Arctic: Cultural Identity, Technology, Values

Digital networks have vastly increased the speed at which it is possible to communicate, providing real and tangible benefits to power users. Communications, information and assets exchanges, commerce and many other activities have increased their own potentials using such networks. The rise of the Internet has triggered the development of new skills, as well as new job opportunities, new services and new enterprises, all pillars of the so-called e-economy, an economy based largely on intangible goods (which sometimes even disappear completely, as in the case of investors that have lost their capital) but not limited to them because, thanks to the recent trend termed ”Makers”, the delivery of tangible goods is now feasible. This is one of the effects of the global inter-communication in the digital era. Moreover software tools are unleashing everyday creativity no regards about citizenship, language, gender or census. This is not enough; the digital era has broken geographical barriers. In 1990 on the occasion of a conference devoted to urban mobility and pollution I wrote a paper entitled “Telecomunicando (Telecommunicate)” stressing the idea that thanks to telecommunication a large number of tasks may be performed remotely. It is not by chance that northern countries use to have the best telecommunication networks. Activities based on digital data may be performed anywhere, anytime. Bit-streams may run over the network and reach destination almost instantaneously. From an ontological point of view, we are dealing with a new class of objects. Digital information and its related technologies have the potential to make a huge impact on culture and society. Everything that can be turned into digital format may be replicated perfectly almost at zero cost and broadcasted worldwide over the network in real-time. Such a revolution may involve both content and services and a number of new professional areas. Thanks to information networks remote or severe climate areas may find out models of stable social economic development that will provide production growth and guarantee modern living standards to the Arctic inhabitants and at the same time minimize the threat to the local and global ecosystem. The starting point of this development can be traced back to 1994, and right now its growth is more than doubling every year. This progression will create an enormous gap between wired and unwired people/regions in just a few years time. The growth of the Internet is important, and users are developing new market models every day. Even if this seems to be mainly an infrastructural issue, there are many possible solutions that can be used to bridge the gap. Wireless networks on the earth or those based on satellites represent one possible solution. In such a situation the gap might provide an opportunity to skip some “technological generations. In industrialised countries even if characterised by severe climate, the digital era can be considered to be an incredible opportunity to stimulate new initiatives, create new working and business models, provide jobs for young, old and even retired people, and to bridge gaps in education and training by transferring knowledge in a more efficient way thanks to technology. We need to adequately consider these problems as we launch and develop the e-society. In addition, a number of new and emerging professional profiles have arisen or will arise due to the advent of e-society. Some of these were or will be created from scratch, while others have evolved or will evolve from traditional skills. Thanks to digital technology we can fully document and preserve traditional knowledge and skills, virtual reality and robotized devices may even store handicraft skills. The already mentioned 3D printers used by “makers” may materialise traditional objects all-over the world almost in real time. However, network-based services may not be of any use if end-users are unable to access the information. Access to archives, cultural services, educational and training services need to be provided in e-format because of the added value but we must also ensure that this added value can be exploited by end-users. That means many time to improve capacity building initiative all over the specific region or area.