I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY I NFRASTRUCTURE

The interest and growth in the virtual society has been further spurred by advances in IT and subsequent investments in IT infrastructure. Increased demand for goods and services on a national and global scale has increased the need for faster and reliable information processing and telecommunication technologies. As noted by Beniger (1986),

[information] technology appears autonomously to beget [information] technology and, … innovations in matter and energy processing create the need for further innovation in information processing and communication. (p. 434).

Advances in telecommunication and network technology and the reduction in hardware and software costs have been equal to the challenge. Interorganizational information systems (IOS) allow computer networks to process data and share information across organizational boundaries (Applegate et al., 2002). IOSs are

TABLE I World Internet Usage and Population Statistics as of July 23rd 2005 (IWS, 2005)

World

World Regions

Population

Internet Usage,

Usage Growth

% Population

Users % The Africa

(2005 Est.)

% of World

Latest Data

(Penetration)

1.7 % Vir Asia

34.5 % tual Europe

28.7 % Society Middle East

2.3 % North America

23.8 % Latin America/Caribbean

7.3 % Oceania/Australia

1.8 % World Total

196 Shayo et al.

being used to expand organizational relationships by decoupling value chain activi- ties while maintaining a controlled and coordinated environment. The Nike Inc. example, cited earlier, is a case in point. IT allows each organization linked by an IOS to concentrate on its core competence. (Many transnational and multinational organizations, however, now have a multitude of core competencies, for example, GE). Nike Inc. decided to concentrate on product design, sales and marketing, and service as its core competence. The outcome is a virtual organization that has the global advantages of economies of scale and scope but the responsiveness of a small local company.

Technology by itself does not ensure the coming of the virtual society. Rather, it is an enabler and shaper. Digital technology has made it possible to convert char- acters, sounds, pictures, and motions into a computer language. Codifi cation of data, including text and numbers as well as multimedia digitalization, allows us to

be less time- and location-dependent. The emergence of multimedia standards, and the shift to distributed computing and inter-networking, are providing the raw power for digital convergence. A cornucopia of supporting technologies have emerged, including the Inter/Intra/Extranet, elaborate a bit on these electronic mail, groupware, video-conferencing, workfl ow, data management, data warehousing, and improved networking capabilities.

In the 1990s, the Internet moved from supporting only science and research to becoming an integral tool for commerce. The Internet is at the forefront of the global growth of these enablers. The growth of the Internet has been astounding. The growth rate in the number of Internet hosts is exponential. For example, in 1995, 148 of 185 (86%) United Nations members had Internet service, compared to 46% in 1991 (Chon, 1996). By 2004, almost all countries of the world (209) had Internet service (ITU, 2003), and over 29 million businesses worldwide had domain addresses (Verisign, 2004).

Interactive communications are required if business is to be conducted virtu- ally on the Internet (or its successors). Electronic mail is the foundation for such communication and is available at relatively modest cost, but the simple sending of text messages is not enough. Multimedia applications are coming to increase the gains of groupware, video-conferencing, data management, and data warehousing in the virtual world. Improved networking infrastructures will underlie the higher bandwidth, security, and reliability that enable this technology.

Internet electronic commerce is replacing traditional electronic commerce, which relied on value-added and private messaging networks—both of which were relatively expensive and provided limited connectivity. Traditional electronic commerce tools, such as electronic data interchange (EDI), fax, symbol technology, barcoding, inter-enterprise e-mailing, and fi le transfer technologies, are being aug- mented, and, in some cases, replaced by the Internet (Pyle, 1996). Internet technologies (networks, computers, software, etc.) continue to increase in capability and functionality. The new technology holds many possibilities for virtual societies. It enables individuals, groups, communities, organizations, and societies, among

8 The Virtual Society 197

others, to exchange information, do business, participate in newsgroup discussion, and publish information electronically. The new technology enables innovative ways of communicating and doing business. It is an important element of creating the virtual society.

The new advances in IT are also shaping the evolution of the virtual society. The current manifestations of the virtual society, which include telework, virtual teams, virtual corporations, virtual libraries, virtual museums, telemedicine, and e-government, are possible because the potential benefi ts seem to outweigh the costs. As these current practices become entrenched, they will be accepted as stan- dard practice—and, hence, shape the future of the virtual society. Future advances in distributed networks, distributed databases, bandwidth, storage, and network security will continue to infl uence the evolution of the virtual society.

I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY I NFRASTRUCTURE