved
in e-commerce, consumer groups
and professional associations
worked together over 18 months
to produce the standard, known
as NF Z74-501.
AFNOR is convinced that there
are strong economic benefits for
operators to adopt the standard.
Indeed, NF Z74-501 could one
day become the basis for an
international standard, as part of
22 Ascent magazine | Atos
Fake
facts
How can businesses build trusted
online environments when users
are free to operate anonymously
and post false or damaging content?
the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO), of which
AFNOR is the French member.
“Any online platform needs to
consider the risk of losing user
trust at the highest level,” says
Baptista. “It is not just a feature
on a website, it is a management
concern that will shape the
service and issues emerging
from its use, with implications for
systems, policy and governance.
“Removing full anonymity
and managing identity in
services where people exchange
information and socialise has
become more important. There
is a move towards monitoring
of comments and establishing
identity on several newspaper
websites, for example, in order to
reduce risk and increase trust.”
Risks to progress
review sites
d for Internet
AFNOR
ntary standar
Volu
ess Relations,
Director of Pr
Olivier Gibert
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Baptista is concerned that online
anonymity poses real risks to
digital progress: “Trust is hard
to engineer from the top, as we
saw with the failure of the digital
certificates market in the early
2000s. Closed environments
tend not to work and legislation
is always playing catch up,
for example with the belated
banning of social media access
in courtrooms.”
The challenge, then, is for
operators to build user trust actively.
It’s a process, he says, that’s the
same online as offline: “developing
a positive reputation through good
track records, certification schemes,
recommendations, referrals and
so on. Also vital is appropriate
use of cues ranging from
branding to tone of voice.
“I see opportunities in this
area where third parties could
provide a framework for digital
exchanges, similar to the Apple
app store. The role of certification
is also likely to increase, as a way
of providing more immediate
signalling devices.
“Ultimately, though, this is a
social issue that can only be
tackled through changes in
the way we all access these
services – through training,
awareness and learning.”
Ascent magazine | Atos 23

13.
Trust
DE
EB
David Erdos
Emmanuelle
Bartoli
Katzenbach Research
Fellow at the University of
Oxford Centre for SocioLegal Studies
AM As we begin to consider the
policy implications of emerging
technologies, it’s clear that a range
of moral perspectives is needed to
promote effective solutions.
One of the problems with social
media is that people lack a reference
point for the best way to navigate
this world, or what kind of morality
ought to underpin their behaviour.
This is why there are so many highprofile controversies.
Recently we have seen a UK
feminist campaigner and an MP
who defended her both threatened
with rape via Twitter, and tweets
sent to prominent female journalists
and campaigners in both the UK
and USA warning that their homes
would be bombed.
Emmanuelle, do you think people
lack insight into how to communicate
effectively and respectfully online,
or do they eventually find their way,
morally speaking, by trial and error?
Is this a problem of failing to recognise
what is public and what is private?
EB Andy, I don’t believe people lack
insight as to how to communicate
effectively and respectfully online.
We are all surprised by the way young
people – the so-called ‘Y generation’ –
24 Ascent magazine | Atos
Chief Legal Counsel
for Data Privacy and
Security, Atos
AM
Andy Miah
Chair of Ethics and
Emerging Technologies
and Director of the
Creative Futures Institute
at the University of the
West of Scotland
Caught
in the
web
Like the proverbial
elephant, the Internet
never forgets. Yet there
may be parts of our past
that we would prefer to
delete from our digital
records. What are the
legal, moral and practical
implications of a ‘right
to be forgotten’?
share private information with a wide range
of people, and this trend has been adopted by
politicians and personalities.
What people do lack is awareness of the
consequences. When a young person posts a
picture, what they consider is the immediate
effect: they can share a good experience. What
they do not realise is that this picture will be
available very widely and for an indeterminate
length of time. Pictures or posts someone sent
when they were 16 will still be accessible when
they are 30. This can have a dramatic impact
on reputation or employment prospects.
For example, 14 years after getting drunk
at a party and posting some silly pictures
on Facebook, a young person applies for
a job. The employer searches online, finds
the images and, disappointed to see such
poor behaviour, decides to hire someone
else. This example helps to justify a ‘right
to be forgotten’, which is currently being
proposed by the EU Commission. It’s part
of a new draft regulation to revise the EU
Directive on Data Protection.
Surveys have consistently shown people
of all ages supporting such legislation. Also,
out of 6,000 complaints made in 2012 to
the French data protection watchdog, La
Commission nationale de l’informatique et
des libertés, more than 1,000 concerned the
right to be forgotten.
David, do you believe that having this right
would encourage people to keep using social
networks without the fear of having to deal
with the consequences of what they may
have said or posted years ago?
no obvious public interest for distribution of this
material. The subject of a post should have a
straightforward way of objecting.
In many cases this might best be done
shortly after original publication. But the subject
might not be aware of the material, or the extent
of the damage may only become apparent
later. There may also be information which it’s
initially in the public interest to disseminate but
where that justification falls away over time. It is
in such cases that the ‘right to be forgotten’ may
have traction.
In the case of long published and widely
distributed material, the law should be
considering blocking particular types of
invasive processing, notably indexing on search
engines by name or other obvious personal
identifier, rather than seeking to prohibit the
information itself.
Emmanuelle, what are the business
implications for this kind of legislation?
EB As a service provider, and also as owner of
blueKiwi, an Enterprise Social Network, Atos
is particularly interested in the concept of the
‘right to be forgotten’. Although the right may
seem to be quite revolutionary, it forms part of
“14 years after getting
drunk at a party and
posting some silly
pictures on Facebook,
a young person applies
for a job. The employer
searches online, finds
the images and decides
to hire someone else”
the already existing principle of data retention
limitation. Indeed, current data protection
legislation states that personal data shall
not be processed for longer than necessary.
In other words, the right to be forgotten is
already addressed by such legislation.
It’s important also to establish what level
of online invisibility is acceptable. Absolute
removal of all traces would be almost
impossible due to systems performing
multiple back-ups, but I would suggest that if
major search engines return no results then
someone has effectively been ‘forgotten’ as
far as the wider world is concerned.
Although technically challenging, I
believe ‘privacy by design’ is what we should
aim for. It would require data protection
constraints and the ‘right to be forgotten’ to
be designed into all systems, throughout
their life cycle, rather than being bolted on
afterwards or overlooked.
What is clear, and it’s something we all
agree on, is that ‘privacy by design’ must be
linked to greater awareness of acceptable
rules for online engagement, and the need
for individuals to think about how best to
protect their privacy.
DE I’m with Emmanuelle here. People do
indeed often behave in a short-sighted fashion
when consciously publishing information
about themselves to the world, and should
have the right to delete the original content
which they created.
The more difficult problem arises when the
information has been legally reposted by third
parties. What should be done here? While
there are exceptions to this (especially in
the case of children), I think the law’s starting
point should be that the original publisher
must take responsibility for the natural
consequences of worldwide publication.
Particular online forums may, however, have
good reason to provide for additional user
rights and responsibilities through their terms
and conditions.
The law’s trickiest problem is what to
do about individuals posting information not
about themselves but about others. As Andy
says, this material can be very intrusive, insulting
and even threatening. Moreover, there is often
Ascent magazine | Atos 25

14.
Globalization
Connecting
Sochi
In just seven years, Sochi has developed from a remote collection
of Black Sea villages into a high-tech hub that will be the very
centre of the world for six weeks this winter when it hosts the most
technologically-advanced Olympic and Paralympic Games in history.
Ascent looks at what the story can tell us about our converging planet
A
lexander Zolotarev
was a 25-yearold PhD student
when he arrived
in Sochi in 2008
with a laptop and a dream:
to build a citizen journalism
website that would chronicle
the extraordinary urban
transformation taking place in
the city ahead of the Olympic
and Paralympic Winter Games.
The scale of the challenge
became clear within a few hours
of arriving. “For a guy from
Moscow, it was a huge surprise”
he recalls. “There was hardly a
single internet café. McDonald’s
was practically the only place
in town where people could get
fast Wi-Fi. I wound up spending
most of my time there alongside
every geek and hipster within a
50km radius.”
Such was Sochi at this time
– a collection of pretty fishing
villages strung out along Russia’s
Black Sea coast and framed
by the imposing Caucausus
mountains that separate the area
from the rest of humanity.
It’s a description recognized
by Marta Sanfeliu, Atos Chief
Integrator for the Sochi
Games, who first visited the city
in early 2010 to scope out the
job of establishing the systems
infrastructure that will underpin
the world’s greatest sporting event.
“McDonald’s
was practically
the only place
in town where
people could
get fast Wi-Fi ”
Power cuts
Crazy dream
“My first impressions were of
a beautiful place but a ‘small
town’ place, which was unusual,”
she says. “It felt very isolated.
Certainly, there was very little
English spoken.”
The prospect of bringing the
Olympic and Paralympic Games
to this remote community at
first seemed like a crazy dream
– even to Dimitri Chernyshenko,
the local businessman who
became CEO of both the Bid and
Organizing Committees.
By the time of the IOC Host
City election in July 2007,
however, Chernyshenko, like
many others, was convinced
of the potential to stage truly
26 Ascent magazine | Atos
innovative, high-tech Games
in Sochi. Games that would
transform his hometown into a
global destination.
From the start, Sochi 2014
has been a project driven by
technology – in the image of
Chernyshenko himself (see p30).
“IT is an obsession for him,”
laughs Alexander Zolotarev.
“When he meets someone new,
he will often ask them, ‘What’s
your religion: Mac or PC?’
“At the same time, we have
Vladimir Putin, plus a digitallyconscious Prime Minister in
ex-President Dimitri Medvedev,
who was known in Russia as
‘The Internet President’, so it’s
really a major focus.”
Marta Sanfeliu agrees: “The
Russians see these Games as a
huge opportunity to develop
the technological infrastructure,
especially in communications
and energy. The mentality here is
very tech-oriented nowadays.”
Left Sochi is separated
from the rest of the world
by the Caucasus Mountains
Marta and the Games
technology team have been
based in Sochi since summer
2012. It has been a challenging
period as they have sought to
complete all the technology
and communications works
for the Games in parallel with
massive construction and road
and transport infrastructure
development.
“You have to remember
they are building every single
venue from scratch, she says.
Inevitably, the coordination has
been difficult, and sometimes
the lines get cut. Pretty much
every month we would have a
couple of days without power or
connectivity.”
For local people, such
disruption has been a
small price to pay for the
arrival of state-of-the-art
communications technology.
In 2010, telecoms start-up
Yota brought commercial 4G
internet to Sochi, while the local
government has led a major
program to ‘Wi-Fi’ every park
and public area in the city.
Ascent magazine | Atos 27

15.
Globalization
The social impact of this
movement has been significant
and, in some ways, surprising.
Just ask Alexander Zolotarev,
who saw his crowd-sourced
news website take off, rapidly
attracting more than 600
citizen journalists from all
sectors of society.
“The people of Sochi
have really taken to social
networking,” he says. “It’s
happened very quickly.
The interesting thing is that
I always saw social media as
the channel for telling this
great development story, but
in fact social media has
become a key part of that
story itself.
“On one hand, it’s enabling the
city and its people to connect
with a wider world, but really
the greatest impact has been in
strengthening local ties.
28 Ascent magazine | Atos
“Remember that the
geography of Sochi is unusual,
stretching from the shore right
up to the mountains and for
miles along the coast.
“Social media has provided
residents with a forum to share
their views and to establish
connections across those
natural boundaries – between
the different seaside hubs,
between the sea-level and the
mountain communities, and
between generations too. The
joke is always that we should
be talking about ‘vertical
connections’ here.
“What’s really noticeable
is that people have a much
stronger sense of ‘Sochi’ now.
It’s a more open, cohesive and
inclusive place, and there is
much greater civic engagement.”
Games organizers too have
felt the benefits of a digitally
“I always saw
social media as
the channel for
telling this great
development
story, but in fact
it has become a
key part of the
story itself”
Below The Iceberg
Skating Palace, built from
scratch for the Games
active local population,
with networks such as VK
and Facebook providing a
critical platform for dialogue
over sensitive issues such as
compulsory relocation.
What’s more, social media has
been the primary channel for
driving public engagement with
the Games throughout Russia,
and beyond.
Digital benchmark
Marta Sanfeliu, who has worked
at every Games since those of
Sydney 2000, claims that the
levels of public enthusiasm in
Sochi are unprecedented: “It’s
extraordinary how motivated
the people are. You can really
feel it.
“There seems to be no
opposition at all. It’s also noticeable
how many of the people working
on the Games are very young.
And they have come from all
over Russia to be involved.”
Both Marta and Alexander
believe that Sochi 2014 has the
potential to be a benchmark in
the evolution of the so-called
‘digital Games’.
But while giant strides can be
expected in the realm of social
media activation (see sidebar),
progress in other areas is subject
to familiar restrictions.
“The approach to the Cloud
is still conservative,” explains
Marta. “For a start, a lot of the big
technology decisions were taken
back in 2010, when the market
for Cloud was not as mature.
“But there was also a security
issue. The agencies in Russia
would not allow data to be
stored outside the country – and
they would certainly not have
been the only government to
impose such a ban.”
Nevertheless, Sochi will
still see some significant
technology firsts, including
the deployment of the official
Games website over the
Cloud. In addition, for the
first time ever, Atos business
technologists are serving
two Primary Data Centers.
All Games logistics systems
are being centralized off-site,
in Moscow, with the Sochi
Center used only for results
distribution.
It seems the Games, like so
much else, are headed in the
direction of the Cloud. But what
will be the impact on the future
of the Olympic and Paralympic
Movements?
Might it mean, for example,
that we will see many more Host
Cities in the image of Sochi? Or
conversely, will the levels of
connectivity needed to service
future Games preclude other
remote locations from having
the chance to bid?
Marta demurs. “It’s inevitable
that we will see Games systems
deployed over the Cloud in
the future,” she says. “Really, as
soon as the market becomes
comfortable with the concept.
“But for me the real issue is
the impact this will have on
the spectator experience – on
the way non-ticket-holding
spectators all around the
world will be able to access and
enjoy the event in a way that is
actually very close to the
live experience. This is the
really exciting change that
we can expect.”
Global destination
And what about the future
for Sochi?
Marta believes the city
now has the physical and
communications infrastructure
to compete as a yearround tourism resort in the
international marketplace.
For the local technology
sector, the future is less clear.
“Of course, there has been a big
skills challenge here,” explains
Marta. “The reality is that 95 per
cent of the technology staff are
from outside the region. I hope
that they will stay.”
The job of ensuring they
do – and of securing the
wider Sochi skills legacy – lies
with institutions such as the
Russian International Olympic
University. Known by the
acronym RIOU, and with a
campus right in the heart of the
city, the university took its first
intake of students in 2013.
Its flagship program is the
Master of Sports Administration,
which is taught by leading
international experts – including
Alexander Zolotarev, who
today heads up the University’s
highly innovative social media
research.
Alexander confidently
predicts that RIOU will play its
part in making Sochi a global
centre of excellence in sports
education, with social media
right at its heart.
But there’s a hint of nostalgia
in his voice when he reflects on
the changing character of the
city. “The people are more like
Muscovites now,” he says. “And
I’m sure they are fishing less.”
“We will
see Games
systems
deployed
over the
Cloud in
the near
future”
Socially
Sochi
Meet Zoich (above), the most famous Olympic
mascot that never was – and an example of
the new-era social marketing on which Sochi
2014 has been defining itself as a Games.
The punctilious toad, who mocks the
stereotypical Russian bureaucrat, was
entered into a crowd-sourced contest to
design the official mascot of the 2014 Games.
Zoich was a viral sensation, streaking ahead
of his rivals in every online poll. He was the
talk of Russia, and the nemesis of Games
and Government officials, who declared
themselves appalled at the prospect of such
a character representing the nation.
So far, so Social Media 101. Until you discover
that, far from the brainchild of some
subversive web artist, Zoich was in fact
the creation of the Sochi 2014 Organizing
Committee, planted in the contest to
stimulate Russia’s powerful social networks.
“The organizers have been very clever,”
says Alexander Zolotarev, of the Russian
International Olympic University, who also
points to a grassroots mapping project as
further evidence of Sochi’s social edge. The
award-winning project encourages the public
to tag barrier-free buildings and locations on
an online map. It was the first crowd-sourcing
initiative of its kind in Russia – at a time when
no Google maps existed of the area – and has
played an important role in raising awareness
of accessibility issues, while also providing a
tool for citizens and visitors with a disability.
So what other social media developments
can we look forward to in Sochi 2014? “The
big networks will use the Games to road-test
new models and products for sponsors,” says
Alexander. “Personally, I expect Sochi to be
the platform for Twitter’s Vine to take off.”
Ascent magazine | Atos 29

16.
Globalization
W
hen Sochi bid
for the right to
host the 2014
Olympic and
Paralympic
Winter Games, it promised
an event that would act as ‘a
gateway to the future’. The face
of that promise was Dimitri
Chernyshenko, President
and CEO of Sochi 2014; a
businessman with a passion
for technology, incongruously
born and raised in the remote
coastal city that will host the
next Games. Chernyshenko
and Sochi have spent the past
seven years delivering on their
commitment to innovation, selfconsciously forging a brand for
the digital generation. Ahead
of the Games, Ascent speaks
to the biggest tech fiend on the
mountain.
Where does your passion for
technology come from?
Technology is an integral part of
the modern world. It makes our
lives simpler and at the same
time fills it with bright colors.
Considering that I spend a large
part of my life at work, as most
of us do, I can’t do without the
innovative technologies and
gadgets here.
But the most important thing
for me and the entire Organizing
Committee is to stage the most
innovative Winter Games in
2014, which will show the world
an image of modern Russia and
inspire the whole world.
And I promise: we will
have something to be proud
of! In particular, the Unified
Identification System used to
gain access to the technological
services, as well as the
broadcast of the Games in
record-breaking high definition
– and innovative spider
cameras, telescopic cranes
and phantom cameras for slow
motion pictures. We have what
is needed to surprise even the
most seasoned viewers!
There is also a wide range of
solutions from electronic food
vouchers for volunteers
to confidential printing
services to make lives easier
for everyone.
“We have what
is needed to
surprise even the
most seasoned
viewers”
To what extent have the Games
been a catalyst to develop
technological infrastructure
in the Sochi region?
Thanks to the Games, a
breakthrough has been
achieved in the field of
telecommunications and the
region has seen digital television
and a fiber optic network
established for the first time.
I’m glad to mention that our
Partners are actively involved.
For example, Atos provides a
technology infrastructure and
IT systems that make staging
the Games possible. By 2014,
Atos will manage a technology
system consisting of 900 servers,
1,000 security network devices
and 6,500 computers.
Also in the framework of the
Games project, Rostelecom will
construct thousands of kilometers
of fiber optic communication
lines. Wi-Fi access will be available
at all the venues. Even more, for
the first time in Games history, it
will be absolutely free of charge.
And that’s not all. Exactly one
year before the Sochi Games,
Megafon opened its 501st base
Gatekeeper
to the future
Dimitri Chernyshenko is the self-confessed
technophile at the helm of Sochi 2014
30 Ascent magazine | Atos
station in Greater Sochi. With the launch of
this station, the quality of voice and mobile
Internet services across the Krasnaya
Polyana territory increased the capacity of
the mobile network by 30 per cent.
What role has social media had in driving
Sochi’s development?
For us, social media is not only a way to
transfer information and communicate with
our audience but a tool to create a longlasting legacy of the Games.
Our innovative Accessibility Map project
is a case in point. Users have already added
over 9,000 venues to the map, which was
honored with a Runet Prize last year. The
Sochi 2014 Partners have great initiatives as
well. So, together with another Partner of the
Games, Samsung, we are planning to open a
mobile Olympic Hub which will help to make
the Games as accessible as possible.
My favorite initiative is the ‘Sochi 2014
Olympic Resort’ game launched on Vkontakte,
the most popular social network in Russia.
The aim is to familiarize users with the Games
venues and sights of Sochi. Already, more
than 650,000 people are signed up to play.
What do you think will be the long-term
impact of social networking on sports
sponsorship?
The structure of sponsorship deals has
changed a lot thanks to opportunities created
by digital technology and social networks.
Nowadays, sponsorship is not only focused
on brand awareness, it is also centered on
providing a deeper and more emotional level of
engagement with fans. For example, Sochi 2014
Partner Rostelecom already provides internet
broadcasting of the Cultural Olympiad events
and Megafon opened an entire Internet portal
dedicated to sport.
What do you think will be the greatest
legacy of Sochi’s Games?
One striking example of legacy is the
resurgence of the volunteer movement
in Russia. During volunteer recruitment,
our site received more than a million visits
and about 200,000 applications. There
were eight applications for every place,
just like at a prestigious university! Thanks
to the work of the 26 Sochi 2014 Volunteer
Centers, established at the best educational
institutions across the country, thousands of
Russians have become involved in volunteer
activity. According to research data from the
2012 World Giving Index, Russia landed for
the first time in the top ten countries for the
number of people involved in volunteering.
And this is just the beginning.
Partners in
the revolution
‘Things are really
changing’ says
Thierry Borra,
Director of
Olympic Games
Management at
The Coca-Cola
Company
“Coke is
embracing
real-time
marketing”
What innovations do we
plan in our digital marketing
around Sochi 2014? The
truth is that, even with
fewer than 150 days to go
to the Opening Ceremony,
it’s really too soon to say.
And that’s the major change
we’ve witnessed over the
past four years.
Of course, we’ve done a lot
already – in particular a major
mobile engagement around
Torchbearer recruitment.
But Coke is fully embracing
the possibilities of real-time
marketing. We’ve introduced
our social listening hub,
which allows us to manage
and build on opportunities
as they arise. We’ve entered
into a new area of real-time
marketing. Let me give you
one very small example: when
Madrid, Istanbul and Tokyo
were competing for the right
to host the 2020 Games, we
had the idea of producing
named Coke cans for each
city. Around five days later our
Chairman was presenting a
‘Tokyo’ can to Japan’s Prime
Minister at their victory party.
That’s what marketing
is these days. In an online
environment where people
are constantly expressing
themselves, it’s crucial that
marketers listen and are
able to react extremely
quickly. And it’s also more
important than ever that we
are meaningful in what we
do. I expect corporate social
responsibility to become
even more of a focus, as is
already the case at Coke.
The real beauty of new
digital media is that it allows
you to be so much more
targeted in your activity
and more creative. It’s a trend
that is also driving a real
blurring of the boundary
between broadcasters
and partners as both are
marketing their brands and
creating their own content.
Despite growing
globalization, the challenge
for marketers is still to
develop creative that
resonates across cultural
divides. What is clear, though,
is that it’s no longer possible
to have different messages in
different markets. The nature
of our socially-connected
new world is that everything
can spread.
Ascent magazine | Atos 31

17.
Globalization
Cloud
forecast
Ascent asked Atos Scientific
Community experts Paul
Albada Jelgersma and
Jordan Janeczko to give us
their predictions for cloud
computing over the next
five years
Introducing Canopy...
....an Atos company powered by EMC and VMware technology, and a
one-stop shop that offers Cloud services focussed exclusively on bringing
the benefits of Cloud delivery to large public and multinational private
sector organizations. The anticipated benefits are substantial: IT cost
reduction and capex avoidance through flexible pricing models plus
access to innovative and agile technology that can enable rapid Cloud
implementation and faster time to market for products and services.
The Canopy offerings are based on open standards so customers can
choose their preferred technology and decide whether to run solutions
off- or on-premise to best meet their business needs.
ascent magazine
1
2
Mobility and
Cloud will
become one
Goodbye to
security and
privacy fears
Very soon, we will
start to understand
mobility and Cloud
as one and the same.
Take your generic
smartphone. You
probably still think of
it in terms of having
32GB or 64GB of
storage, but already
that device is an
entity in the Cloud;
is scalable; and can
access thousands
of applications and
share data.
Increasingly, the
challenges and
opportunities of
mobile will become
the challenges and
opportunities of cloud
computing.
First of all, there
will be the change
in technological
architecture, where
security will shift
completely from
network and
infrastructure to the
data and app layers.
Second, there’s
going to become
an imperative for
Governments to enact
regulation. We’re
already seeing the
beginnings of this in
the fallout of the US
Prism case.
There’s also the
impact of mobility.
A smartphone tends
only to be owned by
one person, so it’s a
much more trusted
relationship.
3
No more
Cloud talk
Right now we have
this phrase – cloud
computing – but in
reality, 100 per cent
of new IT is cloud
computing. Gmail, for
example, is a Cloud
solution, but nobody
ever says so.
All the successful
new start-ups
are using cloud
computing, and with
good reason, since the
investment costs are
so much lower.
The Cloud also
enables greater
agility in addressing
the customer base.
The benefits to
small businesses, in
particular, are obvious.
By 2018, more
than 50 per cent of all
generic applications
– communications,
email, document
management and so
on – will be Cloudenabled.
5
4
A European Cloud
This is going to become
a reality, principally
because of the clear
economic rationale,
especially in the
present climate.
The recent EU
report found that the
implementation of
a European Cloud
environment would
deliver an impact of
€970 billion, equating
to 3.8 million new jobs
by 2020.
The European
Cloud is not about
mandatory regulation
but rather the best
way of creating
harmonization
between countries
and industries, whose
activities right now are
very fragmented.
It’s about enabling
more projects like
the European Space
Agency’s Helix Nebula
research, where
sharing data on the
Cloud allows hundreds
of decentralized
scientists to access
and analyse the
information.
What is important
to understand is that
the European Cloud is
not some protectionist
idea designed just
for Europe. The
ideas are for people
and organizations
everywhere to use.
Ascent: Promises of a converging world was
produced by Atos
Hybrid
domination
Of all the Cloud
delivery models, the
hybrid model will be
the dominant one in
five years’ time. Not
all apps and data are
going to be ready for
the public Cloud, but
they are going to need
to be accessible in it,
which will make the
hybrid model very
attractive.
Businesses, the
majority of which will
be using the Cloud
by this time, will also
generally opt for the
hybrid model.
Usually this will be
about having the
capability to move
data from a private
Cloud to a public
Cloud environment
as a contingency.
We know that 50 per
cent of businesses
are already looking at
such plans.
6
A global standard
for Cloud
messaging
Greater machineto-machine
communication – the
so-called ‘Internet
of things’ – will drive
the need for interCloud connectivity,
in turn creating a
need for globallydefined standards for
the way one Cloud
communicates with
another.
The impact will be
the same as with the
standardization of
network protocol and
mobile and telephone
systemization.
Editor in Chief & Global Head of Talents and
Communications, Atos: Marc Meyer
Marketing Director for Olympics and Major
Events and Ascent – Thought Leadership,
Atos: Dorien Wamelink
Editorial Director, Atos Scientific
Community: Guy Lidbetter
For Seven46 (S46) / Havas Sports &
Entertainment (HSE)
Editorial: Catherine Inkster, Andrew Shields
and Tim Glynne-Jones
Account Director: Augustin Penicaud
Art: Mikey Carr and Richard Nunn
With thanks to: Nick Varley and Lucien Boyer
Key contributors: Paul Albada Jelgersma
(Atos Scientific Community (ASC)), Reza Aslan
(Author and Islamic historian), João Baptista
(Associate Professor of Information Systems,
Warwick Business School), Emmanuelle Bartoli
(Atos Legal Advisor), Thierry Borra (Director
of Olympic Games Management, The CocaCola Company), Will Brooks (Entrepreneur,
MyFootballClub.co.uk), Dimitri Chernyshenko
(President and CEO, Sochi 2014), David Erdos
(Katzenbach Research Fellow, University of
Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies), Jose
Esteban (ASC), Rainhard Hindling (Student,
University of Hagenberg), Francois Gayral
(Renault Cross Carline Marketing VP), Olivier
Gibert (Director of Press Relations, AFNOR),
Jordan Janeczko (ASC), Jan Krans (ASC),
Professor Andy Miah (Director of Creative
Futures Institute, University of West of Scotland),
Professor Giovanni Pau (Smart Mobility Chair
holder at University of Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris),
Pascal Pediroda (ASC), Santi Ristol (ASC), Marta
Sanfeliu (Atos Head of Integration for Sochi 2014),
Udo Sebald (ASC), Hubert Tardieu (ASC), Mischa
van Oijen (Product Director, blueKiwi), Alexander
Zolotarev (Social media researcher, Russian
International Olympic University).
Atos, the Atos logo, Atos Consulting, Worldline,
Atos Cloud and Atos Worldgrid are registered
trademarks of Atos SA. August 2013 © 2013 Atos.
Atos SE (Societas europaea) is an international
information technology services company with
annual 2012 revenue of EUR 8.8 billion and 77,000
employees in 47 countries. Serving a global client
base, it delivers IT services in 3 domains, Consulting
& Technology Services, Systems Integration
and Managed Services & BPO, and transactional
services through Worldline. With its deep
technology expertise and industry knowledge,
it works with clients across the following market
sectors: Manufacturing, Retail & Services; Public
Sector, Healthcare & Transports; Financial Services;
Telco, Media & Utilities. Atos is focused on business
technology that powers progress and helps
organizations to create their firm of the future. It is
the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for
the Olympic and Paralympic Games and is quoted
on the NYSE Euronext Paris market. Atos operates
under the brands Atos, Atos Consulting & Technology
Services, Worldline and Atos Worldgrid. For more
information, visit: atos.net
32 Ascent magazine | Atos
Ascent magazine | Atos 33

18.
And finally...
4
7
6
5
1
2
3
Increasingly, office spaces are
going to be seen as strategic
assets, rather than costs that can
be cut. It’s all about understanding the role
of the office in building the social capital
that is essential for developing trust among
members of a team. Many early adopters of
decentralized working models have been
undone by failing to understand the crucial
importance of maintaining this social link.
This is also where social networks have a
role in helping to bridge the gap created by
introducing new ways of working.
The most important thing for architects of
the future will be to build flexibility into office
designs. We need to be able to constantly
adapt to meet changing needs.
In the physical as well as the virtual
space, we should also be looking at how
to create the best environment to deliver
collaboration – and to spark what I call
‘serendipity’, where experts connect with
other experts across generational and
geographical boundaries, often leading to
very fast and unexpected advances.
34 Ascent magazine | Atos
The office
makeover
Mischa van Oijen,
Product Director at
blueKiwi, re-designs
your workplace in
readiness for the
enterprise social
era, when work life
and home life will
converge...
1
2
3
5
7
Where’s the bar?
Tap into the human Cloud
Make it mobile
Open the doors
Visualize it
Already, the office is often no longer the
best place to get online. Most people
have access to just as good broadband
speeds at home. And it’s generally
easier to get things done away from the
distractions of the office.
In the future, we’re all going to start
seeing the office not as the best place
to work, but the best place to socialize
about work and to get the best coffee!
And this is important, because no
matter how big the global network of
expertise now at your fingertips,
cultural differences create barriers.
The best way to set up a project is
still to co-locate people and get
them to work together – at least in
the beginning.
You won’t be in the office 9 to 5, and
the office won’t always be the same
place, but it will remain as a place to
build social capital.
There will be far less room for
generalists in a world where
global expertise can be accessed
through social networks.
The IT helpdesk will be the
first thing to go. With the advent
of ‘bring your own device’
policies, helpdesks will soon find
themselves dealing with more
types of device than they can
support. In their place, we’ll see
virtual communities created for
owners of similar devices.
In fact, I predict that, for many
companies, this will be the
simplest, least threatening way
to begin the social experiment.
As connectivity overtakes
computing power, we will
certainly see a great reduction in
IT equipment.
Even today, you can effectively
have the office in your pocket.
All you really need to work is a
mobile phone with a browser.
Forget about elaborate physical
security solutions. Access to
applications will be simple for
everyone. Security will be much
more about protecting data, as
opposed to devices.
We will be able to say goodbye
to large text- based reports and
documents that no-one ever
reads. Globalization, greater
network capacity and changing
cultural expectations will see
everything become much
more visual – and shareable.
For example, we’ll have video
manuals and visual planning
charts and signage.
4
Bye-bye bosses
The corner office will be a
thing of the past as greater
collaboration encourages a
switch from status-based to
activity-based work.
6
Let freedom reign
Employees will be happier
and more productive, with no
more time-wasting email and
meetings, and much greater
flexibility in the hours and
locations of their work.
Ascent magazine | Atos 35