Nortel Buzzboard

On a day when the growing importance of connected electronic devices was the focus, Nortel CTO John Roese and IDC senior vice president Vito Mabrucco hosted a media event in Toronto to release and discuss the details of the IDC White Paper “The Hyperconnected - Here They Come!”, sponsored by Nortel.

Nortel CTO John Roese and IDC Canada’s Senior VP of Worldwide Consulting and Managing Director, Vito Mabrucco speak via telepresence to media in Ottawa and Richardson, TX.In typical Hyperconnected style the, John and Vito also talked about the study results via telepresence to reporters in Ottawa and Richardson, TX.

While the main findings of the study have already been well discussed - Hyperconnectivity is clearly a rapidly growing phenomenon - the interesting question brought to the table at the event was “why”? Why do the study? Everyone knows the world is becoming increasingly connected every day. What’s new here?

The answer came from John Roese, who said it was never a question of “if” - Hyperconnectivity is a well established trend - but rather a question of “when,” “who,” “what,” “where” and how does it affect the decisions of CIOs now?

In that regard, the study indicated that Hyperconnectivity is set to explode over the next five years, is being driven by high concentrations of Hyperconnected people in China and the U.S. and is most prominent among males under the age of 35 - among many other valuable pieces of demographic information.

A computer is useful when not connected to the Internet, but becomes even more useful once networked with billions of other devices through the web. Why can’t that same value be added to other machines we use every day?Another interesting trend that will push Hyperconnectivity to its limit will be the increasing number of new connected devices. Not your typical cell phones, laptops and mobile Internet devices that connect people to people, but rather increasing connections between machine and machine as everything from your refrigerator to your car becomes connected to the network.

As John Roese indicated in the session with journalists, a computer is useful when not connected to the Internet, but becomes even more useful once networked with billions of other devices through the web. Why can’t that same value be added to other machines we use every day?

I know I wouldn’t mind if my car took scheduling of its maintenance off of my to-do list.  What kind of new connected functionality could you foresee for other devices in your life?