Digital Divide to Digital Dividend.

"Information has unique attributes, not shared by others. The steel used to construct a building, or the boots worn by workers when constructing it, cannot be consumed by anyone else. Information is different. Not only is it available/or multiple uses and users, it becomes more valuable the more it is used. The same is true of the networks that link up different sources of information. We in the policy-making world need to understand better how the economics of information differs from the economics of inherently scarce physical goods - and use it to advance our policy goals."

IT TOOK 38 YEARS for radio to reach 50 million people, and 13 years for television. That many people adopted to information technology (IT) through the Internet in just four years.

IN 1993 THERE WERE 50 pages on the World Wide Web; today, there are more than 50 million. A mere 143 million people logged on to the Internet in 1998; by 2001, the number of users will to climb to 700 million.

THERE ARE MORE computers in the United States than in the rest of the world combined; public telecenters for IT access have been established in places from Peru to Kazakhstan.

THE CITY OF BANGALORE in India has become a dynamic hub of innovation, boasting more than 300 high-tech companies. India's software exports alone will exceed $4 billion this year--about 9% of India's total exports--and industry sources project that they will reach $50 billion by 2008.

COSTA RICA'S ECONOMIC GROWTH surged to 8.3% in 1999, the highest in Latin America, fuelled by exports from the microchip industry, representing 38% of all exports.

IN EGYPT, the United Nations Development Programme has helped to create technology access community centres to bring Internet and fax services to poor and rural areas.

THE MARKET FOR E-COMMERCE was $2.6 billion in 1996; it is expected to grow to $300 billion by 2002. The digital revolution has created a brand new economic sector that simply did not exist before. And as the countries at its forefront devote ever larger shares of their own economies to this sector, a high-value space is opened up for others to occupy and so on successively throughout the world economy.

THE CAPITAL THAT MATTERS most in the digital revolution increasingly is intellectual capital. Hardware costs are declining. This shift from hardware to software as the cutting edge of the industry helps overcome what has been a major impediment to development--the shortage of finance--and improves the chances for poor countries to leapfrog some long and painful stages in the development process.

YET, TRANSITION will not be easy for developing countries, especially the very poor. Lack of resources and skills, inadequate basic infrastructure, illiteracy and language, as well as concerns about privacy and content, will be problems, but technical solutions will become available to many of them.

What We The Peoples Can Do

Review national policies and arrangements in the area of digital information access to make sure that no one is denied the opportunities it offers.

Remedy unsupportive regulatory environments and exorbitant charges imposed by national authorities.

Devising New Strategies

Appeal to the information technology industry for assistance in rebuilding UN information technology infrastructure and capacity.

Mr. Annan also announces in his report a Digital Bridges the initiative: the United Nations Information Technology Service, a consortium of high-tech volunteer corps, including Net Corps Canada and Net Corps America, which UN Volunteers will help to coordinate, bringing together national and international institutions to advance the "Information for All" development campaign. It will train groups in developing countries in the uses and opportunities of information technology, and stimulate the creation of additional digital corps in the North and South, enabling cohesion of programme focus and foster the development of additional volunteer corps worldwide. Technology volunteers could assist in setting up e-training facilities and e-commerce capability. In addition, the initiative could also provide an on-line volunteering service. The on-line help desk volunteers could be located anywhere in the world and could easily donate part of their time and skills to development projects or institutions, using the Int ernet, e-mail in particular, as the prime channel of communication. The initiative offers the corporate technology sector and private foundations a variety of avenues for partnerships, with quick and demonstrable impact.

A further announcement relates to the launch of a new disaster response programme, "First on the Ground", which will provide and maintain mobile and satellite telephones, as well as microwave links for humanitarian relief workers. The dramatic growth in scope and severity of natural disasters over the past three decades has made relief operations larger and more complex, with increasing numbers of players and demand for more effective communications in the field. This initiative will be led by the L. M. Ericsson corporation, in partnership with UN entities and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Ericsson's offices in more than 140 countries will support this programme, a generous exercise in global corporate citizenship and private public cooperation.

The Information Revolution has the potential to radically improve the efficiency of UN field operations. Wireless communications work even under the worst conditions, including in natural disasters and emergencies. Logistical planning and operations in complex emergencies can also benefit from better use of available technology. In Kosovo for example the International Rescue Committee created a shared satellite/wireless Internet network in Pristina which connects the UN, the OSCE, national missions and NGOs around the clock; the Child Connect Project is another example But, this said, the United Nations up to now has scarcely tapped the potential of the information revolution and there is enormous scope for the entire UN system to become better integrated on-line, providing the world's people with information and data.