Digital Divide Challenge: How Stakeholder Analysis Can Be Used to Formulate Effective IT Diffusion Policies

Abstract

Following an initial euphoria about the power of the information superhighway to provide better access to information and wealth for all, what we have experienced in reality instead is that information and communication technologies have created further inequalities at individual, business, national and international level. To ease the effects of this “digital divide,” policy makers have taken up the role of change agencies, influencing the public in using innovative information technologies. This chapter focuses on the role of these change agencies for technology diffusion and the elimination of the digital divide. It is argued that examining the interest of change agencies and the other stakeholders involved in the diffusion process from a normative perspective can help in the preparation of effective information technology diffusion policies.