Of all the methods of communication invented by humanity over the centuries, none has disseminated so much information so widely at such high speeds as the internet. It is both a unifying force and a globalising one. But, as this report has argued, its very ubiquity makes it a localising one too, because it is clearly not the same everywhere, either in what it provides or how it is operated and regulated.

The smartphone has liberated its user from the PC on his desk, granting him access on the go not just to remote computers and long-lost friends on the other side of the world but also to the places around him. If he lives in a city, as most users do, then his fellow city-dwellers and the buildings, cars and streets around them are throwing off almost unimaginable quantities of valuable data from which he will benefit. And although communications across continents have become cheap and easy, physical proximity to others remains important in creating new ideas and products-especially (and perhaps ironically) for companies offering online services. You cannot (yet) have a coffee together online.

This simultaneously more localised and more globalised world will be more complicated than the world of […]