Political myth, high technology and the information superhighway: An Australian perspective

Abstract

Discussion about the information superhighway and the global information infrastructure has now spread to many countries and governments are active in formulating responses to these technological challenges. Australia is no different and there have been numerous official reports on the matter over the past year. This paper aims to provide a commentary on why the adoption by governments of a concept such as the information super-highway can be made so relatively easily and uncritically. It is argued that the dynamics of international modelling plays an important role. First, states are involved in international competition underpinned by technological change. Second, modelling theories suggest that bureaucrats will act “rationally” by following leader countries. Finally, it is argued that during the 1980s the political myth of Silicon Valley promoted a boom in high technology development — including technology parks. There seems to be a similarity in process between this recent period of technological development and the information superhighway debates. This paper puts forward these explanations as reasons contributing to the popularity of the information superhigh-way concept.