Digital Divide, Digital Ethics, and E-government

Abstract

Despite unprecedented increase in overall opulence, the contemporary world denies elementary freedoms to vast numbers — perhaps even the majority — of people. The important issue here is technological progress. Technology’s influential relationship with society arguably reaches back to the beginning of human history. With regard to the history of technology, a number of authors believe that the development of human organisation from the Eolithic Age to the Information Age is directly related to the development of technology. As human dependency on technology has evolved, so have attitudes towards technology. In modern times, technology has tacitly been connected to the notion of progress. Arguably, in a global perspective adoption of a particular technology (it could be any technology) is a matter of affluence. Forerunner countries like the United States and western European countries are also leading nations with regard to economic performance. The more developed a country is in economic terms, the more the number of people who can afford and who need to rely on available technology in their daily business. In the last decade, we have seen that the wealthier economies have experienced a shift from industrial goods production to a service economy relying on the creation and processing of information and on knowledge workers who are skilled in the more advanced technology.