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1.
《普罗米修斯》2012,30(1):69-84
Abstract

Considerable attention has been devoted in recent years to the digital divides that exist between and within countries. Within developing countries, information and communication infrastructures are often limited. This paper focuses on the digital divide within Bhutan. More specifically, the paper identifies two related dimensions of the digital divide in Bhutan—access and skills—and argues that the interaction between geography, resources and services will shape how the divide is tackled.  相似文献   

2.

Over the past two decades, both developed and developing countries have been investing a significant portion of their resources in the creation of an information infrastructure. However, speculation abounds regarding the efficacy of information infrastructure investments, especially when the opportunity cost for investing in information technology (IT) is measurably high among developing nations. This longitudinal study introduces and explores infrastructure development and service-sector growth as key metrics for IT investment success. It also traces the notional evidence of IT infrastructure development as mediating the causal relationship between information infrastructure investments and service-sector growth. Using data from low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries, the mediating and lagged impact of information infrastructure on service-sector growth reveals that information infrastructure development does play a significant role as a mediator. It points out that information infrastructure investments can be a misleading causal antecedent if countries fail to develop their infrastructure. It also provides evidence of a recursive relationship between infrastructure development and service-sector growth. An exploratory time-series analysis across different country categories suggests that information infrastructures must be properly developed to reconcile the paradox. In addition, exploratory tests reveal a distinct divergence between infrastructure investments and infrastructure development among different country tiers.  相似文献   

3.
Abstract

Advances in computer hardware and software have allowed information technology to penetrate into and firmly establish itself within our society. The technology affects the performance of our organizations, how we perform our jobs, and how we conduct our everyday lives. Beyond our borders, the. technology has debatable value to developing countries and has most certainly aroused conflicts between nations with respect to trade and broadcasting. This paper overviews prospects and associated problems of information technology from four viewpoints: economic, organizational, sociological, and political.  相似文献   

4.
《普罗米修斯》2012,30(2):165-177
Abstract

This paper is concerned with the scope for developing countries to benefit from the Internet in non‐synchronous ways that is, in cases where some delay is involved in the delivery of information, as compared with the real‐time alternative used in developed countries. The first part of the paper draws on insights from Becker and others, to argue that poor people in poor countries are wont to exchange (relatively abundant) time for reductions in the cost of Internet use. The second part of the paper then examines whether such time‐intensive products actually exist and to the extent they do, how the required degree of cost reductions are effected in practice. I conclude that time‐intensive Internet technology represents a highly promising opportunity for developing countries to close the digital divide, an opportunity that warrants serious academic scrutiny.  相似文献   

5.
Abstract

Developed countries are rapidly evolving into information economies, and given the increasing internationalization of trade and interdependence, developing countries will also have to become information economies if they are to achieve higher economic growth rates. The essence of the information economy is that information is now the main capital input into manufacturing industry and as such is the key input to economic development. The activities of enquiring, communicating, evaluating, and deciding have become the activities absorbing the major proportion of national resources, with the need to know of the business decision‐maker as the main driving force. In developed information economies, industrial firms have become learning systems and a new division of labor in the economic productive system has evolved. The government‐controlled primary information sector is the source of much of the information input and the provider of the means of information transfer. Developing countries must develop their own primary information sectors as an integrated part of the agricultural and manufacturing sectors. The problems of developing countries are highlighted in the isolation on the one hand of their information generating sectors from the productive sector and on the other of the native small firm sector from all sectors of information. Telematics, as the integration of computing, communication, and information services offers the means to integrate national resources with international and supply the required inputs to local agricultural and industrial development.  相似文献   

6.
Abstract

Like other technical changes, the new information technologies have inspired hopes and fears. The optimists celebrate the “technologies of freedom” and their potential for growth and autonomy, the enhancement of skills and culture, the elimination of unpleasant and boring tasks (Pool 1984). On the other hand, the pessimists fear dehumanized work, growing unemployment, and bureaucracy, with unavoidable threats to privacy (Mosco 1987; Robins and Webster 1983).

In the communication and development debate, similar polarized attitudes are to be found. The technological optimists of the so‐called “modernization paradigm” claim that the transfer of information technologies to the developing world will spectacularly enhance the process of development. Commentators arguing from within this paradigm point out that the transfer of appropriate information technology can contribute to the creation of new social structures that will adequately respond to the needs of the developing world. At the other extreme, however, we have the technological pessimists, “the Luddites of the Information Revolution” (Tehranian 1985, 21). Proponents of this perspective perceive the transfer of information technology as necessarily reinforcing existing structures and thus exacerbating politico‐economic dependency and the loss of cultural identity.

In our opinion, both positions possess partial truths. However, both are based on inadequate theoretical foundations—erroneous conceptions of the nature of technology and its relationship vis‐à‐vis society, and a misunderstanding of the concept of development. Consequently, the policy implications of each approach are less than helpful. Building on what we consider to be a more apt conceptual framework, the central argument of this paper is that the transfer of information technology can play a role, albeit limited, in the development process.  相似文献   

7.
Abstract

International trade in information technology involves political, economic, and military factors that are highly interrelated, making U.S. policy formulation a complex process which requires extensive data on foreign and domestic policies and technological capabilities. An analysis of U.S. policy for controlling the reexport of high‐technology goods provides an example of this interdependence. Four primary points are emphasized throughout the paper: (1) there seems to be only limited appreciation of how different issues get entangled in the international arena; (2) the data on which to base policy decisions regarding information technology do not exist in a readily available and usable form; (3) there is little understanding of the technological status and policy support for information technology in other countries; and (4) the people needed to analyze international developments and policies in the information technologies are not being trained.  相似文献   

8.
Abstrat

The inclusion of informatics supporting trans‐border data flows (TDFs) in research and action related to the New World Information Order is essential. Documents prove the fact that information has been treated by developing countries as a critical element in the establishment of a New International Economic Order.

The author calls for the recognition of TDFs as an integral element of the debate over information. Such issues as free flow of information, national sovereignty, and dependent development are addressed. In the conclusion, it is argued that the International Telecommunication Union is well equipped to expand its domain of jurisdiction to TDFs in coordination with a maturing Intergovernmental Bureau for Informatics.  相似文献   

9.
Abstract

In 1985 the Department of Household Sciences conducted research on Dutch households that use information technologies for domestic purposes. This research was part of a six‐nation research programme and was supported by the FAST‐II research activities of the EEC, and the Agricultural University of Wageningen. The use of three types of information technology was surveyed: home computer, Videotext, and Teletext. Analysis of the finding indicates the types of households likely to benefit from information technology in the future and groups households into three classes according to their attitudes to information technology—productivistic, hobbyist, and socially committed.  相似文献   

10.
《普罗米修斯》2012,30(4):347-361

The challenge of electronic commerce is new to the developing world. Will this technology-driven initiative allow developing countries in Asia to leapfrog? Electronic commerce will trot or walk depending upon the property rights shaping its behaviour. The history of information infrastructural provision teaches us that efficient property rights can only be expected in rare circumstances, when the polity has a highly developed civil society and existing institutions produce restraint. Sequencing and the fit between domestic institutions and the types of property rights are important. Well-organized large user groups are clear winners from reforms, but universal service in countries like South Korea and Singapore resulted from state prerogatives. Three layers of an electronic commerce network along with five conditions of property rights efficiency are identified.  相似文献   

11.
Abstract

The United States and Japan lead the world in information technology. Yet they occupy opposite ends of the spectrum with respect to planning for the development of the information infrastructure—the central nervous system of a democratic society. While the Japanese expend great resources on centralized planning and monitoring the impact of the information society, United States officials are engaged in a mammoth deregulation exercise intended to dismantle government involvement in the competitive marketplace. While this policy may be appropriate for a period of technological innovation, it may be less efficacious in the period of consolidation, merger, and acquisition which usually follows.  相似文献   

12.
Abstract

The government world lags behind the business world in feeling the effects of the information technology revolution and related innovations in organization. But government may change radically in the decades ahead. This essay fields a concept— cyberocracy—to discuss how the development of, and demand for access to, the future electronic information and communications infrastructures (i.e., cyberspace) may alter the nature of the bureaucracy. Although it is too early to say precisely what a cyberocracy may look like, the outcomes may include new forms of democratic, totalitarian, and hybrid governments. Optimism about the information revolution should be tempered by a constant, anticipatory awareness of its potential dark side.  相似文献   

13.
14.
Abstract

During the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing and related commercial activities led to the evolution of “dense cores” of heavily populated areas. Fundamental to the operation of these industrial‐commercial cores was the development of service activities—banking, risk‐bearing, legal services—which depended on rapid exchange of information or quick “cycle times of information” for effective decision making and allocation of resources. As these cores radiate resources away from the central body toward less populated areas, the need for short cycle times of information in rural areas has become apparent. For example, modem agriculture is an enterprise that requires short time cycles of information exchange. The technology for building computer‐based information networks to facilitate the desired rapid transfer of information exists. However, the installation of hardware linked by reliable, cost‐effective communications networks is only in the beginning stages. One computer‐based information network that has successfully met the challenges of rapid transfer of agricultural management information to farmers is the University of Nebraska's AGNET system.  相似文献   

15.
This article examines to what extent the Nordic countries, which have been characterized as the world's leading information societies, show similar patterns of Internet use. The data consists of the Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish sections of the European Social Survey 2002 ( n = 7539) and 2004 ( n = 7211). The similarities and differences in the Internet use are analyzed using sociodemographic and economic information. Temporal changes in the distribution of use between population groups and between countries are also examined. The findings indicate that there are clear disparities in the Internet use patterns, which have not evened out in the early 21st century.  相似文献   

16.
Abstract

One facet of the Information Revolution in which the nation finds itself involves the utilization of computers, video systems, and a variety of telecommunications capabilities by those who must cope with emergency situations. Such technologies possess a significant potential for performing emergency public education and transmitting key information that is essential for survival. An “Emergency Public Information Competitive Challenge Grant,” under the aegis of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has sponsored an effort to use computer technology—both large, time‐sharing systems and small personal computers—to develop “computer games” which will help teach techniques of emergency management to the public at large.  相似文献   

17.
Abstract

Rural communities face a multitude of hazardous conditions—from blizzards, floods, droughts, and insect infestations caused by nature to hazardous material spills, transportation accidents, and dam failures that result from human activities. Information technology offers to rural emergency managers potentially important tools with which to better plan, alert, and respond to disasters.

Three case studies are presented about uses of different technologies. Each technology is currently in place, but not in widespread use. The first case is the use of a microcomputer in a rural Minnesota county to manage emergency resources, aid planning, and other important tasks. The second case uses cable television as a two‐way alerting link to fire, emergency medical, and police systems. The third case involves the use of satellites to form a statewide communication system among emergency service offices. Each use of information technology clearly contributes to improved emergency management, but widespread application is necessary before the full impact of information technology in rural emergency management can be felt.  相似文献   

18.

The spectacular growth of the Internet in Korea has propelled her to the very top of the international rankings based on technology peneration statistics. The resulting international attention and national pride have fostered the notion of “Korea—a strong Internet nation.” The ready embrace of this idea by officials and the public at large has made a critical evaluation almost an anathema. This article reviews the published critiques, which have been rare and scattered, and opens up the “what next” question for an unbounded discussion.  相似文献   

19.
Farming communities in developing countries like India are victims of the information divide. Voice-based information sharing services (VISS) can bridge this divide and help farmers address a range of challenges by exchanging knowledge with their peers. An analysis of in-depth phone interviews with farmers in remote, rural Gujarat, India, reveals four stages for developing a VISS for marginalized communities in developing countries. The four stages are: identify gatekeepers to seed the VISS, expand the VISS by building on existing communities of practice, share information, and incentivize members to sustain the VISS. The VISS in this study is based on IBM’s Spoken Web platform, which enables even illiterate and semi-literate farmers to seek, share, use, and benefit from information using feature mobile phones. Research contributions and practical implications of the study are discussed at the end.  相似文献   

20.
《普罗米修斯》2012,30(1):75-91

In April 1997, Tasmania (Australia) adopted the reputably successful New Brunswick (Canada) industrial strategy to build an information technology (IT) industry of significance. The strategy aims to overcome isolation in small regional economies and structurally change from declining natural resource industries. Both plans reject neo-classical economics-based industry policy, opting instead for a strong state-based investment planning approach. An analytical framework is set out, using Adolph Lowe's 'Instrumental Analysis', to examine implementation of both IT strategies. Implications of this analysis are drawn for any attempts at developing IT regional plans and, more generally, as a guide for broad strategic-based national industrial strategies.  相似文献   

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