The information society of 2020

The modernisation of the public sector, the role of the universities and the use of ICT among the young were the central topics when the Board of Technology and The IME Faculty at NTNU held a discussion on the information society of 2020.

ICT – the internet and cell-phone technology in particular – has during the past 15 years had a revolutionary impact upon numerous areas: in public administration, business management, energy systems, health systems, entertainment and so forth.

We see a trend where technology becomes part of nearly everything that surrounds us, and terms such as intelligent surroundings and converging technologies are becoming ever more current.

The Information Society of 2020 (InfoSam2020) is a collaborative project between the Norwegian Board of Technology and the Faculty for Information Technology, Mathematics and Electronics (IME) at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

The project has been carried out in the form of two conferences, where IME and the Board of Technology had the primary responsibility at alternate events.

The first Infosam2020 conference was held in April 2004. The results from the conference may be found in a compendium, 'InfoSam2020 The Information Society of 2020 – an exercise in planning for the future'.

Three areas of focus
Prior to the conference, the Board of Technology appointed a reference group to draft sketches of futuristic scenarios for the three areas of focus.
The reference group was constituted so as to cover a widest possible range within the selected areas, and have included participants with backgrounds from amongst other areas anthropology/ workplace studies, media/ gaming, public administration, education and information systems.

The group created three futuristic scenarios which were later presented at the InfoSam2020 conference in Trondheim in November 2004.
• The modernisation of the public sector - how do the authorities interact with the citizen of 2020?

• The university of the future

• Communication among the young in 2020

An active meeting between experts in the field
Three experts from the three selected areas were invited to hold commencement speeches at the conference:
• Hugo Parr – Director General of the Department of IT Policy at the Ministry of Modernisation

• Julie Feilberg – Prorector at NTNU

• Morten Holst – Director of Strategy at TV2

The participants at the second InfoSam2020 conference were experts from private and public enterprises, the media and IT sectors, users and developers.

A high level of activity among the participants was encouraged, with both group and plenary discussions. The group participants were allowed to choose which futuristic scenarios they wished to focus upon, and the groups contributed by producing comments and appendices to the futuristic scenarios that were presented.

Goals
The purpose of technological foresight is not simply to be proven right, but to create discussions on society’s needs set in the context of technological possibilities and challenges. The goal of InfoSam2020 was to create a venue where experts from the public sector, academia and the world of business could discuss which developmental trends seem probable, as well as what type of society we wish to see in the future.