factors in turn influence Internet infrastructure (see Petrazzini and Kibati's “The Internet in
Developing Countries” in this issue). Different countries adopt very different policies
regarding their information infrastructures. They reflect “local economic, social, historical,
and political circumstances and exhibit remarkable differences in vision, policy design, and
implementation strategy”[6]. Recent studies on global Internet diffusion by author Seymour
Goodman and others have identified different diffusion models in different countries [5]. The …

In 1995, as the use of the Internet began to spread through many sectors of Chinese society,
the country's leaders had to decide whether to allow this new medium to keep spreading
and, if so, how to control it. Even though the technology itself allows decentralized
coordination, the leadership chose to implement a hierarchy of responsibility to manage its
growth. They hoped the Internet would unleash economic gains without destabilizing the
country. Unlike the US, where the Internet has blossomed with no central control or central …