15,000 digital jobs for Scotland. That's how many jobs The Scottish government is predicting will be created as part of its investment in the country's broadband infrastructure over the next few years.
(See this article form the BBC about it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-19874173)
But hold on one minute, lets not put our faith in fast Internet connectivity to stimulate jobs here in Scotland. Lets take a moment to remember that broadband Internet might not be the employment panacea the government is predicting,
Sure, in many ways the Internet has been an engine of growth and created many new companies and roles. In fact it has created whole new industries and economies.
But it is also responsible for disrupting entire markets. For example, it has brought the newspaper and wider publishing industry to its knees. It's changed lead generation across numerous industries such as travel, effectively pushing a lot of agents into harder and more niche roles. And lets not even mention the decimation of the local consumer electronics, books or music store....
Sure, there are plenty of successful examples of new and old economy companies making a success of online... And I'm personally hoping that this significant increase in bandwidth both opens up more remote communities as well as providing a greater customer base for Scottish ecommerce...
But lets just hold on and wait for the economic benefits of fast broadband before promising them.
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