Cyberpath to Development in Asia : Issues and Challenges

Many Asian countries are achieving remarkable success in closing what researchers call the digital divide between developing and developed nations, while others continue to struggle. This collection of essays sheds light on the various ways in which the Internet has been seen in Asia. As we continue to debate new paradigms of research and development in the digital era, where innovations and convergences are the norm, this book fills an urgent need, revealing how the technological revolution has spread, and is spreading, throughout diverse nations.

Chapters on the United States and Japan offer a sort of yardstick by which to measure and compare the diffusion and the impact of the Internet in other Asian countries, including China, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. Appealing to readers interested in the development of the Asian region, technological innovation, and international communication, Cyberpath to Development in Asia offers an acute study of how a global phenomenon continues to manifest itself in a crucial part of the globe.

SANDHYA RAO is Graduate Adviser and Associate Professor in the Department of Mass Communication at Southwest Texas State University. She has contributed articles to several books and is the co-editor of Critical Issues in Communication: Looking Inward for Answers (2001).

BRUCE C. KLOPFENSTEIN is the director of the Dowden Center for New Media Studies and a Professor of Telecommunications at the University of Georgia. An expert in the field of new communication technologies, he is the co-author of The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog―Academic Edition (1996).