There is a direct connection through employment increasingly moving to information-based sectors of the economy, but the appropriation of basic scientific and cultural information, changing them from public goods into private property, threatens traditional ways of life and the autonomy of both workers and consumers. An increasing portion of the world's production and trade involves information and the exchange of information. The changes brought by an information economy are profound, arguably as significant as those wrought by the industrial revolution. They will affect the lives of everyone, even those not immediately involved. The steel used to construct a building, or the boots worn by the workers constructing it, cannot be consumed by anyone else.
Information is different.
Not only is it available for multiple uses and users, it becomes more valuable the more it is used. The same is true of the networks that link up different sources of information. And information and communications are also an essential component of the development process itself. The Internet is an example of a communications system built on open rather than proprietary protocols and technology. While barriers to Internet access are a major problem, these are far less of a problem than they would be if key elements of Internet technology were owned by individual corporations.