In the new information climate, developments in access and delivery of information through electronic means have posed challenges for many countries, especially in the developing world. The main vehicle for such electronic access and delivery is the Internet, through which it is now possible to access rapidly and inexpensively, large volumes of data and information, created throughout the world. The Internet, although only a few years old, has significantly changed information management in developed countries through creating pressures to further improve communication systems and develop more user friendly environment for the sharing of information. Now, the Internet has began penetrating developing countries, changing information practices in various sectors. The impact of Internet in developing countries is several fold: It is changing traditional ways of conducting information business by establishing new sources of information and new methods of communication on a global basis. It has created pressure to update the information/technology infrastructure. It has created healthy competition by bringing many international and indigenous vendors of IT on the same platform and has helped policy makers take advantage of access to global sources of information. In this background, the paper discusses the role of the Internet and its impact on developing countries, including some major issues associated with electronic information access and delivery. The discussion of the paper, however, is focused on the two most populous countries in the world, China and India, which are also information rich countries in the East Asia region and the South Asia region, respectively.
Table 1. Distribution of networks connected with Internet (1995): G-7 countries, Africa, Asia, Middle East and Latin America
source: NSFNET Networks by Country, 1 May 1995, http://nic.merit.edu/statistics/nsfnet/nets.by.country
There are obvious gaps between developed countries and developing countries in terms of the numbers of nets, hosts and users. As a study from the Panos Institute indicated: "there is a danger of a new information elitism which excludes the majority of the world’s population." [4] Analysis of data for total notes and connection dates for selected countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Pacific, along with G-7 [5] countries (for comparison) is provided in Table 1. Analytically, 56% of the connections were in the United States, 26% were in Europe, 16% were in Canada and Latin America countries, and 12% were in Asia, Middle East and the remaining 1 % were in African countries. The G-7 countries took about 80% of total nets connected with Internet, and the number of nets in 55 developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America amounted to only 5%.
Table 3. Long-term potential of information technology in Asia and Pacific countries
Source: Gartner Group Latest Report, China Infoworld, July, 29, 1996, Edition 41