IEEE GLOBECOM 2009 Discusses Next Wave Of Communications Technologies
More than 2,000 communications professionals gathered at IEEE GLOBECOM 2009 held from 30 November – 4 December at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu, Hawaii to discuss the next wave of communications technologies that are converging worldwide to provide ever-growing access to home-friendly, on-demand and mobile technologies that are "increasing the quality-of-life and the ability to solve problems."
Themed "Riding the Wave to Global Connectivity" and hosted by the IEEE Communications Society (IEEE ComSoc), the leading worldwide professional organization dedicated to the advancement of communications technologies, IEEE GLOBECOM 2009 keynote speakers and panelists continually agreed that "quality alone is no longer sufficient for satisfying today and tomorrow's end-users." Among these executives was Matt Bross, global CTO of Huawei Technologies, who noted that "the power of technology is now shifting to the people in an environment where today's innovations must empower socially-responsible and simple-to-use learning tools in order to achieve sustainable futures."
Additional event forums further elaborated on this theme while citing statistics which estimated that 30 percent of the world's economy was tied to the Internet and that anywhere from 20 to 25 percent of the global population had access to its services. However, despite the realization of these staggering numbers, many other leading executives addressed the need for greater industry social responsibility and the increased humanitarian uses of technology at a time when "nearly two billion people lack access to computers or any form of communications," "500 million others live without reliable forms of electricity" and "less than 15 percent of all technologies are recycled properly."
As a result, several IEEE GLOBECOM 2009 sessions discussed the greening of Information & Communications Technology (ICT) operations that already consume an estimated six to 10 percent of the world's energy. This included the presentations of IEEE ComSoc members and researchers who are actively involved with the advanced development of best practices designed to help industries worldwide minimize energy consumption, maximize energy efficiencies, recycle electronics properly and eliminate the use of toxic substances that are currently used in many computer products.
Other humanitarian workshops held throughout the conference also defined the efforts of organization members to create informational ecosystems that will help global communities to quickly and readily retrieve and analyze information from multiple sources and then use that data to prepare responses that will save lives and reduce injuries. Specific presentations in relation to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) initiative were made by representatives of the Fire Department of New York City and the United States Coast Guard. Similar presentations also discussed efforts to create early warning earthquake systems in Japan and supply Third World nations with sustainable forms of electronic information and even electricity.
According to David Belanger, chief scientist & vice president at AT&T Labs, "Telecommunications is no longer about just the wires and devices, but the cumulative value of the things that the network delivers for customers. It is about making tremendous amounts of data accessible and easy to use for billions of end users. The best and leading products and services will be those that are completely transparent and offer the most value to the quality-of-life in real-time."
"We are undergoing huge transitions in the way human beings behave and communicate," added Joe Burton, vice president and CTO of Unified Communications at Cisco. "Our business and personal lives are rapidly expanding from small work and social groups to global communities composed of hundreds and even thousands of members. Everyone with access to the Internet now has the opportunity to be both a content provider and problem solver. Among the many challenges now confronting us is the ability to comfortably access all the rich data that is so horribly organized across so many different sources."
Themed "Moving Into the Age of Mobile Interactivity," IEEE GLOBECOM 2010 will continue this discussion with the presentation of hundreds of workshops, keynotes, panels and technical sessions during its next annual meeting to be held in Miami, Florida from 6 – 10 December. All interested parties are urged to visit www.ieee-globecom.org/2010 for additional information including paper submission guidelines.
IEEE GLOBECOM is one of the flagship events of the IEEE Communications Society. Each year, thousands of leading researchers, professionals and academia converge at the conference to discuss the latest advances in wired, wireless, broadband, voice, data, image and multimedia communications. Common topics explored throughout the event range from the tracking of cyber attackers, broadband video networking and the evolution of 4G wireless to telecommunications infrastructure protection, intelligent vehicle networking, green communications and humanitarian communications.
About The IEEE Communications Society
The IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc), with over 40,000 members worldwide, is a global community comprised of a diverse group of industry and academia professionals with a common interest in advancing all communications technologies. To that end, the Society sponsors publications, conferences, certification, educational programs, local activities, and technical committees, as well as standardization projects in communications and networking.
SOURCE: IEEE Communications Society