信息社会(1)

Once upon a time societies were organised around religion, farming, trade or industry.

In many parts of the world today this is still true, but something else is becoming more important - the exchange of information, and the technology that we use to do this.

24 hour news, e-commerce, international call-centres, mobile phones, Global Positioning Systems, all these are making the world smaller and faster.

The growth in telecommunications is now giving more and more people access to democratic ideas, to the principles of international law and human rights, to the science that will help their country to develop or to the medical knowledge that can fight disease.

It is starting a real global village which people only dreamed of a generation ago.