Mobinomics

Mobinomics is a recently coined term which refers to a new order of economics which is emerging as a consequence of ubiquitous mobility. According to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, “We are in the age of mobility where people will move across borders in ever-greater numbers. In their pursuit of opportunity and a better life, they have the potential to chip away at the vast inequalities that characterize our time — and accelerate progress throughout the developing world."

This mobility is enabled by new telecommunication, information and transport technologies and is having a profound effect on global and local economic activity. Ultimately, the ideal vision of telecommunications espoused by Colin Cherry in 1958, that "the ultimate purpose of the telecommunication network is to change the geometry of the world” is indeed showing signs of manifestation at the level of economic activity:

• Work now gets done where it can be done most effectively & efficiently

• Developing countries gross domestic product is positively impacted by the availability of mobile telephony networks.

In the context of a scarcity of natural oil and gas resources to facilitate physical transport, the transition away from fossil energy sources will drive the need for new energy systems and virtual mobility concepts from an economic perspective. Virtual mobility will offer the possibility to appear anywhere you want to be, regardless of whether you are projected in real life or travel in virtual parallel worlds.