Technology, Adaptation, and Public Policy in Developing Countries: The ‘Ins and Outs’ of the Digital Divide

Abstract

Since the publication in 1996 of Manuel Castells' The Rise of the Network Society, there has been a proliferation of publications dealing with the so-called 'information revolution'. Most authors have sought to document and explain its significance for the industrially developed economies. Some have surveyed an emerging global 'digital divide' between north and south. Few, however, have taken the far more difficult step of analysing the 'revolution' from the point of view of developing countries; and fewer still (including Castells) have looked to help developing countries frame policies for managing 'their side' of the divide. For this reason, MIT's recent release of these two major works is of great importance. Both books ask whether the information revolution is marginalizing the Third World. More important, both propose policies to prevent what may become a growing and dangerous inequality between rich and poor. The recent UN Millennium Project Task Force on Science, Technology, and Innovation claims that failure to 'urgently and meaningfully' narrow the gap 'may consign many developing countries, particularly least developed countries, to harmful and possibly permanent exclusion from the network