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Q: Do the ICT change society? ( Answered,   3 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Do the ICT change society?
Category: Science > Social Sciences
Asked by: jirkat-ga
List Price: $5.00
Posted: 27 Apr 2004 14:08 PDT
Expires: 27 May 2004 14:08 PDT
Question ID: 337199
Do the cell phones and information and communications technology (ICT)
change society? How?
Where can I read more about it?

Clarification of Question by jirkat-ga on 09 May 2004 08:45 PDT
I mean a change, which can be called a qualitative change of society...
Answer  
Subject: Re: Do the ICT change society?
Answered By: reeteshv-ga on 09 May 2004 21:25 PDT
 
Dear jirkat-ga,

Good day!

This is a very interesting and relevant question and has been examined
by various researchers from time to time. The major change brought
about by the ICT is transformation of the industrial economy into a
knowledge and network economy. This concept of the "new" economy has
been adopted by by the government, the corporates and the citizens.

ICT brings about 
i) openness 
ii) democratization 
iii) connectivity
iv) accountability
v) accessibility
vi) decentralization

The networking of people, projects, ideas and innovation (facilitated
and accelerated by the ICT) leads to a power shift and social
transformation.

The impact of ICT on the society can be felt at the local level, the
national level, the regional level and the global level.

Some examples of the ICT applications at the local level include:
i) Local government support and social services - e-governance
ii) Smart communities/schools
iii) Market information/opportunities
iv) Employment opportunities
v) Local content creation

Atthe national level, ICT helps the society by helping provide: 
i) e-governence
ii) Regulatory framework and cyber-laws 
iii) Sustainable human development, e.g., e-learning, telemedicine, etc.
iv) e-commerce

At the regional and the global levels, ICT facilitates cooperation and
growth by easing the government-to-government, people-to-people
contacts and sharing of education, best practices, etc.

With all the above beneficial impacts of ICT on the society also come
some issues. The biggest of these issues is the "digital divide" - the
gap between those who have access to technology (telephones, computers
and, increasingly, the Intenet) and related services and those who do
not have access to these resources. This digital divide exists at all
the levels of society, e.g., the ethnic minorities in the USA vs. the
majority; the rural poor in India vs. the urban educated; least
developed countries (e.g., the sub-Saharan Africa) vs. most developed
countries (e.g., the Netherlands).

I hope that the above introduction to the subject matter is
satisfactory to you! As my fellow researchers have pointed out, there
are innumerable resources on the topic.


Additional Links

"The influence of ICT on society and government. E-conomy: ICT and
market operation" by Eric van Damme and Benedict Dellaert (Dec 12,
2001)
Infodrome
http://www.infodrome.nl/english/damme.html

"ICT and Society" by National Informatics Centre
Asian Parliamentarians Forum
www.eapf.net/resource/presentation/ict-society.ppt

Intenet Galaxy by Manuel Castells. Oxford University Press (2002).
ISBN 0-19-925577-6


Search Strategy

Impact of ICT on Society
://www.google.com/search?q=Impact+of+ICT+on+Society&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&start=20&sa=N

define: digital divide
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=define%3A+digital+divide
Thanks and regards,
reeteshv-ga,
Google Answers researcher
Comments  
Subject: Re: Do the ICT change society?
From: pinkfreud-ga on 27 Apr 2004 14:11 PDT
 
This page, and the pages to which it links, should be helpful:

http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~cang/socio.html
Subject: Re: Do the ICT change society?
From: jcomeau-ga on 27 Apr 2004 20:22 PDT
 
Howard Rheingold is one researcher who spends a lot of time studying
this. You might want to check out http://flashmob.com and
http://thefeature.com, both of which will provide relevant links to
other such sites. Good luck!
Subject: Re: Do the ICT change society?
From: omnivorous-ga on 09 May 2004 09:12 PDT
 
Jirkat --

An excellent long-view of information technology is in the book "The
Victorian Internet," published by Tom Standage in 1998.  Some reviews
at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0425171698/qid=1084119065/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-6058330-5571112?v=glance&s=books#product-details

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

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