The Landscape of International Computing

The landscape of international computing is highly diverse from country to country, reflecting national differences and cultures. The chapter discusses national differences; and transnational systems and MNCs. Developments at the international level such as the post-war liberalization of international trade, and the activities of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Intergovernmental Bureau for Informatics (IBI), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and other international organizations have done much to aid the global proliferation of information technology. Dependency theory, development theory, and structuralism have all made contributions to understanding the effects of this global inequality, and nation states have responded to this inequality according to both their economic status and their relative place within the worldwide system of innovation, manufacturing, and utilization of information technology. They have responded by throttling the supply of information technology within their borders, its geographical reach, and its applications range. The chapter describes three dimensions of influence are: supply, range, and reach. Research in the future should focus on several key areas of inquiry, including understanding the global proliferation of information technology, intensifying the effort to understand the social and cultural effects of information systems, particularly in non-Western countries and cultures, and assessing the broader effects of the rise of transnational information systems.