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and the diffusion of technology across organizational sectors (e.g., Baldwin and Scott 1987; Norton and Bass 1992). This latter approach to the study of technological change is important because, while new technologies certainly have an impact on organizational structure and characteristics, organizations are also the agents of technological change.
Who adopts new technologies shapes the impact that a given technology will have on society (Fischer 1992). To begin to understand the meaning of new information technologies for societies, we must examine what types of organizations make use of new technological and
management innovations and what organizational and institutional characteristics are associated with these trends (Westphal, Gulait, and Shortell 1997).
One specific type of information technology that is playing an increasingly important role across organizations is Internet-based technology. Today few organizations are without a Web page. Yet we know little about the organizations that have driven the adoption of this new technology. Beyond the growing pool of research and popular literature on doing business on the Internet (e.g., Ellsworth and Ellsworth 1995) and the sources of information on the demographics of individual users (see, e.g., USA Today, October 9, 1996), we have little systematic information on what types of organizations played leading roles in incorporating this new information technology into their everyday worlds. An analysis of organizational use of Internet technology in 1996 yields insight into which types of organizations have been instrumental in the spread of this type of information technology.
In this article, I examine the adoption of Internet-based technology in workplaces across the United States through an analysis of Internet use in a national sample of 712 medium- and large-scale organizations that were surveyed in summer 1996. This time period is a particularly interesting window through which to view the spread of Internet technology because use of the Internet had increased dramatically over previous years, but it was still early enough that there was significant variation across organizations in use of the technology (whereas today virtually all medium and large organizations have a Web page). Through this analysis, discuss the ways that structural characteristics and the composition of organizational
workforces influenced the spread of Internet-based information technologies across U.S. organizations.
TRENDS IN THE SPREAD OF INTERNET TECHNOLOGY3
If information technology is defined as "computer-based technology for the storage, accessing, processing and communication of information" (Molloy and Schwenk 1995:283), the Internet, a venue for storing, managing, accessing, and processing information, is becoming an integral part of information technology. In its current form, this innovation marks a radical transformation of information technology in terms of the centralization and flow of information. Commissioned and designed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the Department of Defense, the Internet emerged as a way of linking computer networks without a central ~ e r v e rI.n~ r ecent years, the Internet has spread rapidly across organizations and across societies. Since 1969, when there was a total of 4
Internet hosts, the number has grown to 12,881,000 throughout the world. The Internet Use in U.S. Organizations 585 number of networks has expanded in an equally dramatic fashion: in 1989 there were 837 networks; by 1996,134,365.
The rapid diffusion of this technology in the early 1990s can be traced to the commercialization of the Internet during this period. In 1990 ARPANET ceased to exist, and the first commercial provider of dial-up Internet access was formed (The World, world.std.com). The following year, the National Science Foundation lifted restrictions on commercial use of the Internet. As a result, General Atomics, Performance Systems International, Inc., and UUNETTech, Inc., came together to form the Commercial Internet Exchange Association. Once the way was open for commercial use of the technology, individual organizations would drive its spread.
A much more recent innovation, the World Wide Web (WWW), was originally developed by a group of researchers at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in the early 1990s as a way to better manage information in a large, decentralized research organization. The premise for the WWW was that information would be maintained in a virtual system with "information links" between related topics or areas of research. As Berners-Lee (1989:l) explained in the original proposal, In providing a system for manipulating this sort of [linked] information, the hope would be to allow a pool of information to develop which could grow
and evolve with the organization and the projects it describes. For this to be possible, the method of storage must not place its own restraints on the information. This is why a "web" of notes with links (like references) between them is far more useful than a fixed hierarchical system. As a research tool for organizations, the WWW is becoming one of the primary ways in which organizations communicate, advertise, market, and communicate information to the Internet, the growth of the WWW has also been extreme: in 1993, there were 130 WWW sites, and as of June 1996, there were more than 230,000. According to the originator of the WWW, the traffic on the original Web server at CERN indicated exponential growth over the first three years (Berners-Lee 1996).
Today it is difficult to find an organization that is not "online."
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Reddy (1985) has stated the following as the characteristic of Indian Rural Society.
The village is the unit of the rural society. Its people carry on the business of living together within a distinctive framework of caste and social custom. Caste is a dominant social institution permeating social and economic relations. Traditional caste occupation mostly prevails. Co-operative labour of different castes is required not only for agro-economic activities but also for socio-religious life. The large villages have within its population all the occupational castes, have a comparatively more integrated and self sufficient economic as well as socio-religious life than smaller villages.
The village as a social and cultural unit possesses a basically uniform organisation and structure of values all over India. Many problems are common to the entire Indian country side.
The ethnic, linguistic, religious and caste composition of a village largely determine its character and structure. Some villages of hamlets are inhabited almost exclusively by certain castes as in the case of Agraharams for Brahmins. Even in a village with mixed population the different castes usually live in different sections of the same village. Inter caste rivalries are present.
Women do not have full equality with men in several aspects of life.
Indian rural society is predominantly based on agriculture. Possession of land carries with it social and prestige value, besides being considered as an economic asset. In many villages, the land is mostly distributed between two or more castes, or among a few families, or between one big land owner and the rest of the community. Landless labourers and tenants constitute a considerable part of the population depending on agriculture.
Every village has its own organisational set up, authority and sanctions. It has its growing body, the panchayat, based on local tradition since long, but now constituted on a regular basis according to provisions of Panchayat Raj. Social distance or isolation has a bearing on the nature of the organisation of a village and of its view on the world. Availability of or nearness to modern means of transport or communications also modifies the setting and fabric of a village.
Village settlements are generally governed by certain regional and local traditions. The layout of the village, construction of the house, the dress, the speech, and manners follow the set pattern of the cultural area. Each village possesses an individual of its own. Some have a reputation for generosity, hospitality and fair play, while others are notorious for their meanness and corruption. Some villages are known for their co-operatives, while some are noted for their litigations and factions. The important characteristics of the Indian villager was summarised by Reddy (1985) as hospitality, feminist traditionalism, fatalism, religiousness often combined with superstitious beliefs, leisure attitude to life, and low standard of living. Nevertheless most villagers are capable to change and will respond to the teachers whom they trust even though their past sad experiences make them conservation and hopelessness about the future. They are eager to learn how to help themselves and they represent paternalism.
Rural - urban Differences and Relationships
Environment affects human life to a greater extent. Human beings live in two different environments of rural and urban. Since, there is difference in social life in both environments it is of interest to know the differences. Further, extension workers are concerned themselves to rural environment, they must be in a position to differentiate the rural from urban environment. While comparing and contrasting it has to be kept in mind that both the societies are the part of one human society. As a result of development one particular society assumes the name of rural society while the other becomes urban society. The two societies are basically the same. The difference that exists between the two is of theoretical and academic than the real.
Limitations in studying the differences
As it is discussed the above differences are theoretical and academic than real. It is so because there are many limitations in differentiating the both. Some of the limitations in differentiation are:
1. There are no demarcation where urban (city) ends and rural begins
2. The parameters or criteria said above are not quantitative.
3. Changing characters create problems. The solidarity, belongingness etc. are now
reduced in rural areas.
Due to communication of new ideas and extension facilities to rural areas the gap between
rural and urban is being narrowed down. However, the complete closure of this gap will not
be possible in the near future.
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