Internet Counts: Measuring the Impacts of the Internet (1998)

Summary: It is easy to be excited about the opportunities offered to developing countries by the Internet and its associated technologies, but it is also necessary to better understand the kinds of impacts one desires and those already observed. This report begins to provide a framework to analyze and better understand the impacts of this technology on Internet service providers and users and on various sectors of society. Based on the committee’s findings, some areas for further research should include issues of causality, country-specific case studies of Internet use and diffusion, impacts of nonuse of the Internet, institutional use and diffusion of the Internet, and public policy and Internet use.