DIGITAL OR DEAD - Experts at IT Forum discuss the issues and offer solutions: 'The key to moder

This is an article on our activity published in Jutarnji list, Croatia.

According to the Global IT Report 2016, Croatia is positioned 54th among 139 countries, which is worse than the previous five years, as stressed by Velimir Srića, a regular member of European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and President of ELITE. In his introductory presentation, he set out a key proposal for the newly appointed Croatian government: „Engage in reforms, reforms, and more reforms“.

The Third Forum on information technology as a key foundation of modern business and society, titled "Digital or Dead" was organized by European Academy of Sciences and Arts and it was hosted by the Croatian Lexicographic Institute. Many regional experts in the field participated, and the numerous audience was fighting for empty seats.

Computer revolution has just started. Digital transformation has turned the global market into a unique system with 3.5 billion Internet users in which everybody can exchange goods and services with everybody in real time, and the humanity is faced with enormous challenges. Mobile phones, cloud computing, robotics, artificial intelligence, Internet of things, Big Data and social networks. All of that urges us to build digital transformation into every company's and every institution's DNA if we want to have a future as entrepreneurs, managers, workers, politicians or individuals. In a highly interactive discussion the Forum participants have emphasized the problems and issues associated with the impact of Digital Transformation on European and Croatian economy and society.

- We live in the world of Big Data. According to researchers, there were six zettabytes of data already in 2014, with an annual growth rate of 30% - as stressed by Velimir Srića. He added that in the near future, most routine tasks (like hotel receptionist, bank teller, even a research lawyer) will be performed by robots, and only highly specialized jobs will be open to humans.

- The Japanese are already preparing a robot bank teller for the Olympics 2020 in Tokyo. The robot will replace human operators because there are not enough people able to speak foreign languages and interact with different cultures in banks and other public services. Based on such trends, as stressed by Srića, the new Croatian government has a lot of work to do and initiate many reforms, in order for Croatia to be better positioned in the next Global IT Report.

Srića's ideas and comments were supported by Ivan Vidaković, the regional director of Microsoft.

- We need an educational reform because most of what students learn at universities is not very useful in everyday business life. Whenever we hire new people at Microsoft, we have to train them ourselves, he said.

Krešimir Ćosić, a professor of electrotechnics also put stress on the need for educational reform.

- The essence of modern education is to teach student not what to think but how to think, and such approaches are lacking. In his opinion, there is too much stress on „the digital“, and to little on interdisciplinarity which is the key problem.

Other Forum speakers were Slavko Vidović, the founder and CEO of Infodom, Mehmed Akšamija, a member Academy of Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Krešimir Lugarić, the founder of Internet institute.