INFORMATION AGE
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A university computer lab containing many desktop PCs
The transition of communication technology: Oral Culture, Manuscript Culture, Print Culture, and Information Age
'Information Age' is a name given to the period after the industrial age. Information Age is applied to the period where information rapidly propagated, especially applying to the 1980s onward. Under conventional economic theory, the Information Age also heralded the era where information was a scarce resource and its capture and distribution generated competitive advantage. Microsoft became one of the largest companies in the world based on its influence in creating the underlying mechanics to facilitate information distribution. One could argue, though, that it actually began during the later half of the 19th century with the invention of the telephone and telegraphy. It is often used in conjunction with the term post-industrial society. When information ceased being scarce, the Knowledge Economy commenced. The Knowledge Economy started around 1992 and continued to approximately 2002. The current economic era is defined as the Intangible Economy. In the Intangible Economy, four factors of production - knowledge assets (what people know and put into use), collaboration assets (whom people interact with to create value), engagement assets (the level of energy and commitment of people), and time quality (how quickly value is created) are the four key resources from which economic activity and competitive advantage are primarily derived and delivered today. It is helpful to understand that Google is now a serious competitor to Microsoft as it relies on Intangible Economy principles to run its operations.
Early Information Age
In 1837 Samuel Morse created a device which converted physical movement into electrical impulses that could travel over large distances. In 1844, telegraphy was used to transmit data along an experimental telegraph line from Washington, DC to Baltimore, Maryland. Slightly more than twenty years later, the first telegraph cables were stretched across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1858, but failed to stay in operation; however, uninterrupted service began in 1866.
This invention set off a stream of devices used for the processing of information, the typewriter, the mechanical calculator, and finally, the telephone in 1876. "Informationalization" of previous devices occurred, such as the steam organ.
The ability to distribute large runs of printed material had created the means for information transmission to change economic and social behavior. Telephones and ticker tape machines would be part of the infrastructure for the growth of stock markets, as well as the ability to trade precious metals, such as gold. It was the telegraph that allowed the news of Krakatoa's explosive eruption to spread around the world rapidly.
Recording added a new means of distribution; namely that of sound. However, the distribution was either person to person, as in the telegraph, or through the distribution of a physical object. Since physical objects cannot be transported as quickly as electrical signals, the next stage of information technology was to be able to transmit pure information, as the telegraph did, but with mass reception.
Broadcasting
The information technologies of the 19th century allowed faster and wider dissemination of information than previously possible. However, ultimately such information had to be reduced to the same form which had been the final form for centuries: paper, whose analogs go back to stone and clay tablets. With the development of what was called wireless transmission, when combined with the ability to transmit voice and sound from the telephone, and recording technology, a new medium began to be born, which placed a different final result in the hands of the individual. These technologies would eventually become radio.
Television followed, allowing video to be displayed with sound. While radio brought the world's events to our homes, it was television that brought the first pictures of the world to many people. TVs were first used as a way to get information and news from other places, but quickly became a very important entertainment device, as well as a useful tool for learning. Unlike radio, television brought with it a whole new industry of content delivery, mainly Cable television providers. Not only were stations producing and broadcasting their own shows, but the broadcasting industry allowed homes to receive more and more channels. With the later advances in technology, direct services such as cable and satellite television provided increasingly diverse amounts of content.
Information technology
With recording technologies, transmission, and with early computers, it didn't take very long for scientific advances to merge together into the new field of Information Technology. Information technology is the use of technology to enhance the speed and the efficiency of the transfer of information.
The information age continues to this day, and technological advances such as mobile phones, high speed connections, Voice Over IP have changed lifestyles around the world and spawned new industries around controlling and providing information.
The Personal Computer
At first, computers were big, costly, and available only to universities and big corporations. Before the 1990s, most discoveries in information technology were driven by full time researchers having access to the high priced equipment.
In the 1980s however, small computers started to become available. A personal computer or PC is generally a microcomputer intended to be used by one person at a time, and suitable for general purpose tasks such as word processing, programming, editing or playing a personal computer game, and is usually used to run purchased or other software not written by the user. Unlike minicomputers, a personal computer is often owned by the person using it, indicating a low cost of purchase and simplicity of operation. The user of a modern personal computer may have significant knowledge of the operating environment and application programs, but is not necessarily interested in programming nor even able to write programs for the computer.
The term PC was popularized by Apple Computer and soon after many other companies began offering personal computers. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) developed the first open standard Personal Computer (IBM PC launched in US markets in 1981, the first deliveries to European markets were in 1982 and 1983), which standardized the software development. For the first time in the world history we had PC's that used the similar operating systems that allowed the computers' users to communicate by using the same platform.
Soon after, we saw the birth of what we know as current information technology: personal computers in our own homes, using communication devices known as modems, to access information on remote servers. The first incarnation of those were BBS servers, setup by education facilities or even individual people, to store both information and allow discussion with chat and messages.
The Internet
The Internet was originally conceived as a distributed, fail-proof network that could connect computers together and be resistant to any point of failure. It was created mainly by DARPA; its initial software applications were email and computer file transfer.
With the invention of the World Wide Web in 1989, the Internet really took off as a global network. Now, the Internet is the ultimate place to accelerate the flow of relevant information. [1]
Digital Revolution
The Digital Revolution is a recent term describing the effects of the rapid drop in cost and rapid expansion of power of digital devices such as computers and telecommunications (e.g mobile phones). It includes changes in technology and society, and is often specifically used to refer to the controversies that occur as these technologies are widely adopted.
Technological breakthroughs have revolutionized communications and the spread of information. In 1875, for example, the invention of the telephone breached distance through sound. Between 1910 and 1920, the first AM radio stations began to broadcast sound. By the 1940s television was broadcasting both sound and visuals to a vast public. In 1943, the world's first electronic computer was created. However, it was only with the invention of the microprocessor in the 1970s that computers became accessible to the public. In the 1990s, the Internet migrated from universities and research institutions to corporate headquarters and homes.
All of these technologies deal with information storage and transmission. However, the one characteristic of computer technology that sets it apart from earlier analog technologies is that it is digital. Analogue signals work by having a signal (usually electric) where the voltage is proportional to some variable. Digital technology however converts everything into binary values that are either 0 or 1. This is the "universal language" of nearly every modern device.
To use an analogy, a digital world is a world united by one language, a world where people from across continents share ideas with one another and work together to build projects and ideas. More voluminous and accurate information is accumulated and generated, and distributed in a twinkling to an audience that understands exactly what is said. This in turn allows the recipients of the information to use it for their own purposes, to create ideas and to redistribute more ideas. The result is progress. Take this scenario to a technological levelâall kinds of computers, equipment and appliances interconnected and functioning as one unit. Even today, we see telephones exchanging information with computers, and computers playing compressed audio data files or live audio data streams that play music over the Internet like radios. Computers can play movies and tune in to television. Some modern homes allow a person to control central lighting and air-conditioning through computers. These are just some of the features of a digital world.
''Box 1. Wearable Computer Systems''
''Source'': MIT Media Lab Affective Computing Research Group, âWearable Computer Systems for Affective Computingâ [home page on-line]; available from http://affect.media.mit.edu/AC_research/wearables.html;accessed 28 August 2002.
Information and Communications Technology
Information and Communications Technology in the United Kingdom education system refers to a broad field encompassing computers, communications equipment and the services associated with them. It includes the telephone, cellular networks, satellite communication, broadcasting media and other forms of communication. ICT is therefore fairly synonymous with Information Technology, however ICT is a subject interested in studying the information age, where as Information Technology is more the cause of the Information Age.
Digital and ICT revolution
The digital and ICT revolutions are twin revolutions. To understand their relationship, let us look at the history of voice telephony. According to Robert W. Lucky, "The crux of [Alexander Graham] Bellâs invention of the telephone in 1875 was the use of analog transmission - the voltage impressed on the line was proportional to the sound pressure at the microphone".[2] The growth of the telephone was relatively slow; it was not until the 1920s that a national telephone network was established in the US. In the late 1940s, an alternative to analog transmission of voice was considered with pulse-code modulation (an encoded signal of pulses). This marked the start of digitization in telecommunications.
However, it was only in 1961 that the first digital carrier system was installed. Digitization meant the widespread replacement of telephone operators with digital switches. In 1971 the first fiber optic cables suitable for communications were made, leading to efforts to send communications signals via light waves. (Light wave transmission systems are inherently digital.) By about 1989, "ones and zeros" had become the language of telephone networks in the U.S. Digitization was a critical development because with digital transmission "noise and distortion were not allowed to accumulate, since the ones and zeros could be regularly restored (i.e., regenerated) by a succession of repeater sites along the transmission line".[3] The outcome was clearer communications over longer distances at lower costs.
Today, voice is translated into data packets, sent over networks to remote locations, sometimes thousands of kilometers away, and, upon receipt, translated back to voice. Even television is not immune to digitization. In the near future, television signals and television sets will be digital. It will also be possible to use the television to surf the Internet. The digital TV will allow people from different locations to chat with each other while watching a program. With everything becoming digital, television, voice telephony, and the Internet can use similar networks. The transmission of hitherto different services (telephony, television, internet) via the same digital network is also known as convergence.
Cairncross observes that once the infrastructure and the hardware, be it a computer or a telephone or another device, have been set in place, the cost of communications and information exchange will be virtually zero. Distance will no longer decide the cost of communicating electronically.[4] This explains why, for example, a three-minute transatlantic call that costs $0.84 today would probably have cost nearly $800 in todayâs money 50 years ago!
''Box 2: Enter the Communication Satellite''
''Source'': Walter LaFeber, Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism (New York: Norton & Company, 1999), 69-71.
Characteristics of digital technology
''Media Integrity''. Data stored in analog formats cannot be reproduced without degradation. The more copies made, the worse the copies get. Digital data, on the other hand, do not suffer such deterioration with reproduction.[5] For instance, movies, videos, music and audio files in digital format can be copied and distributed with a quality that is as good as the original.
''Media Integration''. One of the major limitations of many conventional technologies is their inability to combine media types. Telephones, for example, can send and receive only sound. Similarly, you canât watch television and expect a character to answer a question you pose. However, with digital data, it is easy to combine media.[6] Thus, phones with video, or interactive sound with pictures, become possible. Hence the term multimedia.
''Flexible Interaction''. The digital domain supports a great variety of interactions, including one-on-one conferences, one-to-many broadcasts, and everything in between. In addition, these interactions can be synchronous and in real time.[7]
''Transactions''. The ability to combine the transactional capability of computers and computer networks with digital media is another interactive advantage of the digital domain. Placing an order and finalizing a transaction becomes as easy as filling in an electronic form and clicking a button. Movies-on-demand (where you pay for movies that you choose to watch on your TV screen) is just around the corner.
''Tailoring''. Software developed for digital communications and interaction is designed so that users may tailor their use of the tool and the media in a manner not possible with conventional analog technologies.[8]
''Editing''. The conventional alternatives for manipulating text, sound, images, and video are almost always more cumbersome or limited than the new digital tools. Years ago, Francis Ford Coppola said that the day would come when his young daughter will take a home video camera and make films that would win film awards. Coppolaâs prediction is fast becoming a reality. Computers with the right software and minimal hardware can do today what thousands of dollars worth of film and video editing equipment did in the past decades.
Internet
The Internet is a network of networks. It is a global set of connections of computers that enables the exchange of data, news and opinion. Aside from being a communications medium, the Internet has become a platform for new ways of doing business, a better way for governments to deliver public services and an enabler of lifelong learning.
Unlike the telephone, radio or television, the Internet is a many-to-many communication medium. John Gage argues thatâ
The Internet is not a thing, a place, a single technology, or a mode of governance: it is an agreement. In the language of those who build it, it is a protocol, a way of behaving. What is startling the world is the dramatic spread of this agreement, sweeping across all arenasâcommerce, communications, governanceâthat rely on the exchange of symbols.[9]
The Internet has become the fastest growing mass medium. In only four years the number of Internet users has reached 50 million. In contrast, it took radio 38 years, television 13 years and the PC 16 years to reach the same milestone. Despite its explosive growth, however, less than 10% of the global population is online.
The Internet, according to Lawrence Lessig, is an âinnovation commonsâ, a shared resource that enables the creation of new and/or innovative goods and services.[10]
The Internet can be likened to designer clay; its use is limited only by the imagination and skill of the designer. This unique characteristic is due to the fact that the Internet is designed using the end-to-end (e2e) principle. That is, the intelligence in the network is at the ends, and the main task of the network is to transmit data efficiently and flexibly between these ends.
Lessig identifies at least three important consequences of an e2e network on innovation. First, because applications run on computers at the edge of the network, innovators with new applications need only to connect their computers to the network to let their applications run. Second, because the design is not optimized for any particular existing application, the network is open to innovation not originally imagined. Third, because the design has a neutral platformâin the sense that the network owner canât discriminate against some packets and favor othersâthe network canât discriminate against a new innovatorâs design.
The Internet as an âinnovation commonsâ has made the transformation to the information age possible. As Christopher Coward notes,
Because of end-to-end, the Internet acts as a force for individual empowerment. It fosters entrepreneurship. And, as long as end-to-end is not violated, it is democratizing in the sense that it redistributes power from central authorities (governments and companies) to individuals. In the Internet Age, everyone can be a producer of content, create a new software application, or engage in global activities without the permission of a higher authority.[11]
Box 3:''The Earth Will Don an Electronic Skin''
''Source'': Neil Gross, âThe Earth Will Don an Electronic Skin,â in Businessweek Online (August 30, 1999); available from http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_35/b3644024.htm; accessed 28 August 2002.
Scalability
If, over the past 30 years, transportation technology had improved at the same rate as information technology with respect to size, cost, performance, and energy efficiency, then an automobile would be the size of a toaster, cost $200, go 100,000 miles per hour and travel 150,000 miles on a gallon of fuel.[12] Mooreâs Law and Metcalfeâs Law are insightful observations into the power of the personal computer and the Internet.
Moore's Law
Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, the chip making company, postulated that the computing power of a microchip doubles every 24 months. This means that the power of the computer chip keeps growing as its size shrinks. As the chip becomes smaller and more powerful without significant price increases, so does the personal computer. Many associate Mooreâs Law with the widespread availability of powerful PCs at constant (if not lower) prices. It was used as an explanation for the rapid changes in the PC industry, which in turn affected the whole economy.
Metcalfe's Law
Robert Metcalfe, co-inventor of the Ethernet, the local area networking (LAN) technology, observed that a networkâs value grows proportionately to the square of the number of users.
Internet time refers to the fact that with the Internet, more intensive activities are possible. Indeed, in business Internet time can be the source of competitiveness.
Mooreâs Law, Metcalfeâs Law and Internet time are pithy ways of expressing the dynamism that characterizes developments in the ICT sector and in the areas being transformed by ICT. Ed Lozowska best puts the rapid changes in the ICT sector in perspective:
Importance of technological revolutions
New technologies transform our lives âby inventing new, undreamed of things and making them in new, undreamed of waysâ, says the economist Richard Lipsey.[13]
Imagine what will happen when the cost of a long distance telephone call becomes as low as the cost of a local call? Or, when you can get a driving license at a time and place of your own choosing? Or, when you can bank from the comfort of your own living room? In some countries, ICT is already making these happen. Many believe that the current technological revolution may in time exceed the Industrial Revolution in terms of social significance.[14]
Lipsey, who studies the relationship between technological change and economic development, suggests that the introduction of new technologies can have the following effects on society[15]
★ Initial productivity slowdown and delayed productivity payoff from the new technologies
★ Destruction of human capital (as many old skills are no longer wanted)
★ Technological unemployment (temporary but serious)
★ Widening disparities in the distribution of income, which tends to be temporary until the supply of labor catches up to the new mix of skill requirements
★ Big changes in regional patterns of industrial location (globalization)
★ Big changes in required education
★ Big changes in infrastructure (e.g., the information highway)
★ Big changes in rules and regulations (intellectual property, antimonopoly, etc.)
★ Big changes in the way we live and interact with each other
Consequences of the digital and ICT revolutions
First, let us look at the effects of the digital revolution. James Beniger explains:
The progressive digitization of mass media and telecommunications content begins to blur earlier distinctions between the communication of information and its processingâŠ, as well as between people and machines. Digitization makes communications from persons to machines, between machines, and even from machines to persons as easy as it is between persons. Also blurred are the distinctions among information types: numbers, words, pictures, and sounds, and eventually tastes, odors, and possibly even sensations, all might one day be stored, processed, and communicated in the same digital format.[16]
On a societal level, the digital and ICT revolutions make possible better and cheaper access to knowledge and information. This speeds up transactions and processes and reduces their cost, which in turn benefit citizens and consumers.
The ability of ICTs to traverse time and distance allows human beings to interact with each other in new ways. Distance is no longer a consideration. As Giddens observes,
With the advent of the communications revolution, distance has a different relationship to self-immediacy and experience than it used to have. Distance isnât simply wiped out, but when you have a world where the value of the money in your pocket is affected immediately by ongoing electronic transactions happening many miles away itâs simply a different situation from how the world was in the past.[17]
Put another way, so what if two people are located in different time zones? They can still talk, negotiate, and make deals as though they were face to face. As the sociologist Manuel Castells has noted, âTechnological revolutions are all characterized by their pervasiveness, that is by their penetration of all domains of human activity, not as an exogenous source of impact, but as the fabric in which such activity is woven.â[18]
Technological determinism
The revolution will affect some countries earlier than it will others. For ICT to weave its magic, it must find a hospitable social and political environment. New technologies threaten existing power and economic relationships, and those that benefit from these old relationships put up barriers to the spread of the new technologies. Note, for example, how the music industry has resisted digital audio tapes and Napster. Moreover, laws can deter (or encourage) the spread of new technologies. For example, the lack of legal recognition for digital contracts and digital signatures is holding back electronic commerce.
Debora Spar states that âlife along the technological frontier moves through four distinct phases: innovation, commercialization, creative anarchy, and rules.â[19] While individualism and the absence of government are characteristics of the first three stages, governmentâwith its rule making and enforcing capabilityâis a key player in the fourth stage. This is because
The establishment of property rights is one of the most crucial events along the technological frontier. It allows the market to unfold in a predictable way, and gives pioneers a hefty dose of ownership and security. Most important, perhaps, the creation of property rights also marks the difference between pioneers and pirates, between those whose claim on the new technology is legitimate and those whose claim is not.[20]
It is important to remember that technology is shaped by society as much as it shapes society. Thus, those interested in harnessing the power of new technologies should help create the right environment for it to flourish.
Information, Knowledge and the New Economy
Information Economy
An information economy is where the productivity and competitiveness of units or agents in the economy (be they firms, regions or nations) depend mainly on their capacity to generate, process, and apply efficiently knowledge-based information.[21] It is also described as an economy where information is both the currency and the product.
While we have always relied on information exchange to do our jobs and run our lives, the information economy is different in that it can collect more relevant information at the appropriate time. Consequently, production in the information economy can be fine tuned in ways heretofore undreamed of. What makes information plentiful in this economy is the pervasive use of information and communications technology.
''Box 4'':''Banking without Boundaries''
''Source'': Lloyd Darlington âBanking Without Boundaries: How the banking industry is transforming itself for the digital ageâ in Don Tapscott, Alex Lowy and David Ticoll (eds.), Blueprint for the Digital Economy: Creating Wealth in the Era of e- Business (New York: McGraw Hill), 115.
The information economy is global. A historically new reality, the global economy has the capacity to work as a unit in real time on a planetary scale.[22]Corporations and firms now have a worldwide base for skilled labor to tap. Capital flows freely between countries, and countries can utilize this capital in real time.
However, some critics claim that a true global economy has yet to be achieved. Stephen Cohen observes that the mobility of labor is undermined by peopleâs xenophobia and stricter immigration laws. Multinational corporations still maintain their assets and strategic command centers in their home nations, and capital is still limited by banking and finance laws.
Castells, however, argues that even if globalization has not yet been fully realized, it will only be a matter of time before this happens. Globalization will be affected by government regulations and policies, which will affect international boundaries and the structure of the global economy.[23]
A second characteristic of the information economy is that it is highly productive. William Nordhaus of the US National Bureau of Economic Research states that:
Productivity growth in the new economy sectors has made a significant contribution to economy-wide productivity growth. In the business sector (between 1999 and 2001), labor-productivity growth excluding the new economy sectors was 2.24 percent per year as compared to 3.19 percent per year including the new economy. Of the 1.82 percentage point increase in labor-productivity growth in the last three years relative to the earlier period, 0.65 percentage point was due to the new economy sectors. The contribution of the new economy was slightly larger for well-measured output because that sector is smaller than the business economy.[24]
Some critics argue that there is no relationship between profitability and investment in ICT. Castells looks into the history of productivity growth in advanced market economies and observes a downward trend of productivity growth starting roughly around the time that the information technology revolution was taking shape in the early 1970s. According to him, this decline was particularly marked in all countries for serviced activities, where new information-processing devices could be thought to have increased productivity. However, manufacturing productivity presents a different picture. Manufacturing productivity in the US and Japan increased dramatically in 1988-1989 by an annual average of 3% and 4.1% respectively, and productivity increased at a faster pace than during the 1990s.[25] Castells concludes that economic statistics do not adequately capture the movements of the new information economy, precisely because of the broad scope of transformation under the impact of information technology and related organizational change. There may be a diffusion from information technology, manufacturing, telecommunications, and financial services into manufacturing services at large, and then into business services.
A third characteristic of the information economy is the change in the manner of obtaining profits. Robert Reich observes that profits in the old economy came from economies of scaleâlong runs of more or less identical products. Thus, we had factories, assembly lines, and industries. Now profits come from speed of innovation and the ability to attract and keep customers. Where before the winners were big corporations, now the winners are small, highly flexible groups that devise great ideas, develop trustworthy branding for themselves and their products, and market these effectively.[26] The winning competitors are those who are first at providing lower prices and higher value through intermediaries of trustworthy brands. But the winning is temporary, and the race is never over. Those in the lead cannot stop innovating lest they fall behind the competition.[27]
Knowledge and network economies
All these terms are used interchangeably, although the various concepts tend to emphasize different aspects of the phenomenonâlike âknowledgeâ instead of âinformationâ or ânetworkâ as opposed to ânewâ. Peter Drucker describes the information revolution as a knowledge revolution. The key, he says, is not electronics but cognitive science.[28] The software used for computers merely reorganizes traditional work, which had been based on experience. This is done through the application of knowledge, in particular systematic, logical analysis. Setting up an IT structure is not enough. To maintain leadership in the new economy, the social position of knowledge professionals and the social acceptance of their values should be guaranteed.
The knowledge economy is also a networked economy. The concept stresses the important role of links among individuals, groups and corporations in the new economy. It has been argued that networks have always been an ideal organizing tool due to their inherent flexibility and adaptability. However, traditional networks were not designed to coordinate functions beyond a certain size and complexity. This early limitation has been overcome with the introduction of ICTs, particularly the Internet, where the flexibility and adaptability of networks are brought to the fore, and their evolutionary nature is asserted.[29]
Coasian transactions
Nobel Laureate for Economics Ronald Coase noted that a firm tends to expand until âthe costs of organizing an extra transaction within the firm become equal to the costs of carrying out the same transaction on the open market.â[30] Coase also believed that the law of diminishing returns applies to firm size: Big firms are complicated and they find it hard to manage resources efficiently. Small companies often do things more cheaply than big ones. Therefore, if itâs cheaper to perform a transaction within a firm, it usually stays there. However, if itâs cheaper to go to the marketplace, then firms go to external suppliers. Thus, a car maker (like Toyota) will buy car batteries from a supplier rather than manufacture batteries in-house if it is easier to do so.
ICT reduces transaction costs significantly. Large and diverse groups of people can now more easily and more cheaply gain near real-time access to the information they need to make sound decisions and to coordinate complex activities.[31] Firms can now downsize to the point of producing their main competence and purchasing everything else they need from outside. Thus, instead of massive corporations, what are emerging are small highly focused corporations that farm out production to their allies. This is also known as network production.
''Box 5'':''Furiously Fast Fashions (excerpts)''
''Source'': Joanne Lee-Young and Megan Barnett, â Furiously Fast Fashions,â in The Software and Information Industry Association Trends Report 2001 [home page on-line]; available from http://www.trendsreport.net/software/young.html; accessed 28 August 2002.
E-commerce
The ICT revolution has transformed not only how (and where) goods are produced but also how commodities are exchanged. E-commerce is buying and selling over the Internet or any transaction concluded through an information network involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods or services. More precisely, it includes all business transactions that use electronic communications and digital information processing technology to create, transform and redefine relationships for value creation between organizations, and between organizations and individuals.
The different types of e-commerce are: business-to-business (B2B); business-toconsumer (B2C); business-to-government (B2G); consumer-to-consumer (C2C); and mobile commerce (m-commerce).
Impact on agriculture
Like the production and exchange of commodities, agriculture will also be transformed by ICT. ICTs will allow farmers to have more accurate information on the factors that are needed to increase crop yield. âPrecision farmingâ or farm management using ICTs will become the norm rather than the exception.
We can also expect better crops and livestock as a result of agricultural biotechnology. The term âbiotechnologyâ broadly includes âany technique that uses living organisms, or parts of such organisms, to make or modify products, to improve plants or animals, or to develop microorganisms for specific use.â[32]
The potential applications of modern biotechnology in agriculture are varied and promising. These include: (a) improved yield from crops; (b) reduced vulnerability of crops to environmental stresses; (c) increased nutritional qualities of food crops; (d) improved taste, texture or appearance of food; (e) reduced dependence on fertilizers, pesticides and other agrochemicals; and (f) production of novel substances in crop plants.
''Box 6'':''Farming Goes into Space''
''Source'': Craig Sutton and John Deere, âFarming Goes Into Space,â in The Software and Information Industry Association Trends Report 2001 [home page on-line]; available from http://www.trendsreport.net/software/deere.html; accessed 28 August 2002.
The information revolution will not eliminate farmers, just as the industrial revolution did not eliminate them. But farming methods will change yet again. More information will help farmers to irrigate only those areas that need water and provide for more effective use of fertilizers, among others. In addition, agricultural biotechnology genetically modifies plants and food sources to maximize their reproduction and nutritional value.
Aside from increased yield, faster communications and transactions and lower transportation costs also ensure more efficient delivery of farm inputs that lead to lower prices and better inventory.
Dot-com crash
Not at all. If we look at the history of technology and development, we will see that the dot-com bust is part of the normal pattern of events in any technological revolution.
The economist Joseph Schumpeter suggests that a technology revolution starts with the introduction of one or more technologies that enables the new cluster.
The new technology cluster, at first little noticed, achieves successes in early demonstrations. Technical people start small companies based on the new ideas. These new companies compete intensely in this early turbulent phase, when government regulation is largely absent, and as successes mount in a technical free-for-all environment. The promise of extraordinary profit looms. The public begins to speculate.
The middle phase sees a sustained build out or golden age of the technology, during which the technology becomes the engine of growth for the economy. Large companies and oligopolies reign, and the period is one of confidence and prosperity.
In the last phase, the technology matures. Technological possibilities are saturated, production moves to places on the periphery, and complacency sets in. Profits at home are low, and entrepreneurs start scouting for new opportunities. The economy becomes ripe for the next revolution.[33]
It was not the information economy that died with the dot-com crash. Only the hype died. The downturn in ICTs and the dot-com crash simply ended the first phase. We are now just entering the middle phase, the âsustained build out or golden age of the technologyâ.
New Work
Labor effects
Jeremy Rifkin suggests that the rise of productivity as a consequence of ICT deployment affects the amount of time worked in two ways.[34] First, labor and time saving technologies have allowed companies to eliminate and dismiss workers en masse. Second, those who manage to hold their jobs are made to work longer hours. For firms a smaller workforce means saving on the cost of providing benefits such as health care.
But the history of the industrial revolution suggests that workers will not disappear; only particular kinds of workers will. Peter Drucker gives us a clue on what kinds of work will disappear. According to Drucker, âthe Information Revolution has routinized traditional processes in an untold number of areas.â[35] Just as the industrial revolution mechanized weaving, the information revolution will replace what has been automated by robots. The scenario is not much different from what transpired in previous eras and technology revolutions.
There will always be room for workers, but the areas or fields of demand will change.
The breadth of new work in the information age is immense. New workers can be seen in traditional industries (old workers renewed), in new ICT-related services and content provision (the information workers), in infrastructure development and maintenance of the information economy (information managers and entrepreneurs) and in a host of related areas.
Among the most in demand and sought after workers are information technology (IT) professionals. According to a 1999 US Commerce Department study:
âFor more than 15 years, employment in the core IT occupationsâcomputer scientists, computer engineers, system analysts and computer programmersâhas grown at an astounding pace. The growth rate for computer scientists and system analysts has even accelerated in recent years.â[36]The recent downturn has not changed this trend; it has only slowed down the demand.
But it is not only IT professionals who will thrive. What Robert Reich calls âsymbolic analystsââengineers, attorneys, scientists, professors, executives, journalists, consultants and other âmind workersâ who engage in processing information and symbols for a livingâwill occupy a privileged position in that they can sell their services in the global economy. In an economy where information is critical, symbolic analysts or âknowledge workersâ will constitute an elite group.
''Box 7'':''The New Workforce (excerpts)''
''Source'': âThe Next Society: A Survey of the Near Future,â The Economist (November 3, 2001), 8-11.
Attention givers
Another category of workers that will emerge are attention-giversâpeople who care for, tend to, or oversee children, the elderly, the disabled, the depressed and anxious, as well as more or less healthy adults who want more attention for themselves and are able and willing to pay for it.[37]
Two reasons account for the growth of the attention industry. First is the increasing number of people who work harder and subcontract family responsibilities, many of which involve giving attention. Second, with the growing productivity of machines (computerized machine tools and robots inside factories, and, in the service economy, automated bank tellers, automated gas pumps, voice activated telephone answering systems, and digital devices), they will soon be capable of doing just about everything. Everything, that is, except personal attention. So those with jobs that have been replaced by highly productive machines sell personal attention instead, and this trend will continue as the years pass.[38]
Entrepreneurialism
It has been suggested that the Internet is a natural environment for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are innovators who implement change within markets through the introduction of new goods, new methods of production or new markets. Gregory K. Ericksen believes that enterpreneurs will flourish in the new Internet society:
âŠthe Internet world calls for a personality portfolio that comes naturally to entrepreneurs. It demands a willingness to take risks, a whole-hearted commitment to the enterprise, a sense of timing, and a readiness to act fast. The challenge of the Internet is not technology, whish is the enabler. The challenges and the opportunities are based on problem solving and innovations that deliver true value. Ideas that make a difference can and must be put into action quickly.[39]
Entrepreneurs flourish in an environment that allows the free flow of ideas, encourages risk taking and accepts failure as a necessary part of doing business. Creating entrepreneurs is also linked to an environment of lifelong learning. The European Commission defines lifelong learning as âall learning activity undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competence, within a personal, civic, social and/or employment-related perspective.â[40] Lifelong learning involves acquiring and updating all kinds of abilities, interests, knowledge and qualifications to enable citizens to adapt to the information age. If designed and implemented properly, ICT use in education can promote the acquisition of the knowledge and skills that will empower students for lifelong learning in the 21st century.
''Box 9'':''Educating Entrepreneurs''
''Source'': Cathy Ashmore, âFive Stages of Lifelong Learning,â in The Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education [home page on-line]; available from http://www.entre-ed.org/_entre/5-stages.htm; accessed 29 August 2002.
The Information
The Internet and the ICT revolution have created âsovereign individualsââ individuals who are empowered because they have access to new learning opportunities; are able to sell their own ideas, services or products directly to others; and can access medical information to make their own choices about health care. These sovereign individuals also have reliable and up-to-date information about government policies and programs that allows them to become better citizens.
Moreover, the convenience and the anonymity provided by the Internet have led some people to turn to the Internet for emotional and psychological needs. The Net has become a means and method not only for doing business, but also for reaching people on a social and personal level. The latter has elicited some concern in the field of psychiatry. The Addiction Research Foundation in Toronto now accepts Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) as a real problem. Internet junkies, as those with IAD are called, interact more with their PCs than with real people. Psychiatrists consider this not just addiction but dependence, which is characterized by obsessiveness, a loss of control, and an inability to stop even if the person wants to and understands the dangers.[41]
Given its negative effects on individuals, shouldnât the Internet simply be banned?
Technology is not sole the culprit. Robert Putnam has documented a decline in civic engagement and social participation in the US in the past 35 years, resulting in major consequences on both the societal and the individual level. This is a major concern. As Putnam writes,
the quality of governance [is] determined by longstanding traditions of civic engagement (or its absence). Voter turnout, newspaper readership, membership in choral societies and football clubs⊠[are] the hallmarks of a successful region. In fact, historical analysis suggested that these networks of organized reciprocity and civic solidarity, far from being an epiphenomenon of socioeconomic modernization, were a precondition for it.[42]
Technology, particularly the Internet, is definitely helping change social relations, but not in ways that its critics suggest. Castells describes the impact of the Internet as people organize themselves into a social network. âNetworked individualism,â as he describes it, âis a social pattern, not a collection of isolated individuals.â Individuals will build networks, both on-line and off-line, based on their interests, values, affinities, and projects. Because of the capabilities of the Internet for communication, people will build virtual communities that are different from physical communities. These communities, however, are not necessarily less intense or less effective in binding and mobilizing people. Furthermore, a communication hybrid is now developing in our societies, bringing together both the physical and the virtual space as the material support of networked individualism.[43]
Family effects
Technology allows families living in different locations to stay in touch with each other. Filipinos are now able to send text (SMS) messages to their relatives in the United States and Europe. Singaporeans who are working overseas are able to keep in touch with their families back home via the Internet. Children of expatriate Lao are able to learn more about their parentsâ home country via the Internet.
But it also cannot be denied that in recent years people have been spending less time with their families because of information and work overload. Work takes more and more time, and even when a family member is physically present, work is intrusive, preoccupying and unpredictable. Reich believes that the new family now requires a complex set of logistical arrangements for the various members to respond to the economyâs new demands.[44]
Changes in family structure and family attitudes are directly parallel to changes in the economic system that began in the 1970s. In the old system of large-scale production, most men had steady jobs and solid wages, while women had fewer job opportunities. However, in the new system of continuous innovation, we see less predictable earnings and wider disparities in earnings. This induces harder work in terms of time and emotional energy.[45]
Nevertheless, although the emerging economy is more stressful, it generates more opportunities to earn more money for talented men and women alike. Almost all women now have the option of having a job and need not be entirely dependent on a male breadwinner.[46] Gender and racial issues in employment may soon be a thing of the past. Talent is what matters most.
Community effects
ICT makes possible communities not bound by space. In these âcommunities of choiceâ proximity is not a factor for intimacy. Examples of communities of choice are Web forums, newsgroups and mailing lists, which are generally organized topically. Strangers who have similar interests are encouraged to read each otherâs messages and communicate, giving each other advice, information and updates. Forums for all fields of interest or concerns and issues exist online, and a person can find others similarly situated with whom to form possible friendships based on common interests, or support groups if suffering from afflictions rare or otherwise.
For this reason, Castells tends to disagree that Internet use lowers social interaction and causes greater social isolation. He does agree that in certain circumstances, perhaps for individuals suffering from addiction or dependence, Internet use tends to become a substitute for other social activities.[47]
''Box 10'':''Ashaninka@the Peruvian Amazon (excerpts)''
''Source'': Keane Shore, âAshĂĄninka@the Peruvian Amazon,â in Reports: Science from the Developing World, International Development Research Centre [home page on-line]; available from http://www.idrc.ca/reports/read_article_english.cfm?article_num=837; accessed 28 August 2002.
Societal impact of other technologies
A mode of communication that is more prevalent in the developing world than the computer-based Internet is the mobile phone. In most of Asia the mobile phone has become a familiar gadget. Interestingly, mobile phones are not used only for making voice calls but also for short messaging. It is believed that in the developing world more people will access the Internet via mobile phones than computers.
Castells observes that âcell-telephonyâ also fits a social pattern organized around communities of choice and individualized interaction based on the selection of time, place, and partners of the interaction. In addition, the development of wireless Internet increases the possibility of personalized networking to a broader range of social situations. This enhances the capacity of individuals to rebuild structures of sociability from the bottom up.[48]
Kraut and Lundmark of the Human Interaction Institute of the Carnegie Mellon University issue a cautionary note. Based on their studies, they conclude that the Internet is not a substitute for real human interaction as a means for emotional and social fulfillment. The use of the Internet can be both highly entertaining and useful, but if it causes too much disengagement from real life, it can also be harmful. Until the technology evolves to be more beneficial, people should moderate their use of the Internet and monitor the uses to which they put it.[49] While there are clear benefits to virtual communities formed around infocommunication networks, a balance should be maintained and social isolation minimized.
Globalization
Technological development, from better transportation and carrier services to the telephone and mass media, has created a smaller, more integrated world. Now, the ICT revolution is making the world even smaller and more integrated. Communications, trade and employment, personal and political transactions are now occurring on a global scale, in real time, ignoring boundaries between states.
Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz defines globalization as
âŠthe closer integration of the countries and peoples of the world which has been brought about by the enormous reduction of costs of transportation and communication, and the breaking down of artificial barriers to the flows of goods, services, capital, knowledge, and (to a lesser extent) people across borders.[50]
It is important to underscore that globalization is not just an economic phenomenon. It affects all aspects of life.
At least four factors have contributed to globalization: (1) technological change, particularly the ICT revolution; (2) the spread of market-based systems; (3) domestic politicsâpro-globalization forces are more politically significant; and (4) inter-state rivalries.[51]
Impact on nation-state
Anthony Giddens suggests that globalization affects the nation-state in three ways.[52] First, globalization, especially the global marketplace, takes certain powers away from the nation-state. Nation-states are not as in command of their economic futures as they used to be. The best example of this is the increasing inability of governments to control their currencies. Exchange rates are now determined by other peopleâs assessment of a countryâs economic well-being.
At the same time, says Giddens, globalization creates new possibilities and motivations for local cultural autonomy and identities. This âpush down effectâ of globalization is the reason for the revival of local nationalism and local forms of cultural identity in all parts of the world. It may seem strange but the more we globalize, the more we localize.
The third effect of globalization is that it also pushes sideways. This is best seen in the emergence of regional groupings, which Keniche Ohmae calls âregional statesâ.[53]Both Giddens and Ohmae give as an example the area of Catalonia around Barcelona in northern Spain: Catalonia overlaps with southern France, but it is linked to the Spanish economy.
Clearly globalization is a complex set of partly contradictory forces. It is not, as globalization critics suggest, a single force pulling in a single direction.
Governance
Governance can be simply defined as âorganizing collective actionâ.[54] It implies the organization of rules that allows, prescribes and prohibits certain actions. A narrower definition of governance relates it to government or the decision-making processes in the administration of a state. ICT has a major effect on governance in both its broad and narrow sense. The Institute of Governance (Canada) believes that ICTs:
âŠcreate new expectations among citizens about how governments should interact with them, and how services should be delivered. Internet technology and recent advances in applied genetics are significantly redefining the boundaries of personal choice and private influence, and of collective decision-making on matters of public importance.[55]
At one level, governments that use ICT will be better able to govern. E-government, or the use of ICT to enhance the access and delivery of government services to benefit citizens, is a necessary element in the governmentâs drive for good governance. E-government promises not only a more efficient and effective government but a more transparent one as well.
International politics
Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, Jr reject the view that the information age will radically transform relations between nations. Their position is based on their belief that countries are already embedded in patterns of complex interdependence where âsecurity and force matter less and countries are connected by multiple social and political relationships.â[56] However, they judge that
The information revolution alters patterns of complex interdependence by exponentially increasing the number of channels of communications in world politicsâbetween individuals in networks, not just individuals within bureaucracies. But it exists in the context of an existing political structure, and its effects on the flows of different types of information vary vastly.[57]
They also agree that in the 21st century, âinformation technology, broadly defined, is likely to be the most important power resource.â
Other scholars have proposed the concept of noopolitik, which refers to a dimension of international relations that is related to the formation of a ânoosphereâ or a global information environment. Noopolitik is projected as an alternative to realpolitik, the latter being the traditional approach to fostering the power of the state in the international arena, by negotiation, force, or the potential use of force. In a world characterized by globalization and shaped by information and communication, the ability to act on information flows, and on media messages, becomes an essential tool for fostering a political agenda.[58]
With noopolitik, diplomacy will now include not only governments but also the societies they represent. This new diplomacy may prevent confrontation, increase the opportunity for alliances, and foster cultural and political hegemony. Embedded in this new diplomacy is the capacity to intervene in the process of mental representation underlying public opinion and collective political behavior at the national level.[59]
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is about combating threats and crimes in cyberspace. It includes passing appropriate laws and policies, as well as developing capabilities and institutions to prevent fraud and fight threats.
At the national level, government cybersecurity efforts have focused on creating the appropriate policy and legal environment, protecting critical infrastructure against cyber attacks and improving the security of the national information system. At the global level, various efforts are now underway to create a harmonized policy infrastructure to enable a robust and globally integrated system capable of responding to cyber threats in a coordinated and timely manner. In December 2002, the UNGA adopted resolution 57/239 calling for a âglobal culture of securityâ.[60] In the Asia-Pacific, APEC Leaders have issued a âStatement on Fighting Terrorism and Promoting Growthâ which includes an APEC Cybersecurity Strategy to protect communications and information systems.[61] In their statement APEC leaders have announced their intention to: (1) enact cybersecurity laws that are consistent with international norms; (2) identify national cybercrime units; and (3) establish institutions that exchange threats and vulnerabilities (such as computer emergency response teams or CERTs).
While a focus on cybersecurity is important, analysts believe that cyber terrorist threats to computer structures are implausible. This is because terrorism is like lightning, taking the path of least resistance. Moreover, currently it is easier to blow something up than to figure out how to damage it by hacking into and manipulating a computer system.[62]
Cyberwar, according to James Dunnigan, is the use of âelectronic networks, and information, âŠas part of a weapon systemâ.[63] It includes warplanes using electronic devices to jam enemy radars to elude their missiles as well as hacking into the enemiesâ bank accounts and/or their servers and information networks. He distinguishes cyberwar from âinformation warâ, which is using information and news as weapon. Information war or propaganda war, claims Dunnigan, has been around for thousands of years. Cyberterrorism is a narrower concept, and is defined as âthe premeditated, politically motivated attack against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data which result in violence against noncombatant targets by sub national groups or clandestine agents.â[64]
The emergence of these terms is related to the fact that more and more governments and businesses are becoming dependent on computers and information systems. Databases of highly sensitive and confidential information are stored on computer systems. Air traffic control, banking and finance accounts, water utilities and other public utilities are assisted by computer programs and networks as well. Thus, these systems become targets of those who wish to threaten the government or the economy.
Digital Age
ENIAC sign outside the University of Pennsylvania
The 'Digital Age' began when digital computers and related technologies were developed, in the second-half of the 20th Century.
The present age is variously known as the Digital Age, the Wireless Age and the Information Age.
The digital age arguably began with early computers such as the AtanasoffâBerry Computer and ENIAC. Computers became household appliances in the late-1970s with the introduction of models such as the Apple II, Commodore PET and Radio Shack TRS-80.
Personal computers became more or less ubiquitous by the late 1990s.
Innovations
★ AtanasoffâBerry Computer - electronic digital computer - 1939
★ Z3 - first general-purpose digital computer - 1941
★ ENIAC general purpose electronic digital computer - 1946
★ Earliest form of the Internet - 1969
★ Personal computer - late 1970s
★ Email - 1971
★ World Wide Web - 1990–1991
★ Laptop - 1990's
★ Cellular phones -[1984, mainstreamed late 1990s and early 2000s
★ Webcams 1990s mainstreamed 2000s
★ Digital Television 1990s mainstreamed 2000s
★ Broadband mainstreamed 2000s
★ Wireless networking - early 2000s
★ Headphones Wireless - early 2000s
★ Online gaming communities 2000s
★ GPS mainstreamed mid-2000s
★ Satellite Radio - circa 2003
★ DAB -Digital Radio 2004
★ Digital Audio Player - mainstreamed early 2000s
★ Digital Video Recorders (c.1999) mainstreamed early-to-mid-2000s
★ HDTV mainstreamed early-to-mid 2000s
★ Blu-Ray mid-to-late 2000s
Predictions
★ Personal Robot 2018 In Most Homes In Korea
★ Flying Car 2038
★ Holographic Images 2015
★ Fog Screen 2010
Futher reading
★ Simon Head, ''The New Ruthless Economy. Work and Power in the Digital Age'', Oxford UP 2005, ISBN 0-19-517983-8
The Digital Divide
The digital divide separates the information rich and the information poor. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development defines the digital divide as the difference between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas with regard to (a) their opportunities to access ICTs and (b) their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities. It is the gap between those who have real access to information and communications technology and who are able to use it effectively, and those who donât have such access.[65]
Lack of access to ICT goods and services poses social and economic disadvantages. More and more, developing countries are recognizing that they cannot compete in the new global market unless they take advantage of the ICT revolution. Countries that do not undertake measures to enhance their ICT infrastructure risk not just being marginalized but also being completely bypassed in the new global order. The experience of a number of countries, like Singapore, Malaysia and Korea, demonstrate that bold actions in bringing their countries into the digital age pay off.
''Box 11'':''Internet Access Under African Skies by Noah Elkin''
''Source'': Noah Elkin, âInternet Access Under African Skies,â eMarketer Daily Issue 162 (2002); available from http://www.emarketer.com/news/article.php?1001522&ref=ed; accessed 21 August 2002.
The digital divide is usually measured in terms of citizen/population access to ICT. Among the indicators for measuring access are (1) telephone density (teledensity); (2) personal computer (PC) deployment and penetration; and (3) number of Internet users.
Teledensity is the ratio of population to telephones (traditionally defined as fixed or wired telephone lines). This indicator of the divide must be redefined to include cellular/mobile phone use since in a number of developing countries there are more mobile phones than wired phones. Taylor Nelson Sofres Interactive (TNS) estimates that 57% of the adult population (defined as those between ages 15 and 65) in the Asia-Pacific region have a mobile phone.[66] Personal computer penetration and deployment has also been used to measure access, since the PC is the most common way of accessing the Internet. However, recently more and more ways of accessing the Internet have been devised. In Japan, people can access the Internet through their mobile phones. Those from developing countries share PCs, usually in an Internet café or in school.
The number of Internet users is also a way of looking at the digital divide. Statistics show that only about 10% of the worldâs population is online. Furthermore, most of these Internet users are in the developed Western countries: the US, Canada and Europe account for about 63% of the worldâs Internet users. The Asia-Pacificâs share is about 30%. Africa and the Middle East combined account for less than 2% of the universe of Internet users.
Equally disturbing is the fact that the global Internet population is predominantly male. Again, there are marked regional differences in the gender digital divide. In the Asia Pacific, the ratio of Internet users is about 60% men and 40% women. In the US and Canada the gender distribution is more balanced.
''Box 12'':''Asian Women Love E-mail''
''Source'': âAsian women love e-mailâ (26 February, 2002) in BBC News [home page on-line]; available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1840279.stm; accessed 28 August 2002.
Lack of access
It is already received wisdom among those who are working to bridge the digital divide that providing access to technology is only one of many obstacles that must be addressed. Internet access is not enough. The Childrenâs Partnership argues that content is one aspect of the digital divide that has been neglected. The four content-related barriers to greater Internet uptake across society are:
# local information barriers
# literacy barriers
# language barriers
# cultural diversity barriers.
Local content is determined by the commercialized nature of the Web. Commercial content providers tend to focus on content that delivers returns to their investments. Thus, Internet users from developing countries, such as farmers, for example, rarely discover information that is relevant to them. Compounding the problem is that non-profit, community-based initiatives to create content face sustainability problems.
Literacy is another concern. Literacy includes not only basic and functional literacy but also technological literacy. Older people who may be literate may find using a computer and accessing the Internet an intimidating experience. A related concern is creating inexpensive content that is accessible to all, including illiterate people. Perhaps this aim will be achieved through voice recognition technologies.
The language barrier compounds the literacy issue. Over 68% of Internet content worldwide is in English. In e-commerce, English is even more dominant, with over 94% of links to pages on secure servers in English. However, although there are currently fewer sites for non-English speakers, the trend is expected to change soon.
Policy responses
Studies have shown that technology diffusion is slow and costly and developing countries âcannot assume that relevant new technologies will flow easily to them across international bordersâ.[67]
Governments play a vital role in bridging the digital divide. This is particularly true in developing national information infrastructures that will increase Internet access among the population. Specifically, governments should develop a policy and legal regulatory environment conducive to the creation of a robust national information infrastructure, including a regulatory environment that would increase competition and keep prices down. Government should also consider lowering or removing import duties and/or sales taxes on IT goods and services. This would contribute towards increasing PC penetration rates. Finally, governmentsâ own use of technology to enhance efficiency, effectiveness and transparency (e-government) could stimulate growth in the private ICT sector.
Governments should also encourage alternative access to the Internet. If in the developed world the PC through the telephone or cable networks is the main mode of accessing the Internet, developing countries should seriously consider the use of wireless technologies and devices to connect to the Internet.
''Box 13'':''Mobile Internet for Developing Countries
''Source'': Michael Minges, âMobile Internet for Developing Countriesâ in INET 2001 Proceedings; The Internet Society [home page on-line]; available from http://www.isoc.org/inet2001/CD_proceedings/G53/mobilepaper2.htm; accessed 28 August 2002.
Policy actors and roles
The problem with focusing too much on providing the infrastructure to enhance access is that the public may have Internet access but will not find anything useful or relevant on the Net anyway. Since governments are the biggest repository of information that is important to citizens, and since information is a public good, governmentsâ role as a content provider is also critical.
Some governments address the issue of content directly. For instance, the Information Stores (Boutiques dâinformation), which is operated by the government of Burkina Faso, provides agricultural production and marketing information to rural farmers. The Information Boutiques collect and provide information about judicial matters, facilitate courses and mediate between the local population and services. It was designed to meet the information needs of the rural population of Burkina, who do not have sufficient access to information supporting basic economic, social and political activities.
The private sector, through investments and economic activities, plays an important role in bridging the digital divide. The numerous Internet cafes in the developing world are a testament to fact that the drive for profit does not preclude doing social good (in this case making the Internet more accessible). Moreover, the development of new IT businesses contributes to employment and economic growth in general.
A number of global IT companies are also keen on helping to provide people with the necessary skills to succeed in the information age. Oracleâs Oracle Academic Initiative, Sun Microsystemsâ Java Competency Center, Cisco Systemsâ Cisco Networking Academy, and other similar efforts not only help make their graduates more employable but also upgrade skills in the community. That they also ensure a steady supply of workers for these corporations certainly makes it a win-win-win situation for individuals, communities and corporations.
Corporate social responsibility efforts are also useful in ensuring broader access to ICT goods and services. Microsoftâs international community affairs program aims to bring the benefits of ICT to disadvantaged people in countries where it does business. In China, Microsoft is sponsoring Project Hope, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that aims to create five computer labs or cyberschools. The project will involve teaching computer skills to disadvantaged youth, who will have Internet access and the highest quality teachers and curricula in China. The same is being done in Indonesia, where Microsoft is working with Pact Indonesia to create six computer centers and offer IT skills development for disadvantaged youth.
In the Philippines, Coca-Cola Export Corporation has entered into a joint project with the Foundation for IT Education and Development, a non-profit organization, to operate the ed.venture project, which provides computers and Internet connectivity, training and post-training support services to high schools in the Philippines. By using schools as an entry point to the community, ed.venture and similar projects are laying the foundation for greater community participation in the digital universe.
''Box 14'':''Tuning In to The Village Voice''
''Source'': A. Lin Neumann, âTuning In to The Village Voiceâ in Far Eastern Economic Review (August 29, 2002).
Nongovernment organizations (NGOs) play a number of roles in bridging the digital divide. NGOs help define the issue and mobilize resources to bridge the digital divide. The work of the Benton Foundation is an example. This non-profit organization produces and coordinates the Digital Divide Network (DDN), which serves as âa catalyst for developing new, innovative, digital divide strategies and for making current initiatives more strategic, more partner-based, and more outcome-oriented, with less duplication of effort, and more learning from each otherâs activities.â[68]
NGOs are also engaged in policy work, helping develop proposals for global action on the digital divide. This is seen in the role of the non-profit organizations in the Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force), a body created by the G8 Summit in July 2000. The DOT Force report, presented at the 2001 Genoa Summit, proposed a nine-point action plan to resolve the digital divide.[69]
NGOs also act as technology providers (in some instances acting as Internet service providers and/or application services providers). An interesting effort along this line is that of Jhai Foundationâs Remote IT Village Project in Laos.[70] Faced with no electricity or telephone wires and harsh conditions, Jhai Foundation is developing the following:
★ A rugged computer and printer that draws less than 20 watts in normal use (less than 70 watts when the printer is operating) and that can survive dirt, heat and immersion in water;
★ A wireless local area network with relay stations based on the 802.11b protocol, that will transmit signals between the villages and a server located at the Phon Hong Hospital for switching to the Internet or the Lao telephone system; and
★ A Lao-language version of the free, Linux-based KDE graphical desktop and Lao-language office tools.
It is expected that Lao villagers in the five pilot areas will use these facilities to make telephone calls within Lao PDR and internationally (using voice-over-Internet technologies), and for the activities that are so important for their start-up enterprises, such as accounting, letter writing and email.
NGOS also play a significant role in bridging the digital divide particularly as content providers and trainers. The Community Learning Centers in Ghana are a case in point.
''Box 15'':''High Tech/Grassroots Education: Community Learning Centers (CLCs) for Skill Building (excerpts) by Mary Fontaine''
''Source'': Mary Fontaine, âHigh Tech/Grassroots Education: Community Learning Centers (CLCs) for Skill Buildingâ in TechKnowLogia (July/August 2000), Knowledge Enterpise Inc.; available from http://ict.aed.org/infocenter/pdfs/hightech.pdf; accessed 28 August 2002.
The digital divide has reached the top of the agenda of numerous international and regional organizations.
The United Nationsâ ICT Task Force, for one, aims to find new, creative and quick-acting means for spreading the benefits of the digital revolution and averting the prospect of a two-tiered world information society.[71] The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has projects to boost Internet connectivity and access in some of the poorest countries in the world. These include the United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS), a volunteer corps to train groups in developing countries in the uses and opportunities of the Internet and IT, and the Sustainable Development Networking Program (SDNP), an initiative to kick-start networking in developing countries and help people share information and expertise relevant to sustainable development. The UNDP Asia Pacific Development Information Program (APDIP) aims to promote and establish information technology for social and economic development throughout the region.
The World Bankâs Global Information and Communication Technologies Department (GICT) seeks to accelerate the participation of client countries in the global information economy; to promote private sector investment in developing countries, which will reduce poverty and improve peopleâs lives; and to promote innovative projects on the use of ICTs for economic and social development, with special emphasis on the needs of the poor in developing countries. The World Bankâs Information for Development Program (infoDev) is a global grant program that promotes innovative projects in the use of ICTs for economic and social development in developing countries. The Development Gateway is a development portal that provides access to information and knowledge on development activities.[72] Through this initiative, the World Bank hopes to make it easier to share experience and knowledge in development, and offers up-to-date information on projects, resources, best practices and expertise on such subjects as poverty, governance, gender, IT, development and environment.
At the regional level, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum has adopted an e-APEC strategy, which has three pillars: to create an environment for strengthening market structures and institutions; to provide an environment for infrastructure investment and technology development; and to enhance human capacity building and promote entrepreneurship. The e-ASEAN initiative is an effort of the 10 Southeast East Asian states to develop a broad and comprehensive action plan to develop competencies within ASEAN to enable it to flourish in the global information economy.
Current challenges
Developing countries recognize the need to harness ICTs for development. However, the ICT uptake has been largely unequal. The digital divide is a problem that both government and the private sector must work together to address. Without doubt, the ICT revolution is changing the course of history, and developing countries must equip themselves with better information and policies that would enable them to join the digital revolution. The aim of this primer and the series on the Information Economy, Society and Polity is to provide policy makers and opinion leaders in developing countries of the Asia-Pacific with a clear understanding of the various terminologies, definitions, trends and issues surrounding the information age. The other primers in the series are:
★ Nets, Webs and Information Infrastructure
★ E-commerce and E-business
★ Legal and Regulatory Issues in the Information Economy
★ E-Government
★ ICT and Education
★ Genes, Technology and Policy: An Introduction to Biotechnology
It is our hope that these primers will spur the continuing efforts of developing countries to prepare for the information age.
Much has been written about the information revolution. Many initiatives have been undertaken and some are to be applauded for their success while others need further support and guidance. The signs of the timesâdigitization, convergence, globalization, as well as their various impacts on politics, economics, social structures and cultureâall foreshadow a future in which information is the key component.
See also
★ Daniel Bell
★ Marshall McLuhan's ''Understanding Media''
★ Stewart Brand
★ Information Theory
★ Informational Revolution
References
1. Lallana, Emmanuel C., and Margaret N. Uy, "The Information Age", http://en.wikibooks.org/wik/The_Information_Age
2. Robert W. Lucky "In a Very Short Time: What Is Coming Next in Telecommunications", in Technology 2001: The Future of Computing and Communications, ed. Derek Leebaert (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995), 339.
3. Ibid., 342.
4. Frances Cairncross, The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Will Change Our Lives (London: Orion, 1997), xiii.
5. Covell, Digital Convergence, 66.
6. Ibid., 676
7. Ibid., 68.
8. Ibid., 69.
9. John Gage, âDecentering Society;â available from http://www.civmag.com/articles/ C9910E03.html 10/31/2000; accessed 8 August 2002.
10. Lawrence Lessig, The Future of Ideas:The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World (New York: Random House, 2001), 23.
11. Christopher Coward, correspondence with author.
12. Ed Lazowska, Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington; cited in email of Chris Coward to the author.
13. Richard Lipsey, Technological Shocks: Past, Present and Future; available from http:// www.sfu.ca/~rlipsey/T&G.PDF; accessed 28 August 2002.
14. Tom Forrester and Perry Morrison, Computer Ethics: Cautionary Tales and Ethical Dilemmas in Computing (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990), 1.
15. Lipsey, Technological Shocks, 11.
16. John V. Pavlik, citing James Beniger, New Media Technology: Cultural and Commercial Perspectives, 2nd ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998), 134.
17. Anthony Giddens, âRunaway World: The Reith Lectures Revisited Lecture 1: 10 November 1999;â available from http://www.lse.ac.uk/Giddens/pdf/10-Nov-99.PDF; accessed 28 August 2002.
18. Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society. The Information Age: Economy, Society & Culture, vol. 1 (Oxford:Blackwell, 1996), 31.
19. Debora L. Spar, Ruling the Waves: From the Compass to the Internet, a History of Business and Politics along the Technological Frontier (New York: Harcourt: 2001), 11.
20. Ibid, 374.
21. Castells, The Rise of the Network Society, 66.
22. Ibid., 92.
23. Ibid., 97-98.
24. William D. Nordhaus, âProductivity Growth and the New Economy,â Working Paper 8096 National Bureau of Economic Research; available from http://www.nber.org/papers/8096; accessed 28 August 2002, 6-7.
25. Castells, The Rise of the Network Society, 79.
26. Robert Reich, The Future of Success (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), 106.
27. Ibid., 48.
28. Peter Drucker, âBeyond the Information Revolutionâ in The Atlantic Online [home page online]; available from http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99oct/9910drucker.htm; accessed 28 August 2002.
29. Manuel Castells, The Internet Galaxy (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 1-2.
30. Cited in Tapscott, Ticoll and Lowy, Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs (London: Nicolas Brealey Publishing, 2000), 8.
31. Ibid., 7-9.
32. Doyle, J.J. and G.J. Persley, eds., Enabling the Safe Use of Biotechnology: Principles and Practices (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 1996).
33. W. Brian Arthur, âIs The Information Revolution Dead?â Business 2.0 (March 2002); available from www.business2.com/articles/mag/print/0,1643,37570,FF.html; accessed 8 August 2002.
34. Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era, (New York: JP Putnam, 1995), 223.
35. Drucker, âBeyond the Information Revolutionâ in The Atlantic Online.
36. Carol Ann Meares et al., The Digital Workforce: Building Infotech Skills at the Speed of Innovation (US Department of Commerce, June 1999), 21.
37. Reich, The Future of Success, 176.
38. Ibid., 176-7.
39. Gregory K. Ericksen, Net Entrepreneurs Only: 10 Entrepreneurs Tell The Stories of Their Success (New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 2000), ix.
40. The European Commission, âLifeLong Learning,â European Communities, 1995-2002; available from http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/life/what_islll_en.html; accessed 31 August 2002
41. Distance Education Centre at Technical University of Gdansk, âThe Internet: Its Psychological Effectsâ; available from http://www.dec.pg.gda.pl/archive/1996-1998/englab/ Internet.html; accessed 31 August 2002).
42. Robert Putnam, âBowling Alone: Americaâs Declining Social Capitalâ in Journal of Democracy 6:1, Jan 1995, 65-78; available from http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/ journal_of_democracy/v006/putnam.html; accessed 31 August 2002.
43. Castells, The Internet Galaxy, 130-131.
44. Reich, The Future of Success, 158.
45. Ibid., 174.
46. Ibid., 175.
47. Castells, Internet Galaxy, 124.
48. Ibid., 132.
49. Robert Kraut & Vicki Lundmark, âInternet Paradox: A Social Technology That Reduces Social Involvement and Psychological Well-Being?â in American Psychological Association 53: 9, 1017â1031 (1998); available from http://www.apa.org/journals/amp/amp5391017.html; accessed 29 June 2002.
50. Joseph E. Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents (New York: Norton & Company, 2002), 9.
51. Aseem Prakash and Jeffrey A. Hart, âGlobalization and Governance: An Introductionâ, in Aseem Prakash and Jeffrey A. Hart (eds.), Globalization and Governance (London: Routledge, 1999), 5.
52. Giddens, âRunaway World,â 6.
53. Kenichi Ohmae, The Invisible Continent: Four Strategic Imperatives of the New Economy (New York: HarperBusiness, 2000).
54. Prakash and Hart, Globalization and Governance, 2.
55. Institute on Governance, âTechnology and Governanceâ; available from http://www.iog.ca/ knowledge_areas.asp?pageID=6&area=4; accessed 31 August 2002
56. Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Jr., âPower and Interdependence in the Information Ageâ Foreign Affairs Sept/Oct 1998; available from http://www.cis.Washington.edu/courses/winter02/sis410/syllabus/week2/ nyekeohane_fa_1998.pdf
57. Ibid.
58. Castells, The Internet Galaxy, 160.
59. John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, The Emergence of Noopolitik: Toward an American Information Strategy (Santa Monica, CA: RAND National Defense Research Institute, 1999).
60. http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguides/57.htm
61. http://wwww.apecsec.org.sg/download/pubs/LeadersStmtFightTerroNGrowth.pdf
62. Scott Berinato, âThe Truth About Cyberterrorismâ in CIO Magazine (15 March 2002); available from http://www.cio.com/archive/031502/truth.html; accessed 8 August 2002.
63. James F. Dunnigan, The Next War Zone: Confronting the Global Threat of Cyberterrorism (New York: Citadel Press, 2002), 2.
64. Mark M. Pollitt, âCyberterrorism - Fact or Fancy?â; available from http://www.cs.georgetown.edu/~denning/infosec/pollitt.html; accessed 8 August 2002.
65. bridges.org, âWhat is the Digital Divide?â (2000-2001); available from http:// www.bridges.org/digitaldivide/index.html; accessed 8 August 2002.
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External links
★ The Unintended Consequences of Information Age Technologies by Alberts (CCRP, 1996)
★ Information Age Anthology Vol I by Alberts and Papp (CCRP, 1997)
★ Information Age Anthology Vol II by Alberts and Papp (CCRP, 2000)
★ Information Age Anthology Vol III by Alberts and Papp (CCRP, 2001)
★ Understanding Information Age Warfare by Alberts et al. (CCRP, 2001)
★ Information Age Transformation by Alberts (CCRP, 2002)
★ Beyond the Information Age by Dave Ulmer
★ Late Information Age Artifacts by Anne Percoco
★ Articles on the impact of the information age on business at Information Age magazine.
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