The fundamental equation of the information society
The achievement of an information economy does not guarantee the automatic development of an information society. You may have an apparently powerful information economy, i.e. an industry with a developed fabric of digital businesses that clearly contributes to the economic growth, being unable to simultaneously grow an information culture, i.e. a society where information is used extensively in the social, cultural, economic and political life to enable progress and human happiness.
A country may develop a powerful information industry without bringing an information society, i.e., without the development of an information culture. Conversely, a society can be constituted by information-literate citizens and organizations, though not automatically bringing into emergence an information economy.
It’s just information culture the factor that enables an information economy to be turned into an information society. In other words, I here venture to propose the “fundamental equation of information society”,
E x C = S
or, more literally , ( Information Economy ) x ( information Culture) = (information Society)
More in my book Infonomia: la empresa es información.
