Information and communication technology (ICT) has decisively established itself as a general purpose technology – one that affects an entire economy. Over the past four decades, ICT has spurred dramatic changes that will continue for the foreseeable future. Harder to predict though, is the exact nature of those changes and how they will play out across societies in our economies, our cultural relationships and the way human beings interact.

This notion formed the basic motivation for embarking on the study, which the Telefónica Foundation agreed to underwrite in 2008. The purpose of ‘The Linked World: How ICT Is Transforming Societies, Cultures and Economies’ is to take stock of our knowledge on what the economic, social, and cultural impacts of ICT will be. How has it evolved, how much have we been able to quantify or to evaluate in a qualitative sense and what does it mean for the challenges and opportunities ahead?

‘The Linked World: How ICT Is Transforming Societies, Cultures, and Economies’ (the book on which this report is based) is the result of a two-year global research project led by The Conference Board and builds on previous work by The Conference Board on the impact of ICT on economic performance.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has decisively established itself as a general purpose technology-one that affects an entire economy. Over the past four decades, ICT has spurred dramatic changes that will continue for the foreseeable future. Harder to predict, though, is the exact nature of those changes, and how they will play out across societies-in our economies, our cultural relationships and the way human beings interact.

This notion formed the basic motivation for embarking on the study, which the Telefónica Foundation agreed to underwrite in 2008. The purpose of The Linked World: How ICT Is Transforming Societies, Cultures, and Economies is to take stock of our knowledge on what the economic, social, and cultural impacts of ICT will be. How has it evolved, how much have we been able to quantify or to evaluate in a qualitative sense, and what does it mean for the challenges and opportunities ahead?

The Linked World: How ICT Is Transforming Societies, Cultures, and Economies (the book on which this report is based) is the result of a two-year global research project led by The Conference Board and builds on previous work by The Conference Board on the impact of ICT on economic performance.