The Network Society - University of Massachusetts Amherst

28 The Network Society
dom and Canada equalled in percentage terms the isolated contribution
made by labor or the investment in capital not coming from the information
technologies (Jorgensen 2005). The trend towards the convergence of
the investment contribution in information technologies with the contribution
from other investments in capital or the labour contribution would
seem to be a general one for all the more developed countries, albeit in
varying degrees. Likewise, there is a trend in all countries towards an
increase in the value added provided by the information technologies
in the creation of value added in the services sector (OECD 2004).
To clarify this a little, one should add that, contrary to general perceptions,
the productive fabric in the information age does not consist
merely of the technology companies (the so-called “dotcom” companies)
but also that of companies that are able to incorporate the information
technologies in their productive, organizational, distribution
and promotion processes.
Hence, the new economy is not only the likes of amazon.com, e-bay
or the telecommunications companies, although these are indeed part
of that economy, but also companies like INDITEX (a Spanish group
that owns ZARA and other clothing brands) that have been able to use
the Internet to achieve their economic objectives (Castells, 2004b).
Indeed, the new economy includes many more companies from traditional
sectors than purely technological companies or those with a
direct vocation for online business. It is normal for the productive fabric
today, as has always been the case down through the centuries, to
be led by one driving force sector, as well as others that will make use
of that dynamism to innovate.
In order to triumph in this game, any country or geographic zone also
requires a workforce with the capacity to use the new technology to
innovate, be it in the private sector or in the state. Workforces that carry
out repetitive—or not creative—work but with the use of the technologies,
a telecommunications structure, an innovative entrepreneurial
fabric, a state that is able to create the appropriate vocational training
conditions, conversion of organizational and management models and
establishes legislation on regulation, frameworks and incentives.
The data contained in the following tables compare Portugal and
the other countries in transition to three information society models.