March 1998 Insights Issue #25

Back to Net gains or net dreams?

Knowledge Societies

UNCSTD has now published a sourcebook on how ICTs are being harnessed to development goals and other key themes, including:

• what empirical indicators say about spread of ICTs and scope for their use

• how people in firms are learning to organise and manage ICTs and related services

• how people are using ICTs to create, acquire, and share new knowledge

• potential applications of ICTs for the public and private sectors

• uses of ICTs where poverty is pervasive

• lessons from ICT production in developing countries

• accessing national information infrastructures

• importance of new forms of regulation and intellectual property protection

• guidelines for national ICT strategies

• changes in employment, the workplace and women's work

• using ICTs as 'tools' for development.

Knowledge Societies: Information Technology for Sustainable Development is edited by Robin Mansell and Uta Wehn and published by Oxford University Press (ISBN 0-19-829410-7)