Information technology and the problems of less developed countries

Abstract Information technology offers limited benefits to less developed countries not simply because of technological (or even financial) difficulties, but because basic social, educational, political, and structural problems remain unsolved. While electronic publishing and delivery may be logical developments within capital intensive economies, the required investment and volume of use do not match current capacities of less developed countries. The imposition of modern information technology carries with it the danger of polarizing development activities within a few outward‐looking “centers of excellence,” with a possibility of retarding, rather than encouraging, the growth of indigenous resources. Moreover, it cannot be assumed that the relevance and coverage of data bases available through the channels of the industrialized world are appropriate to, and adequate for, the needs of developing countries.