The Individual in the Information Society: A Summary of Recent Developments
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 30th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ORGANIZATIONAL SCIENCE DEVELOPMENT, page 1578--1585. Portoroz, SSRN, (2011)Abstract
This paper addresses the impact of ICT on the changing role of individuals in the information society in their different roles. It attempts to summarize the developments and provides a respective context. Therefore, we first give a summary about impacts of ICT developments on the level of societies, organizations, and individuals. Then we take a more detailed view on the individual and his or her role as a consumer within the commercial world. We summarize the ICT impact on commerce and the emergence of eCommerce and especially eCommerce 2.0. What we can see is that individuals, especially individuals in their role as consumers, are no longer at the end of any value chain but an integrated part of value creation. ICT can be seen as the main enabler for the changing role of individuals be it as consumers, patients, or citizens.