Diwas Puri
Professor Richard Glass
CIS-203 HN
Date: 15th December, 2014
The Impact of Information Technology in the Developing Countries
Information technology is the use of different systems to store, transfer and retrieve data for meaningful purposes. It has come a long way since the first mechanical computers were developed by Charles Babbage in 1822. Today, there are roughly 25 billion devices connected to the internet compared to merely 500 million in 2003, which means that we have indeed come a long way in terms of how much information technology we use (Evans). It has helped both the developed and the developing countries alike in many ways, although it was only received fairly well in the developed countries. Nevertheless,
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These goals might vary from person to person, institution to institution and from country to country. A father living in the remote part of the Himalayas might use a telephone to call his son studying in America. On the grand scale, a country might use its array of communication systems such as telephone and internet lines to make the communications between their institutions and various organizations smooth and efficient. Information technology in the developing world, though fairly diluted than those in the developed worlds, vary a lot depending upon where it is being used and for what purpose it is being used. However, there is a significant contrast in how developed countries and the developing countries use it for various purposes. This can be inferred from the fact that developed countries such as Iceland, Sweden, Finland and Denmark have more than 80% of their population who can access the internet. On the other hand, countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Congo and Cambodia whose economy is not so good, have less than 1% of their population who can actually access the internet (Carr).
The economy of the countries that have higher internet usage are generally better than those that have lesser internet usage. For example, the economies of South Korea, United Kingdom and Australia who have high rate of digital technology adoption are very healthy. In contrast, the
In the late 20th century, technology began advancing so quickly that entire world economies underwent extraordinary transformations in very little time. It used to be only a handful of powerful people and corporations interacting in global trade and commerce, but technology has made it so “countries like India are now able to compete for global knowledge,” giving leaders and companies the ability to work with more nations than ever before (Friedman 7). The internet has given men and women the power to connect, communicate and provide information to people across the planet in an instant. It has given people the opportunity to seek knowledge, educate themselves and single-handily play a role in the world economy. This is called
Here are some statistics. The internet accounts for, on average, 3.4 percent of GDP across the large economies that make up 70 percent of global GDP. If the Internet consumption and expenditures were a sector, it’s weight in GDP would be bigger than industries such as mining, utilities, agriculture, communication, and even education. Soon, we can expect the internet to surpass industries such as transportation. The Internet’s total contribution to global GDP has reached higher than the GDP of Canada and is growing even faster than the GDP of countries such as Brazil.
Our world has undergone two stages of technical revolution which made our community develop rapidly. Entering the third millennium, we’re living in a modern society which is significant development in ICT. Technology has become an essential factor that has created a great revolution on all aspects of our lives such as education, medical, economy, politics, etc.…and connects us together. Technology has made our lives easier which results in the changing of other sides in our society. The technology plays an important role which is clearly shown in the achievements of many countries in the world. However, technology also consist drawbacks and has negatively effects on all fields in our society which people do not realize.
The Internet makes the world smaller. The ability to communicate and exchange information instantaneously and across enormous distances has enabled more individuals and businesses to participate in the economy, regardless of their location. Corporations can connect with suppliers, employees, and customers around the globe, and smaller businesses can find their customers anywhere in the world. Businesses can hire knowledge workers almost regardless of where they are, greatly expanding employment opportunities for people in the United States, and giving developing nations the ability to become economic powerhouses by providing information technology services to the rest of the world (Gates). The Internet, along with other computer technologies, is literally enabling some developing countries to "leapfrog" the industrial revolution and jump straight to the Internet Age (Malaspina 77).
Information technology is defined as shared technology resources that provide the platform for an organization's specific information system applications. IT deals with the technology involved in the systems themselves. According to our book, it consists of all the hardware and software that a company would need to use in order to achieve its business objectives. This includes not only computer machines, storage devices, and handheld mobile devices, but also software, such as the Windows or Linux operating systems, the Microsoft Office desktop productivity suite, and the many thousands of computer programs that can be found in a typical large firm.
There are three causes of the Digital Divide. One of the three causes is an economic barrier. The cost for a year’s internet is about a hundred to a few thousand dollars, which is about the same amount as buying a computer. If there were many firms that provided internet, then there will be lower prices and higher efficiency. Since most companies are not competitive, the price of internet access is expensive. In North Korea and Cuba, Internet connection is only available in government controlled cafes, government offices, and universities. In other nations, internet users must have a special license. These factors limit the access of the internet and increases the Digital Divide globally (“Digital Divide” 3).
In a world where technology is being constantly innovated, there are some people who are bound to fall behind. Particularly because information and communication technologies have brought significant changes to improve countries across the globe politically, economically and socially and over the past few decades, there has been r in people’s reliance and use of the Internet. The gap between those who do and those who do not have access to the Internet is known as the digital divide. This is a major issue internationally because information and communication technology can empower and benefit society socially and economically to share facts and express their values, virtues and other opinions. Some countries that are greatly impacted by the
Lack of access to ICT goods and services poses social and economic disadvantages. More and more, developing countries are recognizing that they cannot compete in the new global market unless they take advantage of the ICT revolution. Countries that do not undertake measures to enhance their ICT infrastructure risk not just being marginalized but also being completely bypassed in the new global order. The idea that some information and communication technologies are vital to quality civic life is not new. Some suggest that the Internet and other ICTs are somehow transforming society, improving our mutual understanding, eliminating power differentials, realizing a truly free and democratic world society, and other benefits.
The gap extends far beyond school districts or rural United States. The divide surpasses borders and affects societies on a global scale. Four billion people from developing countries remain offline, representing 2/3 of the population residing in developing countries (ICT Facts and Figures, 2015). Of the 940 million population of least developing countries, only 89 million use the Internet—only a 9.5 percent penetration rate (ICT Facts and Figures, 2015). In under developed countries, only 7 percent have Internet access—well below the world average of 46 percent (ICT Facts and Figures, 2015). If a vast majority of citizens do not have access to communication technologies, how would a country be able to continue developing? If the country’s people are not growing intellectually, the country itself is at a standstill. Without assistance in development, development is extremely slow, flawed, or stopped
From looking at figure 5 a varity of trends can be shown. When focusing on internet users a very slow rate of growth can be shown, this may be due to the small amount of countries that are able to get access to the World Wide Web due to connections. Over a 10 year period from 1998 to 2008 there can be seen a major rise in the use of the internet. As the internet is a relatively new device it is clear that those less developed countries would take time to get hold of it. 1990 was quite early for a developing country to use the internet but is is clear as the world has become more globalized and developed the internet usage has shot up. This is due to a technological advance around the world and slowly the developing countries got hold of
Information technology is being used since it was evolved, for the benefit of the sophisticated economic trading in an easier way, banking in e-banking form, communication, business, etc. Today it has become that part of life, without which life does not seem possible. The use of internet has emerged as a very useful medium for the welfare of the civilized society. But internet is not one of those which
Throughout the world, the internet continues to have significant effect on society. Many argue that the
Technology, which is defined as the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry, can be seen everywhere in the world around us (Dictionary, 2012). We can see it in in people’s hand in the form of a smartphone, which is just a small computer. A computer is an electronic device that stores and process data (Dictionary, 2012). Through these forms of technology, we can access the internet which allows us to connect to people and expand our knowledge on the world. The internet is a global computer network that provides lots of information and different ways of communication, the internet consists of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols (Dictionary, 2012). According to some statistics from the Washington Post forty seven percent of the world population uses the internet (Taylors, 2014).
It was concluded in this study that extreme control over the Internet will only disadvantage a country. Besides keeping the information technology sector out of date, the economy will not grow to its
The internet provides a way for us to connect and communicate with each other across various political and economic boundaries. Since its inception couple of decades ago, we as humans have found doing certain things such as communication, transportation and business aspects of our lives pretty easy than we did in the past. The internet has improved various aspects in our community such as health, infrastructure, business and education. But in this paper, I am going to explore the impacts the internet in particular as a form of media technology has on East Asian Countries and its possible benefits for Sub-Saharan Africa region in the area of politics. I also tend to analyse the competence of the internet in enhancing the political processes of Thailand and its probable benefits for a country like Nigeria ridiculed with poverty brought about by immense corruption. As we all know the internet as a form of technology has its advantages as well as disadvantages in structuring our society this also is an aspect that would be examined in this paper. At the end of this paper I hope to establish a point that the introduction of highly effective internet services across Sub-Saharan countries in Africa would increase its rate of globalization in this present age, where technology is an integral factor for development. The