The Diffusion of Information Technology: Experience of Industrial Countries and Lessons for Developing Countries, A World Bank Discussion Paper, No. 281, Nagy Hanna, Ken Guy & Erik Arnold, Washington, DC, The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, The World Bank, 1995, xix + 207 pp., ISBN 0 8213 3216 3

Notes and References

1. Everett Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, Free Press, New York, 1983. The central point of the diffusion theory is that innovations which show relative advantage, compatibility, trialability and observability have a better chance of adoption and that the rate of adoption would be faster with sustained assistance.

2. Nagy Hanna is the principal operations officer in the World Bank's West Bank and Gaza Resident Mission. He is also author of several IT-related World Bank Discussion Papers. Ken Guy and Eric Arnold are directors of Technopolis, Technology Policy Consultants in Brighton, UK.

3. National champions refer to companies such as Siemens in Germany, Ericcson in Sweden, and Philips in the Netherlands which are a major source of national innovation and technology.

4. The GII concept was first proposed by US Vice-President Al Gore in his speech during an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Conference in March 1994 in which he called for all nations to build a network of telecommunications systems, so-called ‘information superhighways’, that ‘will allow [nations] to share information, to connect, and to communicate as a global community’.

5. The World Bank's Information for Development (infoDev) initiative provides technical assistance to countries in formulating national information infrastructure policies and plans and encourages private sector participation in government-supported IT programmes.