Now that Steve Jobs has introduced Apple Inc’s long-awaited iCloud, can we honestly say this is the start of a new era in digital computing?

Not so fast...a lot has been written about the digital revolution and how this may save our bacon in the near future. Still, any good invention is most welcome in the aftermath of the global financial meltdown and the instability of euro currency. It’s true that the digital fraternity has become accustomed to instant access on demand, and interaction based on each individual’s own terms. So if iCloud can facilitate better and faster access then it is ideal. Just consider how consumers are gravitating away from products sold in the traditional manner to instant digital delivery. Our consumption of media has been completely transformed, if not revolutionised.

Our digital evolution may have started with music but we have travelled a great distance since then and have progressed to consuming all forms of media digitally besides music: television, movies, maps, photographs, Google earth and, of course, e-mails and SMS. The era of physical access to media is becoming history and is being displaced by our desire and need to access all of our media on-demand from any device at any time. As consumers, we want the media of our choice when we want it and where we want it. We are also undergoing another incredible transformation: we are moving from the concept of the ‘personal computer’ to an era of ‘cloud computing’. We expect to be able to access information immediately on any device that has a screen and assume it is connected to a fast and instant Internet. We are stepping away from our desktop computers more and more and use everything, from smart phones to net books to tablets, for our computing, information and entertainment needs. Still we all appreciate the new trend of technology that pushes what is aphoristically termed “cloud operations”.

The wonders of cloud interoperability can drive business transformation and innovation. At PKF we believe the interoperability benefits of this technology will help accelerate business competitiveness and are proud to announce the operation of a state-of-the art portal termed Tune Malta. (visit www.tunemalta.com) Here preferred partners across the globe talk to each other in a forum not dissimilar to how friends surf Facebook or Linkedin share their desires and lifestyles. The ability of providers of mobile digital services surfing Tune Portal helps to optimise the value chain through various possibilities of open-ended partnerships, now soon to start atoning the virtues of cloud technology on a gilded altar. Implementation of e-business is facilitated by Tune Malta as it helps to accelerate business integration through digital connectivity. E-business is vital to Malta as it can dilute our island’s isolationist stance in the periphery of Europe. In theory it can be instrumental to boost business in the Single EU market − not only buying and selling but also providing services (B to B) and collaborating with business partners. Yes, we heard the claim that the Internet has transformed the world forever and now this sounds like a worn out cliché. But the digital revolution (especially via cloud technology) has promised a future of boundless opportunity accessed at the speed of light, of a globally wired world, of unlimited entertainment and education within everyone’s reach. We have just started our ride and there is more joy to come. Taking Malta as an example, consumers have benefited immensely from the digitalisation of government services.

There are some miserable exceptions to the rule: take for instance, the long queues people waiting to be served at ARMS (the state-of-the-art IBM powered State agency responsible for billing water and electricity), yet in various ministries citizens can now relax knowing that certain forms can be downloaded or applications submitted electronically from the comfort of their homes. More needs to be done to inculcate a sense of conformity among the various ministries but progress in sectors fully justifies the massive investment in software and hardware.

No wonder the younger generation fully appreciates how the ripples of the prolific Internet revolution continues to have a tsunami like effect on all aspects of their life. Just remember how protesters in Egypt and Tunisia used Facebook and tweeter to co-ordinate mass protests that in six weeks toppled their dictators. Their solidarity and digital cohesion have indeed transformed the very nature by which Egypt and the Arab world achieve democratic freedoms.

Back to the Internet “cloud” that has evolved from the Internet we knew in the early eighties to recent advances in its core. Unquestionably, it is an integral part of the global infrastructure. Even in a small island like ours, the government has pledged to place more resources to its cause than perhaps we invested to improve the infrastructure of residential roads that make modern day transportation possible and safe. Sadly this policy means that residents of Tal Wej in Mosta will continue to suffer in silence. They grin and bear the multiplication of potholes in residential roads in Mosta (partly due to a dysfunctional Labour led council), which mars the quality of their lives. Still no protests or manifestations in the streets as Mosta home owners altruistically appreciate party apologists reminding them of a massive state investment in sewage treatment that treats 80 per cent of sewage and pumps in straight back to the sea.

This is small comfort... but back to digital revolution. The Internet in Maltese homes has become the backbone of human interaction. The digital reality is something factual and very much tangible. We pride ourselves that as islanders we enjoy one of the highest rates of home Internet penetration. As a result, the World Wide Web amply touches the minds of many users sitting alone staring at a screen. The way we browse the Web, clicking with a mouse or by touching an Ipad screen is similar to that of a child pushing a shopping cart at a supermarket, pointing at things of interest, perpetually straining to reach treats that are just out of reach. This comes alive using latest “android smart phones, giving us massive power at our fingertips. It is a compelling metaphor for interacting with information. Users of smart phones are downloading thousands of free applications (including eBooks), using all of their senses to explore and create, in groups as well as alone. Anyone who has bought a smart phone has felt the joy and power within reach. Paradoxically, the march of technical progress threatens to turn the simple pleasure of reading a nicely bound book, or writing with a fountain pen, or drive to a cinema… all this became an anachronism, almost an act of defiance. To keep up, your book or movie should be ready to flick through on an Ipad or a Galaxy pad or other tablet models. Certainly your writing should be done on a crystal clear tablet. But the reality is that purists tell us that books or fountain pens really do perform their intended jobs better than their digital descendants. We stare in awe how in a couple of decades this revolution has taken over our life styles.

Technical gurus tell us that complex digital data of all kinds, whether an e-mail message or a movie, is encoded as a simple string of 0′s and 1′s. All this innovation can be attributed to a remarkable discovery by Claude Shannon and John von Neumann in the 1940s. With hindsight we have not achieved perfection and errors still occur in digital systems, but instead of continuously degrading the performance there is a threshold below which errors can be corrected with near certainty. This means that you can send a message to the next room or to the next continent and be confident that it will arrive faithful to the form in which you sent it. This doesn’t mean we should discredit our computers; it means we should be careful not to be so over dependent on their performance. Technology can be a good servant but a nasty master. Still, in Malta we notice that almost all families possess one or two computer towers at home and how such equipment is fully exploited by siblings. Inexpensive computers continuously flood the market and yet to some the digital divide makes it much more difficult to understand how to operate, thus segregating our society into an information-rich upper class and an information-poor underclass. In this regard, how can we forget to mention the positive news that will further consolidate our digital heritage? I refer to the recent announcement that Cisco will be setting up its local operation at SmartCity Malta.

This will undoubtedly add another golden ring in our chain of digital successes. With an investment outlay by Tecom equivalent to US$300 million, SmartCity Malta promises to transform Malta into a state-of-the-art ICT and media business community.

To conclude, I hope that with the help of iCloud technology the island will continue to tap in the digital evolution and generate sustainable ICT jobs in the years to come.

Mr Mangion is a partner in

PKFMALTA, an audit and business advisory firm

[email protected]

Errata corrige

A misplaced reference to the stock exchange chairman was inadvertently added into last week’s article during editing. The sentence in question was to have read: “Not really...but it is no comfort for the barons of power who have ruled this fair land for so many years and lined their pockets”. Any inconvenience cause is regretted.