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182 Concetta Stewart, et al.

Perhaps the greatest implication is that in the near future, it is
that the Net is still dominated in both academe and the business
world by the discourse patterns of the dominant white male society,
so that those women and men who want to participate equally, in the
fullest sense (be heard, responded to, and part of the decision-making
process of any negotiation taking place) will have to use the dominant
patterns in order to “market” themselves. There are implications for
policy from the most basic levels involving civility in the classrooms
to the development and deployment of the GII.
While there is widespread recognition of the impact of new in-
formation technologies on individuals, institutions and society, there
is little consensus on what that impact is and how and whether
there should be remediation. However, that there is an information
or technology gap is indisputable—and these obstacles to equity in
information technology exist, most specifically for women, minorities
and the poor.
Informed policy making has a role to play in addressing these
inequities. Bowie (1990) states that it is the role of the government
to protect the rights and interests of its citizens, especially the dis-
advantaged:

What a government does for the human beings at the bottom
of its social order—its poor, its minorities, its children, its
women, its elderly, those who are underrepresented or un-
represented, as well as people who are handicapped, those
who are undereducated, and those who are generally in need
but cannot help themselves—defines the degree and quality
of justice that can be expected in practice.

It appears, however, that the longer we wait to address this growing
gap, the more likely we are to see these so-called “democratic” tech-
nologies contribute to an increase in inequity in participation world-
wide, rather than to the emergence of an inclusive global
information economy.

Notes

This manuscript appeared originally in the Electronic Journal of Com-
munication/La revue electronique de communication, 8 (3 & 4), 1998 (see
<http://www.cios.org/www/ejcrec2.htm>) and is reprinted by kind permission
of the editors.