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Five things Gartner has learned about Digital Business from the World Cup...
Sat, 5th Jul 2014
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Jack Santos is a Research Vice President with Gartner, he is of the Gartner for Technical Professionals product and focuses on professional effectiveness for IT practitioners.

Santos covers organisational development, leadership and management practices, governance, and innovation and collaboration approaches.

Here, he discusses the five things he has learned about Digital Business from the World Cup.

Time is relative and shift-able

Viewing time: one of the odd things is that with the technology of digital recording and/or digital streaming its easy to get out of sync with real-time peer event watchers.

It took me a while to realise that I was 30 secs to 1 minute behind real-time, while discussing the results with others in chat. It is now more than easy to do that, which will increase the opportunity for miscommunication (is the hotline between Moscow and Washington still analog?)

Comment time: Even if you are posting “real-time” comments on Facebook, its easy for readers to miss the post time, and view comments based on when they pop (which – as we have found out through Facebook experiments, is easily manipulated).

Reconstructing the time sequence of comments can be a chore, depending on how they were delivered. Which brings up an old saw I would often use: “just because you sent the message doesn't mean it was actually received”.

Nationality is a flux concept

As a dual nationality individual, the nation state concept starts looking very antiquated. My American born children will be eligible for up to 4 nationalities – assuming there are no limits. Comes in handy in the world cup, though.

I root for two teams – unfortunately they have BOTH been knocked out. And when they play each other? It's a tough choice – and varies goal by goal. OK, I am an opportunist – and just looking to celebrate whoever wins.

Digital Borders are permeable

In the US we were limited to two viewing options E$PN (cable subscription) or Spanish language Univision. I can get by on the Spanish, but there are lots of options to VPN over to a third party country and watch their local TV (in my case Hola).

It was a great viewing experience, and easily (Apple TV, Chromecast) viewable on my 55” screen. Take that, internet censors and intellectual property nazis!

Infrastructure is THE growth sport

Three years ago in my visit to Sao Paulo and other parts of Brazil, the concern was whether their infrastructure, especially their digital infrastructure, will be ready. It was. But not without serious investment.

Watching and communicating with parts of the country that a few years ago were only accessible by boat or plane? Now that's amazing. And what a small world it has become….

Sport is a Digital Business

Concepts around the interconnection of People and Things – and by extension to processes, locations, and presence – affect sports, too.

This will probably be one of the last major global sporting events where Internet of Things like capability doesn't become center stage, for lots of reasons. Like what Adidas has introduced with the miCoach Elite Team System.

By Jack Santos - Gartner