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CHAPTER TWO GLOBAL NETWORKS AND THEIR IMPACT JONATHAN ARONSON The spread of integrated global networks is accelerating. Vast and growing quantities of information flow across these networks at ever greater speed and continually declining prices. These technologically sophisticated networks are reshaping the landscape of politics and international relations, transforming global commerce , recasting societies and cultures, and altering policy formulation and implementation . Many suggest that this is the dawn of a new information age or the onset of a world information economy. Some predict bright prospects arising from these innovations; others worry that new technologies will destroy jobs and cause a permanent “digital divide,” a chasm separating rich and poor within and between countries. The scope of change is widespread, deep, and rapid. Analysts grappling with these changes often become mired in generalities or focus on specific micro-issues, losing touch with the bigger picture. Two approaches help put things in perspective . First, historical context of the kind provided by Mark Zacher in this volume illustrate the evolution of change. Second, issues can be classified and sorted. This second approach is taken here. Three analytical distinctions help categorize issues related to changes prompted by the evolution of global networks. The goal of this taxonomic exercise is to explain in accessible, but structured, shorthand the terrain of possibilities created for policymakers, firms, and society by the new global networks while also providing a framework for theory building, not new theory. THREE DISTINCTIONS Three distinctions are at the core of this exercise. The first distinction divides content and conduit issues. Many issues arise from the management, pricing, and regulation of content. The proliferation of information flowing through wireline and wireless networks and the ease of accessing and manipulating it changes how 39 governments and firms conduct business and how individuals live. Burgeoning information flows affect the regulation and conduct of policy and commerce. They keep people informed and allow them to make their support or outrage known and thus influence society and events. As the volume of information flows climb, changes are accelerating. By contrast, conduit issues linked to the design , financing, construction, operation, maintenance, and integration of global networks are just as important but receive less attention. Second, both content and conduit issues can be classified according to what f lows in what manner over which networks. On the content side money, E-commerce, data, and ideas all flow across networks. Most of the world’s money pulses through global networks. Banks exchange currencies. Stocks, bonds, and commodities are bought and sold without currency ever changing hands. E-commerce allows the sale or auction of goods over networks, even when physical delivery is still required. In addition, bits of information are transmitted, viewed, analyzed, and acted upon. Telephone calls, cable and satellite television programs, news broadcasts, price quotes, and sports’ odds and scores all are globally available. Inherent in some information are ideas with the potential to change governments, firms, societies, and their people. On the conduit side, different concerns arise depending on whether the information is received as voice, data, or images (still or moving). These distinctions are blurring with the expansion of the World Wide Web and the integration of information technologies. But, presently, different issues are raised depending on how information is used. Direct communications among people (telephone calls, pagers, faxes), data transmissions (databases, marketing plans, financial records, travel reservations, electronic commerce purchases) and the broadcast of images (video-streamed events, news, and entertainment) raise distinct issues. In addition , as technologies converge, new crosscutting issues emerge. Thus, in areas like video conferencing, distance learning, and interactive entertainment the voice/ data/image distinctions are eroding just as the once popular FCC distinction between basic and value-added services lost its meaning.1 The third distinction identifies three arenas of policy impact: politics and policy , commerce and finance, and society and culture. First, new technologies and global networks impact the domestic and foreign politics and policies of countries and force officials to redesign regulatory approaches. Second, globalization is transforming global commerce and finance and may impel private firms and statecontrolled entities to become regional and global players to stay competitive. Finally, stimulated by the explosion of the Web and the proliferation of other inexpensive forms of communications, cultures and societies are reinventing themselves at a breathtaking pace.2 This section looks at content issues. The following section focuses on conduit issues and the policy questions they raise. Several themes in these sections 40 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND GLOBAL POLITICS [18.191.41...

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