The Information Society in the Arab Countries: an approach to socio-economic indicators’ analysis

THE SITUATION OF INFORMATION SCIENCE IN ARAB COUN­TRIES IS DESCRIBED, AND PROBLEMS RELATED TO THE IMPLE­MENTATION OF NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE REGION, ALSO CONSIDERED, AS WELL AS THE ATTITUDE OF EACH ONE OF THESE COUNTRIES TOWARDS INTERNET. SOCIO-ECO­NOMIC (POPULATION, DENSITY, PER CAPITA INCOME, LITERA­CY) AND TECHNOLOGICAL INDICATORS (NUMBER OF TELEPHONE LINES, COMPUTERS, ISPS, SERVERS, USERS) ARE PRESENTED TO­GETHER WITH THE LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT OF EACH COUNTRY. THESE COUNTRIES ARE DIVIDED INTO THREE DIFFERENT ECO­NOMIC GROUPS (A,B AND C), BUT RESULTS SHOW THAT SUCH GROUPS ARE NOT CLEARLY DELINEATED WITH RESPECT TO TECH­NOLOGICAL INCORPORATION IN SOCIETY.