Bannister and Remenyi: The Societal Value of ICT

Bannister, F. & Remenyi, D., 2003. The Societal Value of ICT: First Steps Towards an Evaluation Framework. Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation, 6(2), 197-206.

Finds a variety of benefits that arise from ICT: Economic (though there isn’t a consensus on this), educational (not just distance learning, but information access), convenience, entertainment, communication, access to information, political and democratic, reduction of risk, ecological, information ecology (203-4).

Then highlights “disbenefits”: information overload, unwanted information, information inaccuracy, new types of crime, collateral economic damage (where crime undermines something broader), vulnerability (society dependent on complex systems), disruption and displacement, destruction of social capital, increased economic competition, reduction or threats to civil liberties, globalization of culture, lower quality of employment and health risk (204-5).

“This paper has not provided definitive method with which to evaluate the information society. Its primary purpose was to explore the extent of the problems involved in this endeavour” (205).