Vital Links for a Knowledge Culture

Book excerpt: Citizenship and cultural participation in the 21st century will increasingly require access to new information technologies, and those lacking access will risk social exclusion. This book considers the issues involved in developing a policy framework to close the access gap, in order to maximise the potential for human and cultural development. It contains a number of essays that adopt historical, statistical, theoretical, and descriptive methods to investigate the value of the internet for societies, citizens and communities. It considers how government policy makers and their partners in the corporate and civil society sectors can help foster full participation in the development of a knowledge society.