The global IT gap is growing larger given the number of developing countries living without telephones and basic necessities such as plumbing. At first glance they may be decades away from becoming digitized.
Not so, says author Ernest J. Wilson in The Information Revolution and Developing Countries. He argues for a strategic restructuring of the way international rules, politics, economics, and cultures govern technologically deprived countries.
The challenge, as Wilson sees it, is that many local restrictions and policies hinder the ability of those in need to move up the technological ladder. What's missing is for local companies, activists, and policymakers to agree to advance these countries technologically.
Wilson feels that once they have access to technological resources, developing countries can be major players in the global world. "More so than in the past," he states, "today's dispossessed and their allies can truly widen their choices—if they are able to mobilize the vision, political will, and human capacities necessary to achieve greater freedom and the good life in our globalizing world."—Sara Grant