The moment we are living through, the moment our historical generation is living through, is the largest increase in expressive capacity in human history. ~Clay Shirky
In today's world, access to information is essentially unlimited,
and so information is cheap. The Internet “wipes out both the difficulty and the expense of geographic
barriers to distribution of information. ‘Content as product’ is giving way to ‘content as
service,' where users won't pay for the object but rather, will pay for its manipulation."
Technology is enabling people from all walks of life to get information and
authentically connect with one another from almost anywhere on Earth. Today, a semi-nomadic Masai tribesman in northern Tanzania with a
smartphone connected to Google has access to more information than the President of the United States did fifteen
years ago.
The ubiquitous presence of ICT has brought about
some profound, long-term communication trends. Prior to the Internet, we had a lot of
resources in place to support one-way, outbound communication. For example, we had
television and radio, and we could publish information in magazines and newspapers. Two-way
communication devices like telephones and, earlier, the telegraph had become widely
accessible.
And today, since Information and Communication
Technologies have become so much a part of our cultural fabric, we are experiencing two new,
significant shifts in our communication patterns:
1. We
have transitioned from point-to-point, two-way conversations to many-to-many, collaborative communications; and
2. The
control of the
communication environment is transitioning to open Internet platform providers, enabled by “better, cheaper
technology, open standards, greater penetration of broadband services and
wireless communication networks".
People around the world are becoming empowered
by information. Already, over 70 percent of humanity in every country have access to
instantaneous, low-cost communications and information, including political
constituents, community members, teachers, and their students. And for the first time
ever, the “Rising Billions’” voices will be heard, and with that, the formally unrepresented
among us will become a real presence as both a producing and consuming segment of
humanity.
With many-to-many communication widely available,
people from all around the world can now easily update their skills to increase their value in the marketplace and learn entirely new ways to generate income for themselves and their families through online education.
Easy access to Information and Communication
Technologies is giving people around the world exactly what they need—an amplified, informed voice.
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