Long abstract

About Statistics Publications & Documents Information by Country

Information technology (IT) is significantly affecting the economy, the growth and structure of output, occupations and employment and how people use their time. The Information Technology Outlook 2000 describes the rapid growth in the supply and demand for information technology goods and services and their role in the expanding Internet economy and looks at emerging uses of information technology. It reflects the spread and diversity of a technology that is underpinning economic and social transformation. It makes use of the new official national sources of data which are becoming available as statistical mapping of the information economy improves. More specifically, the Information Technology Outlook 2000 addresses:

• The importance of information and communication technologies (ICT) in national economies, their drivers and impacts (Chapter 1).
• The development of information technology markets, market structure and market dynamics, and the drivers of market expansion (Chapter 2).
• Links between the use of information technologies (notably PCs) and developments in network infrastructure and the potential uptake of electronic commerce and other applications which use enhanced computing and network capabilities (Chapter 3).
• The increasing ubiquity of electronic payments and the issues surrounding trust with respect to various payment methods (Chapter 4).
• OECD countries' policies for testing new electronic financial transaction technologies and increasing their rate of diffusion to complement private sector technology development (Chapter 5).
• India, as an example of the strategies of non-OECD countries for developing a viable software industry (Chapter 6).
• Characteristics, uses and development of intelligent agent technologies as tools to exploit the enormous amount of commercial and non-commercial information available on the Internet (Chapter 7).
• The development and growth of global navigation systems that make possible increasingly precise geographical location and their incorporation in the global information infrastructure (Chapter 8).
• The development and likely pattern of uptake of the less cumbersome and more portable flat panel display technologies that underpin broad-based applications requiring digital display and interactive access (Chapter 9).
• Statistical profiles of the development of the information economy in 12 OECD countries, along with a summary of national policies underpinning the development of the information economy.