LONDON: A global division is arising between the world’s computer haves and have-nots. Call it the digital divide. Seven months ago at the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit the world’s leading industrial countries established a Digital Opportunity Taskforce (dotforce) to share information and communication technologies with poor countries. Are computer technologies, however, really so easily transferred? Moreover, will governments in poor and postcommunist countries seize upon the supposedly magical powers of computers as an excuse not to pursue coherent growth strategies?
LONDON: A global division is arising between the world’s computer haves and have-nots. Call it the digital divide. Seven months ago at the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit the world’s leading industrial countries established a Digital Opportunity Taskforce (dotforce) to share information and communication technologies with poor countries. Are computer technologies, however, really so easily transferred? Moreover, will governments in poor and postcommunist countries seize upon the supposedly magical powers of computers as an excuse not to pursue coherent growth strategies?