The Information (Society) Race

Abstract

This paper sets out to analyze the information competition element. Prior to a review of the roots and of the two parts of the current intensifying information society race, we will take a look at the historic prelude, the functioning of some pre-information societies — that is to say we will glean from the patterns of the making of competitive advantage in information among nations from the early high cultures to the middle of the 20th century. As a “prehistory”, we will outline the emergence of the information society and its development into a competition problem: principally the movement of the American-Japanese tandem (1961–1978) and the pursuing bunch (1978–1991). And finally, we will analyze the decade (1992–2002) of comprehensive national information strategies, demonstrating that in the measurable domain of the information society there really are winners and losers: systematic information society development programs have tangible outcomes. The gap is widening, and the developed countries are winners every time. We can observe the real information society race taking place between them.Key wordsInformation societycommunication technologyhistorycompetition