ABSTRACT:
New technological options that permit the use of digital systems to create and disseminate information around the world are paving the way for new means of organizing society and economic production and are gradually giving rise to a meta-paradigm that has come to be referred to as the "Information Society". Viewed from the perspective of developing countries, the question of how to employ this emerging paradigm to achieve broader development goals and to integrate them more fully into the global Information Society is an issue of the utmost importance on the development agenda. In seeking to address this challenging issue, the present document asks three key questions: 1. What does the "Information Society" consist of? The first chapter of this study develops an analytical framework to consider the many complex issues involved in the construction and operation of an Information Society. 2. What are the basic characteristics and distinctive regional aspects of the transition to an Information Society? In order to understand what current and future paths Latin America and the Caribbean can choose to follow in making the transition to an Information Society, chapters two, three and four review some of the specifically regional features of the current process. 3. What policies can help to facilitate the transition towards an Information Society? The fifth and final chapter proposes a positive agenda for the Latin American and Caribbean region's transition to an Information Society.
New technological options that permit the use of digital systems to create and disseminate information around the world are paving the way for new means of organizing society and economic production and are gradually giving rise to a meta-paradigm that has come to be referred to as the "Information Society". Viewed from the perspective of developing countries, the question of how to employ this emerging paradigm to achieve broader development goals and to integrate them more fully into the global Information Society is an issue of the utmost importance on the development agenda. In seeking to address this challenging issue, the present document asks three key questions:
1. What does the "Information Society" consist of? The first chapter of this study develops an analytical framework to consider the many complex issues involved in the construction and operation of an Information Society.
2. What are the basic characteristics and distinctive regional aspects of the transition to an Information Society? In order to understand what current and future paths Latin America and the Caribbean can choose to follow in making the transition to an Information Society, chapters two, three and four review some of the specifically regional features of the current process.
3. What policies can help to facilitate the transition towards an Information Society? The fifth and final chapter proposes a positive agenda for the Latin American and Caribbean region's transition to an Information Society.
