ABSTRACT
The global spread of the Internet has been uneven – flooding America and parts of Europe while barely even trickling into Africa and the Middle East.1 Even within developed nations many authors argue that the technology will never become entirely universal.2 It is therefore unsurprising that, within a developing economy such as Indonesia, access to the Internet has been highly unequal. In the context of an increasing expectation within both governments and the private sector that ‘new technologies’ such as the Internet will bring broad social and economic benefits to countries adopting them, the consequences of such inequitable access in Indonesia are significant. In particular, any assumptions by technophiles and bureaucrats in Jakarta that the Internet offers Indonesia unparalleled economic, political and social gains need to be tempered by a realistic assessment of the costs of the technology and other limits to access.
