The global information infrastructure: Empowerment or imperialism?

The hope has arisen that the internet will ultimately evolve into a Global Information Infrastructure (GII). The GII will create a global information marketplace and in the process narrow the poverty gap and eliminate many of the geographic obstacles to prosperity and equality. However commerce-primarily US commerce-is driving the development of the internet. As a result investors will want a return on their money in the form of access to new markets. Many countries will have to accept privatisation and competition wholeheartedly. Also, sooner or later local resources will have to replace external funding and external technical expertise. Many countries lack the regional, social and economic integration found in the USA and in addition have deep political, linguistic and cultural divisions that do not exist in the USA. This article examines issues of connectivity, language and content and concludes that in reality the internet concentrates economic activity and power more narrowly in one group. As a result there is a real risk that we are moving towards a two-tier technology society that perpetuates the old distinctions between North and South.