Deep learning, big data, the Internet of things, self-regulating factories, 3D printing and printed electronics - all these technologies, each in their own way, are leading the world to very significant changes. Analog world Every day it gets a little further, and digital gets closer. Stepan Lisovsky, MIPT graduate student, employee of the Department of Nanometrology and Nanomaterials, talks about the fourth industrial revolution and the changes it will bring not only to the life of an individual, but also to his very essence.

Digital reality and data processing

The basis of digital reality is still formed by the sensors and sensors we are used to, controlled by microprocessors. With the introduction of technology printed electronics they will become widespread and accessible. At the same time, there is a different view of this very reality - not so much from the point of view of physics, but of sociology. Already now we can tell a lot about a person from his page on a social network, even not only and not so much from his personal data, but from his behavior, subscriptions, and so on. And since the social network is an exclusively digital product, it is obvious that human behavior, and therefore the person himself, has become part of digital world, turned out to be digitized in some form. And then - only more.

As for digital data processing, it would seem that everyone remembers “You are just a tin, an imitation of life, you will never write a Bach symphony” from the film “I, Robot,” but everything is going to the point that soon this phrase will forever be stuck in the throat, and every second person can become a local Bach - with the assistance of a “dumb tin”. Algorithms already make it possible to identify a person from a photograph with high accuracy, draw (to the untrained eye) like great artists, beat the best Go players, and the like. Technologies make it possible to process gigantic amounts of data, structure them and show people only the key things. The world is becoming closer and clearer. But at the same time it becomes more transparent, it is less hidden from a curious gaze.

The embodiment of numbers

Formatting digital information into a form that is as close to human as possible (and this is what 3D printing does) to some extent represents the process of how digital technologies are winning a niche from traditional analog ones. But we're not even talking about 3D printing. Augmented, virtual reality fills the good old world, familiar to us from direct sensations. However, the “good old” one, but connected with the Internet of things, also begins to revolve around a person according to the laws of the digital world.

Statistics will no longer be one of the three main sources of lies, but will begin to honestly select answers to questions, based on the complexity of the data array

So where is this all going? The answer can only be very conditional, because the changes promise to be catastrophically large-scale. Let's say, imagine a world in which a detailed medical history is kept for each person, which includes everything that might be important. Imagine that all this is combined into a giant database of crazy volumes, which a special algorithm scrolls through in about five minutes in search of an answer to some specific question and, for example, then answers that the reason for the obesity of a particular patient lies largely in the absence of a specific gene , on the basis of which he will recommend making adjustments to the diet, which is automatically adjusted for the patient by the outside world, and at the same time will adjust his reproductive program.

Digital utopia

Imagine a world in which sunlight travels to Earth to meet solar battery and send an electron on a further journey. It follows super-intricate trajectories along a whole cascade of routes and launches myriads of processes surrounding humanity, which independently organize everything to satisfy its basic needs in an unburdened existence. Imagine an economy no longer a jungle where the fittest survives, but one that is predictable and customizable, with a place for everyone to thrive.

Utopia, definitely. But the world, through human efforts, will move towards greater intelligence and less senseless suffering. The world will increasingly function on digital rails, which brings with it inertia, the power of computing abilities, non-territoriality, timelessness, and universality. Some narrow and complex areas of human activity that already exist separately from each other will suddenly find joint universal solutions and, in their current form, will become a thing of the past as examples of too wasteful expenditure of human energy, leaving behind unified, more optimal processes.

Thus, jurisprudence, banking, business building, accounting, administration, management, metrological control, based on working with large databases and making many routine decisions, will gain most powerful tool in the form of algorithms like neural networks. Or perhaps they will become nothing more than their specific applications. Thus, statistics will cease to be one of the three main sources of lies, but will begin to honestly select answers to questions, based on the complexity of the data array; The logistics of the movement of the whole world in general and in particular will occur at the same level, the room for uncertainty will be reduced, as a result of which most of the current overpayments for risk and reinsurance will disappear, which means that efficiency will increase enormously. Physically speaking, the world will lose much of the familiar friction and dispersion at the boundaries of heterogeneous systems, changes will spread rapidly, areas of coherence will increase, and transparency will increase at all levels. The world will become even more cunning, further from man, in order to seem closer to him. But not only the surrounding reality, flooded with all these technologies, will change - the subject, the person, as well as society and the state will change. And this is perhaps the most significant part of the changes awaiting us.

The future of the individual

A person, becoming accustomed to the digital world, will leave a digital trace in it, through which it will be possible to access the trajectories of his existence. They will be systematically taken into account, which will become one of the most serious competitive advantages of the products offered to the consumer. As a result, human existence will become much more correctly formulated for consideration and satisfaction. Work with a person’s inner world will be carried out technically, but partly the same thing awaits him as happens with outside world for people - alienation. A person will have, in terms of scale, another universe, but already tied to his individuality, which over time he may even stop understanding himself, leaving everything to technology.

If before the world was one for everyone, now it will be different for everyone. This can be seen in its rudimentary form on social networks, where each user has their own news feed, creating an individual environment. People will isolate themselves from each other for convenience and to satisfy needs. To the extent necessary, segregation of trajectories of existence will also occur in the real world, as is already happening in principle: different neighborhoods for living, different shops, streets for walking, different places of recreation, and so on, but now this can happen over more individual level and be equipped with augmented reality tools. Imagine that price tags in the same store will be adjusted to each individual individually. After this, you can safely imagine the possibilities for splitting the world. However, despite individualization, there will remain a need for some common platform through which everyone will access a single data. If in the pre-digital era this place was the real world, now it can become both virtual reality and the unified principles of augmented reality, with all the ensuing features.

Who will determine the image of the person of the future, who will order the changes: companies involved in the fourth industrial revolution, the state or other human structures, including religious and national ones?

It is important that by shaping the reality in which people will interact with the world and with each other, it is possible to a certain extent to customize the nature of this interaction and, as a consequence, the personality traits brought up in such an environment. And if the possibilities for shaping the previous real world were quite limited, now many boundaries will be a thing of the past. It will be possible to offer a person a non-human experience by creating simulators of reality, and simply reality with other principles of interaction between objects and subjects, formed by access rights and laws of movement. Following this, both the ethical and aesthetic principles of man and his way of understanding reality will change. Moreover, it is possible that not only human identity will change, but also the very structure of personality, right down to existential categories. In this regard, one of critical issues is who will determine the image of the person of the future, who will order the changes: companies involved in the fourth industrial revolution, or the state, or other human structures, including religious and national ones? We are likely to face a fierce struggle between these old entities for the right to remain pillars of human existence.

Digital information and its three pillars

However, we can assume that some attributes of the digital world we are used to today will not go away:

Digital information is objective, logging facts destroys the usual human factors based on the possibility of forgetting, reshaping the past in memory, ignoring and placing emphasis on attention, forming the necessary myth and self-image, which are the basis of identity;

Digital information today is still poorly structured in terms of origin, and therefore, say, the same frames can be used to represent two events that are opposite in meaning; in the future, the so-called information ecology may receive great development;

The accessibility of digital information depends on the access rights set; in the physical world, this can be thought of as the equivalent of clothing; The concepts of shame and intimacy are likely to change in accordance with new realities, and what a person will become can be guessed, including how access rights will be distributed, who will have special rights and how this will be regulated.

How can one understand new world will not only give a person many new opportunities and reveal previously unseen horizons, but will also change the person himself. That is why it is so important to consciously participate in creating the future, so that ultimately it is not man who exists for the world, but the world for man. From the point of view of postmodernism, the death of the subject as the center of meaning formation has already occurred; meanings are formed at the superhuman level, and a person acts only as their guide in certain situations. Whether this is so or whether we are only in a transitional period, on the threshold of a new era with a new post-classical ideal of man, time will tell. The wait probably won't be long.

Don't miss the next lecture:

Is Russian business ready for the digital revolution and how is it going to participate in it? It's best to talk to him about this yourself.

Recently, there have been numerous discussions about digital technologies in Russia. But they mainly discuss the wonderful future world and the actions of the state, and not how digitalization is reflected in the realities of Russian business. However, any sane person will agree that it is impossible to discuss and project the future without a good understanding of the situation here and now. In this regard, of great interest are studies that attempt to go into the “field” and talk with representatives of existing businesses (and preferably not related to the ICT sector) about how they see the use of digital technologies in your practice.

Digital hype and big technology waves

Over the past year, new terms derived from the word “digital” have entered the active vocabulary of not only technology-savvy citizens, but also the general public: digital technologies, digital economy, digitalization. Does this new slang reflect a new reality or is it nothing more than another fashion, a bonmot that everyone will soon forget about?

Over the past year, new terms derived from the word “digital” have entered the active lexicon: digital technologies, digital economy, digitalization. Does this new slang reflect a new reality or is it nothing more than another fashion, a bon mot that everyone will soon forget about?

Of course, in such active promotion These concepts have a fair share of conjuncture associated with the feverish search for new engines of growth for the stagnating world economy. In this context, the promotion of the topic of “digitalization” can be considered as an attempt by an indestructible block of analysts, marketers and politicians to sell to business and society the “latest innovation”, which once were “chemicalization”, “greening”, “computerization”, etc., with the aim revival of demand. The mechanism of such a “sale” is that potential consumers across all possible channels begin to persistently explain that the use of a certain set of technological and organizational solutions is a sign of belonging to progress and the mainstream. Consumers are told that without constant demonstration of commitment to this current trend and without investing in the attributes of this commitment (products, devices, technologies, certificates), they will remain on the sidelines of global innovative development, lose competitiveness and capitalization. As a result, consumers begin to invest in these solutions without always fully assessing the total cost of ownership and the effectiveness of their investment. Nevertheless, the general excitement is doing its job: the flywheel of economic growth makes another turn, “profit centers” are emerging in some places, and technological development continues.

On the other hand, everything should not be reduced to global marketing promotions. The dissemination of “the latest innovations” becomes effective only when they are based on truly revolutionary technological solutions that begin to spread widely and penetrate into all spheres of human activity. The most striking example of such a process is electrification. Typically, this penetration is associated with the final stage of a techno-economic wave (according to Carlota Perez), generated by the emergence of revolutionary technologies. At this stage, technologies revolutionizing the economy go beyond the boundaries of innovative sectors, diffuse into traditional industries, and attract imitating users. It seems that the current digitalization is a phenomenon of the same kind.

If we recognize that the current techno-economic wave, based on information and communication technologies, started in the mid-1970s, then just today, having gone through thirty years of rapid growth and a decade of crisis, it has entered the stage of maturity. Having created new industries and giant companies, raising powerful investments, today IR technologies are spreading to other, including rather traditional sectors and are dramatically changing their appearance. Now IR technologies are penetrating industry, as reflected in the emergence of the concepts of industry 4.0, new production technologies, and digital factories. These concepts include technologies such as the Internet of Things, robotics, product life cycle management systems, smart materials design, 3D printing, artificial intelligence.

Having created new industries and giant companies, raising powerful investments, today IR technologies are spreading to other, including quite traditional sectors, and are dramatically changing their appearance

IR technologies are moving from a phase of being a useful addition to basic manufacturing technologies to a phase where they themselves are no less basic. They not only turn into a key element without which the industry cannot exist, but they themselves become a productive force, generating a flow of big data and virtual models that become objects of processing and purchase and sale on the market. In much the same way, during previous technological waves, coal or oil turned from secondary economic resources, suitable only for use in fireplaces or kerosene lamps, into a driving force for the development of the world economy.

Linking concepts to reality

The digitalization of the global economy has entered an active phase. It begins to go far beyond changes in technology itself and even in business and become a macroeconomic and political factor. Not only engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs, but also politicians, philosophers, and public figures are trying to comprehend the changes taking place.

Various techno-visionary developments of numerous “thought factories” and individual thinkers on this topic amazingly quickly began to be incorporated into government programs and business strategies around the world. There are still not enough verified definitions, there are slippages at interdisciplinary junctions, the abundance of contradictory forecasts for the very near future dazzles the eyes, but the idea that something needs to be done about this new global phenomenon, and done quickly enough, has firmly taken hold of the minds of scientists, businessmen, politicians. Some see it as a tool for fundamental changes in public life, while others, on the contrary, hope that digitalization will become an alternative to painful reforms.

In total, WEF researchers, in collaboration with experts from Accenture, have so far analyzed over ten industries and sectors. For ten of them, the authors presented forecasts of large-scale changes. According to the authors of the report, the oil and gas sector will receive the most significant effects from digitalization.

One of the attempts to understand the ongoing changes in relation to Russian realities was the recently released report “Digital Economy: Global Trends and Practice of Russian Business”, prepared by the Higher School of Economics with the support of Microsoft. A distinctive feature of this report was an attempt to move away from discussions about the possible future, from a macroeconomic view of the changes taking place, from a discussion of political programs and national plans. The authors of the report did not touch upon issues related to the use of digital technologies in the field of public administration, healthcare, education, etc. The main focus is on the transformations experienced by companies operating in traditional sectors of the economy, primarily in industry and infrastructure sectors (communications, transport, energy), retail trade and the banking sector.

However, with the thoroughness characteristic of academic researchers, before moving on to discussing the results of field surveys, the authors of the report begin with a review of foreign experience and results statistical observations.

Global trends

Speaking about the process of “digitalization” (in English - digitization, sometimes digitalization) of the economy and society, first of all it is necessary to try to bring some certainty to the terminological sphere. As the simplest version of the definition of the basic term, the authors of the report propose to use the version of the Boston Consulting Group (BSG): “Digitalization in the broadest sense is understood as the process of implementation/adoption of digital technologies by the population, business and society as a whole.”

The situation is somewhat more complicated with a clearer definition of exactly which technologies should or should not be classified as “digital technology” (digital technology, hereinafter referred to as DT), as well as with what is specifically understood by the synonymous term “digital solutions”. In the research community, there are noticeable differences of opinion on this matter, which are aggravated by a rather loose interpretation of what stage of economic development humanity is currently at and what technologies will become the basis for a “new breakthrough” in the near future.

Such confusion in the basic terminology and conceptual approaches of futurists is largely explained by the fact that the notorious information revolution, the main driver of which was the computerization (digitalization) of industrial production and ordinary households, in fact, has still not been able to fully establish itself in the status of a revolution per se , that is, as a fundamentally new stage in the development of human civilization (or, somewhat narrower, a stage in the development of the global economy). In other words, despite the obvious abundance of fundamentally new, breakthrough ideas and solutions offered by digital/information technologies, the growing IT industry, paradoxically, is still generally considered by many analysts and researchers as very useful, but still auxiliary element general process civilizational development.

One of the most significant examples illustrating this intermediate status of IT in the modern world is the current dynamics of average growth rates of labor productivity in the global economy. After this rate noticeably accelerated over a fairly short period of time - from 1996 to 2004 (for example, in the world's leading economy, the American economy, growth was recorded from approximately 1.5% to more than 3% per year), some experts hastened to announce that the world economy (or, according to at least, leading industrialized countries) finally began to feel the proper effect of the mass introduction of IT. However, the overall picture soon changed significantly: over the past and present decades, the rate of growth in labor productivity (if we leave out the more stable dynamics in third world countries) rolled back to the levels characteristic of the early 1990s; moreover, over the past three years, Analysts estimate that in the United States, a minimal average annual growth was recorded - only about 0.5%.

Of course, to say that the main culprit for this protracted stagnation of the global economy was the insufficient growth of its digitalization is at least incorrect. At the same time, it seems obvious that there is no noticeable positive impact of the IT component on macroeconomic processes. And, let's say, according to the American economist Robert Gordon, considered one of the most influential representatives of the digital skeptic camp, the most important discoveries and innovations of the past, such as “electricity, the central heating system or the internal combustion engine, have had a disproportionately greater effect in increasing the productivity of labor and improving the material well-being of mankind than anything produced in new digital era".

In turn, the ideologists of accelerating the process of general digitalization of the world economy, including the heads of many of the largest industrial and service companies in the world, as well as top analysts of various influential think tanks and international consulting companies, believe that traditional labor productivity statistics simply do not take into account the hidden effect of using a variety of innovative digital products and services that are freely and practically freely distributed through the global Internet. For example, Google's lead economist Hal Veryan, summarizing this point of view very succinctly, said that the United States does not currently have a problem with declining productivity growth, “but it does have a problem with its statistical measurement.”

Russian companies take the impact of these technologies on their business quite seriously today - it is rated at 7 points out of 10 maximum possible. Respondents are confident that this influence will increase over the next five years: it rises to 8 points

And in general, digital optimists, also often called the “Silicon Valley camp,” are of the view that in the near future (usually understood as a time period of ten to fifteen years) the impact of the third or fourth wave of radical transformation of the global economy, a key element of which , we repeat once again, are, after all, precisely the DT, will become much more tangible and will unambiguously affect both the overall growth of productivity and the positive dynamics of global industrial production.

The review of the opinions of leading foreign analysts presented in the report under discussion allows us to assert that as the scope of presence of digital technologies expands in various segments of the economy, there is a sudden transition of economic efficiency indicators of their use to a new, higher level. The technologies that could have the greatest impact on the economy include artificial intelligence, big data analytics, cloud computing, the Internet of things, robotics, autonomous vehicles, custom manufacturing and 3D printing. social media and other types of digital Internet platforms.

At the same time, an analysis of the changes suggests that digital technologies will not so much replace existing types of economic activity as “unlock” their hidden economic potential. The monetary equivalent of such unblocking is estimated at tens of trillions of dollars. Assessments of the possible positive impact of digitalization on individual industries and groups of industries in the global economy are contained in the updated report of the WEFDigital Transformation Initiative. In total, WEF researchers, in collaboration with experts from Accenture, have so far analyzed over ten industries and sectors. For ten of them, the authors presented forecasts of large-scale changes. According to the authors of the report, the oil and gas sector will receive the most significant effects from digitalization.

The authors of the report do not ignore such a very pressing topic as the consequences of digitalization for the global employment market. According to one of the latest studies, as early as 2022, approximately 22% of new jobs in the global economy will be created thanks to digital technologies.

At the same time, the so-called gap in digital knowledge between generations is becoming increasingly noticeable. While the bulk of the 2000s generation demonstrates a very high level of awareness and understanding of the latest developments and high-tech products, older generations, as a rule, have insufficient knowledge of this kind.

Acutely aware of this growing threat, many industrial and service companies are artificially encouraging an increase in the number of people with the necessary knowledge and skills in the application of digital technologies. In particular, special educational and/or training initiatives and programs are actively developing (often jointly with leading universities and technical schools), and both leading players of the new generation (for example, Google) and long-established technology leaders (one of many examples - Lockheed Martin). Particularly popular in last years They are also acquiring various courses and online training programs, which are offered not only to potential applicants for new jobs and professions, but also by the companies themselves to improve the digital qualifications of their own staff.

Russian statistics

The analysis of statistics on the use of digital technologies in Russia and cross-country comparisons on these parameters given in the report show that, although our country has some lag behind the leaders, the importance of ICT in the national economy is constantly increasing.

In Russia, broadband Internet in 2015 was used by 79% of organizations in the business sector and 89% in the financial sector. Among the leaders in this indicator are manufacturing and trade enterprises (88–90%), the lowest indicator is for transport organizations (74%).

The penetration level of broadband Internet in Russia is 15–20 percentage points (pp) lower than in countries with developed ICT infrastructure. In most EU countries, the share of broadband access users exceeded 95%, including in Slovenia, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Lithuania it reached 99–100%. In addition to the EU, the leaders are the Republic of Korea (99%) and New Zealand (96%). Among Russia's closest neighbors in the ranking for this indicator, we can note Mexico (80%), Romania and Greece (85% each).

Changes at the company level are certainly the foundation of the ongoing digitalization. However, these changes must be supported at the macro level - in the system of public administration and legal regulation

The development of Internet technologies and the expansion of the circle of Internet users have contributed to organizations’ awareness of the importance of their presence on the Internet - the share of companies in the business sector with a website increased from 34% in 2010 to 41% in 2015, financial sector - from 55 to 62% . Despite the significant growth in the online presence of Russian companies, it is significantly lower than, for example, in EU countries. In terms of the share of business sector organizations with a website, this gap is 1.8 times: 41% in Russia and 75% in the EU as a whole (leaders are Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden (90–95%), the minimum level is 45% - in Romania); in terms of availability of online catalogs or price lists - 2.6 times (21 and 54%, respectively).

The most popular software (software) according to the target attribute includes electronic document management systems (they are used by 59% of organizations in the business sector and 67% in the financial sector), electronic reference and legal systems (53 and 68%), software for making financial payments in electronic form (56 and 68%), solving organizational, managerial and economic problems (55 and 66%), managing procurement, sales of goods (44 and 35%), providing access to databases through global information networks(30 and 40%). Less popular are design programs (18 and 9%), educational programs (15 and 34%), and editorial and publishing systems (7% each).

Every fifth (22%) organization in the business sector and every third (36%) financial sector has introduced at least one of the most popular tools of this class into the production process: ERP, CRM, SCM systems (see Chart 1). In the business sector, ERP software applications were used by 15% of organizations in 2015, which is more than one and a half times higher than in 2010 (9%). In the communications industry, the share of users of ERP systems reached 33% (in 2010 - 26%), in trade - 28% (14%), in manufacturing - 21% (13%), in transport - 14% (8%) . In the financial sector, every fifth company uses these systems.

Chart 1. Organizations using ERP, CRM, SCM systems (as a percentage of the total number of organizations)

The Russian level of use of ERP systems is comparable to Hungary, Latvia (16% of business sector organizations use these systems), Great Britain (17%), more than three times inferior to the leaders of the EU countries in this indicator - Germany (56%), Belgium (50 %), Denmark (47%).

In 2015, two thirds of business sector organizations used the Internet to obtain information about goods (works, services), 41% - to pay for them. Electronic procurement was carried out by 17% of organizations in the business sector, sales - by 12%. The Russian level of use of e-commerce in business sector organizations is 5–7 percentage points lower than the average for EU countries (24% of organizations purchase online, 17% sell). The share of online sales in every second organization participating in e-commerce (or in 6% of the total number of organizations in the business sector) did not exceed 10% of total sales, in every third (4%) it ranged from 10 to 49% of sales , in every fifth (about 3%) - from 50 to 100%. Despite noticeable progress, in Russia there is a twofold lag behind the average European level of online shopping in the EU (23% versus 55%). Lower values ​​of this indicator are only in Bulgaria (17%) and Romania (11%).

The segment of IT services implemented on the cloud platform is developing. In 2015, the services of third parties to gain access to servers, databases, software applications, computing power and information storage facilities were used by 18% of companies in the business sector and the same number in the financial sector. Compared to 2013, this figure increased respectively by 1.7 (11% in 2013) and 1.6 times (12%). In the communications industry, the share of cloud service users reached 31%, in trade - 23%, in manufacturing - 20%. One of the lowest indicators is in transport (16%). The level of distribution of cloud services in Russian organizations is comparable to the average for EU countries - 21%. While lagging behind the leading countries in this indicator: Finland (57%), Sweden (48%), Denmark (42%) - Russia is ahead of France, Austria (17% each) and Germany (16%).

Realities of Russian business

One of the most interesting sections of the report “Digital Economy: Global Trends and Practices of Russian Business” was the results of a survey of 100 Russian companies. Having generally confirmed the conclusions of statistical observations, the study allows us to draw attention to several important trends in the use of digital technologies by Russian companies.

First of all, it is worth noting that Russian companies take the impact of these technologies on their business quite seriously today - it is rated at 7 points out of 10 maximum possible. Respondents are confident that over the next five years this influence will increase: it grows to 8 points. At the same time, the companies surveyed are very optimistic in assessing how far they have already advanced in digitalization: much more often than their colleagues from other countries, they classify themselves as active users of digital technologies - this turned out to be 53% versus 26% on average worldwide, according to surveys by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Institute (MIT Sloan School of Management). The distribution of responses from Russian companies in comparison with responses from companies worldwide is shown in Chart 2.

Graph 2. Distribution of answers to the question “Try to imagine an “ideal” organization from your industry that makes maximum use of all the possibilities of digital technologies, and a company in which such technologies are not used at all. How would you assess the situation with the use of digital technologies in your company?

The fact that this is not empty bravado is supported by the fact that over the past three years, companies have regularly implemented one or another digital technology implementation project (an average of four projects per company). These were mainly projects in the field of electronic document management (60% of companies), every second company (50%) carried out projects related to the management of production equipment and monitoring its operation.

Most often, the initiator of projects was the CEO of the company (CEO, chairman of the board or other manager) - in 42% of cases. In almost every third case (29%), this person was the director of information technology (CIO of the company).

Companies were asked to evaluate how much the effect obtained from each of the implemented projects met their expectations. The distribution of answers to this question is shown in Chart 3. In 68% of cases, the effect of implementing projects to implement digital solutions for companies’ own needs is assessed as meeting expectations. In 13% of cases, the effect was even slightly higher than the company managers expected, and in 5% of cases it was much higher than expected. In 13% of cases the effect was lower than expected, including in 3% the effect was practically zero. The main effect was to simplify and speed up processes, as well as increase the accuracy and quality of work.

Using a 10-point system, companies rated the degree of influence of digital technologies on their business today at 7 points, and in five years - at 8 points. That is, the impact of digital technologies on companies’ businesses is already assessed as quite high and tending to grow.

Among the technologies that have the greatest impact on business today, companies identify four areas:

Internet of things and production automation;

Digital design and modeling;

Virtualization technologies: remote access, remote office and so on.;

Mobile technologies and cross-channel communications.

Companies expect the impact of these technologies to continue over the next five years, but two more trends could be added: social networking and supercomputing. A noticeable increase in the influence of three areas is also expected: virtual, augmented and mixed reality, additive technologies, cloud technologies.

Graph 3. Distribution of answers to the question “How does the company evaluate the overall effect obtained from the implementation of the digital solutions implementation project in comparison with the expected?”

At least two-thirds of respondents (62% in total) give fairly high assessments of the level of awareness and competence of their employees regarding the impact of digital technologies on companies’ business.

Companies tend to consider the most significant problems that arise during the implementation of projects to be those related to the organization of the project itself:

Lack of experience in implementing such projects (54%);

Incorrect estimate of project completion time (49%);

Lack of qualified project managers (48%);

Poor interaction between departments (48%).

In addition to these four problems of an organizational nature, two more were often mentioned, but already related to shortcomings “on the customer’s side.” Both of these relate to users: their “technological incompetence” (55%) and “lack of involvement and interest” (47%).

Another sign of the low level of organization of the digitalization process of Russian companies is the lack of clear digital strategies in the majority (83%) of companies. A third of companies were unable to clearly describe what digital-related work was planned for the coming year and the next three to five years.

During the study, respondents were asked what prevents the wider use of digital technologies in the company. The questionnaire offered an extensive set of two dozen different areas as possible barriers. The list of ten most important obstacles to the further development of digital technologies included more barriers external to the company than internal ones. External barriers include those related to the instability of the economic situation in the country and the insufficient level of development of ICT infrastructure, as well as those caused by the unpreparedness of suppliers and consumers to use digital technologies. At the same time, the first three places are occupied by a group of internal barriers of a financial nature: insufficient budget, high cost of projects, high costs of operating systems.

Graph 4. Distribution of answers to the question: “What are the most serious barriers to wider use of digital technologies in your company?

On average, each company named seven factors hindering the development of digital technologies. This suggests that there is no “key” link that can be pulled to ensure wider use of digital technologies in Russia.

Comparing the answers to different questions in the survey, the authors of the report note a clear dissonance in the positions expressed: on the one hand, respondents gave high assessments of the importance of digital technologies and their future impact on the companies’ business, noted good awareness of them, and there is high activity in the implementation of projects for their implementation . On the other hand, there are numerous problems in organizing the implementation of projects, low level planning, the desire to attribute emerging difficulties to external barriers and lack of funding.

The authors of the report see a resolution to this paradox in the assumption that today the use of digital technologies is still perceived by the top management of many Russian companies as a purely technological task. While the meaning of the ongoing digitalization is that it is not so much the technology that is changing, but the company’s business itself, its relationships with suppliers and customers, the system of management and organization of the company’s activities is changing. Today, the use of digital technologies is becoming a matter not only of IT specialists specially appointed for this purpose, but of all company employees, starting with the CEO and ending with ordinary performers and workers. Without understanding the ongoing systemic changes, it will be very difficult for Russian companies to compete in current and future markets.

State support for the use of digital technologies by business

Changes at the company level are certainly the foundation of the ongoing digitalization. However, these changes must be supported at the macro level - in the system of public administration and legal regulation. Many companies believe that receiving some government support could seriously encourage them to use digital technologies more widely. The study identified the following areas in which the government could provide support to companies in mastering modern digital technologies:

1.Encouraging competition, creating conditions for equal competition. The digital economy is developing simultaneously in such a wide range of areas that it cannot be built through the efforts of a limited number of companies endowed with special powers and resources by the state. Therefore, private businesses with a strong entrepreneurial spirit will play a central role in this economy. As interviews conducted during the study show, the experts interviewed agree with this position.

2.Formation of common technology platforms. Often, a serious barrier to the widespread dissemination of digital technologies is the need for a simultaneous transition to working with them at once for an entire group of companies forming cooperation chains. To reduce such a barrier, the state can act either as an organizer of broad consortia or technology platforms that unite various interested organizations (for example, work in the field of the Internet of things), or as a regulator that prescribes requirements for the use of certain technological solutions (for example, automated systems in retail: EGAIS, GIS "Mercury", online cash registers). Although forced use of digital technologies in some cases causes business dissatisfaction due to the need to make unforeseen expenses, in the medium and long term it has a positive effect due to the synchronization of the processes of implementation of standard technological solutions in entire segments of the economy.

3. Changes in legal regulation. The analysis shows the presence of significant gaps in Russian legislation. It needs to be revised to take into account new types of relations and their legal composition. Large-scale work is needed with the conceptual apparatus of information law and the elimination of legal obstacles that exist in information legislation and the practice of its application. It is necessary to create a unified digital environment of trust through the development of trusted services. It is necessary to establish a special intermediate regime for categories of data that are not classified as restricted information, but potentially are. The issue of developing the market for services related to the management of personal data, etc., is acute. At the same time, the state should not get ahead of itself, trying to strictly regulate processes that are in the process of development, for which the users themselves have not yet formulated their requirements. In addition, the adoption of regulations governing the development of the digital economy should occur in dialogue with users, developers, and service providers.

4. Qualified customer. The state in Russia creates quite a serious demand for a wide variety of products and services, and also provides big number services. A significant portion of these products and services can be provided using digital technologies. By forming an order to increase the digitalization of its own activities, the state thereby not only stimulates the development of companies in the ICT field, but also sets standards for working with digital technologies, and creates a culture of working with them among a wide range of economic entities. Positive examples here include the “Electronic Russia” program, the transition of tax authorities to accepting electronic reporting, the use of plastic cards for social payments, etc.

5. Introduction of additional tax incentives for the development of digital technologies. All experts praise the importance of reduced insurance premiums for the growth of IT companies. They are unanimous that this benefit needs to be extended. There is currently a discussion going on about the feasibility of introducing a tax incentive for the amount of capital investments in modernization. If such a benefit were to appear, it would also stimulate more intensive investments by companies in digital technologies. Resolving taxation issues in cross-border online trading will also be extremely important - this will give a positive impetus to the development of this business segment.

6. Training and dissemination of information about digital technologies. The widespread adoption of digital technologies will inevitably cause significant changes in the structure of employment and the required qualifications of workers. A large number of IT specialists, programmers, and qualified users who can work in the digital environment will be required. In addition, today there is already a shortage of so-called digital leaders and digital entrepreneurs, that is, top-level managers who understand how to carry out the digital transformation of business processes. A separate task is the work of the state with the media - in order to prepare our citizens for upcoming changes, warn about risks, and conduct digital education.

7. Ensuring cybersecurity. A critical condition for the development of the digital economy is ensuring the confidence of all economic entities that the data collected, stored and used is protected from criminal attacks. Ultimately, only the state can provide such confidence. To do this, it is necessary to solve several problems at once: develop legal norms to combat cybercrime, have qualified cyber police, develop technological solutions and standards, ensure cross-border interaction (cybercriminals know no borders). At the same time, we must not forget that ensuring security is secondary to the task of development and growth.

8. Development of new technological solutions. In digital technologies, the path from basic exploratory research to commercial application is very short. An example of this is research on quantum computer or artificial intelligence. In these conditions, the state must not only maintain a high level of funding for scientific projects from the budget, but also find the right tools for attracting non-state funds into exploratory research, stimulate the development of corporate science, develop proactive research projects, train leaders of scientific organizations capable of combining the qualities of a scientist and an entrepreneur .

9. Promotion to foreign markets. The growing wave of the emergence of fundamentally new products and services based on digital technologies is giving Russian manufacturers a new chance. As shown successful experience a number of Russian companies (Kaspersky Lab, ABBYY, Parallels, Luxoft, Yandex, etc.), rapid growth in the export of IT products is quite possible. The state can support this trend by providing marketing information, supporting participation in foreign exhibitions and conferences, providing subsidies and guarantees for export loans, compensating for patenting costs, and forming investment funds aimed at conducting M&A transactions abroad.

10. Cross-border cooperation. The development of modern digital technologies has made national borders transparent. United teams from different countries are working on innovative projects, new solutions and services are instantly distributed throughout the world, competition has become transnational. Attempts to introduce restrictions on international cooperation very quickly undermine the competitive positions of domestic producers, as a result of which a too straightforward struggle to ensure national security leads to its own undermining. It is necessary to ensure the possibility of using Russian users cross-border data transfer services of an unclassified nature offered by the global market (including within the framework of scientific and technological exchange, medical consultations or the transfer of telemetric data on the operation of industrial equipment). Russian companies should be encouraged to join global technology alliances that form technological standards for the years to come.

The spring and summer of 2017 became a turning point in the understanding by the Russian establishment and expert community of the importance of digital technologies for the further development of the country. The most important factor The process of discussing and adopting the “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation” program became such a shift. At the same time, in fact high level a signal was given that today “the formation of a digital economy is a matter of national security and independence of Russia, the competitiveness of domestic companies, the country’s position on the world stage for the long term, in fact, for decades to come.” Now it is important that the result of such high attention is the emergence of various initiatives and digitalization projects at all levels: from national to individual companies. If such projects become a mass phenomenon, there is hope that the number of technological changes will begin to change the quality of life, management systems, business models, and relationships between people. Only such comprehensive changes can ensure the transformation of the Russian economy into a digital one.

As for Russian business, the general conclusion from the survey of companies is that most of them have already joined the digital race. Specialists and company executives understand that without the use of digital technologies they will not be able to compete successfully. At the same time, companies approach these technologies very pragmatically, placing the main emphasis on what is already impossible to do business without, but are in no hurry to invest in fundamentally new areas. The key task for captains of Russian business is to realize the inevitability of very serious transformations under the influence of digital technologies and the complex nature of these changes. It is not enough to simply apply new technological solutions - it is necessary to revise the usual business models, change relationships with counterparties, and reform the management system.

Reality, what it is, is the one that is imperceptible and impenetrable.
clear, and point-like, and infinite, and quantum, and?
What? eternal, don't ask questions, history
everything is possible, and the shooting gallery is virtual, complex, weak
wife, mortgaged, false and? and is assumed, and the choice
behind you, whichever one you see is yours, the guarantee of health
bloody watering hole, what? (what) you dissolve, then you will get-
Come on, what kind of flowers do you like? neither pink
neither blue, green, red, blue, gold,
but the fool is not happy with the red one, he changed his mind, became
more difficult, but maybe not...

Reality. How banal and boring you are.
I would like to be enveloped in a moment of unreality,
Let her be an irrevocable dream.
And yet the flow of gratitude comes
There was even irrevocability.
Hope, which lived like a seed in the soul of each of us,
Closing your eyes gives birth to colorful time.
The sprout that has sprouted in the soul
Almost frozen baby seed.
With a mysterious flower it will delight us at a wonderful moment
A flower from a fairy tale, which the soul will not let wither.
All our lives inside we will remember...

Out of the darkness - digital Verlaine,
Talk about music
All absinthe and can't get up from your knees
So listen, damn it,
What whispers magically with a toothless mouth
Your wounded clochard,
Love will catch up with you later -
From cold to hot again,
Burned by the memory of past years,
Where is the torment and triumph...
Already bought myself a gun
Analog Rambo.

Heavenly Blagovest:
“_______________ ...you don’t live
in linear time!
Really:
conditioned “moments of the present”
for a long time... in me - empty, vague concepts...
Clock and Calendar?
...they are around Consciousness,
cyclically depressing, - second,.. everyday, -
building a stockade of Despair...
I'm a MAN...
Certainly possessing
Another Reality
in the Time of earthly EXISTENCE...
It’s not here for a second, not every day, -
States in motion!..
In Reality... multiple in manifestations...

I've had regrets for a long time,
No, I will never die.
Perhaps I was only a shadow of thoughts,
Falling asleep here with life in the morning.

Between sleep and life there is death,
Reality is what we believe.
And in order to live, they must be able to
Open the doors to your reality.

Death is a brink, a moment of transition,
To another plane of existence.
And at the moment of death,
I will go into my reality.

It's just a pity to leave the body,
Having left with my soul, I must be here.
The soul in him became attached to his heart,
And there is a piece of her in him...

Far side of the moon
Second half of the year
Reality turns into dreams
Intricate someone.

We are woven into these games
Uninterpreted dreams
And the look of the all-seeing back
Reality turns to stone.

Hello from the other side,
To you, the other half!
Turning dreams into reality,
I wake up in the middle of the desert

And the look of the all-seeing back
The rock garden interprets dreams...

Spring is coming... Again.
...the dull obviousness of existence:
Seconds!.. - palisade in consciousness...
I'm exploding.
...I’m leaving for the Reality of the Sun.
THERE IS SPRING!..
The earth is silent
in stern anticipation:
Will I be able to move,.. - get out of my mind! -
into the space of solar seconds?..
Which are so mute - precisely in me.
...I perceive with the fibers of my soul:
"SPRING is coming!.. Outside the line of my seconds."
I whisper:
-...a silent addition of earthly Light, -
a vague sign of strange movement
home planet somewhere...

| 28.04.2018

What has been happening on the Runet since April 16 is by no means a specific conflict between Roskomnadzor and Telegram. These carpet bombings, no matter how they end, will remain just an episode. The essence of any war (and this is a war) is much deeper than the course of hostilities, the decisions of commanders, strategy or technology.

The readiness of the Russian censorship department to block everything and everyone, stopping at nothing and not thinking about the consequences, suggests that now we all live in a new digital reality, when the interests of any user - be it an ordinary person with his own recipes and tanks or a corporation with a huge infrastructure in the cloud - should be subordinated only to the interests of the state. That is, the state simply should not take this into account. The rebellious service must be cleared from the digital space of Russia at any cost – period!

It was no coincidence that it was no coincidence that the relevant officials cheerfully reported to the population under their jurisdiction that Russia was already ready for complete shutdown from the World Wide Web. True, the rollicking style of club-waving used by Roskomnadzor causes outrage among them as well.

These, I repeat, are fundamentally new conditions for the digital existence of the population. Mass transition to an already semi-legal VPN. Total disrespect for the laws and courts of one’s own country, which at one point will certainly cross the boundaries of Digital. This situation in society, which is perfectly clear to everyone, including the authorities themselves, cannot last long. The dangers that lie in wait for the state are obvious if we draw a direct parallel between the jammers of the early 80s and the actions of Roskomnadzor in the late 2010s.

It will be much more difficult for society (although the average, “home” user adapts to everything and will get used to VPN), and especially for business. It is obvious that the attitude towards cloud services as such will undergo dramatic changes - events last days They clearly showed skeptics that the desire to “have everything with you”, and not in an abstract cloud that is unknown where it is, has a reason. And I must say, very weighty.

Those who will definitely be happy are the advocates of total import substitution. The transition to domestic analogues will certainly become widespread. One can only guess whether the country has enough of its own data centers to accommodate all the services left without foreign providers.

However, this does not guarantee against problems. Roskomnadzor, in its enthusiasm, managed to block (even if only for an hour and late at night) even the quite loyal Yandex with VKontakte and the stubborn Odnoklassniki. What can we say about the stopped work of many scientific organizations...

Recipes for existing in the new reality are already appearing on the Internet today, and, obviously, their release will soon become widespread. And the most important competitive advantages of many services will not be the quality of services, not business opportunities, and not the perfection of software, but basic resistance to blocking. I look forward to fun presentations that respond to new realities.

Meanwhile, our country, as you know, has set a course for digitalization of the economy. The corresponding program has already been adopted, the measures are outlined in it. But the procedure for their implementation will have to be rewritten, taking into account the total refusal to use the services of global giants. The latter, as the experience of the war with Telegram shows, are not very willing to enter into military cooperation with the authorities of our country, the business of which brings them only a few percent of profits.

State policy in the field of IT has long gone beyond technology - technology itself has become part of policy. And it seems that in order to achieve political goals, the state in general and individual lobbyists in particular will no longer stop at the most absurd, self-destructive measures. And no matter what declarations of intent are made, the first thing everyone must do is prepare for existence in the new digital reality. But now it looks not like the blissful tabernacles of a digital paradise, but like a field after a bloody battle.

Digital reality

Journalism information age: transformation factors, problems and prospects

Oleg Robertovich Samartsev

Reviewers:

Vartanova E. L., Doctor of Philology, Dean of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, Head of the Department of Theory and Economics of Media, Professor, Scientific Director of the Center for Media Research of Finland and Scandinavia “NordMedia”, Corresponding Member of RAO

Urazova S. L., Doctor of Philology

Approved by the Academic Council of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Additional vocational education"Academy of Media Industry (IPC of TV and Radio Broadcasting Workers)"

© Oleg Robertovich Samartsev, 2017

ISBN 978-5-4485-8639-2

Created in the intellectual publishing system Ridero

Introduction

The crisis of modern journalism is due to many factors, one way or another related to new social and technological processes in the field of communication. Just as social and communicative reality changed after the invention of the printing press by John Guttenberg, modern reality is changing under the influence of digital technologies and, first of all, the Internet. It is not just the format of information dissemination that is undergoing a change - the communication system itself is changing and, as a consequence, the social system. The forms of social regulation and social mediation of the media are changing, new formats for the dissemination of information and interaction of the media with the audience are being modernized and emerging, financial flows are being redistributed in favor of the new sphere of information technology, the structure and formats of business organization in the field of communication and high technology are changing and, of course, the methodology is being modernized professional activities of journalists, audience structure and distribution of mass information content.

It is generally accepted that the basis of modern transformations of journalism is exclusively technological factor, Related to digitalization of all information processes, the emergence of the global Internet - a new communication channel and, as a result, a significant change in the functionality of journalism, but in reality the process is much more complex. The technological determinism of mass communication undoubtedly has a huge impact on its social functions. Modern technologies have essentially become one of the triggers for systemic transitions to a new level of both the media and society itself, just like the advent of printing, photography, radio and television. At the same time, the consequences of the dictates of new communication technologies are very diverse. "The collision of old and new environment“is still, as M. McLuhan noted, “anarchic and nihilistic,” however, unlike previous eras associated with material, material carriers of information, in the digital era the processes of change occur immeasurably more dramatically and penetrate deeper into the sociocultural layer, since “ one of the features of electrical [ and especially digital– O.S.] technology is its ability to accelerate the process of transformation.” If we take into account the main differences of the new technological revolution from the previous ones - the virtualization of reality inherent in digital communication, interactivity, multimedia and globality - it should be assumed that today it is not so much the method of disseminating information that is changing, but its type and the environment in which the functions of the media are realized, from mass to global. Almost all system-forming factors of journalism are undergoing changes, and this is happening spontaneously, clearly ahead of journalism’s ability to adapt to new conditions.

§1. The crisis of traditional journalism: factors of transformation

Transition to information society multidimensional and multifactorial. It is hardly worth assuming that only a change in the technology of information dissemination became the detonator of global social processes in society in general and in journalism in particular. However, journalism as a social system associated with communication technologies directly and primarily, in this sense, is quite symptomatic. Journalism is a kind of marker of society’s readiness for changes that have matured due to many not communicative, but social reasons, and changes in communication technologies are far from the only and not the most significant factor of transformation that influences the processes occurring in modern journalism. The transition from industrial to post-industrial and information society, formulated by E. Toffler, is characterized by the globalization of all social processes, systems and their relationships - including in the field of mass communication, which easily adapts innovations and technological breakthroughs. At the same time, for the media, the very appearance of a new means of communication is traditionally of a revolutionary nature. Globalization has changed a lot in the nature of the relationship between journalism and the society in which it implements its functions. Leaving aside other transformations in the global world in connection with digitalization - politics, economics, sociocultural diffusion, etc. - we note its significant consequences for journalism. These include:

– social: leveling and unification of national types of journalism with a very noticeable desire for a specific, non-national format that socializes approaches to presenting information; unlimited territorial zone of occurrence of media events; socialization of social trends through their mediatization and subsequent global replication; globalization of the audience, segmented not territorially, nationally, socially or in any other institutional way, but solely according to information intention (interests);

– methodological: erasing the boundaries between the author and the audience, shifting the emphasis and “admission” to the formation of the information and, thereby, social “agenda” in the structure of the social pyramid from the super-elite to the elite and then to the masses;

– technological: creating conditions and stimulating an extremely personalized format for relationships with the information environment by the consumer in an interactive format and reducing the role of the predictor broadcaster, multimedia and globalization of the information channel.

Social and manipulative factor. The media are becoming an effective manipulator of social relationships, forming a new public sphere, significantly different from the intellectual ideas of Jürgen Habermas. An environment conducive to the formation of an unlimited variety of methods of public communication blurs the information functions of a media actor and its attribution, thereby simplifying the technologies of propaganda, manipulation of public opinion, and the use of various PR influences and marketing campaigns. This exacerbates the processes of “refeudalization” of the public sphere, noted by Jürgen Habermas at the beginning of the twentieth century, in which the media strive to manipulate mass consciousness and shape public opinion to a greater extent than to bring reliable information to the public.

The influence of the manipulative factor on journalism is very large-scale and destructive, since new media often form virtual environment, in which information is not only and not so much “reliable information about what happened,” but any information, including misinformation, "fake" or " simulated reality" Reputational journalism of the print era in this environment loses out in advance to new media and dissolves in a heterogeneous mass of content, losing the exclusive right to provide society with information. Reliability of information on the Internet - a must for traditional journalism - is no longer a fundamental value, which today is often priority, exclusivity and attractiveness. The global audience differs from the audience of traditional media in that it is omnivorous, gullible and prone to consuming masquerade, clipped content. In these conditions, the journalist is obliged to take into account the changing information needs of the audience, which become the determining marker of success for the media.

It should be taken into account that the crisis of journalism is developing in a situation not only of a seriously changed structure of content consumption, but also of the emergence of a new methodology.

Methodological factor very significantly changes professional priorities. The factor of convergence (bringing together dissimilar media technologies) is becoming increasingly significant, the availability of multi-format representation (multimedia) is becoming a new standard of the information mainstream, and the interactivity of modern media is fundamentally changing the subject-object background of the profession.