Review of the Information Society Report (week 4)

    To be able to talk about the Information Society, the term itself should be defined. As it's clearly described in the report that the Information Society means a creative society based on interaction. The methods of doing some new things, not new technologies are considered to be the most important concept for an Information Society.

   It is time to take a quick look at some global trends that are the logical consequences of the development of Information Society. Firstly, as time goes by the tax rates go down and states invest more in skilled employees. This is a kind of competition between the states and they do it mainly for attracting well-versed specialists. Population aging can also be considered as one of the main trends in an Information Society. It literally means a kind of divergence of the older generation from the youngers who are still eligible to work. As anticipated, this trend has already started in many Europan countries since 2010. Another forecast was about rapid development in bio-industries. Genetic Engineering, Medicine, and also Biotechnology were foreseen to progress a lot. Despite they are developing fields of today, the predicted rise has not been seen yet. 

   Let's examine the development of the Information Society from a geographical perspective. Some regions like North America (more precisely, the US), the EU, and Asia are the leading zones on the way to be the most developed Information Societies. US's and Asia's positions are more advantageous than the EU's. As the US forms 1/3 of the world economy and its military expenses equal nearly 50% of the world's total military expenses, it is considered one of the leading powers. What makes Asia unique in this field is the annual development rate which is roughly estimated as 10%. The fact is that the global production and markets are shifting to Asia (especially eastern Asia - China). Moreover, the annual number of specialists trained in China in the fields of science and technology which is 590 000 and more than the EU (440 000) and the US (385 000) is another reason for such a noticeable development of Asia.                                                     

   Apart from the predictions and most-developed regions, there are also some models applied by the aforementioned societies; Silicon Valley (by the USA), Singapore (by Asia), and the Finnish model         (by EU). Briefly talking, the Finnish model applied by the EU countries has some values to focus on like Freedom, Encouragement, Creativity, and Balance. By concentrating on the mentioned values, people protect the industrial era structures of the welfare state. Moreover, there are also some necessary concepts that an information society should base on. Creative economy, creative welfare society are prime examples of these concepts. The mentioned notions are to be the main structural points for the social development of an Information Society.