The tide of digital enablement – across the entire economy – has triggered research projects that seek to understand the foundations of new economic models.
The work may lead to new UK centres of research excellence and generate a source of independent and influential policy advice for businesses, organisations of all sizes, communities, governments and regulators.
Some aspects of the RCUK’s work will be presented at NextGen Bristol (17th July) in a workshop led by Prof. Roger Maull from Exeter University.
Full story here
Groupe Intellex 
(From the editor)
Comments and feedback from readers suggests that two additional influences might be added to the original paper on the development of New Economic Models: Transparency and Dynamics.
Transparency
The trend towards greater openness and visible accountability (typified by the Open Data provisions for government/administrative information – but linked also to the better-regulated major corporate world) may be supplementary to the comments under the Social Media heading but some readers would prefer to see this topic highlighted under a ‘digital democratisation’ heading.
The empowerment that flows from easier access to information in the Digital Economy is also linked to another facet of openness – the way that better-informed consumers can benefit from the ‘choices deficit’ that has previously limited the effectiveness of so-called ‘free markets’ where it is assumed that all economic players are equally competent.
Dynamics
Readers have noted that some aspects of access network provisions inadequately support the needs of businesses and consumers to match supply to demand. This now looks increasingly likely to be solved with new technologies.
Dynamic Bandwidth was a feature of satellite Internet services around 2002 because of the market structure at that time – poor provision of what is now termed ‘last generation’ broadband and a need to find solutions where the cost of higher-capacity services could be more fairly allocated to users. That era passed with the upgrading of dial-up to DSL capabilities but the need is still apparent in the services offered (mainly in Scandinavia) for short-term capacity boosts for businesses and event organisers who need extra network performance at very short notice.
Today the technological agenda has shifted to ‘bandwidth trading’ facilitated by an exchange mechanism supported by Optical Packet Switching – the flexibility to dynamically reconfigure networks to cope with large fluctuations in demand. The current trials in Dublin (Intune Networks) of a ‘Bandwidth Exchange’ seems likely to have a huge impact on the Digital Economy as it will both lower costs for network providers and improve the functionality of networks.
Further feedback and comments are welcome.