An Information Society Economy: Illusions and Realities, Part 2
This part of the article looks at the main trends of forming today's information society in Russia. It uses official 2000-2008 statistics to analyze the rates of social, investment, innovative and production development in this field. The data show that Russia is currently in the process of forming the foundations of an information society economy, but that national businesses are only interested in the field's high-profit segment. The article suggests that information societies could potentially become self-sufficient by redistributing the high-profit segment's earnings to the lower ends of the field. The low-end segments primarily survive through the help of state financing. In the meantime, the state sector's insufficient in volvement in the high-end segment is keeping the low-end from relying on the high-end's for help. The article also shows that Russia is exhibiting the traces of innovative inactivity and pursuing the dangerous policy of having its local manufacturer being squeezed out by information market imports.