Last week in Globalisation and IS lecture we looked at the digital divide in the world. There was an interesting article from Financial Times which focuses on how efforts to spread IT’s reach is progressing. More interestingly, a comment made by the president of Cisco Systems’ emerging markets group made me rethink about the role of ICT in connecting people. The comment was:

“For people in emerging countries to be members of a connected society will ultimately make the world a more stable and safer place.”

After we read the article, a question was asked to the class: why would a “connected society” make the world a “more stable and safer place?” The first question I had to ask myself was whether ICT really creates connected societies or not. I think it is beyond doubt that ICT connects us to people in distant and remote locations. However, I think at the same time it implicitly separates us from neighbouring people. As being social existences, we all need some sort of connection to and interaction with others. I think today, this need is mostly addressed by ICT. Therefore, we do not know about our neighbours and neighbourhood as we know about celebrities, political characters, actors, football players, friends on Facebook etc.

Don’t you think it is much easier to find a connected society in a remote little village in the countryside - most likely also that place would also be a more stable and safe place to live- than in a global world?

Posted by admin on Friday, February 16th, 2007 at 1:40 am.