TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsFocus on people to build smart communities, cities
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
The application of the internet of things (IoT) has become a mainstay of contemporary life. With the constant obsession over “smart” — everything, we seem to be on the precipice of a utopia of digitally — assisted living. (Shutterstock/File)
P
eople are talking about industry 4.0 and 5.0, but in these efforts to build a smart digital environment, there is a serious lack of attention to those on the ground, or to measures for improving the lives of the poor and destitute.
Even with the recent adoption of the ASEAN Smart Cities Framework by ASEAN leaders in Singapore, with its promise “that no one is left behind”, the focus is mainly on the “urban centers”.
Meanwhile, at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Papua New Guinea Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad warned that the transition from old to new technology was causing disruptions that would make skilled and unskilled workers less important and irrelevant in the work force.
Half the world’s population are not connected to the internet and will not necessarily benefit from these digital innovations.
