Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T09:05:34.949Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Implications of Distributed Information Technology for South Pacific Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

Paul Andrew Watters  and
Maya Espinosa Walters
Paul Andrew Watters
Affiliation:
Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Maya Espinosa Walters
Affiliation:
Department of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The global digital communications network, colloquially known as the “internet”, has received much attention in recent years from business, media, cultural, and government interests. This paper looks behind the hype and sales-pitches, at the essential features of the medium which have made it (and will continue to make it) the central technology for the dissemination of information in the next century. It is a particularly important technology for remote communities, since all information resources (educational, commercial, and recreational) can be transmitted using a standard set of protocols (Hypertext Transfer Protocol, File Transfer Protocol, Network News Transfer Protocol), over any physical medium (packet radio, satellite, phone-line, and optic fibre), in any data format that can be digitised (radio, television, text, graphics, and sound). The implications of this non-coercive technology are explored in the context of the impact on development in the physically distant communities of the South Pacific.

Type
Psychology and Technology
Information
South Pacific Journal of Psychology , Volume 9 , 1997 , pp. 75 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © University of Papua New Guinea & the University of Newcastle, Australia 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aboba, B. (1993). The On-Line Users' Encyclopedia. New York: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Carr, S. C. (1996). Social psychology in Malaŵi: Historical or developmental? Psychology and Developing Societies, 8, 177–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gergen, K. & Gergen, M. (1971). International assistance in psychological perspective. In Keeton, G.W. & Schwarzenberger, G. (Eds.), The year book of World affairs, 1971 (pp. 87–103). London: Stevens and Sons.Google Scholar
Segal, B. (1995). A short history of internet protocols at CERN. CERN Technical Report PDP-NS <http://wwwcn.cern.ch/pdp/ns/TCPHIST.html>Google Scholar
UNDP. (1992). Project of the Governments of the South Pacific Project Document: Pacific Sustainable Development Network. UNDP 1NT/92/204/A/01/31. <http://www3.undp.org/countries/as/spacpr.html>>Google Scholar