Opportunities offered by new technologies (original) (raw)
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Course outline: Information society; an introduction ------- شرح درس مبانی جامعه اطلاعاتی
This course will generally discuss the nature of information society as well as critically review the main notions proposed to understand the different aspects on this ‘new society’. To this end, we will read writings from Giddens, Habermas, Castells, Schiller, Lyotard, etc. Moreover, we will investigate the ongoing debates on information society from a critical lens. Thus, we will use Marx, Frankfort thinkers (e.g., Althusser), post-modernists and post-structuralists scholars (e.g., Foucault) and Hannah Arendt’s ideas to better understand what information society is, how it works and the networks and mechanisms in which such a society entangles and embodies. Finally, we will focus on new conceptualization of such society like networked or platform society. Overall, this course will provide students with a comprehensive understanding of information society and will enable them to discuss the relevant theories and concepts critically.
(2004) The Global Digital Divide – Within And Between Countries
IT&SOCIETY, 2004
The diffusion of the Internet (and its accompanying digital divides) has occurred at the intersection of both international and within-country differences in socioeconomic, technological and linguistic factors. Telecommunications policies, infrastructures and education are prerequisites for marginalized communities to participate in the information age. High costs, English language dominance, the lack of relevant content, and the lack of technological support are barriers for disadvantaged communities using computers and the Internet. The diffusion of Internet use in developed countries may be slowing and even stalling, when compared to the explosive growth of Internet access and use in the past decade. With the proliferation of the Internet in developed countries, the digital divide between North American and developed countries elsewhere is thus narrowing, but remains substantial. The divide also remains substantial within almost all countries, and is widening even as the number and percentage of Internet users increases, as newcomers to the Internet are demographically similar to those already online. People, social groups and nations on the wrong side of the digital divide may be increasingly excluded from knowledge-based societies and economies.
The global diffusion of digital technology, which occurred more rapidly than the global diffusion of any technology previously, has been mired by its uneven distribution across, and unequal effects on, societies worldwide. In addition, policy initiatives to close this global digital divide, which peaked with the two World Summit on Information Society conferences, still did not change the course of this differentiated globalization process. In this article, I attribute the cause of such stalling of policy on the issue of the global digital divide to the bifurcation of current international policy: attention is split between concern for the impeded access of the poor to this revolutionary technology, on the one hand, and the race to lead the world in creating the next ''hot'' technology, on the other. These two concerns, which have been given the pithy titles of the ''global digital divide'' and the ''global innovation divide,'' are leading to two separate policy tracks, targeting the world's laggards and leaders as separate entities and operating under separate logics. This separation is problematic because the issues of access to technology and ownership of rights to technology are intertwined. This article describes the two global technology divides and analyzes the policies that are currently charted to address them.
This paper looks at the possibility of an information society through a critic on the inclusion of the internet as a human right. It looks at digital divides and how feasible it is for the internet to close it. It also looks at arguments for and against the inclusion of the internet as a human right; especially as it affects right to freedom of expression, information access and digital divides. The argument in support of internet inclusion states that it is the means through which right of expression, opinion and association could be expressed while those against it asserts that human right does not have any technology undertone. In conclusion, it was the opinion that the inclusion of the internet as a human right is a farce since it would be unable to close digital divide or provide information access beyond what is already available. Since digital divides is driven by culture, economy, skills, education and income; it was suggested that education and information literacy skills be given more attention in order to make viable the provision of an information society when eventually the internet is made free.
2000
Abstract Many hope that new media,--particularly the speed, global reach, and interactivity of the Internet,--will transform civic engagement and political mobilization in democracies. This process is believed to be particularly important in giving voice to the voiceless, strengthening NGOs in civic society, linking citizens with government services, and helping parties generate support among new groups in the electorate.
Towards an Information Society: What Can Be Done To Face The Challenges?
" The rapid percolation of Information and Communication Technologies into the daily lives, post 1990, has suddenly transformed the lifestyles of people across the continents, and its impact is more pronounced in countries like India whose economic development, incidentally was also put on fast track during the same time, thanks to the liberalization, privatization and globalization initiated and adopted as a policy by the government. India finds itself in a queer situation where the educated upper elite residing in urban areas are adopting and galloping to the changing currents, while a great majority of country’s populace, still remaining firmly anchored to agrarian economic resources, seems isolated and lost, in the cacophony of emerging technologies. A realization is fast dawning on the policy makers in India, that urgent measures be taken to augment information literacy among the marginalized groups and bridge this digital divide in the shortest possible time. The only way to effectively bring this social integration and bring every individual on equal platform is through increased active role played by the governments, large business firms, philanthropic agencies and academic institutions who by making available the necessary wherewithal in terms of easy to handle gadgets and translation software help bridge the digital divide. The academic institutions have a tremendous responsibility to shoulder in this regard and this paper is intended to discuss the opportunities and challenges present on the path, in front of academic institutions, particularly working in the higher education sphere. "