Dordick, Herbert S. (author), Bradley, H.G. (author), and Nanus, Burt (author)
Format:
Book
Publication Date:
1981
Published:
USA: Ablex Publishing Corporation, Norwood, NJ.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C21250
Notes:
Includes a discussion (p. 151) about attitudes of rural residents in support of rural post offices, despite potentials for using electronic technology instead of physical delivery of mail. "Of the Service's 40,000 buildings, 30,800 can be considered community or rural installations and generate only 4.5% of the total revenues." Mentions (p. 216-217) several agricultural applications of computer networks. (p. 217) Farmers are among the latest group to join a fast-growing list of non-technical users of computer networks. They are becoming aware that farming is not a way of life but a business - one that needs management tools." Predicts (p. 237) "In the nineties the issue will be one of equality of access to information, with the specialized networks doing very well financially because of the valuable and efficient services they will be providing. For some time, thoughtful observers have expressed fear that the emerging information society will produce a new class of information elite, and, indeed, there do exist two classes of people and businesses: the information users and the information used." Observes that electronic technologies are not decentralizing and opening access to business opportunities, but leading toward concentration of the components of the network marketplace. (p. 237) "This greater concentration of intellectual power in the emerging information society can only lead to concentrations of industrial and financial power which are not in concert with the American economic dream."
