Only a fifth of the world’s population currently has access to the Internet. That figure should be increased.President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was once asked which book he would like to place in the hands of every citizen of the Soviet Union. He replied: “Sears, Roebuck Catalog”!The quip reflected an understanding that people’s desire to improve their everyday lives is a powerful agent for economic and social change. And, that those aspirations are shaped and enabled by the information and communication possibilities at their disposal.Thanks to the Internet, an ever-increasing part of our economies and societies is at our fingertips. Today, more than a billion users access an online market place as well as a wealth of news and information online in ways hardly possible to imagine just a few years ago. They have joined the Internet economy and been empowered by the opportunities this presents for commercial choice, social interaction and civic engagement.Yet only a fifth of the world’s population currently has access to the Internet.
http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/2664