At the end of the twentieth century, the depth and significance of the revolution in information and communication technologies (ICTs) is broadly acknowledged, although vigorous debates continue about its driving forces and social implications. The widespread consensus over the increasing centrality of computers and telecommunications across all levels and sectors of society and the economy has been reinforced by the way the mass media have discussed these major technological and business advances.
Much media attention has been paid to leading-edge technologies of the day, whether it is cable and satellite systems in the 1970s, the personal computer in the 1980s, or the Internet in the 1990s. A great deal of coverage by the mass media is also motivated by a desire to bring a human dimension into what is often portrayed as the inevitable march of technological advance. For example, considerable efforts are being made to tie the ICT revolution to a person, just as Henry Ford has become identified with the revolution in automotive technology and mass production processes.
However, although it is possible to pick out a few dozen individuals who have had an exceptionally important role in ICT developments, the search for the Henry Ford of the information age has a major flaw. It underestimates the role of the millions of people who consume, apply, and often change the technology in organizations and households; who produce the products and services which users can exploit; and who manage and regulate the burgeoning industries supplying the innovations (Arrow, K. 1996).
The importance of information flows and communication patterns to the establishment and maintenance of particular institutions has been well understood, at least by some policy makers, since earliest times. Trade routes and communication links were deliberately designed to maintain centers of power and to overcome international comparative disadvantages. For.........
