Russia's plans to be a 'world leader' in the information society: doomed to fail?
In the past few days, President Putin has declared that he wants Russia to be the world's leader in information production, and in the information society, by 2015. His declarations of the importance of 'technology transfers' and 'increasing democracy' appear at first to make this bold statement seem to be nothing more than an attempt to move on from the controversy surrounding Russia's recent diplomatic relations with Britain. Considering the British media dubbed the expulsion of two Russian spies from England as a return to 'Cold War diplomacy', it would be in Russia's interest to reaffirm its position as a player in the democratic, integrated West.
But these new proposals by Putin have more than a shade of the rhetoric and manoeuvrings of Russia's Communist past. The calls for 'parity of technology' and the appointment of a panel at the highest levels of government to deal with the problem are reminiscent of the days when the Politburo dealt with questions of farm management in the Urals region, and when nuclear parity was the dream of Khrushchev. Not only that but the problems that beset the Communist Party in the fulfilment of its aims are poised to rear their heads and stall Putin's wishes too.
As a recent report by the think tank 'Government on the Web' shows, Putin's belief that the government can direct the information potential of Russia's business world neglects the fact that in the more greatly developed Knowledge Economies, it is the world of e-Commerce that is leading governments in the implementation of user-friendly services and getting results.
It is important that Government on the Web has highlighted the tailoring of information towards personal needs as a triumph and model to be taken from the world of e-Commerce, as it is this area of democracy and individualism that could be the greatest obstacle to Russia's success as a world information leader. Just as in the days of Khrushchev and Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the empowerment of the individual that is made possible by the information society (for example, the influence of blogs) could prove a fatal blow to such a controlled, top-down society such as Russia's, in which Putin controls the vast majority of government appointments, and is (according to a recent article in the New York Times) expanding his influence in the populous through youth organisations.
Finally, as the debates at ICANN and in the cities in question heat up over the question of city-specific Top Level Domains, the question must be asked, is Russia too late in stepping in to the information society as a global player? The arguments of the New York and Berlin lobbies for city TLDs reflect the movement in the information society towards a more localised focus on information, a move that may not be taken into account by Russia's government in its rush to move from 57th on the Economist's 'e-Readiness' rankings 2007, into world leader, in just eight years.
One wonders if Putin has not bitten off more than he can chew.
DM
4 comments:
Great post Dave, the breadth of focus is excellent. Your point about Russia's top-down approach being flawed is spot on, this has been a feature of the European approach too but not to that extent I guess.
the point is that Russia's civil society is castrated. what do they expect to happen?
At least Putin is thinking about something other than oil and gas as the path to prosperity. Are you still focused on the negative? Bell taught you better before you lurched into Gorzianism.......
those who can, do. those who can't invent clever screen names
Post a Comment