New Technology and Rural Development

Industrial society has moved into an era of advanced technological innovation, affecting the way developed countries run their businesses, their institutions and lead their lives. One of the areas in which these technological advances are dramatically influencing people’s lives is information technology and telecommunications – hence the claim that we are in the midst of a ‘digital revolution’ that is driving us towards an ‘information society’. As during previous societal revolutions based on technological advances there remain many countries and people that are largely unaffected by the changes that are taking place.

Definition of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)

ICTs are those technologies that can be used to interlink information technology devices such as personal computers with communication technologies such as telephones and their telecommunication networks. The PC and laptop with e-mail and Internet provides the best example. Michiels and Van Crowder (2001) have defined ICTs ‘as a range of electronic technologies which when converged in new configurations are flexible, adaptable, enabling and capable of transforming organizations and redefining social relations’. The range of technologies is increasing all the time and ‘there is a convergence between the new technologies and conventional media’ (Michiels and Van Crowder, 2001:8). This rapid and ongoing convergence means that devices such as digital cameras, digital video cameras and players, personal digital assistants, slide projectors and mobile telephones are also compatible with more traditional media such as radio (digital, satellite), television (cable, digital, satellite). Thus most devices can now be linked to others to share and exchange information and allow it to be used in such a way that they can also be categorized as ICTs. Even books are being incorporated into ICTs either through the potential for informal web publishing or more formal digital book publishing with designated readers or ‘e-books’. ICTs, therefore, are an expanding assembly of technologies that can be used to collect, store and share information between people using multiple devices and multiple media.