Blockchain Applications and Trends That Promote Information Management

Introduction

Digital revolution and innovation have fundamentally transformed and changed human development and civilizations worldwide. Technological applications have enhanced sustainable development and social transformation of human lives in the society. Digital disruptions have empowered people, women, girls and marginalized communities with new business prospects and capabilities that engage with governments together with public and private sectors. Blockchain-based have continued to influence multiple sectors, industries, professions and organizations. Digital blockchains are applied in business, health, science, information, education, culture and justice. This chapter investigates blockchain practices and trends that nurture and promote information management in organizations. The purpose is to demonstrate the extent to which blockchain-based applications and innovations are shaping and promoting information management practices with new prospects and better futures. Objectives include:

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  Exploring thinking priorities that information management professionals in organizations advance towards blockchain practices;

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  Determining practical applications of blockchain practices that should form the priority for information management professionals;

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  Postulating strategies and solutions to enhance the success of blockchain technology in information organizations.

Background

Digital industrial revolution has transformed and advanced human development values and prospects across the world. Modern humanity values and social transformation are advanced with digital innovations and trends that promote unit of purpose, togetherness and inclusion through artificial intelligence systems and blockchain platforms. In equal measure, the fourth industrial revolution is critical to sustainable development goals (SDGs), transformative agenda nine (9) whose fundamental purpose is to build resilient infrastructure including information communication technology (ICT), promote industry and foster innovation for socio-economic development and growth (United Nations Development Programme, 2016). Digital innovations and applications have empowered people to deliver positive dividends and results in the society. According to Gauri (2019), first, the fourth industrial revolution gave birth to the fifth industrial revolution that brings development focus back to humanity with artificial intelligence, blockchains and robots. Second, the industry 5.0 applies digital innovations to align humans with decent investment returns, create meaningful jobs, build communities and preserve the environment. Third, the fifth industrial revolution enhances humanity and communities with sustainable development goals and practices. Industry 5.0 is about sustainable innovations, applications and best practices that foster human values. The fifth digital evolution enhances inclusion, collaboration, better practices and professional ethics to advance humanity and development. The fourth industrial revolution laid the foundation of innovations with digitization, artificial intelligence systems, data management analytics and automated solutions. The third digital revolution introduced electronic and information technology in mass production and management of goods. The second industrial revolution applied electricity while the first digital evolution invented the steam engine.

Fifth and fourth industrial revolutions hold the transformative agenda of the digital economy whose implications are critical in sustainable development practices. Technology and innovation are critical pathways to digital development and applications in the society. Emergence of novel and powerful digital technologies, digital platforms and digital infrastructures has transformed innovation and entrepreneurship in organizations with broader implications for value creation and value capture (Nambisana et al., 2019). Importantly, the infusion and growth of information communication technology in the last decade has provided many opportunities to overcome some of the challenges faced many sectors of the economy including agriculture, where digital developments have provided stakeholders with some key tools and technologies to improve production and marketing processes, thereby, facilitating and encouraging increased creative use of mobile-broadband access devices, the Internet of Things (IoT), drones, smart networks, capacity for big data analytics, and artificial intelligence (Sylvester, 2019).