Introduction

The ‘Digital economy’ is sometimes used synonymously with ‘information society’, which emerged back in the 1960s to describe a futuristic society that is highly dependent on information (Bridges.org, 2001; Computer Systems Policy Projects, 2000). Martin (1997:87) further associates the concept with ‘information economics’ by defining it as a society in which there is a growing rate in the production, distribution and use of information. The ‘Digital economy’, as term and concept, has been used in this book in keeping with ‘information society’ as espoused by Schienstock et al. (1999), who view it from an interdisciplinary perspective to describe: An information economy;A post-industrial society; The end of the industrial labour society; A knowledge society; An ‘informatized’ industrial society; and A learning society.