Some thoughts on Convergence

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1 2016 NCC s 10th Anniversary Celebrations International Communications Symposium Some thoughts on Convergence Bonnie Peng Professor Department of Social and Policy Sciences Yuan Ze University

2 Publications after NCC NCC and Digital Convergence, 2011 NCC and Media Policy Public Interest, Regulatory Philosophies and Practices, 2012 Post-TV Era: Streaming, Co-Opetition, and Policy, 2015

3 A Knowledge-based economy and a Learning Society It is increasingly crucial that regulators have a clear vision of the changing needs of citizens and the role the network plays in enabling their country to compete on the global stage of a knowledge-based economy. Professor Jerry Power

4 Creating a Learning Society Creating a learning society should be one of the major objectives of economic policy. If a learning society is created, a more productive economy will emerge and standards of living will increase. By contrast, many policies focusing on static (allocative) efficiency may in fact impede learning and that alternative policies may lead to higher long -term living standards. Creating a Learning Society : A New Approach to Growth, Development, and Social Progress (by Joseph Stiglitz & Bruce Greenwald), 2015

5 New Era: The Third Industrial Revolution? Rifkin, Jeremy (2015) The Zero Marginal Cost Society, palgrave macmillan In the 19th century, steam-powered printing and the telegraph became the communication media for linking and managing a complex coal-powered rail and factory system, connecting densely populated urban areas across national markets. In the 20th century, the telephone, and later, radio and TV, became the communication media for managing and marketing a more geographically dispersed oil, auto, and suburban era and a mass consumer society.

6 A new communication/energy/transportation matrix In the 21th century, the Internet is becoming the communication medium for managing distributed renewable energies and automated logistics and transport in an increasingly interconnected global Commons. A new communication/energy/transportation matrix is emerging, and with it a new 'smart' public infrastructure. The IoT will connect everyone and everything in a new economic paradigm that is far more complex than the First and Second Industrial Revolutions, but one whose architecture is distributed rather than centralized.

7 IoT The core of the IoT operating system is the coming together of the Communications Internet, Energy Internet, and Transportation Internet in a cohesive operating platform. If each remains siloed from the others, it will be impossible to erect the IoT and pursue the vision of a smart society and sustainable world.

8 Changing the Economic Paradigm We are in the early stage of a game-changing transformation in economic paradigm. A new economic model is emerging in the twilight of the capitalist era that is better suited to organize a society in which more and more goods and services are nearly free. We have witnessed that the corporate profits began to dry up, property rights are weakening, and an economy based on scarcity is slowly giving way to an economy of abundance.

9 Challenges we are facing The Second Industrial Revolution telecom giants are anxious to gain control of the new communications medium and force on it a centralized command and control (C&C) that will allow them to enclose the content and the traffic, boost their margins, and secure a monopoly. At the same time, the end users are equally determined to keep the Internet an open Commons and find new apps that will advance network collaboration and a push to near zero marginal costs and near free service. Governments seem to be caught in the middle attempting to serve two masters, one dedicated to a capitalist model and the other to a Commons model.

10 The regulation of network industries has been profoundly transformed in the past twenty year. First, the object of regulation is no longer the same. Second, practicable regulations are no longer the same. Third, governance has become more interactive.

11 Concluding remarks: Smart Regulator? it s important for government to play a role in shaping an innovative economy and in promoting learning. How smart we are? To Whom we smart? For what, we smart? By which means, we smart?

12 Thanks for Listening