There are many constraints to this now. Poverty is perhaps the greatest constraint. If it is too expensive to learn to read, to buy books, to have access to a computer, and to pay for college, then we have little hope for spreading the capacities needed for more science-based development. In the meantime, we need to start experimenting with new ways of grouping technology to make it accessible to the poor. For example, community informatics centres, such as we're now seeing in Peru and other countries, are intriguing, combining the concept of a community library with a commercial enterprise offering a public service, in this case access to computers on an hourly basis.
National policies promoting open information societies are also vital.
States fearful about open E-Mail and Fax facilities must get over their fears. Inadvertently such states are putting a tourniquet on their development. Not only should there be free access to information flows, there must be low priced access. If the cost of E-mail internationally is prohibitive, there is yet another tourniquet on development. It is all well and good to look at maps in developing areas of the world and colour in the connected countries, but take another look to see if connectivity is merely an exercise of the few elite or if it encompasses the wider community.