World Digital Economy - E-Government, E-Health and E-Education Transforming Services

• Publication date: November 2012
• Report size: 168 pages

Vital services depend on internetThe latest annual publication by BuddeComm titled: Global Digital Economy – E-Government, E-Heath and E-Education provides key global insights and statistics for these increasingly important sectors which are becoming vital in society. After some five years of public debate on the national broadband network it is heartening to see that more and more people are getting the message that the network means mo...

Vital services depend on internetThe latest annual publication by BuddeComm titled: Global Digital Economy – E-Government, E-Heath and E-Education provides key global insights and statistics for these increasingly important sectors which are becoming vital in society.

After some five years of public debate on the national broadband network it is heartening to see that more and more people are getting the message that the network means more than just fast internet access. Increasingly key decision-makers in business and government are reaching an understanding of the transformation that is underway in the economy and the importance of developments in e-health, e-government and e-education to society.

Progress in e-education is moving at an enormous pace and already some schools are limiting the number of printed text books – some are going totally e-book. With over a million children now with laptops it is only a matter of time before the education system switches over. The savings in books and other printed material alone will pay for this digital revolution. South Korean schools will be entirely e-book-based by 2015.

Changes in e-health are following the same path, with electronic patient records slowly being introduced and health insurance schemes starting to refund e-health services. This will be a user-driven development as it is more likely that the users will be able to adapt to e-health much faster than the healthcare system can deliver it.

This will clear the way for a whole new e-health industry, worth billions of dollars. One only has to look at some of the e-heath systems linked to the high-end private hospitals in the USA to see what is in store. They use their e-health facilities as a major marketing tool to attract customers, not just to the actual hospital, but to all of the other facilities around it. The add-on revenues are significant.

Many e-government services on offer around the world already provide citizens with relatively sophisticated services and the establishment of a fibre-based broadband network may see governments improve and broaden the range of web services even further. In addition, mobile services are being incorporated in service offerings and cloud computing is becoming integrated. The Internet of Things (IoT) and M2M will also impact upon this sector.
Those who are still talking about broadband as an end in itself; do not understand the situation. Broadband is simply the tool that will further enable and advance the digital economy.

It is also important that governance of the Internet is carefully considered and net neutrality maintained. The debate about the control of the internet is intensifying, with interesting discussions in December 2012 in Dubai at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) organised by the ITU, which BuddeComm has provided analyses on in this annual publication.

The exciting developments occurring in the video-based and television broadcasting sector as well as tele-presence will also impact upon these important emerging social services. This report aims to capture the key trends occurring in e-health, e-government and e-education on a global level and also provides valuable insights into the regional developments.


Market Highlights

In 2012 the Internet Economy was worth around $2.5 trillion across the G-20 economies;
In June 2011 the OECD highlighted that the strength and dynamism of the Internet depends on its ease of access to high speed networks, openness, and on user confidence;
It is becoming recognised that the importance of internet infrastructure goes far beyond trivial entertainment purposes and it is actually a national utility that delivers important social and economic benefits beyond telco profits;
Maintaining net neutrality is important to the progress and innovation of these valuable social services;
The education sector is shaping up as a leader in the rapidly evolving digital society. Large numbers of schools and institutions have embarked on tele-education extensions to their curriculum. Some are perhaps not particularly high-tech but, in general, great beginnings have been made;
E-health and m-health in particular is an example of how broadband is important for social reasons beyond Internet access, especially in the developing markets of the world;
The Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region as a whole shows a large variety of e-health initiatives, particularly in the area of long-distance medicine, to promote health care in remote areas;
The Internet holds the potential to bring vast improvements in key areas where Africa lags behind most of the rest of the world: government, health and education;
South Korea has consistently ranked in the top ten of the United Nations Global E-Government Survey;
Access to e-services in the Middle East is improving due to improved broadband access in terms of speeds, cost and availability. Much of the growth in recent years has been underpinned by mobile broadband;
The Australian Government is a leader in strategic trans-sector thinking, linking e-health developments to the National Broadband Network;European governments have put in place various mechanisms to exploit the region’s fixed-line and mobile broadband infrastructure to enable citizens to interact with a number of government agencies.Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year.

E-government Industry in South Korea

1. Internet is Important to Society and Economy
1.1 The Essential Internet Economy
1.1.1 The issue is the digital economy, not broadband
1.1.2 Infrastructure essential for the digital economy
1.1.3 Can we fast-track the digital economy?
1.1.4 The emergence of mega-communities
1.1.5 Key sectors for the digital economy
1.1.6 Key requirements of the digital economy
1.1.7 Conclusion: digital economy services
1.2 The Future of the Internet
1.2.1 Is the future of the internet at risk?
1.2.2 Is the WCIT indeed wicked?- Analysis late 2012
1.2.3 Net neutrality
1.2.4 Interests at play
1.2.5 Telcos cannot wind back the clock
1.2.6 How to move forward?
1.2.7 Vindication from the OECD
2. E-Government Trends and Insights
2.1 Global E-Government Market Overview and Statistics
2.1.1 Market summary
2.1.2 Market insights
2.1.3 Published studies
3. E-Health Trends and Insights
3.1 Global E-Health Market Overview and Statistics
3.1.1 Healthcare – next sector on the block for e-transformation
3.1.2 Market summary
3.1.3 E-health in the context of BuddeComm research
3.1.4 Key market directions
3.1.5 Privacy and security a key concern
3.1.6 Examples of projects and applications
3.1.7 Case studies
3.1.8 Conclusion: There simply is no alternative to e-health
4. E-Education Trends and Insights
4.1 Global E-Education Market Overview and Statistics
4.1.1 Market summary
4.1.2 What is happening with e-education?
4.1.3 Tele-education – the quiet achiever
4.1.4 Market Insights
4.1.5 Digital education approaching reality
5. E-Security and E-Governance Trends and Insights
5.1 Global E-Security Overview
5.1.1 E-security and e-governance
5.1.2 E-security and key e-services
5.1.3 Recent developments
5.2 Global Net Neutrality Overview
5.2.1 Introduction
5.2.2 Network neutrality – a global issue
5.2.3 Carriers in competition with content providers
5.2.4 Network neutrality and non-discrimination
5.2.5 Recent developments
5.2.6 Case study: USA
5.2.7 In the global context
6. Towards a Future of Smart Cities, Buildings and Communities
6.1 Smart Communities Overview
6.1.1 Introduction
6.1.2 Building smart cities to ease the stress
7. Regional Overviews
7.1 North America
7.1.1 Smart cities overview
7.2 Latin America
7.2.1 Overview
7.2.2 E-Health
7.2.3 E-Education
7.2.4 E-Government
7.3 Europe
7.3.1 European e-Health Overview
7.3.2 Europe’s facilitating infrastructure
7.3.3 EC support for infrastructure
7.3.4 E-Government initiatives
7.3.5 E-Health initiatives
7.3.6 E-education initiatives
7.3.7 Europe - Smart Cities
7.4 Africa
7.4.1 Regional insights - Africa
7.5 Middle East
7.5.1 Overview
7.5.2 E-Government
7.5.3 E-Education
7.5.4 E-Health
7.6 Asia
7.6.1 Singapore
7.6.2 Malaysia
7.6.3 Pakistan
7.6.4 Philippines
7.6.5 Indonesia
7.6.6 South Korea
7.6.7 China
7.6.8 Mongolia
7.6.9 Japan
7.7 Pacific Region
7.7.1 Australia
7.7.2 New Zealand
7.7.3 South Pacific
8. Glossary of Abbreviations
Table 1 – Worldwide connected devices - 2011; 2020
Table 2 – Global e-commerce spending – 2011 - 2013
Table 3 – Visitors to top fifteen web properties worldwide – June 2010; March 2011
Table 4 – Worldwide Internet users – 2000 - 2012
Table 5 – Global investment in e-government – 2010 - 2016
Table 6 – EIU digital economy ranking – top 15 countries – 2010
Table 7 – EIU e-readiness ranking – top 15 countries – 2009
Table 8 – Waseda University e-government ranking – top 10 countries – 2010; 2011
Table 9 – Brookings Institution – highest e-government rankings – 2008
Table 10 – Spending on healthcare as a percentage of GDP – selected countries – 2009
Table 11 – Worldwide fixed broadband subscribers and annual change – 2005 - 2012
Table 12 – Worldwide - Top 10 countries by fixed broadband subscribers – 2008 - 2010
Table 13 – Regional - Share of broadband subscribers – Q1 2011
Table 14 – Worldwide e-learning and m-learning market value 2010; 2015
Table 15 – Worldwide IT security spending – 2011; 2012; 2016
Table 16 – Visitors to top web properties worldwide – 2008; June 2009; May 2011
Table 17 – Latin America - fixed broadband subscribers and penetration – 2001 - 2012
Table 18 – E-learning user market volume in South Korea – 2004 - 2008
Table 19 – Overview of e-government rankings in selected South Pacific countries – 2012
Chart 1 – Worldwide market share of M2M connections – 2011; 2020
Chart 2 – Worldwide Internet users – 2000 - 2012
Exhibit 1 – Digital economy – key developments
Exhibit 2 – Popular online activities
Exhibit 3 – European Commission e-commerce five priorities - 2012
Exhibit 4 – Online retail market - regional overview
Exhibit 5 – Examples of popular online retail websites around the world
Exhibit 6 – Security still a key issue
Exhibit 7 – Faster broadband speeds offer more than just fast internet
Exhibit 8 – Explanation – optical fibre
Exhibit 9 – Selected examples of countries with planned ICT infrastructure investment
Exhibit 10 – Implications of ending net neutrality
Exhibit 11 – Definition: E-Government
Exhibit 12 – Examples of Web 2.0 tools available to governments
Exhibit 13 – Examples of common web based e-government applications
Exhibit 14 – Faster broadband speeds offer more than just fast internet
Exhibit 15 – Definition: Cloud computing
Exhibit 16 – Examples of key Cloud models
Exhibit 17 – Examples of government cloud projects
Exhibit 18 – United Nations e-government development ranking – top 20 countries – 2010; 2012
Exhibit 19 – The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) annual Digital Economy Rankings criteria
Exhibit 20 – Countries with low e-government presence
Exhibit 21 – Snapshot of health care spending around the world
Exhibit 22 – Broadband enabling better chronic disease management in Geelong Australia
Exhibit 23 – Video consultancy covered by Medicare
Exhibit 24 – Advantages of e-health
Exhibit 25 – Examples of popular health related websites
Exhibit 26 – Digital healthcare appointment systems
Exhibit 27 – Healthcare monitoring for the elderly
Exhibit 28 – Definition: Cloud computing
Exhibit 29 – BuddeComm insights
Exhibit 30 – E-Health project examples
Exhibit 31 – A shared vision of the future of education
Exhibit 32 – Advantages of e-learning
Exhibit 33 – Sample of e-learning ASP market participants
Exhibit 34 – South Korea: stimulating broadband by spending on e-education
Exhibit 35 – Popular Learning Management Systems (LMS)
Exhibit 36 – Connect To Learn
Exhibit 37 – iTunes U
Exhibit 38 – Examples of open source e-learning projects
Exhibit 39 – Net neutrality must remain
Exhibit 40 – Implications of ending net neutrality
Exhibit 41 – Norway a leader in net neutrality
Exhibit 42 – South Korea rankings in UN global e-government survey: 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012
Exhibit 43 – South Korea e-government stages: 1980s – present
Exhibit 44 – e-Mongolia programme – targets 2012; 2015