The Network Society - University of Massachusetts Amherst

Societies in Transition to the Network Society 33
Internet utilization values of more than two-thirds of the average for
the advanced economies (with the exception of Argentina and Brazil).
In general terms, the countries analyzed here always present better
results and more balanced values in the technological “knowledge”
dimension than in the “infrastructure” and “technology production”
dimensions. However, the irregularity of the performance in these two
latter categories would seem, in itself, to be a distinguishing mark of
these societies and the fruit of the fact that, in the transition process,
they have not yet been able to stabilize good results in all categories.
Examples of this irregularity in terms of results are the percentage
values for Brazil (19) and Hungary (25) in relation to the average high
technology export figures for the G7 (21) or the number of mobile
phone contracts in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and the Czech
Republic, which are all above the G7 average, and also the growth
rates for secure servers in Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Hungary, Poland, Greece, Chile and Argentina, whose figures are
close to, or above, those of the three information economies analyzed
here (Finland, USA and Singapore).
However, we also have to take into account some peculiarities of the
societies in transition, without which it would be difficult to explain
some of their performances. By way of example, let us look at the question
of secure server penetration. The fact that Portugal and Spain
have higher ATMs per million inhabitants rates (AETIC 2004), with
1,047 and 1,230 machines compared to an EU average of 700, has
allowed for the development of alternative systems to the use of credit
cards and secure servers for online purchases. The fact that Portugal
has a debit card system common to the whole banking system, the socalled
“Multibanco” system, has made it possible to make online orders
with payment through the ATM network, thus creating an alternative
and more secure electronic channel for transactions. This is one example
of many that help us to understand that, in addition to the common
and individual traits, there are sometimes situations common to two or
more countries that allow for the identification of some characteristic
sub-groups in the context of the transition analyzed here.
If there is something that brings the different societies from two continents
analyzed here closer together then it is, as mentioned above, the
technological knowledge dimensions. Hence, the figures for the num-