Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been implicated in the structuring and restructuring of human social relations since the days of cave paintings and fire signals. The development of the electrical telegraph and the telephone in the late 1800s marked a qualitative shift in the scope and power of ICTs, however. The new electrical communication systems brought disparate regions and peoples into an unprecedented, increasingly synchronous global network of information, trade, finance, and culture. In the 20th century, the emerging global telecommunication infrastructure was extended and its uses expanded by the development of radio transmission, satellite communications, and terrestrial broadband networks. More recently, digital encoding, storage, and transmission have allowed for data compression and the convergence of multiple formats into a common digital stream, further accelerating the speed and volume of global information and communication flows. At the same time, the diffusion of inexpensive personal computers, the development of the graphical user interface, and the establishment of common data exchange protocols have given users around the world direct access to an increasing mass of data, text, and multimedia documents-as well as the power to create and distribute such documents themselves.
The integration and interdependence of global media and information systems have created new challenges and new opportunities.
Globalization has facilitated positive forms of cross-cultural exchange, creating, for many, an unprecedented historical opportunity to learn about and benefit from the cultural diversity of the human species, but it has also smoothed the progress of cultural domination, threatening regional and national cultural self-determination and increasing the risk of global cultural homogenization and commercialization. It has greased the wheels of transnational investment, production, and trade in both goods and services, opening new markets and permitting new levels of economic productivity and efficiency, but the expansion and integration of the global economy has also deepened economic inequalities, both internationally and within nations. The development of the Internet and the diffusion of the personal computer have broadened access to information, giving rise to visions of the democratization of knowledge, education, and economic opportunity on a global scale. But the new technologies require new literacies, access to high-quality equipment, and a reliable, high-speed network connection. These remain sharply stratified, strongly determined by access to older technologies such as the telephone and to older forms of literacy such as typing and English. Because the ability to participate in the new networks depends on cultural competencies and forms of access associated with the old networks, the development of new global information and communication technologies may actually exacerbate educational and economic inequalities.
Globalization has facilitated positive forms of cross-cultural exchange, creating, for many, an unprecedented historical opportunity to learn about and benefit from the cultural diversity of the human species, but it has also smoothed the progress of cultural domination, threatening regional and national cultural self-determination and increasing the risk of global cultural homogenization and commercialization. It has greased the wheels of transnational investment, production, and trade in both goods and services, opening new markets and permitting new levels of economic productivity and efficiency, but the expansion and integration of the global economy has also deepened economic inequalities, both internationally and within nations. The development of the Internet and the diffusion of the personal computer have broadened access to information, giving rise to visions of the democratization of knowledge, education, and economic opportunity on a global scale. But the new technologies require new literacies, access to high-quality equipment, and a reliable, high-speed network connection. These remain sharply stratified, strongly determined by access to older technologies such as the telephone and to older forms of literacy such as typing and English. Because the ability to participate in the new networks depends on cultural competencies and forms of access associated with the old networks, the development of new global information and communication technologies may actually exacerbate educational and economic inequalities.
The global integration of ICT networks has not come about automatically; it has been forged through the institutional and ideological work of governments, corporations, industry associations, and professional organizations. The complex regional and global regimes that have developed as a result of this struggle define the ethical and social principles, the legal and technical frameworks, and the procedures for conflict resolution that shape global network infrastructure and use today. While broad areas of agreement and cooperation have emerged, these international regimes have also been the site of ongoing conflicts over such issues as intellectual property protection, system architecture and standards, policies of network ownership and control, formulas for international account settlements, and the role of ICTs in socioeconomic development and cultural identity.
In the past, the interplay of these conflicting priorities, as well as differences in the resources and interests of wealthier nations and those of poorer ones, have caused significant struggle within the international ICT regimes. Because media and telecommunications systems are significant sites for the production and circulation of culture, national governments in most of the world (outside the U.S.) have sought to control them directly via strongly nationalist rules for content, ownership, and use, or through outright government ownership. (In the U.S., they have been controlled less directly, via policies of private monopolistic or oligopolistic ownership and for-profit commercial financing.) At the same time, information and communication technologies, networks, and services represent a large and growing sector of the "new economy," as well as an increasingly vital secondary input for many other industries. National governments in poorer regions of the world are often unable to provide adequate investment in ICT infrastructure, so they are compelled to permit private (often foreign) investment in the sector and to bring their national technical standards and legal regimes into line with regional and international norms.
Conflicts are not new in the arena of international information and communication policy. However, three important shifts have occurred in recent years. First, arguments and policy proposals based on the social and ethical implications of ICTs (for example, on concerns for national development and cultural identity formation) have been displaced substantially, though not entirely, by a trade-based framework in which ICT products, services, and infrastructures are seen as commodities or as economic inputs for other economic sectors. Second, in a related development, the principal venues of international ICT policymaking have shifted, from internationally inclusive and more highly politicized regimes such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)to more economically-oriented regimes such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) anand more technical, standards-based regimes such as the International Organization of Standardization(ISO) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a key regime for international regulation and standards in the telecommunications sector, has remained an important policymaking body, but its work has followed the broader shift and has become increasingly technical. And third, there is a marked shift from comprehensive, international regimes like the United Nations to regional associations and alliances based on economic power, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the European Union (EU), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), and the Group of Eight (G8).
Many issues remain unsettled, and the future shape of the global information and communication infrastructure remains largely undetermined, despite vigorous efforts by the dominant corporate, governmental, and inter-governmental players to secure a commercial, open-market model. And while the proponents of a more democratic and diverse New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) have lost ground significantly in the wake of the changes discussed above, new venues and voices are emerging in the form of global non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that take advantage of the new global network itself to connect disparate constituencies, share information and resources, and organize globally. This resource guide offers links to the principle policymaking organizations, corporate entities, and research programs shaping the new global infrastructure, and to the inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations seeking to influence the policymakers on a range of issues.
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