Information, as Romer notes, is the quintessential non-rival good. Once devised, a software package, a database, a learning program can be made available to all, at almost no marginal cost. Distribution is also nearly free, for pure information has no physicality. Once you pay a basic membership charge, usage is free. Data manipulation is not metered, like usage of electricity or gas or the telephone.
Information networks deliver a kind of horizontal equity.
Once a user is conversant with the technology, he or she is the equal of anyone else on line. The cyberworld is an almost-pure free marketplace of ideas. And as their enthusiasts keep telling us, computer networks are populist, free-wheeling, decentralized, and egalitarian, to the point of being splendidly anarchic. Vertical equality, however, is another matter. It remains to be seen whether the computer will truly pervade the entire society in the manner of telephones, TVs, and cars.