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Index of Subjects Well, now that we're all recovering from the power of the electorate, thought this note might shift us out of our provincial mode of thinking unto an international level that further confirms CCN's operating mission and vision. This recent email note came across my desk from the UN. I particuliarly like their 'seven goals' which I think fits nicely with CCN's aspirations as well, namely; "...These are connectivity, community, capacity, content, creativity, collaboration, and cash." We need to apply some intelligence to all these themes within the context of our HRM community. Cheers, Leo --- UNDP: UN Examines the Global Internet Society The United Nations' UNDP Human Development Report 1999 looks at the global distribution and availability of the new technologies. Looking at current problems, the report points to the elitist nature of Internet society, with income, education, gender, and geography the major 'fault lines.' It identifies the network society as creating 'parallel communications systems,' resulting in the development of a two-tier technology society. The first society has access to plentiful information at low cost and high speed. The second society has its quality of access impeded by time, cost, uncertainty of connection and outdated information. The report outlines seven goals that must be targeted to achieve an information society. These are connectivity, community, capacity, content, creativity, collaboration, and cash. Connectivity will require the setting up of telecommunications and computer networks globally. To achieve community, the report argues that there needs to be a greater focus on group access rather than individual ownership while capacity refers to the need to build human skills for the knowledge society. In terms of content, the focus will need to be on putting local views, news, culture and commerce online. Creativity refers to the need to adapt technology to local needs and constraints, while collaboration calls for the need to devise Internet governance for global needs. Finally, the cash goal identifies the need to find innovative ways to fund the knowledge society. The report estimates that 26.3 percent of the US population are Internet users. The rate of Internet penetration in OECD countries, with the exception of the US, was just 6.9 percent. This compares to .8 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, .5 percent in South-East Asia and the Pacific, .4 percent in East Asia, .4 percent in Eastern Europe and the CIS, .2 percent in the Arab States, .1 percent in Su-Saharan Africa, and .04 percent in South Asia. The full report is available in PDF format at the UNDP Web site. <http://www.undp.org/hdro/index2.html>
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