Term Paper on "Terrorists of Al Qaeda Planned Their Attacks"

Term Paper 7 pages (2118 words) Sources: 6 Style: Harvard

[EXCERPT] . . . .

terrorists of Al Qaeda planned their attacks on September 11th, they did not use the traditional mix of secret signals and special couriers. Instead they had a far more powerful and cryptic tool at their hands, the internet. Al Qaeda utilized organization and communication tools such as encrypted emails to carry out the most devastating attacks in United States history. That terrorist organizations now are mobile digitally speaks the changing times of information and communication technology. Within the past five years, the world has seen an emerging "Great Leap Forward" within information and communication technology. This technology is not limited to digital solutions such as the development of the internet, but also various hardware, software and intercontinental platforms. The overall impact of the revolution that is taking place is that communications has dramatically changed the culture of the world. The inevitable question that must be posed is how the "Great Leap Forward" within information and communication technology has amounted into a "cultural revolution."

There is obvious significance to the "Great Leap Forward" and the "Cultural Revolution" can be attributed to China's communist formula towards privatization. When Deng Xiao Ping, the premier of China during the 1980s pronounced that China would undertake a "Great Leap Forward" by taking down pre-existing barriers to Western trade, it began a series of reforms that led to what many in China term a "Cultural Revolution." To ask if a similar cultural revolution took place in the wake of the expansion of information and communication technology, we must thoroughly examine how such technology has changed within the recent past. From a surface examination there seems to be strong cultural forces at play, from the explosion of Middle Eastern violence to Asian economic booms, there seems to be many factors that are significantly impacted by the "Great Leap Forward." The below analysis will first examine the significance of the "Great Leap Forward" by examining changes with information and communication technology. Then we will observe how these dynamic changes deeply impacted the cultural revolution of the modern era.

The "Great Leap Forward" in information and communication technology did not happen overnight, nor was it a concentrated effort by world governments, corporations and NGOs (nongovernmental organizations). Rather it came on the backs of the expansion of world markets, especially within the Asian sector. Communication technology has developed at an extremely strong pace stemming from the amazing increased infrastructural change that has occurred since the late 1990s. In the preclude to the "technology bubble" burst of 2001, when technology companies around the United States and Europe saw their stock crash due to over speculation, a strong push towards greater mobilization of communication infrastructure was taking place. The first mover of the "Great Leap Forward" was the strong network of fiber optics communications network that was built across the Pacific and Atlantic that dramatically increased the access of foreign markets to direct communications. Riding upon the optimism of three fold technology growth, many different companies in developed nations attempted to bring greater connectivity throughout the world. The laying of a strong fiber optics network has become the key infrastructural change that catalyzed the "Great Leap Forward." This is because, now fast information transfer could occur between the Western and Eastern worlds. As a result, communication transfers and connectivity in general increased by many folds as Indians, Chinese, Korean, etc. Could access new information and communication channels.

Within Europe, ICTs have played a crucial role in growth and job creation. ICTs are viewed as one of the most important value adds to goods and services, in general they have made business and government processes much more efficient. The latest statistics from the European Union shows that the ICT industry represents more than five percent of the EU GDP. At the same time, this industry drives twenty five percent of overall growth and about forty percent of increased productivity. Information and communication technology has transformed the world precisely because it has become a platform in which all organizations can create a direct link with their target audience, whether these are customers or constituents. The impact of the "Great Leap Forward" in ICT can be seen in several arenas. First, the impact is most evident within the creation of new markets. Internet development is the most visible aspect of new market creation, primary information and communication companies involved in Peer to Peer networks such as EBay, Amazon, and Yahoo are all representative of the ICT revolution. These internet phenomenons have spawned an entire services industry surrounding such primary services. These include financial services such as Paypal, to online banking. The "great leap forward" is simply the growth of ICT that allows consumers to have a direct and immediate link to businesses and government organizations. This affect has seeped into every factor of the world and has significantly changed the way life operates. In the below section, we will analyze how ICT development has led to a complete revolution within world culture and what this means for the future.

The impact of ICT on the modern Cultural Revolution is centered mainly on the effects of increased efficiency and communication. ICT development has both indirectly and directly impacted the cultural changes of recent years. From an indirect perspective, information and communications efficiency has changed the corporate culture and the function of most government organizations. As a result, they work more efficiently and productively to accomplish goals. The overall economic benefit of ICT has been profound; a study of recent investment trends within the EU and the United States reveals this trend. The economies that have grown the most within ICT are also the economies that have benefited the most from their development. The United States and Japan both invest three times more than the EU on ICT and as a result, EU countries have experienced stagnation within their domestic markets as they must consistently catch up to other nations. Indirectly, ICT has primarily done three things to change the culture of the world. First, it has created a new job market that allows people to focus on knowledge work. Before the creation of ICT, most manufacturing, processing and data mining industries relied on esoteric measures and human resources. Now these jobs are all efficiently driven through ICT. As a result, new jobs that transforms formerly blue collar jobs into white collar knowledge labor has changed the culture of the world. Secondly, ICT has created far greater productivity from internal growth, and as a result has boosted the overall economy of the world. The technology driver means that there is a steady increase in the standard of living per capita as a result of ICT driven changes to the marketplace. This is primarily evident in the developing powerhouses of China and India, where the growth of internal drivers through ICT has been made up thirty percent and forty five percent respectively of all internal growth. The increase in world economies cannot be underrated as a factor of the Cultural Revolution. Society in general has shifted towards a more efficient and capitalistic system as a result of the increase in net wealth. Simply put, ICT technology enables more money to be made through internal development, which changes nations at an infrastructural level. As a result, there is more wealth per capita and thus greater impetus to move towards greater cultural change from stagnant systems to a free flowing forum of ideologies and reforms. No where else is this more evident than in China, where technology innovation especially in ICT has allowed the creation of more than fifty two high technology incubator regions for the development of new industry. Much of the new rich within China are operating within the ICT sphere and their value contributions to productivity and industry has changed the Chinese culture to one that is much more capitalist and culturally different from the Confucian and later Communist roots of the past.

The direct impact of ICT on the Cultural Revolution has also been profound. The first major direct impact from information and communications technology is the ability of consumers, customers, and constituents to increase their active participation within industry and government. This had led to profound changes to the structural elements of society, as more voices are being heard. For instance, ICT has allowed the internet to become a new forum for consumer watchdog activity.

Corporate scandals as large as the Wachovia scandal of 2002 can be attributed to consumer watchdog elements within the internet. The cultural change is that individuals now have a greater active voice within society that is no longer limited by scope. Secondly, information itself has become a highly liquid and prized commodity. ICT has allowed individuals the tremendous ability to access almost unlimited amounts of information, as well as the utilities to understand and organize them. As a result, individuals are much more empowered at a basic level as they become more knowledgeable of their world. This is a profound cultural revolution, because it has changed the dogmatic… READ MORE

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